July 6th - a blog long overdue!

I know this post is LONG OVERDUE! So, let me see if I can fill you in without writing a book!

This spring was a quite discouraging time for us.  Soon after Darren passed his CDL and started hauling hay, the hay market took a nose dive and he went weeks without loads.  Thankfully the local farmer was still able to use him when he wasn't driving so we weren't completely without income from him. 

As summer got closer, Darren realized both farmwork and hay hauling would most likely pick up and demand him at the same time.  He felt like he had to make a choice so as not to leave either employer hanging at the height of their busy season.  He decided to return the truck to its owner and stick with the farmer as the hay market was just so unstable and he'd have to be gone from home so much more.  So, Darren continues to work on the farm.

Sherry continues to work at the FSA (Farm Service Agency) office.  Thankfully, her job was extended twice and she is now employed until the end of September.  That is the end of their fiscal year, so whether they will extend her beyond that point is quite uncertain.

Kaitlyn came home for the summer.  She struggled to find a job here in Fairview and finally began work at the local grocery store in the deli.  It is not a high paying or glorious job, but she is trying to make the best of it.  The working environment is less than desirable for her with lots of foul language and immoral lifestyles.  It is hard work as they prepare a lot of food and since she is low man on the totem pole, she always gets a closing shift which requires lots of cleaning up.  However, she did have a co-worker ask her questions because she was "different," and Kaitlyn was able to share a bit about her faith. Perhaps she may not vocally witness there everyday, but they are watching her and hopefully she is making a difference in some way!

Kaitlyn is also giving piano lessons this summer and has 4 students.  She is starting to put some of her college classes into practice!

 

Easter 2015





Kylie has had an incredibly busy summer so far.  She spent the first week of June in Colorado at High School camp.  She came home sick with an ear and sinus infection.  She spent the whole next week dizzy/unstable with a plugged ear, but left the following week to go counsel at Junior camp at Tabor College in Hillsboro.  She had a great, but challenging week with a group of rambunctious campers!

She came home exhausted on Saturday night and turned around and went back to Hillsboro the following day to participate in a program called Ministry Quest.  It is a program designed for Juniors and Seniors in High School to help them develop leadership skills and find God's call on their lives.  It began with a weeklong retreat in Hillsboro. Kylie will now meet with a mentor here in Fairview every other week for a year and then it will end with another retreat in Hillsboro next summer.  She summed up her week in the following sentence, "This week was the most intense, challenging, stretching, and spiritually engaging week of my life."

Now that she is home, she is working at a local drug store called Kidd Drug.  It is similar to Clark's in Cimarron, KS, but not as big or as busy and not the "hang out" place for kids. 



Prom 2015 with her date Eil Leslie

Prom 2015

The biggest event in our lives recently is that we purchased a house here in Fairview.  The little rental house was so tiny and closing in on us.  Rent in Fairview is high and mortgage payments are the same or lower for a much larger house.  Kylie said she didn't care if we moved again or stayed in Fairview for her to graduate, but she just wanted a house.  With no real job possibilities on the horizon and seeing Kylie start to make a few friends and connect a little more, we decided to take the plunge and purchase a house, committing to stay here for at least a year until she graduates. 

Of course in looking at houses, we were looking at resale value.  Houses for sale are not plentiful here in Fairview.  We knew of a house, not officially on the market, but had been sitting empty for a year where an elderly lady had lived who moved to the nursing home in Montezuma. We knew it had been a nice house in the 80s, but would need some updating. We approached the son in charge of overseeing the house and they were now wanting to sell it. 

We looked at it and it was in need of MAJOR updating, much more than we expected.  It was 75% wallpaper and popcorn ceilings with glitter.  No walls were textured except the closets, which were not wallpapered!  We made an offer, allowing for lots of remodeling, but he quickly turned it down.  We upped our offer, but he received an offer higher than ours. We didn't feel we could go higher with all the work that needed to be done, so felt that it was ANOTHER closed door from God.  This was all part of our very low time this spring.  

Well, his "higher" offer couldn't come up with the money and we were able to get the house by coming up just slightly.  He let us in the house before closing to begin working. . . 

Then the rain began to fall . . . while the timing seemed poor to the farmers close to harvest time, it was a blessing for us allowing Sherry's dad and brother time to come work on the house.  Darren and I (Sherry) still had to keep working our full-time jobs to keep income coming, but would get off work and come work at the house until 10 pm or later each evening.  In about two weeks we scraped all the ceilings, stripped all the wallpaper, retextured and began painting . . . 

    


Breakfast Nook

Master Bedroom View 1
 

 

Master Bedroom View 2

Kaitlyn's Bedroom

 

Living Room was wallpapered the green/tan stripes and hallway was wallpapered the shiny two-tone tan you can see in the little nook in the hallway!

Wallpaper did not come off nicely and walls had to be repaired before texturing.

 

Sherry's brother put in tons of work by texturing the whole house, including ceilings!



Sherry's Dad put in tons of work here as well, doing whatever was needed!

 

Darren sprayed paint on all the ceilings once the texturing was complete.

 

We had the carpets cleaned, but the unusual pink hue and stains did not come out.  Therefore we ended up replacing carpet as well, which we had not planned on doing! Yikes!

So, since the middle of May, our lives have been CONSUMED with working on this house.  We moved in the beginning of June, as we had told our landlords we would be out of the rental by then.  It was a scramble to get things "liveable" by then.  However, we only put in the house what we absolutely needed and unloaded the semi in the garage until the carpet could be laid.  We FINALLY got the carpet on Friday, July 3rd.  (That is a whole saga in itself as well.)

We are now beginning to unpack the boxes that were packed last summer!  It is a slow process as we continue to paint and unpack along with working our full-time jobs. So, as much as I have needed to blog before now, I just have not had time!  As we get more settled, I will try to post some "before" and "after" pictures of the house!

That is an update on where we are and what is going on now.  I would like to go back for a bit now. . .

As I mentioned earlier, this spring was rather difficult.  We felt like we were drowning in a sense.  I describe it like this... 

When we left Cimarron last summer, we felt like Peter stepping out of the boat in faith and obedience. However, as time has gone on, it has felt like the boat left and so did God.  We felt like we were just treading water trying to survive each day.  We saw no boat or shore in the future . . . no hope.  We felt like God was completely silent. We have heard experiences like this referred to as the "dark night of the soul," but never personally experienced it. It was recently explained to us as a time when God withdraws to force us to rely on our faith and trust in Him and not ANY FEELINGS of Him.  It is a time of deepening one's faith.  Not a fun time at all and hard for others to understand who have never experienced it.  However, in June, we went to Glen Eyrie near Colorado Springs for a week to meet with Darren's spiritual formation group which has been meeting periodically for 3 years.  Typically the wives join them in Idaho for a week during the summer, but this year went to Colorado instead.  During this week, we participated in a spiritual exercise called Lectio Divina . . . This is a time when our leader would read a passage of scripture 4 times and we were just to sit and listen and see what words or phrase popped out at us.  The passage he used was from Ephesians 1:17-19.  The leader made a mistake the first time he read the passage by starting at verse 16.  The first 3 words popped out at Sherry . . . "I have not stopped".  God used the leader's mistake to tell Sherry that God has not stopped loving us and has not forgotten us.  He is still working, we just can't see it all right now.  We just need to continue to trust.  In a way, it feels like the house is an island in the middle of the ocean.  While we still can't see shore, it is a place to rest.  My challenge from the retreat was to make the most of the island and not focus so much on seeing/finding shore.  So, that is where we are right now.  Trying to make the most of our island!

Darren and I celebrate 25 years of marriage this week!  Life is a journey and marriage gives us a partner to go with on the journey. Not all parts of the journey are fun or easy, but we are thankful to be together on the journey. We hope God blesses us with 25 + more years to journey together! 

Thanks for your continued interest in our lives.  We continue to covet your prayers.

The castle at Glen Eyrie where we stayed.

The beautiful view from the castle.
 

February 23, 2015

Time for another update...

I know everyone likes pictures instead of so much writing, so I've included some again this time!

Darren passed his CDL Class A license on the second try - Praise the Lord!  The lady who supposedly doesn't pass men, passed him! (See note in prior blog post if you don't know what I'm talking about.)
He started hauling hay from farms around here to dairies around Clovis, New Mexico.  He's made 3 trips and has stories to tell already!  It is a new experience, but he's willing to give it a try for awhile.

However, he just found out today the hay market has really slowed down and now he doesn't have any loads this week.  Ugh! Please pray it will pick up again for him. Hopefully the farmer he was working for can use him in the meantime!

 Darren has also been doing some pulpit fill.  He preached here in Fairview at the beginning of January and has preached the last 2 weeks now - once in a small MB church in Okeene and this past Sunday at Herold Mennonite Church in Cordell.  It is good to see him in the pulpit again as we continue to wait on God's plan for our future.

Still not much news on the job front.  We are really trying to figure out what we are supposed to do as the longer we are here, we hate to move Kylie again for her Senior year.  We are wondering if we need to buy a house and settle down here in Fairview.  We don't want to be unwise to buy a house without stable, steady jobs; however, rent here is so expensive that house payments would be as cheap if not cheaper than renting a bigger house so we can unpack our truck!  Please pray for wisdom and guidance for us in this area specifically!

Sherry continues to work at the FSA office.  She is anxiously waiting to hear if her job will continue after March 31st. A huge blessing has been that we have been able to get health insurance through her work.  The job has been a real blessing and we hope and pray it will continue longer.  

Kylie is doing well and slowly making more friends.  Being the socialite that she is, she really wants to get into a bigger house so she can invite friends over. 

A big event in her life recently was that she got her braces off! (It will be nice not having to make a trip to Dodge every six weeks, although she liked having to go back so she could see her friends!)

 

 Kylie enjoys the country life and loves cows!  She enjoyed going out to the farm where Darren works to see the baby calves!

 

 

She also recently got asked to prom on Valentine's Day by a friend, Eil Leslie.

Kaitlyn continues at Tabor College.  She is in a very busy time right now as she is stage manager for the spring play.  She is loving it, but extremely busy.  She is doing well, but trying to figure out how to juggle and manage all her interests - music (piano, choir & band) and theater!  The ladies choir that she is part of will be touring this spring as well as the band.  So, the spring semester will be over before she knows it! 

Both girls are trying to figure out summer plans and find jobs again as well.  This is another huge prayer item as jobs are not plentiful in small towns like Fairview.  God provided last summer just perfectly and we trust He will provide again!

Well, I hope this gives you a glimpse into our lives.  God continues to provide and take care of us.  It is still hard to understand "why" we are having to wait so long, but we trust He has a bigger and better plan.  We are trying to be faithful to bloom where we are planted in the meantime.  Some days are easier than others and we continue to covet your prayers for and with us on this journey.

January 22, 2015

Hello once again!  I know it is time for another blog post; however, no new blog post usually means no new news.  We continue to "wait" on God's plan and timing. 

Darren is continuing to work for Brook Strader, a farmer in the area.  With the winter weather, he hasn't been getting in many hours and so he has been looking for another job.  He has an opportunity to drive truck and haul hay to New Mexico, but he needs to pass his CDL test first.  He attempted it once in Woodward, but didn't pass, which is not unusual.  He passed the pre-trip inspection easily, but the parallel parking got him. Next time he will take a smaller truck and shorter trailer to try.  Please keep him in your prayers as he is scheduled to take it again (this time in Enid) on February 3rd.  Rumor has it that the lady working there won't pass men.  We hope that is not true and he can pass this time.

Sherry continues to work at the Farm Service Agency.  It has been quite hectic lately as farmers are trying to report their acres and sign up for the new farm bill.  She is learning a lot and able to talk to her brother and father at a different level about farming these days!

Kaitlyn is finishing interterm at Tabor.  She took a class called Marriage and Family and had to do an extensive Family Tree project.  It was quite educational for her.  She will have a hectic 2nd semester as she is going to be stage manager for the spring drama production and also will have band and choir tour.

Kylie continues at Fairview High School.  She is looking forward to the National Youth Conference in April.  Prom was scheduled that same weekend, but it was able to be changed to allow more youth to not have to make a choice between very two important events in their lives.  That speaks highly for the school system here that they would be willing to do that for this event!  She has started taking guitar lessons, which she enjoys.

Thanks for your continued interest in our lives as is shown by you reading this blog post.  We appreciate all the prayers and support on our behalf as we continue on this journey.  It isn't easy, but we want God to be glorified through it all.  We know we will be able to use our experiences someday to minister to others.