back to the midwest

Well, our time in CO is winding down. We are having dinner tonight with some of Tim's friends and then heading home tomorrow. Tim runs the marathon on Sunday and then it's back to the grind! It will be sad to say goodbye to family, the beautiful mountains and all the perks of staying with Tim's parents. They have been incredibly gracious by letting us have the master suite upstairs and letting us drive their sweet ride all over town. Nothing like cruising in a Buick! :P We are grateful for their hospitality.

life in CO

Hey ya'll! We are still alive out here in CO. We had a fantastic time at the Glen Eyrie Castle (Navigator land) and met a ton of terrific new friends. Even performed a song and dance at one point. Had a chance to make it all the way up Pike's Peak yesturday and chilled out at the summit house with some tasty doughnuts. We took a cog train, it was cool. Will post pics when we get home. We have our very first fundraising appointment tonight!!! Yikes! We are excited though, it will be fun to share our hearts with Tim's folks friends. Hope you're all doing well!

touch down

If any of you saw the reports of the storm that hit out in the western suburbs on Sat night, you saw my parents neighborhood. A tornado touched down in Rogers, MN this weekend and completely destroyed many homes in my folk's neighborhood. Fortunately, their house sustained pretty minor damage and they were both ok. I was pretty freaked out though when I couldn't get ahold of them right away! We are overwhelmed with thankfulness to God that they weren't injured.

Trip update: so far so good. We have had a wonderful time visiting with friends that we haven't seen in a long time. I will post some pics when we get home, but we saw the Irby's on Sat, which was lovely and lots of fun and last night we had dinner with a bunch of Tim's friends from high school which was also really fun. Tonight we will be wined and dined (minus the wine) by the Rectors who always feed us way too much amazing food! But we're not complaining! We even skipped lunch to have more room for their incredible cooking! (Just kidding, we ate lunch)

Jucy Lucy

I had a jucy lucy last night for the first time and it was amazing! That is truly an incredible burger. Tim and I went to Matt's bar with Zach "the hurricane" Thompson and we all enjoyed the wonder of molten cheese encased in greasy burger.

I would also like to add that we took another bike ride tonight and I managed NOT to run into a pole. I'm growing.

t minus 3 days

We leave for Colorado in three days! We're pretty excited for the break from "real life." We have been so busy lately. Obviously our training will be intensive, but hanging out with some friends and family will be great. The first weekend we're there we'll get to see the Irbys - hooray! And then a friend of mine from Canada that I haven't seen in years will randomly be in Colorado Springs for one day while we are there. So that's pretty sweet. She can meet Tim! A new friend of ours will be watchting our house so it'll be nice to have a male presence here while we're gone. We still have a few things that need to be done before we go but we're pumped to be going!

Colorado here we come!

Football season is upon us!

The start of the football season is upon us. Soon I will be spending time in my John Elway jersey sweating blue and orange in front of my TV. Already I have been through three fantasy football drafts and my marriage has stayed intact. Early on in our relationship I established that I loved Heidi more than football and that she does not have to like football, she just has to let me like it. So far that system is working out okay. I also make it a point to let her know well in advance when the games are and I have needed to sacrifice a few games for the greater good. (She knows that she is the greatest good I will ever have.) I will miss the Broncos first game on Sunday because of a church event, but should be able to see the next two in Colorado. I wanted to score a ticket to see the Chiefs get destroyed at Mile High, but the cost was too much. I am getting excited just thinking about it.

On a sad note, one of my all-time favorite Broncos, Dwayne Carswell, got cut by the team last week. Carswell was an undrafted tight end turned offensive lineman from Liberty University. He was trying to return to form after being critically injured in a car accident on the way to practice last season. (The accident was not his fault.) I am still holding on to hope that somehow the team will bring him back for another season or two. He is a good player, but a better person. I will miss seeing him on the field.

i fell off my bike...

So last night Tim and I biked around Lake Calhoun a couple times and then got some ice cream. It was dark by the time we rode home. We were about 3 blocks from our house and were riding on the sidewalk near the old Honeywell building. Well, the sprinklers were on and I was too busy looking at them to notice where I was going (b/c I thought they were pretty) and I ran into a pole. I hit it with my right handle bar, my bike went one way and I went the other. Tim was mortified when he saw me in a heap on the sidewalk, but I was so embarassed that all I could do was laugh!

I have a few scrapes and I'm limping around due to a swollen ankle, but other than that all that is truly damaged in my pride.

Can you imagine? A grown woman looking at silly sprinklers runs into a pole on her bike. Ridiculous!

The Fair

For some reason I really like to talk about food from the State Fair. I went with some friends last Friday while Tim did some silly futbol thingy. And boy did I have some yummy food. First I have to say that the way to enjoy the MN State Fair is to resign yourself to spending a lot of $ and eating a lot of food that is really, REALLY bad for you. Once you get over that, which can be especially difficult for the ladies, then you will have a blast. And I did! I started off the evening with some mini-doughnuts and then moved on to some Dole whip. Marlyes got a pretzel and that was tasty too. At that point we were joined by 10 others friends and the food fun really began. We got a blooming onion, french fries, cheese curds and deep fried pickles. Later came the chocolate milk, cotton candy, lefsa, chocolate covered frozen bananas and more mini-doughnuts. Obviously I wasn't able to try everything, a stomach can only permanently hold so much, but I will say that the deep fried pickles were nothing short of amazing. I definately recommend them. Perhaps you can only eat one though. Tim and I are going on Saturday and I am looking forward to garlic fries and perhaps a deep fried candy bar. Afterall, the Fair only comes once a year!

The Weekend in Review

Friday night:
Heidi and I did different things. I went to my annual Fantasy Football draft with the 8 Christian Guys league. This league has been in place for a long time and the drafts are always enjoyable. This year was no exception. We actually had two drafts and I think I did okay in the first and better in the second. Right before the draft, I lost to Brian in disc golf by one stroke at the White Bear course. Heidi went to the MN State Fair with people from church. She had a good time. Our church has some quality people.

Saturday:
It was a long day for both of us. Heidi was at work from 5 am to 1:30 pm. Right after she left for work, I went for a 20 mile run with Eric. Candace rode along with us carrying our supplies, which was a huge blessing to us. The day was beautiful with temps in the low 60’s. The run went well, but we were happy when it was over. Candace continued to bless us by whipping up some scrambled eggs, which tasted amazing. Then Eric and I left with Robbie and Michael to play some disc golf. We met up with Chris, Dan, and a friend of his at Kaposia Park. As usual, the course kicked our tails. Dan did well, Robbie and I did better than last time, but the others did not fare so well. We then proceeded on to North Valley Park for round 2. Dan and his friend needed to leave early and we struggled trying to find each hole as we went through the course. At the end, Chris came on strong, Robbie did well, Eric didn’t finish the last few holes as he searched for his lost disc in the water, and Michael and I fell apart. My legs were so tired from running that I had trouble with my drives. Heidi and I ended up getting home within a few minutes of each other and heading out again for a cookout for our friend, Yvonne. We got to enjoy some good food, some interesting people, and a beautiful day. After that we pretty much just came home and flopped right into bed. I have not been that tired in a long time.

Sunday:
We enjoyed a typical solid service at Bethel Christian Fellowship. Pastor Harrison filled in for Pastor Jim and preached with zeal. Heidi had to work in the afternoon and I mostly hung out there reading and drinking coffee. It was nice for me to not need to be anywhere. After our run to Super Target, we ended our evening with a little TV. It was a good weekend.

update letter

Most of you received this letter by mail, or will shortly, but for those of you who read our blog and didn't, here's an update letter we just sent out:


Greetings Friends and Family!

We pray that your summer has been a great time of connecting with loved ones and enjoying God’s creation. We just wanted to send out a little update to catch you up on how we’re doing with the process of going out as missionaries with Mission: Moving Mountains (MMM).

As most of you know, we were accepted to go to West Africa as full-time missionaries with MMM (www.movingmountains.org). Since then we’ve plunged into an intensive schedule of training and preparation; in addition to daily life of course! Tim is still working at the National Marrow Donor Program and Heidi at Starbucks Coffee.

So far our training and preparation has included lots of reading and study guides (everything from marriage to agriculture!), participating in a rigorous mentorship program called Sonship, sponsored by World Harvest Mission, meeting regularly with MMM staff and with our spiritual mentors.

Next month we will make the trek out to Colorado Springs for a seminar on support raising that’s being taught by The Navigators. We will be out there from September 16th -30th and would love to see those of you who live in the area! It is our goal to be in the full swing of raising support by October/November. Once we enter into that phase, we hope to be able to leave for Africa within the year – very exciting!! There is a lot that needs to be done before that, but we are filled with great anticipation.

We are still getting plugged into our church, Bethel Christian Fellowship (www.bcfnations.org), where we’ve been attending for the past year. Tim leads a monthly missions/prayer event for the young people and Heidi is involved with the prayer/counseling ministry. Recently, we took on a new leadership role working with the young adults and we are very excited about the possibilities of this and look forward to ministering together as a team.

We want to encourage you to check out our web-log at www.chaseus.blogspot.com for updates on how we’re doing, pictures, prayer requests, and to see and where we’re at in this process of preparation. We covet your prayers and want to reciprocate, so please let us know how we can be praying for you!

Please pray:
o That we would be diligent in this process of training and preparation
o For continued faith for Heidi’s full physical recovery
o Our focus would be entirely on God as we prepare to shift our lives overseas



As a further update on my physical health, this past week has been pretty hard and I'm in a lot of pain. Though the headaches persist I am persevering and looking forward with great anticipation to a complete healing. God is able! We still greatly desire your prayers and intercession and really appreciate those of you are praying.

Frontenac Nights: the Adventures of Heidi and Tim

Heidi and I made a pleasant discovery this past weekend. We like the little river town of Redwing, MN and Frontenac State Park is a great place for camping. Redwing, where Redwing shoes are made, sits in the Mississippi River Valley surrounded by trees, rolling hills, and bluffs over the river. The town has a cool little main street with shops and restaurants and a large city park on a point in the river. There is also the Cannon Valley Trail, a former railroad right of way that has been converted into an asphalt biking/walking trail. Heidi and I rode it for a while on Saturday and had a great time. (Chris Heng and I once stumbled upon that trail during a mountain biking adventure a few years ago. It was fun to ride more of it.) After our ride, we headed east of Redwing about 10 miles to Frontenac State Park. Our camping site was really nice with tree cover and bathrooms close by. There were miles of trails for hiking and we took one down the bluff to the river. It was beautiful. There were also some incredible overlooks a short walk from our campsite. We give Frontenac State Park two thumbs up. At the end of our adventure we did a little shopping and Heidi scored a sweet ring at an antique store. It was a great trip.

Gretchen taught everyone a new hobby

the slackline

Some pictures from our camping trip.

Some of the guys. Looking good fellas!
Nice job kids, just keep on paddling. These people were NOT from our group.

Some "seasoned" canoeists.

Noonie! The trip mascot, aka Nudie or my personal fave, Butchy.
Hanging out by the fire pit.

A weekend at the Wilderness

Our weekend at the Wilderness Fellowship with friends from church was great. The weather was fantastic, the surroundings were beautiful, and the people were a blast. Some of my (Tim) personal highlights included the intense Bocce Ball game that ended in the woods, going running while Nick rode along on my bike, sitting by the fire and disclosing information about ourselves, swimming and diving off the old pontoon, and Sunday morning worship by the lake. While Matt, Nick, and I were swimming, we reverted back to being 12 year old boys by jumping over each other into the water, pushing each other off the pontoon, and doing Cannonballs. It was cool to see a group of people that did not really know each other come together in God’s creation. I felt like I had made a connection with everyone there and now can count them among my friends.

The people that came were Heidi and I, Matt and Sierra Hegstrom, Michael and Emily Sparling, Gretchen Chamberlain, Angela (Gretchen’s friend), Nick Culp (who just moved to MN and attended BCF once), Matthew Carlquist, Tiffany, and Marlyse. What a fun group of people.

Heidi and I are excited to take a more active role with the young adults at our church. We will have a kick-off after church on September 10. Tell your friends! The group is for both married and single people in their 20s and 30s.

Random thoughts from Tim

 The last 2 times I have played disc golf have been the worst rounds I have played in years. On Tuesday, Eric Unger and I played Kaposia Park and I hit every tree I possibly could and missed most of my putts. At least I found a disc on one of my many trips into the woods and it throws really nice. Somehow I have to get my game back.
 I am excited for the camping trip with the young adult group from church. There is a great group of people coming and I know we are going to have fun.
 My marathon training has been going fairly well. The unusually hot temperatures have been messing up my runs. Last weekend I started a 13 mile run at 5 am and it was already 86 degrees. I do not run well in heat and my training is suffering a little, but I am confident that I’ll be ready on October 1.
 We have not blogged about Africa prep in a while, but it is coming along just fine. There is so much to do and we are feeling a little overwhelmed, but we know that it will be worth it once we are there. Kim and Paul McVety have been fantastic in helping us with the process.
 I love Heidi.

trip West

OK, plane tickets are purchased. We will be in Colorado from September 16th - 30th so all you westerners, mark your calendars cuz we wanna see you!

A FREE Saturday!!

So I get to work and look at my schedule and I'm not scheduled for Saturday! Score! I am ALWAYS sceduled for Saturday. Not that it's a huge deal, I don't really mind, but it sure is nice not to have to work it. So anyway, with our FREE weekend (since a free Saturday basically frees up an entire weekend) we are looking for something vacation-y to do. We won't be able to take a vacation this year so it would be fun to squeeze in a little trip when we can. We were actually hoping to go to New York City and see some freinds, but flights are too much dinero. We don't want to drive very far....which narrows things, but does anyone have any stellar ideas?? We were thinking Duluth for the weekend? Please share your thoughts with us! If we are going to miss a Sunday of church we want to make it worth it's while!

Oh, the pain!

It was time for the July disc golf adventure. Dan, Brian, Robbie, Michael, Grant, and I found ourselves at Acorn Park on Saturday morning. With so many of us, we needed to split into 2 groups. Grant, Brian, and I played together, with some great shots, some bad shots, and a lost disc. At the end of that round, Dan was way out ahead, as usual. Grant and Michael did well for not having played much, Brian did not play as well as usual, and Robbie was 2 strokes ahead of me. Brian headed home and the rest of us hit up Disc Golf Outfitters. When Robbie, Michael, and Grant finished buying their discs, we headed to White Bear Lake for round 2.

The second round of the day provided some drama. Dan continued his dominating play, Grant and Michael continued to learn the game, and Robbie and I had a neck and neck race to the end. When we reached the final hole, he was one stroke ahead of me. My drive was nearly perfect and left me with a long, but makeable, birdie putt. Robbie’s approach shot hit a bush, leaving me with a golden opportunity. My putt barely missed, leaving me with an easy putt to tie Robbie. I tossed my putter, it hit the chains, and bounced back out. It was a horrible sight to see my disc laying on the grass while Robbie danced in victory. Oh, the pain!

Please let me know if you want to join us for the next disc golf adventure in August. The date is still to be determined.

missionary stories

Last week we spent an evening with some M:MM friends and a couple who are home on their first furlough. They are a young couple from Chicago, about our age, who just finished their first term working with the Mandinka people in the southern part of Senegal. It was great to share a meal with them, get to know them a little bit and ask lots and lots of questions. They had their first baby over there in the hospital in Dakar (capital of Senegal) and Eden said the experience was great - as great as giving birth can be anyway! That was encouraging for me to hear. Pregnancy and childbirth seem scary enough to me without throwing in the added stress of a foreign setting. But she said she wouldn't have changed a thing about it.

I don't know what Tim and I expected, but the more M:MM missionaries we meet, the more impressed we are with this agency. Everyone is so normal and down to earth, easy to talk with and very cool. Though I think our hearts are still hoping for a placement with the northern Senegalese team, working with the Wolof people, we are excited to get to know the southern team as well. Everyone is just so cool, we want to work with all of them!!

It was also encouraging to hear conversation about the work in Senegal. It's easy to get bogged down with all the training we are in the midst of and to lose sight of what we're training for. Casting the vision is important. We want to be intentional about starting to think according to the African style of life.

It was a great evening with great food and great friends. We love M:MM!

Movie Review: Pirates of the Carribean: Dean Man's Chest

Three years ago I was surprised by the first Pirates of the Caribbean film. It was amazing, especially since it was based on a theme park ride. The sequel came with anticipation. Heidi and I saw the movie with Kent and Sally at the only theater in Fergus Falls. Unfortunately, an eight foot man sat in front of me, so I needed to move around to see the whole screen. Aside from that, I enjoyed the movie. There were some new characters, clever lines, great sight gags, and an undead monkey. Since the movie is a second in a trilogy, there were some open story lines and a cliffhanger ending, which sometimes feels a little unsatisfying. This movie will enter my DVD collection, which is about the highest recommendation I can give a film.

Sweet scenes: Jack Sparrow’s entrance
Jack’s payment to the fortune teller
The fight on the island at the end
Any scene with the 2 pirates from the first movie

Great line: Tia Dalma: I require payment.
Jack Sparrow: Look.
[shoots the monkey]
Jack Sparrow: An undead monkey! Top that!
Tia Dalma: The payment is fair...

Turd in the punchbowl: Having to wait almost a year for part 3