Red Lodge

This week has found us in Red Lodge, MT. I have been really glad that Jerry told me to be sure to pack clothes for cooler weather. As usual, he was correct. It has been refreshing to sleep with the windows open at night and enjoy the cool night air in the 40's. And then to have the sun shine toasty on our long sleeves during the day.

We have enjoyed a few days of rest and renewal here as well as time with Jerry's dad and family.

I had the priviledge (for the first time) of attending a Beth Moore conference in Billings!!!! No not a telecast, but real life. The Red Lodge Alliance gals invited me to go with them. It was such fun to get to know each other as we spent quite intensive time together and the conference was very good too. I would recommend one to everyone. Thank you to Pastor Bryan and Tammy and all of you in Red Lodge, you welcomed us, made us feel like one of you and we just loved hanging out with you. We will keep you in our prayers and ask you to keep us in yours!

Happy Birthday to Beki!

Yesterday was our daughter Beki's birthday. We are far away talking to groups about our lives and ministry...and our daughter celebrated her birthday with sister, Laurel and brother-in-law, Trent. As we were talking, I discovered that they were making cinnamon buns. It made me so happy, [this is a Rundstrom family tradition to have cinnamon buns (usually as breakfast in bed with the whole family) on your birthday]. I was homesick for our family. But somehow knowing that they were eating the buns, made me feel a bit better.

I was eating lunch with a group of women in Missoula, MT, who have been meeting together for 7 years to pray for each other and the needs that they have and for others. They were meeting to celebrate the answers to prayer and praise items that God has blessed them with. It was wonderful to witness how great our God is and how He is able to do mriaculous things in our lives and that He lovingly teaches us all through our lives.

It was a really good day all around. Happy Birthday to you Beki! We love you!!!!

Red lodging

HI again,
Kim and I made it to Red Lodge. It's nice here, next to the mountains and it's rainy and cool so maybe the ski run will open early...too bad we won't be around to find out.

If we haven't said already, we're returning, not to Russia but to Kiev, Ukraine, to begin the work of planting a new church. Whew!, I hope we're ready for that. Anyway, as we get around to churches we hope to advertise our new blog so at least some of you reading this will be reading it as old news while we blog about our travels around Montana and Idaho.

Don't worry!- I have a fly rod along for emergency trout fishing. Hopefully I'll find an emergency situation that requres a #10 Joe's Hopper.

That's it for now
Jerry

Say something profound

Hi out there,

We're new to blogging here and so the challenge to wow you, our valued reader, daunteth.

But here goes:

We're at the airport in Eugene, Oregon, waiting for a flight. I'm looking out the window and I see airplanes parked on the grass in front of a building. They've obviously been placed there as monuments of some kind. It reminds me of Russia, where every community seems to have its own MIG-on-a-Stick; a remnant of some past war in which that particular model fought, I guess.

But I wonder, Isn't that plane worth more in scrap than its value as landscaping? Aluminium isn't so cheap these days.

Yet for some reason we humans like monuments and are willing to forego possible benefits so that we can hang on to some past glory...

Apply those words to our work of reaching a lost world with the message that God, with huge gladness, accepts those who come to him in Christ's name and you get the profoundness I was going for.

Well, that said, we are on our way to Montana and Idaho for a tour of churches. We get to spend some time, just Kim and I, in Red Lodge, MT, getting ready for our speaking dates. We're going to attempt to do the job, not in the style of Missions-as-it-was-in-the-50s but to take into account the great involvement of local churches as they send their own members to do the work which they used to leave to the professionals. It will help that during one of those speaking dates I'll be in the hometown (Lewiston, Montana)of one of the 5 guys killed by Auca indians in Equador, in the '50s. They were some of the first missionaries to use that innovative tool, the airplane, to get the job done.

That's kind of dedication which led to innovation is more than a monument; it represents a living example of us at our best.

That's it for the first one. Thanks for reading.

Jerry

Our very first entry!

Well, this has been quite a summer for us! We moved from Russia to the states for the summer. Our daughter, Beki, graduated from Black Forest Academy. Our daughter, Laurel, married her high school sweetheart. Our son, Parker, is a junior and back at BFA. Jerry and I are going to the Rocky Mountains to tell folks about our adventurous life and what God is doing in Russia and what we hope He will do in the Ukraine. ~Kim