Ignacio

Today marks the end of the second week of John's classes here in Durango. A bit has happened in the past couple weeks, mostly just God blessing our socks off.

We arrived last week on Sunday night with Stephen in tow to begin the process of settling down in Durango. Everyone we talked to seemed grim on the prospect of job hunting, as this is not the town in this economy to be in for jobs. Housing was also proving to elude us, as housing prices are a lot higher than in Gunnison. After living rent-free in a van, 600 dollars a month is a big change in the budget! We don't want to jump into anything; We want the right place with the right people. Giving that over to the Lord was (is) difficult. 

The first week was snow-less, and even a hike up engineer mountain was just walking on packed snow. All the adventures in the snow we had planned didn't quite happen. It was interesting getting to know the area and the people.  God proved faithful when we bothered to bring Him into things, like suddenly having people sit down at a coffee shop and chat about Jesus. CJ, his family, and the people of Patrick Crossing were generous to us in letting us stay in their driveway for the first half of the week. At the Patrick Crossing gathering, we met many cool people and we're excited to be a part of their community. God also orchestrated the meeting of Kris. She kindly invited us out to stay at her place near Ignacio, 30-40 minutes from Durango. We ended up having conversations late into the night. We are very excited to be staying there and to help her out with projects around her beautiful land to get it ready to rent and to do fellowship together!

Stephen left from Albuquerque after a beautiful drive down to the airport, and we were sad to see him go.  It was encouraging to have him around and to explore with. Sunday we attended Ignacio Community Church, which was packed. We have met a lot of wonderful Christians here, and we are praying that the Lord leads us to the church He wants us plugged into. Monday brought the snow we were missing all at once, piling up quickly, but leaving Tuesday clear and sunny. Tuesday night we drove into town to meet up with the campus group Connect. We met lots of cool people, and we're excited to be part of the vision there too. (A certain someone from their leadership team unexpectedly bought us groceries; we are very blessed!!)

Please pray for us that we would continue to rest in the Lord as Laura looks for work (one call back so far!) and John keeps plugging away at school (not an easy task). We are hopeful for what He has for us in this community and we're excited about all the new people the Lord is putting into our lives. :)

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures." - James 1: 17-18

Good Ol' Gunny

We are most of the way through our epic holiday season. Shortly before Christmas we left Durango and visited Johns Aunt and Uncle in Ridgway, then continued on to Greeley for Christmas. A few days after Christmas we grabbed our good friend Brian in Colorado Springs and then drove all the way to Minneapolis for a wedding on New Years Eve. On new years day we left for Gunnison to make it to a Bachelors Party in Gunnison on Monday, bringing my brother Stephen along with us. Holy Cow, so much driving! We will leave Sunday after church and return to Durango. School starts Monday!

It is good to spend time with our brothers and sisters here in Gunnison. We are so thankful for how the Lord works in and through their lives. With no snow here to play in, we've been forced to focus on reconnecting with people and investing in conversations about what the Lord has done in our lives since we spent time here last. Maybe that's why there's no snow here... ;-)

Please pray that we would make wise decisions about committing to housing and that we would leave our finances entirely in Gods hands. Pray for a smooth transition into a new school for John. Pray that Laura would trust the Lord to provide her with the job he intends to use to grow her faith and bring her through the transition from student to productive-degree-possessing-working-adult-person.

God is so good to us. He daily sustains our relationship with each other, lavishing us with peace and joy together and a hope for the future he has planned for us.