One of the mountains facing us these days is the vast amount of "stuff" we have accumulated over the past 35 years. It must be dealt with! And if we understand God's voice clearly, He is saying it's time to downsize our household. Our daughter got me (Doris) started; she's young (32) and motivated and supplied the push I needed to get this daunting project underway. So, today I head for the basement--to sort through boxes and boxes of old papers and magazines, paint, and canning supplies galore (in my younger days I would can dozens of jars of fruits, vegetables, jams, jellies, etc. in any given year). Those days have long been over and it's time to pass this stuff on to a younger woman. Hopefully, there's still someone out there who enjoys providing for her family in this way. Arthur left this morning to a attend a pastor's prayer retreat the next few days, so I hope to buckle down and make some honest-to-goodness progress while he's away. My plan, Lord willing, is to have a yard sale the first weekend of May, using the proceeds to help fund our schooling in Salem. If you have knowledge on how to price antiques and other old things, I'd love to hear from you.

Another Step

Well we've made progress. Our CDTS applications are all sent off and we now awaiting acceptance into the CDTS school in Salem, Oregon. We just sent out our first letter to friends, family and church family telling about the beginnings of this new adventure. The name of our blog has its roots in our early days in the Silver Valley of North Idaho. We called the ministry The Solid Rock. We still have a strong desire to see a church planted in Wallace but if that or any of our plans come to fruition it will be because we are standing on the "Solid Rock".

We spend some time this past week at a board retreat for Rural Shepherds Network the ministry be believe God is leading us to be a part of when we complete our CDTS. You can check them out online at ruralshepherdsnetork.org.

I (Art) am leaving in the morning for a pastor's prayer retreat near Oldtown, Idaho. I am looking forward to what God will do there. If you read this before Feb. 27 please use it as a reminder to pray for God's anointing in our lives.

It Has Begun

Monday, Jan. 21
Two weeks ago Doris and I made a decision to follow the desire of our heart to get more involved in missions and to pursue a ministry of networking and nurturing pastors, churches and people here and abroad. Our first step has been to research Crossroads Discipleship Training Schools. These are schools that introduce people who a "little" older to the values of Youth With A Mission. We believe Youth With A Mission (YWAM) is going to be the primary mission agency we will be working with so we must do one these schools. We looked into many schools online and narrowed our search to five, Salem, OR, Lebanon, PA,, Pune, India, Babaio, Philipines and Fiji. I was really hoping for Fiji but evidently God has other plans as they never responded to ur inquiries. We both have come to feel that Salem, Oregon is the place for us. We have been feeling this for a few days and then tonight, I recieved an email from a acquaintance whom we had consulted who reccomended Salem without knowing that was the way we were leaning. Thank you Jesus. Well this is the start of new adventure, A Solid Rock Adventure, an adventure with Jesus our Solid Rock.