Bansenblog

A welcoming sign greets us at the entrance to the base and we are reminded of the two "hats" that the base wears.














Hannah and Eli enjoy a new livingroom view as we unload our things and start the work of settling in to our new abode.




The outside of our house up on Hummingbird hill with a view of the north canyon wall behind it.

Hannah with more cousins in Denver.











Hannah and Eli with Kaitlyn and Christopher in Chicago while we visited the Carlson's on way out west.









Hannah and her cousin Anika takin' a swim, smiling for a picture. We also visited the Riani's while were in Chicago.

It looks like this fall Ginger will be helping in the International Christian School here on the base with the kids, and I’ll get back into the Maintenance Department as soon as I’m done with orientation. With most of the buildings over 50 or 60 years old, there is much to be done. Thanks, Dad, for teaching me to re-wire in some tricky spots!
YWAM-Chico is looking ahead to a busy and fruitful year training up new leaders for the Kingdom. TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language) is in full swing already. The foreign ESL (English as a Second Language) students arrive next week. The end of the month the college age DTS (Discipleship Training School) and 30+ singles and families (CrossroadsDTS) will be arriving, bringing a fresh crop of willing learners to pour into. Even though we’ll be officially functioning in service and teaching jobs, every day we have opportunities to rub elbows with the students: at meals, when they join us for work duties, and in the evenings. It’s whole-life discipleship… learning to follow Christ in all areas of life, even the mundane. We’re excited to be a part of it!
Thank you very much for your prayers and financial support. We are here as an extension of the Body of Christ (you!). We’re grateful that you’re partnering with us. We are blessed and pray you will be also as you have lifted us up.

Our first Monday Morning Meeting here at YWAM-Chico was momentous as all the staff laid hands on us in prayer and received us as part of the YWAM Staff family. We felt we had come full circle, having been sent out by so many back home, and now received into the work God has for us here. Thank you again to you who have sent us. Know that we are feeling anointed and empowered to serve already. Praise God!
Also during the meeting, we saw first hand just how real the Body ministry is in this place. Testimonies were given from two 15-16 year olds who had just completed intense two months as part of “24/7”, which is basically a youth “summer of service” program here. They shared how God had done healing and life-changing works in their lives while they served with their group. Some of the previous DTS (Discipleship Training School) students we knew had returned to help lead the 24/7 summer youth program, and they were experiencing God doing awesome deeper works in their hearts as well. Ginger was in tears to see right away that effective youth ministry is core here. More on all that another time.

We discovered on arrival that August is a very busy time at YWAM-Chico. It’s a month of continued summer camps, in addition to preparations for the fall terms of the different YWAM schools. Last week, the base hosted 450 campers for a hard-core Youth Camp. (A group that size maxes our staff in service areas alone, but we do it willingly, because of the ministry and changed lives that emerge every year from this group.) This week a church group brought in 100 for kids camp (much easier size). Not too long from now and all of the West Coast YWAM Leadership land here for a conference. (We’ll be swamped again.)
All this extra activity brings increased needs in the service areas of meal prep and housekeeping, so for the next 3 weeks, I’m doing dishes and learning the ropes with kitchen meal prep and clean-up. After that I’ll get to actually start my Orientation. As a mother, Ginger gets to stay home until school starts, so she is elated to have time to minister to our kids and be a homemaker as we are figuring how to arrange things in our house and get ourselves settled in.
Our house here is a blessing. It is one of the older staff cottages from before YWAM came to own the property. Like most of these cottages, it had needed some serious attention. Before we arrived they had done quite a bit of work on it to make it ready us. One of the main workers told us he had spent hours praying for us as he re-wired, re-plumbed and generally overhauled the house. (Don’t ask about the vermin traces they found in the attic…) It is a small 3 bedroom cottage with a walk-through kitchen which kind of shares the same living space as the living room… you know, the “open concept”. Helps make it seem larger, but created an interesting challenge for the dining area. The kids are adjusting to each having their own bedroom for the first time. There are still boxes everywhere, but it’s home, and we love it… what a wonderful little place; God is good!

Greetings Everyone, from Chico, California! We have made it here after 7 long days on the road, and it feels so good to finally arrive! We’ve had a few days to start settling into our new abode, and are finally getting our computer to jive with internet access here. We miss all of you back home and at the same time, it is good to once again be with our YWAM family. One of our teammate families also recently joined YWAM-Chico’s team, as well as the missionary family home on furlough from Fiji. There was much hugging when we rolled in—especially among the children!
Our trip went well, though not without its stresses. We used a U-haul trailer to transport our things out west, which is why we found a more capable vehicle (’98 Nissan Pathfinder) to replace our minivan. After we had loaded the trailer on Friday evening, I began to think that we should have bought a larger truck. Dad (Ulery) reassured me that it would do well as long as we didn’t get in a hurry… yeah, I’m thinking, SLOW. It was a lot of weight, and we could certainly feel the load on the truck as we drove. This the first time we’ve ever pulled a load that heavy, I really didn’t want to drive it faster than 50-55 mph.
We visited family and friends in Chicago on our first stop. (Thank you Chad and Michelle for having us overnight; it was good to see the whole family!) Sunday after lunch we headed west again toward Iowa, where we spent the night at a campground. The rolling hills of Iowa gave me a lesson in keeping my momentum going down a hill in order to make it up the next one.  Nebraska was flatter and the kids were wondering—again—“How long until we get there?” …yeah, you can only imagine… We drove about 9 hours and stayed the second night in Nebraska.
The next day we made it to Denver and got to visit Rick and Becky and family (Ginger’s cousins…thanks again for letting us crash at your pad, and Rick, for the driving advice!) and we saw Duane and Kristyne, Ginger’s brother and sister-in-law, who were packing for an exciting move themselves (God bless you guys!). Our kids all had a ball reuniting with cousins. I think we finally crashed about midnight—kids included. But it was fun.
From Denver we made our way north to get back on I-80. The hills weren’t too bad, but the traffic was tight. Then we stayed the next night in Wyoming, near the Utah state line at a campground…can you say COLD night. Yes, Wyoming is farther north! That was unexpected after all the heat waves, but it was good sleeping weather. There were a few serious hills to climb before we made it to Salt Lake City, and the truck proved it could climb long hills—even if slowly. The kids got to see the Great Salt Lake, but a coming lightning storm prevented us from touching it.
We spent our final night out in the middle of Nevada, leaving us about 9 hours to drive our final day. After crossing one last mountain chain, praying our way up—and then down—the hills, we made it to the YWAM base in Chico, California. Since it was evening, many of our friends were available with a warm welcome and plenty of help to unload the trailer. This truly is a family here. Wow, what a trip! Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement.