Fall in MN

It's fall in MN, my favorite time of year.  The leaves have not turned yet but soon the brilliant colors will be everywhere.  Every fall I wear a sweatshirt with shorts and start to pull my coats and vests out of storage.  I love running in the cooler weather and since my car has no air conditioning, my commute has become much more pleasant.  Heidi and I already took Jackson to an apple orchard, which is a Minnesota fall tradition for most people.  You pretty much walk around and pick/eat apples but somehow it's fun.  Fall in MN is great but winter is coming and that isn't much fun.  

So far my Denver Broncos have started the season poorly with two losses in games where they played sloppy and made multiple mistakes.  I am hopeful that my boys can pull it together and make the playoffs for the first time in five years.  In other football news, I returned to Fantasy Football after a year off.  My team is terrible and I have yet to win but it is fun.

Jackson continues to grow and pick up new skills all the time.  He loves his little blanket, Lovey.  We make him leave Lovey in his crib but we will often notice that he has disappeared from the first floor, only to reappear a minute later with Lovey held behind his back.  Every day he picks up new words and his sweet little voice is the best.  The kid loves to laugh and especially loves behind held upside down by his Mama.  When I do it, he does laugh some but then points at Heidi to have her do it instead.  The kid is such a joyful child and has a sweet spirit.  Lately he has decided he does not like to eat so we hope that phase ends soon.  Hopefully baby #2 will be as easy as Jackson.

My Financial Peace University class is going well.  There are a dozen people in the class and everyone is participating fully, so that is great.  I am glad to have this opportunity.

We have tenants!

Finally, after 2 months, we have tenants again in the upper unit of our duplex.  Apparently the housing market is not just bad for sellers but also for landlords, so it took a long time to get people.  A month or so ago there were two guys who wanted to live there but their current landlords called them "the worst tenants we've ever had and no one comes close", so we passed on them.  Even though we did not want to take Section 8 (paid for by our tax dollars), we felt that we did not have much choice anymore and the family that moved in on Friday is a Section 8 tenant.  The advantage of Section 8 is that the rent is guaranteed by the government but the disadvantage is having to deal with government regulations.  When we first tried to get approved for Section 8, the inspector gave us a list of things wrong with the unit that needed to be fixed.  We thought is was super nit-picky but did everything anyway.  Now it's done and we are good for a year or so.  It was painful to see our savings account get beat up like Rocky Balboa but now we can get a break for a little while and try to save up some money again.  We are grateful for the Lord's favor to get this done.

This picture pretty much says it all.

Baby Chase #2 is due late March.  We're pretty excited.

The little guy

It's a helmet!

Jackson has learned how to impersonate his Momma when she barfs.

It was so cute we needed another picture.

Financial Peace University

It's a funny thing that I have become passionate about finances in the last few years.  I did not grow up with money and I am a lousy math student but I love talking about money.  Most Americans are drowning in debt and live with so much stress in their lives that is just unnecessary.  Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University course has helped many people to get out of debt and get their financial house in order.  For a while I had the desire to teach the class at my church but there was never an opportunity.  When I found out that Pastor Sam, who taught the class last fall, decided not to do it again, I volunteered to take over.  The class will start on September 15 at the Minneapolis branch of Bethel Christian Fellowship and run each Wednesday from 6:00 to 7:30 pm.  The address is 2727 Central Ave in NE Mpls.  There is a meal provided beforehand and childcare as well.  If you are married or single, in good financial shape or poor, come to the class.  All are welcome.  Leave a comment or get in touch with me directly if you have any questions.  I'd love to see you there.

Pictures of Jackson

What is cuter than a super cute little boy?  A super cute little boy in a cape.

Jackson is playing with his cousins, Chase (right) and Carver (left).

Jackson loves his mama.

We sure love our little guy.

Eviction

We moved back from White Bear Lake (WBL) on Saturday.  Neither of us had spent much time in WBL and we found it to be a charming town/suburb.  It feels like a small town but is close to downtown St. Paul, making it a unique place in the Twin Cities.  On our last night in WBL we invited our friends, Brad and Karyn Carlson and their children, to walk around the downtown area and visit the Cup and Cone for some ice cream.  The C & C is a fantastic little ice cream shop and a must visit in WBL.  The prices cannot be beat.  We will be back.

In June we learned from our property management company that the tenants in the upstairs unit of our duplex had not paid their rent.  They were put on a payment plan for July but still did not have the money, so we had to evict them.  We felt terrible about it, but there was not much choice.  They were finally out on August 9, and we set about getting the place ready for new tenants.  Fortunately they left the place in good shape, so there was not a ton of work.  My father in law helped me paint a room and do some touch ups and my buddy Jeremy helped me with some cleaning.  I still need to return one more time to paint a stair railing that needed replacement but the place is ready for new occupants.  We spent some time last night praying over the property and part of that time was spent praying for the family we had to evict.  Our prayer was that the Lord would show them favor and give them a new place to live.  The financial hit that we are taking by this is not small and we are trusting the Lord to provide for us.  We are asking people to pray for new tenants and a way to refinance our payment down.  If the Lord decides to provide for us in another way, that is good, too.  We hope to get some good news about refinancing soon and we'll keep our blog readers posted.  God is good and we are still in a good place of trust.

 

Back on the move

Well, once again we are dogsitting.  Tomorrow we will start a week in White Bear Lake watching the dogs of some people that are friends of friends.  They have a sweet house with a home theater and the location is much closer to my work, so that will be nice.  A little extra cash won't hurt, either.  At the end of August we may have another dogsitting gig in St. Paul and after that we don't have any planned.  Some day, when we have a place of our own again, we will stop dog/housesitting for all our friends, but until then, these times provide a nice break from living with the in-laws in outer suburbia.

Jackson is becoming more vocal all the time.  Instead of saying yes, he says, "yeah, yeah" very quickly and nods his head.  When he says no, it mostly sounds like an o without the n, but we get the point.  He is an opinionated child who knows exactly what he wants and is not afraid to ask for it.  (He must get that from his mother.)  Every day he learns something new and is such a fun kid.  We are so thankful to God for him.

My job continues to go well.  I learn something new all the time.  A week or so ago I decided that I need to better understand what it is like to be in prison, since I am teaching classes to people who were just released. I watched some videos from the discovery channel about prison, which helped a little, but mostly I have been asking the residents.  Some of the guys that have some hard time in federal prison roll their eyes at my questions, thinking to themselves, "how does anybody not know that?" but I keep asking anyway.  I have to remind them that is is normal to have NOT been in prison and not the other way around.  Lately I have had a few openings to talk about things of the Lord and that has been cool.  My job can be tough but I like it and every day I get a little better at it.  Hopefully some of the teaching sticks and these guys are able to make it back into society.

 

Dance Party

I would be lying if I said that I haven't been feel very discouraged lately.  Though it's been a year since we heard God say "stay," we have not truly been able to settle back into life.  We love my mom and dad and are SO thankful for them.  Without the blessing of being able to live with them, I don't know where we'd be right now.  Probably crashing on your couch or camped out in your driveway!  

That said, their house doesn't feel like our home and I don't think we will ever truly feel settled here.  We still live out of boxes and that takes its toll after a while.  More than that, we still feel an empty place where a dream used to be.  Healing from a broken heart takes time.  This is a process I am learning well and no matter how I feel,  with a little one at my heels, I still have to pull it together and get through each day with a smile.     

Tim and I recently listened to a good sermon on choosing to rejoice when you don't feel like it.  The speaker gave the Hebrew definition of the word rejoice, which basically includes the physical actions of smiling, jumping and spinning.  It's challenged us to make that choice to rejoice even when we don't feel like it.  So we have decided that we are going to have a family dance party EVERY night until we get our breakthrough.  Lately, we have been rockin' to the song with the chorus 'this is how we overcome'  (I can't remember the song name, but it's a good one.)  Jackson absolutely loves it and runs to the living room as soon as we say the words dance party, it's very cute.  We all smile big, spin, and jump around and it's been really fun.  Even if I don't feel like it, I always feel better afterwards.  And I find myself singing the song throughout the day, which is a great encouragement. 

Tim and I are trusting God for some big things and are really praying that God would dramatically broaden our scope.  We know He didn't keep us back from Senegal for something less and we want to believe for something even bigger, more than we could ask or imagine.  But it's hard.  Anyone who tells you it isn't really, really hard is lying.  Seeking God for a God-sized calling is tough.  I cry a lot.  And I cry out to God a lot.  A lot.  Lucky for me, He is faithful to answer.  We may not have a new dream to fill our empty hearts yet, but we still have a solid grip on the "dream Giver."  And He is good.  

So I end this post with a challenge for you.  Have you chosen to rejoice today?  If not, and you don't think you have the strength to do it alone, come on over and join our dance party.  It may sound cheesey, but there is power in praising God.  Check out the Psalms.

Still on the move.

We finished our stay in North Mpls, returned to Rogers for Jackson to take a nap, and repacked for a weekend in Northeast Mpls.  The weekend of the 4th of July was spent doing a Stay-cation with our friends Peter and Julie at their house.  We ate a lot, Peter and I played some Disc Golf, and watched some episodes of the show Freaks and Geeks on DVD.  Never having done a Stay-cation before, we had a great time and hope to make it a tradition.  We then returned to Rogers in time for Jackson to take a nap, repacked, and moved on to White Bear Lake, to stay at the Showers house while they are visiting relatives.  My drive to work is short and we are enjoying their nice house and great yard.  It is getting a little old moving around all the time but we appreciate our friend's willingness to let us crash at their houses.  In a few days we will be back in Rogers for a while.  That will be okay, too.

I will add a couple pictures of Jackson, just because he's so cute.

 

Kickin' it, Northside!

I lived in South Minneapolis almost as long as I lived in Aurora, Colorado.  It seems strange that I have now spent more years living outside of Colorado that years in it.  South Minneapolis, despite being in the Hood, is a place of comfort to me because I know it so well.  This week Heidi and I are staying at some friend's house in North Minneapolis, which is totally foreign to me.  They live a couple miles from the tough part of Northside in a quiet neighborhood near a major freeway.  Our friend's house is peaceful and well decorated and we are enjoying our time here.  It has been great to save so much drive time on my commute to work and to go running in a new area.  Shingle Creek is two blocks away and has a trail alongside it that goes for miles.  I did not know that it existed before this week and I have enjoyed running there the last few mornings.  We do think about how we long to have our own place again and hope for the day when we can move out of Heidi's parent's house for a place of our own.  Until then, we remind ourselves to keep our heads up, trust in God, and keep saving money.  It is a huge blessing to be back in the city, even if it's for a short time.  Thanks, Snyders!

Thoughts on my time of unemployment.

From September 1, 2009, until the middle of May, 2010, I (Tim) was either unemployed or underemployed.  For 6 weeks over the holidays and all of March and April, I worked at Costco part time.  The rest of that time I was without a job at all. (I did watch some great kids on Wednesdays and got paid $50 each time, which was nice.)  My daily routine was to run in the morning, have a quiet time after breakfast and then spend much of the rest of the day applying for jobs.  I had two group interviews, four or five phone interviews, and about 8 or so face to face interviews during that time.  I applied for several hundred jobs.  When I finally got a job offer, it came from the same place that had turned me down for a different position.  I didn't take the interview seriously and almost turned down the second interview but now I am glad that I did not.  In fact, I prayed about going to the interview and felt strongly that I should go.  When they offered the job, Heidi and I went to different rooms and prayed about it for a while and both felt that I should take it.  We both heard from God that it was a prophetic act to take this job.  (In the Bible, prophets often did unusual or counter cultural things to show people what the Lord had to say about certain situations.)  While the Lord is giving us installments of understanding about the prophetic act, we still don't understand completely and are waiting on Him.  I get to work with people in a vulnerable state who need a tremendous amount of encouragement.  They are all in the beginning stages of finding a job, which is a tough place these days, and my recent experiences make me better suited to empathize and encourage them.  I am glad to have a full time job again and excited to see what the Lord has in store.

Our little peanut

Here's a few pics of Jackson

                                                                                                Trying ketchup for the first time!

We love our pastor

Today at church we celebrated twenty years of service at Bethel Christian Fellowship of our pastor, Jim Olson.  We also celebrated his completion of a PhD from Bethel Seminary.  Our church is so blessed to have such a caring and multi-talented pastor.  Heidi and I have two memories of Pastor Jim (we'll call him PJ in this blog entry).  First, when we found ourselves at Children's Hospital in Mpls with our sweet, five day old Jackson, PJ came and encouraged us.  It was the hardest time of our lives, taking the little guy to the ER and seeing him go through a battery of tests after we had not slept the entire night, and we appreciated PJ's visit so much.  Second, last summer, when we struggling through the decision to not go to Africa, PJ was with us in the struggle.  He then went on his Sabbatical but made sure that we were left in good hands with Pastor Dave Ogren.  Pastor Dave O was awesome and we appreciated PJ's wisdom in knowing that Pastor Dave O would take care of us.  When PJ returned from his Sabbatical he spent some time encouraging us even though he surely had plenty to keep him busy.  On top of taking care of us, he is an outstanding preacher.  We love PJ and feel so blessed to have him as our pastor.

The first Good Diction music video

We are taking a detour from our serious posts to put up the video for our favorite local, independent band, Good Diction.  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_Qv47377QI

Somedays, you torture me, Facebook.

Happy Memorial Weekend!  Tim and I are filling ours with productivity, rest and time with both sides of the family.  

My favorite part about Facebook is how easy it has made the task of keeping up with people.  Those who use it at least.  I love, love, love looking at pictures from "our" team in Senegal.  I can't get enough.  I just love it.  I love missionaries in general, but I especially love a certain 7 missionaries in Kebemer, Senegal  :)   Joe and Cara just had their ngente, or baby-naming ceremony, for little Oliver Rufus.  The pictures were lovely and everyone looked amazing.  

Somedays though, it's just as painful as it is enjoyable to cruise through the images.  Most days I would say that's still the case actually.  But I can't NOT look.  I love to see what's going on with them.  I love to see everything about their lives.  A year ago, it was going to be us sitting there celebrating with them.  So maybe I torture myself by pouring over the pictures, but I can't stop.  I am so thankful that God continues to work healing in our hearts.  While I still ache today, I know that one day I won't.  And I rejoice in that hope.  I hurt, but I count it all joy as I face this circumstance.  

So congratulations Herzbergs!  We love you, we love Oliver and we can't wait to see you this summer!  

A New Dawn

If you know me, you know I like to go to bed early, typically 10pm.  Tim likes to stay up, but I need my sleep.  So when I tell you that I am sitting up typing this blog at 11:45pm you know that means something.  I went to bed at 10:15 and laid there totally awake for 45 minutes until the Lord finally got through to me that I needed to come and write this post.

Tim and I often dialogue about why we keep a blog.  In the beginning, it was obvious:  a way for friends and family to keep up with us while living in West Africa.  These days though, it seems less clear to me why we blog.  As much as Tim loves football and I love coupons, posting about those topics can seem a little fluffy in the grand scheme of things.  Blogging just to blog is a waste of time.  I have often been motivated to blog by a desire to make people understand our situation;  to help people “get it.”  But making people understand is not my job and this is an attitude that I have needed to repent of as God has challenged me to examine how much I care about what others think of me. 

Blogging is such a funny thing to me b/c you never really know who is reading your posts and you rarely get much feedback.  You put your thoughts out there to fade into cyberspace or maybe people are entertained by them.  Either way, I do find it cathartic.  It’s been a helpful tool for me to process this past year. 

Though this year has been nothing that we expected, God has been speaking to us more than at any other time in our lives.  On the surface, it’s been a pretty dull time for us and we have felt lonely, isolated, and discouraged.  We’re far from friends and away from community events (and that got really old really fast), but when we really think about it, this year has been anything but boring.

God has kept us on our toes.  He has ministered to us through prophetic words again and again and He is building up that gift within each of us.  (For all of our non-Pentacostal friends out there, don’t freak out, ok?  Bear with me!)  It’s these stories of His grace and mercy that really get us excited about what He’s up to.  It’s these stories of His faithfulness, provision, and hope that we want to share with you.  It’s these stories/experiences that have kept us seeking Him this past year when we have wanted nothing more than to give up and walk away.

We don’t say the things we say in order to prove something to you.  God told us to stay and we stayed.  But that’s not the end of the story.  We want to share these things b/c God is doing a good work and He is pouring out His spirit upon us in exciting new ways. 

Words cannot express how devastated Tim and I have felt, and sometimes still feel, this past year.  God has stripped away almost everything from us (title, ministry, location, financial security, you name it, we feel like we have lost it).  Most days, we feel keenly aware of all the things that we seem to lack.  But what we don’t lack, the most important thing, is Him.  In fact, He has given us more of Himself. 

Our desire has always been to be transparent with our ministry partners and though we’re not in ministry right now, but we speak with faith when we say that we will be.  And as we journey with God to that end, we deeply desire to encourage others along the way. 

So now our blog has a revised focus.  We want to share with you (whoever you are J) the “nitty-gritty” of what God is doing in us as we work out our salvation with much fear and trembling.  Please don’t be scared off if we start using language that we haven’t used before in the blog.  It’s still us:  Tim and Heidi.  We are just sharing more b/c it’s time.  It’s time to speak boldly about the things that God is doing in our lives b/c that’s what He’s called us to do.  When we hear a powerful prophetic word from God, we want to share it that He would be glorified. 

There might still be an occasional post about football and coupons, but mostly we want to boast in our God about this crazy ride that He has us on; it’s still a painful and bumpy ride, but it’s good. 

So please, join us in this adventure, leave comments, leave prayer requests, let us know how God is working in your life that we could join in with you and ride the wave of His mercy.

Ok, it’s 12:35…..I am tired! 

‘night 

1st week on the job.

I (Tim) have completed my first five days at my new job.  So far, I like it.  The place I am working is a halfway house that is contracted with the Department of Corrections and the Bureau of Prisons to handle inmates that are transitioning back into the community.  Every one of them has committed a felony and is facing an uphill battle to re-enter their lives.  My job is to teach classes to the residents, both men and women, during their first two weeks at the halfway house that will allow them to find meaningful employment.  The classes cover things like forgiveness, anger management, and expectations.  There is a lot of information to cover and it is not really enough for the years of incarceration but hopefully the classes are enough to get them thinking about their choices and what they want in life.  Soon I will start putting my own personality into the material and making it my own.  I am excited to add a new element of financial training into the material as well.  It's a good job so far, and I am grateful to have it.

Heidi and I are now back in Rogers.  The Leberts arrive back in the USA tomorrow with their kids, so we are no longer needed in St. Paul.  It is good to be home but I will miss the fantastic location of their house.  It was so nice to be able to hang out with people and not drive 45 minutes to do so.  We are praying that the Lord will give us some way to live back in the city and when that happens, we'll blog about it.

I got a full time job.

This will hopefully be my (Tim) last employment update for a long, long time.  The last couple months I have been working back at Costco on a part time basis.  Ironically, I was pretty close to getting full time hours and a better position in the company when I got an offer for a full time job.  I put in my two weeks notice at Costco on Monday and accepted a job at Volunteers of America at their Roseville facility.  The job title is Employment Program Coordinator and I will be working at a halfway house with inmates that are finishing their time in the Department of Corrections.  It sounds scary but it's really not.  The bulk of my job will be relationship building and helping the inmates to change their mindset to succeed on the outside.  I am sure there will be difficult days but I am looking forward to being challenged again.  At first I was not all that excited about the job and did not even want to go for the interview.  Somewhere in the process both Heidi and I came to know that the Lord provided this job and I was to be obedient and take it.  We know He is faithful and we will trust Him to take care of the rest.  It's a relief to no longer be on the job hunt and I am grateful for God's provision.

Livin it up in St. Paul!

For the last couple weeks, Heidi and I have left our suburban life behind and re-entered the city.  Our friends, Ed and Amanda, are in Columbia to pick up their newly adopted children and we are watching their house and dogs for them.  We love the seven minute drive to church and being so close to friends again.  I can run from their house and around Lake Como and back in about 45 minutes, although I do have to pay more attention to traffic than in Rogers.  We are happy that we can bless Ed and Amanda and will move back to Rogers in a few weeks.  Until then, we'll keep enjoying city life.