THE CANNY CHRONICLES

LYDIA-ZION We had the privilege of sharing at Lydia-Zion United Methodist Church (LZUMC) in Jordan, MN this past Sunday. I got the chance to see several of the youth from Red Rock Camp where I have served as a senior high boys counselor for the past eight summers. One of the boys I counseled, Mark Boettcher, serves as Sunday School Superintendent LZUMC. Mark might be the youngest Sunday School Superintendent I have known at only age 20 and he knows how to do his job well.  Mark & Bryan circa 2008...? I always enjoyed counseling Mark and his younger brother Alan at Red Rock, but little did I know that my connection would go further. This past year Molly and I both counseled at Red Rock Camp and also served as the Missionary speakers for the week. It had never come up before, but I found out that Mark and Alan are the nephews of Wayne and Cindy Boettcher who were formerly missionaries to Bolivia through World Gospel Mission. The church’s connection with Wayne and Cindy made...

DUBLIN GOSPEL MISSION “Lets run the ball a bit, then stop, drink some water and have a commercial,” he said in his thick South African accent. I never would have thought about meeting a South African family living in rural southeastern Indiana. Yet there I sat across the table from Walter Claussen at the Saturday evening chili potluck supper as we talked about the key differences between American football & rugby. Walter and his family are from Capetown, South Africa and have been attending the Dublin Gospel Mission in Dublin Indiana for the past year. Walter’s job brought him to Indiana and we were meeting them only a week before they returned to Capetown. We felt blessed that the timing worked out for us to cross paths. Hearing Walter speak brought up fond memories of my youth pastor, Ken Paynter, and his family who were also from South Africa near Johannesburg I believe. It is always very interesting to me the connections that we make along our travels. In Canby, Oregon we met...

Brashear, MO Brashear Community Bible Church When Pastor Shannon Perry mentioned an opportunity for us to help with a service project for a woman in his church we were excited to roll up our sleeves and work. Each week we speak to congregations about the story of how God brought us together and the ministry He has for us in Bolivia, but I never want to lose sight of the ministry that God has for us in each step along the way. We arrived in Kirksville, MO on Friday evening October 2 nd . We were really excited to stay with our good friends Chad and Kendra Stearman. Molly and I had chance to connect with the Stearmans and their little boy Chase at Camp Zion. Chad and Kendra will be taking over as the young adult directors at Camp Zion 2011.  Chad and Kendra have great hearts devoted to God, devoted to youth, and devoted to missions. They are also avid board gamers and enjoy Settlers of Catan. We had a lot of fun with them. Saturday morning (October 3) we arrived at the house in B...

It took us a couple days to travel between Canby, OR and Glendive, MT, but we were able to stop too see some friends along the way. We stayed with Dylan and Aubrey Does and got to meet baby Xavier Christian Does who was only about 2 weeks old and incredibly adorable.  We also stopped again in Spokane, WA to stay with the Schmidts. When we traveled west, only a couple weeks before, baby Caleb was just crawling but now he is walking all over the place. We spent one night with each of our friends. The last night before making it to Glendive, we spent with Chad and Emily Jackson and were able to hold baby Ellie Grace one more time. It is amazing to see how God orchestrates life. Each new life is a precious gift. Glendive, MN THE BRIDGE Have you ever been in a building or house and just felt the history in the atmosphere? We had this experience when we visited THE BRIDGE in Glendive, Montana. John and Kristen Marble lead a home church group in a more than 100-year-o...

We were truly blessed in the month of September to have a house provided by the Oregon City Evangelical Church. We used this as our home base as we traveled around the area. Canby Evangelical Church is only about a 10-minute drive from Oregon City so we were afforded a few opportunities to shake hands with the people of this congregation.  CANBY, OR September 26, 2010 Fun Fact: Canby is nicknamed “The Garden Spot”.  Some of you may be familiar with the names Kevin and Lisa Hoffman. Lisa’s dad, Gary Schuknecht, is the pastor at Canby Evangelical Church. Lisa and Kevin served as short-term missionaries in Santa Cruz & Mizque, Bolivia and just recently returned to the states taking on the position of Associate Pastor in Harmony, Oregon. With the Canby E.C. having this connection, they already had some basic knowledge of Bolivia, but it was fun for us to share some of our personal experiences from Bolivia.  We attended prayer meeting on Tuesday night, Bible Study on...

THE GROVE (in North Albany,OR) September 19, 2010 I have to tell a little story and slightly embarrass Molly to explain the title of this post. So we are looking over the schedule with our wonderful hostess Betty Larson as we are gathered around her home computer. Tina DeSimone did an amazing job of making sure we got time with many different groups of people throughout the weekend. She coordinated a great schedule for us for the entire weekend. On the schedule was listed the name of each event and then the host/hostess. One night we were at the Dodd residence. Another night we were with the Rileys. So Molly comments to Betty, "Wow that is really nice. This family is hosting a couple events. Who are the Grovers?" You could see as she verbalized it that it clicked in her brain that "The Grovers" referred to anyone from the church. Betty, Molly, and I got quite a laugh.  Hawkeyes disguised as Beavers As we set down our suitcase in our room at Boyd and Betty ...