Hi there, it's been a while!!!

Hello beloved family and friends!

It has been quite a while since we've posted on here and we are sincerely sorry for that. So much has been happening in our hearts, home and lives it's hard to know where to begin.

Tobias

Wanna play big brother?

We welcomed our 2nd son, Tobias Emmanuel, into our lives March 14th! He's 3 months old already and is an absolute delight! Lately he's starting to drool, chew on everything and is already rolling over from his back to his stomach! He's our champion sleeper (most of the time) and we love watching the boys interact! As you can tell by the picture Tobias thinks Shiloh is the bee's knees! Tis great to dream of the lifelong friendship these two handsome boys will have.

Tobias Emmanuel's name has a very significant meaning for us in this season. His name means: The God who is good makes his home with us! This has been and continues to be a powerful theme in our lives.

Colorado

Prayer Mountain with Pike's Peak in background

View at Mueller State Park

Shiloh teaching Papa

A few of the locals

 Just wanted to share some pictures of where we live. We are blown away everything that this is actually where we live. Beautiful!
It is hard to believe that we've been in Woodland Park for almost a year already! The Father has done so much in our hearts over these last 11 months. Sometimes we've felt lonely, disoriented and confused but mostly just smothered in the sweet love of Papa. We had some folks over for a little dessert last weekend and after everyone left we realized that besides Holly, we'd known everyone there less than a year. But it doesn't feel like that at all!
As we pray and discern together we sense we'll be in Colorado long term but are still very open to the Spirit. Lately we've been thinking of our dream house and how amazing it will be to experience Papa's faithfulness in seeing that dream fulfilled. We'd love your prayers concerning all of this.

Saddleback

Tim modeling Saddleback bag for 5'3" customer

In April Tim accepted a new job, working from home as a customer service specialist for Saddleback Leather. Tim gets to write emails filled with humor, poems and care as well as chatting with customers on the phone. It has been such a blessing to work for a fantastic company that is doing some really unique things in today's business world. The owners, Dave and Suzette have really sweet hearts for the Kingdom. You can read the Saddleback story here. Our friends, Keenan and Pam, who Tim worked with at Moolala, also work for Saddleback here in Woodland Park!

Wedding Tour


Lastly, we'd love your prayers as we embark on a July 'wedding tour.' We leave Thursday, June 28th for our first wedding (Michael and Johanna soon to be Feamster!) in Tulsa. From there we drive to Minnesota to celebrate the holy matrimony of Tanner and Stacey! Then we drive to the southern part of the US for the fantastic festivities of Ryan and Maria's wedding July 21st. We'll most likely be driving through the night so the boys can sleep! Again, please keep us in your prayers.

We'll leave you with a few pictures of our attempts at high altitude gardening in our wee greenhouse.

We love you all and pray you grow daily in the knowledge of Papa's goodness, nearness, faithfulness and love!


Kramertribe

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

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!