Happy New Year!

We pray that 2011 is a wonderful year for all of you, filled with blessings and surprises.  We so enjoyed visiting with some of you in Houston this Christmas.  I just wish we had more time, but I guess it always feels like that when you live far away.

Sorry we didn't write in December- it was a bit of a crazy month!  We had quite a bit of work to do, both school and otherwise, to prepare for Christmas break.  The last week of classes was full of projects, presentations by us, an exam, and of course, snow.  It went really well, and God helped us finish it all in time.  We both did a student teaching presentation on the book of 2 Timothy during the last week of classes.  To be honest, I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did.  It was about a 25 min. presentation that gave an overview of the book, as well as zeroing in on a specific part of the text.  Neither Jason nor I had ever taught part of the Bible like that, but we ended up really enjoying it and seeing new things in the text that we hadn't seen before.  2 Tim. was the last letter that Paul wrote before he died, as far as we know.  It was great to see the spiritual legacy that Paul was, in effect, leaving to Timothy, especially after studying all of Paul's books back to back and understanding his heart for the gospel.  Getting a glimpse of Paul's life really challenged me.  He was willing to share Christ's love with people no matter what it cost him.  He had such a passion for people to come into God's kingdom and experience true hope in their lives.   Paul went to Rome to share the gospel with them, knowing that it would cost him his life.  I know I don't yet have the kind of love and dedication that Paul did, but I pray that God gives me this passion for people more and more.

Christmas break was much needed and a refreshing time with my family.  I really missed them, and both Jason and I treasured the wonderful time we had with them.  They took great care of us and treated us to delightful meals, ice skating, and movies.  We enjoyed sweet times with my grandparents and good friends, also.  Jason and I enjoyed a late Christmas celebration with Danny's family as well.  He really enjoyed getting to know them a little better, as he had only met them at our wedding.  Then, I surprised Jason with a one-night getaway in San Antonio.  He had never been there and we made it into an early one-year anniversary trip.  It poured rain, but we still enjoyed the Alamo, Riverwalk, and our charming B&B very much!

I can't express how grateful I am to have all of you as part of my life.  Though we are really far away now, I will never forget your love and support.  Jason and I both were reflecting a lot this Christmas on how good God has been to us, and how he takes such great care of us.  Your love and prayers and care for us are such a big part of that.  Thank you for blessing us and taking an interest in our lives.  We love you all and are so thankful for you!
 

Our news lately

Hey everyone! 

We're doing pretty good here in backwoods Montana. The studying, and upkeep of friends, family, and our room are enough to keep us busy pretty much night and day, haha. This continues to be a challenging, yet enjoyable season of our life as we embark from book to book, knocking down each one as the weeks go by. 

We just finished the Corinthians, and have a test right before we leave for Thanksgiving break which we are excited about. Erika and I are headed off to the Oregon coast to Salem to spend turkey day with a friend and his family. I went there last year, and have been to the wonderful state of Oregon many times, but this will be the first for Erika. 

The snow is hitting, and the weather is starting to look a lot like Christmas :) Which is one of the most amazing seasons. Very beautiful and rugged here. There will certainly be lots of hot coco to be drunk, and plenty of cold winter nights cuddled up studying in our beautiful room. All this to say, we're enjoying our time right now, and looking to Jesus everyday to be our strength to do this school. Thanks again for everyone's support, and interest in our lives. 

Love, The Goodfellows 

P.S. Here's some recent pics of Montana, this literally happened within a couple of hours. Snow here is like a white blanket being quickly thrown over nature. Its great. 

Pictures around the base

So this week, I thought I would share some pictures from where we live.  Hopefully it will give you a better idea of our surroundings.  

 Here is our water tower!  Yep, we have our very own water tower with the YWAM logo.  

 This is the student center.  It has a library, snack bar, weight room, gym, and hang-out area with ping-pong and foosball tables.  There is a nice sofa and fireplace, too.  :)

 Here is the library.  We spend lots of time in here studying.

This is one of the student dorms.  It is where all our fellow SBS students live. 

Another view of the library

This is our classroom, without all the desks and chairs set up.

This is the soccer/football/ whatever field we have for sports.  There is a
lovely little creek that runs at the back of it, by all the trees.  

 So this is a little taste of where we live.  There will be more pictures to follow, so keep checking!

SBS Week 5

     Well, it's been an incredibly busy couple of weeks for us.  We've been studying the books of Acts and Mark, and not doing a whole lot else.  :) I got put a bit behind in posting.  It is definitely fall here, which means that everything freezes during the night.  But, thankfully, we've had beautiful sunny days lately and can look out our window at the gorgeous fall colors as we study.
     I will try to describe a typical week for us here.  We attend class four mornings a week from 8am-12pm.  We have small groups that meet once a week and have a Thursday night meeting, which is basically just some worship and teaching that the whole YWAM base attends.  The rest of the time is for our own study and work time, which is much needed.  We basically write the equivalent of at least a 15-page research paper for every book of the Bible that we study.  Sometimes it may be more, or less, depending on the length of the book.  Our assignments are due every Saturday.  Though the workload is intense, we are enjoying what we are learning.  The characters in these books are coming alive to us in ways they never have before.  Most importantly, as we study the gospels, the character of Jesus is becoming more real to us than he has been before.

     The last couple weeks have been a bit hard as far as trying to balance everything and get our assignments done.  But, we are encouraged by what an incredible privilege we have to study the whole Bible in depth.  Many lives have been lost over the centuries just for the right to even own one's own Bible.  We feel very blessed to live in a country where we are free to read and study what we like, and that we have this wonderful opportunity.  We're really excited to see where God takes us from here, and how he will use this time as a foundation in our lives.  Thanks for keeping up with our adventures!  We would love to hear from you!