Colorado/MTI

Hello everyone!
I apologize for being M I A for a few weeks.  Once we arrived in Colorado for our 3 weeks of training we dove in!  There is soooo much that I am not even sure how to put it all into words.

First, the kids are doing great and have made great friendships as well as have had great teachers.  They each have age appropriate classes that parallel with what the adults are being trained on.  Parlyn got her first two teeth, Tate lost a tooth, Oliver turned 5, Aribella will turn 7 on the 17th, and Finley is a celebrity here!  She seems to be the entertainment for all ages.  The kids are having a blast!

Secondly, Josh and I are enjoying the beauty of mountain after mountain!  Last weekend we decided to 'site see' and drove to the top of Pike's Peak... a mountain at over 14,000 feet up on a non-guard railed road!  It was like 50 degrees at the top and took us about 3 hours to drive to the top and back down.  Amazing getting a 'birds-eye-view'.  The day after that, my adventurous husband found a dirt road that ended up being 27 miles long, 2hours drive, in a canyon, and they called it "the Shelf" we later found out.  The road was wide enough for one vehicle, was dirt, had not railings, and was at least 200 feet up on the side of the mountain wall!  If you looked up the mountain wall was about 400 feet up and the valley below was about 200 feet down! It literally was a shelf on a mountain.   And we were in a mini van!  The sign recommened 4WD! Ha!  It was so narrow that you could not turn around.  So my cautious side had no choice but to enjoy God's beauty... and that word beauty doesn't describe what we saw.

Okay, back to the program.  Thus far we have covered subjects like Lifestyle choices, expectations, cultural differences, conflict provides opportunities, spiritual vitality, who we are under stress, transitioning, and embracing rest/keeping the sabboth.  We also spent a lot of time on handling conflict since 75% of missionaries leave the field due to not being able to deal with conflict appropriately with teammates.  It was very enlightening! We learned that Josh is a "shark" and I am a "fox" when we deal with conflict! It would take too long to explain what each of those mean, but there is advantages and disadvantages to each!  It is helpful to know things like this when dealing with someone when in conflict.  "The key for successful personal relationships and ministry is to understand and accept others as having a viewpoint that is as worthy of consideration as is ours".   

It has just been very encouraging being here with other missionaries.  Everyone seems to be having similar feelings, struggles, excitement, and transitions.  God has also used these new friends of ours to minister to our hearts as well. 

God has continued to be Jehovah Jirah!  We are probably at 85% monthly support.  Which is awesome especially since we have just begun this journey in April! Our vehicles are sold, we are packed for the D.R., and we think we may have our home rented. 

Please continue to pray for these things:
Transition into a new culture
Remainder of Partnerships
House sale or rent
Our departure goes smoothly ( 16 suitcases, 5 kids, 4 carseats, strollers, backpacks...ugh)
That our eyes will stay focused on our Father

I will hope to update you later this week!

Blessings-
Jen