Picture Update

So, Reid downloaded a bunch of pictures from his phone and I thought I'd post a quick picture update - since those are worth 1000 words! :) Life isn't usually all "mountain tops" up here - it really is all about walking with God in the nitty-gritty every-day, ordinary day and trusting Him for all things, resting in His grace and mercy every day to get us through. But here are some snapshots of some of the more fun times in recent weeks. Above - we took the family hiking to the weather station on top of Berthoud pass....it is QUITE a hike - but the kids were TROUPERS! I love being above treeline - is is such a beautiful change of scenery.
On the women's retreat we hiked up Sol Vista for the sunrise and some solitude/prayer time - it was the last day for the ski-lift to be open for the summer season so we went back up that afternoon with the family - the aspens are BEAUTIFUL right now and there was this lovely aspen grove right at the top.
Some of our students on kitchen duty! Gotta love the hair nets!
One of the focuses of Timberline is outdoor spiritual training - so much to learn about ourselves and our Creator God when we're outdoors, exploring, learning etc. So one thing the staff did was get the students up at 2:00am to hike Mt. Ida over in the Rocky Mtn. National Forest. Some pictures below at the summit.

Chris and Tina - our "exceptions" as we call them - a married couple that have joined us as students for the year. What a NEAT couple - they are in our family group and Reid and I have really enjoyed having them in our covenant groups and getting to know them better.

Kim - my fellow staff covenant leader - love this young lady! She's a student from last year and a fellow south-Carolinian - and so much fun!
I love this picture of Jessica - also a former student, now in charge of house-cleaning at TL. Our girls especially love these ladies!!
At the top! :)
Reid and Jim took a group of students hiking on their first weekend here.

Another Berthoud Pass hiking picture :)
That's our family almost at the top of Berthoud - Reid ran down the continental divide hiking trail a little ways to take this one.

Some of the Brasher ladies together... Mom, my sister Julie, my aunt and the girls over near Estes Park

Love this picture of Jim (our head cook), Pete (our program director) and Ian! But the rainbow is quite nice! :)
The girls in Denver when Papa and Mama June were visiting.


J-J birthday shopping for Mama in Denver with Daddy.
Ok - I think that's all for now! :)

September at Timberline

So - things truly have been too quiet on this blog....and I apologize profusely!! The last few weeks have been insanely busy and we knew they would be. Truthfully the last few weeks have been a crazy mixture of joy and fun and hurt and chaos and feeling overwhelmed and loving what we're doing all at the same time. After a particularly difficult day the other week, I came home feeling discouraged about several different things going on - and not having had much sleep for several nights in a row didn't help much either. That evening Reid mentioned that someone was coming to look at the house we're currently renting for the 2nd time and was bringing an inspector, requesting that we be out of the house for a couple of hours on Sunday. It was all I needed to send me over the edge in that moment.

I went upstairs and just sat down on the floor next to my side of the bed. As I was talking to Jesus about the fact that I really felt like I was at the end of myself in so many areas I very clearly felt him impressing on me the following: "The more powerless you are the more powerful I can show myself to be in your life and in the situations you find yourself. You must decrease so that I can increase!" And in that instant I realized I had one of two options - I could either sink into complete despair or choose to rest in the Father heart of God to do the miraculous. And there really was this quiet sense of hope and excitement that began to rise in my heart in that moment. I am so thankful to know a God who relates to us so personally....no need to impress Him, try to please Him, earn His love...He just comes and loves us where we are in the moment.

There are a lot of good things going on right now as a new group of students has arrived. We had our first family group breakfast last week and also met with our covenant groups. I'm truly excited about both, in particular the three ladies I will be meeting with each week. During Family Group times we will be planning some fun activities as well as some group discussions on a video series and during our covenant times we will start with sharing each of our journey lines with each other and then plan to use Larry Crabb's book "Connecting" as a basis from which to discuss Biblical Community - as well as have some fun activities scattered in between. Our first activity together as a family group was to compete in a volleyball tournament against the other family groups - we lost every single game - but we had a lot fun in the process and improved with each game. We intend to have a rematch! :)

Reid taught his first class the other week and so enjoyed being back in the classroom - I can't remember his exact lecture title but it has to do with preparing your heart for God's Word. He taught something similar at the mission in Columbia and is enjoying tweaking it a little and adding some fresh thoughts in these days. He also took a group of students to the Rescue Mission in Denver and said it felt like he was home. He is looking forward to doing that every week this semester and building relationships down there as well.

Ian is really enjoying school (some dear ones provided for him to be able to attend the local Christian classical school at our church this year - just one more thing we're so thankful for!) and it's just a delight to see him looking forward to classes every day and doing his homework diligently - most of the time! :) We've also entered full-swing into homeschooling once more with the girls and have a full day of Classical Conversations on Thursdays - the long days can be challenging but getting to spend time with the moms and getting to know them has been such a treat and a blessing both to me and the girls as they are making some new friends in the community.

It's fall now up here in Grand County and the aspen trees are turning a beautiful shade of yellow. It seems like every day the scenery around us changes. The other morning the mountain tops were covered in a powdered sugar dusting of snow which means it will only be a few more weeks before we get our first snowfall down here in Fraser Valley as well. There IS so much to delight in and be thankful for and we also enjoy our walks over to Timberline for supper in the evenings, just soaking in the fresh air and ever changing mountain views.

So, just a few prayer requests to pass along - we've listed our house in Columbia with a new realtor and, with the help of our friend Chris McCutchan and Master's Men Remodeling, are making some updates to the house as well. We know so many people trying to sell their home right now, who are carrying both a mortgage and a rental payment. These are no easy times for any of us. Would you continue to pray with us for the sale of our home?

Our housing here remains up in the air for now - but we're at peace with what the Lord has for us...at least for today! :)

Most of all we would covet your prayers for energy and rest for all that we need to do in these days. Our support has remained low and of course that puts a psychological strain on us too - but we know that there are many friends who are struggling financially in these days and we find ourselves thankful for simple things and enjoying them all the more. And that's not a bad place to be. :) More about that in that newsletter that I keep mentioning that hasn't gone out yet - but will shortly I hope! :)

(p.s. the picture above was taken with my sister Julie as she just returned from Africa after 2.5 years! SO fun to see her and take her and my parents over Trailridge to Estes Park and catch up with my Aunt and Uncle there as well!)

Various Pictures and Brief Update

Well, I'm not sure how it happened, but it seems the blog was somehow hacked as I just found a weird soccer post of some kind. I deleted it but in case you checked in and wondered what in the world was going on, just know that we wondered the same! :) Just goes to show I should check into the blog more often! :)

Things have been so busy here these last few weeks though as we've had family in town again - Mom and Dad Brasher - as well as JULIE who has just recently returned from Africa for a year. In addition we've been getting ready for school. Through some very generous gifts for Ian's schooling we've been able to enroll him in the local Christian Classical school at the church we attend and he is LOVING it - his first comment every day is "I can't wait to go back tomorrow!" Don't know many 6th graders that love school but it says a lot for the school and for Matt Murdoch, his teacher - and former Timberline staffer! Ian told me he is most excited that he is in a school again that teaches history and since there are only two 6th graders (they combine 5th and 6th grade for the most part), he is enjoying some virtual one-on-one tutoring for Math and Writing (he does struggle some in Math). Ian is happy and therefore we all are! :)

The girls are also back in school now as we started homeschooling again last week and we had our first day of Classical Conversations on Thursday as well. I think it went well and even though the numbers are low, it's a good group to start out with and we hope it will grow in days, months etc. to come. Bibleschool starts this coming week with students arriving on Wednesday. We have a large family group this year and are looking forward to getting to know the students better, praying that we'll be able to continue to stay in this house for the time being as the space really is ideal for the large family group we'll be having breakfast with every other week and everything else going on.

Our house in Columbia is really weighing heavily on us and we would really appreciate your prayers for it's sale or rental. There is some upkeep (yardwork, painting) etc. that we need to have done and some days it is easy to be discouraged about the current housing market. We know we are not the only ones in this boat.

Well, I finally downloaded some pictures from our camera so up they go - they're a mixture of all kinds of things.

We went over Trailridge to Estes Park to see my Uncle Phil and Aunt Lenora together with Mom, Dad, and Julie - and here are some pictures taken along the way.

Julie-Joy and Jenna so happy to get to spend some time with Aunt Julie again after two and a half years! :) We wouldn't have dreamed that we would see her again in Colorado when we said good-bye to her the last time!

Some pictures from Ian's graduation from 5th Grade at Fraser Valley Elementary School.


Reid's sister Susie and her family were up during that time and we had a blast showing them around our new home! :)

So - since God has enable us to remain in this home longer than we had even dared to hope, we've decided that we can't keep living with a "temporary" mindset and have taken down some of our landlords things and put up things from home! :) One of the things are the curtains/valances. We had some family members ask for pictures so here you go! :) Diane did come and get a BUNCH of her furniture (including all the guestroom furniture - which is now EMPTY!! Glad we had all the family in town while it was still there). So you'll recognize some of the pieces that we've replaced things with.

These are blurry - sorry about that! :( But here are the German curtains - just for you June! :) You can't see'em real well though! :( The left corner now has my Dad's cabinet that he made to replace the black one that Diane took out. We also put the love-seat that was in the masterbedroom downstairs to replace the couch that they took with them. So this picture looks really wide open as it was before we put the other items back downstairs! :)


Yours truly finally did something more drastic about the gray and got a much needed haircut. Actually there is going to be more gray visible from now on - it'll just blend in better. SO thankful to have found a good hairdresser up here!!! :)
Well, that's all for now folks. I had better sign off and make sure the girls are occupied on this lovely Saturday afternoon. I went for a walk this morning and as I was coming home a mama and baby coyote crossed the road a little ways ahead of me! Amazing to watch!! There was not a cloud in the sky and the quiet/solitude, bright blue sky and fresh crisp air (40 degrees this morning) was just what the doctor ordered... :) Let us hear from you!!!