Cowboy Up, Buttercup!

Read something during one of our long drives (we are now in Northern, ID from Southern, UT) that talked about living in the now rather than getting caught up in the past or the future. It almost made the point that we get enslaved to the dreams, goals, ideals, etc. of the future. I, for one, am guilty as charged. In itself, it doesn’t seem that bad. It’s good to have dreams, goals, and things to look forward to. Unfortunately, what is often missed in the process is whatever it is in front of us today. Kristine likes to call it my “Go Mode.” I like to accomplish my tasks and goals and can often overlook what’s right in front of me in the moment. Soooo we had an opportunity presented to us in Western, MT. One lone cowboy. A gallon sized hat. A couple spiffy boots. A gray beard. And a thumb. But we have a schedule! It’s not safe! What if… What if… What if…!
What if this man was the very thing presented to us for that day? Sure, we had our own plans for the day and had to call an audible to make some changes. However, we got to help someone other than ourselves. A hardworking man who served our country for over 20 years, including 2 tours in Vietnam. A man who has had a rough go at things lately and no longer had a way to get home to Barstow, CA. A broken man who had been stripped of all he had (including money, truck, and wife), kicked to the streets, and been denied help by “the church.” A man, who by the time we were dropping him off at a train station in Idaho bound for Bakersfield, was confessing to thoughts of suicide for the first time in his life right before we pulled over to face what was in front of us in the moment for that day. Sure glad I’m not the one in charge of this whole thing we call life. There is a peace to knowing that if I just walk with eyes open today, someone bigger than myself will show me what he has for me and how, really, it’s not about me. It’s about considering others better than myself and seeing people the way God sees them… with love, compassion, and grace. Man, that’s a tall order. Near impossible. But with Christ all things are possible.
What’s in front of you today?

 

Zion National Park, UT > Bryce Canyon National Park UT > Payson, UT >  Butte, MT > Missoula, MT > Sandpoint, ID

Headed from Zion to Bryce Canyon

BBRRRYCE CANYON! Pictures do not do this place justice... If you haven't been, make the trek!

These start with a dime size hole in a rock. Bryce Canyon experiences 200+ freeze/thaw cycles each year which continually changes the landscape. Learn somethin' new everyday.

Had some amazing drives from Southern Utah to Northern Idaho complete with pastures, rivers, fall colors, mountains, snow, and small towns.

Get busy livin' or get busy dyin' - Shawshank

Have you ever been so amazed by someone’s generosity that it makes you pause and question if you would do the same for someone else? And then you come to the raw conclusion that maybe you need to do an evaluation? I mean, honestly, how many of us would let someone borrow, with no strings attached, our motorhome to take wherever and however long the borrower wants? Since we are on the receiving end of this scenario we feel INCREDIBLY blessed and are challenged to make sure our hands are always wide open, freely giving, with no strings attached. Jesus said that it is more blessed to give than to receive. The blessings that are in store for our lenders must be incredible. Here are a few pictures (all can be clicked on to enlarge) of our first days on the road… Thousand Oaks, CA to Barstow, CA to Las Vegas, NV to Zion National Park, UT. This house and community were a huge blessing over the last 5 years. First stop... Thousand Oaks to pick up the RV from two of the most amazing people we know! Meet "Boachmen," he's a Ford Coachmen! Campsite we found at the base of Zion National Park. Spent 2 nights here with Zion in the background... miles and miles of hiking. Couldn't get enough! Zion National Park - Photo not doctored! Zion - Photo definitely doctored to look this good!

surprise!

41 and counting…

so we are sitting on an airplane right now and have been up for 41 hours so far with about 12 more to go! well, we have had a nap or two for an hour or so. we are on yet another adventure… this one all began about 10 days ago as we were seeking god about where to go next. we were in malaysia at the time. our plan was to be "tourists" for the month of august and head back to life impact in thailand for the month of september. so here we were throwing ideas around… vietnam, laos, cambodia, etc. however nothing was sitting well. out of no where we had the idea of going back to thailand and being with life impact until we felt more sure of where to go. we instantly felt peace about this decision and both felt god had just spoke that to both of us. what peace!
we hopped on a boat and headed north about 12 hours later. over the next few days we started to feel god calling us "home" and that he was calling us back to life impact right away so we could say our good-byes. we had NO IDEA that this was his plan and it sure wasn't ours. but again, that peace came back when we were making the decision to go home. the bible says that it is a "peace that surpasses all understanding." total freedom thats for sure.
just a side note… during this time back with life impact god continued to speak huge to us about just what he is preparing us for as we go back home and it is so exciting we can barely contain ourselves. he had us up till 4 in the morning giving us vision. our god is alive and speaks! anyways more on that later with another posting!
so we began the process to try to get home which was another thing that we had to lay at god's feet and trust that he would iron out the details because all the flights were full until august 31. this date would be too late to accomplish some of what we wanted to be home for… anyways god came through more than we can imagine and all of a sudden we are on buses and planes and trains back to good ol california!
and to top it all off… we haven't told a soul back home so it's gonna be surprises all around! we can't wait to see you all!!!!!
love you guys!

if his grace is an ocean we are all sinking

malaysia

after our friends flew out of indonesia back to the states we headed to malaysia... we stayed for a few days in kuala lumpur and did some city tour stuff while trying to figure out some more travel plans. one place we spent some serious time at was the mall where we found free internet... how people figured out traveling before the internet is beyond me! this mall was absolutely huge... 12 or 13 floors. complete with an amusement park, bowling alley, and a pool hall. below is a picture of the elevators in the mall.
we decided on heading to langkawi, malaysia for a little r+r together. langkawi is an island on the west side of malaysia on the indian ocean. it was absolutely beautiful. after a few days we began a long journey back to thailand by ferry, bus, train, and bus again. about 36 hours of travel later we were back in thailand and back with life impact! so here we are... for now at least. reconnecting with people here and seeing where to head to next... always an adventure. thank god for the internet!

our last boat trip posting... promise!

this sweet video is of matt jumping off the rock cliff at about 60 ft. okay, just kidding, he's in the boat wearing the goofy hat, wishing he could jump but realizing that at age 27 and with broken bones, all you can do is sport awesome hats. these guys were crazy but it was awesome to see them from the dingy. check out the water in the second picture. it was absolutely beautiful. third pic is of our entire team. def. a trip of a lifetime, even if we were too old to jump! :)

Gili Island

out of all the islands we visited, Gili was our favorite! its so tiny and there are no cars or motorbikes anywhere on the island. people travel by walking (which we did and took us an hour and a half to get around the entire thing!) and also by bicycle and horse and carriage! (pictured below) there are no roads, just dirt paths everywhere. they live a very simple life which of course matt and I were attracted to right away. then we realized how small the island really was and decided that after about a month or so, we would probably have a sever case of island fever. so rest assured, we are still planning on coming home! :)
the second picture is us and some local kids who we gave bibles too. third pic is of one of our boat man named Putu. we begged him to climb the coconut tree so he did. i'm still amazed how fast he got up and down that thing... and how high he was. i don't think american bodies can even move like that. :) there was one attempt made by crazy carl who got his name for obvious reasons, and he made it like 10 feet but then couldn't get down and ended up jumping! we learned two things: first, the trick is to keep your body away from the tree and second, it's a lot harder than Putu makes it look! the last picture is of us walking around the island.

village on lombok

we passed out these books throughout the month of july with surfing the nations. they are the bible in comic book form and written in indonesian. it's a pretty cool way that surfing the nations came up with to be able to take it to places where they don't want the bible. we gave these out to people on lombok where it is basically all muslim.
we also gave out clothing and got annihilated by the people wanting to get their hands on our donations. it was quite the experience. below is a picture of a local fisherman from the village we were visiting on lombok. the first picture is us arriving at the village... you can see our boat in the background.

desert point current

this is a video of "crazy carl" jumping off the boat at desert point in lombok. the key here is to not let the current sweep you past the ladder at the back of the boat because, as you can see from carl swimming, it is impossible to swim against the current and get anywhere. we had quite a few cases of our surfers getting swept out to sea while surfing here... luckily fishing boats picked them up. pretty crazy!
this situation among others provoked chris and i to talk about "wisdom vs. wuss." chris is the leader of surfing the nations (the group we have spent the last month with) and is 26 years old. being the "old men" of the group, we kept wondering what happened to our invincible attitudes... you know, the ones that lead us to the hospital on more than one occasion. we were laughing and debating whether we are old and wise and don't ignore the possibilities of stuff going wrong OR if we just became wusses in our old age as we watch all the 18 year olds do everything without looking back. what happened to us? it isn't near as fun!
of course after having this conversation, chris proceeded to go free diving in a cove that we were anchored in. he was determined to catch us dinner... which he did. however, along the way he had a more than a close encounter. he was diving down about 30 feet and then 15 feet into a cave, without air mind you, when he had a shark (the size of him) come around the corner and start right at him while speeding up. he quickly back peddled while keeping his spear aimed at the shark ready to jab at it if it gained anymore. how he didn't lose his breath i will never know. the guy can hold his breath for close to two minutes under water! so anyways, he lived to tell about it and one of the locals was with him and freaking out!

home sweet home

this was home for 7 days as we traveled to different island in indonesia. some of the islands visited were sumbawa, lombok, nusa lembongin, and gili. definitely the highlight of being in indonesia for the both of us.

monkey see monkey do

a loss for words

so after having my body temperature soo high from a fever for a few days i decided it was time to shave my head again... the mop was keeping all heat in. however, there was one minor problem with this... the only clippers we had with us were some beard trimmers that we bought for traveling. these clippers, we discovered after one week of traveling, weren't even sharp enough to trim my face. i know i have thick hair but seriously? anyways, desperate times call for desperate measures! i was going for it. anything to feel better! i started the process and it turned out to be a nightmare. it took about an hour before the clippers broke all together and this was the result i was stuck with! at least it was about 40% cooler right?

cheap has it's limits

matt here...so i got pretty sick in bingin… one of the nights i was sick we were trying to go to bed when a cockroach ran across my head. we proceeded to try and sleep with the light on so no more would come back. unfortunately this brought on the onslaught of mosi's (or skeetters or mosquitoes) because our hut was open at the top to the outside. after dealing with them for a few hours at 2 in the morning we finally decided to kill the light. we were just falling asleep when we heard a giant thud on our bed and we both jumped up and flicked the light on to see a giant rat running across our bed. this was the last straw! feeling like crap and being so tired didn't help the situation. we got up and went and slept out on a cement deck where we hoped the rats and cockroaches would stay away. a long night to say the least. after this we decided to upgrade our room to try and get me out of the elements a little bit to help me get better. just having our own bathroom rather than having to run out of our hut and down some super steep stairs in hopes that one of the two toilets weren't in use every time i had to go. which was often. very often! oh yes so having our own bathroom in our room with real walls was like heaven on earth. it was an unexpected expense but well worth the $10 a night. the picture below is from the room...

gifts in bingin, indonesia

we spent the other day giving out gifts to some of the kids in the village. the picture of kristine is with some kids showing off their new gifts. the picture of matt is with a really sweet grandma we met named leanne. and the last picture is taken at low tide looking back at the beach village where we are staying.

bingin, indonesia

here are a few pictures from the last couple days... this is the view from where we are staying. pretty incredible. the second is of travis (a guy on our team) with some local grandmas that we hung out with and gave clothing to for their families. travis and i have had some awesome conversations and he has been one of the reasons why it has been made clear that god wanted us here with a bunch of surfers. the last picture is of kristine and the leader of the team (who is the oldest besides kristine and i) and the youngest girl on the team. they are 23 and 16! kristine has really been connecting with these girls which is also a total answer to prayer. thank you all for all of your prayers!

indonesia

so we didnt realize we hadn't been able to send our last post that said where we are and what we are doing... so real quick... we are in indonesia now and working with a group called surfing the nations. you can check out their website to see what they are all about by clicking on the link on the right side of our blog. it is pretty funny that we are here in this surfing mecca place working with a surf organization and we don't surf! right before we left thailand to come here we started wondering if it was the best move because it wasn't going to be cheap and we aren't surfers! but then we were reminded about how we felt god calling us here for some reason. so here we are and man god has all ready been using us in a huge way! it has been amazing! wish we could share more right now but time is short. we will try to post more specifics soon!

Bingin

hey everyone! it's so nice to write. we have so many stories and pics and we've only been here for two days, but there is NO WIFI!! i know, i know, it's like, "come on people its 2010!" but seriously, that's how it is with a ton of things here in Indo. so i have to make this short cause internet is hard to find and when we do, it's expensive!! but indo is beautiful. matty's already been surfing once! waves are suppose to get big here, so not sure how that will look. def. out of my league. i was scared to go in just to jump waves cause they are MASSIVE. anyways... the group is smaller now. just ten of us in bingin and matty and i are definitely like the "ma and pa" of the group!! can you believe it? we feel soooooo old. but yeah, we are the oldest by like 8 years or something like that! we were both cracking up and can't believe we are in this situation. it's great though. like i said, so many stories that we can't wait to share with you. thank you for your continued prayers and support! we love you and will really get a chance to catch up in august once we leave indo. xoxo, k

game day on the land

we had a game day on the land that we got to put together for the kids... they had a blast! kristine was in her element running the thing like it was summer camp. lots of games and laughs!

picture of jesus

i was reminded of a song today by ben harper titled "picture of jesus." we were in the middle of a long leg of traveling driving on a bus through thailand with about maybe 100 other people… pretty much all foreigners. we have learned something about foreign travelers… they all smoke. well not all but probably about 90%.
so after a man goes in the toilet on the bus it begins to smell like smoke throughout the bus… pretty potent. so kristine and i put our shirts up over our nose and begin the stages of the normal second hand nicotine headache… naturally. after he comes back and an hour or so goes by he begins to get up again, cigarette in hand, to "use the restroom" again. right away someone jumps up behind us and taps the guy and says "i hope you aren't going in there to smoke." the guy plays dumb and and says he is just using the toilet. well what do you know it smells like smoke again once he goes in. so the guy behind us gets up and confronts him in the bathroom… not angrily but just gently reminds him that there are people on the bus that would rather not smell that and that it is a non smoking bus. the guy had his hands full because the smoker was being confrontational yet he just continued to stick up for the few. maybe it didn't even bother this guy but he saw us with our shirts and cared enough to go and fight the battle for us. he was a true picture of jesus to us that day.