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!!