A Bit Too Rustic to Be Cool

 Jonathan and I are a bit too rustic to be cool.

Or classy.

We like pictures like this best--us by an old fence in the aspen and flowers on our way to Ranch Haven where Jonathan was supposed to be maintenance man for a week.

We are so one of a kind that we haven't found anyone quite like us. 

We even loved to eat the elk and gravy and mountain lion meatloaf served at the youth camp last week.

Some of the young people thought it was a joke.

It wasn't.

 That was real mountain lion meatloaf cooked by the cook, Amy Bryant, and it was delicious!

It's kind of unnerving being this rustic and one-of-a-kind--until you discover that nearly every other person on the planet feels kind of the same way.

Maybe it's because none of us is alike any more than any flower or snowflake or aspen or star in the sky is alike. God made each of us unique.

The last nine days have been so busy that I have hardly had time to breathe--and I've felt very, very rustic and very, very un-cool.

It started off with most of our family making it in to Colorado Springs to hear the Penn View quartet at Foothills Missionary Church during western conference, and also getting to hear an outstanding message by Frank Heidler.

(The photo above is actually in western CO.)

Then Timmy, Jonathan and I took off on Saturday to travel over to western Colorado to help prepare for youth camp at Ranch Haven, where Jonathan has made great friends with Mike Sayler and Timmy has made friends with Hunter.

At home, Timmy had sawn the lumber for three rustic picnic tables--to match the rustic western camp decor.

Then when we arrived, he and other young men unloaded that lumber stacked in Jonathan's truck, and put the tables together.

Rustic, as I said. 

Perfect to go along with the wild turkeys (pictured above)

 and deer that come to the pond nearby (if you can pick them out in the photo above). 

This last week I could relate to the wild turkeys or deer that tried to come to their favorite haunts near the cabins at Ranch Haven, only to be spooked by the noise and presence of humans.

Sometimes I just wanted to fly away from all the commotion, and other times, I did fly away--by taking a walk down this "Prayer Walk" path.

I went as far away as I could and sat down on a rock with my bare feet in the dirt.

Enjoying a quiet time with God away from the noise.

(Too rustic, I suppose.)

But we also had a great time with friends.

Sunday morning we attended Western Colorado Holiness Chapel where the Penn View Quartet was singing again. And in the evening we traveled with friends to Grand Junction to Cottonwood Bible Church, an independent church, where the quartet was again singing!

Our girls' friend, Katie Sayler, is pianist for the group, and her heart is so into her music. She is a blessing to watch. (Her grandparents are on the far left, from near Jefferson City, MO.) We loved getting acquainted with them, and hearing her grandparents' stories about their early life, everything from his work in the navy to his fishing trips.)

 

The more I saw and heard this quartet, the more I liked them. 

Genuine. Sincere. Earnest. 

(And below, in front of us at church there is a young couple, Jeffrey Anderson, former quartet member, and his girlfriend Anna Brubaker. They flew in for youth camp and got engaged during youth camp. Kim Sayler and Joy McDonald fixed them a breakfast picnic basket and decorated a little table out in the woods--and the two took off one morning and came back engaged! It was a highlight of the camp!)

Well, rustic, one-of-a-kind, wild at heart like a deer or wild turkey,

I can take all my feelings and different-ness to Christ and know--

that in Him I have someone Who understands and still loves,

someone I belong to,

and a home for my heart.