Ducks in a Row

Hey there blog followers,
I feel guilty for not maintaining a regular blog, especially after the urgency of our last post. So, here is an update to let you all know what is happenin' with the Sewalds.

First, shortly after posting, our Pastor, Jake, contacted me about going with him to Duluth for a meeting of MBC (MN Baptist Conference) Pastors. I went, curious to see what it was about. This meeting was all about how their group wanted to change from a prayer group to an actually support group, helping out with each others needs. I had a moment to share Beth and my story and our hesitance about moving due to the cost. One Pastor took a special interest, and kept asking me for a number we'd need to be comfortable with the move. Shortly after getting back in the car, Jake looked at me and said, "You know he's going to try and help cover your expenses, right?" To be honest, the thought hadn't even occurred to me.

Next, we called the owner of the house in Portage, and managed to talk the cost of rent down. We decided it was time to make the move.

After finalizing some details with him, we had to contact our current landlord and see if it would be possible to break our lease early. He said it was fine as long as there was someone in place for when we moved. From or conversation on the phone, it sounded as if it were up to us. We brought it to our church in prayer, and went about trying to find a way to get the word out. The following Friday, we contacted our landlord again with a question, or something minor, and he informed us that we had three showings coming up over the weekend. I was closing at work, so, Beth, being the trooper she is, cleaned the entire house after a grueling day at work. Before the weekend was even over, we knew the house would be going to one of two families.

So, now, the next challenge becomes the actual move itself. We have a couple people willing to help, but not as much time as we like. We need to be out by the 15th, and our new lease begins January first. Ideally we would have liked to take a couple weekends and spread things out with the holiday rush being on. Neither one of us has had a lot of drive after work, and we leave tomorrow for a 4 day trip home. So, we will be spending the first day of the new year moving into a new house, starting a completely new chapter of our adventure up here. It's even coming with benefits. Health benefits that is. Beth's probation period at work is over and the reservation is providing full health coverage.

Pray that the move goes well and that the weather cooperates. Also pray that we have the energy over the next week to continue packing after long days at work, and that we can get settled in swiftly. Thank you again for your prayers and support, and Merry Christmas!

Urgent Prayer Requests

Hey everyone,
Sorry for the severe lack of updates as of late, but to be honest, not a lot has happened, until s few weeks ago. For the most part, we've been working and helping at church on Sundays.

Our Pastor preached about having a church full of traders asking us all what we'd give up for our faith. To this point, we felt like we'd given a lot, but while we willingly gave 90% there is still 10% we have been holding back.
Where we live now, we live 40 minutes outside of Portage, making it nearly impossible to help with youth group without leaving the dog all day or making the commute 6-7 days a week. Housing is hard to come by outside of staff housing (staff housing are apartments provided by the tribe for people to live in while working on the reservation), and doesn't allow pets. Many of you have met our darling pup and know how much we adore him and that giving him up would hurt (and to a lesser extent with the cat), but after hearing Pastor Jake's message we came to the point where we would be comfortable with it if it had to be done (assuming we could find a good home for both animals). The apartment in staff housing would be a smaller place, less rent, but not very permanent. When we decided to have kids, we may possibly have to move, change jobs, or maybe both. It would also be hard to host youth events and have kids over, which we figure would help them the most.
A short time after, we learned of a house opening up. This house is owned by a member of the Grand Portage tribe, but he rents it out while living out of state. We could keep the pets, have a big yard, host youth events, but it costs about as much (maybe a little more) as what we are paying now, and the house needs a lot of TLC. Living there would be optimal, but as of late our budget has been extremely tight due to visits home, car maintenance, ect. and we don't want to move only to realize we are in over our heads and have to move again.
We really need prayer at this time for wisdom and guidance with the whole situation. Or perhaps a winning lottery ticket to pay our student loans. = ) We thank you and we love you for all your support.
Jon & Beth

Wildlife Stories and Quick Update

Hello All,

I've had some interesting wildlife moments since we moved up including seeing a buck for the first time in my life, which was not nearly as exciting as seeing a Moose on the side of the road a while back. I think the most interesting story was from yesterday which I'll share in a second.

Update on some events. Rendezvous Days was awesome, the weather was great and it was a wonderful first time experience for me. If you are planning to visit us at anytime I would strongly recommend coming during that weekend. Also, still no word on the housing situation. We had a lot of practice in patience over the last year so I think we're doing pretty good with this one.

So, onto my story about yesterday. We came home from our weekend trip back to the cities and everything seemed to be same as usual then on the bus to work the next morning it seemed everyone was talking about bear encounters during the weekend. I felt stupid for leaving a bag of trash sitting on our deck while we were gone and I felt lucky that it didn’t attract any furry friends. That is until I got home that night and found a rather large pile of poop on our deck. I doubted at first whether it was a bear or not because this had to have been the tidiest black bear ever. He pulled the garbage bag open without even moving it from its spot and methodically removed the yummy parts while leaving everything else in tacked. So, I learned my lesson. Sort of, we’ll ignore the fact that the garbage bag is still sitting out there waiting for trash pick up tomorrow. I figured all the best parts are gone now there’s no sense in him coming back...right? Wrong….

This leads us into yesterday. I took Moose for a nice long walk after work. As we were heading back we were about half a block from our house when I noticed what I thought at first was a big black dog peaking out of the woods across the street from our house. Then I realized it was a black bear. I stopped and fortunately Moose stopped too but didn’t seem to notice the intruder. The bear and I looked at each other for a little while then it turned and ran back into the woods. Moose and I proceeded to the house although I scanned the woods as we went by not really expecting to see anything. I’m assuming it was the same bear who left us a present earlier in the week. I think I’ll name him Fred.

Here is the funny part. As soon as I realized I was staring at a wild bear my next thought was perhaps an odd one. It wasn’t the bear I was worried about. I was worried about getting closer to the bear and having Moose notice it and in his usual inquisitive fashion go chasing after it to investigate. I had this image in my mind of a black bear dashing through the woods, Moose chasing Fred the bear, and me dragging along behind clinging to the leash yelling at Moose with a mouth full of dirt. I’d like to think with all the training we just finished five minutes before about not taking off on me that he wouldn’t do something like that, but I’m glad I didn’t have to find out.

As I mentioned briefly before Jon and I were in the cities last weekend. Jon’s best friend got married so we went for the wedding which Jon was in. It was a nice trip we got to hang out with most people we wanted to see but not everyone unfortunately and those we did get to see, we didn’t get to spend nearly enough time with. Good news is I’ll be heading back at any point this month for a certain new arrival. Also the day after getting home from one wedding we received in the mail an invitation for another wedding in October the weekend after a third wedding that I’m photographing in October. So it’s going to be busy from now until probably January.

Pray requests are mostly the same. School is starting next week which means youth group meeting will be starting soon. We need lots of wisdom and guidance about how to approach this. When we sat down and talked to Jake and April a while back he told us that most of the youth group foundation are now heading off to college which means we are now starting back at square one with how we want to run Wednesday night youth groups. Which is both exciting and daunting. Also, pray for continued patience and guidance when it comes to housing. Also please pray often for me. My job is both very rewarding and extremely challenging. I work with a lot of wonderful kids but they all have their quarks. Some I'm more prepared to deal with then others. I'm finding sources to educate myself as much as I can but I need a lot more wisdom and a whole ton of patience.

As always thank you for your support and we will keep you in the loop.

Well, that’s all for now.

-Beth

Quick Update

Hey everyone,
I'm going to try and make this fairly brief and just gloss over a few of the events of the last month. It may not be pretty, or at times coherent, but I feel the urge to write before going to bed.
We're settled in to our home. We've had a few friends come up and stay the weekend now. Two of my good buddies came up and we spent a whole day hiking, followed by some Sven and Ole's pizza and video games. Partridge Falls has got to be one of my favorite places in the world. It's down a beat up old road, and it is a gorgeous waterfall in the middle of nowhere.
We did have a scare there one night. We had crammed 6 people in my 4 person Explorer, plus the dog. Since it's not a state park, we let Moose roam free. We were playing around at the base of the falls, and I hear my friend yell, Moose fell in. I ran over to the ledge, which has about a four foot nearly vertical incline our pup had dropped off of, and into the river below right before a nasty bend and some rapids. He dissappeared under the water for what felt like a minutes, and popped up on the Canadian side of the river. He swam back towards us, and found the shallow us bank to climb up and run up to me, looking a little freaked. I checked him over, and Beth gave him hugs and kisses, and his tail started wagging vigorously. Our darling pet was fine, and ready to run around again, long before our pulses had slowed down again.
Things with the church have been slow, although, nothing up here ever moves that quickly. We've met with Jake and April now about what we want to do to draw youth in. We're pretty set on wanting to take youth group out of the church, although a little lost on what to do from there.
I've connected with one of my coworkers at work, JR. He's shared stories of time he spent in correctional facilities, loosing a close friend to drugs, and escaping his addiction from prescription drugs. He wants to go back to school for social work, to help young kids that are in the same place that we are. While, he doesn't fully accept my faith, he is supportive of us being here, which, is good news to me.
This weekend is Rendezvous Days, and hands down the biggest weekend of the year in Portage. It is a giant Pow-wow. Natives and curious onlookers come from across the country and Canada to observe and take part in the drum circles, dancing, and regalia. I'll be working for most of it, and sure I'll be nearly overwhelmed by people buying touristy souvenirs and beverages, so, I won't be able to enjoy it as much as I'd like. But, I am excited that Beth will get to experience it for the first time.
It's been 2 months to the day since we moved, and we love our little house up on the hill, but, already are feeling some of the disconnect from being 35 miles from the community we came to be apart of. The drive to and from work can be a bit long at times, but always beautiful. Still, it can be onerous thinking about driving in on a day off. A group from Duluth had come up last week, and as much as we wanted to, we were not able to be there as much as we liked. We had to juggle what to do with the dog, traveling, and spending time together. We were fortunate enough to spend a couple nights with them, and it was a blessing to see a group that was so passionate about the mission God put them on. They embraced us, fed us the times we were there and prayed for our mission as well.
While the distance is hard, those days may too, be at an end. A co-worker of Beth's, who happens to be the mother of one of the youth kids, is moving to the Twin Cities shortly. She is working with the tribal council to see if it would be possible to sub-lease her home to us while she's gone. Beth and I are touched that she even thought of us. We should know by next week what they decided. While it would be awesome to be right there in the community, cutting our commutes down, and being so close to the church and Jake, and really, everything we came for, the thought of moving again in October, 4 months after the last move, is rather daunting.
Now, for the prayer requests. First, pray for JR and the interactions I have with him at work. That I can continue to find ways to encourage him to go back to to school and share my faith with him. Second, pray for the Duluth team, that they will continue to have a strong burning passion for the Lord and for Portage. Third, pray for the Pow-Wow this weekend. In many tribes and reservations, the drum circle is a dark and dangerous thing. We're thankful that is not hear, and hope this weekend can be a time of enlightenment and education for many people. Pray for our plans with the youth group. That we can find, not only ways to reach these kids, but also, show the community the changes in them. Finally, pray for Beth and I and that we have patience in waiting for the news on the house, and that we are content with any answer we receive. That the Lord will continue to strengthen us so that we can endure more months of long drives, or another move with a servant attitude.
As always, thank you for your prayers and support. Please, leave comments, whether they are prayers, prayer requests, encouragement, or just to tell us what nights you're planning on visiting (hint, hint, we'd love to see all of you up here). We miss all of you dearly but our grateful for the blessings you have given us.
With all our love in Christ,
Jon and Beth

Wild Life Sighting

So I saw a black bear on my way home from work last week and a moose on the way home yesterday. This is besides the gang of deer I've seen on the side of the road over the last couple weeks. Of all the animals the moose is the only that made me nervous when passing. Those things are behemoths! My co-work told me a story about having her pick-up totalled after getting hit by a moose.

I'm getting settled into my job. I decided to take tomorrow off so Jon and I can spend some time together, go do some exploring in Thunder Bay. I actually feel kind of sad that I won't be at work tomorrow. I'm gonna miss my kids, and my co-workers.

Here are some shots of some wild flowers I shot in our yard and on our hike with Jon's family.

Sincerely,
- Beth

The move and adjusting

Oh, my goodness. What an exhausting month it has been. Most of our packing came down to the wire the last week. Cramming things in boxes and hauling them to and fro. There was a bunch of pandemonium and confusion involving a U-haul, but in the end, everything worked out and we made it up here in a relatively smooth fashion thanks to a lot of help from my parents my friend Dan.
The first week was the most hectic. We would carpool in to Portage together (a 40 mile drive), work for 8 hours, and then meet up with my former church, Oak Haven, for teen nights. Most days we left our house at 7am and didn't get home until 11pm. Needless to say, there was a lot of boxes and chaos all around our house.
After the Oak Haven team left, things quieted down some, we actually got to come home after work, but we had to start addressing the mess. I also started working 1-9pm closing shifts, so we couldn't ride in together any more. We both started to get used to our jobs. The kids are starting to warm up to Beth, and I'm getting used to finding "Parcels" for Canadians and the over excessive use of the phrase, "eh". I always that the term was a bit over exaggerated like the us saying "Doncha know," but after hearing a woman use it twice in 5 seconds, I started to think otherwise.
We finished putting the the house together Thursday night, just in time for my parents, sister, and 16month old nephew to arrive, followed by my other sister and husband the next morning. We spent some time in town (the slang for Grand Marais, a city with the population of 1,300), and preparing a surprise party for Beth's birthday. I made dinner, my nephew, Connor, provided the entertainment.
Saturday we went hiking at High Falls, the largest waterfall in the state, and Devil's Kettle, a mysterious falls into a cavernous hole that they supposedly don't know where it ends up.
The crew left this morning, and now we're sitting on the couch, trying to regain some energy. I have to work from 1-9 tonight, and am not terribly excited about it. I'm torn between if I want it to be slow because I'm tired, or somewhat busy so I won't notice how long 8 hours is.
That's about all for now. We'll do our best to continue to keep you posted.
Love,
Jon and Beth

Job Update. Not one but two!

BIG UPDATE!

As of this week Jon and I both have jobs waiting for us in Grand Portage. We went up for my interview last Friday. The interview was at 9:30am and before noon I was offered the job....I think that a new personal best. The last week has been an emotional roller coaster of ups and downs. On Wednesday Jon had a phone interview and was offered a job on the spot. We are still hoping that the community center position will come through at some point but at least for now it's nice knowing that for the first time since we've been married we both have a job offer on the table. With benefits!

We have set a tentative move date for June 12th, with the intention of starting our new jobs on June 14th. The next month or so is going to be physically and emotionally draining but I have high hopes for the potential this move will bring.

Please pray for us over the next couple months as we adjust to some major changes. Also we are still looking for a permanent residence. A couple families in the church offered to help us with a place to live until we are able to find a place of our own. Which is turning out to be very complicated.

Thank you all for your love and support during this time. We are both excited to see what the future brings.

-Beth & Jon

Faith Building/ New Update

Beth and I have been preparing for our week long trip up to Grand Portage this summer with Oak Haven Church. At a meeting last Sunday, the trip leader, Katie Jo, asked if anyone wanted to share about how God has been working in their lives lately. I took a moment to tell about our lives, and would like to share the story with you as well.

Some of you may know, Beth and I haven't had the best string since getting married. The day after we got home from our honeymoon, I found out I was losing my job. We were fortunate to have saved enough to ride out our lease at the apartment and move into a house with three single guys, a baby, one dog, and two lizards. Beth being the only female apart from one of the lizards, but I don't think it offered her much companionship in a gender sympathetic fashion. We've since added a dog and a cat of our own to the mix.

Being away from work offered up the opportunity to go on the Portage trip last year, and set this whole idea of moving up there into reality. While the week of VBS and teen nights could be tiring, it was refreshing to see all the children's smiling faces despite all the hurt and pain that is happening up there. Most families have unstable homes effected by drugs, alcohol or a parent in prison and it broke both of our hearts to hear kids that were about 8 or 9 years old express they didn't feel they were loved.

At the same time, while being up there, it was a great time for me to catch up with my old friend Jake. We had gone to church together as kids, played in the youth band, and even had a stretch in community college where we ate lunch together every day. God had brought him up to help out for a summer, now he's the pastor of Mount Rose Church. A few times over the he had made some remarks to me, "You can always find work up here." He played it off as a joke, although I could tell that a small part of him may have meant it.

I don't think it was until we got home, laying in bed next to Beth when it hit me. Why not? What is stopping up from going up there? Jake needs help. These kids need help. Who are we not to give to them in any way possible. Yes, it may be hard to leave our families behind. To move away from our friends. Or even the convenience of having a Wal-mart that you don't have to boat across Lake Superior to get to. But they will still be there for us when we get home. I expressed this to Beth and she had been thinking the same thing.

We began praying that God would prepare us, and that is when things started getting interesting. We've had two major car repairs. Health insurance. Come up short for rent a few times. Moments when we thought we wouldn't have money for food. Every time, without exception, a check or odd-job comes in, we get a donation of food from a local food shelf.

I think the only thing harder than not knowing when or where our next meal may come from is not being able to set down roots. We both applied for jobs close to two months ago. While not hearing back from a place after two weeks down here pretty much means you don't have a shot, you may not hear back for six months in Portage and be the front runner. Every day has been spent living like we'll be in Blaine forever, but at the same time, be ready to move at any moment. It's made it hard to look for work, look for possible living arrangements, or find a new church home. At this point, with one semester left, I don't even know if I'll be able to graduate.

The pressure had began to wear Beth down. Between the combination of the waiting and a class she had taken to differ school loans, she has found it difficult to be floating with no anchor. This past Monday she told me in tears that she couldn't settle down and live a normal life, but can't stand not doing nothing anymore.

This morning she left her phone at home when she went to work. It was an unfortunate incident for two reasons. First, she has a job interview tonight for a place about 40 minutes from home. Second, she got a call from the HR department up in Portage to schedule an interview.

Again, we're begging for your prayers of support. Her interview is Friday the 14th at 9:30am. Please pray that she can make a good impression, for guidance, wisdom, and anything else you can think of. We still don't know when a final decision will be made, or any details that would come along with her getting the job, such as, housing, my schooling, work for me, etc. We're not even sure if we can afford the trip up there for the interview. All we know is that we want to serve our God in any way we can. We are so grateful for all of your prayers and support.
Love,
Jon and Beth

How We Got Here (Beth's Story)

About a year and a half ago Jon and I were sitting on the couch in his apartment making a budget. It was part of our premarital counseling. After seeing all the figures on paper I felt secure, as if we had everything under control. We had plans to start looking for a house the following summer, we even talked about each of us buying a motorcycle (to save on gas money). I was certain my career would take off within a year and Jon would find an even better job with less stress. Yes, we had it all planned out. But I'm no fool, I knew even then that life rarely agrees to stick to your plans.

In January of 2009 Jon and I met at the front of a small church, read the vows we wrote, had our first kiss and walked away happy as we've ever been. Except for our flower girl being carried down the isle by my brother half asleep with a nook in her mouth the day was perfect. And all the minor imperfection make it a better story.

We spent our honeymoon in sunny San Diego, enjoying a few days away from the snow. The morning after we got home we had plans to go furniture shopping with some of the wedding money. I went to make pancakes and Jon hopped on the computer. I'll never forget the sound of his voice or the feeling of my heart dropping as he walked into the kitchen and told me the bad news. Circuit City went under and he was out of a job. Just like that, in a fraction of a second the all our grand plans came crashing to the floor.

A few months later in was June, we had decided to go on a trip with Oak Haven church to Grand Portage, Minnesota. The morning before we boarded the bus for our six hour drive north I sat in the sanctuary for Sunday morning service. I was sitting there surrounded by a sea of red shirts. I listened to the speaker up from with intense interest. She was talking about her mission work at an orphanage in the Philippians. She didn't look much older or wiser then me. As I sat there I kept thinking to myself. Why don't we do that? The only difference between her and us was the fact that she was there and we were here...jobless.

I thought to myself, if this is really a good idea, then God, put it in Jon's head too. After that I got on the bus headed up north for an amazing week and didn't think about it again. Until about a week later when Jon brought it up. Not the Philippians, but he did bring up the fact that there are often more jobs in Grand Portage then there are people to fill them. We were relaxing on our bed, sunlight was streaming in, and we were talking about this and that. That conversation changed everything.

Since then plans have changed every other day. Nothing is yet set in stone and probably won't be for a long time. We've been back to Portage about four times since our decision was made, and every time we are there it feels more and more like home. I feel my heart pulling every time I think of the kids up there who I fell in love with back last June, and I can't wait to see their smiling faces again.

It's exciting to think about what our future there will hold, but it is still sad to think of all the things we will be missing here in the cities. I think in a way my heart will always be torn between two homes that I love....at least they're only six hour apart, right?

Jobs

Well, there has been a few events that have transpired in the last few weeks that could certianly shake things up a little. To begin, Beth and I have been debating on what to with the recent disbandment of the Journey. We are all aware of what an arduous process finding a new church family can be. Our last two church hunts took roughly six months a piece. Figure in the the time constraint that we were hoping to move up North sometime next year. Our church hunt is being farther impeded by Sunday morning meetings with my former church, Oak Haven in Ham Lake, to prepare for a week long trip to Portage this June. All of this more or less whittles down to us maybe having three months to find a church and get settled in before uprooting again.

Now, the second set of circumstances revolves around work. As many of you know, I have been unemployed for a year now. Just this week I found that my unemployment benefits were ended this week. Included in my regular job search routine is a quick glance at the Grand Portage job website. This week the site presented two shiny new job opportunities. The first being a youth worker at the activity center. A job that would involve playing with kids, planning activities, and being a role model. A job similar to one I've had in the past and enjoyed immensely. The next job was a position in a the day care just across the street working with infants and younger children. A career ideal for my wife.

Long story short, we are sending resumes out tomorrow. Once again, we are extremely grateful for your support and prayers, and ask for them once again. Please pray for guidance in making in our timing and decision making.

Thank you once again and God bless you,

Jon and Beth

To Our Church Family:

Beth and I would both like to extend a heartfelt thank you for your warm reception of our calling today. Part of the reason we both felt very strongly on sharing with you today as that we strongly and dearly think of you as our church family, no matter what the future of the Journey may be, we know you will continue to support us along the way. That is one thing we will always love and appreciate about all of you.
A word of encouragement about the vote next week. Beth and I have gone through a church closing once before. In many ways it was painful and challenging, but at the same time it was an opportunity for Beth and I to grow as a couple and spiritually. Many of you at the meeting expressed a desire to stay a family. But in the same way that we grow up and move from our parents homes, spiritually there are times when we must leave our church homes. This does not in any way stop us from being a family. We will always be family, and even though we won't share a house anymore, we still have the same Father, and that's what is important. Thank you again for all your prayers and support.
Love,
Jon and Beth

First Post

Hi everyone,
This is Jon typing. I just figured I'd put something up so it wasn't blank if/when people came. We appreciate your support, and we will promise to do our best to keep this thing updated regularly. News can sometimes take a while to develop, so please keep checking in.
Thanks,
Jon