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

Shana Tova! (Happy New Year!)

Shana Tova everyone!
This week marks the Jewish 'New Year' called Rosh Hashana. It is a joyful time of blessing God and blessing one another with the prayer for a sweet new year celebrated by eating honey, apples, challah bread with raisins and asking God's blessing on the coming year. We truly say, 'Shana Tova' to each of you.

Shiloh
Shiloh is 9 1/2 months and doing well. He has been crawling for a few weeks and is pulling himself up on things. He just cut his sixth tooth this week! He is still as cute as ever. Though we are sometimes exhausted we still love being parents and can hardly believe Shiloh will be a year old in a few months. Tim and Dana
We are doing pretty well. There are some exciting opportunities on the horizon. One exciting opportunity is that we are hoping to be part of a prayer ministry training class. This class covers a myriad of topics and will equip us to pray for people from diverse backgrounds. The class will meet every other Tuesday evening from October through May. We are looking forward to times of worship, teaching and small group prayer. Most of the folks involved are older generations so we look forward to gleaning much from their wisdom. The ministry is called All Things New.

Another opportunity that opened up is at Tim's work, Sholom Community Alliance. Even though it is based on Jewish philosophy, there is a significant number of Christians. As a result they have volunteers lead Christian services on Sunday mornings. The man who has led them for the last six years is moving and upon hearing that Tim has a theology degree the chaplain and rabbi asked if he would want to lead the services. He said yes and will lead his first one this Sunday. It is a wide open opportunity to lead the service in anyway.

Dana started her 'day care' this month and is watching our friends daughter Wednesday-Friday. The adjustment is going well although it is hard for Shiloh to share his mama. We are thankful for the opportunity to help Josh and Courtney as well as the opportunity for Dana to work from home.

Prayer Requests

Grace for Dana as she adjusts to watching Izzy and Shiloh.
Discernment for Tim as he leads services at Sholom.
Wisdom and healing for Tim who has carpal tunnel syndrome in both arms.
Open hearts as we start the prayer training in a month.
Thanksgiving for Shiloh's growth and development.
Thanksgiving for all the new opportunities in our lives.

July 2010

Hey everyone!
We decided it is due time for an update about our lives. Shiloh is eight months old already! He has three teeth and is working in two more right now. He will probably start crawling any day now and we are sure walking will follow close behind. We have been enjoying summer in Minneapolis. The pictures are a sampling of the beautiful flowers all over our yard thanks to Sara's hard work.It has been a nice change of pace to spend so much time at our house and with family.







After a month of job searching, four interviews and two job offers, Tim has a job! He is a janitor at Sholom Community Alliance in St. Paul. Sholom started out as the House for the Jewish Aged in 1908 and has evolved into a very nice hospice, nursing home, assisted living, equal opportunity housing apartment facility. Right now Tim is working 25 hours a week and has night and weekends to be with the fam! Thanks for your prayers.

Dana will start her job the end of August. She will be watching our friends Josh and Courtney's daughter, Isabel Grace. We are excited for this season of life and thankful for God's provision of jobs.


In other exciting news, we are building a pottery studio on our front porch. The picture above is the wall and door Tim and Andrew framed and walled. When completed it will be home to a brand new pottery wheel that we are buying together with the Howards. The Howards will also be purchasing a used kiln so we will be able to throw, trim, glaze and fire in our house! There is a lot of work to be done but it is definitely worth it. We are dreaming together of doing a couple sales a year on our front porch. We would be selling pottery as well as other handmade goodies all from our housemates. Stay tuned!

This month we enjoyed visits from the two grandmas and great-grandma. We are looking forward to grandpa beaver being here next weekend as well! We also enjoyed a visit from our dear friend Lydia who is from Holland. Overall life is good.Below is a picture of 'the twins' Leif and Shiloh. Though Leif, Andrew and Sara's second son, is three months younger he is bigger than Shiloh! We love you all and welcome your calls, emails, letters or visits! Shalom!

Pilgrimage part 2

Midwest
After a lovely month in Albuquerque we headed to the Midwest to visit more family and friends. We brought with us several boxes of Tim's pottery. We unpacked the kiln Monday and left Wednesday evening. Whoo! To see pottery and read about the firing go to Tim's blog.

We stopped by Bartlesville, OK for a day of rest before heading to Southwest City, MO to camp with friends. We spend a rainy fun weekend in conversations, walks, fireside storytelling and a trade circle. Tim was able to trade some of his pottery for various things like homemade goat's milk soap, homespun yarn and handknit socks! We were refreshed in the fellowship, learned about some yummy edible wilds and even got some sassafras root for some homebrewed root beer!
We then spent a few days in Siloam Springs, Arkansas where we went to college. We had a great time visiting old friends and even a few professors. We had fun remember lots of dear memories from our years in Siloam.

We are now back in Bartlesville for a week and a half. We are getting more and more excited to be back in Minneapolis.

Shiloh
Believe it or not Shiloh is 6 months old already! He is sitting up pretty well, eating some solids and growing every day. Everywhere we go people are drawn to Shiloh like insects to light and comment on how adorable he is. We love being able to introduce him to friends and share him with family. He is a daily reminder of how many people have prayed for us.

Here are some pictures and videos of the little guy. Shalom!

First leg of our pilgrimage

Lincoln, Denver and Woodland Park

We have had a great pilgrimage so far. We have been very encouraged and blessed by God's presence each part of our journey. Shiloh has been a traveling champion though he has let us know when he is tired of being in the car.

Our first stop was in Lincoln, Nebraska to visit Dana's grandma and grandpa. Shiloh is the first grandchild on both sides. We had a wonderful visit and Shiloh really enjoyed being with his great grandparents as well as lunch with his great uncle and aunt.

From Lincoln we drove to Littleton, Colorado for a day. We stayed with our friends from JBU and had fun reminiscing about the 'good old days.' We enjoyed a warm sunny day and even got a little sun burn! They say we are closer to the sun because of the altitude.

After a short visit in Littleton we headed to Woodland Park, Colorado, where we stayed for 3 days. We stayed at our friend's mountain home but missed him because he was on tour in Iowa! We had a very restful time at his house even though the altitude seemed to really bother Shiloh a lot. On Friday, we spent the day with Ben and Robin Pasley. They are part of Enter the Worship Circle and Churchthink. The retreat was canceled but they were gracious enough to share most of a day with us. We hungout, ate lunch, had great conversations, Tim had male bonding time in the garage and even got prayed for! It was a very encouraging day and helped us process our time at Source.

On Saturday we spend the day together as a family. Hard to believe this was the first time we had a whole day just as a family! We played, went on a hike in the beautiful Colorado high country, took naps and packed up our things. Our souls were refreshed and encouraged greatly in Woodland Park. We headed down to Albuquerque Sunday morning. We will be in Albuquerque for a month. Look for an update in that time about our time in Albquerque. Thanks for your prayers!

kramertribe happenins

Well, hard to believe but it is almost April already. Equally hard to believe is that we have had Spring like weather for weeks in Minneapolis!

We are just one week away from the beginning of our two month road trip. Unfortunately, the trip has changed significantly. Fortunately, we have learned to be flexible and trust that God is orchestrating all things.
The churchthink retreat has been canceled but we are still going to spend a few days in Colorado with Ben and Robin. We will then head to Albuquerque to be with Tim's parents. Tim's dad has been looking for work for months and recently acquired two jobs. This is wonderful but unfortunately means he will have much less time to teach Tim pottery. The 24-7 prayer gathering will not be in Tulsa so we will not be attending that either! God certainly has something different in mind for this trip.
We recently celebrated the marriage of our friends Levi and Becky in Kansas City. We got to see lots of friends and had a wonderful time. Tim was able to give away some of his first pieces of pottery as wedding gifts!

Shiloh is growing and doing great. He weighed in at 15 pounds 1 ounce at his four month check up. He has been slobbering all over and gnawing on his hands for weeks-teething! Every week he seems to be even more alert, vocal and expressive. He recently started rolling over from his tummy to his back! Here are some pictures of the little one and a video of him rolling over fresh from today!