Happy Christmas!

Here we are at the end of another year which seems to have sped by very quickly. Keith and Sandra are still in Albuquerque, NM, and decided not to drive to the Chicago area this winter. This marks the first Christmas in our marriage without either children or immediate family around….Wow! We really are “empty nesters!” While we’ll very much miss interacting with everyone at ‘home,’ God has truly blessed us with great friends and family here to share the joy of this wonder-filled holiday season.

Karl has been back in the Chicago area for almost a year. He currently lives with two friends in the city, not too far west of Wrigleyville, and seems to be settling in and appreciating life on his own. He’s working with a small team of folks who provide industrial/commercial kitchen hood cleaning services. He likes his supervisor and the people on the team, as well as the fact that he’s kept busy in different places all the time. Since they can only clean the hoods when the stoves or ovens are not in use his schedule is quite varied. In between all of this he’s also working towards obtaining a commercial driver’s license.

Shaina graduated in May (see “Cinco de mayo” post), worked in the Chicago area during the summer and then went to Kenya during September and October. She lived with a friend of hers who leads a team of folks providing orphan care, HIV/AIDS education, famine relief, church planting, and leadership training with AfricaHope. She definitely got an immersion experience which she really enjoyed. Now she’s back in Kirksville, MO, living in the house on Elson street with those of her roommates who will be finishing up their schooling during the course of this year. Her goals: 1) finding work to pay bills (which has resulted in two part-time jobs); 2) spending as much time as possible with her great friends for a bit before; 3) figuring out life’s next step.

Some of you may not be aware that Keith no longer has the job which brought us out here. He has been exploring avenues of “self-employment” and continues looking for a steady income stream. Meanwhile God has blessed him with the privilege of offering much time to our church by building great relationships with and caring for many people within its sphere. He enjoys interacting with a wonderful leadership team as our church is in the process of redefinition and redirection towards truly being led by Jesus and His Cause.

Sandra continues to work at the UNM School of Law and enjoying the atmosphere and the people. This year has been a bit hectic and sometimes stressful given that a few occasional events (in all spheres of life) ended up falling within overlapping time frames. God continues to help her stretch her reliance on Him as she gains new skills and insights into what “doing what’s in front of” her really means in daily practical terms.

We pray that God will grant you grace, peace and the realization of His abundant blessings as you enjoy family, friends and celebration at this time of year.

Sabbath

We've been doing a bit of traveling again - sleeping in the SUV and exploring this amazing state. We've found a few accessories that make SUV camping more functional. Keith's almost ready to give up regular housing altogether!

Over Memorial Day weekend we explored southwest NM - visiting the Very Large Array on our way to the Gila National Forest. While finding out exactly what a radio telescope does was interesting, seeing our very first antelope in the wild was a bit more fun. I think he was a little camera shy.....


We camped near a little stream in the Gila National Forest, and continued (after getting some help from some forest rangers) driving through on some beautiful forest roads. Just before hitting the main highway, we stopped and shared a breakfast plate at the Purple Onion in Mogollon. (We also enjoyed the familiar sounds of cicadas singing away!)

Continuing south, we stopped to stretch our legs and explore the beautiful Whitewater Creek area by strolling the Catwalk National Recreation Trail. Heading on we got to Silver City and noticed everyone congregating in a central park...Apparently we'd stumbled upon the city's 12th annual Blues Festival! We wandered around, listened to a couple of pretty decent acts, and chatted with a couple who'd recently moved into town.

Then it was a race against the evening to get to the Gila National Monument before closing time. Our reward: being the last folks admitted to the trail for the day, an amazing early evening climb up the valley, and a very pleasant view into an ancient culture.

We love being able to travel so easily and marvel at God's incredibly diverse creation....and humans'. It's becoming the best way we know to be refreshed and reoriented.

Cinco de mayo

Shaina graduated from Truman State University!!!!!

Given the date (see this blog’s title) and her major (Spanish….and English), she felt it highly appropriate to wear a sombrero. Since we live in the southwest we could happily provide!

All of her roommates’ families attended, and we all had a great time celebrating the graduates. This was the first time since Christmas that we were together as a family. Ab and Rosie (Keith’s folks) were able to come too!

Shaina and Karl are both centered around the Chicago area now, while we’re still in Albuquerque. Growing up feels kind of strange sometimes…..

Displacement 2

The end of April found us heading to Phoenix again, this time with friends (Alf and April) to participate in a “Displacement Event.” This overnight experience, organized by Invisible Children, was meant to simulate and raise awareness of the plight of Northern Ugandan citizens forced by their government to live in IDP* camps as part of an unsuccessful effort to protect them from rebel armies.

While hardly a realistic simulation, there’s something about sleeping in a self-built cardboard hut in the middle of a football field surrounded by noisy, somewhat self-centered, teenagers that promotes a very profound understanding of and gratitude for the resources and security we possess. And prompts incredibly sincere prayer in fervent solidarity with the Ugandan citizens and the majority of the world who lack what we take for granted.

*Internally Displaced Persons

(Please visit April's "old" website to hear some of her great music: http://www.heyapril.com/.)

Displacement 1

In February, for various reasons, we decided it was time to find a different place to live. So we gave notice we would be moving out the end of March. And since our wonderful friends told us they'd help us move, we put them on notice to save March 31 for that purpose.

Within a a short period of time we found (we thought) our next rental home. We applied, put down a deposit, and waited to hear about moving in on March 31. And waited, and waited..... (The story gets kind of long and convoluted at this point, so this is the short version.) Less than 3 days before our lease was up, we heard that the owner of this house decided not to rent it out.

Thankfully, God has blessed us with amazing friends. Even more than that, He knows and provides for our immediate needs (not necessarily our wants) in His incredibly abundant ways!

Recently a couple we know moved from Albuquerque, leaving their house up for sale. They very graciously (and on very short notice) agreed that we could move in as house-sitters. So, March 31st saw our friends helping us pack almost all of our belongings into storage, and take the rest over to our 'temporary housing.'

We are finding this kind of displacement remarkably freeing. The physical separation from our stuff allows us to objectively evaluate what we really need (and look forward to getting rid of things we don't). We can think about living arrangements from a completely different vantage point. It seems like our next move will also be 'temporary:' house-sitting for a UNM professor who will be teaching at another university next school year.

A friend of Sandra's jokingly commented about how well we're handling 'homelessness.' The reality is we've never been homeless. We possess abundant resources in our finances, relationships, physical and mental health, and employment. The primary resource is spiritual through our growing knowledge of and relationship with the loving God of the universe through Jesus. Our friends who struggle with real homelessness often lack many of these resources.

We're really appreciating these extraordinarily practical lessons in God's abundance and renewed empathy with the 'marginalized.'

And so it begins.....

The University of New Mexico, where Sandra works, had Spring Break last week, so she took three days off. An extra long weekend, hot sunny weather in Phoenix, the Cubs were playing on Sunday... It all added up to our first road-trip of 2007. Amazing! It was only the second full weekend in March and we kicked off our touring season!

We really enjoyed ourselves: indulging in some great conversation (yes, we still do that after all these years), over-indulging at our favorite restaurant in Scottsdale, lounging by a pool, walking in the parks, and managing to get into a sold-out baseball game for free! (Well, we had to pay for parking, and the hot dog and cup of beer we shared cost the same as two lawn tickets would have.)

Honestly, the best part of the weekend, though, was that we had great conversations with both Shaina and Karl over the phone while we were at the game. What a tremendous blessing!