YES THE WIND BLOWS WHEREVER IT PLEASES.....

DAY ONE:
Santa Barbara to Eureka, CA (drive: 10 hrs)

We packed up our car full of everything we could fit: Clothes, snax, pots and pans, sleeping bags, tent - in case our car broke down and we needed to camp on the side of the road... ya know just in case. ;)

I made lots of snax for Luke. They were gone pretty quick!

It took us about 10 hours to get up to Rio Dell, CA. which is by Eureka. It's on the coast and beautiful.

We stayed with my Dad's good buddy David Fouche'. It was so great. Such a wonderful man. I hadn't seen him since I was like 10 years old. The craziest thing is that he is like my dad incarnate. It's like they were brothers who were separated at birth or something. So cool!

One of his sons Ben walked in the door while we were sitting on the couch and we started chatting it up. Come to find out that Ben had been thinking about doing a school of worship up in Montana! Oh how interesting... we happened to be going that way. We encouraged him to get back out there for the Lord. It was a great time.

DAY TWO:
Eureka to Portland, OR (Drive: 10 hrs)

"On the road again!" Another 10 hours! Organic Peanut butter and banana sandwiches go a long way. =)

We spotted this Elk on the side of the road in the middle of no where... We were stoked.
The beautiful Oregon Coast.
This is my good friend from high school Kale and his wife Kelly. They live in Portland and let us stay with them. We had a blast checking out the city, going to awesome coffee shops (there is no shortage here- and they all make Starbucks seem low end) We went to their church and just got a quick snap shot of their lives. We really liked Portland.

DAY THREE:
Rend The Heavens

Another super cool confirmation that we were supposed to take this trip is that my old small group leader from my DTS in Montana (10yrs ago) plays in this band called Rend The Heavens. They are so worshipful and the most passionate band I know. They are on iTunes if you want to check out their music. Anyhow.... Before we left on this trip I had to check out their website to see if they were touring anywhere in that area... AND THEY WERE.... the DAY we were driving through!! So cool. Luke has always wanted to see them play.. So we went to this Christian festival (at Mount Hood Village) and met up with them. It was good to reconnect!


Aaron SternkeAaron and his beautiful wife Jillian!

I also found this AWESOME health food store where you can sample all their jellys and peanut butter. So cool...(there are tons of stores like this up here - "that's it I'm moving to Portland! Juuust kidding)
DAY FOUR:
Salem meets YWAM Kona

Okay ANOTHER amazing divine appointment is that the very next day our leader from YWAM Kona- Dan Baumann and friend from DTS Tim Feddes- happened to be speaking at the Salem base for a week. Dan found out we would be passing through the exact day he and Tim were flying in so we stayed and hung out with them. Our other friends from DTS were there too... we had no idea.. What a blessing!

(left to right): Luke, Tom, Caroline, Andy and Dan.
DAY FIVE:
Salem to Lakeside, MONTANA!! ( Drive: 11 hrs )


WE MADE IT!!!
YWAM MONTANA!
This is the amazing new student center.
This is the top of the mountain that the base rests upon.
So beautiful!
This is Flathead Lake, about a 5 minute walk from the base.
It is the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi!

We got together with our friends and they decided to immerse us quickly into Montana culture so they took us to Moose's, a lovely cowboy type restaurant. This place is in no way trying to be "cowboy".. This was the "real thang."

DAY SIX:
"Okay Lord what do you have for us up here? You told us to come and so we are looking for your hand in this. We trust you will guide us."


We woke up in the morning and found out that the Fall DTS was about to start and everyone at the base was quickly getting a ton of last minute things into place. So we decided to help.

There was so much going on: dusting, sawing, moving chairs and tables, organizing whole class rooms, setting up the new sound system, etc. It was neat because through serving we ended up meeting almost all the staff on base.


The Lord started to open doors...




Over the weekend we went to Glacier National Park. It is INCREDIBLE!

So..... many of the staff members were really excited that we had obeyed the Lord and had just come up here on a whim. Kristy, the DTS director, really started to feel that us coming up here was another confirmation of something that has been stirring in her heart and the other leaders hearts over this past year. They had been sensing that God was about to do something new, that the base was going to begin to change in some way.

So we began to pray, "Lord are you telling us that we are going to be staying here?" At first it didn't look like there was any housing available etc. but the leaders were really encouraging us that if we felt like God wanted us to stay that they would make room for us. We asked the Lord that if he wanted us to stay that He would have to provide housing. The very next day we heard about a guy who needed someone to sublease his place, which is rare in this fall season. We thought, "sweet, a little dorm room would be great!"... well come to find out it is a totally furnished 3 bedroom house right on the base!!!

What Lord! You are so awesome!

So after praying and seeking the Lord we feel that
He has opened the doors for us to
STAY in Montana!!
Yup crazy!

We don't know how long but so far it
looks like we'll be here till at least March or April -
could be longer, we'll see what He says!

The leadership feel that there is something new on the horizon and will be working with us to spearhead a new vision here.

We all are not sure what all that will look like but we know this is where God has us and that He will show us as we go along. One thing they want us to do as staff is to pour into the young DTS students, many of them who come from quite broken families. (we are so excited about this) For now, we will be working in the mornings, discipling students etc and in the afternoons working in the kitchen helping prepare food for the 300 or so people here at YWAM Montana.

Keep us in your prayers as we discover all that He has for us here. That we are able to get enough winter clothes, and financial support. God has been SO FAITHFUL so we are just excited to see how it all comes together.

BLESS YOU ALL... Thanks for following along our journey with Jesus...
There is never a dull moment with God!

Luke and Bethany

p.s.
Here's a little something fun to watch. They have a welcome night here called "Welcome to Montana Night" where everyone dresses up the most hick they can be... it's hilarious. We had a huge BBQ and a full country band and square dancing. It was a blast! Some of these costumes though I'm not sure what they were going for... =)












Well there you go.. from SB to Hickville ... what is God going to do next?