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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Summer has begun!

The Mid-Columbia Group! 49 students, 5 leaders, 7 high-school!
Our Club (Connell/Kahlotus/Washtucna High School)
Mark & I - Formal Dinner - Mark had to pull out his Levi's suit.
Some of My girls on the giant swing. 30 - 35 feet high!
My Pink gang. Not planned at all. Some of my girls and a staff's daughter Taylor.
Pool Party! In your Clothes! At Night! Mark with some of our kids!
One of our kids on the Ridge Runners (Go Carts).
Marks and my kids, at the rock pile. Each rock in the pile represents every student who has accepted christ or re-dedicated their lives to Christ at Camp... this piles represent the past 10 years at WildHorse.

Well Summer definatly has begun, and hasn't slowed down since. Since school got out on June 7th for both Mark and I, we have packed up our home in Kahlotus, WA, said some goodbyes, and moved back to the farm in Idaho for the summer. But since moving there we have only spent two nights there. On June 14th, Mark and I and three other Young Life leaders packed up a tour bus and Marks pickup with luggage and 49 high school students from 7 high schools in the central Washington area!

After a 6 hour drive and one stop at McDonalds, we arrived to the beautiful land of Central Oregon and Antelope, OR which the home of Wildhorse Canyon - a Young life Resort! We spent a week with these students along with 650 other students and leaders from around the U.S. building relationships and hillarious memories! We couldnt have asked for a better week! The weather was perfect, 80's all week (it is usually in the high 90's to 100's). But besides the fact that we did go carting, ropes courses, zip lines, good food, mountain biking, and a large swing, we had some amazing talks with these students and many lives were changed, not only students, but leaders.
At the end of the week, James, the weeks speaker did an alter call at 7:30 in the morning. And that is early for high school students, especially in the summer, and on a lack of sleep. But to Marks and My surprise 9 of our students (we brought a total of 14 from our club) either accepted Christ or re-commited their lives to Christ! It was an amazing time! What a week well spent!

After getting home on Friday the 20th, Mark and I headed to Spokane, where we did loads of laundary, packed up again, got a good nights sleep, had lunch celebrating my brother Andy's 22nd birthday, and headed to Ross Point Baptist Camp. The Camp where we actually met in the 7th grade and started dating my senior year of high school. Mark and two of his close friends, along with his sister Suzanne, and I are leading Jr. High Camp. Suz is the director, i am the computer tech and Mark and his buddies are leading music. It is only Tuesday, so we have 3 days to go. But since we are dealing with jr. highers we are getting sleep, so this has been a good week =).

Only 37 days until we fly out to Saipan. We are actually flying to Seattle on July 29th and spending two days with mark sister, Julie. Hopefully our new niece will arrive on time so we can spend some time with her also (Julie and Rob are expecting their first little one on July 23rd).We then fly out of Seattle on July 31st to our new home.

Time is running short and we would love to see as many friends and family before we take off, so please get ahold of us if you can hang out! BBQ at the Sawyer farm is possibly a go for the 3rd weekend of July, but we will keep you posted!

Love you all!