Orem and Ogden, UT

During the second weekend in December I made my second trip to Utah.  I flew into Salt Lake City in the midst of what appeared to this flat lander to be a blizzard.  There was plenty of lake effect snow, but it didn't seem to slow things down much.  I arrived on Saturday and after I got my rental car I drove down to Orem (in the middle of the snow storm) to check out the church facility there.  As you can see it is quaintly unique, and even though I couldn't see it I hear it has an awesome view of the mountains and the valley.  

That evening I drove up to Ogden, which is just north of Salt Lake City.  I stayed with the Cadman family and it was good to get to know them.  I went to Graceland with their daughter, Paco, and it was good to see her again.  We are all like to travel and it was good to swap international travel stories.  Bob Cadman is also an avid bicyclist and we talk

ed quite a bit about bikes and biking.  The next morning I preached at Ogden and we had a wonderful Christmas meal afterwards.  The Ogden congregation has a lot of young families and it was good to share with them.  The church building itself is over 100 years old and is on its third location/foundation.  

Boise and Tulsa

With the holidays and end of year church business I seem to have fallen a little behind on my blog posting.  Back in November when I was staying with the Fishers I had the chance to preach at the Boise Congregation.  The Boise Community of Christ is made up of wonderful people, most of whom are fairly progressive in nature.  I was able to sit in on an adult Sunday School class taught by Tony Dennis (former superintendent in the Boise school district) and it was really well done.  I enjoyed speaking there and I hope the folks enjoyed hearing me.  We had a great meal afterwards and then I hopped on a plane and headed home.  It was a bit weird to make it back from Boise in less than two days! (normally I drive).

The week following my excursion to Idaho I spent a day in the town I grew up in - Tulsa, OK.  Oklahoma is now part of my assignment for Disciple's Generous Response and I made an initial visit to see how I could be helpful. 

 The city of Tulsa has changed a lot since I lived there as a kid and the

 Tulsa Central Congregation is experiencing new vitality through their youth outreach program.  I had lunch with Jack Ferenbacher, who is a Bishop and Financial Officer for the Oklahoma Mission Center.  Jack is a straight shooter and it is always good to hear his opinion.  In the evening I spent time with the Adult Class during the Wednesday evening activities.  I really enjoyed reconnecting with people who had been my mentors as I grew up and 

I am looking forward to giving back to people who have been impo

rtant in my life.   

The Fishers

On my trip to Boise I stayed with John and JoAnn Fisher.  The Fishers are warm and hospitable people that were a lot of fun to stay with.  John and JoAnn live about 30-45 min outside of Boise in heavily wooded mountains.  They moved to the residence where they currently live about 12 years ago.  When they moved out there their home didn't have running water or electricity.  John Fisher is a master of many things and he installed a well, installed a solar system for electricity, and remodeled their home from the inside out.  

When the Fishers have guests, they stay out in the "Bunk House" which is a cozy little cabin.  To keep guests safe (not that that is a problem) the Fisher's wolf hybrid (half wolf, half dog) named Jake sleeps on the front porch.  I had a whole lot of fun staying with them and I appreciate and value their friendship.

Baker City

On Saturday, November 15th, I travelled a couple of our Northwest of Boise to the town of Baker City, OR.  JoAnn Fisher had planned to make the trip with me, but unfortunately there was a death in the New Plymouth Congregation and she was asked to do the eulogy.  I heard she did a great job.  

While I was in Baker City I met with the Pastor Kathi and Financial Officer Theresa.  They gave me a our tour of the church and we had a nice lunch with good conversation about the congregation.  The Baker City Congregation is a small group with good hardworking people.  They are doing good things in there town that are inspiring and humbling.  I hope I can be apart of some of those good things in the future.  

Nampa

On Nov. 14th  JoAnn Fisher and I traveled to Nampa, ID (about 20 min East of Boise) and visited with the Connie and Justin Cartee (Pastor and Financial Officer).  We had a good meeting with them and it was particularly for me to put some names with faces and learn more about the congregation and their sense of mission.  Nampa is a small group of about 10 people and I'm looking forward to being able to share with them on a Sunday morning.

Olivia and Cookies

Last Saturday Andi and I took care of Olivia (our niece) for an afternoon.  Andi and I like to cook a lot so we thought it would be cool to make cookies with Olivia.  My Great Grandma Chatburn has an awesome sugar cookie recipe and my Mom found some cool Halloween cookie cutters at a kitchen store in Sandpoint, ID.  Olivia wasn't sure if she liked the dough at first, but after the first taste she was a life long convert.  

Even though Andi and I aren't game to have kids anytime soon, we have fun playing with Olivia. Fun times with the little tike. 

Field Leader's Meeting

Every year all of the staff for a given Apostolic field gets to get together for what we call a field meeting.  This year our meetings were held Oct 20-23 at the Whispering Pines campground near Prescott, AZ.  It is always good to visit with other folks who work for the church and share common experiences and lessons learned.  Since I am a relatively new financial officer it is helpful for me to be able to ask questions of others who have served in a similar role.  Having the meetings as Whispering Pines also afforded me the opportunity to get to spend time with Rob and Barb Mills who served in Korea as WorldService Corps volunteers when I was the Coordinator of the WorldService Corps.  They are good solid folks - they were great volunteers in the WSC and some of the best campground managers and cooks I have ever seen.  

The meetings were good and it was also helpful because the Inland West staff is spread out fairly well and this allowed us to spend some more time together.  Good times and good company.

Preach'n in Coeur d'Alene

On October 19th I preached at the Coeur d'Alene congregation.  They have just spent significant funds on upgrading their windows and siding.  The building looks nice and Andi and I always enjoy meeting new people.  Interestingly enough, some of the folks who go to the Couer d'Alene congregation also attended church with my family when I was a little kid in Broken Arrow, OK.  Since it was also Andi's birthday we opted out of the potluck dinner and I treated Andi to a nice birthday lunch in downtown Spokane.  

Andi in Idaho

For a rare treat Andi was able to come up and spend the weekend with me in the Spokane/Coeur d'Alene area.  It was great!  She did have some slight drama as she was leaving Independence when our ten month old chocolate lab decided to sneak out of the house and explore the neighborhood!  Not to worry, Andi and a neighbor rounded the dog up in time for her to catch her flight.  

Andi and I enjoyed exploring the Sandpoint area as well as Downtown Coeur d'Alene.  We had lunch on Saturday at the Hope Hotel in Hope, ID.  If you go past Hope then you are beyond Hope (buh dum ching). We stayed in a hotel close to the lake with

 a gorgeous view.   Since Andi is in medical school she doesn't get to travel with me much, so when she is able to it is special.  

Colville, WA

On October 16 I drove up to Colville, WA.  This picture probably just looks like a stand of pine trees, and it is.  But, sometimes stands of trees like this are how we fund the mission of the church.  This is a piece of property in Colville that we are look to sell and use the proceeds to help fund the mission center.  We have a company that we are working with to help us maximize the return on this piece of property and so far it has been an educational process.  Hopefully, within the next couple of months we will have figured out how to turn a stand of trees into cash.

Sagle and Bonner County

After leaving the Lewis and Clark area, I headed up to Sagle, ID to spend some time with Wayne Gunter.  Wayne is the pastor of the Sagle congregation and is wise soul with more knowledge than I will be able to obtain.  He is a librarian by passion and profession.  He took my by the library where he is the administrator in Sandpoint, ID as well as a smaller branch in Clark Fork, ID that is also in his jurisdiction.  Both libraries were well equipped both with resources and pleasant people, although I am kind of a nerd when it comes to libraries.  

Wayne also took me inside of the Sagle church, which also has a library.  Inside 

the Sagle church in the sanctuary are some peculiar looking pews that were made by the 

first missionaries out of shipping crates.  As Wayne and I were talking he asked me about my family heritage and told me that the first missionaries to Sagle were Chatburns and they had built those pews.  I do have a long heritage in the church and I knew that some Chatburns had settled in Idaho, but I had no idea that when I went into that church I would be greeted by the work of some of my ancestors.  

Back on the tour of Bonner County, Wayne gave me a first class tour of the sights and beautiful landscape.  While we were at the library in Clark Fork he told me that Viggo Morrison from the Lord of the Ring's movies has a home there - we looked for him, but no luck.  I finished out the day with a dinner at Pat and Candy Moon's home with some other church folks and then headed back to Spokane.  

Lewis and Clark

On October 14th I traveled from Spokane, WA to the Lewiston, ID/Clarkston, WA to meet a group of down to earth and authentic group of young adults.  Andrea Bentz-Frost and Travis Frost hosted a dinner and at their home (some of the best food I had on the trip!) and I shared with the young adults gathered some about my experiences as a young adult minister and I did a fair amount of listening as well.  That group has a lot of horsepower and passion and which ever direction they choose to go blessings are sure to come.  

I spent the night at Travis and Andrea's home and felt blessed to be able to extend my circle of friends with so many cool people.  

Inland West Mission Center Conference

This past weekend was my first mission center conference where I had particular assignments that were meaningful to the conference.  I got to preach at the opening worship on Saturday morning, led a budget presentation on Saturday afternoon, and was set apart on Sunday morning as the Financial Officer on Sunday morning.  I think the conference went really well.  In fact, the budget presentation was apparently one of the quickest in this jurisdiction's history and people seemed to be pleased.  

I was really happy that my parents could come up for my setting apart on Sunday.  They live in the Houston area and were enjoying some much needed vacation time in the Northwest.  I also feel blessed to work with a good mission center staff and I feel as though I am developing a good relationship with people in the mission center.  

I do have to confess that when I worked for Central and Midlands Mission Centers simultaneously I had four mission center conferences per year.  Now I only have one!!

World Church Leader's Meeting in Independence

During September 29th - October 2 I spent all day and parts of the evenings in very productive meetings with other World Church Leaders.  Leaders from all over the world were present at this meeting and it was well organized.  Our main task was looking at a draft of the new Core Values/Enduring Principles of the Community of Christ put together by the extended World Church Leadership Council.  Group wordsmithing is not my cup of tea, and there was a fair amount of that, but all in all those were some of the best meetings I have been to.  We were even treated to dinner at the Kansas City Zoo and we got to watch a Sea Lion show - if only I get my dogs to behave like a Sea Lion!!

Echo Valley and Salt Lake City

I must confess I'm still getting the hang of this traveling business.  I had a wonderful road trip in the Northwest, but when I returned home I had a slew of work waiting for me.  I wanted to share to last images from my the last two stops on my road trip.  The first is of the chapel from the Echo Valley campground near Avon, MT.  I was there the weekend after Labor Day for the first part of a spiritual formation retreat.  Kris and Peter Judd where there and it was good to see them.  We first met while I was working as an Intern for the church in Australia during a Graceland Winterterm and they were over there providing guest ministry.  Always good to see them as well as meet new folks from the mission center. 

The last stop on my trip was in Salt Lake City, UT.  It is safe to say that we are more than just a little out numbered in Salt Lake City.  It is a beautiful city with some unique challenges for the church.  It was good to share with the folks there and to visit another part 

of the mission center. 

I'll be back in the Inland West Mission Center in another two weeks or so for Mission Center Conference.  I'm really looking forward to that.  I'll get to preach a sermon as well as see if I have any skills at budget presentation! 

Great Falls

After spending the night in Sacry's I toured Terry Reiff's clinic in Whitehall.  Andi is interested in doing a Rural and Family Practice rotation at his clinic and I wanted to be able to give her a good description.  From Whitehall I went to Great Falls via Whitetail rd. which is a partially paved road that goes through the mountains from Whitehall to Boulder, MT.  Beautiful scenery and no traffic.   

I went to Great Falls to meet with Nathan Reiff who is a young adult and the pastor   of the Great Falls Congregation.  He, his spouse Karen, and daughter Kate are quality people and a lot of fun to be with.  They fixed an awesome homemade pizza with fig jab and prosciutto with mozzarella cheese - good stuff.  I really enjoyed my time with them and getting to know them.  

Pizza Church in Whitehall

Last week on Wednesday I traveled from Spokane, WA to Whitehall, MT to visit with folks and participate in a mid-week fellowship they call "Pizza Church."  Unless I missed it, there was no pizza involved, but there was good food and good fellowship of about 30-35 folks.  I met Terry Reiff who is one of the doctors in town and interestingly enough he went to the same medical school that Andi is going to.  

I spent the night at the Sacry ranch just east of Whitehall.  The farmhouse had a lot of character to it.  The room I stayed in had the original logs exposed and at some point someone had used newspaper to insulate the room and there was a 100 year old copy of the Saint's Herald stuck to the wall!!

Labor Day

For Labor Day I left my roost at the Spokane Valley church and ventured up to the mountains and lakes near Sandpoint, ID.  That area was beautiful and if it had been a few degrees warmer I probably would have ventured out into the water in a kayak.  I was very content to sit in a Starbuck's overlooking the lake and sip on a grande Pike's Place.  They also had some great bike paths that I enjoyed walking on.  

Later in the day clouds rolled in and things started to get a little wet.  The Sagle congregation is close to

Sandpoint and I located the church building.  It is one of the oldest in the mission center if not the oldest - I think it is over 100 years old.  Up until last year it was heated with a wood burning furnace and it is home to one of the best libraries in the church.

I finished up my day off with an exploration of Spokane's "Pig Out in the Park" at the Riverfront Park.  It was quite the eclectic event and I had some good ice cream.  Around the park are these iron runners.  I thought they looked cool.  

It was a good day off, but it would have been more fun if my wife could have been with me.  I'm glad she is going to get to come up in October for a few days.  

Preach'n in Pullman

This Sunday (8/31) I had the opportunity to travel from my accommodations in Spokane, WA to Pullman, WA and preach.  This was the first congregation that I've gotten to preach at in the Inland West Mission Center and it was a good experience for me and I hope it was for those attending the service.  

The Pullman congregation is made up of two families who are as faithful as the day is long.  They even passed out note pads to take notes on my sermon.  We had a potluck afterwards and good conversation.  The group reminded me some of the congregation where I spent the first ten years of my life in Broken Arrow, OK - small in numbers, but big in heart and spirit.  

Boise and Camp Cascade

Last Wednesday - Friday (Aug. 27-29) had a great time getting to know folks in the Boise, ID area.  I had very gracious family host me - Tony and Sylvia Dennis.  Sylvia's father was an appointee so she had a good idea of what it was like to be a traveling minister and I really appreciated their hospitality.  I had a nice breakfast with Erma Akey who was very helpful in orienting me to the Boise congregation.  The Boise congregation is in the midst of installing playground equipment as well as a basket ball court and volleyball court.  

On Thursday the Dennis' s took me around the city of Boise and then in the afternoon I went up to Camp Cascade and helped John Fisher (campground board president) unload some matresses that were going to be used for a group coming in over Labor Day.  I'm really glad I had a chance to meet John.  He seems like a class act and we have a lot of common interests and I hope I get to spend more time with him down the road.  

Boise seems like a great town with great folks and I'm looking forward to my next trip back there.  

Turbines in the Desert

Last week I traveled across I-80 on my way from Laramie, WY to Boise, ID.  This was my first little trip across southern Wyoming and I didn't realize beforehand that it was all high desert and quite bare.  I have noticed something great as I have been traveling.  At least once a day I see trucks carrying components for windmills/turbines that are sprouting up in otherwise barren parts of the country. 

 I think wind energy is a fantastic development and in some ways it is a living witness of the resurrection for the small communities in isolated parts of the country.  Wind 

energy and other alternative forms of energy are giving communities on the brink of extinction new jobs, vitality, and a renewable source of energy.  I don't know if you can make out the turbin

es in this picture or not, but they are just of I-80 outside of Rock Springs, WY.

The Office

With my new assignment I've moved out of the office I had at the Family Life Center, where the offices of Central Mission are located, and into my home.  I call it Inland West-East.  I do miss some of the camaraderie of an office, but I must say I enjoy the peace and quiet as well as my two office buddies (our two Labrador Retrievers).  

Tomorrow I head out on another 5,000 mile road trip through Idaho, Washington, Montana, and Utah, (as well as Wyoming and Nebraska to get there!).  I'm looking forward to it, but today was Andi's first day of surgical rotations and she is going to be pretty busy while I'm gone.   

After this trip I am going to build a new desk for my office as well as add some different furniture and lighting.  Don't worry Inland Westers - the Chatburn Family is footing the bill for that little renovation project.  Time to finish packing for an early start tomorrow!

Vacation in the Rocky Mountains

Andi and I make it a point to take one vacation a year.  We call it our annual honeymoon and this year we went to Rocky Mountain National Park.  We camped out at the beautiful Moraine Park and we had fun staying in our modest backpacking tent and cooking our own food.  We both enjoy the outdoors and I particularly enjoyed stretching my legs after a series of long road trips.  

I did learn an important lesson.  I tried baking biscuits using a backpacking s

tove and a double boiler with two pots.  I learned this trick from a Peace Corps Volunteer while I lived in Kenya for a summer.  You can see, however, things didn't work so well and I actually burned through an entire pot.  I'd like to talk to that PCV about how she did that.......

One of the days we were at Rocky Mountain National Park we drove up Trail Ridge road that took us way above the tree line into the tundra.  Near the Alpine Visitor's center we ran into several huge elk.  Good times and it was great

 to experience God's presence and divine creativity in the great outdoors.  Equally as fulfilling was getting to spend quality time with my best friend and wife, Andi.

SPEC & CLW

The last two weeks of July I spent on the campus of Graceland University in Lamoni, IA.  Spectacular directly followed the Hills of Peace Reunion in Alberta, so I booked it from Canada to Lamoni - about 30 hours of over the road time.  I figure it was good conditioning for my new assignment:)  

This was my second year to serve as the Financial Officer for Spectacular.  I have really enjoyed that role, but it will likely conclude with this SPEC since my new assignment will place different demands on my summer schedule.  This year's SPEC was good and it is good to be around the creative energy of the SPEC leaders and participants.  The most notable thing about this year's SPEC was all of the rain!  Founders Lake spilled out across the street and merged with the murky mud hole on the other side.

The Congregational Life Workshop followed SPEC, however, I was able to sneak away for an evening and spend time with Andi.  This was a new experience for me.  I taught a class with Erica Blevins Nye and Amanda Edsall.  It was a good experience and it was good for me to get more teaching experience.  

Between SPEC and CLW I met several folks from the Inland West Mission Center and the West Central Field.  It seems like there are a lot of goods folks out there and I'm looking forward to hearing more stories and sharing more cups of coffee as time goes on. 

Hills of Peace

Each of use have different definitions of what is beautiful and what makes a particular person, place, or thing beautiful.  Last week I served as a guest minister in very beautiful place with beautiful people.  The place was the Hills of Peace campground located near Provost, Alberta.  Hills of Peace is beautiful because of its isolation and tranquillity and the people are beautiful because of their hospitality and grace.  

During this reunion I taught the Sr. High class - something I don't typically get asked to do and something I'm probably not overly gifted in.  The group hung with me and I think all 20 of us learned things throughout

 the week.  Several high qu

ality young adults also attended this reunion and I always enjoy making new friends around my age.  I got to preach on the Tuesday night of the reunion and I have never had to compete with both kids doing gymnastics in the front row and a bat screeching loudly as I spoke.  Good times.  

Some of the other activities of the week included a baptism and Greg Goheen, Sarah Crawford, and I took a trip to Ribstone.  Ribs

tone is a fairly large and success-

ful rural congregation in Alberta.  

It was a great week and people treated me way better than what I deserved.  Unfortunately, I had to leave before the closing worship service so I could arrive at SPEC at a reasonable time.  On the way back I made a slight detour through Culbertson, 

MT and checked out our church facility there. 

Headed North

Yesterday I travelled up through the Northern American Rockies and the Canadian Rockies from Missoula, MT to Calgary, AB.  It was a gorgeous drive and I stopped off at the beautiful Polson Lake.  I also stopped off at Banff where Andi and I honeymooned two years ago.  It was great to see familiar sites, but it did make me miss Andi a lot and I wish she could have been there to.  

I arrived in Calgary in the late evening, but since it is light until 10:30p.m. Greg Goheen (my host) and I went for a bike ride.  This afternoon we head out for Hills of Peace.  It should be good times and I'm looking forward to meeting new folks. 

Missoula, MT

On Thursday, May 10th I left Billings and headed toward Missoula, MT.  I stopped in Whitehall, MT and had lunch with Nancy Sacry who is the pastor of the congregation in Whitehall and she is also apart of the CPI program.  It was good to get to know her and I hope I can make it to Whitehall on a Sunday sometime in the not too distant future.  Whitehall is a neat small community that is worth stopping in if you are ever in that part of Montana.  

When I got to Missoula checked into my hotel and then when e

xploring in the town.  I stumbled on a cool summer festival that had a live band and whitewater kayaking 

with the

 University of Montana Kayaking team.  It was a beautiful night and a good night to be outdoors.  I also stopped by and checked on our church property in Missoula.  We don't have a congregation that meets there on a regular basis and we are in the midst of deciding what to do with the property. 

  

Billings, MT

On Wednesday, July 9th I spent the day with Dave Long who is the current Financial Officer for the Inland West Mission Center.  He has worked for the church for a long time and had a lot of good information to share with me.  He and his wife Sherry are very humble and good salt of the Earth folks.  Dave has kept good records for the mission center and that will be very helpful in getting off to a good start.  

For lunch, Dave, Sherry, and I met up with Frank Young who is the Missionary Coordinator for Inland West.  Good conversations and it was good to meet Frank.  

The picture is from a walk I took in the evening around the bicycle and walking trail that goes around the rim overlooking Billings. 

Wide Open Spaces

On Tuesday, July 8th I traveled to Billings, Montana which meant that I got to travel through all of Wyoming.  If I had an fear of vast stretches of nothingness, I think I have it out of my system.  This picture was taken at a rest stop south of Casper, WY.  

First Stop

On Monday, July 7th I started out on a month long road trip.  The first stop was in Denver, Colorado to meet with my new supervisor, Dave Nii.  Dave is currently the Mission Center President and Financial Officer for the Rocky Mountain Mission Center, but will shortly be transitioning into the role of the Assistant to the Apostle for the West Central Field.  He is a very gifted minister and I have a lot to learn from him.  

On this stretch of the journey I managed to squeeze in a trip to the REI Flagship store in Denver. It turns out they have two of my favorite things combined: REI and Starbucks.

That evening I stayed with some friends from Graceland - Travis and Megan Savage.  They are great people and showed me way more hospitality than I deserved.  Their chocolate lab reminded my of our chocolate lab, Kubwa.

The Starting Point

All journeys and adventures have starting points.  I guess if look back on my life my starting point was in a hospital in Tulsa, OK where I was born to a loving family.  I am at a point in my life where I have reached a waypoint where I am changing jobs.  I have worked for the Community of Christ for five great years and I will soon by starting my dream job as Financial Officer for the Inland West Mission Center and also working with a ministry the Community of Christ calls "Disciple's Generous Response" in the West Central Field.  

I'm looking forward to the challenge and for the next two years I will be commuting out west while my wife (Andi) finishes Medical School.  So this is the starting point for this part of the journey, our home in Independence, MO.