Video of the Carpentry Shop in Bolivia

I've mentioned the carpentry shop to many of you, and it has been a subject of a previous blog entry as well. Here is a video from the field in Bolivia, coordinated with the World Venture home office in Colorado.  Check it out!

Seasons

It used to be that I couldn’t wait for Winter to arrive.  Winter brings skiing, sledding, building snowmen, or just a great excuse to sit by the fireplace and read a book.  Winter covers everything in white, and seems to wipe the slate clean for another fresh start.

But then, I got into Mountain Biking, and Winter meant an end to that activity for the year.  Suddenly, I was more in love with summer.  Now, as I tend my recently planted garden, I find myself enjoying the newness of Spring.  I can’t help but anticipate and look forward to Fall a little bit though, when we can really enjoy the fruits of our labors in the garden.  And each of these activities is changed by sharing it with my children.  Gardening is no longer just a chore, but something that the kids love to help out with, making it much more exciting.  I still love a good bike ride, but that’s something the kids can’t participate in yet, and so without diminishing the experience, it does mean making a choice to leave the family behind for a short time, and going out to torture my body on my own.

Riding with a friend last weekend.

In general, I’ve decided I just like the idea of seasons.  They provide an opportunity to continually renew my focus, change the outlook, and switch up the pace.  Summers in Montana are notoriously short, but offer a great many opportunities.  As a result, people tend to “go” every possible minute.  It’s a fun time, and can create some great memories, but when Winter arrives it seems like we have to re-introduce ourselves to friends and neighbors. 

But seasons are something we not only experience on an annual weather cycle, but throughout our lives.  Sometimes major points mark a transition; like graduation, getting married, or having kids.  These transitions to new seasons of life can be both scary and exciting, but clearly change our life as we know it.  Alternately, we may have times of slow gradual change that we don’t even realize are occurring.  That “How did I get here?” feeling is one that too often means a negative slide.  I stepped on the scale at the beginning of the year, and trust me…  I hadn’t planned to weight that much!  But that kicked off a much more intentional season of discipline that has resulted in me losing over 15 pounds this year. 

Spring means branding in Montana. With Dan Collins in 2004.

But as much as I like seasons, I’m still struggling with this season of waiting.  We’ve made the decision to become missionaries and move to Bolivia for three years, yet here we sit.  We’ve decided what school we will place Kellton in upon arrival in Cochabamba, yet we’re also preparing for him to start Kindergarten in Helena this fall.  We’re thinking about how to pack up and move, yet we’re planting and tending a garden right here in Helena.  It sometimes feels like we’re living dual lives and I don’t know which one takes precedence.  But all we can do is continue to manage our day-to-day lives while doing everything we can to hasten and prepare for our ultimate departure.

And the irony of this coming new season of our lives…  We’re moving to the “City of Eternal Spring,” where there isn’t much in the way of seasons.  But if we can leave in December, as we are currently planning, the change from a Christmas in winter, to a Christmas in summer will be an abrupt season change indeed.

November 2011 - Not so wintry in Bolivia.

Agriculture, Business, Fundraising, and Fun…

Between my agricultural background and experience working for the State of Montana promoting “value-added” business enterprises that encouraged the growth of businesses utilizing Montana agricultural commodities, I get excited every time I read about a success story that builds on locally produced commodities, and builds brand recognition around a whole new product.  Combine that with my M.B.A. and the understanding of the many challenges associated with small business development, and I have great respect for the people that take on these challenges and work to build our local economy. 

One such business in Montana that has successfully grown into a strong new category with a series of businesses spread across the state has been local micro-breweries.  They operate under some strict state rules and regulations, but have been able to create new jobs, and utilize products that Montana grows in great quality and quantity. 

Now, one of these local breweries, Lewis & Clark Brewing, has agreed to host a fundraiser for us!  On Tuesday, June 5, 2012, a portion of their sales will be donated to World Venture in support of our economic development work in Bolivia.  Quinn & Dana will both be on hand from 4-8 pm that day to host this event, share pictures of Bolivia, and visit about what we will be doing while we live in Bolivia for three years.  This should be a unique opportunity to visit with a lot of people we haven’t had an opportunity to visit with recently, and we look forward to seeing many people.

If you are in town, and can make it, please plan to join us Tuesday, June 5, to encourage the use of business success to promote positive community change, and hopefully engage in some great conversations about what we are planning to be involved with in Bolivia.  We hope to see you there.

Bury my heart in Montana

I was out for an early morning trail run, thinking about how much I love Montana.  I mean, I love it here.  I first came to the Big Sky state to move to Lame Deer, on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation.  I had been working on DC’s Capitol Hill, and had competed for an opportunity to help this community lay the ground work for a food bank.  So I left my silk suits and heels on the East Coast and headed out in my 1982 Chevy Citation.

Wanting to establish a good reputation in Lame Deer I didn’t travel off the Res too much.  Sometimes teachers are hired for the school, but go out of town every weekend, not putting down roots.  My position was for only 6 months, so I wanted to learn and see as much as I could.  I learned that to be given a nick name was a good sign—and my long blonde hair plus same colored car earned me the nick name of Goldilocks.  At least my car kind of fit in.

This was my first trip ever to Montana and I was hooked.  That year I “helped” herd cows through the gorgeous badlands and prairie, went to pow wows, and made friends with several Northern Cheyenne people for whom I have great respect.  But this corner of Montana was just a sliver of this state’s greatness.

After a required move back to DC, a trip to Kenya and the inevitable, “now what should I do with my life panic?!” I had to be honest with myself.  I wanted to go back to Montana.

Now, coming from “back East” as they say here, Montana isn’t on anyone’s radar.  Maybe you might hear about a neat family vacation to Yellowstone, but this one zip-code state isn’t exactly code for “arriving” in one’s career.  It seemed like all my friends were living abroad or living in Manhattan (and I don’t mean Manhattan, MT).  While job hunting in DC's hot August, there was a two week series on PBS called “The West” by Ken Burns.  It’s romantic, historic, and I was smitten with the idea.  So when a position opened up in the Governor’s Office in Helena—I tried not to beg too overtly for them to hire me.  Fortunately, they did!

So once again I packed up the 1982 Chevy Citation that my New York cousins had learned to drive in, and headed West.  It- was- glorious.  With no FM radio in the car, there was plenty of time to swoon over the landscape and grow wild about my hopes for living in Helena.

Montana has not disappointed.  I love it here now as much as that first week waking up in the Mansion district (which was so cool as I rented the apartment sight unseen).  But this brings me to my current burial season.

Yes, as much as I love my friends here, met my awesome husband here and adore his ranching family, it’s time to bury my heart in Montana.   There’s parts of my heart that I must leave here for a time, to open up new space for a new love.

My growing love is for Bolivia.  While the sights, poverty, elevation, people will all be different, this place is capturing my imagination, passion and hopes for what God in His mercy will do through my family in the next 3 years.

So if I look nostalgic, I am.  I love it here.  But from a big sky to a big world, Bolivia is my new love.

       ~ Dana

The Growth Stage is Boring!

It's been a crazy year so far!  Dana & I have just completed a class that we started in January and has kept us very busy with reading and homework every week.

This class is called Perspectives on the Global Christian Movement, and was a ton of great information.  I've never been a real history buff, but I did enjoy some of the more in-depth explorations of history.  From looking at the Great Commission throughout the Old & New Testaments, to considering the times of Genghis Khan, the Vikings, Monk Orders, and even the travesty that was the Crusades, we looked at a lot of interesting information.  I have to admit though, I am thrilled to be done with this, and moving on to the next stage.

Jalapeno plant started in the Holzer house.

And that is what the year 2012 feels like in many ways...  a stage that simply must be gone through in order to get to where we actually are doing life as we envision it.  Sometimes it is too easy to be looking past this year at what will undoubtedly be a major adventure and challenge for us.  But the reality is that we have some very important development steps to complete in order to set the foundation for a successful three year stint.

Kellton & I have been having fun starting plants indoors this year for eventual transplant into a garden box and containers outside.  My favorites are the Jalapenos that are currently really going through some great stages of growth, and Kellton is so thrilled to see the amazing speed of growth exhibited by the Sunflower plants.

Regardless of the plant though, it has to go through a series of stages before the fruit can be enjoyed. Water, light, soil, fertilizer: they all play an important role in getting there.  Oh yeah, and time.

I'm slowly coming to realize the importance of the process of preparation, even it is frustrating at times, and hopefully the knowledge we gain, the support network we build, and the connections developed will provide a better foundation for delivering sustainable fruit in Bolivia.

Cool example in the Billings Gazette today!

OK, so I don't know anything about this guy, and I am not promoting him or his business (not that I think would be bad in this case!) but I ran across this article on a business in Montana today, and I thought it was a great example of doing business for the glory of God.  Right here at home!

Quote from the article: "To become part of the team, the crew members have to be from the South Side, out of prison and have an interest in learning about the Bible.

“The idea is to teach these guys construction skills, introduce them to the teachings of Jesus and hope they pick up on what we are teaching and doing,” Houlihan said.

Click here to read the whole article. "Construction program gives former inmates skills needed for new life"

Why? (or Why not?)

An outlet in Bolivia...  If only all of
life's decisions were so clearly marked!

One thing I’ve struggled to summarize for you who have asked is “Why” we are doing this.  In the end, it would be easier to explain how we overcame the reasons not to, than simply the drive to move forward.  Dana & I have gone through a long decision-making process, and it was good for us to do together, but there was never a moment when we simply knew this was the right thing to do.  Maybe it would help to share our basic understanding of following God’s will in our lives. 

While I believe God can and does work in unique ways, when it comes to a vocation or job, I don’t think He generally gives most of us a clear path to follow.  Rather, He has given us this amazing gift of “free will” and expects us to use that gift in making wise choices.  We have been repeatedly asked about this “calling” on our lives, and I have to admit, I’m not sure I would use that term.  I think God has placed in us a desire for adventure, a desire to have a lasting impact in our world, a desire to see our children raised in such a way as to expand their horizons, and a desire to constantly strive to better ourselves.  Ironically, at times, feeling the urge to pursue these desires has seemed very self-serving, and even an argument against moving forward with this.  After all, we didn’t want to be doing this simply for ourselves.  There’s nothing too “Godly” about doing something from selfish ambition…  So yes, we struggled with numerous circular arguments and philosophical debates.

Another couple serving in Bolivia.  We had a great conversation about
"Why?" and they had a totally different path to their decision, yet we are
so excited about arriving at the same conclusions and serving together!

In the end, we know that we will not be outside of God’s will for our lives in pursuing this opportunity to improve the world as we know it.  However, we truly believe we (and you are included in this!) can serve God right where we are.  In fact, that is one of the goals of Business As Mission: to chip away at the “secular-sacred” divide, and help people see how they can serve God with the skills they have, right in the workplace, just as effectively as if you decide to pursue “full time ministry.”  In fact, if you think about the realities of who a small business person interacts with throughout a week, compared to who a church pastor interacts with, I believe the small business person has more potential to impact non-Christians on a regular basis.

Bolivia... Even the terrain offers some challenges.

For most of us, I don’t think God insists on a specific career path, or the correct toothpaste.  Some things are left to us to figure out.  I don’t know what this means for you, but I do hope you are seeking to live a life that glorifies God.

This concept of finding “God’s will” for our lives has been tricky for many people I have talked to.  Not that this will have all the answers you are looking for, but if you are interested in learning more about this topic, our pastor did a great series on this last fall, and those teachings are available online here.  I hope you find them interesting and thought-provoking.

-Update: Our church updated their website after I posted this link, so if it didn't work for you, I have updated the link to direct you to the new website location.