Washington

we've been spending lots of time with family and friends before we leave the country.

Joseph's family and Christy's uncle Bob (Bob is the one you see here devouring the jar of smoked salmon we brought to him. It was great to see someone enjoying Alaska's goodness so unreservedly.

It's great to see our nephew Liam again. He's quite the champ and has amazing parents!

We had a day in Seattle this week to get some last minute details taken care of like getting our digital fingerprints taken. Then we tried to find fed ex for something like 3 hours until we eventually found a fed ex truck and the fellow was nice enough to lead us to where we needed to go. We got to spend a few hours with our friend Taylor (wonderful bearded fellow that he is) and check out his art show at the Chai House in Seattle.

We will know by Monday if we have our visas for UK! We are starting to get excited.

love and blessings,

Christy

Thank God for His last-minute style

Today, we received our certificate of sponsorship for the UK (the day before we were hoping to send it) which is amazing after waiting for over a month...We just had to get on the road...ferry rides to and from Alaska are always a great time of reflection and transition.

We are quite blessed as of late to be the recipients of a NEW CAMERA with which we will be hopefully taking great pictures of our Journey through the years to come. After almost a year of being camera-less this is a real treat and an upgrade to say the least! These pictures are among the first we have taken with it.

Tomorrow we are sending off our applications for visas. Yay! We missed the storms on our 19 hour drive through Canada. The skies were blue almost the whole way, ...a bit of rain near the end. Quickly got through the borders, and had a good rest last night.

Here's a poem by Irish poet Joseph Plunkett, executed by British soldiers in 1916 for his part in the Easter Rising:

"I See His Blood Upon the Rose"

I see his blood upon the rose
And in the stars the glory of his eyes,
His body gleams amid eternal snows,
His tears fall from the skies.

I see his face in every flower;
The thunder and the singing of the birds
Are but his voice - and carven by his power
Rocks are his written words.

All pathways by his feet are worn,
His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea,
His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn,
His cross is every tree.

Makes us think of this one great truth: The earth is the Lords, and all that is in it.

Be blessed,
J and C

Ah...

sigh, safe and sound after about 13 hours of driving through B.C. today. God cleared the skies for us..ferry ride from Ketchikan was good too! We had a good Thanksgiving dinner send off and everything is good! We are in Washington with Joseph's family and glad to be out of the car.



We will put a few Canada photos on here tomorrow.
Time for rest.
love,
J and C

Northern Ireland

Ah.........Thanks be to God, we are headed for Northern Ireland.
We are way excited, and a bit amused.
We are going to be with ywam.
Leaving Alaska in a bit over a month...stopping in Seattle, SanDiego and New York before we head to the UK!
We will start using the blog much more often as we begin this journey.

Hooray!
J and C

Alaska!

We are in Alaska again and happy about it!
Working and fishing for the summer.

Liam Patrick

We have a new nephew! Michael and Dawn's baby, Liam. We got to meet him on his birthday last week, which was wonderful. He's spectacular!
A good time spent with family...

And while we were there we got to see some spring daffodils too!... Life springing up all around...

Moving again....

O taste and see that the Lord is good!

We have been housesitting for
2 and a half months in a lovely place in Whitefish. Thank you Patti and Jerry!
Today we are moving in with our friends the Taylors...it will be good to have some time with them before we head to Alaska again.

Here are some photos of what's happening around here, Joseph's Birthday...
and a mix of spring, and not-so-surprising snow storms.
A couple photos of Big Mt. where Joseph has been spending a lot of his winter snowboarding.

A lovely day to you!
-the Rauwolfs

It's been a while...

which is partly what i'm writing to say.
but today is Joseph's birthday, an enjoyable day so far. full of the glories of God and as Joseph said, God filled the sky with his favorite color - blue.

we need to go somewhere interesting so we have something interesting to write about.

we'll see.
we're doing fine. a few weeks left of school.

I am very THANKFUL for Joseph, a mighty fine man.
May he have a Birthday filled with the love of God and jooooooooooooyyyy...............................

we are going to Alaska in may and are stoked!
lots of love to you.

Thanks be to God!

We are glad to be in Montana again....
Joseph is back to work at Coffee Traders...
Christy is taking a class already - microeconomics. oh boy!

We have a place to house-sit in for a couple months, about a minute from Joseph's work and a few minutes from a cross-country skiing track, so that is a great blessing.

Hope you're all having a good start to 2009.
love,
Joseph and Christy

Colorado Christmas

A wonderful time was had by all...the drive from Montana and back was blessed, no blizzards!
All 17 of us had a ball...finding and decorating a Christmas tree, meeting John and Naph's friends, staying up late and playing about 100 games of Peanuts. We enjoyed an Alaskan version of Christmas dinner with four kinds of fish, goose tongue and other deliciousness.
God is good to us. It was a great way to close 2008, and start out the new year! Lots of love and joy,
-Joseph and Christy

Good day to you!

wow, have we been busy.
this is finals week, and we are leaving in a few days to go be with family for Christmas! yay!

Montana is having a cold snap, -20 or so...it's the kind of weather that makes your nose hair freeze the minute you step outside. :)

Also, we just found out we are moving out of the house we've been staying in, so we are packing...
God is good.
we are excited for a new chapter...

We have a 2-3 day drive to Colorado coming up, so keep us in your prayers

Lots of love and joy!
J and C

Christy has been enjoying painting. learning alot! It's finally getting snowy here - the ski mountain still hasn't opened.

We are driving to spend 2 weeks with family for Christmas!

Happy December to everyone!

God bless you!

-Joseph and Christy