Week Two Overview (it rhymes)

(Note on the right a new 'page' of home and Oregon photos)
Making connections was the theme of this past week.  Whether I was making connections at the Chambers Greeters meeting or trying to get internet connected at the office, the week was all about connections.

Monday and Tuesday I spent formalizing our Administration and Facility Teams and hope to set those teams loose in the next couple of weeks on regular tasks that will help us meet both short term and long term objectives.  Not glamourous but the backbone of a smoothly operating organization.  I feel like both areas are off to a  good start.

Wednesday I took the day off to enjoy having Jim, my step-dad, in town.  We hung out in the morning and after school drove out to the coast, enjoyed God’s beauty and finished our trip by stuffing our faces with Abby’s Legendary Pizza in Newport, OR.  Yes, this was Abby’s request and it was indeed delicious.  

Thursday I said goodbye to Jim and trucked up to a LEAD team meeting with other area Christian Reformed Pastors.  It was good meeting the other pastors of Oregon.  For those of you in Michigan it might be interesting for you to know that there are only 8 Pastors of Christian Reformed Churches in the whole state of Oregon.  That’s it!  I’m hoping that we can do something about that beginning with Corvallis.  

On both Friday and Saturday I enjoyed breakfast with cool guys and listened to their stories.  Saturday evening we had a Root Beer Float Social at the church building. After enjoying a time of hanging out and talking about life stuff we sent the kids outside to run around on the playground and then talked about forming a good foundation.  We talked about focusing on three things.  Our spiritual foundation, our relational foundation and our financial foundation.  We desire to change the spiritual landscape of Benton county by loving God and loving others.  In order to accomplish this mission we must build on a common foundation.  So we intend to nurture a strong spiritual, relational and financial foundation.   We ended the evening by spending time in prayer. During our time of prayer we took sharpies and wrote prayers for our community on the existing walls of the church as a symbol of what we hope to see God do not only in the Church building but also in Benton County through us.  

By the time Sunday rolled around we were tired so we decided to stay home from church and have church at home.  So, after eating donuts we gathered in the living room to sing songs, read a bible story and do a craft.  Well, by the time we started Essie had invited the whole neighborhood to come and guess what... four other girls showed up to sing songs, hear a bible story with pictures and do a craft.  It was great.  Essie has the gift of hospitality.

Please continue to pray for Corvallis, for a good foundation in the lives of our launch team and for our neighbors that learn most of what they know about Jesus through the way we live.  

Financial Update:

To date...

Set Up and Renovations:  We have raised $40,465!  $59,535 needed to reach our financial goal.

Ministry Budget Goal:        We have raised $25,950! $34,050 needed to reach our financial goal.

Please consider becoming a financial partner and helping us meet our goals.

Thank You!

Josh VanTil

Renew Corvallis

Financial Campaign

“Houston, The Van Has Landed!"

Just last night six of Essie’s new friends from the neighborhood where over at our house watching Kung Fu Panda and eating ice cream and cookies.  We have been baptized into our new community and it is wonderful.  I love our new neighbors they are beautiful people and have truly made us feel like we are home.

Week one has been busy and fun.  As we arrived at 4823 SW Roseberry about ten members our our launch team arrived.  Four hours later we were sitting at our neighbor’s  home eating their food, drinking their beverages and meeting everyone that we will be sharing life with by virtue of living in the same development. This is the how our week has transpired.  From one thing to the next, running here and there and meeting all kinds of people along the way. 

Monday morning I spent a couple hours at the church site taking down pictures and curtains preparing our launch team for the idea that many thing are going to change.

On Tuesday I enjoyed an Oregon brew at Squirrel's, a local brew pub, with a local twenty-something.  I’m hoping to enjoy his company weekly. 

Wednesday I enjoyed spiritual conversations with two guys at a local bike shop.  By the way, there are at least four bike shops in the downtown area.  Bikes are everywhere.

Thursday I had breakfast with the director of the local chapter of IHOP (International House Of Prayer).  I see some really cool partnership opportunities.  Later I had yogurt with the Executive Pastor of Grace City Church.  This is a local church that has been extremely successful at being missional and reaching both college students and young families.  Then later in the evening I enjoyed coffee with a male member of our launch team that has agreed to meet with me weekly to grow, challenge, and hold each other accountable.  We both hope to see the group grow and become a place to grow leaders.  Exciting.

Friday (yesterday),  I took Abby and Essie to their first day of school.  Amanda took Noah to his new school.  The girls where immediately attacked by groups of girls that wanted to meet the “new girl in town.”  I almost cried.  Seriously!  Later, I enjoyed coffee with the first member of our administrate team then had another cup of coffee with a young musician who is quickly becoming a good friend.  We will be sitting down weekly to dream and grow.  Then later in the evening we made deep dish pizza for all the people in the neighborhood.  The pizza was amazing, if I don’t say so myself :) and our day ended with a bunch of girls sitting in our living room watch the movie.

Today:  In Fifteen minutes we (the whole family) are walking over to Marti’s house to help tear out weeds and turn over soil to make flower beds.  Later I plan on going to the bike shop and picking up some stuff for my main mode of transportation and then tonight we are having a cook out with the launch team out “on the farm.”

What a week!  God is good.  More later...
Josh

We Made It!

We've been in a cyber black-hole for the last few days because I didn't connect the cable at the NEW HOUSE! So here I sit at Starbucks downtown Corvallis - a place where I have a feeling we'll be frequenting - me for fuel and Josh for connecting with folks.

The house is working out great! The first impression for us was that the yard was too small - a 6' strip across the back and a 10' square patch in the front. Noah will have it mowed in about 10 minutes! When he got out of the car he noticed some big dandelions: "I'll have to pull those, Mom!" I had no idea he was such a lawn guy! But we've since learned that the yard is not where the action is - more on that later.

Anyway, the house will work great for all of us. It's hard to untangle among the boxes, but that too is coming along. The kitchen will be a hurdle, but we're going to solve that by shopping weekly as opposed to buying in bulk as we have in the past. And there's two grocery stores within a 1/2 mile - Noah's already run to do a quick pick up for me on his bike. It's gonna be a wonderful life!

We got to the house at 1 pm and by 3 pm we were invited by the neighbors to a gathering where we met 7-8 other neighbors. Amazing! We had been praying that God would bring us the sense of community that we left in Grand Rapids, and we are certainly not in need - Praise God! The neighbors that flank our house are also Christians and wonderful people, and other folks are new to the area and looking for a new church. Amazing!

God is good! All the time, God is good!

More later! We might have internet at the house by this afternoon and I'll post more then.

Hermiston, OR

And that's about all there is to say.  We made it to the booming metropolis of Hermiston. Maybe it's the long hours of close proximity, or maybe it's just that there's not much to report about arriving in Hermiston, but I've run out of verbage for the day, I do believe.

We left my folks' house in Victor, ID this morning around 9 a.m. stopping only 3 times, I think. As we move west, I've noticed the farms getting greener. Not sure what the crop is, but it sure is pretty. Josh questioned again at some point today, "WHY didn't we make this move sooner?" Based on the landscape, I think moving west is a good fit, though we're certainly missing our friends back home.

We should get to Corvallis tomorrow around noonish or slightly thereafter to unload the van. The bummer news is that the van rubbed a hole in the oil pan and therefore dripped out all the oil onto the trailer bed - AND needs to be repaired. It really wasn't in much shape to make the trip anyway, but it'll have a shiny new underpan when cruising through the streets of Corvallis. A-Rrrrrrrr!

Sorry, no pictures today. We only saw whizzing landscape all day - or yet another picture of us eating fast food. NOT a pretty sight :)

Thanks for the continued prayers. Tomorrow will be a big day showing the kids their new city, new home, and unpacking boxes that we haven't seen in over a year. Should be fun!

Yellowstone National Park

How many people get to go to Yellowstone alongside a park ranger? We were fortunate enough to meet up with my folks who live in Victor, ID just south of Yellowstone for the day. Not only do we get the day with my family, but they know a few things about what we're looking at in the park: win-win, for sure!

Seems like the more we sit in the car, the more tired I get. But we're getting closer and closer to OR and that's exciting. Today we drove from Billings, MT (a crazy city with crazy roads) to meet Mom & Dad in Livingston, MT. From there we split into the two cars and headed into Yellowstone. Abby was eager to see wolves, but we were assured that they would not be in the areas we were going to because they were too populated. So, here's what we did see:

In the middle of our picnic area a Mammoth Springs

It never gets old

Baby! Right outside our window!! We could hear the mom grunting to it.

Josh even got to pet a little one (Hee, hee)

But we ALSO saw:

Coyote

And a WOLF!!

We made it to Old Faithful with just two minutes to spare - we would have been there earlier, but we had a buffalo crossing to wait for and also the wolf sighting. My mom speculates that it was an adolescent wolf because it was all alone. Definitely worth missing Old Faithful for, but we got it all!

From there we headed south to Mom & Dad's house and have enjoyed a home cooked meal, games, and a relaxing place to stretch our legs. Thanks Mom & Dad!

Exhausted and ready for bed. Tomorrow: the Cascade Mountains!

Day Three: Custer SP, Rushmore, Montana

Phew! Glad to be on unmoving (is that a word?) ground tonight. Seems like we've been in the car a very long time. Hmm.

Today was another fantastic day! We've settled into a good traveling groove. We took our time heading out to Custer State Park which we decided doesn't get enough press! The scenery was breathtaking and the wildlife was pretty exciting. Abby wanted me to mention that the buffalo even blocked our road! Noah won the prize for seeing the first wildlife: a white-tailed deer. After that it was buffalo, pronghorns, some kind of furry river creature, a turkey, and more prairie dogs. After a very windy (curvey, not breezy) road which left a few of us dizzy and disoriented, we then went to Mt. Rushmore where it started to hail as we pulled away from the ticket-taker. Needless to say, we took our pictures, but didn't linger. From there it was already 1:30 and we needed to get on the road. With only one stop between Rapid City, SD and Billings, MT we got into the hotel by 7:30 with lunch on-the-go and dinner in the room. A quick dip in the pool and we are ready for bed. We're racking up the bonus points at Country Inn & Suites - we've given up playing the 'which hotel is the best deal' game. Just find the CI&S and go for it. They're affordable, comfortable, and you get breakfast - and we all fit!

Here's some quotes from the day:
Levi: I can go hiking because I have a knife! (It's a 3" plastic knife)
Mom: Mmmm, smell the pine.  Noah: It's much nicer than farts.
Levi: (about the turkey) Guess what, Mom! It pooped out 4 magic eggs! (What???)

One lane tunnel 8' wide

Much of our day revolves around some aspect of the bathroom as you may have noticed.
Note: I did NOT tell him to do this!
(Like the bow? He carries it EVERYWHERE. Purchased in the Badlands with the 3" knife)

Mt. Rushmore!

And then we met a twin of our moving van! (Only we know that they've made it to OR already)

I'm loving watching and listening to Josh as we travel across these states and see the hills and mountains. He's really in his element. I think, and he may have said it a few times, that if he for some reason had to hike the rest of the way to OR, he'd be A-OK with that.  :)

Though the fast food market is testing some of our digestive systems (again with the bathroom stuff, right?), I'm glad to report that Levi got over his stomach bug before we hit the road on Monday. Yea!

Oh, speaking of gas...the other funny thing we noticed: the more remote the location, the cheaper the gasoline cost. Go figure! I bet we've paid an average of $3.89/gal... which given the way prices were escalating in GR, we expected to pay closer to $4.50/gal. Praise God for remote gas stations with cheap gas!

Day Two: Minnesota & South Dakota

Much more eventful day today! This morning we busted out several hours of driving and around 2:30 or so (Denver time zone) we arrived at Badlands National Park. Abby, Noah, Josh & I were amazed astounded by everything we saw around every turn. Esther wasn't so interested in seeing the rocks up close and therefore, Levi was OK to not get out of the car for every stop either.

Just before entering Badlands National Grassland, we spotted a goofy deer-type thing looking to cross the road. Abby screamed out, "It's a pronghorn sheep!! It's a pronghorn sheep!!" #1: only Abby would know that as we whizzed by at 75 mph and #2: I think she screeched it so loudly it's what caused the animal to turn away :)  After just googling what a pronghorn sheep was, exactly, I can now confirm that yes, indeed it was a pronghorn sheep.  We also saw a very fat black-footed ferret that we all decided was extremely pregnant because it was super-hefty. Then....

Note buffalo on each side of the road...

At this point they were too close for comfort. When Esther started crying because they were so close, we knew it was time to move on!

We arrived in Rapid City, SD for dinner and the night around 7 pm or so. Josh put it this way: we've had two 25 hr. days in a row, tomorrow will be a 24 hr day, and then one more 25 hr. day. Such a weird way to put it about the time zones! 

We're all doing fantastically and now that we're more into the 'vacation' aspect of the trip, it's even more enjoyable for everyone.  We've not really gotten too annoyed with each other crammed into the van yet, in part because the prior few weeks were soooo crazy. I really think we all missed each other and are beginning to reconnect as a family. Yippee! Got a few kinks to work out yet, but then we're all a work in progress, right?

Thanks for keeping us in your prayers. While you're at it, don't forget our friends driving the moving truck. They've taken I-80. Tracy, if you have an update, please leave another comment for us!

Farewells and Day One of Driving

OK, where to begin.
We are currently in Albert-Lea, Minnesota right off the I-90 expressway. We left this morning at around 10:30 or so after making a few short stops for things like cash, sunglasses, coloring books, and coffee. You know, the important things.  The kids were pretty terrific, and to be honest, the dog is as much of a slug in the car as he is at home. Hooray! I have a pic of him draped over the back seat, but it's too, too cold to run back out to the car to get the camera. I'm not sure what happened to Spring, but it sure isn't found in Minnesota today!  Overall we had great weather until we hit about 1/2 way through Wisconsin when it clouded up. Chicago was a breeze (no pun intended - HA! Get it? 'The Windy City'??), Wisconsin is rolling hills and Minnesota has cool barns.

Currently Josh took the kids to the pool to give me a chance to blog and take a breather. He did all the driving today and I'm sure that as I write, he too is catching up on emails and sending out thank yous and updates.

We had an AMAZING day yesterday. Exhausting, yes...but what a wonderful send-off from our River Rock friends. It was a beautiful worship, pot-luck, presentation, and amazing words of affirmation and encouragement. We've experienced in a very real way over the last few weeks something we've known for a long time: We are leaving a (I'm running out of synonyms for AMAZING) very special community of believers and supporters. You Rockford-ites have carried us through the starts of ministry, seminary, and then my cancer, and now you continue to uphold us even as we move across the country. AMAZING! We cannot physically say 'thank you' or reciprocate your love to us!

So that's it. No horrible or hillarious stories from the day. We saw Chicago, the Mississippi River (and spelled it many times over), went through a windmill 'range' of some sort and tired of trying to count all the windmills. I was able to order first at Applebee's because I saw the sign first - pays to sit in the front seat, though I have stiff competition from Noah who's always up for a challenge.

PS We were approved for a rental last week Tuesday. Yea! It's a great 4 bdrm with an empty lot to one side and a 4-diamond ball park (sound similar to a 5-star hotel) in the backyard just one mile from the church and elementary school. The moving van we rented didn't quite fit all our furniture, but nothing that we can't do without (Sorry, Jim and Patti!). AND there's the possibility that it can rejoin us later. We shall see.

Many thanks to our movers on Saturday:

Oops - Sorry, John! :)

(Clockwise from the front left) Ariel, Brandon, Eric, John, Marv, Josh, Dave, Rafael
Not pictured: Rick & Caleb