past the backwoods

Here are pictures of just a few of our outdoor adventures past our own back woods. I love how Ian is always trying so hard to follow Luke and Levi. I was always yelling to not go too far and clicking away...not wanting to forget the time when Ian couldn't catch up.   (Or that once I got to pick the adventures we went on).   I wonder what the Basque back woods and wilderness will look like with my boys in the foreground?

A walk in the woods.

"Always in the big woods when you leave familiar ground and step off alone into a new place, there will be, along with the feelings of curiosity and excitement, a little nagging of dread. It is the ancient fear of the unknown, and is the first bond of the wilderness you are going into."  -Wendell Berry 
  
     "Why do you like being in the woods alone so much?"  I know I ask Luke way too many questions. Thankfully, his love for me helps him tolerate them and sometimes he even answers them with great depth and a hint of warmth.  like this time; "It is where I feel the most like I am really a part of it, God's creation, it is quiet and I am me."  He often asks to go in the woods behind our house alone.  Happy, singing, talking, digging, crouching, walking and pausing every few steps.  

Levi on the other hand has only ever gone into the woods alone to cry.  Levi is a full two years younger at age 7 and is bursting with life and emotion.  He asks to go when his cheeks are already flushed and eyes are brimmed.  He comes home cheeks still pink and clear eyed; back to my eternal enthusiast.  Right now even Ian, age 2, feels at home in the woods.  He will set out on a path made by Luke and not look back until I can only make out a dash of color through the leaves.  The woods to my boys have become a safe place.  They know the boundaries and seasons.  We collect and create and display inside what we find out there.  The woods in our backyard brings the wilderness into safe exploration, complete solitude with the Creator.
     

The boundary the boys cannot go past is the fallen log, the big one you have to straddle to get over.  Once they get past that they can't hear my voice when I yell for them or be seen by me craning my neck standing on the picnic table.  The wilderness is different than the back woods.  It is unknown, unexplored.  I think God calls us into the wilderness and not just the back woods.  He calls us to what feels unsafe or unknown, past the boundaries we have set.  I love Wendell Berry's writings.  Not just because we share a birthday or because he was an amazing poet,farmer, and naturalist.  He understood the relationship that God intended man to have with nature and all that relationship would teach us.  We have felt all the emotions he has described.  We are about to climb over a big boundary we didn't think we would.  But the One who created the known back woods and the unknown wilderness is leading us.  

I am now beginning to call the move to Basque "The next BIG adventure."  The perspective being shifted from having to leave what we love and what is safe, to being able to go into new experiences and relationships that will stretch the pegs of our hearts and minds bigger.  Ah, I would love a heart and mind stretched out by God. I hope you get to take a walk in the woods this week.  That you get to be surrounded by trees and not people.  And that you get to cry, sing, pause, explore God's creation past a safe boundary.  

"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you." 

Psalm 32:8  

Here goes...

"You cannot look good and learn something new at the same time.  You have to pick one."  an Unknown but wise person

     This is Becca this time, and many times to come.  I just accidentally uploaded this picture instead of a really cute one of Ian.  I am keeping it up because this is exactly the season I have walked through.  Luke put this sign on his bike during a recent adventure.  We don't own a bike lock and we are known to park our bikes and explore off the bike path to discover something new.  Luke was hoping this note would keep it safe and it worked!  If I could give you a snapshot of me in the last three months it would be of me frantically scribbling out do not touch notes. I never wrote that note but each morning it was a choice of trusting God with what He has given and what He has every right to take away.  You do not realize the temptation to plaster every loved one and item with this note until you realize how little control you have over most of it.  Trusting a good God/Father is always the right answer and not always the easiest.
     Since the last post we have gone through more sickness than ever thought possible.  We have  had antibiotics, nebulizer treatments, surgery, gross drinks and pills, and in the end a lot more family time.  Much of the bigger incidents stalled fundraising start up and made us question if we can do life an ocean away and in a different language. In August we dreamed and planned for our last ministry year (year 10!!) here in Culpeper, and I started planning my art curriculum for eager students and new opportunities.  As we decided to move forward and send out the first letters it was quickly realized that Jeff could not pull back from ministry to do the bulk of the fundraising. I quickly realized I was the one who did have the flexibility to pull back from ministry and teaching art.  September and October has taught me a lot.  Mainly the quote I started this post with, and that the note does not have to be written if you trust the one who does the giving and taking.  We are currently at 13% raised of the three years of pledges needed before we leave.  We have so much more to go.  It seems to be inching forward with every mailing, call, and visit.  I have been humbled by people giving in grace and love.  I have been humbled by my often whiny complaints of being a type B person doing a type A job.  The most painful blessing is getting to see it is not about me or the percentage raised.  It is about believing God will use what we give Him daily to change hearts and lives here in Culpeper and eventually in Basque.
     On the way to school we are listing what we are thankful for. Today Luke's was for God designing scavengers and everything that helps decompose dead stuff (hmmm) and Levi's was that He gave us words we can understand and use.  We thinks Ian's was trains, that is what he yelled when Luke asked.  Mine was for relationships, the healthy ones and the hard ones.  Thank you for all the prayers and encouragement.  This journey would be a lonely one without you guys.

"In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength..."  Isaiah 30:15

Praying that our family and yours can receive this instead of writing DO NOT TOUCH notes this week:)

Nationals game

Trying to get up and running with blog stuff again.  This picture is a good metaphor for life right now.  A week ago I got a call from a dear friend at 10am saying she had 4 free tickets to the Nationals game... which started at 1pm.  So Becca and I made a LOT of phone calls, and changed plans for the day... and made it happen.  We discovered that traffic is not so bad when you don't arrive until the 6th inning.  Incredible experience.  We got to see Zimmermann hit a home run. We even got to take one of our best friends, Will Orr, who is a little bit like a celebrity.  Cant believe that at 9:45, I was working through big "important" to do list, and ended up here instead.

So the metaphor.
We are absolutely rich in gospel, in grace, in friendships.  That is all that matters.  2Cor 8:9

Though I daily have a "to do list" it is not nearly as cool as the Lord's plans.

Madrid adventure

What an adventure in Madrid today... Our last day in Spain. Becca and i struck out on our own. Riding metros and trains, seeing sites, street vendors, finding the only Starbucks. Tried to order a big coffee, ended up with a mini coffee.

Tons of thoughts and processing and praying...

...and Becca bought a burro.

Meetings!

Today we meet Kevin Darnell who is in San Sebastian working with imb. A true heart for the Lord and the Basque people. We met with Brock working with susa (summer in the usa) who explained his journey moving his family (wife and 3 children) to san sebastian in august of last year. He was a tremendous resource in terms of schooling options. His children are enrolled in a british school that teaches 1 third of the day in english, one third in spanish, and one third in Basque. Its subsidized private and costs 350 euros per month per child... A bit more manageable than we previously thought... Got another tour (this time with more of an emphasis on neighborhoods) from Chris Probasco, who works w Susa. He also let us sit in on a "intercombio" with a wonderful basque man who was fluent in English Spanish and euskara. Loved hearing about his childhood growing up in Basque county...
Lunch with the mcnamees in Hondarriba looking across the river to France was wonderful. Pictured is my opening course for lunch and a catholic church there. Looking forward to dinner tonight with a bunch more folks...

Continue to pray for favor and kingdom vision!

San Sebastian

San Sebastian is beautiful!