Singles Weekend

This past weekend we had our X-Track Singles Retreat. I took some time on a hike in the mountains to give you an update on what has been going on as well as give you a sight of the beautiful Rockies!

High Ropes, Low Ropes, No Ropes.

I cannot believe how fast my X-Track classes are flying by; sorry for being blog absent for a week!

This past week has been fun, our classes have ranged from learning about the affects of living overseas on kids to figuring out how to avoid health problems and my one to on language learning!

Language learning has been interesting; being the only beginner Italian speaker I've been having one to one tuition from my friend Nicole who has lived in Florence for the past 7 years! It's been great fun, everyone is saying I have picked up lots of things very fast which is nice of them although I feel like some of my knowledge is pretty abstract. My current favourite phrase is "il coccodrillo sta mangiando Matt Mikalatos" Matt is the director of the conference, I'll let you figure out what I'm saying! Here to the right are those of us who will be in Italy, left to right are Nicole (Florence), Amy (Rome), Cassie & Matt (Florence) and Lauren and I.

We have also been busy doing community service every Wednesday to help us develop our team work and serving; it has been really fun (much to my surprise). The first week I visited an old lady and helped work in her garden and last week I went up into the prairie (left) and ripped ouot barb wire fencing for the city! Apparently antelope like to go underneath fences so we weree pulling out the bottom two rows of wire on the fences to give them space. It was blazing hot but a great time to connect with people and see wildlife like prairie dogs, antelope, mountain goats and even rattlesnakes!

I'm sure you're curious about the obscure title to this post. Yesterday we headed up into the Rocky Mountain National Park to do some team building exercises. Initially we had been told it was a high ropes course and last week an email told us it was in fact a low ropes course. When we finally got there there were no ropes and in many ways it was quite a disappointing time beyond the beautiful scenary and good relational bonding. Here is an example of how beautiful it is up in the mountains!

Tomorrow night those of us from Western Europe are hosting "A Taste of Western Europe" with foods from the different countries; I'll be making bangers and mash...I hope it represents British food in a glorious light even if I'm not Gordon Ramsey!

At the end of this week I'll be heading off into the mountains again for the X-Track singles weekend! I have no idea what it'll be like but we are staying for a couple of nights in Breckenridge (where I skiied back in the winter of 2006!) I don't know what to expect but it should be fun with over 30 singles (and even some of the married couples without kids are joining us the second day!)

I hope all is well with you, life is moving fast out here but the Lord is good and is teaching me great things!

Weekend's off...

We get weekend's off. This past weekend was relaxing and a good chance to wind down from the first week of sessions. I spent most of the time hanging out with friends, sitting by the pool and doing homework (mainly on cluture funnily enough!)

Saturday was my roommate Derek's birthday so we had a bit of a party...his girlfriend even flew in early from Wisconsin and surprised him!

Sunday we had the opportunity to go to an ethnic church or denomination we don't normally attend so as to do a cultural review of what it was like. With going to Italy I went to a Roman Catholic Church which was a very different experience. I learnt a number of things, many of which challenged my thinking and made me a little sad but it was still a good experience. The most difficult thing was experiencing an infant baptism in which the Priest said "this baptism absolves Delia May of her original sin." Hearing things that didn't line up with scripture like that was sad.

Now we're back at it for our second week of classes; the schedule is great as we are finished at lunch time each day (8.30am - 12.30pm) so lot's of time to enjoy being with people and seeking the Lord in the sunshine! I say sunshine, but it's not all glorious; today we had a huge mountain storm with hail the size of bullets that flooded most of the streets!

At the end of our sessions today I shared about Sam Riddall's death with all the X-Track participants so that we could pray for Martin, Rachel, Jake, Tom and Josh. Tomorrow (June 16th) would have been Sam's 12th birthday so is an extra significant day in the grieving process. Many of us are taking tomorrow as a day to pray for the Riddall's as they continue to deal with their loss. Would you join us?

The grand video tour...

Welcome to Rams Pointe Apartments, Fort Collins, CO. Allow me to show you around!

On the road again...

Well I have finally landed for the next 6 weeks in Fort Collins, Colorado after a hectic but enjoyable few days with Lauren's family and then travelling out from Minnesota to Colorado.

I had a really easy flight, Birmingham to Amsterdam to Minneapolis, we even got in early. Sadly that time was lost after I got detained in passport control for an extra half hour to be asked the same set of questions a second time and then let into the country. That's never happened to me before, very odd!

I spent a few days in Wanamingo, MN with Lauren's mum's family. That side of the family farm so it was great to meet her grandfather, aunt, uncle, cousins, etc. and enjoy some of the countryside...it took me back to my early childhood on my own grandparents farm!!










Having left we drove 5 hours to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to visit my friends Neil and Jenny Downey who work with CruPress, Campus Crusade's publishing department and stay overnight; it was so great to see them and spend some time there for the evening before getting up early and heading on.

The drive to Fort Collins took us through South Dakota, Wyoming and into Colorado so we decided to make the most of it. First we took a detour from the highway into the Badlands National Park to see the amazing rock formations, it was an incredibly beautiful scenic drive! Next up we stopped at Mount Rushmore to see the heads of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln carved into the cliff. Sadly, despite lots of fervent praying as we climbed up into the mountains into bad weather, we couldn't see a thing because of dense mountain fog...this picture is the best we got, I think that's the shape of Washington's head in the bottom left corner but I can't be sure! The other picture is what we should have seen. I really was gutted! Thankfully a short drive down the mountain did get us a glimpse of Crazy Horse, the giant cliff carving being done to commemorate the native American Indian's heritage, there is still a lot to do but it's going to be HUGE and was good to see.

After some more beautiful driving through God's natural beauty we arrived in Fort Collins; the drive that day from Sioux Falls ended up being about 13 hours including stops and scenic detours!

So now it's down to work. It's been great to connect with a few old friends and make some new ones as well as start the overseas ministry training, our schedule is pretty good and not too packed so I'm excited to see what God has planned for these next 6 weeks!

Next up will be a video tour of my apartment and the surrounding complex to help you get acclimatised for our summer!

I promised...

...and now I deliver!

Yes, this is really me, blogging, no really it is honestly. I know it's been a while, I have no excuse but as I said in my prayer letter being in Colorado for 6 weeks means I need to be keeping you up to date more readily so here I am back in blog world.

My 6 weeks of life are packed into luggage and I'm all set to depart Birmingham on NW8750 to Amsterdam at 9.40am before connecting on my flight to Minneapolis to get my summer of international cross cultural training started! Please pray for safe travel for me as I go, it's obviously disconcerting to see the tragic events of the lost Air France plane two days before.

I'm excited and raring to get going...thanks for being on this journey (and all the others) with me!