Yesterday we went on a chilly hike up in Rocky Mountain National Park - we had brought our snowshoes thinking there would be enough to strap them on but once we were there we realized there wasn't enough snow to use them! As we were sitting in Gimli (our vehicle) in the parking lot, the wind was howling under and over us and we were quite eager to get into some tree covering! What a fun hike! We could only stand 6-7 miles before our fingers were going numb and our nose was without feeling and dripping like faucets (borderline icicles hanging ;) )...but if you're ever in RMNP the hikes up to Loch Lake and Mills Lake are worth it - beautiful beautiful views even in the crazy wind that almost took my hat off!
After getting back to our warm house, we enjoyed putting up the last of our Christmas decorations - our first wreath on our front door, lights on our porch, and a few more indoor decorations! It's been so much fun to have a house to make a home of this season, especially as we increasingly dwell on the wonder of God becoming flesh!We went to the library and checked out too many books the other day - more than we could possibly finish this month, especially considering all the work we need to do to prepare for January travels. But we're excited to peruse them as we have time...and last night, curling up with blankets in our living room and reading in the light of the Christmas tree was great fun! In case you're interested in what we're pursuing intellectually right now: all of the books are related to the themes of church history, mysticism, justice, and daily readings for the Advent season as we prepare for Christmas.
On a work related note - Jason's busy finishing up his readings course for this Fall semester, I'm busy finishing up preparing the poster presentation for the January UK conference, and we're both turning our attention to preparing for the Northern Ireland sign language survey following the conference. Pray we get the right connections for this survey - being in a different area than the Americas means there are more things to adapt and think through to make our trip as successful as possible. Also on our minds is something you may have read in our last newsletter - the need to increase our financial margin. God is so faithful and, here in the US it's always good to keep in mind just how rich we are as compared to so many people in the world! We just want to be wise stewards of the resources he gives us - whether that's finances, our time, or our health in various areas of life :). You'll probably be hearing about us spending more time raising support in future months...something that, honestly, we hate to spend time doing but is rather inevitable...and as we work through our finances we are also reminded how thankful we are for those of you who give to us so faithfully financially!
Well, we hope you stay warm this Christmas season and enjoy the carols and the wonder of the season without getting too caught up in its commercialism or overindulging in Christmas desserts (not that we can talk - we now have eggnog bread in the freezer and apple pie in the fridge...it's a good thing we signed up for that half-marathon!) :)
1 comment:
Your hike looks great (amidst the cold!). :) Thanks for sharing what you've been up to - I enjoyed catching up. Oh, and the 1/2 marathon ... I toy with the idea of doing something like that, but ... well, I'm going to have to toy with it some more. :) Love you both!
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