Have you heard about this? Garnett is going to be a host site for this FREE online conference this year. I’m so excited!

Want to join us? Just send me an email or give me a call!

About 10 months ago we moved to Tulsa to work at a new church, live in a new place, meet new people, and see what God has for us as participants in the Certificate in Missional Leadership program. You might remember that the program lasts 10 months…which means we are done. Its been a good 10 months, we have learned a lot, experienced some new things, met new people, seen different ways of doing ministry, and grown in our understanding of ourselves.

It’s kind of hard to sum up 10 months into an email, so we are not really going to try. We do want you to get an idea of what we have been doing though, so we each did a little project that tries to capture a bit of what we have been up to. Beth’s project is a pdf that you can download. Ben’s is a video which can be found here: http://vimeo.com/13713546. The video is about 30 minutes long…be warned!  If you want to get a good idea of what the last 10 months have been like for us these are a great way to find out…or, stop by sometime, we would be glad to take you out to coffee and talk about it.

The big question we have been asked a lot recently is “what’s next?” For now we will be staying in Tulsa. We will both continue to work part time at Garnett Church of Christ. Although at the beginning we were a bit unsure of what our time with Garnett would look like, and even wondered if we’d enjoy worshipping there on Sundays-we are excited to stay involved. We have been blessed by Garnett & were welcomed in right away as members of their family. Beth will also be working for Chris King doing administrative work for CQ Missional. She will be focused on a program called GPS Tulsa (http://www.cqmissional.com/gpstulsa/). Ben will be doing a couple of things, including freelance graphic design and working for Challenge Quest (the “CQ” part of CQ Missional) on their new zip line canopy tour at the Buffalo River in Arkansas (http://www.buffaloriver.com/blog/default.aspx?id=136). For now that’s the next chapter.

We really do want to thank you for the support you have given us over the last year. Your financial support, prayers and encouragement have been a huge blessing to us. We are very thankful for all of the people who are a part of our lives, and are honored to count you among our community.

We are excited about the adventures to come, we will continue to blog at www.benandbethwest.com, and we might send out occasional emails. We would love to keep talking with you!

Thanks again for your involvement in our lives! We will keep you up to date as we continue to work here in Tulsa, or wherever God takes us.

Ben and Beth

We spent the last week of August with some incredible people, in some incredible places.

We had the opportunity to go with a handful of the youth at Garnett to visit Dry Bones Denver. We got to experience the mountains in a whole new way this time around. {And yes, we still left saying, “Why don’t we live here already???”}

The first part of the week was spent backpacking around Arapaho National Forest [Englemann Peak 13,362 feet]. We hiked in on the first day & camped, hiked a little farther the second day & set up camp, summitted the peak the third day and hiked all the way back down the fourth day. It was wonderful to be in such a beautiful place-surrounded by mountain peaks.

And the second part of the trip we spent in downtown Denver. Dry Bones is a pretty unique ministry. They focus on befriending the street kids [homeless youth-ages 12-30ish] of Denver. They provide some meals, and can help people find things they need [a backpack, a sleeping bag, an ID, an apartment, etc.] but that isn’t their focus. Their focus is to befriend the street kids [what they call themselves] & let them know that they are there for them. Part of our time was spent bowling with them, and taking them to a movie. Giving them some opportunities to experience “normal life” for a little bit.

It was a blessing to be around the Dry Bones staff & to see them simply walking around the downtown area & giving the street kids a look in the eye, a smile, and the time of day. And a challenge for us to find ways to interact & love the people we see on the streets each day.

Here are some pictures from our week. We didn’t take many pictures of our time downtown-partly because we were “on the go” the whole time, and partly because we wanted to be sensitive to those who may not want their pictures taken. But if you visit the Dry Bones website you’ll see some of the same faces we saw & will be able to read about (or watch) some of their stories.

With our packs on Day 1:

At the top of Engelmann Peak:

Ben in his element (mountains):

Beth in her element (mountains + french press coffee):

The whole gang:

I celebrated a milestone yesterday. 30 years old.

I sort of freaked out about turning 25. {because 25 is practically 30-or at least that’s what I told myself.} It just feels like the expectation to be more adult-like is there now that my age starts with a “3″.

But I’ve been blessed with 30 really great years-and that is a reason to celebrate. {not freak out.}

And so-that’s what I did!

I bought a fun new dress {thanks to the fabulous Laura}, enjoyed a lazy day at home with Ben, got a haircut & shared hobos for dinner w/ some of our new friends. {complete with chocolate cake baked inside hollowed out oranges-YUM!} And there’s more celebrating to be done! {I’m all for extending the birthday celebrations as long as possible…} 

These 2 news stories are unrelated, but I heard both of them this week & found them pretty interesting (to say the least).  What do you think?

1) Pea Lung?  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129155683

2) Gulf Caravan http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129158245

The first one just has some shock value. But the second one I just really love. A unique idea & a way to not only help practically (investing in the economy in the gulf) but also to invest in people’s spirits. To give them a good sales day probably means more to them than most of us can imagine.