Prayers Please!

It's been one of those weeks where you throw your hands up in the air and say "bring it on Lord!" because you feel like He is throwing everything else your way and might as well bring whatever else may happen too.

Zoe's first treatment for her bowel obstruction went well and we wait a few days now for the second round. Once that is over with she will have a little procedure to look further into the mass that was found through her x-rays and ultra sound. Pray that she can continue having such an amazing attitude and not really realize what is going on through the whole process.

The phone rang late last night-well late for a call to be coming from my dads house(thanks caller ID). My dad was taken to the emergency yesterday after a co-worker found him laying on the floor with heart/chest pain. My dad underwent heart surgery a little over a year ago and now will have to have surgery again on Tuesday morning. He is in the hospital in Bend. I was able to talk to him tonight for a few minutes and he cracked a couple of jokes and kept telling me how bad he wanted out of there so I know that his feisty spirit will get this through. Please pray for my dad Leon to come through the surgery with a very healthy strong heart and for my step-mother Phyllis to be embraced by their church family there and be able to experience rest and peace during the next few days.

Thank you to all our faithful friends and family that continue to embrace us! It's been a crazy year!

Janette

Craziness!

We have come to terms with the fact that we live a crazy life.

I can't tell you exactly when I came to that conclusion but it's a fact -- that much I do know.

I was talking to a good friend--Brent Brelje--on the phone the other day when it really hit me. He was sharing something with me and asked "do you think that we are crazy?" My response was "Brent, I think you are probably asking the wrong person."

dictionary.com defines craziness:

1.	mentally deranged; demented; insane.

2.	senseless; impractical; totally unsound: a crazy scheme.

3.	Informal. intensely enthusiastic; passionately excited: crazy about baseball.

4.	Informal. very enamored or infatuated (usually fol. by about): He was crazy about her.

5.	Informal. intensely anxious or eager; impatient: I'm crazy to try those new skis.

6.	Informal. unusual; bizarre; singular: She always wears a crazy hat.

7.	Slang. wonderful; excellent; perfect: That's crazy, man, crazy.

8.	likely to break or fall to pieces.

9.	weak, infirm, or sickly.

10.	having an unusual, unexpected, or random quality, behavior, result, pattern, etc.: a crazy reel that spins in either direction.

I couldn't have defined the Kunkel's better myself! Well, not all of them but some of them some of the time. While some people may say "oh yeah, they sure are unusual, random and unexpected, I am referring to numbers 3 and 7 when I say we live a crazy life or a life of craziness.

#3Informal, intensely enthusiastic; passionately excited: crazy about baseball.

Yes, we are intensely enthusiastic and passionately excited.

About what?

About loving on the people that some find it hard to love. We are passionately excited about giving the best of the best to the least of the least.

We are intensely enthusiastic about where God has taken us and taught us and sharing that with others. And we are passionately excited about where God will take us in the future.

So go ahead Brent Brelje--and the rest of you--live a life of Craziness--it's GREAT!

Your crazy friend,
Janette

All Saints Day

Hard to believe, but this is the one year anniversary of our return to the States from Edinburgh, Scotland.

I remember sitting on the plane a year ago, in the haze over the Atlantic, with Bono and U2 playing "The Saints are Comin'"

Yes.

They are.

And there's no stoppin' the meek from inheriting the earth.

The literal translation for "saint" is "holy one." A saint's a mess, but a beautiful mess. Beautiful because the work's done, and a saint dives into the life already won and done by Someone else. Holy people are into giving Life away to others, like their Father.

Like Bono says, "see the bird with the leaf in her mouth, after the flood, all the colours came out . . ."

In honor of those who went before, and all the rest of you saints too . . . . the above youtube bar should give you some good playtime!

Circle Up!

I have been thinking a lot about circles lately...
Not the kind of watching your dog chase his tail kind of circles even though that is amusing.
Not the kind of being so busy that you feel like you are going in circles.
Not the twirl in circles till you think you are going to puke kind of cirlces--thats fun until you feel sick.
Not the kind of watching my daughters and remembering being their age and my mother at their age--that is a good thought though.

No, the kind of circles I have been thinking about lately are the kind that God himself orchestrates.
Here is where the thought started...
While living in Edinburgh we met some amazing friends from Japan. Our neighbors Nobu and Rika Kameai. Over the course of the two years we got to spend a lot of time with them. They came to us for help to set up their phone, to go to prenatal appointments in the later part of Rika's pregnancy, hours with them in the Prenatal ICU once Ena Grace was born, praying for Rika and comforting her when her father passed away, having them join us going to worship at Community Church Edinburgh a few times and giving them a Bible in Japanese.

Our relationship with Rika and Nobu was a wonderful and beautiful thing. They had us over and taught us about their culture, making yummy food for us. Rika would have Lily and Zoe over to her flat and teach them origami. They would come to our flat and eat American food. Rika and I would do baking together--her favorite was Blueberry Cobbler. We spent Thanksgiving and Christmas with Rika and Nobu. On Easter they came to church with us and listened to Dustin preach.

So you can imagine when the day came to say goodbye to them how much our hearts hurt. Not only because we had really grown to love them and cherish their friendship but because we had planted a seed and began watering their faith and now we had to say goodbye. It's so hard to trust sometimes if God will bring anyone else along in their lives to carry out what we had begun. This was one of the hardest parts of leaving Scotland, we wanted to bring things full-circle and couldn't.

We have kept in touch with Rika and Nobu and baby Ena. We have been able to share the joy of their new pregnancy over the phone and laughed about how much harder it is to communicate over the phone without our hands and facial expressions. We pray for them every day. For someone to come into their lives and tend their faith a little more.

This summer one of our summer staff Lindsey Gibbon shared that she was going to Japan to do missionary work teaching english. Just like you guessed it, a light bulb went off in my head, I was so excited I could barely get my thoughts formulated and out of my mouth to Lindsey. I shared with her my prayers for Rika and Nobu and little Ena and how my heart had ached for them. We also have a college friend who is teaching English in Japan--Des.

I quickly was on email to Des and Rika and Nobu trying to get everyone connected. They all agreed that they would love to meet up, help Lindsey and spend time together.

Lindsey left a couple of weeks ago for Japan. They have all been in contact through email and telephone. Rika is arranging with Lindsey for her and her mother to come to the Lutheran Language institute to take English from Lindsey. Rika wants to take Lindsey to see some sites, Lindsey is asking Des for cooking advice and somehow, they will all meet up.

Circles....it is so amazing to me to think how God has brought us back in to camping ministry to then meet Lindsey who has traveled all the way to Japan to meet friends from two different chapters in our lives to continue what God started through us.

Go ahead, twirl in circles until you feel sick and be thankful for the circles God moves in!

Janette and the gang

New Beginnings!

We can't believe that it's been since May since we have updated our blog! We want to let you know what is happening in the lives of the Kunkels but first a small update since May.

• Two weeks of staff training with 70 summer staff that are college students from around the world!

• Three months of summer camp that consisted of:

• 3000 campers

• 38 Day Camps (taking camp into communities around Oregon, Washington and Idaho) with 1800 Day Campers

• Visits from Grandma and Grandpa Kunkel and Grandma and Grandpa McMurran.

• Visit from good friends Colin, Kathryn and baby Ruby from Edinburgh! That all took place at our wonderful friends the DiGregorio's!
  

• One Birthday--Lily is now 7!

• One wedding--congrats Dee and Rick!

• One family reunion at Cannon Beach with the Kunkels

• A quick trip to Eugene to visit Grandma Viki, Papa Bill and Janette's sisters.
  

• 1 new Grandson--Scott congrats to foster daughter Nicole

• Who knows how many wildfires Jenni has rappelled into this season.

• Hosted a Concordia Alumni dinner night here at Lutherhaven and even Aunt Irene and Uncle Ken came from Montana!
  

• Brandi joining us here in Coeur d Alene to live with us and join us in our ministry here at Lutherhaven.

• Hours and hours of Dustin working on his dissertation--which he has a rough draft done! Now if we could just get the University of Edinburgh paid off he could graduate!

• A quick trip to Whitefish, MT to breath and visit our friends the Haas'.

• One week of school down for Lily who is in the 2nd grade and Zoe who is in Kindergarten.

• One week of staff training for Dustin and his Outdoor Education staff

Which brings us to today........
Our first day in many many days that we have not left our apartment at camp except to take a walk.
Starting on Monday Dustin will have school groups--public, private and homeschool-- from all over Idaho and Washington each week out here at camp. He is blessed to have an incredible staff!
Janette will begin working as the Project Developer for Idaho Servant Adventures and as the Administrative Officer for N.L.O.M.A.--both part time.
And Lily and Zoe will go to school, laugh, play, eat, sleep, wrestle with their dad, cuddle with mom and dad, sing in the car on the way to school with mom and wait patiently for the snow!

One more thing, a promise that we will do an update at least once a week on this blog and to get some updated pictures on flickr!

Thanks so much for your continued prayers!

Janette and family

Jonny Lang -- Best Album Yet!

Besides "Oh Gravity" by Switchfoot, the best album by far, this year, has to be Jonny Lang's "Turn Around." Its gotten me through the last few months in a big way.... gospel, blues, funk. No one sounds like Jonny. No one plays like Jonny.

Highly recommended!

You can watch some videos right here on this page if you click the thumbnails on the right column. The first is the song that made him famous. The second is one he sang after his turn-around. . . .

Here's a link to an article about him: http://www.livinglightnews.org/story3_05.06.htm

Of Blownup Computers and the Blue Screen of Death

Our PC has been limping along for quite some time, like a four - cylinder car chugging along on only three.

Last night, she blew up.

Who knows if she'll ever come back to us. It was the infamous "blue screen of death." We'll try to get her fixed, but who's to say if the repair guy won't take her out back behind the shop to the burial grounds where old pc's go . . . .

This will add complications to our family staying in touch with people. We were just getting ready to set up our skype account again and post new pictures online.

We are thinking one of those Mac minis ($600) is lookin' mighty nice right now, but we'll have to wait.

So. . . . be patient . . . . once again!

Transformation Day

The entire site just got a massive over-haul . . . .

Its about time.

I know many of you have been wondering what's up with us. Just life. Living out of suitcases and working new jobs and having two little children and trying to complete Master's theses all take a toll. Thanks for your patience.

This site will reflect my personal mission from now on. The mission was arrived at during a 34-year journey that began on April 15th 1973 when I entered this world.

Who ever has anything figured out? Not me. . . . That's not an excuse to stand where you're at and be faithful, available, vulnerable when the everything says do the opposite. So . .. some of us write little mission statements, words that barely scratch the surface of what's REALLY going on. So long as you're with me on that truth, we'll be fine!

Attention: I have a big Outdoor Education season starting tomorrow and continuing until Summer Camp starts. This is our "harvest" season when we work from sunup to sundown. I will be out of touch, mostly.

Peace!

Little Girls and Easter

STA60185, originally uploaded by dustkunkel.

Beautiful little girls counting their easter eggs. . .

Easter Reunion . . .

STA60201, originally uploaded by dustkunkel.

What the picture doesn't say is . . .

How long it's been since this little group has been together: two years.

What has happened in the interim: almost losing Adeline to HLH and watching her fight through and get a bone marrow transplant and then fight through all the complications. Others in the family have suffered depression, loneliness, identity crisis, poverty, and that grey visitor to all our doors . . . Hard Times.

This was the first time -- EVER -- that Lily and Zoe really got to play with their cousin. They still have to be careful . . . we all wash hands a zillion times . . . and use "Germex" . . . but everyone got hugs and (some of us) kisses from Addie! Zoe lost her first tooth this weekend. Lily rode her bike around the block five times.

Above Dad you can see the African marriage heads facing one another under the "Gye Nyame" symbol. In Ghana, that means, "Except God" -- i.e. except for God, nothing will happen. Thank you, Abba-Dad for being the creator of families, the bringer-together of loose ends, the author of happy endings, the arranger of these drooping flowers into a bouquet . . . on Easter.

Easter Accessorizing!

STA60084, originally uploaded by dustkunkel.

Lil' and Zo' were Easter ready this Sunday!

The Site is A-Changin'

You'll notice the colour change on this site!

We're slowly but surely making important changes.

Keep checking back . . . there's much more to come besides a colour change from moss green to sky blue!

Good Friday Canoe Trip

STA60076, originally uploaded by dustkunkel.

Dad and Mom worked the morning and early afternoon and then we all went on our first canoeing adventure (until today the water and weather's been too cold).

Lutherhaven sits on a big arm of Lake Coeur d'Alene called Mica Bay and we paddled down to the end of the bay. We picnicked at a lovely, deserted campground -- replete with swings, tables, grills, campsites, and fishing docks. Then, we continued to where the creek drains into Mica Bay at its very end, a beautiful little wetland of reeds and pools.

We saw Canada geese, mallards, buffleheads --almost ran over a turtle, but she wisely dove deep! I'm sure we would have seen many more animals at dawn or dusk, but this was the middle of the day. . . .

The highlight was the massive blue heron in the shallows who paid us no attention at all.

Its been a while since we've had the chance to get out as a fam. This one will be a lasting memory!

Gardening

STA60083, originally uploaded by dustkunkel.

You won't believe how amazing it has been to go out the door, dig in the earth and work on "our" garden area . . . . after 2 full years of being rootless, floating in God's great ocean of purpose, we've been brought to the shore.

And wonder of wonders: there are crocuses blooming today!

Lily and Zoe are wearing straw hats from Ghana, packed away all these years.

Sisters on a Trek Above Camp

STA60308, originally uploaded by dustkunkel.

The girls went on a trek to the "homestead" area above camp last week. There's an old cabin up there and a smithy with real horseshoes, anvil, and coal for the fire! They had a blast, and on the way back, found stumps full of bugs and fir cones chewed up by squirrels. The birds are back now. . . and today Zoe found a Red-breasted Nuthatch (after a massive family fight over pronounciation, we googled and found out -- much to Daddy and Zoe's sadness -- that the PROPER way to say it is nut-hatch, not nuth-atch). Whatever we call them, the birds are back and making a massive ruckus all over camp as they pair up and find places to lay eggses.

A curious thing about the red-breasted nuthatch -- it can creep upside down the trunk of a tree looking for insects. That's how Zoe (budding naturalist) found it. She also found the hole where it was making a nest!

Kunkels to Launch Re-Vamped Site Soon!!!

For those of you who are wondering . . . .

We continue in the midst of transition time for our family. We don't have much opportunity at the moment to stay connected with you and encourage you . . . but that will change soon!

Stay tuned for this site to be re-vamped and new additions/links to be added that will build you and yours up!

Peace and Strength!

The Kunkys

Hangin' out on the big Snow Pile

STA60444.JPG, originally uploaded by dustkunkel.

Just a quick blog post to let all of you know we're still alive. . . . just in transition. We are house-sitting right now until our apartment is free in March at Camp, so regular blogging and such is a little tougher to do.

Please continue to check this site because we will begin to update it more regularly soon!

The picture above is on a massive snow pile in the parking lot at the resort in Coeur d'Alene. Dust, Lily, and Zoe are hanging out with favorite 2nd cousin Wesley!