Last update

From now on I'll be posting in a new space - http://daleynewshotoffthepress.blogspot.com/
Come visit us there! I'm also posting some devotional thoughts at http://agardentokeep.blogspot.com/
Love from the Dales

An old post that I found in our draft folder

He came walking up the jet way with a big smile on his face and his sisters started jumping up and down smiling and waving at him. It's been so great to have Ian back after 7 weeks of travel - we're thankful for the opportunity he had to go and see and experience the life of believers in other countries and get a taste for what it means to follow Jesus in very challenging settings. We're especially thankful for the wonderful people he was able to observe and spend extended time with. He certainly has a very unique perspective and will be processing everything he has experienced for the rest of his life.

He brought back a gazillion pictures of interesting things...like light switches and temperature gages, ceiling fans, curtains, bathrooms, etc.! :) So we're thankful for Opa who had more

to add! :) Though all the pictures included here are ones that Ian took or were on his camera. There is so much that he saw and much we could write about - but it will be best to simply hear it from him in person, so if you have the time to do so,  feel free to pull him aside and chat with him. Of course he may not yet be able to put it into words.  (above, Omi, Opa and Ian in a rickshaw, to the right Ian with Omi and the English class at the orphanage where they taught in the mornings).

Thank you for praying for him and for his grandparents traveling with him (I think they
survived and maybe even thrived spending 7 weeks with a teenager in close quarters! :) - and thank you for praying for his parents as well! :)

Here at home we had a sweet Christmas Season and enjoyed having friends over for great conversation, lot's of laughs, a rousing game of Apples-to-Apples on Christmas Day - as well as a wonderful Christmas Eve celebration at church with back-to-back services where the girls and I were able to participate in the service and Reid and Lillian helped with food and greeting etc! It was a truly delightful Christmas together at home and we especially enjoyed the break from construction (which is scheduled to begin again on Saturday - this time with the kitchen, which our landlord hopes to have completed by the time this baby girl arrives. It will be truly lovely when it's completed so we're looking forward to that - but you have to go through the hard process to get there).


Above all we're thankful for the Lord Jesus, Emmanuel, Our God With Us and all that this means to our hearts and lives...He IS our life! May the Lord bless you as you walk with Him into and through this New Year, 2015!

Finishing

This blog was written primarily to keep our prayer supporters, family, and friends of Timberline updated on what's going on with our family and with life at Timberline. As of May 2015 our family of seven moved back to Columbia, SC where Reid is again on staff at the Oliver Gospel Mission. It seems fitting that the blog change as well with this new season of life, so I won't be posting here anymore but will instead be opening a new space for this new season! Thank you for following our family - once the new space is up and running I'll post a link to it here! :)

With love and thankfulness for your prayers, your kindness, your care, and your support,
Jennifer for the Dales

Abide in Me

Abide. That's the word I've sensed the Lord laying on my heart for me personally for this coming year. In the past two years it's been Hope (hence Lillian's middle name). There are some things I need to relearn over and over again...abiding is one of them! The past few weeks have been a huge refreshing time of sitting quietly with Jesus and in His Word for long periods of time. Lot's of thinking, lot's of praying, lot's of processing, some tears, mixed with laughter (as Lillian always tries to sit on my lap while I'm journaling!).

It's harder to abide "on the go" though I believe the Lord wants us to learn to abide no matter what the circumstances. So I'm thinking through what the next few months need to look like.  Some things I've

considered as important may need to go. I don't like that. But good things will always need to make room for what is best. I also often find that what is urgent needs to make room for what is most important.  Those are always tough decisions!

This coming week life as usual resumes, with school for the kids, Classical Conversations, staff meetings in preparation for the students returning the following week (along with All Community Worship and Family Group Breakfast), working for Jordan Ministries, construction on our kitchen, Celebrate Recovery (Reid and the CR team are launching the county-wide outreach this month so we're excited to see how the Lord is going to use this!) and leading worship for our Saturday service. Thank you for your prayers for our family in the midst of it! 

Ian returns tomorrow and we are very, very excited to see him!! For those of you on his prayer letter list, we'll send out one more update in the next few weeks with his thoughts and impressions from his trip.  Thank you for your prayers for him as well family he got to spend time with and travel with! We look forward to seeing how the Lord uses this trip in his heart and life in the years to come. 

May the Lord bless you and keep you and your loved ones as you begin 2015 - may it be a year in which you abide more closely with your Savior! 

Impressions Here and Impressions There - The Dales in December

Impressions, Memories and Experiences of December so far:

- Christmas Tree, candles and the Vienna Boys Choir Holiday Pandora Channel

- Tea, tea, and more tea....and Zopfbrot...or  chai, chai and more chai ... and tea cookies for Ian! :)

- Pitter patter of little feet and an 18 month old learning to climb all over our couch and up and down the stairs, who loves to kiss and hug those she loves and could spend all day reading books in your lap! And her precious older sisters who happily read the same books to her over, and over, and over and over...so that Mommy can get other things done.

- A temporary hiatus on renovations until after Christmas which means we are really enjoying our living area right now! (After Christmas the kitchen gets torn out - we hope it can be finished before the baby comes in April!)

- Early morning hours in the quiet, working on booking and preparing concerts for Dawn during her busy Christmas Concert Season.

- Cold mornings driving Julie-Joy to school while Reid is in New York

- Oh yes, Reid is in New York! :) The Timberline students left on their annual urban missions trip
yesterday and have already had a full day of travel and subway evangelism and a trip to Staten Island on the ferry.

- evening Skype conversations with Ian, Omi, Opa as well as Melanie, Eljiah, and Jesse (Ryan is usually at work I believe and Thomas is at school).

- the wonderful hum-drum and routine of school work, house work and laundry

- running to and fro for school pick ups and meetings and Christmas parties and last minute "I forgot I need such-and-such for school tomorrow" errands!

- learning and deciding what to-and-fro runnings to say "no" to - good boundaries provide the gift of rest and quiet, so that we CAN say yes to other things!

- restless/sleepless nights filled with sick little ones that just want to be rocked and held in the dark, they also give lot's of time for prayer for family and friends; early morning hours on the couch watching the sun rise over the continental divide, (unless a big blanket of fog has settled in, which always means it will be a beautiful day after it has burned off!).

- Bibleschool students excited to go home for Christmas, some worried about going home for Christmas ... and our hearts and prayers that go with them

- Fridays filled with trips to the Denver Rescue Mission and Celebrate Recovery, Saturdays filled with worship music preparation, PBS cooking shows while the house gets cleaned, church in the evenings, sweet time with His Body at WPCC, Reid still leading AWANAS and the kids diligently helping him with Cubbies and Sparks.

- quiet times on the couch in the books of Joshua and Judges, my grandmother's old copy of FB Meyer's Our Daily Homily (that is literally falling apart), and Ann Voskamp's advent devotional
(which still smells new!). The reminder that it is not selfish to come to Him for healing - for when He heals, He always gives Himself. And He is Who we want anyway!

Those are some impressions that fill our hearts and minds this December. We're thankful for the
times the Lord gives to slow down, thankful for the friendships in the middle of it all. And always, always, always for the gift of His Grace,.... when we fail, when we judge others more harshly than we judge ourselves, when we're fearful, when we think we've succeeded and are prideful, when we're tired, when we make mistakes, and when all goes well....wave upon wave of grace...no matter what!

Sights and Sounds from a Different sort of Thanksgiving

In all about 70+ people came to the Thanksgiving Feast at the Community Center yesterday ... many
of them helped with set up, cooking, serving, greeting, and clean up. Here are a few sights and sounds we took in yesterday:

 - a single mom sitting at a table with her kids, discouraged, a slump in her shoulders ... and one of our church members with her, and arm around her, encouraging her not to give up. I didn't hear in any way what was said but I saw Jesus loving that dear Mom.

- families and couples that came because they (like us!) don't have extended family in the area and didn't want to spend Thanksgiving just by themselves but wanted to spend time with others, open to whatever the Lord wanted to do that day

- a person new to the area, just moved up the day before, still staying in a hotel. He saw the flyer and didn't want to spend Thanksgiving alone, so he came - and he made some friends.

- a person who shared with me that they had spent the last Thanksgiving (and countless Thanksgivings before) on their couch yelling at their family for doing drugs, while high themselves. This person has been sober for over a month now and just destroyed their marijuana pipe. They came because they wanted to get rid of the bad stuff in life and wanted to replace the bad with good things. "I have never volunteered for a single thing in my life! But I wanted to volunteer today. I felt it was the right thing to do."

- a gentleman who shared that he was a recovering addict and didn't want to be alone on Thanksgiving because loneliness is his biggest trigger.

There were many more stories I am unaware of. Those are just the ones I was privileged to observe or enter into.  Afterwards our family loaded up the leftover food and embarked on the 2 hour trek to Denver. Reid didn't want a single food item to go to waste, so we dropped it off downtown at the Denver Rescue Mission. It was dusk and as we drove down Lawrence Street, I heard the girls in the back of the truck saying; "I'm feeling afraid....please lock the doors, I don't like it here...it's dark and there is graffiti everywhere." Men were lining up on all sides of the street - some to get into the rescue mission for the night, others (I can only assume) hoping for something to eat and getting ready to sleep....who knows where. At least it was a fairly warm evening for this time of year.

After that we headed to the mall to stretch our feet before the two hour drive back. People lined up everywhere for the 6:00pm Black Friday sales openings (I didn't realize they were starting on Thanksgiving already... apparently we live pretty isolated up in the mountains! :). We people-watched...and wondered.  The irony. The eyes of the men lined up at the rescue mission looked no less forlorn and empty than the eyes of the ladies lined up outside Coach or the people outside H&M etc..... and I wonder how happy they are this morning with the bargains they found and how long it will last. Happiness really isn't found in stuff and great sales, is it - no more than in drugs and alcohol and paid sex. Happiness is found with Jesus and the life He has prepared for us to live - His Life in us. And He wants to offer His life and love to each and every person we saw yesterday...

Timberline had 120 people for Thanksgiving this year! I think it was helpful that the Lord gave our family other plans this time around! Mrs. Thomas (Major's wife) as well has Chris Thomas (our international director) and his wife Bonnie, are sharing during evening fireside chats about the history of Torchbearers and what the Lord is currently doing all over the world. It's a busy season for everyone. Please pray for our students as they prepare to go to New York for their urban missions trip. It is always a stretching time for them.

Ian is doing well on his trip. We Skype with him regularly. He leaves tomorrow for northern India (the Torchbearer Center up there) and we're not sure what the internet situation will be like. He'll have a week there before heading to my brother's and his family's place for the rest of December.

We're thankful for all he is seeing, experiencing and taking part in. If you didn't receive his update and would like for me to forward it to you, let me know.

For now a blessed Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

Off He goes!

With a smile and a wave he was off through security with his Dad who took him to the gate and sent him on his way. We miss him already but are excited for him all at the same time. It will be the first time our family will not be together for the holidays as he will return to CO January 1st!  Tomorrow Ian, my Dad and Mom, get on an airplane from Columbia to Atlanta and then a 15 hour flight to Dubai where they'll have a bit of a layover before they travel on to India. We're looking forward to updates and will pass them on as they come in.

Reid and I discussed Ian being gone for so long at a young age....and we both agreed, that we would be fearful to have it any other way and would always regret holding him back. The Lord made it clear to us both that He had provided for him to go on this trip (there was no way this was humanly possible). I have had a few well meaning parents voice their concerns to us about the wisdom of allowing Ian to go on the trip. I've tried to explain that the Lord made it clear to us that our children were not ours to hold on to, but gifts He was entrusting to us for a time....and when He calls (like He called Hannah to surrender Samuel), then we would be more than foolish to stand in His way.  But I usually get blank stares, looks of pity. I can't say that I've easily gotten to a point of surrender (nor have I arrived there!), but I have learned (from personal experience!) that not trusting the Lord when He calls to full surrender causes a tremendous amount of heartache and pain ... and it's just not worth it.

In the mean time we certainly won't be sitting around the house! :) Reid is in full swing getting the community Thanksgiving Dinner advertised and organized, and then he heads to New York for a week to take our students on the urban mission trip. It's a highlight of his year! They volunteer with several ministries to the homeless and learn a lot about ministry opportunities in urban centers! It's always a great experience for the students.

Here at the house we hope to have the living room renovated and in a week or two and may take a break and start back up on the kitchen in the New Year to enjoy the holiday season.  We'll have to see. And in less than two weeks we find out if the ratio in our family will be 4:3 or 5:2! :) And of course everything else continues as well with life at Timberline, Celebrate Recovery, Classical Conversations and you name it! :)

Well I have a pot of potato soup on the stove for this cold and snowy CO day...it's been snowing all day long and is just beautiful outside. Driving in it is not so much fun however! I hope all of you are having a great week!