The Beginning of July

You may (or may not) be wondering what we've been up to since this new month began.

We celebrated the 4th of July by hanging out with some friends from church and then watching some neighborhood fireworks. 

We've also been watching the summer visitors to our backyard. This hummingbird has made several appearances, and we get excited to see him (or her).

On Friday I flew from Portland to Billings, MT for a Compassion conference. The flight up to Seattle was beautiful and I was fortunate to be by the window.

Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens

Mt. Rainier

I was invited to speak at the conference - since my presentation is titled "Making Compassion Your Family Ministry", I had hoped my family could join me, but in the end it was just me who went.

The event was held at Harvest Church in Billings and the Compassion Mobile Experience was there! I think I was most excited about finally seeing this amazing exhibit. I had the opportunity to go through all three stories and I was not disappointed.

In case you don't know, this is a fairly new exhibit that travels to events around the country to spread the word about Compassion and child sponsorship. Two semi-trucks transform into an exhibit that features the story of three different children who were sponsored through Compassion. You choose a story to follow and are given a headset and ipod. You walk from room to room (replications of the child's home, family workplace, Compassion project and neighborhood) and listen to the story.

At the end of the story, you watch a little video on the ipod that shows more about where this child grew up. And you hear from the now grown-up child. Sometimes (but not this time), when you step into the impact room, you can meet Brinda (from India) or Julian (from Uganda).

It's quite effective in illustrating what sponsorship does. In fact, there is a warning on the tent outside...

I also got to meet Godfrey Miheso from Kenya. He was the featured Compassion grad who was speaking at this event and throughout the weekend. It is such a blessing to meet these people and hear their stories. To see them wanting to speak on behalf of the children still living in poverty in their country.

And I got to reconnect with some dear, dear friends. The woman in the middle is one of my favorite people. She lives in Rochester, MN, which is where I met her, and she has become such a dear friend. She is such an inspiration to me. I am so thankful for her friendship and mentorship and love our every other week phone calls. Juli, on the far right, is also a good friend who lives in Wyoming. She is an accomplished pianist and when we get together we like to play. So I took my violin along and we provided some instrumental worship music for the conference.

Saturday night we had an advocate dinner. Not too many advocates in Montana, but there were a couple who came. One man (not pictured below), drove from Omaha, NE for this. And Mallory and her 3 siblings drove up from Boulder, CO.

Sunday morning we were at the church for their two services. Half of us worked the table in the lobby of the church and the other half worked the mobile experience which was parked outside. It's always fun to watch a couple hundred kids get sponsored in one morning!

Sunday afternoon was our conference. We were targeting sponsors - how we could help them get the most out of their sponsorship. We talked about the importance of letter writing, praying for you child and child visits. (Jane has traveled to meet 25 of her sponsored kids over the years!!)


When the conference was over, we decided to get out of Dodge (or Billings) and drive to the mountains for dinner. So we were off to Red Lodge.

a big sky sunset

I flew home early this morning (Monday). I checked out my garden and found a couple of my cucumbers were ready, the zucchini were beginning to grow and my sunflowers are almost as tall as my youngest.

I was very tired and let the girls watch a movie while I napped. They made a "fort" to lay on top of....?

So that's what we've been up to. Or rather, what I've been up to!

Tomorrow I get to see a cousin I haven't seen for 8 years.....and I get to meet her husband and kids : )