Tacomawa: 5th Anniversary Walla Wall WA

We've been married 5 years! We took a trip to Washington wine country- the south central part of the state has many vineyards and wineries.

On the road, we stopped by a cherry orchard and bought a delicious bag that we snacked on all weekend.

We stayed in a hotel in the Tri-Cities (Pasco, Kennewick, and Richland). The road to Walla Walla Washington has many beautiful fields, and small tasting rooms.

Ginger was taking this picture of Stephen

Stephen was taking this picture of Ginger

One winery is at a sweet little farm:

L'Ecole #4 is built in an old schoolhouse! A hipster with a long beard gave us a tasting in an old classroom. Outside, we played on the playground and had a picnic lunch.

Some friendly horses on a farm- when we called to them, the red horse butted the black horse up to the gate to say hi!

Downtown Walla Walla is full of cute shops and restaurants. 

 We took a tour of the vineyard and production at Col Solare. (Other wineries aren't necessarily connected to their vineyards.) The rows of vines are planted like rays of the sun, branching out from the center, and designed to get the best amount of sunlight for grape type. We also got to see the production rooms (no pictures) but empty in spring.

We joked that we only left the coast to get out of the rain for the weekend... had a wonderful time in the sun!

Tacomawa: InterVarsity Spring Quarter Lakewood WA

Spring Quarter at Pierce College Fort Steilacoom was the best yet! Although club outreaches have been smaller each quarter, Ginger had great conversations with students, using a body-mind-spirit proxe station idea that we've used since Texas. Everyone spends a lot of time worrying about their bodies and things they wish they could change. But we also wish we could change our hearts.

The two things Pierce students most wish to change about their hearts were loneliness and unforgiveness. We are encouraged by God's promise- I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 11:19) Still, this process can feel long and slow. We need a loving community for this journey. This quarter, a true community began to grow.

Ginger was excited to begin prayer meetings on campus. We started the quarter with a small walking prayer group. Even that day was bigger than expected- another group was lost, but decided to do their own prayer walk! We've been praying for our campus, our world, and each other all quarter.

 

The first two quarters, we met for Bible studies in small study rooms in the library. But on the first day this quarter, 11 people could barely fit in the room! We switched to meeting in a classroom and loved the extra space.

From left- Andrew, Felipe, Sibi, Grace, Mercy, Hannah, Ira, Louis, and Rachel at the Tuesday afternoon Bible studies.

Hannah studies the word to prepare for leading a Bible study.

Student leaders took an opportunity to teach. For most of the them, it was the first time they'd ever taught adults.

Ira (above) taught us about the Samartian woman in John 4, titled, "She's thirsty, Bro, are you?" Mercy (below center) and Shalom (right) taught us about the Parable of the Sower, and encouraged students to share the good news about Jesus with everyone, being generous and not judging if they'd accept the message or not.

Tuesday morning Bible study has too much fun: from left, Hannah, Forrest, Nicholas, Ira, Andrew, Samantha, Shalom, Nick, Ginger, Molly and Harold. (Yes, many people attend both Tuesday studies!)

A favorite prayer meeting was a restful hour of trying different postures of prayer.

 

In Jesus, and through him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. (Ephesians 3:12)

A number of students sang with a campus choir this year and sang wonderfully at their concert, "Great Hymns of the Church."

End of year party at our house- Ginger and Sarah enjoying summer weather (Photo by Hannah), below, students enjoying the cook-out and lots of "Apple to Apples" board game.

Thanks everyone for a terrific semester- for caring for each other as a community.
Lots more photos on this facebook album.

Tacomawa: Ron & Nancy visit Tacoma + Portland OR

Tacoma WA

Ron and Nancy came to visit for a week and see our new home. We started with a belated birthday party and a Europe vacation themed cake from their summer trip.

 

We visited the Harbor History Museum in Gig Harbor. We loved the fun activities and touchable history! Above, Nancy plays the accordian and Ron rows the boat. 

 

The museum is working on restoring an old fishing vessel, the Shenandoah. 

Stephen gave us a tour of his company's construction project. The community center is nearly finished.

The four level apartment complex now has walls and floors, plus a great view of the city. We could also see the green roof of the community center.

We also took the Kapalkas to our favorite museum, the LeMay Car Museum. 

Stephen cranks the car in the interactive section. 

We found our favorite cars. Stephen likes the section on Ferraris. 

Kelsey and Peter met us at Peter's favorite Chinese restaurant halfway to Seattle. We got to meet their new puppy, a French Bulldog who high-fives.

Portland OR

Nancy had several cousins in Portland, so we drove the quick two hours south to spend a few days with them.

It was a rainy day in Portland, so Dave took us to The Kennedy School. It is an amazing re-use project by the McMenamins, who have converted many historic closed schools in town into combination hotels/restaurants/breweries/movie theaters. They commission artwork from local artists, including Dave and Bonnie's son-in-law!

Nancy was excited to see her cousin Walter, who is recovering from a broken hip. Bonnie took him to physical therapy, and told us how much he's been missed by everyone in his community while he was in the hospital. Right, enjoying a local donut shop.

Dave and Bonnie have two grandchildren and one more on the way. Dorothy has fun hearing a silly story from "GranBon" and walking on the ceiling with PopPop.

Bonnie's daughter is named Sarah, and her husband is the artist who painted the work behind us, a combination of images from Bonnie and Dave's summer trip in Europe.

 Later we met their son Dan and his wife Molly. Their son Henry just turned 1.

Tacomawa: InterVarsity at Pierce College

Ginger planted a new chapter of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Pierce College Fort Steilacoom during the fall quarter. Winter quarter has been lots of fun too:

We partnered with student Courtney's community service program, "Knocks for Socks" by collecting new clean socks from neighborhoods and bringing them downtown to share with anyone in need on the street. Generally, clothing donations to people in poverty don't include socks, so it's a simple meaningful need during the cold winter. Ginger chose the story of the Bleeding Woman for a scripture about noticing people the crowd ignores. Jesus finds those who are suffering and calls them family. We hope to start partnering with the Tacoma Rescue Mission to find other ways to be helpful.

Conner and Mercy met new students at the Club Activities Fair to ask, do you fake being happy and hide what's going on? Do you fake it with family, school, church, or friends? Does God want us to fake it? Can we be real with God? They shared the story of two men praying, and explained how God respected the prayer of the man who was honest about his life, but not the prayer of the man who tried to impress God and look down on others.

Eric lead a Bible study this quarter. We've been reading stories and parables from the life of Jesus, and we make a lot of lists! Eric's whiteboard explains the story of the Prodigal Son and how the father in the story represents God's love and welcoming.

Our Bible studies represent many nations, including America, China, Congo, the Ivory Coast, and Uganda. (Also not pictured, Korea and South Africa.)

Ginger took seven Pierce students for a weekend retreat in Vancouver, WA, joining over 400 IV students from Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska! Left, all the students on the first night when they hardly knew each other. But friendships were quickly built as the team shared about the weekend theme of family.

Mercy and Shalisa (right) said their favorite part of the weekend was prayer training. (The stars on their nametags indicate they are people you can ask for prayer!)

We had too much fun during the weekend, with Ginger hopelessly try to fit everyone in an elevator photo...

and having family dinner at a Korean bbq. (A Little Pine Tree- we highly recommend!) Ethan teaching Sibi the right way to hold chopsticks, and Mercy becoming an instant master.

The weekend theme was Family. Our special speaker shared stories about her family (a mix of white, Mexican and adopted children), and close friends she considers "forever family." We invited God into the brokenness of our families, saw the reflection of God's love in family, and started welcoming others from all around the world into our family.

The whole team, from left: Suha, Mercy, Rachel, Ginger, Ethan, Sibi, and Bora and Shalisa in front.