reflections in a snowstorm.

it has been a week since i came home from national staff conference and i don't plan to head off to any other staff-related events for a while now. this semester i have been away quite frequently with fundraising, training and conferencing events so it is nice to look forward to be around for longer than a week, without being gone for a few days in between. all of the events were well worthwhile, but it is just nice to stay put, cook my own meals and sleep in my own bed.
staff conference overlapped with the first week of exams so it was a bit of a weird adjustment to come home and have everyone in full study mode. since the regular schedule has been put on hold until classes start again in january, this time has served greatly for some reflection on the past semester and where God is leading us next.
this semester boils down to one word: transition. we have been trying new things with our structure and our meetings together and every member of our staff team is serving in a new role, creating a lot of new situations for us to navigate our way through. at times this was difficult in being absent with staff events or in being afraid to be bold in the next steps we needed to take. in all of it, however, i have experienced a lot of joy as it is quite obvious that God is at work and drawing us into something that He himself is very active in. i feel that it is going to be costly, but anything worth doing always is.
there are now only 3 days of exams left and by thursday most students will have headed home for Christmas holidays. i am looking forward to having some down time so that i am physically and spiritually ready to step deeply into the places Jesus is taking us net semester.

a very dalewood christmas.

the house i am currently living in is a bit of an experiment, taking staff, alumni, and students and trying to live in intentional community. here are some photos from our house Christmas celebration. we cut down our own tree, decorated the house, enjoyed a huge meal and finished off the day with a Christmas movie marathon.


please pray for us as we continue in this experiment into the new year. pray for myself, melody, robyn, kalinda, and hamilton. pray that we will grow closer to one another, learn more about community and draw others in as we live this out.