Rain

It has now started to rain every afternoon. That is just how it gets in July and August. Nice in the morning and late afternoon but right about 1 it starts to rain. I really love the rain! I seem to live places where it does not rain much so it is nice to have this change. (Not so nice when you are on the top of a mountain above tree line but you can not have it all.) I have not done a lot of hiking lately but hope to do a little more before I leave.

My life white water rafting

Sunshine Falls on the Royal Gorge

Last week I went white water rafting with some of my staff team down the Royal Gorge. The whole time I could not stop thinking about what a metaphor rafting is and how it relates to my Christian walk. Maybe it was all the Christian youth group rafting trips I went on growing up rushing back to me.

Tonight I had a video conferences with the USC group here in Colorado and some of our canvas group in LA. During the time Greg asked us to describe our life using a metaphor. Again I thought of rafting. One big thing that I thought of was how we all have to work together or we can flip the raft, also if we do not work together sometimes we can miss the big rapids on the river (the best part). We have a guide and how important it is to listen to Him especial when going through the hardest spots. The metaphor can go on and on but that is what struck me the most.

PS the picture is not my raft but was taken on part of the river we went down. The waters was a record high this year. Highest it has been in more then ten years. :)

Grace

Grace.....I have learned so much about grace this summer. Where I have not been giving myself grace, where I have not been giving others grace, and then how God is giving me the most amazing grace and wanting me to share that with others. It has been changing me...

This week an amazing women named Eva came to speak at LT, her story was the greatest picture of God's grace. At the end of the first night Britney a girl I had been praying for with with another friend said she wanted to accept Christ into her life. A couple of students got to pray with her. It was fun talking with her today and seeing how excited she is. Please keep Britney in your prays, she leaves to go back home August 2nd and I don't know what kind of support she has there. Please pray the Lord would continue to work in the little time left here.

Trust

TRUST
This can be a very hard word. What does it really mean to trust God? To trust others? Sometimes we say we are doing that but our actions or heart act differently. Yesterday we were talking about trust in the small group I am coaching. We looked at different people in the Bible and examined their life. Looking at how David, Peter, Job and others trusted God. Looking at their lives and how they trusted God is very challenging. I say I trust God but then I do the " I know this is true but....." thing. Job did the same thing yet with everything he went through he still had hope in our loving and powerful God. I want to have this same faith.

Family, camping, boulder, and the sound of music

Last weekend my brother Lucas, his wife Angela, my sister Chrissy, and her baby Alexys came to visit. We had one night together and went camping. I love hanging with family and it really was a blessing to be with them.



Then on Wednesday I went to boulder with my project group and did some contact evangelism. It was a great day of learning. Boulder is a very interesting city with a mixture of tourist, locals, and homeless. It was good for people to go out with the intent of sharing Christ's love with people. But is was also a very emotional day for many reasons. One of the leaders in our group found out that morning that her step grandfather had committed suicide. I was able to spend a lot of the day with her, it is a very tragic time. Please keep Kayla and her family in your prayers.



Yesterday I went an a great hike with some friends. I will try to post more pictures later and share about the day. But to sum it up I felt like i was in the sound of music hiking through the mountains. It was pretty amazing.

international dinner and 4th of July

We had an international dinner outreach this past week. It was pretty amazing seeing everyone come together to cook. It has been a great way to really get to know people here and build into them. I cooked Thai food with a two girls Rachel and Fai. Today Fai helped me cook something for my staff bbq and I was able to talk to her about her beliefs and faith and share mine. Please keep her in your prayers. I am going to hang out with her more tonight. The pictures above are from hiking, camping, outreach dinner, and the 4th of July parade today.