REFELECTIONS

So we have our passports, we are working on our medical check-ups for the required over-seas-health insurance. Thank you for your continued prayer and we'll keep you updated.

I just recently recieved a very encouraging, and informative e-mail, from a friend at YWAM Perth. Nathan, an artist-missionary. In places where you cant just whip out the word 'God, Jesus, or prayer' he makes a comic book, written with a story a message they can understand. Isnt that amazing?

EDITED QUOTES:(country removed for protective reasons)

"I think a lot of ------ are missing out on life because they work. all of the time. One thing God showed me as I was in the capitol was the deep and fearful pain, many ------ carry within them of feeling alone. They have been told to believe there is no God, and not to question it. They've been told to believe money is the greatest goal. And they've come to realize the only way to reach that goal is to make things happen for themselves by working extremely hard. They have a hard time trusting others. They truly feel alone.

However, the Gospel is 100% relevant to this nation and therefore there's hope and we saw in one girl who worked at a hostel come to accept not just the existence of God but the goodness of his character and nature. She said it had a lot to do with the way we as a group lived and treated each other. how cool?!"

"I am now back in Perth, feeling re-energized and excited all over again to be working with a ministry like create where i am helping to produce materials that will help so many more people communicate the gospel
in places like ----- in a relevant way."

Oh and here is an example of a photo in New Mexico:

We felt very blessed to see these pictures, and I felt very encouraged because this gift from Dannette represented more than just pictures. God used her to bless us through ART! Thats my dream, thats my 'now'. I dont want to ever stop making and blessing people with this kinda stuff. Love -&Godblessyou- Dannette, Thanks again,

Steph and Matt

Santa Fe - Lasting thoughts

YWAM-Santa Fe Evaluation:

Matt and I went there asking God on a confirmation and direction. Sure the climate is amazing and the natives are nice -but is that a place where God wants us to be. ? Where God is calling us. I let Matt totally soak it all in and really didn’t ask for a straight answer about his thoughts until a week after we got home. We both left encouraged to “stay the course for our immediate next steps”, and Matt shared with me a new excitement he felt about getting involved with Youth With A Mission. Confirmed over and over again though is an overwhelming “reaffirming our vision for ministry”.
As for Santa Fe, and the YWAM base there. Only God knows. The people we did meet, and in catching up with Beth; we did get a chance to get refreshed and encouraged in the ’now’ of our walk. I can definitely say it would be a joy to get involved with them, but there is no definite word on when that would be or what that would look like.

Thank-You’s:
BETH
Allowing us to come all that way to ‘scout‘ and see Santa Fe, even if we didn’t build a house together. You showed us the most genuine YWAM Santa Fe experience, even if that meant you had a lot of work to do while we were there. Personally it was so much of a blessing just to spend time with you. We appreciate you, miss you, and are excited for all that God has for you and your to-be hubby.
KAREN
Thanks for the continued encouragement you’ve given Lizzy. She is a very gifted musician. Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to share about YWAM Santa Fe and the radical spiritual awakening that seems to be happening in the area. ‘Yarp’ing for you in China.
DANETTE
You are so gifted in photography, thank you for sharing that with us. It was great to chill with you again ya goof. I hope that we see each other again soon.
CHAD & MEAGAN
We only really got to spend a day together but it was nice. Beth was right, we did like you, and realized we a lot like you -or at least the creative and goofy parts. You are both so encouraging, and real. Oh and we listened to the sermon/teaching on CD, good stuff.

Santa Fe- Last Leg SAT, SUN, & MON

Day 4 Saturday.

Brief Highlights:
Drove up the mountain with Matt in Elizabeth’s borrowed car - Thanks again by the way. Good quality couple time for us. Twisting and winding roads led us to a view of the Rocky Mountain foot hills that reminded us of the Appalachian Mountains on our honeymoon over a year ago. Blue mountains in the far distance that reminded us of how creative God is, and how incredibly small we are.
Catching up with the fun n’ sweet Santa Fe native photographer, Dannette. She offered to do a couples shoot for us. I think partially for her portfolio, and partially for a friendly welcoming gift for us. Check SOME of ‘em out on her blog, she’s very good, and I had fun. http://danettechappellphotography.blogspot.com/

Day5 Sunday
5:40am
Our cell phone rings, and its Beth. She had left over an hour ago with Karen Lafferty, to take her to the airport. Karen was to be in China for 6 weeks, performing and touring as a musician. With the hustle and bustle of the very early morning, something was forgotten. Karen’s carry-on bags. I could hear the distress in Beth’s voice from my side of the bed. So Matt jumps out of bed “We have to be in the car Steph, right now.” Whaaa-whoo! We pulled out of the driveway in less than five minutes. Not knowing the area very well, Elizabeth navigated us road for road to the interstate. All I could think was “Welcome to YWAM”. I was loving the challenge and adrenaline rush. If you haven’t noticed, I take pride in the perseverance I have, especially when its needed. We traveled for twenty minutes when we got another call. They realized we weren’t gonna make it on time. All I can say is. . . I pouted as we retreated back to our bed. Liz said it wasn’t our fault, there wouldn’t have been enough time either way.

Other Happenings, and before we left:

• Went to Beth’s church. The pastor was very spanish, the worship leader was very gifted, and the congregation was maybe 60-70 people.
  
• We ended up inviting some 20 something’s that Beth knew from church hiking. Hiking- uphill. Out. . . uff. . . breath, high-er. . . uh. . . altitude,.. . less. . . air. I got quite a few pictures Ill have to share later. About 12 or so people went.
  
• Checked out the christian ‘camp’ grounds that YWAM-Santa Fe used for Musicians For Missions, and Training for the base.
  
• Family dinners. Stir-fry and Spaghetti , a whole sofa-load of people the last 2 nites. We all watched the Olympics over YWAM conversations about India customs, sociology of China and traveling. Oh I was at home, among those words. Chad and Meagan, Dannette, Matt and I, Virginia and
  
• We all got a chance to help Beth move all her stuff from a shared storage area to one of her own. She said it would of taken her all day by her self. She was ecstatic that it only took a couple of hours with some help.

DAY THREE

Day 3 Friday.

Friday, Lizzy had a lot of work to do for Karen, administrative duties, research, and tons of not so-fun clerical catch-ups. She felt bad, but it was no big deal.

Matt took a walk and we caught up with him and went to a lively bakery/coffee shop. Bright and colorful place (cant remember the name for the life of me), huge turnovers, decent coffee. It looked like a pretty happen’n place. Matt chose to entertain us by asking “guess which hand the ketchup bottle is in.” I guessed wrong 2 out of 3 times. The game was followed by another couple ‘happy birthday’ messages to Beths’ graduating-from-college-brother Mark. In this mish-mosh of happenings she showed us pictures of her recent Mission trip. Amazing what God can do in a 'closed-to-christian-communist country'. It was astounding and encouraging that God has a dynamic, purposefull, networked plan for his children. The church, no matter how humanly imperfect, no matter how widespread and diverse is at the tip of his fingers.

We ended up walkn’ around the square, er uh the marketplace for a while. Mostly turquoise stone wear and common Santa Fe symbols wrapped into a ’tourist package’; howling desert coyotes, cactuses, and chilies. There was a demonstration on the lawn over the issue of Tibet vs. China, with grotesque banners and pictures of what looked like war timely because the Olympics in Beijing was to start today. Tibet has wanted for a great while to be independent from China, and there have been protests and marches against the communist nation. Many Tibetans have been killed maliciously and it doesn’t look like their freedom is going to be any time soon. In short the Chinese Olympics are being boycotted by people and groups because of the issue.

Hmm. Not by us. We picked up some pizza’s for the oven and tossed salad- and in front of the opening ceremony we went. It was a 'limited-captivating'. I say limited because to see a 360 degree performance in a flat 24 inch TV really limits your absolute attention. Before it was all officially begun, half of the house went to bed. The one-on-one time got Elizabeth and I talking. It seems Ive gotten to know her, in her world, on this trip. Life unpredictable, private and professional priorities jumping over board and switching places regularly, digging up strength to trust God for every step. Some how we got stuck on the ‘loneliness factor’, which apparently can take a big toll on one so far away from home. It was a good talk, and turned out to be a good venting time for both of us.

Santa Fe -catching our breath DAY TWO

Day 2 Thursday
The land out here is dry, arid, and minus the red earth- reminds me of the Australia desert I saw in NSW. All of the buildings here though are Adobe or Spanish style. It makes you feel like your somewhere else. Somewhere unrelated to (what I know) as the United States. A constant sea of textures in browns and tans with flecks of vibrant teal, purple, and red-orange doors, lampposts, and fences.
Today Beth took us to a little area of gallery’s called Canyon Road. Beautiful place. Blocks and blocks of Adobe and Spanish style houses; that have flourishing flower boxes, rock gardens, and little signs outside with the style of art, or artists work they display inside. Each house was easily converted into a gallery of displays, mostly fine art in southwestern style, giving respects to the Spanish, Mexican, Native American, and Cowboy influences here. Contrasts of colors, and patterns from the modern to the classic all over every one. Some places had paintings, some sculptures- actually many had bronze sculptures- some had installations. Actually Liz took us into this neat little gallery with the captivating art of a friend of hers, Randall Hasson. I encourage you to look him up, all the words I would use to describe his calligraphy paintings would not do the pieces justice. (www.randallmhasson.com)
Then it was on to eat- we had worked up an appetite. “Let me show you guys what genuine Mexican food really tastes like.” To Tomisita’s we go. We were led to a round wooden table clustered in the middle of a long, tall-ceiling’d room, among business and family patrons alike. Dried red chilies adorned the tan terracotta walls in long strings quite like bananas on a tree. If you know what that looks like. I don’t know- look it up. . . I trying to sound like I know what Im talking about- please just go with it. But the food, was amazing. We had Sopipias’, Mmmm with chicken and red and green sauce. A Sopipia is a delicious pocket of thin soft dough that can be stuffed or eaten alone. On the plate it was arranged with lettuce and salsa, drenched with the sauce. Beth ordered it as ‘Christmas’ because you can have green sauce, red sauce, or both. All you need to know is that it was just spicy enough, the chicken was tender and juicy, and it was GOOD! Oh- and our waitress also brought empty sopipias’ which, as Beth showed us, we drenched in honey found readily available on the table. Great to be with friends, like a long lost experience.
Matt, being the gentleman he is, figured Liz and I wanted some girl time. “All I want is to eventually hike up a mountain” he said, “So we dropped him off back at the base and I guess he went back and took a nap. Understandable, noting that the altitude here is 7,000 above sea level, all I know is that is a lot higher than home. Its wonderful for the weather, but can reduce the amount of oxygen in the air, potentially inducing tiredness to non-locals. So, we were off to a good o’ time. . . Actually we just ran some errands, picked up some magazines at the bookstore, discussed creative ideas about decorating. Elizabeth is so fun to talk to about those kind of things, because she has deliberately picked up on so many details she has seen in her travels around the world.
By this time its getting late. So we crowded around the TV and watched the news and worked on our computers. ‘Ding-dong’, a sound came from Elizabeth’s computer. Skype, a free communication program on her computer was calling. On the other side of that ring, a friend from Alaska and a mutual friend Canada. Two separate places, and with a computer camera, its like the doorbell just rang and your friends are right there. It was nice to catch up. It was a great way to end the night.

Santa Fe dry and fruitful - DAY ONE

Day1
Im writing the first morning after we arrived here in Santa Fe. Getting over the little amount of Jet-lag we have encountered, we are up bright and early. 8:30 here in this wonderfully dry desert, is 10:30 at home in good-ol green Pennsyltucky.
So yesterday- (you gotta hear this) we got up at my moms house, because she accepted the position as airport-driver and requested that we spend the night. We, or should I say I, was under the impression that our itinerary said Matt and I had to board the plane at eight. Right as we are going out the door, at 4am, Matt ’so conveniently’ discovered it said six. Now I have to inform you that having flown a few times before I knew that we had to be at the airport 2hours early because of the security changes that have been made- influenced by the events of September 11, 2001. I was just praying if it was to happen that we were to be on that plane, and that for some reason or another those fun little security changes would be a little shorter than usual. Shorter buy at least the 2 hours suggested you be there. We arrived at the terminal just as the plane was boarding. Some call it fate, some call it coincidence - I call that kind of miracle God. We made it!
I think getting on that plane meant soo much to Matt. It represented, growth, goals, and God working in our lives to get us to this point. I could see it on his face as we waited at our lay-over in Minneapolis, a content and quiet joy. We arrived in Albuquerque safe and sound, a little queasy, but content to have traveled together as couple. Elizabeth met us at the airport with hugs and a beautiful wide grin. On the way to the YWAM base she pointed out the names of distant mountains and we ended up stopping at this quaint, brightly colored, genuine 50’s vintage diner called the Route66 Diner. It was clean lined, adorned in pink, teal, chrome and black n’ white checkers. We excitedly caught each other up on life and happenings over sandwiches and great milkshakes!
We got to the ‘base’, otherwise known as Karen Lafferty’s house, the leader of the ‘base‘. Dropped our bags and met its current residents. An older mother and daughter duo, Virginia and Karen. Sweet ladies with lots of joy and wisdom. And Karen Lafferty also an older lady, (I‘ll share more about her later). Oh and when I say older I mean beyond our parents age, attempting to season my words with salt but give you an understanding of how it all comes off. Apparently we just missed a few others that usually work here, but conveniently so- because it left an empty bed.
Matt and I had dinner at Applebee’s with Beth and Karen Lafferty. We discussed our experiences in YWAM, and visions and goals about our future. Good conversation. It amazed me about how united and networked Youth With A Mission is. Karen, who has been part of YWAM for decades now, knew almost every leader I have ever met or heard of - all over the globe mind you. Karen came across very versed and professional, while encouraging and cautious with her words. This has been very good for Matt and I because we have been praying and asking God if getting involved with this base is in our future. As right now we are waiting on a direct word that we can stand on from the Lord.