Well my head hurts! I guess that is a good thing though... it just means that my head is getting crammed with lots of information...some new ideas...some thought provoking and some wonderful.
This week I realized just how incredible blessed I am to have this opportunity to just learn. Just learn more..more about Jesus. About my faith. About relationships. About trust. And on the occasion how NOT to make a peach cobbler.
But anyways back to being blessed. God has been faithful. He says if you ask He will show up! This week we had Steve who spoke on Identity in Christ as our speaker. He is the NW director of YWAM here in the USA. He is such a genuine and humble man with lots of wisdom. On a side note he was the base director in Salem, Or during the time that my family was involved at the base during my childhood. It was fun talking about people we both knew way back when...oh and also he has been to CRC (the camp I grew up at) in fact he was there only two weeks before he came here to Wyoming.Small world.
Cowboy Church on Thursday night is still going strong. This Thursday night we had an awesome time in prayer. There are some troubles in the small town next to the base...issues to do with the school and funding. Anyways, we spent sometime in prayer for the the town asking for some wisdom and unity in this issue.
I am tired. But I am incredible blessed. Blessed to be living in a free country. Blessed to be able to take this opportunity to learn. Blessed to have an AMAZING family who loves me. Blessed to have an amazing gang of friends that support me! So thank you so much! Thank you for your prayers and thoughts. For your patience. For your love! Thank you so much!
Friday, April 23, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010
What a lovely surprise! On Saturday I got to pick up three of my lovely sisters for a weekend visit, Kristin, Anna and Rachel. Danielle and I drove to Montana to pick them up …Danielle was quite the trooper driving miles (Thank you!) and then meeting all of my sisters! We have decided to adopt her into our sisterhood. It was a long drive...but thanks to Wyoming speed limit(75)it went by fast...and Jane even helped drive.
But our Mudd diffidently helped the most!
The weekend was filled with lots of good food, most of which Kristin made (Thanks sis!), but we did go to the Historical Irma on Sunday….had to get the touristy thing in.
The Irma is a hotel restaurant that Buffalo Bill founded and named after his eldest daughter. I couldn’t get a lot of good pictures because the lightening was horrible or at least that's what I will blame it on...
Then we found the best little coffee shop in Wyoming...they actually get their coffee from a brewer in Seattle(not Starbucks). It was sooo cute! We are diffidently going back!
On Monday the girls got to meet the lambs...Wiley and Auto...
...then we meet some of the horses...these are the base's new additions. They are actually Jo's...the little one is just weeks old, her name is Tripp. The Momma doesn't have a name yet.
These are the Bobbsey Twin Brothers.
Finally the girls got to ride for a little while. I have to say they all did great...but Rachel had the most fun!
We had lots of fun we stayed up late and they attended lecture too. Thanks for visiting! I Love Ya!
Week Three
Week three featured Rob Meyers as our speaker, he is AMAZING. He is affiliated with Idaho YWAM and has been coming here to CWAM for years. He spoke to us on Hearing the Voice of God. He is blessed with a wonderful gift in teaching and keeping your attention. We were warned ahead of time to make sure to keep all of our water glasses out of the way of his expressive arms and voice. Seriously though he had so much wisdom, and really made you think. I took 20 pages of notes in one week. We took some time to understand how we think of God and how that effects how we will talk to Him. We study Manassah and what God taught Him. We study David and how he communicated with God. We looked at our own prayer lives and asked do we only talk to God when we need him? Our ultimate goal should be we love Him, we want to know Him better and as a result we want to share everything in our lives. We were created for a relationship with Him and a healthy relationship should be a two way communication. When Rob finally had to leave, we tried to twist his arm and make him stay for the next eight weeks, but we were unsuccessful.
We are attending a small, ( I mean less than a hundred people…count ‘em.) small church in Cody. It is a nondenominational church, the pastor and his wife kinda tag team the service. It was good, but will take some getting used to, since it felt more like a bible study then an actual service. Good, but different. The pastor and his wife are super sweet though and staunch supports of CWAM.
All in all I am adjusting well and learning a ton. It is such a gift to spend lots of time studying the Word and growing in Him and relationship with other strong believers.
We are attending a small, ( I mean less than a hundred people…count ‘em.) small church in Cody. It is a nondenominational church, the pastor and his wife kinda tag team the service. It was good, but will take some getting used to, since it felt more like a bible study then an actual service. Good, but different. The pastor and his wife are super sweet though and staunch supports of CWAM.
All in all I am adjusting well and learning a ton. It is such a gift to spend lots of time studying the Word and growing in Him and relationship with other strong believers.
Pushin' Cattle
On the 5th of April we had the opportunity to head 18 miles up the road to help bring in 200 head of cattle down from their winter pasture. It was very exciting, but very nerve wracking. Since I was the only there who had NO idea what I was doing, my only goal was to stay out of every ones way. All of the base staff have at one time or another taken on ‘pushing jobs’ for the extra income and also to help build relationships with the community. Also many of them were raised on ranches or farms, so they have tons of experience and as a result take their job seriously.
It was a gorgeous day cold but not windy so it wasn’t freezing. We had to be up and out the door by 7am which was FUN as you know I am such a morning person. But it was a beautiful sunrise!
After unloading, Jo and Danielle took off after the strays and while the rest of us started to push the cattle down the pasture towards the road, it was slow going at first but once we got them moving they moved at a steady pace. Until we came to a bridge. Cows don’t like anything that makes weird noises, and since bridges make their hooves sound hollow they came to a complete standstill. We had to holler at the cows and then crack the reins on ground, normally this is a long process, but we cheated and had hay dropped in front of them to encourage them. It still took a long while, with the cattle pushing each other and then falling and skidding on the bridge. The trick is to get them to go across semi -calmly, so that they wouldn’t take off over the side of the bridge…which was a long ways down. It’s like making 200 three year olds go in the same direction for 18miles….they get distracted very easily. After we crossed the bridges it was easy going though and Laura said it was the most uneventful ride she had ever had. 
It was a beautiful ride; the biggest problem I had was my lack of experience. Gloria, my ride, is a cowhorse.
Since she is experienced with pushing cattle and cutting (that separating the younglings from the herd) she thought that the person riding her would know what she was doing….hahah. So we had a discussion the ENTIRE time. Every time she would see something wrong with the herd she would want to take off, literally galloping across the prairie, I would have to firmly rein her in, and then she would give me attitude because she was stuck with “an old lady”. I swear she rolled her eyes at me more than once. But we learned…I mean I learned, horses are much smarter then we give them credit for a lot of the time, and when in doubt, just hang on!
It was a gorgeous day cold but not windy so it wasn’t freezing. We had to be up and out the door by 7am which was FUN as you know I am such a morning person. But it was a beautiful sunrise!
After unloading, Jo and Danielle took off after the strays and while the rest of us started to push the cattle down the pasture towards the road, it was slow going at first but once we got them moving they moved at a steady pace. Until we came to a bridge. Cows don’t like anything that makes weird noises, and since bridges make their hooves sound hollow they came to a complete standstill. We had to holler at the cows and then crack the reins on ground, normally this is a long process, but we cheated and had hay dropped in front of them to encourage them. It still took a long while, with the cattle pushing each other and then falling and skidding on the bridge. The trick is to get them to go across semi -calmly, so that they wouldn’t take off over the side of the bridge…which was a long ways down. It’s like making 200 three year olds go in the same direction for 18miles….they get distracted very easily. After we crossed the bridges it was easy going though and Laura said it was the most uneventful ride she had ever had. 
It was a beautiful ride; the biggest problem I had was my lack of experience. Gloria, my ride, is a cowhorse.
Since she is experienced with pushing cattle and cutting (that separating the younglings from the herd) she thought that the person riding her would know what she was doing….hahah. So we had a discussion the ENTIRE time. Every time she would see something wrong with the herd she would want to take off, literally galloping across the prairie, I would have to firmly rein her in, and then she would give me attitude because she was stuck with “an old lady”. I swear she rolled her eyes at me more than once. But we learned…I mean I learned, horses are much smarter then we give them credit for a lot of the time, and when in doubt, just hang on! 
Friday, April 2, 2010
Pictures from my bedroom window.
On a nice day I can see for miles...the mountain in the distance is called Frank's. He was a guy who lived in the hills and died one day while hunting. He fell on his gun while crossing a fence...they think.
The amazing thing about living in a basin is you can see the storm rolling it.
It gets cold here...we might not have much snow, but the wind is evil which makes it bitterly cold.
On Thursday when it was frrreeezzying and windy we drove three miles away to check on some of the herd that Jo takes care of..I didn't get very many pictures because welll it was frrrreeezzzing. These are friendly yearlings.
But this one is Jo's favorite..oh yes, Jo is on staff here at CWAM, but she also trains colts.
This is Stud. He is a stud.
Danielle, Me and Jo
Sorry mom these were the only pictures I have from this week. I will do better next week!
The amazing thing about living in a basin is you can see the storm rolling it.
It gets cold here...we might not have much snow, but the wind is evil which makes it bitterly cold.
On Thursday when it was frrreeezzying and windy we drove three miles away to check on some of the herd that Jo takes care of..I didn't get very many pictures because welll it was frrrreeezzzing. These are friendly yearlings.
But this one is Jo's favorite..oh yes, Jo is on staff here at CWAM, but she also trains colts.
This is Stud. He is a stud.
Danielle, Me and Jo
Sorry mom these were the only pictures I have from this week. I will do better next week!
Week Two
Hi,
Sorry it has been a full week since I wrote last…it’s just been a busy one.
So I left you off last week with us girls headed to the horse sale. It was fun and enlightening. The girls had an amazing time getting to know each other better.
We were at the sale for at two days and I am sure I asked a million questions. Which they all graciously answered. I kept sitting there trying to act all cool and suave like I had been in that kind of environment before, but the truth was I was like, “Wow! This still happens in America?” Everybody knew everybody, (they stopped the sale to introduce newlyweds) people are respectful (boys gave girls their seats) and people were patriotic without being politically correct (don’t get me started). It was a sad though to hear ranchers talk about how much their way of life has changed so much in the last two years. Because of certain laws that were passed by congress the horse industry has been cut by 50 %. It was educational for sure.
On a funny note Danielle and I really wanted some good coffee since we were in the big city. So we went down to the front desk and asked the lady how far the closest shop was...she said, “Oh, less than a mile for sure.” So we set off with directions and headed down the road in our boots. An hour later..we found the coffee shop. We clocked it later in the car and it was closer to 2 ½- 3 miles! We got our workout for the day and our feet hurt…but we got our coffee!!
This week we had the privilege of having two speakers Red and Andy who tag teamed to speak. The subject this week was The Character of God. Both Red and Andy were on staff here a few years ago, so it was a very relaxed class room. We heard amazing stories of their journeys and they asked us to share some of our God-moment stories. We study the human heart and the human perceptions of God vs what the God of the Bible says about Himself and about us and our hearts. Then we examined giftings that God puts in us and took the spiritual gifting test, which was fun because some had never taken it before…it helps you understand a person so much better. Over all it was a fun, encouraging lecture week.
We are praying about our mission trip location…we have two places we could go, since we are joining the Montana base. Please pray that we will go where God wants us to go and not where (hmmm) we want to go.
Horsemanship is going well; Gloria and I are having fun. Although she seems to think that I am a better horsewoman then I really am. Danielle has been a great help, because well she IS a great horsewoman. So far though, we have been staying on the base and in the arena. But this Monday we will be heading up into the hills to push cattle…if the weather cooperates..otherwise just the men will go.
We had our first Cowboy Church last night; about 25 people were crammed into our shop. Red and Andy spoke, while the some men from town led worship. It was cool, because many different churches from the area were represented. It is the first church of the season, so we are hoping that word will spread.
Tonight, being Good Friday, we will be headed to Cody to watch the Passion.
I miss all of you! I think of all of you often! Texting me or facebooking me is probably the best way to get a hold of me.
Talk to ya later,
Sorry it has been a full week since I wrote last…it’s just been a busy one.
So I left you off last week with us girls headed to the horse sale. It was fun and enlightening. The girls had an amazing time getting to know each other better.
We were at the sale for at two days and I am sure I asked a million questions. Which they all graciously answered. I kept sitting there trying to act all cool and suave like I had been in that kind of environment before, but the truth was I was like, “Wow! This still happens in America?” Everybody knew everybody, (they stopped the sale to introduce newlyweds) people are respectful (boys gave girls their seats) and people were patriotic without being politically correct (don’t get me started). It was a sad though to hear ranchers talk about how much their way of life has changed so much in the last two years. Because of certain laws that were passed by congress the horse industry has been cut by 50 %. It was educational for sure.
On a funny note Danielle and I really wanted some good coffee since we were in the big city. So we went down to the front desk and asked the lady how far the closest shop was...she said, “Oh, less than a mile for sure.” So we set off with directions and headed down the road in our boots. An hour later..we found the coffee shop. We clocked it later in the car and it was closer to 2 ½- 3 miles! We got our workout for the day and our feet hurt…but we got our coffee!!
This week we had the privilege of having two speakers Red and Andy who tag teamed to speak. The subject this week was The Character of God. Both Red and Andy were on staff here a few years ago, so it was a very relaxed class room. We heard amazing stories of their journeys and they asked us to share some of our God-moment stories. We study the human heart and the human perceptions of God vs what the God of the Bible says about Himself and about us and our hearts. Then we examined giftings that God puts in us and took the spiritual gifting test, which was fun because some had never taken it before…it helps you understand a person so much better. Over all it was a fun, encouraging lecture week.
We are praying about our mission trip location…we have two places we could go, since we are joining the Montana base. Please pray that we will go where God wants us to go and not where (hmmm) we want to go.
Horsemanship is going well; Gloria and I are having fun. Although she seems to think that I am a better horsewoman then I really am. Danielle has been a great help, because well she IS a great horsewoman. So far though, we have been staying on the base and in the arena. But this Monday we will be heading up into the hills to push cattle…if the weather cooperates..otherwise just the men will go.
We had our first Cowboy Church last night; about 25 people were crammed into our shop. Red and Andy spoke, while the some men from town led worship. It was cool, because many different churches from the area were represented. It is the first church of the season, so we are hoping that word will spread.
Tonight, being Good Friday, we will be headed to Cody to watch the Passion.
I miss all of you! I think of all of you often! Texting me or facebooking me is probably the best way to get a hold of me.
Talk to ya later,
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