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!