Why I believe…this is a fairly short list of experiences in my life that all add up to why I believe in God, the Bible, and Jesus Christ.

Answered prayer

So many examples. I think of some great friends in our Bible study at home, trying to get pregnant for years. They brought it to prayer with our bible study and were pregnant within a few months. I think of God’s provision in missions. Last year in DTS every student in our class was provided for. Thousands of dollars within the last hour. There was actually one person who did not receive their outreach funds. It was a little disheartening to see this until a few days later he found out that he was sick and actually could not have gone on outreach anyway!!!

Design of nature

As a mechanical engineer I appreciate the difficulty of design. The world we live in is so complex and yet so perfectly orchestrated that I believe there is no possibility of it occurring randomly. I don’t know how God did it. I do know that it is so complex that brilliant people all around the world study it their entire lives and still don’t scratch the surface of knowing how it all works together. It might take faith to believe that God designed it all, but it takes something much more extreme than faith to believe that it all happened by itself.

God speaks

Linking back to the answered prayer, I prayed and prayed about providing the funds for the one guy that didn’t get his outreach money. I could have paid for it with some debt on my house. I was willing. I really felt like God told me not to do it. I was confused that God would hold me back from giving. Then a few days later it was so clear when he found out he couldn’t go for medical reasons.

God has told me over and over in his scriptures to take SBS (school of biblical studies). Sometimes I’m a little slow to obey, but He told me over and over again, mostly through scripture. The key to hearing God’s voice? Listening.

With our house, God specifically pointed out a few scriptures when we prayed specifically about it. God said to stick with the deal we had and that deeds would be exchanged. This happened when we prayed specifically about it and took the time to listen. The verses that came to mind were Amos 3:3 “Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?” referring to us sticking with the deal we had on our house; and Jeremiah 32:44 “Deeds will be signed”. I think that one is pretty clear. It was tough to wait it out and be patient. But God did it! Our house closes on September 29, later than we had hoped, but in God’s timing.

Oh, I just remembered one more. Last year before we went to Zimbabwe God gave me a vision of a church; I can still picture it. I’ve never had a vision before, but it was a picture I couldn’t get out of my head, while we were praying for Zimbabwe. When we got there I was amazed to see the exact church in downtown Harare! It was great! There were lots of other prayers and visions from our whole team that you can read about in my dts journal from africa.

Existence of spiritual world

One specific example I have of this is when I was in Hawaii for DTS (Discipleship Training School). I was walking to town with Aimee and Meagan, two spiritually aware people. I myself am very unaware of the spiritual. I am not sure if it is a gift that I don’t have, or if it is just experience or what. Well, we walked by a cemetery and decided to walk through it and just pray. For some reason I walked around the whole thing with Meagan first and there was one spot that she thought was extremely dark spiritually and she felt inclined to pray there for a while. Then I walked around with Aimee and she felt the exact same feelings in the exact same spot. I know your thinking “it was probably just a dark corner….” It wasn’t! It was a beautiful spot under a great big tree, but they both felt the same darkness, that there was something evil in that area. So we prayed for spiritual renewal and for God’s power to overcome that space.

Miracles happen

God does heal people. God does send rain. We often don’t give him a chance or the glory he deserves, but it is undeniable. In our lives, Ruth used to see a chiropractor every week from an injury she got in 8^th grade. Last year we wondered how we would even go on a mission trip for two months. Several people prayed for her, and she hasn’t been to a chiropractor since then.

On the rain, God sent rain to the drought we were in last year in Zimbabwe. As a team, honestly, we were all stunned. People there were dancing in the streets. It was awesome.

Seeing changed lives

Nothing on this planet will change someone’s life like knowing God. People that seem useless or have given up can just spring to life when they find God’s grace and forgiveness. The most striking personal example I know is an alcoholic friend who has totally turned his life around through God’s strength after trying on his own for years. God has rebuilt his life into something awesome!

Consistency and Prophecy of the Bible

It’s the most amazing piece of literature in the world. Written over thousands of years by numbers of people; all inspired by God. Amazing prophecies came to be thousands of years after. Not one or two but hundreds of prophecies so specific that they can’t be denied. Amazing writing by many authors that all tie into the theme of God loving us eventually leading to his sending his own Son as a sacrifice in place of us. From the very first book of the Bible, God’s sacrifice is prophesied.

Well there are countless other experiences and reasons to believe. I think this is good for now.

well, I start the School of Biblical Studies tomorrow! (monday the 18th). I am excited, but a little nervous as it's been over 10 years since I've been in school. It's supposed to be about 60-70 hours a week of work! But, I am really looking forward to it as well.

We are all moved into our house now. We had a lot of craziness moving in and getting settled. At the right, you can see our trailer and car as we were moving in. notice the deer sitting behind the end table. I just thought it was awesome that this deer was sitting there watching us unload.

Tonight we had a bunch of students over for desert for some fun before we all start class. It was great. There was Rady from Cambodia; Lily from Rwanda; Avi from India; JanMichal from Germany; Dave, Donna, Matt and Evette from Australia; Phil and us from the US. It's so much fun to be around the many different nationalities. We all played basketball, had desert, played chess and just found out about eachother. A great time!

Well, I've got to get to bed. please keep in mind to pray for us as it gets colder here. There is already snow on the tops of the mountains. We jumped in the lake for probably the last time today and it was freezing (almost). Ruth has a second interview this week at what seems like the perfect job, so that will help us make ends meet. Please email us and keep in touch. We love hearing from each of you!

Whew! What a journey this has been! We have all travelled just over 2000 miles from Oceanside, CA to Lakeside, MT. It was a bit more than we bargained for in many ways, but God has blessed us along the way. I'll try to hit some of the highlights with a few pictures to help out.

On the left is our truck and trailer. We packed everything we own into the trailer and we figure it weighed about 6000 pounds by the time we were done. Both axles had less than a 1/4" of clearance before bottoming out. The truck, as you can see, is massive. It seats 6 and is gets about 7 mpg when towing the trailer. It just has montana written all over it though.
Here again is our camp in Zion National Park, which I must admit was the best camp we were at the whole trip. Just beautiful. There was also a river about 100 feet away where we could swim. Canyon was all around us. awesome place.









After Zion we drove up to Bryce National Park. We dropped the truck and trailer off in Utah to save gas as we decided to go to Colorado and say hi to some family. (It's only a couple a hundred miles out of the way!) The camping in Bryce got a little cold, so much so that in the middle of the night I got the kids out of thier tent and brought them into ours. We had thought that we'd be dying of heat in these parts in the middle of August..I guess not.


Yes, that's us in the middle there. We hiked down into the canyon and loved it and regretted it all at the same time. We were all in flip flops which I don't recommend. It was about 2 miles and very steep both ways.













This is cowboy Jonny. His Opa gave him this hat and he takes to it quite well.


















Oma and Opa took us all on a horse ride once we got to Pagosa Springs, CO. Cowboy Jonny and I shared a horse.

We stayed in Pagosa for 3 nights because we were getting so spoiled there. Oma was cooking for three days just in preparation for our arrival. It was awesome to stay in a house after a few days of camping.







Sleepy Jessika.













Here is the clan at the grand canyon. Ruth, Jessika, Dave, Jonny, Matthew and Donna from left to right. If you didn't know, we were travelling with the Bells from Australia (throw another shrimp on the barbie!) They are going to Montana with us and Dave Bell and I are going to taking the School of Biblical studies together.







This is Jonny's happy time. cozy warm while we do all the cooking and prep'n for a days journey.













This is Heaven on earth for Jessika. Nothing beats a day of horsing around in her book.













This is Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado. Lots of old indian ruins nestled in the rocks.














After Colorado we high-tailed it to Yellowstone National Park. Unfortunately about 50 miles short of it, our truck decided that it was finished. Actually the transmission went out. Dave and I spent the we hours of the night waiting in the highway for a tow truck. This was particularly interesting because we were on a very steep uphill and the truck was completely in the highway. luckily we were a bit after a sharp turn and there was another lane to pass us. All the same I hope it never happens again. We got the truck to Bucks Auto Repair in Ashton, ID by 1am that night. I guess when you have to pay $2200 for a transmission you can't complain too much if it's in a truck that you paid $1000 for.....Speaking of Bucks Auto Repair, here is a shot of a buck in yellowstone.

You guessed it OLD FAITHFUL! there is so much awesome stuff in Yellowstone. boiliing mud pools, buffalo, deer, waterfalls. It's hard to decide what pictures to throw in. This is the coolest National Park ever. They even sell ice cream.










Yes, this is Montana. August 31st. It's actually hail covering the ground, but it gave us a good taste of what's to come.














Here is the house we are renting for the year. Unfortunately the Bells felt that God had called them to live on the YWAM base, and Ruth and I felt we should stay here. We didn't think God would be splitting us up, but sometimes things are different than you hope. We are still excited to be here and start moving in.

The kids started school a few days ago (27th?) and they love it. I have two weeks before I start my school at YWAM, so we are moving in and cleaning up for now.


Below is our first snowman. I think we'll have more of these.