church-going

Today I attended Beaver Creek Baptist Church. It's about halfway into town from where I'm living at Montezuma Well (all downhill if I take my bike, on the way there at least!). I googled churches in the area and they were the closest, so I thought I'd start with them first and then check out the other ones if I felt the need. Their website was pretty up-to-date, and they looked very active by all the activities listed.

My sister started attending a baptist church in Traverse City and she seems to be liking it, so I thought I'd try my hand at this one. I arrived a little before the service and was greeted by an elder at the door, who was curious to say that he didn't know me! As expected, I stood out a bit in the church where, my guess is, most people have been going for awhile and with a small-town population most people at least recognize each other. In some ways that makes being new easy, and in other ways that makes it difficult. But today is was mostly easy. I had multiple people introduce themselves to me, including one woman who, after hearing I was from Michigan, informed me that she was formerly a member of the RCA. I of course joined that I was CRC, and she was sure to tell me her full Dutch name when we traded names.

There was a good feeling overall in the church. The worship was good, the people seemed friendly, the pastor gave a good sermon and was not afraid to openly challenge is congregation - which I always appreciate. They are big on Bible studies there, and have at least one on every day of the week. They also have an evening service on Sundays. Since I'm big on evening services, and since I don't know for sure what days I'll have off yet, that's a great bonus right there.

I would say that I liked this church so far and plan on going back. Hopefully when we start work tomorrow we'll get our schedules figured out so I'll know what I can really plan on. Until them, I'm enjoying my Sunday off. Sara is going to teach me some hula-hoop tricks in a little bit, I'm probably going to take a nap, and then there's the evening service tonight. After that, if things go as they've been going the last couple nights, we'll probably all three sit on the couch and work on your separate crafts while we watch a movie. My roommates are really nice, interesting, and I've got a lot to learn from them! I continue to pray that God will bless my time here, but I think that the prayers for preparation of a good place for me have been answered. :)

Until next time!

~Jaclynn

Arrived!

After four days of driving I'm finally moved in at Montezuma Well in the little town of Rim Rock, Arizona. The house is nice and surprisingly spacious inside. I am, as one might guess, exhausted. It's almost 8:30pm local time, and I'm already thinking about going to bed.

I have one roommate out of two so far. Her name is Christina and she is very nice. She likes to knit - I think we'll get along well.

Tomorrow I'll finish finding places for my last couple bags of stuff, make my bike road-worthy again, and probably take it for a spin. The weather is supposed to be in the mid-60s. Welcome to the southwest.

For pictures of today's detour with stoned trees, click here.

Truckin'

See anybody you recognize in there? This is what happens when you drive 13.5 hours in one day by yourself - you prop up your camera on the merry-go-round at Oz (which is in Kansas, in case you were wondering) and run to pose in a munchkin face-hole before the timer goes off.

I'm three days down on my four day driving adventure, across the country in the middle of winter, and so far God has blessed me with clear skies and clear roads. I've experienced very little traffic, no real car trouble, and somewhat decent gas prices (by today's standards anyways). And of course, the hospitality of friendly people, at my old stomping grounds in Chicago, at my roommate's house, at my sister's friend's house. Now I'm trying to stay awake long enough so that I can sleep to a decent hour before my last day of driving. I've got a good 6 hours ahead of me from Albuquerque to Camp Verde, and I'm getting pretty excited about pulling in and starting my job.

One more day!

Packing Up (again)

A week from now I'll be in the midst of an epic, 4-day, midwinter's drive across the country to Arizona. Hopefully the midwinter aspect of things won't factor in too too much. I'm praying for clear roads and safe driving. That may sound moderately ridiculous at the end of January, but with the way our winter has been so far it's not that farfetched, really.

I've been working on crafts a lot since I got home - today I'm about to put the finishing touches on my Botswana quilt top. It features little round huts, a full clothesline, a sorghum field, an elephant, a zebra, acacia trees, the Botswana flag, flying birds, and even a little red truck full of hitchhikers! It's pretty fun, a bit bigger than I expected, and beautiful if I may say so myself. I'm quite pleased with it so far. I'm going to take it with me and work on quilting it in Arizona. I've got a lot of work in front of me, even with me trying to do a lot less work than my last one!

Anyway, I'm trying to be productive. I've got a to-do list and plenty of packing left on my plate, so I should probably get moving!