Monday, August 16, 2010

Summer stuff

Dear friends,
Summer is moving by at a fast pace. We were done with the townhouse cleaning and prepping for our Moody BI girls and decided to take the opportunity and go camping this past weekend. We left Adjua home (as per her preference!) and took off for Huckleberry Mtn in Idaho. We ended up near there and found a secluded spot to turn into home for 2 nights. Off road camping is our favorite way to camp. No fees, rangers, or noisy neighbors. You just bring who you want to be with and put up as many tents as you want and park as many cars as you want. If you want to go with us some time, just come on!
Our friends joined us Friday eve and spent Sat. with us. Hiking and huckleberry picking filled our day, although with 4 people picking, we sure didn't find too many. It just isn't the best year for them. Greg and I saw my 5th moose on the way there, but the highlight was star gazing both nights. On Friday we layed down on the ground to watch all the stars uninterrupted by any city lights, with the excitement of a shooting star shower. On Saturday night is was so nice out that we took the top cover off the tent and had only screen between us and the galaxy. It was such a treat!

Jenni comes home on Friday
Jenni is finishing up her internship with Stellar Solutions in Huntington Beach this week. She has learned a great deal, and so totally plugged in with her church there that they have already had 2 going away events for her! She has been living in the RV of a Calvary Chapel pastor and his wife, and has been attending their church. She has been on the worship team and I think has been at church more nights than not all summer. She is totally connected to that part of God's family. Isn't it amazing that a Christian can feel at home so quickly and have an instant family like that?
We will have her for 5 days before she goes to Laura in Baltimore. Laura is house sitting this month and is still living off her savings. I think the latest is that she is making arrangements to go work with one of our partners in Israel for a year doing reconciliation ministry. Reconciliation is something she is good at naturally and believes that the Lord has unfolded this discovery to her through her job at AT&T and her travels earlier this year. I know she would appreciate your prayer. I think she will need to raise support for this also- something else to pray about. Anyway, Jenni will be with Laura for a few days before flying up to Pittsburgh and her senior year of college at Grove City.

Doctors
Next week I will see one of my oncology doctors to get a check up to make sure everything is clear. I am also getting my left wrist checked for carpal tunnel. It has progressively gotten worse and I have already met my deductible for the year. My right one is so much better since being repaired last year. My knees are doing pretty well. I think the shots did help. I wish it was easy to go swimming for exercise. The Y is pretty expensive and we have no pools connected to where we live. I miss that about Colorado. Oh well...

Mission Connexion Inland NorthWest conference
On Sept. 24 and 25th we will open the doors on our first ever regional missions conference. I have been on the steering committee for 2 years and it is finally happening. Yahoo! This is the push for publicity time. I especially am trying to connect with Children's workers from churches in our region. I want to help start a network of these folks that will benefit all. This first meeting will focus on missions education, but the sky is the limit. I am excited. I am also overseeing 7 tracks at the conference out of the 15 we have. We are finalizing all that currently. Then just lots and lots of details!

My guest rooms
The mom of an MK from Ch!na will most likely be staying with us later this week. Her story was so amazing. Her daughter wanted to come to MBI, Spokane, but Jenny, her mom was not comfortable with her coming to a place where they know no one. Then she got on line and saw Berea housing- our townhouses for 36 girls close to campus. Better, but still, they didn't know anyone here. THEN she shared about all this with their team in Ch!na and her team leaders said they knew someone in Spokane. And guess whose names the team leader said? Yes, he was the best man in our wedding! That broke the dam and the tears of relief and answered prayer broke loose. God is so good. So we probably will have 3 Jenny's in our house this week (Adjua's name is also Jennifer).
After Jenni, Pastor Matt from the Gambia and Faustine and Rene from Senegal will be here with Faustine staying until I go to Ch!na at the end of Sept. Karen and Donna are coming in September from Denver to speak at our conference and will stay with us. AND, Jesse is coming home for Labor Day weekend- arriving from AZ on Friday at noon and leaving early on Monday morning. Then he will have only one more month at Ft. Houchuca before going to Arabic school in Monterrey. This month he is learning top secret stuff and next month he will practice interrogating people in a pretend village up on a mountain on the base in AZ.

Well, I have some more www.MCINW.org posters to deliver to some churches up here on the north side of town. Then my own workshop to prepare and then my lessons for my trip to Ch!na in Oct. Not many dull moments in my life! Please pray for stamina. I seem to run out of gas and need to rest after spirts of business.
Blessings-
Nancy Fritz