Adventures: Summer in Newport RI

Newport Summer

Summer has been full of picnics and sunny fun. Our church Bible study group, Nexus had a cook-out in the park. Tammy & Nicki (and Clementine), and the kids, KJ, Keenan and Gabriel

America's Cup

Newport hosted the America's Cup this year for the first time since 1984. The best view of the event was from Fort Adams. (And the very best view down on the rocks so we could dangle our feet in the water!)

We drove on the scooter to sneak past traffic and get free parking.

The event is a series of races on special catamarans. There were six countries: USA, New Zealand, Korea, Sweden, and Italy.

Although Italy won the day we watched, a US team took first from points collected over three days in Newport and several days in other countries. The boats circled the bay for about five laps.

Fourth of July

This was just the second year Rhode Island has allowed fireworks sale. Stephen and Seth battled with firework tanks.

While the kids had fun with sparklers- Gabriel & Keenan

Newport Kites Festival

The south point of the island is always windy, and an excellent place to fly a kite. Along with spectators and their small kites, some professionals flew giant kites, a long paper kite, and did kite aerobatics. 

At Home

Stephen's been working hard on the apartment. He finished the bathroom (photos) and is working on the entrance hallway shared by the three apartments. Below, boarding up an extra door on the first floor. 

Adventures: InterVarsity National - Madison WI

Madison WI

On the way to Madison, Ginger had a seven hour layover in Cleveland. She saw the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, designed by I. M. Pei. (He likes pyramids; you may recognize his famous one at the Louvre.) The people of Cleveland were unusually nice; trollys are free and there are people who help you find the correct subway or work the change machines.

Ginger attend a training course to be part of Urbana 2012's Intercessory Prayer Team. (Urbana is InterVarsity's national missions conference in St. Louis.) Others were there from the New England region for New Staff Orientation or other trainings. We all got together one night, and our hotel is right across the street from the Capital. 

During the week, Ginger spent most of her time with her small group, Jeremiah (Idaho), Hope (Rhode Island), leader Carolyn (New Jersey) and Joe (North Carolina). Hearing their stories and praying together was the best part of the week. One of the first prayers of the week was after reading the story of the paralytic (Mark 2:1-5). We told the group something that was personally holding us back in our relationship with God, something that "paralyzed" us. We sat silently and envisioned carry our friend to Jesus for healing, then shared insights and prayed out loud. The confession and healing set us up for a powerful week.

The best study of the week was "Images of God." [missing link] The lesson was about how you view God- is He loving and merciful, or hateful and unconcerned? If God in your mind is untrustworthy or doesn't care about you, it's hard to pray. We tried to be honest with those feelings and fears and confront them with scripture and remembrances on God's love. 

The 7 AM daily prayer meetings were also wonderful, which broke any stereotype one may have of prayer meetings being boring, quiet, or inactive. (This is the "I am here" breath prayer.)

Madison is a fun, quirky town. Every day, we had lunches out. There are many food trucks and fun places to eat in Madison. Hope found us some tasty dairy-free gelato. (We like wearing our conference badges everywhere!)

 

 One day, the intercessors had our lesson and prayer time outdoors on the Capital lawn. We prayed a lot about Urbana and the background ministry we'll be doing there. Urbana will have intercessors praying 24/7 in teams and three-hour shifts. It may be worshipping, celebrating, listening, liturgical, cross-cultural or acting-it-out prayers. There's a separate team called "Prayer Ministry" which will be available to students and attendees to seek personal prayers. Intercessors are different in that we will mostly be unseen.

It's true that intercessors learn to levitate.

On the last morning, there was a farmer's market all around the Capital. Hanging out with Amy (Connecticut staff, and Ginger's prayer partner).

Adventures: Summit Toah Nipi NH

Ginger and five RIC students attended "Summit" InterVarsity's summer retreat in New Hampshire. Below, Michael, Karlie, Charity, Lindsey, Jeremy and Ginger.

Summit week had a mix of silly activities in with the serious- the Great Race included carrying a cup of water through an obstacle course, building a house of cards-

and catching a frog.

The students woke up early each day for prayer meetings. We prayed psalms, personal prayers, prayers for our campuses, and prayers for the world.

Afternoon free time on the lake- Karlie tried out a kayak. 

Every morning, we studied Genesis chapters 1 through 11. In the afternoons, speakers asked, "Is the Bible reliable? What is God's plan for human sexuality? Can I trust God? What is God's plan for ethnicity?"

After studying the story of the flood, the question of trusting God was meditated on in an open space activity. Students read posters that categorized the early Genesis chapters into a pattern of God building trust (creating people for a purpose, with security, intimacy, and significance), Trust broken (People acting with suspicion, disobedience, shame and fear), and God rebuilding trust (God providing, remembering them, and blessing people.) Want to see more? [link lost]

The students reflected on places in their lives when they have trusted or lost trust with God. How is God inviting you to trust Him again?

RIC students made their own skits to advertize a book related to the day's topic. After studying the Tower of Babel and Abram's calling, we "plugged" a book called "Living in Color" with a video skit. The skit was meant to question the value of being "color-blind" and appreaciate all the different ethnicities and cultures that developed from God encouraging people to scatter across the earth.

During nightly "Campus Time" the RIC student leaders made some goals and plans for the next school year. They also developed a new vision statement based on 1 John 4:18a- "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear." The vision is:

Imperfect people sharing the perfect love of Christ

The emphasis on being imperfect was a felt need on the Rhode Island College campus, because of negative stereotypes about Christians acting superior. But we also wanted to redefine what perfect love really is, rather than tossing around the word love so casually nobody knows what it means anymore. We'll be learning more about it as we strive to live it.

More photos on facebook.

Adventures: Anniversary #3 VT

Anniversary at Green Mountain, Vermont

We went camping on Memorial Day Weekend to celebrate our 3rd anniversary. We decided to rough-it by primitive camping in the woods. Stephen made a map of possible locations in the very large Green Mountain National Forest, Vermont. We arrived late in the evening on Friday and hunted in the dark for a nice place to camp, we didn't realize until later the spot we ended up choosing was a swamp. So the next day we packed up and found the perfect hidden meadow, away from the road and any other campers.

We spent our days hiking, swimming, and wandering around the little mountain towns spread throughout the forest. In the evenings we had dinner over the campfire and s'mores for dessert. Clementine was our brave leader who chomped through the thickest underbrush to clear our path, she also occasionally chewed on sticks and chased bugs.

 

 Our first hike up Haystack Mountain ended down a wrong trail- but with a beautiful lake!

But we returned the next day with better instructions and made it to the summit.

Looking down at yesterday's lake. 

Adventures: Austin + Dallas TX Graduations

Austin

We visited Texas in May to see a few graduations. First, Stephen's sister Tippy graduated with a Nursing degree from Texas State at San Marcos. She already has a job lined up to work in a doctor's office starting soon.

We also attended a "Pinning Ceremony" just for nurses to receive their college pins and thank their families. This is the first graduation year for nurses at San Marcos. 

Melanie's baby Finley is about nine months old now. Big sister Sophia is 6.

Tippy's sons Lukas (3) and Bailey (9)

The whole family rented this home together from homeaway.com. It was closer to the university and had big rooms for each of the four families. Also, a pool and hot tub!

Finley is a sweet girl, and enjoyed being passed from person to person.

Honey brought some excellent crafts for the kids (and everyone)- melting beads! Bailey safely used the iron by himself.

We waited too late for the sun to take a group photo. We tried illumintating the front steps with car headlights.

But, took an indoor shot too. From left, Ginger and Stephen, Adam and Melanie with Finley and Sophia, Rene and Honey, Markus and Stephanie with Lukas and Bailey. 

Dallas

Stephen flew home to return to work on Monday. Ginger flew to Dallas to spend time with family. Mandy, Nick and Zach picked her up at the airport and went straight to Six Flags. Mom was kind enough to lend us some visors, which we wore for two minutes to take this photo:

Nick and Mandy have been married one and a half years now. Nick has never riden rollar coasters before!

Mandy and Ginger used to visit Dallas every summer and go to six flags with Zach. We remember how Zach would run up to the measuring chart on all the rides to see if he was tall enough. 

Since the weather was cool, we had a short line to the river rafting ride.

We also climbed the tower to see the whole park. We rode both these rollar coasters first thing- the orange Titan and the newly stabilized Texas Giant (wooden coast with red steel rails.)

Saturday night, many of Zach's family, friends, and teachers and translaters joined for Mexican dinner. Cousin Sharon and Uncle Don (Zach's dad).

On Sunday, we all went to Zach's church, McKinney. Zach was baptised there earlier this year, and is going on a mission trip to Jamaica this summer! Below, left to right: Nancy, Ginger, Bobbi (Zach's mom), Nick, Mandy, Robert (Zach's uncle), Zach and Ron. 

In the afternoon, we put mother's day flowers on the graves on Grandma Virginia and Aunt Georgie.

Sunday night was Zach's graduation ceremony. He got a degree in Excercise Science from the University of Texas at Arlington. He hopes to pursue a Master in Physical Therapy. Below, Aunt Bid and Mandy enjoy the sun before we go inside. Then, we played Banangrams while we waited for the ceremony to start. (We also did this at Tippy's graduation.)

 

Zach with fellow graduates.

Mandy and Nick drove to San Antonio to see their newest baby nephew James. After Ginger's parents flew home to Montana, Ginger had one extra day. She visited college friend Nathaniel and spent the day at the Dallas Arborteum. They had a special art exhibit by Chihuly. These sculptures were all blown glass, in many colors and arranged to fit in with the flowers and plants.

 We took some silly poses with the art.

Ginger's flight ended in Boston. She met with InterVarsity staff friend Victoria and enjoyed lunch and bubble tea and mochi ice cream for dessert at the river by Harvard University. Victoria staffs Harvard Asian American Christian Fellowship.

There is a large facebook album of all photos from this trip!