Nepal Preparation

In just a few weeks our team heads to Nepal. Yikes!

I am so excited, and I'm truly humbled by the Lord's guidance and provision as time passes and everything gets taken care of. I have reached my trip goal for fundraising, and I am slowly gathering all the gear that I will need. Most of it I already have, but there have been a few pieces here and there that I've gotten to make the trip a bit easier. Plus, we finally invested in a Katadyn water filter. We've had several that have bummed out. We decided that it's time to stop getting filters that don't work. Katadyn all the way, apparently. In any case, it feels good to be on the home stretch, and I wanted to update ya'll.

A big thank you to everyone who played a part in helping me to reach my goal!

Team airfare and ground expenses are locked down, and now everyone is focusing on two things: 1) last-minute fundraising, and 2) trip gear and physical, mental, emotional and spiritual preparation. Our team meets one more time before we head out.

Since the next few weeks promise to be busy, I wanted to take the time to ask you to pray for us. Pray that God would do some awesome things in and through our team. Pray that God would speak to each individual. Pray for divine appointments, for miracles, and for a dramatic shift in our paradigms of how life should be lived. Most of all, pray that the name of Jesus would be lifted high in the remote villages of Nepal.

Also, if you'd like to know more about MountainChild, check out their website here. If you want to find out a bit more about the trip and the team, you can on Southeast's NEW WEBSITE!!

Thank you for your love and support!

Chicken Update

Well, I've done it. I've officially become the chicken lady. People send me pictures and blog posts about chickens. Empty egg cartons show up on my desk at work, and I have no idea who left them. When I catch up with friends and co-workers, one of the first questions out of their mouths is, "How are your chickens?"

It's true.

And I love it!

The update on the chickens is that they are doing quite well. As of mid-February, they were officially seven months old, so they are called 'pullets.' (They will be considered hens at one year of age.) They are also consistent egg-layers. One day we may get four. Another day we may get six. Overall, I think we're averaging between 3 and 3 1/2 dozen eggs a week. Incredible! 

It was a 6 egg kind of a day!

The first time we had our chicken's fresh eggs!

We've thoroughly enjoyed having our own fresh eggs, and we love being able to give them away to friends, co-workers and neighbors. I've decided it's one of the coolest ways to have an excuse to get to know your neighbors and to start a relationship with them!

We continue to learn a good deal, as new situations present themselves. One recent challenge was the cold temperatures, even for our cold-hardy chickens. When the temperatures were dropping to -15°F with a windchill of -30°F, we put a heavy painting drop cloth around the coop, and then a tarp over that to provide further insulation. Then we put a heat lamp inside the coop. 

There are differing opinions on providing heat sources for the chickens during cold temperatures, but we decided to help them out when I found dried drops of blood on the top of our heated water bowl inside the coop. It scared me enough that I decided I wasn't going to chance frostbite or anything worse by telling the chickens to "tough it out." 

In the end, they seem fine and are doing well. Here are some pictures from the last few weeks, as they've been enjoying the warmer temperatures post-polar vortex. :)

Anna & Nate (#8 Got Married!)

December was such a busy month - as it always is - and I'm only now getting around to processing and celebrating the events that occurred.

The highlight of the month was that my youngest sister Anna got married. She made a beautiful bride, and I'm so happy for her and for Nate. The biggest surprise for me was that on such short notice I was able to make the trip back to Virginia to celebrate with everyone. It was a fairly quick turnaround - arrived Saturday evening, the wedding was Monday, and I left Tuesday - but it was worth being present and part of the occasion.

The wedding was a small, family affair held at my sister Rebekah's home. Bryan, my brother-in-law officiated their ceremony. It was so low-key and lovely... it really was. The boys moved a bunch of furniture in the living room to make space for the chairs. I thought they did a great job of creating a suitable environment for the ceremony, and I really enjoyed myself. :) Good job, Rebekah and Bryan!

I love the Christmas tree!

A lovely table!

And, of course, we had to have some pictures with everyone (well, the ladies, anyway). It was really special to have all the girls present - all four Clementson sisters, as well as my brothers' wives Courtney and Rebekah, who are like sisters and might as well be! It was truly a special time to spend with these people whom I love so very much. Of course, just our core family has grown as everyone has gotten married. Of the eight Clementson children, six are now married, and there are four grandchildren, so that makes 20 right there... Bahaha! I love my family!

Anna and Mommie

The Clementson sisters (me, Anna, Sarah & Rebekah)

All the Clementson ladies

I really love the picture below, and I'm so glad I captured it. Bryan is sitting down with Anna discussing the final details of the ceremony right before all the ladies sat down together to pray over the ceremony and over the covenant of marriage that Nate and Anna made. 

The other highlight of the event was getting to spend an evening with my nieces and nephews. Rebekah and Bryan have four kiddos - two boys Micah and Nathan and two girls Chloe and Jane - and it was truly a precious time for me to hug and squeeze and play and tell them that Uncle Jody and Aunt Ruth love them a lot. They are growing up so quickly!

With Micah before the ceremony

With Janie!

Angry faces... sort of.

With Chloe - compliments of Jane :)

Another picture Jane took of Chloe and me

With Nathan

Every wedding is another reminder to me of the sacredness of marriage, and I leave such occasions with a renewed challenge to love my husband well. To serve him with all that I am. And that marriage - just like following Christ - is about the business of dying to self (and my selfish desires) day after day after day. It also serves as a reminder to me to pray for the couple, that they would love each other well and submit to one another. Tough stuff... but we're rooting for you, Anna and Nate! Congratulations!

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.    - Ephesians 5:21-28

Nepal, here I come!

Hey everybody!

I am so excited to write and tell you about an awesome opportunity that has presented itself. In just a few months - from March 22 - April 5, 2014 - I will be joining a team of people from Southeast Christian Church in Parker, CO that is heading to Nepal with the express purpose of partnering with an organization called MountainChild at work in the remote villages of the Himalayas. 

Yes, this is the same organization that Jody went with in November... and he came back and told me I had to go, too! So here I am, writing to tell you about this awesome organization and the opportunity I have to join them! :)

MountainChild’s vision is bold, and God is blessing their efforts to bring the Gospel to people who have truly never heard the name of Jesus. Their strategy is to focus on 5 CORE ISSUES: health, education, trafficking, child labor and the environment. The need is great, and the statistics are staggering. Concerning the trafficking issue alone, every year 16,000 boys and girls are taken from the remote villages of Nepal and sold into the slave and sex trade. Most never return to their villages. In one village MountainChild is at work, there are no more girls of marriageable age. I cannot even imagine the factors that contribute to making such a situation a reality.

On this upcoming trip, the program will be two-fold. Part of the team will remain behind in Kathmandu to focus on learning how Southeast can best come alongside MountainChild and aid them in their long-term anti-trafficking goals. The other part of the team will be trekking in the remote areas, doing community assessment for future development projects (clean water projects, sanitation, etc.). I will be going with the trekking group, so in preparation I’m hitting the stair master and will be hiking, hiking, hiking!

I am writing because I need your help! First of all, I truly do need your prayers. While I am helping to organize the trip and build the team stateside I need to prepare myself to take part in the adventure, as well. It will be a challenging trip and will be physically, mentally and spiritually taxing. For a short-term trip, this will be extreme in every sense of the word. I especially covet your prayers for me to be physically able to handle the trekking component. I love mountains, and I love backpacking, but I want to be prepared so I’m not sent back to Kathamandu! (Oh the shame!) Please also pray for the Holy Spirit to open up doors for us to share Jesus, and for wisdom in assessing the needs for future community development projects. 

And dear ones, I also need your financial support. My portion of the trip costs is $3,425, which will cover all airfare and ground expenses, and I am trusting God for this need. I am relying on His promises and faithfulness. If you wish to help, you can contribute online at my secure fundraising webpage:  http://store.sechristian.org/Ruth-Been-P1194C38.aspx. The donation deadline is March 8, 2014.  I look forward to celebrating God’s provision in this regard, and I am truly grateful for your support!

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about this trip or about MountainChild. Thank you again for partnering with me as we carry hope!

Much love,

Ruth

Refurnished Chairs: Happy Ruth!

Jody bought this set of table and chairs off of Craigslist our first year here in Colorado. I even included it in a blog post here! The table and chairs are a beautiful and well-crafted set - though not original Duncan Phyfe - and we've loved it. Nonetheless, I distinctly remember Jody saying (right upon purchasing them) that the seat cushions would need to be replaced.

Over four years later that time had come. The cushions on two seats had broken, and we worried that someone would eventually fall through and hurt themselves.

Initially we thought we could refurnish them ourselves, but as we attempted the project, we realized it was a bit more difficult than we had expected, and we wanted it to be done well. Through Denver Fabrics, we were referred to a business that could do a good job. We gave them our fabric, and voila!

Here's the finished work.

I confess that refinishing these chairs was a matter of prayer. :) One of those projects that takes up space in the back of your mind, ya know? And now when you come over, you'll have a place to sit!

Proud Grandparents

Every morning I get up, throw on my coat and my gloves and head out to the chicken coop to check on the girls (in chicken speak, this means 'hens'). The past few weeks have been especially challenging due to the low temperatures. The chickens have had absolutely no desire to leave the coop, so we have to be careful and make sure they've got food, clean (and thawed!) water, and that the coop is warm enough so they don't freeze to death.

So this past Sunday was no different... except I was in my bathrobe and PJs. I was in a bit of a hurry to get it all done before Mosaic's combined service at Englewood High, and I was running a little behind.

Food? Check.

Clean water? Nope. Okay, gotta change that out.

HOLD UP.

WHAT IS THAT I SEE OVER THERE?

Snow goes flying. Chicken poo is everywhere. Chickens are squawking... I'm all up in their business in that coop. 

I see eggs. 

Our chickens are laying eggs!

I run back in the house, because - of course! - I have to document this momentous occasion. I'm grabbing my cell phone (have to send a picture to Jody!), my camera for better quality pictures for the blog (of course), and not to forget a stinkin' container to hold all the eggs. Who cares about clean water when there are eggs?!!

We are so proud. Proud grandparents, as Jody likes to say. 

Six whole eggs. A treasure trove. An early Christmas! (Because it really is like Christmas to find presents every morning when I go out to check on them.)

And here's the only stellar container I could find to hold the initial bunch of eggs. I know. A Christmas cookie container was all I could find. (Hobby Lobby, here we come!)

Thursday Update: Including these six eggs you see, since Sunday we have gathered a total of 18 eggs. Yay!!

God's Faithfulness

Thirteen years ago I filled out my application to attend the College of William & Mary in beautiful Williamsburg, Virginia. At the time I was a high school senior, and I wasn't really sure how I was going to cover the cost of school. Since college was the natural next step, the only feasible way for me to go was to take out student loans. I also applied for scholarships - scholarships that would cover the full cost of school should I win them.

In the end, my college application process went smoothly. I filled out one application, early decision and submitted it in November. One month later I received my acceptance package. I was going to William & Mary!

A few months later the news arrived that I was the runner-up in both large scholarships. I confess I cried. It was a disappointment, and it meant that my mom and I would be filling out the FAFSA form for loans. It looked as though the Lord was going to provide for college for me in another way.

This month, I just paid my student loans all off. 

And I can say joyfully that God has been faithful. While I would have picked another way for school to be paid for, God has always provided a way for me to pay my loans on time.

God is so good, and I want to take the time to praise Him!

You are my God, and I will give 

thanks to You; 

You are my God, I will extol You. 

O give thanks to the LORD, for He 

is good, 

for His steadfast love endures 

forever. 

- Psalm 118:28-29

Jody in Nepal

Jody's off to Nepal!

I just got back from the airport, having dropped Jody off with a team of 11 from Southeast. He is heading on a mission trip from Nov 3-16 to serve alongside an organization called MountainChild at work in the remote areas of the Himalayas. We learned about the organization from our time spent in Korea, as our pastor who started LifeChurch in Korea, Jack Reid, also founded the organization.

Since Jody and I returned to the States and I have been working at Southeast, I was able to introduce MountainChild to the SE Missions/Outreach department. It has been a divine connection, and I'm thrilled to see how God has strengthened the growing partnership. I am sure it has everything to do with a mutual love of the mountains and the deep desire to see God's Kingdom expand to the most unreached of peoples.

In fact, these villages MountainChild is trying to reach really do bring a whole new meaning to the word 'remote.' For some of these peoples, it takes a long bus ride from Kathmandu to a stopping point, and then several days trekking just to get to some of these villages. Incredible. I love MountainChild, and I'm so glad my husband is up for the adventure!

We started marketing the trip at Southeast back in May/June, and I knew from the very beginning that Jody had to go. I mean, it includes all his favorites:

Jesus.
Our friends from Korea who are living in Nepal.
Friends here in Colorado.
Hiking/Trekking.
Mountains.
Did I mention mountains?

Mid-July he made the commitment, and we began the process of preparing him for this trip. God was incredibly faithful, and Jody was able to raise all the support he needed, including covering the cost of the equipment he needed for trekking (though he had a lot of what he needed already from our various adventures over the years). We are humbled and grateful for everyone who has stepped up to support us. We thank you all from the bottom of our hearts!

I am very excited about this trip from a professional and a personal standpoint (in ministry it's really hard to separate the professional from the personal, because isn't it ALL personal?!), as the team will be doing several things. First, they will be constructing a bio-sand water filtration system at MountainChild's newly acquired School of Frontier Missions right outside Kathmandu (seen in picture below).

Then, the team will be trekking into the remote village of Gatlang to assess the needs of a clean water facility there, as well as do an assessment of any other long-term needs there. Thirdly, there will be a soccer camp for the children in the slums of Kathmandu, using awesomely indestructible soccer balls that we purchased from One World Futbol Project.

As always, our heart and MountainChild's mission is that through such tasks as providing clean water, hygiene and sanitation training, and ultimately through all of MountainChild's 5 CORE ISSUES (Health, Education, Trafficking, Child Labor, and the Environment), that the Gospel might be preached and the name of Jesus would be heard and proclaimed to people that have never heard of Him!

Here's a few glimpses of the awesomely precious faces they'll see when they trek in to Gatlang.

Please be praying for Jody and for the team. And for me and the dogs and chickens... that we don't get too lonely around here. ;)

Succulents: Embracing the Desert

Though I was born in Colorado, my 'growing-up' years were spent in Virginia. Lush, beautiful, green Virginia. And I went to William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

So when I think of a garden, I think of this:

This picture is actually of the John Blair Garden in Colonial Williamsburg, a place where I spent hours and hours during college. I miss it a lot.

Especially since last weekend was Homecoming Weekend. I miss you, girls.

Anyway, since living in Colorado I have had to embrace a new kind of beauty. The desert kind of beauty, which is browner. Much, much browner. But beautiful nonetheless. And it's not all brown. There is one genre of plant that I have come to love a great deal: succulents.

They look like this:

They are unique in that they store most of the moisture in their stems and leaves in order to survive in more arid climates. And Colorado is definitely more arid than Virginia. :)

So I was on Pinterest last year, and I saw the most glorious project ever: a succulent wreath tutorial here. I was in shock and awe, and I decided immediately that I needed to do this project.

Apparently, you can cut a bit of the succulent plant off (which is then called a "cutting" or a "clipping") and this piece of the plant can then be placed in soil and can develop roots and become another fully stable and healthy plant. Incredible! I'd never heard of that before.

So I began the process of snagging a few succulent plants from Ikea, and over the next year, my succulents began to grow big enough that I could start taking a few clippings without killing the whole plant.

This was my experience with making a wreath:

1. Finding clippings was harder than I thought, especially clippings that are colorful and vibrant and diverse. It was also more expensive than I thought. I didn't have immediate access to a garden full of free succulents that I can get clippings from. So it took me longer to accumulate a variety of succulents to move forward. In fact, it took me about a year. And probably $50-75, if I'm really honest.
2. Each component/ingredient listed on the blog posting I found to be necessary to successfully complete the project. Perhaps others are more 'craft-savvy' than I am, but I honestly wanted to succeed, so I don't know how I would have done it without each key component.
1. Metal wreath frame - I needed both "sides" to contain the moss.
2. Sphagnum moss - I needed two bags. Three bags might have been fine if I wanted a very full frame.
3. Floral wire - It was very helpful for wrapping the moss around the frame. Mine was bright green, but it does "hide" under the moss, so it's not noticeable.
4. Floral pins - This helped hold the clippings to the moss. An absolute necessity for me. One bag was sufficient.
5. Rooting hormone - I had a year's worth of time to "test" this out on a bunch of clippings. I do believe it does make a difference. I think it cost $5-7 at a nearby nursery, but a little goes a long way.
6. Clippings - As I said earlier, you need a LOT of clippings to make a well-rounded, eye-catching wreath. I thought I had a lot of clippings, and when it was all said and done, my wreath didn't look at all as cool as the picture. Ha! So you do need a lot of diverse clippings to make a fun wreath.
3. Never trust bloggers when they say a project costs $10 and it took them an hour to do while their kiddo was down for a nap. As much as I'd like to say that, it was not true for me. It was more expensive, and it took a couple of hours - at least to do it WELL. The moss doesn't like to stay in the wreath. It was messy and unruly. I did eventually tame it, but it took longer, and somehow it still didn't look like the tutorial. Ha!
4. The tutorial was nonetheless helpful. I won't throw the baby out with the bathwater. The tutorial was helpful. It's a great place to start. Check out the links. Do your research. Go to Hobby Lobby and to your local nursery. And - if you want some cool clippings - I've seen some great ones on Etsy. 

This is how mine looked when it was done. Give it 6 months to a year. Hopefully it will be fuller and more vibrant. I may even add another clipping or two if I see a fun one. I've heard the lifespan of a succulent wreath is ~5 years. We'll see how it looks in a year or two!

And with the extra succulents I had, I filled in this pot below. Both the wreath and the pot will remain inside during the cold winter months while they take root. I'll be doing some research to see how succulents handle the cold, especially as a potted plant. My guess is that they're hardy plants, but not so hardy they could handle sub-freezing temperatures.

Jump on board the succulent plant bandwagon. They're so much fun!