Kootenai River Sing Along

Alright, folks. Today we're going to have a sing-along. It's set to the tune of "The 12 Days of Christmas." One vitally important piece of information necessary for proper pronunciation: "Kootenai" rhymes with "See." Everyone ready? Here we go!!

On my second walk by the Kootenai,
This wildlife did I see:

26 Bighorn Sheep,
19 White tailed deer,
A flock of male Robinnnnnssssss,
8 Prarie Dogs,
3 Ravens,
2 Canadian Geese
And a silly, frightened wild Turkey.

For the Beauty of the Earth

While spending an absolutely gorgeous afternoon out on the Kootenai River
walk, I found the following song stuck in my head:

           For the beauty of the earth,
      for the glory of the skies,
      for the love which from our birth
            over and around us lies;
      Lord of all, to thee we raise
      this our hymn of grateful praise.

      For the beauty of each hour
      of the day and of the night,
      hill and vale, and tree and flower,
      sun and moon, and stars of light;
      Lord of all, to thee we raise
      this our hymn of grateful praise.

      For the joy of ear and eye,
      for the heart and mind's delight,
      for the mystic harmony,
      linking sense to sound and sight;
      Lord of all, to thee we raise
      this our hymn of grateful praise.

      For the joy of human love,
      brother, sister, parent, child,
      friends on earth and friends above,
      for all gentle thoughts and mild;
      Lord of all, to thee we raise
      this our hymn of grateful praise.

      For thy church, that evermore
      lifteth holy hands above,
      offering up on every shore
      her pure sacrifice of love;
      Lord of all, to thee we raise
      this our hymn of grateful praise.

      For thyself, best Gift Divine,
      to the world so freely given,
      for that great, great love of thine,
            peace on earth, and joy in heaven:
      Lord of all, to thee we raise
      this our hymn of grateful praise.

*The last two days have been great. Yesterday
afternoon we went to the Kootenai Falls and
Swinging bridge and today I spent the afternoon
by myself studying and walking. It was incredibly
beautiful and a great time of refreshment for me.
To see the entire album, click on the title above,
"For the Beauty of the Earth"

Charlie

Charlie the Chipmunk

Today I went prepared to greet my my little study buddy(hereafter referred to as Charlie). After sprinkling pecans up and down the log, I settled in to wait. It turns out that the smell of Reeses Pieces easter eggs is more of a draw than that of pecans. As I munched on a tasty treat, Charlie appeared out of nowhere, about a foot away from my face. He was very curious about the source of the smell and soon discovered that it came from a yellow plastic egg not too far away. Upon closer examination and the realization that he couldn't get into it, he retreated to enjoy his pecan snack. I'm thinking that Charlie has perhaps had a human friend before(either that or he's rabid), because he came incredibly close to me many times today. He appeared to be considering whether or not he should jump on me on more than one occasion. This made me slightly uncomfortable and so I discouraged him from doing so. After all, we don't know each other very well yet. And while I'm fascinated with his friendliness, I'm not quite willing for him to climb all over me at the moment. I'm certain that if he's this friendly at our second meeting, I could have him eating from my hand before too long. Do you think it's bad to feed a chipmunk a Reeses Pieces? He really, really wants one.

Nature notes

We all have our individual "get away" places, where we can spend time alone here. I love going on walks, but my favorite place to go study is outside, about 100+ feet from the entrance. There are two large, long, square cut logs that overlook a valley and hills with a couple of grazing horses. On nice sunny days, I like to take my Russian books and go out there for an hour or so to study. This afternoon I was out laying down on the log studying, when something suddenly popped into my peripheral vision. About six feet from me on top of the log was a little chipmunk. I think he was as startled by me as I was by him. He froze for about three minutes and then hopped off the log. A minute later he hopped back up and began to eat something. He did this several times, all within five feet of me. It didn't seem to bother him if I moved. I propped myself up on my elbows to watch him and he just continued to eat. I turned pages to keep studying and he just looked at me momentarily and resumed his meal. Only when someone came out of the center, slammed the car door and drove away, did he finally decide to make a run for it. I'm wondering if I start bringing nuts and other assorted items along with me, might I soon have a permanent study buddy?

Perspective

Exercise: Describe the lightbulb without actually using the word lightbulb.

We did this in our cross cultural class today and I thought it was a really good example of the different ways that people look at things. Not only do we have cultural differences with those in other countries, but because of our individual personalities, backgrounds and perspectives, we have cultural differences with everyone we come in contact with. Every single person in our class came up with a different answer for this exercise. And, of course, the answer had to do with the way that each person views things. Think about the different personalities that each of us have and how you would answer. I'll give you a hint: mine were the short ones-direct and to the point. Does that make anyone laugh? I never knew an exercise like this could tell you so much about a person. Here are some of the answers:

*illuminator
*conduit for light
*electricity conveyor
*this glass blown globular object casts incandescent rays of illumination
that will brighten a darkroom
*this white globe electrically casts light and is energized through
electromagnetics
*this is an object that turns dark into light
*this object will become bright with a surge of electrical force and give
light that is not natural

This is a particularly good lesson for me, as I have recently been challenged greatly by hearing someone's perspective on me. It was not a positive perspective and has given me much to think about. How are people viewing me; my actions, my words, my dress, my habits? I desire to be viewed in a manner worthy of being called a follower of Christ. My weak flesh hopes that I never have to hear such hurtful words again. But I know that this is a part of being refined by my Creator and so I welcome that pain and praise God for the work that He is doing in me.

training update

My sister-in-law said that I should post the update I sent out yesterday, along with the link to all of the photos that I posted on facebook. So, here it is:

It's hard to believe, but we have officially passed the halfway point of training. It's even more amazing to me to think that, Lord willing, I will be in Odessa in just three more months! These last few weeks have been very good, but very busy.
We have studied Discipleship, Preaching and Teaching(we each actually gave a "sermon"), Evangelism, Perseverance and Doctrine. This week's class is Prayer. Last week we took the train to Iowa where we met the home office staff, learned what each staff member does, had classes on prayer letters, prayer cards, overseas finances, and support raising. We had dinner each evening with different staff members and met the International Messengers board members Friday evening.
Early Saturday morning we started our road trip back to Montana, driving a Suburban back to Libby. The trip was very long and at times the weather was terrible, but praise God, we made it back safely. It is really an amazing drive from Iowa, going through Montana, S. Dakota and back through Montana. We were able to drive through the Badlands in S. Dakota and stop at Wall Drug(a famous old drugstore, which was kind of a waste of time) and also Mt. Rushmore. The Badlands were amazing, but my favorite part of the drive was probably the last two or three hours driving from Bozeman, MT to Libby. The sheer beauty of the landscape just made me wonder how anyone can possibly deny the existence of God? It was simply amazing. What a mighty, loving, awe-inspiring Creator we serve!!
To see pictures, click on the following link:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=99745&id=692137151&l=c1da7f090a