All in one short night.

Friday...the snow began to fall.

I had a couple extra hours in the afternoon so instead of waiting until 5 to have dinner with my friend Heather, we grabbed an early one while my laundry finished. I wanted to get up the mountain before it got to late. 

The flurries stopped..not much on the ground down here, only an inch or so at Eaglerock..should be fine. 

About 5 miles up the mountain the fog was so intensely think I switched the car to first gear and crept along the mountain, curve after curve. Slow going. Slow and steady. Every so often I pulled over to let other cars pass. 

"God, please please let the worst of the curves be clear of fog." Up ahead I knew there was a set of curves that slowly wind back down a bit. Thankfully- ANSWERED PRAYER! The curves were clear. Still winding slowly as it flattened out and then when up hill, I came up to several stopped cars. I thought..Oh no, what is going on, please don't let it be an accident. 2 cars were off to the side of the road and I had to stop completely- on a sheet of sheer ice..the fog was freezing to the road. A little snow along the edges but that was not so bad. Why were they stopped? Across the road ahead of me was a van..turned completely sideways. Oh no, it

 looks like one of ours. Praying and sitting there i watched as a large red truck pulled the van-straightening it out. 

Could I inch forward? Spin, spin, spin. oh no, I'm stuck here on the mountain, I have no service. Those are people I know!!! What is going on?! One of the cars off to the side must be 4 wheel drive, it gets going again. The other attempts to turn around..sliding across the road in front of me, it winds up facing down hill. I'm still stuck. Lights are coming up behind me..where are my flashers...WHY doesn't the car have interior lights?! (Not driving my own car- a base vehicle that currently has MUCH better tires than my own..) Finally with the use of my phone i find the flashers. A jeep is pulled up right behind me. I'm crying, God help me get out of here. Thank you for getting me here safely so far. I realized the jeep had pulled up so far I couldn't let my foot off the break and I couldn't go forward. A snow plow came and went around us, between me and the car facing down hill. The jeep creeps around me on the right, and I slid over to the freshly graveled path and catch the tires. YES..I can move!!! 

Around the bend I see the maroon van, it's been pulled off to the side, who is it? Several of the girls, my friend Hannah on staff is driving. Two of the girls get in with me, and the man who pulled them to safety is a deputy in Denver. He helped them get the van to a level spot and then dropped the other 2 off at Eaglerock. Thankfully we all made it safely home. 

We tell our story and hug in relief. Thankful for God's protection and the help of others. 

That's not all....

3:30 am..there is a knock on the door. What time is it? why are they knocking?! 

"Quick get to the gym. The fire alarm is going off in the dining hall. Get out!"

Stumbling in the dark Hannah and I find our boots and coats and run up the gym. There is smoke, but it doesn't look too be too bad. Shivering we wait, all the DTS is at the Xgames so there weren't many to get to the gym. A garbage can was on fire. Ashes thought to be out, had been put in there and through the night had smoldered and caught the trash on fire...causing the dining room to fill with smoke. One of the guys on our staff took the can and threw it outside, so everything was okay. It was just a long night before the smoke was clear enough for the alarm to stop. 

In less than 12 hours, there had been more craziness than I'd been around in a while!

We are thankful and blessed that everyone is fine, and all is well! 

Stay tuned..my life is never boring. (how can it be?!) 

YEAH!

I am so stoked, the last 2 days I was able to get out and go snowboarding with the BDTS. Thanks friends! I am so incredibly blown away! Snowboarding is exhausting and exhilarating at the same time. I was super nervous about getting off the lifts, but 4 out of 5 times yesterday were successes! Even the one time that Eunmi and I got off together and she was holding on to me..we almost ran a skier over! Oops! 

Eunmi is from S. Korea, we have students from S. Korea, England, S. Africa, Ethiopia, Canada, Mexico, Romania, Australia, Germany (i think?) & of course the states! It's so fun to have so many places represented. And when we as believers all come together it's a beautiful kaleidoscope of God's creativity.

Today I am just relaxing and resting my aching neck and shoulders! (hurting from falling.) 

Tomorrow we all go down the mountain and spend the day down so everyone can do laundry, buy things they need and we will have our weekly staff meeting with those who are staying down all the time. 

Being up here in the mountains is really good for students and staff. We are all in close community and you know the whole concept of "iron sharpening iron" ...that happens! You can't walk away from the things that bother you, so you have to deal with selfishness and God can hone a lot of tough areas! Try living with 91 other people sometime :-) 

Happy New Year!

2008 has come and gone.

2009 is here. 

"Rejoice always and again, I say REJOICE.

Let your gentleness be known unto all men, 

the Lord is near.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything give thanks with prayer and supplication

Letting your requests be known unto God,

and the peace which passes all understanding will rule in your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." -Philippians 4:4-7

Since returning from a restful, but snowy, trip to WA I've been back in the whirlwind of getting ready for another quarter here. Monday started off with a staff meeting and then packing up much of my belongings to move up to our mountain campus. It takes a half hour up a very windy road to get to the campus. 

That afternoon many of us drove up in several vans pulling all of our things. This quarter looks very different than any other quarters previous. Usually our winter quarter runs 3 schools. A Boarders Discipleship Training in the mountains, a regular DTS at the main campus as well as a WISE school (stands for Worship, Intercession, Spiritual Warfare and Evangelism. )

This time instead of running the 3 we only have the Boarders (which by the way, is a school for people who particularly love to snowboard) and the WISE school- and both will be at Eaglerock. 

I am so excited to be up at Eaglerock, it is where I did my DTS and it has a special dynamic being up in the mountains away from a lot of the normal conveniences and escapes- such as Starbucks and Walmart and the mall. 

There will be 90+ people living up at Eaglerock, which is more than we have had for this length of time on the campus EVER. This means military showers are mandatory, and we will be living in community every moment. 

About 15-20 of our staff are living down the mountain and working at the main campus as there are still the day to day logistical things that need to be carried out and we are not set up at Eaglerock to do so. There are also another 5-8 who will be commuting on a regular basis because we don't have the housing capacity for many families. 

Right now I room with 3 girls in a large room with a bathroom and walk in closet. Up at Eaglerock I will also be rooming with 3 girls- the room fits only our bunk-beds, but we have a big closet thankfully! The bathroom? We will be sharing 2 with 8 other people! Takes me back to DTS since I am living in the same room I did then! 

While I am very excited to be at Eaglerock, there have been some disappointments. I had really hoped to be school staff this quarter with the boarders- but there are not enough girl students to need a 6th girl small group leader. So as of now I am up there to do whatever is needed. 

I will also be traveling down the mountain on mondays with everyone- we will have a laundry/errands day. My mornings however will be in the accounting office. A second day of the week i will be driving down the mountain-probably thursdays-to work in the office also. I'm okay coming down to be in the office. But the drive is a bit difficult. I was asked yesterday to consider using my own car. Its a great car so it has no problems as far as up and down- however my tires are not very good. 

So I am praying for some new tires! 

The other thing I am really hoping for is to be able to get a snowboarding pass so i can join the school every weekend on the mountains. I have a board and all the gear, so all i need is the remainder of my pass. This would be really incredible to be able to be out on the mountains.

well, this is the longest i've written yet on here-i'm going to keep writing slowly..so keep checking back in to stay posted!