We're coming to MN!

We are coming to MN! Since we have only a few days to be in town because Aaron is in school now. It wouldn't be possible to see all of you, so we have set up 5 different dates and meeting places. We are providing dinner at all places. This last summer was the best of our lives and we are so excited to tell you all about it and give you all big hugs!

Mora: Dec 21st and 22nd 6-8 at Mom and Dad's house (514 East Forest, Mora)
Twin Cities: Dec. 28th 6-8 at Max and Angie Lundeen's (1425 Oxford Street, Hopkins)
Dec. 29th 6-8 at Mark and Barb Yliltalo's (18511 34th Ave N, Plymouth)
Jan. 2nd 6-8 at Rory and Beth Fabel's (17915 2nd Ave N, Plymouth)

Newest time lapse video

Check out the newest time lapse video of the staff housing project! It is coming along. All are welcome to come and stay with us this summer! Just click on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URZYKniwAnY

New family picture!

We had our family picture taken two weeks ago. Our last family pic the girls were bald! Time sure goes by fast.

Time Lapse video of staff housing project!

Thanks for praying everyone! We are progressing at great speed as we have now finally started the framing stage on our new staff housing project. There has been great weather and God is blessing us with a staff quick to learn and also providing us great fellowship as we work together.

Here is the first cut of a time lapse video of our progress on the staff housing project: http://s1117.photobucket.com/albums/k591/bnotheis/?action=view&current=ELCSTAFFHOUSING_10_29-11_12-2010.mp4

First Snow

Our Maggie enjoying the first snow. Dressed in her purple pj's and purple princess dress and black boots she lifts her hands to touch the first snow. Oh the spirit of a child.

The foundation walls are up and waterproofed. Pictures to come.

The cement guys came and poured the footing for the staff housing project! So exciting.

Eagle Lake Staff housing officially starts!

A week ago we broke ground on our new staff housing project. Pictured is our dig. Look carefully and you can see that we dug trenches for 268 feet of footings and the pad backs up into a hillside allowing us to have a walk out basement and two floors above ground level. This building will house between 25 and 30 staff members throughout the summer and will be a breath of fresh air compared to the 35 year old trailers we have been using.

Please pray that God will bless this job with safety and efficiency. Pray that God will give me wisdom on how to best serve Eagle Lake while managing this job. We have already saved 10k on materials to date by harvesting our own lumber and by finding favor with suppliers. Praise God!

2010 Summer Camp over

Sad day....all of our summer staff is gone. We had a great banquet last night. Rudy's bbq and sweet tea! Mmmm Mmmm. During the time when Mark, our Camp Director, was saying thank you to all of the full time staff for their job here a Eagle Lake, when it came to Dan's turn all of the summer staff stood up and gave Dan a standing O! What a sight it was. To see that what Dan does is noticed even though he is not "up front." We are truly where God wants us...it feels so nice.

We will miss all of the counselors that we made connections with. I would name them...but I would forget so many.

Please lift them up in prayer with us as they all go back to their lives around the country.

Shock week!

Ok, so I know that I haven't written in a long time...but we have been SO busy. Along with all of the visitors/family that we have had here we have been super busy with ministry life here at camp.

Well...this is week 10. We call this week Shock week because it is our high school week. All of the programing that has been done so far this week goes out the door and we have all new programing and rules. For example: breakfast is served in bed and bedtime is midnight. Hence catering to high schoolers.
We have had such an awesome summer...our best by far.

Some of our last five week highlights:

• Jen H. and I threw three showers. Rosa (baby), Katlyn (bridal), and Miranda (bridal)
  
• Our nieces Janey Haataja and Maddy Maki joined session 2 crew (five weeks working in the kitchen)
• Our nephew Peter Soderstrom flew out to work with Dan and Max.
• Eric, Brenda, Jim, Katie, and Susie Soderstrom (Beth's brother and family) flew out for a weekend and Jim and Pete stayed for week 8 Rez camp
• Ken and Emily Haataja came to visit Janey and drop of Daniel our nephew for week 9 Rez camp
• Eric Maki and Griffin (our nephew) drove out to drop Griffin off for week 9 Rez camp
• Our small group from Rocky Mountain Calvary came up for a Saturday afternoon
• one of Beth's girls in her bible study got asked to come back as a PC for the next two years....very exciting!
• Laurie (a girl in Beth's bible study left early...had to say goodbye to a good friend.
• meeting weekly with Derek and Miranda, the couple that we walked through marriage counseling

Here are some random pics of our last five weeks of highlights.

Beth, Rosa, and Jen at Rosa's shower
Niece Maddy working in the kitchenEric and the family

Nephew Pete and niece Janey

Friends came to visit

Our friends Ben and Jade came to visit.  It was their first visit to Eagle Lake Camp.  We had a great time catching up, grilling, hiking and eating ice cream.  We hope you come back soon!!

 

Maggie, Emma, Tozer and Jade

People we want you to meet.

Dan found out this spring that Max Clark, a past counselor, was coming to work with him this summer.  Dan has been so excited for Max to be with us.  Max is a great worker and is eager to learn from Dan.  Besides cracking each other up these past few weeks...they have gotten a lot done.  This is Dan and Max...Max is showing off his knife that "is bigger than Dan's."

Next is Alicia Franks.  Alicia was in my bible study last year and was asked to come back the next two years to be a PC (program coordinator).  Basically...her and Miranda the other girl PC are over the girl counselors.  It is a HUGE honor to be asked to be a PC and Alicia is very good at her job here.  This is Alicia.

Finally five of my six bible study girls.  I have been so blessed to have these girls in my care for the summer.  This past week we studied Caleb and I was so moved at how deep these girls went with this study.  They taught me a lot.  Please pray for us as we study God's word and grow closer as a group.  The only one missing is Abbey.  I will get her picture us soon.  In the first picture from left to right....Laurie, Becki, Jessica and Micha (day camp counselor).  The second picture is Rachel (horse camp counselor).

Best letter ever

Dan received the cutest letter from his niece Bailey (Kevin and Geo Linna's oldest daughter).  She melts our heart!  We placed this letter on the board outside the dinning hall for all to read.  The letter came with $14. 

Our camp bear-dog treed his first bear of the summer.

Dan and Lynn got a tip that bear tracks had been spotted.  Blue, Lynn's dog, found the tracks and chased the bear up a tree.  Dan and Lynn shot flare guns to get the bear out of the tree and Dan hit the bear in the bum with a 20 gauge shot gun.  The bear went running off into the woods.  The camp and the kids are safe for another night.

Camp starts tomorrow!

Two months of getting the camp ready and now we are here on the eve of another camp season.  Tomorrow afternoon between noon and 3 the campers will start to come.  The camp grounds look great the decorations are done and hopefully we will have soft, willing hearts that are ready to hear how much they are loved by God. 

Dan is busy with all sorts of jobs.  His list gets longer everyday.   One of his latest jobs was cutting down a tree that had fallen over one of the hiking trails.  Here are some pictures of that.  He got to take two counselors with him and taught them some chainsaw skills. 

Dan, Collin, and Kyle will be spending 3 1/2 days a week working together. Here they made quick work of a 200 yr old blue spruce.

Prayer request:  Tomorrow morning we meet with our bible study groups that Dan and I will be leading this summer.  Please pray for connections to be made and that we would have fruitful discussions that would be kingdom building.

Busy week

Grandma and Grandpa were here for two weeks helping us move up to camp and help Beth with the kids.  Grandpa did many projects and actually got in a lot of fishing this trip.  He is pictured below adding an addition to our front deck so that there is a place for all of our outdoor stuff.  It looks way neater!  Thanks Dad.  They left on Tuesday afternoon and on Wednesday afternoon our friends the Padillas came on their way home from Utah to Tennessee.  We met the Victor and Natasha three years ago during our fundraising classes with the Navs.  They stayed for two and a half days and it was great catching up with them.  They came with their three kids; Angel, Joey and Corban.  They brought their niece Nevaeh with them also.  The weather was absolutely perfect for them.  We got to visit them in Tennessee this last fall on our way to MN for the winter.

Here are some pictures from this past week.

Emma and Grandma

Sad news.

So the test came back today and the hCG number went down.  This baby didn't make it.  Super sad.  The parents are deciding what they want to do from here.  Please pray for them...they are sad. 

Thanks for all of the prayers.

Dan and Beth

We're Pregnant!

So the hCG blood test came back today and it was at an 11!  Anything over 5 is considered pregnant!  The number is low so we are cautiously optimistic that it will keep increasing.  Please keep praying for me...I will have another test on Saturday and they want to see the number go up...hopefully double.  Go 22!!!! 

I will keep everyone updated as I know! 

I thank you all for your prayers.

Beth and Baby P

Work Week

Here are some pics of our dining hall experiences during work week. 

All the horses are here.  All 22 of them.  Our horse director Alex Crippin.  I made a deal with Alex that if I did his laundry this summer he would give Dan, Aaron and me some riding lessons.  We are all really excited about this deal!

Update of our last month

May 1st brought out Dan's Mom and Dad, Jane and Phil.  We had a lot of fun with them visiting and playing lots of Aquire.  Phil got to see the camp for the first time.  Dan had a good time showing off all of his good work.  They stayed a week and left on May 8th.

On the 15th of this month we and 10 of our GREATEST friends helped us move everything out of the townhome that we were in up to camp.  We managed to move everything in one move.  Thank goodness!  It was many of their first times up to camp.  It wasn't a very nice day so our bbq was held indoors amongst the clutter.  That night and the next day we were busy putting everything away.  All of the other full time staff moved up that day also.  It is sure fun to see everyone on a daily basis again. 

Then came the implant.  As we have told many of you, I, Beth, am trying to be a surrogate for a family in Eagle, CO.  Dan and I headed for Denver on Tuesday the 18th and a highly renowned clinic called CCRM (Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine) implanted one fertilized embryo.  I then got to spend 3 1/2 glorious days in a hotel suite waited on hand and foot by the intended mother.  We had a GREAT time.  I will have a blood test on Thursday the 27th to find out if the embryo stuck!  We would love your prayers around that.

Now to the present.  My parents came on Tuesday the day of the implant to be with the kids.  They are still here helping out because I am not suppose to lift more than 10 lbs. (ie. the kids!) 

More and more staff keep coming everyday and the camp is quickly coming together.  I drove the camp a couple days ago and it was exciting seeing the boats out at the lake and the picnic tables around the grounds.  We are definitely in camp food mode.  We had dino nuggets, and taco salads yesterday and grilled cheese and tomato soup today.  The cook this year is really trying...she added basil to the soup and it was very good!

Grandpa is busy with whatever he can get his hands on.  Today his project was making me garden boxes.  He is excited about planting potatoes and lettuce.

Grandma is busy playing with the kids and cleaning anything she can.  She is a great help to me.

I am hoping to get my flowers for my patio tomorrow.  The hummingbirds are out like crazy. 

Please check back regularly, as I will try to update multiple times a week with updates, praises and prayer requests. 

-Our most pressing prayer requests now are that camp would come together on time.

-For Dan and my bible study groups would be good matches and that we would all be well suited for each other.

-And for Baby P that it would grow to a strong baby