We just finished up a month in Idaho. It was a great month - full of God's blessings. We made some great new friends and enjoyed seeing the history and sights of Idaho. We were caught a little off guard by the early snow and the number of cows. There are dairy farms everywhere, especially around Jerome where we spent two weeks. We were given some freshly harvested potatoes and Scooter and AJ picked up a sugar beet dropped by a truck. That was interesting. We came away from Idaho thoroughly impressed with God's creation. Near Twin Falls there is a huge canyon where the Snake River winds through. We were told this is the place where Evil Knievel tried to jump the canyon with a rocket-powered motorcycle. It is hard to imagine when looking at the huge gaping chasm. We also got to see the Shoshone Falls. They are huge and as tall as the Niagara Falls. Unfortunately, they had the water dammed up to repair turbines or something and so there was only two small streams of water coming over the cliffs.
While we were there, we participated in three missions conferences and speak in the regular services of three other churches. The first church we visited was in Pocatello. The pastor and his wife are in their early 20's and they took us out on Saturday night to play laser tag. That was a blast. We met the church people on Sunday and they were very friendly and generous towards us. Then we went to Jerome and the pastor there allowed us to park at their church for as long as we needed. So we used that as a hub and left the RV parked there for two weeks. We were able to be the final speakers in their missions month. AJ and Alex attended their children's and youth activities during the two weeks. I was able to speak at their ladies meeting and we all participated in their fall clean up work day. We met some wonderful people and were very blessed by the friendship and warmth at that church. After that we went to Mountain Home for their missions conference. We were able to park the RV at their church and they gave us a key so we could use their washer and dryer (hallelujah!). The pastor and his wife really know what hospitality is! They had us as well as the other missionaries over to their house for lunch and dinner at least 4 times during the week. They organized lunches at the church on 2 of the days. They joined us in Boise on Saturday. We had to get a few things at the mall and they wanted to go along. We went to Cabela's and checked out the animals. Alex and AJ got to shoot a bow and arrow there. Then they treated us to dinner as well. We met more great people in the church there. Alex and AJ both made new friends as did Scooter and I. The Faith promise pledge exceeded their goal by over $10,000. It was very exciting.
We left there after the Sunday night service and surprised the kids by going to the Grand Canyon. We drove there at night after they were asleep and when we got up in the morning, we told them we were going hiking. They were pretty excited when they realized where we were. It was truly amazing. I don't like heights, so I was getting a little queasy, but it is so awesome to see. The scientists and geologists will tell you that it is the result of billions of years of erosion, but we know it is really the result of the erosion following one catastrophic worldwide flood. The power of our God is so unfathomable!
We are headed back to Tucson now. We will be in a missions conference starting Wednesday and then visiting in churches around the area during November and December. We will get to spend the holidays with Scooter's family for the first time since 2004. It will be bittersweet as this will be our first holidays at home since his mother went to heaven last spring.
God bless you all and we will post again soon!
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