Saturday October 13th

Here we are again. It's been an eventful week. We found out on Monday evening that Harold Kolden, who was 95 a couple of weeks ago, had gone into kidney failure that afternoon. He was such a faithful and wise man all these years. He and his wife Ruth have been living at the home of his son Norman Kolden for the past several years where his daughter-in-law Bonnie has been their caregiver. She takes care of 6 older folks and three of them were relatives and professing. So, on Tuesday we went to visit Harold and Ruth. It was touching to see them laying in twin beds side by side. "Side by side"-- the way they've been for probably 70 or more years. Harold was resting peacefully and woke up for a few words with us. He said he had no real pain, just weakness and thirst. He was so accepting, as was Ruth. We had a little time with them and the family and then returned back up the Bitterroot valley where we were staying for a few days. It was unknown just how long the body could survive with failing kidneys but he didn't have long to wait. We heard Thursday morning early that he had slipped away during the night. When Bonnie went in at 1AM to check on him he was gone. His funeral will be in Kalispell on Monday the 15th at 3PM. We plan to go for the service but we'll just drive over and return all in one day.

On another note entirely--we were staying with Lyle and Bonnie Coleman later this week. They are a lovely young family. They have two boys, Chance and Cody who are in 6th and 3rd grade and then a little girl, Shelby, who is 3 yrs old. Its a busy household and I enjoyed seeing them working on the children's questions. Shelby knows who Jesus' mother is but...we haven't gotten there yet as we're still working on John the baptist's birth! :) So she is ready for when we DO get that far. These are the only kids participating in the questions right now as the only other 2 kids in the meeting are teenagers, but the boys don't mind answering all the questions between them and I really enjoy their eagerness.

On Thursday we went to Chance's football game. The previous Saturday we'd attended a couple of soccor games for some of the other kids in the field and I was struck by the difference between soccor and football mentality. During the soccor game the coach's son, who is the largest boy on the team by quite a bit, accidentally knocked another little boy flying as they were madly kicking the ball between them. The coach yelled to him, "Luke, say you're sorry and help him up!" Right before Thursday's football game the coach was yelling at his players, "Hit someone! Hit someone!" Quite a contrast between the two. But, all in all, I was impressed with the sportmanship and teamwork demonstrated at both the soccor games and the football game. We had a very enjoyable evening AND Chance's team won after a very hard fought battle. We all left very happy and went home and ate chili. :)

Now we are getting ready to go to Farmer's Market where one of the young professing ladies (Elissa Braaten) will be running her and her husband's "Farm to Market Pork" booth by herself this morning as Logan has to work. I haven't been to Farmers' Market yet so I look forward to all the fall harvest veggies and wonder how big the pumpkins will be.

This morning we read Mark 9 together. It was a good reminder that the worst offenses come from within ourselves, not from others. I need to be willing to "cut off" whatever there is in me that could offend my soul for all eternity.

Thanks for checking in and hope you're having a good weekend.
d.