Well, what would you do on a snow day?...If you are in our family you get to sleep in, eat cereal (from the box of course!), go sledding, play games, hang out with friends, make Christmas cookies, and go back outside to play some more!! Yep, we LOVE snow days!!
P.S...Nine inches and it's still coming down!!
What a crazy weekend it was around here!! Our very good friends Ben and Jessica came all the way from Omaha, NE to surprise us for the Dinner Theater!! Well, one surprise that we were in on...Ben proposed to Jess while they were here!! Yep, it's official...they are engaged!! We are so happy for them both. God has truly blessed their lives...and ours!!
O.k...today is one of my favorite days of the WHOLE year!! Today is the day we put up the Christmas decorations and the tree!! It was SO awesome today!! We started out by making sure the house was first in fairly clean order ( a ritual I use to hate when I was a kid!), then we worked on decorating the apartment (the nativity scene went up first of course!), and last but not least the tree!! I must say Ryan was full of patience and the kids were full of LOTS of joy!! God blessed our day with a fresh blanket of snow on everything outside. With the Christmas music in the background, our day was just perfect!
Just in case anybody wondered...nine hours is a LONG time to be in a car!! :) We drove down to Omaha, NE for the week of Thanksgiving break to visit our good friends, Ben, Eric, and Jessica. The week was spent visiting friends, playing, and catching up on some much needed family time. We were able to go to the zoo, visit the ice cream capital of the world(Le Mars, IA!!), play at the Children's Museum, and MUCH,MUCH more!! Thanksgiving day was truly a blessing as we were able to spend it with Eric's family and enjoy a true French family holiday!! Thanks to everyone who made this trip so special!! :)
Today there seemed to be a buzz going on at camp! Everyone is getting ready for this years dinner theater!! People were decorating, building sets, figuring out seating arrangements, finding props, and yes...practicing lines!! This year will prove to be another fabulous production written by our own Matt Hoffland. The play is entitled, "The Stranger in the Attic", and is set at an old farmhouse. Ryan and Maia are both acting in the play, and I find myself very busy setting stage, finding props, and doing all of that background organization!! Zoe has also agreed to help us on the nights of production as a stagehand. This is truly turning out to be a family affair! We hope you can join us...:)
This weekend brought us back to Hayward to help out with our church's annual halloween event...Trunk or Treat!! Yep, it's just like it sounds! People from our church volunteer to bring in candy and we circle up the "wagons"!! This year we estimate that there were close to 1,000 kids who trunk or treated their way through Hayward Wesleyan!! Check out a few of these pics...
Our latest adventure has found us out on the east coast...a new and foreign land!! :) Ryan and I traveled from Camp to Milwaukee...via Detroit...to Plymouth, Connecticut! We left the girls in the capable hands of our friend Sally and later Eric McKeeman (you may remember him from our LTD year), and went out east with Ben and Jess to visit Ben's parents and their church. It was a great combination of support raising and a little rest and relaxation for mom and dad!! :) During our ten day adventure we were even treated to a day in New York City...I felt like "The Country Mouse Goes to the Big Big City!" Lots of amazing architecture, culture, and great sites to see! God truly blessed us along our journey with many unexpected conversations, ministry opportunities, and of course some good old fun!
That's the biggest question followers of this blog have asked. Well, it HAS been a long time since we updated this thing...thanks to Facebook. Heather and I have been contacting people through FB, and have forgotten to keep up on our blog site. We are SO SORRY if anyone has missed us, and we will be more diligent on updating this from now on. Having said that; what has been going on since winter? This spring, I graduated from the LTD program here at Camp Forest Springs. Last year was one of the most difficult and satisfying years of my life...Thank You God! The administration here asked if I'd stay on and work as the Resident Program Associate through the summer. that's a big title for "Larry's right hand man". I got to develop games for all the youth camps, plus help oversee all the program areas that we have, like archery and air rifles. I also became a High-Ropes Facilitator, and got to work on our new high ropes course. It's a team-building course where we can work with up to ten people at a time. This thing is massive. It stands over 60 ft. high and has two exits on the top tier. A Leap of Faith and the Giant Swing are the ways to get down off this awesome course. You'll have to come here to see just how big this course is.
Anyway, my contract finished on Sept. 7th. However, Heather and I have been asked by CFS to come on board permanently in a new ,missionary staff position. We have accepted the new role of Alumni Coordinator. I say we because this position allows Heather and I to work together in this new role. We will be working closely with Dick Angelo, the president of CFS. Our new job will be to reconnect former staff and campers into new relationships with Camp. It will be like taking CFS out to those people who have been a part of its history. We are so excited for this amazing opportunity. We both thank God that He has placed us in a ministry that has been so integral in our spiritual development.
So, What does all that mean? Well, it means that Heather and I will be raising our support to be able to join missionary staff. Some questions that we get asked:
1)Can you work at camp while you raise support? This process works best if we don't work full-time anywhere. Heather & I can pick up a couple of hours when there is a need here, but we need to focus on raising support, not holding a full-time job.
2)How does this process work? We are contacting people that we know; informing them as to what our new ministry will look like, and asking if they will pray whether God is calling them to help support us. We know that God wants us here in this new role, and He will provide the monetary support. It's all His money, anyway. He has the plan laid out, all we have to do is to inform people about it. God knows whose hearts He will move support us. So, we are just leaving it all up to Him. We are simply asking folks to listen to the Holy Spirit to see if they might be one of those people God is calling or not. Either way, that's OK with us, because God has it all under control.
3)How can we help? Pray for us in this process. Your prayers for our faithfulness to Him and focus on the process before us will help to carry us through this. Pray if God is calling you to help us. Pray for Zoe and Maia that He will continue to give them peace as we travel every weekend.
4)If we wanted to support you, how would we do it? Please contact us by e-mail at reisguys4him@gmail.com, and we can go over the details. Did you know that and missionary organization has to take payroll taxes out of support? Checks to CFS made out on our behalf will go into an account. Once a month, our accountant will do the payroll and take out up to 1/3 of donations earmarked for us for insurance and taxes, just like a normal payroll check. The IRS is very particular about this rule so there is no possibility of illegal money transfers.
So, that's about it for now. We are thankful that you are still interested in our poor, neglected blog. I promise we will update on a more regular basis from now on.
I thought it was about time I shared with you some of our winter retreat season. Ryan has been living on the ski hill as most of you know. He LOVES it...who knew!?!?! He finds it a blessing to encourage the groups that are coming in as they attempt to learn something that can be very intimidating to most. It is always such a great feeling of accomplishment for them when they finally come down the hill on their own!! :) He also has been giving cross country ski lessons and working as a retreat host. Next weekend is his big debut in the camp kitchen...his menu will be served on saturday and sunday! I have been blessed recently to speak with over 150 teenage girls about their "identity in Christ" and where they need to be looking for real acceptance. I was overwhelmed with the girls that came to me with their struggles afterwards. I have also been helping out at the front office and in the stores. We are really enjoying the winter season here at Camp Forest Springs!!
Here we are...on the road again. This week Ry and I are touring colleges in southern Michigan and in Indiana. It has been amazing discovering all these new campuses and their unique characteristics. We are traveling with three other LTD and one missionary staff...it is always so very interesting spending a week in a 12 passenger van and sleeping in guest homes with a group of people. Let's just say we all got a little squirrly around Wednesday night!!! Here is a few pics to share with you all...
It has been CRAZY here...fun and crazy!! The girls have spent most of their time learning to ski...downhill, classic, and skate ski...you name it they are doing it. They have also been skating, snowshoeing, and tubing!! Maia turned eight on the 4th of January! Big birthday here at CFS, she can now officially roam around without a parent...Yeah for her...Yeah for me!! :) Ry has spent most weekends as a downhill and crosscountry ski instructor. He is lovin life here in the winter!! I have had no complaints of too much down time! I have been sharing in the outdoor fun, as well as working around camp. This past thursday we sent out our large youth mailing. A group of 32 people stuffed, sealed, and labeled 15800 envelopes in less than five hours!! WOW!! Here are a couple of pics to share our time...
