We talked with our families via phone & skype. And missed being with all of them. But this has been a full year for us (traveling-wise) & having just moved a few weeks ago, it has been nice to have a few very quiet days at home (and at work.)

It has been hard for me to get into the Christmas spirit this year, I think because of all the craziness of the last month. But we did do a few things to get all holly & jolly…

• We went to see the 91st presentation of Handel’s Messiah by the Lutheran churches here in town. It’s a small presentation, but we always really enjoy the simple simplicity of it.
  
• We made & decorated Christmas cookies with our small group & gave them to our neighbors. (We also ate some of them ourselves.)
  
•  We continued our tradition of getting our Christmas trees with our friends the Burrys. Love those Wilkinsons!

• We went downtown to go ice skating with some friends from our small group. There’s a really big tree down there. Really big.
  
  
• And today after church we came home & made aebleskivers for lunch. They aren’t something we make very often, so it’s always a fun treat.
  
  

Merry Christmas!

“Thirty was so strange for me. I’ve really had to come to terms with the fact that I am now a walking and talking adult.”  -C. S. Lewis

I’m thirty one years old & still have thoughts as I’m driving around like, “Whoa. Someone gave me a license & put me behind the wheel of a car. What were they thinking?” I have the same thoughts every now & then at work. Do they realize that they just gave responsibility for running a Day Camp/retreat/Silent Auction Fundraiser to this girl? Yikes.

{Am I alone here? Anyone else have crazy moments like this?}

I had one of those moments (well, several really) last weekend. I flew “back home” for a college friend’s wedding. I mean, suddenly I found myself wandering through the airport like a pro, navigating security, finding my gate, finding coffee, boarding the plane-all like it was just no big deal. Just something I’ve done dozens of times before. Crazy.

And the wedding. *sigh*

It was wonderful. It was so fun to see a close friend literally bounce down the aisle to meet her groom. And then float back down the aisle arm in arm with him.

I also got the chance to spend a few hours at my parent’s house & be entertained by their 2 new {adorable} kittens. And I got to spend some good time with my best friend. Always good to see Laura!

Things that have been occupying my mind lately:

- I think the foreign languages filling the air around me have been muted by my head, because I don’t notice them as much anymore.

- I wish I knew some German.

- Is walking around on my foot going to make what I think is a stress fracture even worse?

- How do I stand in places like this one and fully appreciate where I am and what I am seeing?

I have been taking a lot of video, and not so many pictures…but here are a few. You will mostly have to leave the descriptions up to your imagination…I need to go to bed.

Getting water…

A village….

Riding around town. This particular driver will show up again in a later post if we get to it. But until then…Greg, he sends his greetings to you and your family, as does his brother.

Working on a well. There is something really important going on in this picture…but its hard to see. Can you find it?

This one is for Greg…

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/READ-THIS-CAUSE-ITS-AN-AWESOME-SUMMER-UPDATE-.html?soid=1102685099000&aid=RLiBYN1daCs.

We are now only $500 short of being halfway funded for our trip! We have been given about $3000 & are almost halfway to our goal of $7000!

We feel that it is an honor that we are able to take this trip & are so excited to see what God has to show us in Africa. We leave in exactly 5 weeks! Between now & then we have some important things to do like:

1. finish raising the other $4000 (want to help us do that? We would love to talk to you about this. Just send us an email at: bethmariewest[at]gmail[dot]com)
2. get our Yellow Fever shots
3. find Ben some new shorts (b/c he is down to just one functional pair!)
4. continue to meet almost weekly with our team to learn about cultural things we need to be aware of & know what to pack, etc.
5. keep breaking in my new hats (gotta keep that sun off my skin!)

Lets see…where to start. I guess that if you want to summarize life right now it would be “without margin.” There are phases of life when you have extra time, extra money, extra capacity, and extra emotion…you have margin to absorb the unexpected.  And sometimes you don’t. Right now is a don’t time. Between lots of projects, some car troubles (anybody have a standard transmission for a 2000 outback they want to throw our way? or a new engine…that would be nice to), lots of work, getting ready for our big trip this summer,  and lots of busyness I have to say we are stretched thin.

If I’m honest times like now are when I am tempted to wish we had stayed at NLR…for various reasons life is simpler by far at camp. But, I know God has us on a path that calls for thin times, we just have to be wise in navigating those times, which I hope we are doing.

The big thing going on right now for me (Ben is writing this…) is that i have been doing a lot more freelance work. A year or so ago when we finished the CML Beth and I talked a lot about me taking on more freelance work, with the idea that eventually that is all I would do, perhaps even with some people working for me as a small company. So, while working part time at the church I put up a website and started working on projects for people.   I have been staying as busy as I want to with all sorts of projects, which has been really fun. So, this week I am taking the next step on that journey. Staring this week I will be working even less at the church so I can do more design and video work. In a lot of ways this is scary…it means that I have to go out and find work, it means that we wont have steady income (remember the margins thing….), it means that I have to be disciplined with my time, and I have to push myself to sell what I do. There are a lot of challenges to all of this! But, in the end I believe God has given me a set of gifts and talents that will let can let me help non-profits, camps, ministries, and small businesses be more effective. So, we are diving in. I blog about this stuff sometimes on my other blog www.poolhousered.com if you want to know more about what I am doing.

The other big thing besides church stuff we are still involved in is CQMissional. CQMissional is the non-profit that set up or internship at Garnett and ran the CML that we were part of. The actual programs the CQMissional runs now are different, but it is still working in Tulsa to help people learn how to work to make the world better. Beth is very involved in the day to day work of CQMissional doing a lot of admin and coordination for the programs, as well as the basic ground work that it takes to start a new non-profit.

That seems like enough life update for now…

And I gave 3 hugs.

I also got to spend a few days with my best friend, Laura. We celebrated her birthday on Good Friday with a tornado in St. Louis.

And I also got to see my folks for Easter. Here’s mom making blueberry muffins. (But I didn’t get any pictures of Dad!)

We have been feeling the tug to visit Uganda for awhile now. Since we moved to Tulsa, actually. Remember this?

From our pastor here at Garnett who lived there for 8 years, to the Perspectives course, to other friends that are living in Uganda now. You know how something like this just keeps coming up in conversations & connections all around you? Well, that’s what Uganda has been for us.

We’ll be traveling with a ministry called Kibo. (www.kibogroup.org) We both feel that Kibo has done some amazing work in Uganda, and that they’ve been doing it the “right” way. (Sustainable work that empowers Ugandans to take over roles in the ministry, so that they can bring about change in their own country.) One of the things that most impresses us with Kibo is the way they have been involved in ministry with the intent to really involve Ugandans all along. And now, almost 15 years later, it is working! Almost all of their work is being handled by Ugandans now, with minimal involvement by the Americans. We are excited to be able to go & reconnect with people we’ve met that have visited the states recently, and also meet some new people. To see another way of life-very different than ours here…and to see God’s work in the lives of these beautiful people.

We’d appreciate your prayers as we make plans for this trip… dates, travel arrangements, things to see & experience while we’re there. We will do several posts in the coming days about our plans, how you can support us financially (plain tickets are expensive!), and what we will be doing. Thanks for being part of our lives!

I thought I’d share a few pictures from our life recently.

This shows two things I’m loving right now. (And honestly, I have been for awhile now.) Topeca coffee and Tulsa.

I’ve been spending every spare moment (of which there are not very many) finding new supplies for my cards & increasing my inventory. Leah & I are vendors at the Dogwood Festival this year! Also, a good friend of ours is opening up a retail store in Fayetteville called “The Moustache Goods & Wares“. And he wants to sell my cards there! More details on this fun opportunity soon. For now, a few treasures I recently rescued from the dusty shelves of a thrift store.

Anyone recognize this? It should be familiar to some of you. It’s a carabiner that we gave away as the favors at our wedding…almost 8 years ago! I’ve been using it on my key ring since then, and was really sad when it broke a few weeks ago. Thankfully we still have a few left! (Now I’m sporting a green one.)

I apparently have this thing for old, funky green chairs. You can’t really see the green color of this one by this picture, but you can see the awesome flower pattern. (I rescued this beauty from Wagon Inn before it was torn down!)

And this is one of my “to-do” lists. (I have several.) This one is on one of those really large pieces of memo board paper that you can stick on your wall-like a really HUGE post-it note. I get great satisfaction from taking the thick sharpie & marking things off the list.

So there are a few snapshots for you of life around here lately. Things are ridiculously busy…but really good.