And when we're not at Timberline?

We really do actually have a life outside of Timberline as well so I thought I'd take this week's blog post to share a little about our life.

As a family, we attend the Saturday evening service at Winter Park Christian Church.  This past year Reid became the Awanas Commander at WPCC and Ian helped with Cubbies. In addition, Reid is helping the church kick off the Celebrate Recovery program and we're looking forward to a trip to Saddleback Church in California this summer to attend the training together.  My (Jennifer's) role in this will be small but I want to be available should any needs arise for ladies that need some discipleship. Reid is really excited about being a part of this as addiction recovery is a huge heartbeat of his life (He has been leading the student outreach to the Denver Rescue Mission each year).  Reid also just finished the LIT (Leaders In Training) program - a three year program meeting once a month with our pastor and other men in the church. I've always been encouraged by the things He has learned and shared with me when he would come home from these meetings.

When we moved out here, we did not have much time to work on support raising, and so we're particularly thankful for the other ways in which the Lord has provided for our family at this time. We do have some supporters and two supporting churches for which we are deeply, deeply thankful! Some of our supporters have had to drop out or down this year, so we're particularly thankful for the part-time employment opportunities such as tutoring Classical Conversations Essentials class again this upcoming year, which helps Jenna (who is homeschooled) to be able to participate in CC. I'm also leading worship during the Saturday night service - something I've enjoyed a tremendous amount. My fellow team members Dan (on a 12 string guitar!), Brett (sound and even vocals on occasion!), Steph (guitar and vocals!) and Tracy (vocals!), are such a blessing to work with and what a joy to play instruments, sing and worship the Lord together!


We're grateful to the Lord for His continued provision through Dawn Smith Jordan Ministries. I work 10 hours a week scheduling Dawn's concerts (usually early in the mornings - 6:30-9:00am as most of our contacts are on the east coast - Reid is able to take care of Lillian during this time and during the school year he gets the kids up, fixes breakfast and lunches etc. and takes Ian and Julie-Joy to school while Jenna gets started on her school work at home). Hard to believe this is now my 7th year. By the way, if you're interested in learning more about Dawn - her website is www.dawnsmitjordan.com and she is available for women's conferences, retreats, nights out etc., as well as church wide concerts. She travels all over the country doing this, speaking and singing at more than 75 events a year! (She is one busy lady!!!) And I know someone who can help you with the scheduling process! :) Dawn is very talented at what she does and she has been a blessing to me and to our family. We're very thankful for the opportunity the Lord has provided for me to work as her schedule coordinator.

As a family, we're enjoying the scenery around us, especially now with summer time approaching. So we've been regularly walking around the neighborhood (on our walk last night we saw a huge beaver dam with glimpses of the beaver in the pond, a moose at a distance, a huge porcupine up close, and a beautiful pink and purple sunset....it's like having our own nature channel! :) The kids love playing with their friends - Jenna's favorite game apparently is "butterflies" - I'm not sure what it is, but it sounds delightful.
Ian and his friends are usually out in a ditch somewhere hunting orcs or hiding from Nazis. Julie-Joy is out today running around in a sprinkler with a friend of hers. Life has been challenging, especially for Julie-Joy, these past few months, so I'm particularly thankful for some quiet, sweet, peaceful summer days and fun afternoons after chores and summer homework assignments are completed! :)


Lillian is starting to babble more and more - and her sweet little "ya-ya-ya's" are just precious. She smiles all the time unless she is hungry or tired really and we're just so thankful for this precious little girl that is only a month away from her 1st birthday already!

Well there is more of course but we'll stick with that for now.  We have some important meetings coming up this weekend and would covet your prayers for our family. And of course we want to know - how can we pray for you?!

Ministry - Real Life

Ministry:

(forgive me for a more philosophical post this week! :)

It seems to me at least that rejoicing with those who rejoice is much more difficult than mourning with those who mourn. Maybe it's my background in counseling and a natural bent to be drawn toward those who are hurting. But I think this is particularly true in community with other believers. You've heard the statistic - the primary reason missionaries leave the field is because of other missionaries.  I think one can also say the primary reason people leave the church is other church members. Satan, our great adversary, loves nothing more than to see marriages, families, churches, ministries, people divided.

We are very thankful to work with a great group of staff here at Timberline. But we're all human, and
those human hurts, jealousies, and thoughts creep in and sometimes we are quick to take offense and slow to forgive. It is escalated/elevated I think in situations and seasons when stress levels are high and financial resources are low. We're normal human beings who have thoughts like:

- why does that person get to take time off when I'm working my tail end off to meet this deadline
- how is it that that family gets their financial needs met so quickly and easily
- I wish our living situation were more conducive to our family and ministry life
- I wish I connected as easily with students as so-and-so does
- I wish I had so-and-so's giftedness/abilities
- so-n-so seems to have a much healthier marriage/family life/dynamic
- I wish I could communicate as effectively as so-and-so

These differences exist in unhealthy as well as healthy communities - the difference is that in healthy communities, differences are hashed out in hard conversations - with lot's of grace and forgiveness. Would you pray for Timberline and the staff - that we would be unified (just as Jesus prayed - unified in agape love for each other), that we would be sensitive to those seasons and times when different staff members are struggling and hurting, that we wouldn't be afraid to enter into each other's hurt and pain but come along side each other and walk together? That we each would always turn to the Lord first with our thoughts and fears and be reminded of His generosity to each of us as well as His all-sufficiency in our lack. I'm truly thankful for fellow staff members and friends like Sarah, Beth, Melissa, Rachel, (and their husbands) Christine, Steph, Janelle and Emily. We have certainly rejoiced with each other as well as mourned with each other!  I am sure I can speak for all of us to say that we covet your prayers for us as a staff this summer - Summer time is a time for us as staff to reconnect as well and we have several work days planned as well as a staff retreat in August.

Family Life:

Our family is heading out for a short three-day cabin/camping trip to the Black Canyon/Gunnison area. We're looking forward to getting away (and hopefully avoiding the Norovirus that the staff has so generously shared with each other), and seeing the beauty of God's creation. We also need time to reconnect as a couple and as a family after a very challenging family life season. We're needing to talk about what the Lord has laid on our hearts and our hopes and dreams for this summer and coming school year.

Next Friday we have a meeting with a child psychologist in Denver to go over the results of some extensive testing that was done for one of our kiddos who is struggling and we need wisdom to know how to proceed for this dear-one in the coming school year. We're hoping that any forms of therapy that may be necessary would be available up here rather than having to drive to Denver every week.

Thank you for praying for Timberline and for our family - we can think of no greater gift that you can give us!

All Quiet on the Timberline Front

I visited Timberline briefly today and it was so eerily quiet....it always is after graduation! The students have headed back home or on to their summer jobs - and with them go our prayers as we entrust them to a loving Heavenly Father.  In the next few weeks the staff prepares to welcome our summer interns and then guest season starts full swing with churches bringing their youth to Timberline for a week or two.  Summer time is the most beautiful season up here, in my opinion. No one has air conditioning up here in the mountains because it never gets really hot. We have had so much precipitation this winter that wild flower season
should be stunning!!

As I type this I look over at the sweet smiling little face of Lillian who is trying to catch my eye as she sits in her high chair - and when she does she grins really big. Such a sweet heart - in spite of the rough week she has had. She went on a 36 hour nursing strike and that has thrown us both out of whack as we now adjust to a new normal. She hasn't been gaining weight at a good rate so the doctor has recommended that she switch to formula. The last few days have been trying.  The switch hasn't been made yet, so we'd value your prayers in the mean time.

School is winding down for the older three children also and now plans are under way to make this a good summer. Do you have any good summer plans of your own that you want to share or recommend?  We're especially looking forward to having family visit us again.

Prayer Requests

Here are a few prayer requests for Timberline and for our family - thank you for joining us in prayer!

1. For our students as they graduate and move into this next phase in life. Many return home to old temptations and old patterns etc. and our prayer is that the seeds that the Lord has planted in their lives would grow into strong and healthy plants and that their lives would bear much fruit

2. Pray for our staff as we transition into the summer program season.

3. Reid and the leadership at Timberline continue to need the Lord's guidance in regards to our sewage pond and zoning situation.

4. Staff housing continues to be a struggle with more transitions coming this summer.

5. That the staff at Timberline would be refreshed and encouraged over the next few weeks, that relationships would be strengthened

6. For this coming school year and staff/volunteers that will be joining us over the summer/fall

7. Schooling decisions for our kids for this coming school year

8. For our times in God's Word and in prayer, encouragement, strengthening from the Lord, and that our kids would grow in their personal walk with Jesus also.

9. Wisdom what to say "yes" and what to say "no" to

Purpose and Brief Update

The purpose of this blog is simply to update our supporters (in prayer and in resources) on the work that God is doing at Timberline and to let you know what is going on with our family. I'm going to start afresh and hope to post a brief update once a week.  So let's get started! :)

We just returned from our annual end-of-the year camping trip to the Sand Dunes where we give the students some time away to reflect on all that God has done this past school year. It was a truly wonderful trip (we were able to borrow our friends' camper and Lillian did wonderfully well even though it got fairly cold at night).

Tomorrow our 2013-2014 class officially graduates (we are really going to miss them!! What a great group of students we've had once again this year!). Saturday we will have an all day staff debrief meeting as we also prepare for our summer guest group season that starts up at the end of May. There is very little down-time at Timberline though the first week or two after graduation is often eerily quiet around here! :)

Over the next few weeks I'll post some family updates in addition to what is going on at TL but want to keep this short and readable.  Thank you
so much for praying for our family and the work at Timberline Lodge! Please let me know how we can pray for you as well!!

Why Timberline?

One definition of insanity is to keep on trying the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. It seems to me that we're somewhat in that boat when it comes to the generation of teens moving into young adulthood. I hear from so many parents about the concerns and fears they have as drug, alcohol abuse, sexual promiscuity, cutting, pornography, etc become the norm for what our kids face in high school and college. 

Few high schoolers, even those who go to church and believe in Jesus, know how to have an ongoing, daily, vibrant relationship with Jesus. They don't know what a quiet time should look like and struggle to read the Bible (let alone understand it). They struggle to pray (let alone intercede for a hurting world). Everywhere I turn on Facebook and in conversation with friends, parents at church and at Timberline etc., I see my generation deeply troubled and concerned for this upcoming generation. But what exactly are we actually DOING to make a difference? And is, what we have tried, actually working?

That's where bible schools like Timberline Lodge come in. Christian Colleges have their place (and

there are a number of Christian colleges that give credit and even scholarships to students that attend Timberline or another Torchbearer school). But bible school is unique in that the focus is not on academics. I wish you could hear the testimonies of the 1000's of students that have been to a Torchbearer Bibleschool.  One year away - to focus solely on their relationship with Jesus, to be fully immersed in God's Word (for the purpose of having a personal relationship with God by reading and praying through His Words to us, as well as to grow in Bible literacy), to practice evangelism in cities like Denver or New York, become more confident in articulating one's faith and to learn and realize that there are many other college age young men and women just like them (and building life-long friendships), who truly want to walk with Jesus.

That is one of many things that we do here at Timberline.