family travels – 7Nomads

When I was thinking about doing a year in review post the first thoughts I had were pretty negative. It was not a normal year, and our plans had to change. I’m sure that most people had to learn to adapt in many ways this year because of the pandemic. For us, a traveling ministry family, traveling was somewhat hindered and ministry looked different. I would rather not complain about it, I have ranted and complained enough this year…

Instead I will talk about hope, and briefly review what 2020 was like for our family(We are a semi-nomadic family of 7, traveling part-time in our 36ft. RV for ministry).

Here is the brief review:

January – Indiana, Mississippi, Alabama, for ministry.

February – A quick trip to South Carolina to visit the Billy Graham library/museum (amazing and inspiring) then to Georgia to check out a missions program for our daughter Jessica. Ministry in Louisiana and then Texas.

March – Ministry in Texas, visit with my parents who were work-camping there, covid hits America, starting with the toilet paper shortage…(oh my goodness)

April – Ministry in Oklahoma, back to our home in Indiana.

May – Jessica finishes High School, her graduation is online, we participated in our living room with grandparents.

June-December – It’s a blur because of the pandemic, it feels a bit like one long day on repeat in some ways. However, we were able to minister in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and Missouri, and return home in between ministry opportunities. We went to a wedding in July, had a big birthday party for our Sophia in August, and made a quick trip to D.C. in October. We have spent time with family over the holidays, but everything has been a little bit different.

So, what does hope have to do with this year? Well, when things don’t go our way, sometimes it is hard to hope. It’s easier to expect the bad, and this year has been exhausting in many ways and full of disappointments. It’s hard to have hope for 2021 and beyond. But hope is vital. Too many people have become hopeless and discouraged, depression has been wrecking lives all across the world, with some even tragically turning to suicide – we must have hope. But how?

I think hope is a choice. Just like love is a choice, and faith is a choice. Sure, some people are easier to love than others, and some things are easier to believe than others, and some things naturally make us feel more hopeful. But ultimately we choose what we will love, and believe in, and hope for.

If hope is a choice, that means that I am the one in control of my feelings. I can choose to hope, or I can choose to despair.

So, let’s talk about hope. The phrases come to mind, “That gives me hope” or “I’ve lost hope” and they paint the picture of hope as a thing, something given or something lost.

Hope as a gift. But even if it is a gift, you have to choose to accept it, you can reject the thought of hope when it comes to mind. You can weigh the risk of being delighted by hope against the risk of being devasted by disappointment and choose to reject the thought of hope.

Hope lost. If hope is something you can loose, you can try to find it again, or you can give up your search. When hope is lost, despair, the opposite of hope is waiting to embrace us in darkness.

Misplaced Hope. We are hopeful about something, or we put our hope in something, or someone. But if we put our hope in something or someone that is not reliable, where does that leave us? Disappointed. So, I’m not suggesting that you put your hope in just anyone or anyone. It is important where you place your hope.

From where does my hope come? My husband gives me hope and fills my heart with love, my kids give me hope for the future with their bright smiles and fantastic ideas, every sunrise and sunset gives me hope for tomorrow, when winter changes to spring and then summer and then fall and then winter again, I have hope that life goes on.

But ultimately, above everything else, even when times are bad and everything seems to be falling apart, I have hope in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We just had Christmas, which reminds me of the beautiful, amazing story of a Savior born in the most unlikely of places in a pretty terrible time. Isn’t that just how God does things? He births hope in the darkness, in ways that we would never think up.

I can place my hope in Him, He is worthy of it. He never fails. I will choose to hope in Him, no matter what.

Hope gives strength. When living with disappointment, or in discouraging or difficult times, the gift of hope gives us strength and courage for tomorrow. Here are some great quotes about hope:

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” – Dale Carnegie

“Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.” – St. Augustine

“Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.” – Helen Keller

I will leave you with one of my favorite verses about hope.

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Romans 5:1-5

Thanks for reading along! I hope this new year finds you filled with hope!

If you would like to find out more about our ministry, Kingdom Pursuit Ministries, or more about this Jesus that gives me hope, go to www.kpministry.org

So we spent some time in Colorado recently. As a wonderful perk, my parents drove out from Indiana to meet us and explore for a week. Apparently we were not the only ones who thought of Colorado as a great summer destination, it was a bit more crowded than I remembered. We have visited this beautiful state three times now, once in the winter, to ski with family and friends, once in mid-August and this last time it was in the middle of July. I was very surprised to see the difference in crowd size from July to August!

As a traveling homeschool familiy we have fully taken advantage of the perks of visiting places in the off season. I should have planned out this trip a little better, and booked some campsites in advance, it was very difficult to find a last minute campsite for two RV’s and Colorado is not a dry-camping friendly state.

In spite of my poor forsight, we had a lovely time in Colorado. There is a reason it is so crowded, it is beautiful!

We started our visit with my parents at the Cheyenne welcome center in Wyoming. It was a great spot to meet and plan the week ahead. Wyoming is super relaxed about boondocking, we drycamped with my parents in this parking lot and picked up some supplies at the Walmart in town.

We knew that we wanted my parents to experience Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park so we were able to find a campground somewhat close to that area. We stayed at Eagle Campground at Carter Lake. We found the sites to be spacious with just enough shade to help keep us cool.

As soon as we got checked into our sites we made the trek to Estes Park. Going down Hwy 34 proved to be much more scenic and curvy than we thought it would be. Big Thompson River winds through the rocky canyon right along the highway. There were lots of people fly fishing and lots of things to see along the way We were happy to get out and stretch our legs in the scenic and somewhat touristy town of Estes Park.

Back in 2016, we had made the trek to The Rocky Mountain National Park, once there we drove on Old Fall River Road through the park. It is a crazy, hairpin, unpaved road that leads to the Alpine Visitor Center. My parents have been hearing about this exciting road ever since. My dad was so excited to drive it for himself, I think my mom was second-guessing her decision to come out and visit the mountains with us!

Unfortunately (or fortunately if you ask my mom), the Old Fall River Road was still closed for the season. We took the still-scary-but-paved Trail Ridge Road to the top. We found out that altitude changes are no joke, some of us were feeling bad up there at 11,000+ feet. Matt and my dad took two of our kids up the 120+ steps to the peak.

We drove around a bit more, enjoying the scenery and anticipating to see wildlife when the sun began to set. We were not dissappointed. On our way back down Trail Ridge Road, we saw a herd of over 100 elk! They were pretty used to tourists, people were approaching them and everyone was taking pictures. It was a magical moment with these beautiful creatures at the top of the mountains.

We got back to our campsite pretty late, and we decided it would be nice to spend the next day at the camp with no driving. We spent a few hours on a rented pontoon boat on Carter Lake, it seemed to be a perfect solution to the extreme heat.

The next few days we stayed in Loveland at the fairgrounds. We explored a few places by car from that location, including a nice church on Sunday; Focus on the Family, Garden of the Gods, and Cave of the Winds in Colorado Springs.

We decided to head even further south in Colorado and stayed at Lake Pueblo State Park. Special shout out to my mom for persevering and calling many campsites and finding one that had available space! Thanks mom for letting me revert to my childhood and rely on you to do all the grown up stuff. Did I mention that Colorado Springs is exceptionally crowded in July and it was impossible to find a campsite there?

Lake Pueblo State Park is very nice. Most of the sites have lake views and all of them are spacious and have lovely views. We were sad to hear from the camphost that someone had drowned in the lake the same day we arrived and were warned not to swim in the lake. This information along with the 100 degree weather helped us to decide to do indoor, air conditioned activities.

Matt found some interesting things to do nearby so the next morning we set out for the Royal Gorge. We stopped at some antique shops along the way in the cute town of Florence. The Royal Gorge is a pretty spectacular sight! There is a fantastic suspension bridge over the gorge, apparently the Empire State building could be placed in the gorge and there would still be 10 feet between it and the bottom of the bridge! We drove up to see the gorge, and walked along some of the trails at the top, but we didn’t actually go out on the bridge. Several in our group are a bit terrified of heights, and that, coupled with the fact that they were charging $28 a person, made it easy for us to say no thanks.

On our way back to the campground we decided to take Skyline Drive. It is a short drive with steep dropoffs on both sides. There are some cool dinosaur fossils along one portion of the road.

We had such a great visit with my parents, we have been driving so much this summer, so it was nice to be in one state and to take the time to explore, and to be with family.

Thanks for stopping by and reading along about our adventures in Colorado!

If you would like to find out more about our ministry, Kingdom Pursuit Ministries, go to www.kpministry.org

Tag: family travels

Hope is a Choice (2020 in review)

Family Fun in Colorado