As I look through my pictures on my cell phone my heart is filled with thankfulness. I am thankful for the special times
we have gotten to spend with family and friends. In June Brianna was able to have surgery in Washington to deal with Endometriosis. We are so thankful to report that it went well and she has had a very good recovery! We were so blessed to be able to go up to Canada to visit Darrel’s family and relatives the day the Canadian border opened on August 9. It was a week filled with lots of laughter, stories (that’s what happens when you get the aunts and uncles together!) and visiting. Darrel and Brianna were able to go to an Edmonton Elks game too. We also enjoyed getting to visit family in Kellogg, Idaho, watching my nieces and nephew show their pigs in the fair in Kalispell, MT and get togethers friends in our Life Group. We also got out on two hikes this summer and Brianna and I fit in a couple of trips to pick huckleberries. It was also fun to go to a stock car races in Pablo. MT with friends, help friends who were building a log cabin with some concrete work, horse back riding with a neighbor and helping a friend in Plains, MT with her garden. We also always enjoy getting together with the MBI board. Of course, much of the summer was spent thinking about and planning for Brianna’s wedding.
It is with great joy that we announce that our family had grown! Brianna and Johnathan got married on September 11 at Camp Utmost. We were delighted to have many of our family join us for the event and celebrate with us. This was no small feat because the US border is still closed for Canadians to drive down. Brianna and Johnathan are on staff with Camp Bighorn, a Christian outdoor adventure camp that runs programs year round here in Montana. We were so happy that our son, Ben, was able to come back from Switzerland and be here for most of the month of September. In addition to being here for the wedding he was also able to reconnect with friends since he has been gone for close to two years and celebrate his 22nd birthday with all of us! 🙂
Where are we now? In Switzerland! Darrel is going to be part of a “Development Sprint” for 2 weeks. This is a project that he has helped with for the past 7ish years. There are 9 people getting together to upgrade/further develop software to manage the University of the Nations (YWAM’s Training Schools) student records and courses. I, of course, couldn’t pass up opportunity to tag along! In the middle of October, we will fly back to Montana and get our motorhome from Lakeside and drive it south to Arizona. The plan is then to fly back to Switzerland in November and be over there for a couple of months. Darrel will run his business from there and help further the development on the software and I will be helping out with various other tasks at the YWAM base there. We look forward to getting back into these volunteer projects.
We are excited for this next season. After being pretty stationary since May, it feels good to be moving again. We continue to to be reminded of how fragile life is, how much we need to treasure the moments and how much we have to be thankful for!
