Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!

2011 has been a great year full of many surprises and life lessons. We started out the year in Minnesota living with 5 other adults and 2 other kids. Tim was working mostly full time hours at Sholom while Dana stayed home with Shiloh and watched our friends' daughter 3 days a week.

In March we celebrated Dana's Grandma's 80th birthday and bought an RV from some dear friends in Missouri. We drove the bus back to Minneapolis (mostly fueled by used veggie oil) and we prayed about traveling with friends to Rainbow Gatherings. We had just paid off all of our debt (thank you Jesus!) and were ready for something new.

In May we went to a national 24-7 prayer gathering in Tulsa, OK. Again we drove our RV (see picture) mostly on used veggie oil and enjoyed a refreshing weekend with Dana's family as well as dear friends from 24-7 Prayer. During the weekend gathering we had some great conversations and Father brought a lot of clarity to our hearts.

As a result we moved to Woodland Park, Colorado, in July to rest and grow in deeper understanding of Father's love for us through his family, the Church. We spent a few months of simply 'detoxing' from city and intense community living. Our days consisted of going on walks, playing at local parks, reading, painting, going on hikes, visiting the local farmer's market and starting new friendships. During this time Tim found a used pottery wheel and started making lots of pottery, some of which he has been able to sell! The most amazing part of it is all is that Tim's wrists, which you probably have been praying for, have been doing awesome! Some folks at a fellowship here prayed for Tim's wrists a few months ago and they have been feeling fantastic. Praise Jesus!

After many months of job searching Tim got a job at Moolala. Unfortunately they made major lay offs just two weeks later. Tim took the in between time to make more pottery and started selling some pieces on Facebook. Since then Tim has been taking orders for Christmas and shipping pottery to several states across the U.S. After only a few weeks of searching for jobs Tim got a job at the local UPS Store and has been there for a month already.

In November we hosted most of Dana's family for a weekend to celebrate Shiloh's 2nd birthday. It was a wonderful time of celebration and Dana's twin brother even got engaged on the same day as Shiloh's birthday party!!!!! Ryan and Maria will be getting married in Texas in July and we plan to attend. We also enjoyed a week long visit from Jake, Rachel and Donovan in October as well as a week long visit from Tim's mom in early December. We are thankful to have this time with family even though we moved far away.

As if there wasn't enough to rejoice in already, we also made the joyful announcement that we are expecting another baby in March!!! Dana has been doing great though she is starting to feel more and more uncomfortable. Little Kramer is growing and doing great. Little Kramer seems to be just as active as Shiloh and eager to come out and play in a few months!

We will be traveling to Bartlesville to celebrate Christmas with the Nagele's. Dana and Shiloh will remain until Jan. 2 while Tim returns Dec. 27th in order to work.

As we look forward to the New Year our hearts are full of hope, joy and peace. We are so excited for baby #2 to be welcomed into our lives. We are excited to grow further in relationships out here as we continue to settle in. We are excited to see the family of God growing together in love as we follow Jesus together. We are excited to express God's creativity through painting, pottery and parenting. We are filled with hope for our families, friends and neighbors to understand God's love for them more. We are filled with joy in the presence of our loving Papa who lavishes his love on us as his children. We are filled with peace even when the world around us continues to spiral down and down.

Praying for God's rich presence in each of your hearts this Christmas and New Year!




Kramertribe

Update

Hey Everyone!

We just wanted to give a quick update and ask for prayer.

Tim enjoyed two great weeks at Moolala before finding out last Thursday that Moolala has to make major layoffs. It is very disappointing but we are staying in Papa's love.

We would love prayers for:

Favor with a new job.
Peace during this season.
The other individuals and families affected by this lay off.
Continued direction for our time in Colorado.
Grace for Dana's body as baby #2 continues to grow.

As Tim looks for another job he continues to dream of pottery. If you would like to purchase any of Tim's pottery to help us out in this time here are a few ways to do so:

Go to Tim's new facebook page (pictures of pieces coming later today).
Email Tim at mplspoetree@gmail.com and let me know what you might like to buy. I am able to do custom orders on some things as well.

We feel very supported by everyone here, there and elsewhere. Thank you so much for your prayers in this season.

Exciting News

Baby

Our last blog contained the great news that we are expecting. We wanted to give a quick update. Yesterday we had our 20 week ultrasound appointment. We did find out the gender of this little mover, so, if you want to know and do not know already, just send us an email.
Baby is doing wonderfully and so is Dana. We continue to be amazed at God's creativity in pregnancy. We were able to see baby's foot and can tell already that baby's foot is like Tim's!!! See picture to the right. We are right on 'target' for an early March birth. Shiloh is going to be a great big brother. He is getting so big and will be 2 next month! He is currently getting all 4 of his 2 year molars in.

Job
Our other bit of exciting news is that Tim has a job!!! He starts Monday (the 24th) and will be working for Moolala, a deal-of-the-day company. Tim will join a small team of 4 others who make up the Member Experience Team (customer service). The pay is really good for Colorado, there are benefits and a Mac laptop! Oh yeah, and it is right in town, only 1 mile from our house. Thank you all for praying with us over these last several months. Tim will be working 25-35 hour a week to start out. Please keep us all in prayer during this transition.

On October 8th we had around 8 inches of snow! Here is a picture of Shiloh all suited up for his first Colorado snow adventure. Remind any one else of 'A Christmas Story'?

Fantastic Fall Family Fun

Baby!!!!!
That's right friends, we are having another baby! Dana has been feeling great overall and is 4 months along. For those of you calculating that means we will be having this sweet little baby around the beginning of March. We are really excited for this gift to our family and Shiloh is going to be an awesome big brother. It is common for him to walk about the house randomly saying, 'Big brother Shiloh' or giving baby a kiss. He also likes to wrap his stuffed animals in blankets, hold them in his arms and whisper, 'Shh shh shh.'


Creativity
One of our favorite things of our time in Colorado so far has been lots of time for creativity! Many days of the week, during Shiloh's nap, Dana can be found working on an oil painting while Tim is in his pottery 'studio' throwing pots. This has brought much life to both of us. Though Tim does not have a kiln, he has been able to connect with several potters and even has the opportunity to participate in a wood kiln firing next month! More on this to come soon. Please visit Tim's pottery blog for updates as well.



For those of you who may not know, Tim also has been working on a fun creative music project centering around the theme of gold prospectors. Colorado has a rich (pun intended) history of gold prospecting so it has been fun to learn about that. For those of you who want to know more about Tim's project please visit his Prospector Hip-hop website.


Also, if any of you or anyone you may know, would like to order pottery please let us know. Tim is currently taking orders for custom mugs or anything else you may desire. Though there is no website yet Tim would be glad to email you pictures of past/current work. Just email, call or send us a message on facebook.


Future
We continue to pray and dream with our Father of the present and future. We have felt really blessed to meet and connect with many folks out here already. We believe God is giving us little glimpses of our future. We are enjoying time with friends that we know already, with new friends, weekly fellowship, random parties and refreshing time spent at the nearby house of prayer.
God continues to put an emphasis on family-both natural and spiritual and we know this is going to blossom more and more as we wait on him. We are loving being in the mountains, in a small town and continue to dream of someday having some land with a house for our family, hermitages for weary people to come rest, a big garden, an art studio.....yeah, it is a big dream. We are content here and love what God is doing in and around us. As of right now Tim still has not found a job. He continues to look as we all pray and wait on our trustworthy Father.
We love you all and pray God's peace and joy fills you this Fall. We send Father's rich blessings to you all from the mountains of Colorado where we have already had our first snow (no accumulations.)


Love,

Kramertribe!!!

colorado welcome

Hey everyone,

We made it safely to Woodland Park and are settling in. We made the journey and 3 days and got here two weeks ago today. Woodland Park is vastly different from Minneapolis but we really enjoy it. Right now life consists of getting up, going on our morning walk, playing at the park, seeing deer eating in peoples' yards, hanging out at home, Shiloh napping while we unpack, read, look for jobs, afternoon playing, dinner and an evening walk.

Everytime we go out our door we see Pike's Peak and surrounding foothills. It is breath-taking and we are in awe of God's creativity.

Shiloh is adjusting very well and enjoys being outside playing so much. We think he is even getting a tan!

Some highlights already include: a wonderful hike at a near by State Park, getting to spend time with Holly several times a week, connecting with a local house of prayer, lots of sunshine, and meeting local potters who will fire our pottery for very reasonable price!

We would appreciate your prayers in the following areas:

- Healing for Tim's wrists that continue to ache and tingle.
-Direction for job search for sources of income.
-Grace in the transition as everything is different.
-Discernment for opportunities with local fellowships.

Hey, We are moving

That's right dear friends and family, kramertribe is moving.

Over the past year and a half, and especially in the last few months, our hearts have been in a season of preparation for change and movement. In the last few weeks we have had much focused conversation and prayer. The result is a decision to move to Woodland Park, Colorado.

It has been a very tough decision but we are excited and have much peace about the decision. We feel a lot of joy, peace and safety with our Father to take this step, or leap, into something very new.

"What will you do in Woodland Park?" "Why Woodland Park?" "Where is Woodland Park?" "Did you get a job offer?" "Who is in Woodland Park?"

We are guessing most of you are asking at least a few of the above questions. Most of them should be answered in the rest of this blog, but if not, or not as adequately as you desire, do not hesitate to ask us. By then we might be able to tell you. haha!

Woodland Park is nestled in the Rocky Mountains west on 24 from Colorado Springs and surrounded by the Pike National Forest. We will be renting a 2 bedroom house, working jobs, spending time with friends-old and new, and enjoying God, each other and God's beautiful creation. The decision to move here has mostly to do with an invitation from God and from his family in Woodland Park, to have a season of restoration, healing and recovery of who we are in God.
You may remember us writing in a blog last year about a retreat called Churchthink hosted by Ben and Robin Pasley of Enter the Worship Circle. Though the retreat was canceled we still got to spend a day with Ben, Robin and some of their friends in Woodland Park. Shortly after our dear friend Holly moved in with Ben and Robin. Since then she has pestered and invited us to move there. In the last year we have received much encouragement and teaching through Ben and Robin via music, books and blogs. The passion of the hearts of these fine folks in Woodland Park is to shepherd and parent the beautiful family of God (Church) into her amazing inheritance as sons of God, made possible by adoption through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. This resonates very deeply with our hearts.

So, without much of a clue as to what to expect we are planning on moving to Woodland Park the end of July. We are excited and sad at the same time. There will be many great but hard partings with many dear friends in Minneapolis. For those of you in Minneapolis, stayed tuned for a going away/sending out party sometime in July.

We would greatly appreciate your prayers for:

-Continued clarity in this transition.
-Grace for Shiloh in all of this change.
-Continued open hearts to hear and follow our Papa.
-Trusting God's provision for jobs and such.
-Powerful transformation, renewal and healing in this season.
-Open hands to receive all Papa has for us as his sons.



Shiloh mowing with Grandpa Nagele. Wheeee!

What happened?

Where did they go? (Shiloh's favorite expression.)

We are still alive and well. Though we have no posted anything on here since September life has been very full for us. We had a year end letter ready but never got around to posting it. Sorry. Many of you received a snail mail copy of the letter and for those who did not we are sorry.

Shiloh
Shiloh is almost 15 months old! He is such a joy and delight. His favorite thing to do is to run around throwing, kicking and dribbling balls, balloons and anything else that is round. He astounds us with his ability to run and kick. Some see a soccer star in the making. Ha!
Shiloh has also become very fond of reading books, trying to say words, wearing our clothes (see picture above) and yes, still loves cats. We are so thankful for the gift of laughter that he is in our lives and often watch in awe, wondering what this little man will become.

Dana
Dana continues to watch little Isabel three days a week at home. She enjoys going to the YMCA weekly, cooking wonderful meals, spending time with other moms and babies at playgroup and bringing much life to all around her. She is dreaming of spring and summer when she can be outside on walks, bike rides and working in the garden. She also dreams of having more time for creating through painting and sewing.



Tim
Tim continues to seek a balance in life at home and work. Beginning next week he is transitioning back to a part time position at Sholom after many months of mostly full time work. His new position is Monday-Friday, 6am-10am, as well as being on-call. This is very exciting as his wrists continue to be greatly affected by carpal tunnel syndrome.
He will continue leading the non-denominational services at Sholom every other Sunday. This has been such a blessing and Tim looks forward to it every time. You can read some of his homilies from these services on his blog. Also on his blog you can find updates about his pottery ventures.



We are all very excited for the season that we are entering. There are some really exciting possibilities in the present and future. God continues to teach us about his kingdom and unfailing love. We continue to keep open hearts and ears to what the Holy Spirit is saying. Thank you all very much for your love, support and friendship. We are realizing more and more the blessing of meaningful relationships in this life. Peace be with you each.

Kramertribe