A quick update for everyone. I (Mark) have started working at a Starbucks in Littleton, CO. Things are a little crazy there, but I'm doing my best to adjust. Beth is still searching for a job. We are completely settled into our new apartment, and are doing our best to stay optimistic through all the uncertainties that come with moving to a new place. Keep us in your prayers.

Pictures of our room at Hazelnut

Welp, there we have it everyone. Beth and I are excited about our new place...we spent a lot of time putting it all together. We finally have internet access...so we are slowly trying our best to get back into contact with everyone. Please comment or even better send us mail! Let me know if you want our new address!

Well, Beth and I have begun our Westward journey. We left Lancaster yesterday (Thursday) around 8am and arrived in Pittsburgh around 12pm. We are visiting Beth's family and friends for a couple days before leaving officially for Denver on Saturday. Curt (Beth's dad) and I are driving our 22ft moving truck both Saturday and Sunday, hopefully arriving in Denver on Sunday night. Beth and her mom are flying on Saturday.

It was tough saying goodbye. Its interesting how this all worked out...we made a tough decision to hang back in PA for another year, instead of making the initial move last May. At the time, the prospect of living in PA when we could be starting our married lives together in CO was saddening and frustrating. Yet, for some reason, we felt like it was the most responsible decision to make.

Looking back on this year we are proud of the decision we made. We spent this last year preparing for our move, making sure our finances were in order. We also found and formed some of the greatest friendships we have ever had. Despite all of our moral convictions about the corporate world, we looked beyond those convictions to see the people who live and work in that world day in and day out. We quickly found in all of them beauty, joy, support and trust. And so saying goodbye during those last few days was very very difficult.

We are also saying goodbye to family. Moving away from families who have loved and supported us so much throughout our years together is obviously tough. We can only hope that we can be
as present as possible in their lives, even though we are 1700 miles away.

So please check back to stay posted on our journey, I will be posting photos of our new home as soon as I get them!

Oh yea, why not go ahead and plan a trip to Denver? We would love to have you stay over with us!

















caption: Mark's family (left to right) sister Aly, brother Brandon, Beth, Mark, brother Dustin, and sister Amanda!

As you may have guessed, Beth and I are extremely busy getting ready to leave for Denver. We are growing more and more excited as we see our pile of boxes growing. Seeing the pile grow assures us that we are making progress, and continually reminds us of where we are soon going.

Our last day of work is May 31st, we have a few days to finish packing and to see friends and family, then we pick up the moving truck on June 3rd. Depending on how quickly the truck is packed, we may or may not leave on the 3rd to head out to Pittsburgh. We will spend two days in Pittsburgh, saying hi and goodbye to Beth's friends and family. On June 6th Beth and her mom fly from Pittsburgh to Denver, while Beth's dad and I start driving our huge truck to Denver.

Wow. Its here everybody. Our time in PA is coming to a close.

It seems like as our departure draws near we have had the opportunity to tell more and more people about what we are doing in Denver. Just last week, at a high school friend's wedding, both Beth and I had the opportunity to share our plans for Denver with dozens of people. Each time that we tell people about it, we realize how hard it is to explain.

I (mark) spent some time thinking about why it is so difficult to explain. I came up with two reasons. Firstly, what we want to do, and what needs to be done are two totally different things. I can easily tell people what we want to do, but those things are loosely based upon the needs of the community we are moving into. Our knowledge of the needs of the community is limited as long as we are separated from it. We are doing our best to avoid the temptation to have our own plans and expectations, which may be irrelevant, even harmful to the community in which we are serving.

Secondly, my words are limiting. Mother Teresa hardly gave explanations for what she was doing in Calcutta. If you wanted to know about her ministry, she told you to, "come and see." Explaining her ministry did nothing for it, it was the seeing of the sick and poor, and the sight of the touch of those who helped them, which explained it all. We can tell you about sharing financial resources, about eating meals together, and about our urban gardens, but that limits everything to memories or former experiences with such things. We want you to come and see.

I wish it would be fine to say, "We are trusting that G-D is leading us to Denver for some reason," but in our controlling culture, it never seems to be good enough. So for now I guess we will do our best to explain, but would hope that all of you would come and see someday.

With love.