the sweetest face in the world....

i'll write more soon about how we're doing.....but for now, i've mostly just been enthralled by this cute little person in my life. it's fun to be able to share her with you....

Aunt Kate visits....

Zara loves her Aunt Kate....Kate came to Seattle to spend 2 weeks with us and her little niece and nephew and we sure loved having her here. She and Zara hung out every day and today Zara said "I really miss my Aunt Kate...." Sigh....it's great to have wonderful family, but hard when they are not here with us....

Hanging! Zara's favorite new pastime....

As you can see from these photos, right now Zara is obsessesed with hanging...from anything she can find to hang from, her crib, our bathroom sink, and everything in the park. We try to encourage it in the park and discourage it everywhere else! A few photos of our funny little girl....

Our Saturday Tradition....

In attempt to get back to posting more regularly, I thought I'd fill you in on our famiy's Saturday morning summer tradition....our neighborhood farmer's market! We have been loving the market this summer. Every Saturday I get up really looking forward to walking the streets to the market, picking up a coffee along the way, and strolling through the aisles of brightly colored produce and flowers, all grown locally by the vendors themselves. I love the connection of actually seeing the people who grow the food I am eating, and love the fact that I can support them directly in this way.



I love that the food only travelled a short distance to get to me, rather than hundreds of miles on a semi-truck to be unloaded in some major grocery store. I love how fresh the peaches and cherries taste and how we are growing to recognize faces as we shop there week after week. I just love the whole idea of it.


Zara is in heaven as she samples tastes from each stand along the way, especially when she gets to the "squeaky cheese", her favorite. I love seeing neighbors and my siblings (who recently moved here) and people i know week after week. I love the music and the freshness and the bustling activity. Just another reason I love summers in Seattle....
(my sister kate is visiting this week and took these adorable photos!)

what's new (the facts according to Zach)

Thought we'd give you a little update on what's going on with YWAM Seattle... A while back we wrote an entry about how YWAM was trying to purchase some property here in our neighborhood. Our goals were lofty, but property around here is expensive, and that's just the way it is... Our goal was to raise $140,000 (20% of the total price) in a fairly short amount of time. We did pretty well, but still fell short of where we wanted to be. However, the owner has agreed to NOT sell the property to anyone else, and is allowing us to continue leasing it from him for the next year. (giving us more time to raise money)

In the midst of that process, we began to realize that we were looking very under-staffed for the DTS this fall. In addition, one of our key staff members decided to move from Seattle at the end of this summer to pursue some other interests. We were left with some hard decisions to make in regards to how we were going to pull off running the DTS. In the end we decided that it would be in everyone's best interest to cancel it. I didn't feel like we could provide a top-quality service to our students based on the number of staff that we had. The decision was a very difficult one to make for a number of different reasons:

1. This past spring and summer I've put in a LOT of time working on improving the program and implementing some new ideas.
2. We've been involved with DTS every fall for the last 7 years.
3. In essence, we made a decision that takes away a major part of our job with YWAM Seattle, at least for the time being.

So we're left with the question of where do we go from here... I've been planning on starting grad school at Mars Hill Graduate School this fall to study counseling psychology, but a major component of my desire to do that was the impact that it could have on the DTS in the coming years. I've really been spending some time considering my decision to go there, and have decided that I definitely will start classes in September. The picture is still a bit cloudy as to where that will lead, but I'm feeling good about the decision.

To be clear, we're still not sure what the future holds in terms of our involvement with YWAM. For now, we're still in leadership of the base, and continue to work with the other things that our base is involved in. I'm still the organization's accountant/administrator. We see this coming year as a time for us as an organization to refine our vision, and a time to recruit more staff. I really believe that we were on our way to offering one of the best DTS programs anywhere. We'll just have to wait one more year to get it started. There has been quite a bit of disappointment in the last couple of months, but at the same time I see God leading us and protecting us--even when it hasn't always seemed or felt that way at the time. And we trust that He'll continue to do that.

One more picture of Amanda with Zara and her cousin Lucas for you...

Breathe

I just had the best day. Not only was it special because Zach and I got to have a whole day alone together (that doesn’t happen often!), but also because we spent the day in Glacier National Park in Montana which is just about the most gorgeous place I have ever seen.
This week we are vacationing with Zach’s family in Montana and since we are staying so close to Glacier, we decided we needed to take a day trip to the park. I don’t know what it is exactly, but something about spending an entire day surrounded by beautiful scenery and untouched wilderness brought a refreshment that would be hard to find anywhere else. I sat back and took it all in. I felt I could breathe deeply and even just take time to listen to myself breathe. I noticed things I don’t usually notice….both in nature and in myself. I sat and watched and looked and listened. I felt at peace with myself, free for a moment from the demands and stress and insecurities that make up many of my days. I think there’s something about being in the vastness of creation that gives a bit of perspective….helps me see outside myself, helps me see that maybe I’m going to be okay and maybe the things that are stressing me out are not quite as overwhelming as they feel.
On the way home we had the windows down, music blaring and the wind whipping across our faces….a glorious end to a glorious day.
I hope for more days like today….

Beautiful Wedding Day....

Today my brother got married. I can't believe it!! It's a crazy feeling sometimes remembering how we all grew up together as kids, but now that we really are adults. Having my brother get married really made me feel like an adult....those moments just hit me sometimes!! Sometimes I still feel so young, but then things hit me and I realize, wow, I really am growing up. That's how i felt today. But it was so good. We just love the girl my brother chose to marry. And it was magical to see them get married in an amazing setting on the Chesapeake Bay with so many people surrounding them that loved them. I could not be happier for them as they start their new life together and for our family to gain another sister.



Oh, and I can't forget that Zara made her debut as a flower girl today!! She was so adorable and did make it all the way down the aisle by herself....even though it seemed doubtful for a few moments!

If you're happy and you know it....

We flew back to the east coast last week to visit my family and to be a part of my brother's wedding. It's always a long travel day coming from Seattle to Baltimore, but this day was even longer than most....First, the thunderstorms.....we got delayed in the air because of storms surrounding the ciy we were supposed to land in. After circling for a while, they ended up diverting our flight to another city. Once we got there, they told us we could not get off the plane. We had to wait in the airplane for the weather to clear so we could leave right away. This was after being on this plane already for 6 hours! After a while we could not contain Zara in our seat any longer and had long run out of things to entertain her so I begged the flight attendant to let me get off the plane with her just so she could run around. After some desperate pleading, she let us get off. Zara got to run around for a while and we just waited and waited. They finally announced we could get back on the plane and that we would be taking off right away. We head down the runway and then stop. The pilot announces he will be shutting off the engines because we are not able to take off as there are now too many planes trying to take off......I was about to lose it!!! I was so anxious to be home and with my family and I was SO tired of being on that plane going nowhere! About this time Zara was playing in the aisle and had caught a second wind of happiness. She soon started in on a rousing chorus of "if you're happy and you know it, clap your hands!!" she clapped her hands and stomped her feet and even got a few people sitting nearby to join her. Ahh, the innocence and joy of a child.....
About 4 hours later, at 1am, we finally arrived home.....
P.S. the adventures didn't stop there....to read a bit more, check out our friend chrissie's blog (she came on this trip with us!)
http://chrissieinseattle.blogspot.com/

The "Grey House"

One large project that we've been working on the last couple weeks is the potential purchase of some property for YWAM Seattle. (Not US buying the property, but YWAM buying some property!)



Here's the link to the page on YWAM Seattle's website that details the purchase, including a flyer that hopefully most of you received in the mail. If you haven't received it, and would like to, we can get one in the mail for you right away.

The website gives many details, but we also wanted to communicate personally what this house means to us... This house we're trying to purchase has been a place where we have invested many hours over the last 4 years. This is the house where all of our students stay when they go through our Discipleship Training School. We've had many meetings there, eaten countless meals, and had lots of meaningful conversations with both students and staff. For more details on the program we direct, feel free to check out the Urban DTS page on the YWAM Seattle website. We've been responsible for most of the content, and it does a good job of summing up what our primary roles here are all about.

YWAM Seattle has been renting this house for 4 years, and we believe that now is the time to make some steps towards purchasing the property. We (both us personally and YWAM Seattle) love this neighborhood and are ready to put down some tangible roots here. If you're interested in hearing more please let us know.

This has been something occupying much of our time over the last few months since we've been back from Thailand. We've been busy designing promotional material, planning open-houses, and meeting with potential donors. You can be praying for us this Thursday evening as we're helping host an open-house for some potential donors. This has really been a big step of faith for us as an organization, considering that we're quite small and we don't have much extra money. We'll keep you updated on the process. Thanks for your prayers.

we're back...

Hey everybody... Sorry for our absence over the last couple of months. I think that once we got back home to Seattle we settled into our old routine of not updating this blog. But we're ready to get it going again. There have been some changes going on around here over the last couple months, so we want to keep you in the loop! Over the next week we're hoping to write a bit more to let you know what's been going on with us. Thanks for your patience, and sorry again for the lack of communication. Hopefully these cute pictures of Zara will make up for it!
Zach and Zara out for breakfast to celebrate Zara's Birthday

Zara opening birthday presents

Zara being funny pushing her stroller

Back in Seattle-

We've been home for about 6 days now and are very happy to be here. Our bed feels extra comfy and our showers extra hot....all the little things we miss while we are overseas! We've experienced some jet-lag this week, but it really hasn't been too bad! Zara is sleeping really well and seems so happy to see all her toys and be sleeping in her own room. We are also glad she has her own room back after sharing a room with her for a few months!
Tonight we have our DTS graduation. It is our final event with our students and a final time to share together before we all go our separate ways. There is a mixture of relief and sadness as we end this time with them. It will definitely feel empty around here for a while as we have all gotten so used to being together and living in this community.
Please pray for our transition and for our students. Many of them feel nervous about going home and trying to explain all that they've just experienced. Many are also in the process of making future decisions. We are going to take it easy the next few weeks as we settle back into our life here.
Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement during our time away. We look forward to seeing many of you soon and catching up with our Seattle friends in the next few weeks!

Heading home....

We've come to the end of our time in Thailand....We have had a some great last days with our team here. We were able to go to a beach for our last 3 days and have some time to relax as a team and debrief our time here together. It has been good to share together all that we have learned and process how we will apply those things as we go back home. We all feel a mixture of excitement about returning home to our friends and family and a sadness about leaving this beautiful country. Please pray for us if you think of us....we have long travels getting home (we leave in about 24 hours and it will take us about 27 hours to get home...) and as we transition to life back at home.
Thanks for all your prayers.
love, the rupps
ps. thanks for all the comments and birthday wishes :)

Amanda's birthday dinner

I had a really fun birthday. Not only did we get to ride elephants, but some of our closest Thai friends came over and made one of my favorite Thai dishes for dinner….phad thai. Phad Thai is a very traditional dish and is made by mixing lots of ingredients with fresh noodles and stir-frying them all together in a wok. Then you top it with bean sprouts, lime, green onions and chopped peanuts, and spicy pepper, if you desire. Our friends brought all the ingredients to our house and we cooked together. It was fun to watch them in action….we kept asking if we could help and they kept saying “just sit!”



These friends are very special to us as we met them 4 years ago on our first trip to Thailand. We have kept in touch ever since and seen each other every time we have come here. It's really neat for us to have a friendship that has continued over many miles for many years.
We all enjoyed a delicious meal and I enjoyed a memorable birthday in Thailand!


p.s. we know there are some of you that have been keeping up with us via our blog....would you mind leaving us a comment to let us know you are out there??? sometimes it's hard to know is anyone is actually reading this :)

Reminders of home....

We found this reservoir on the campus of Chiang Mai University....it really reminded me of Greenlake in Seattle and made me miss home!

A few pictures from the market

Tuk-Tuk Ride

Zara's first ride on a tuk-tuk....a very fun way to get around (but not the safest !:) She really loved it!

Yummy Brownies (by Amanda)

it's been a hard couple of days for me. i fluctuate between desiring to take in the moments that we have here, treasure our time and enjoy it all and just wanting to go home where things are more comfortable, i know what's going on, i speak the language well and have many friends around that know me well. i find myself living in this constant state of frustration with myself....never doing enough, or trying to do it all and feeling like a failure at everything. and then i get frustrated with myself for being this way! why can't i just go with the flow, relax, be thankful? often i find i need a bit of perspective and pictures of hope to pull me away from being consumed with my own world. i need to see things outside myself. i need my heart to be softened to care for those around me more than i care for my own comfort. i need to see my own heart and repent and be moved to action and to love out of the love i have been given. please work in my heart Lord.
i was able to see some pictures of hope today. it was a hard day for me with zara, she needed a lot and i felt like i didn't have a lot to give. but i was also able to step outside myself and it was life-giving. we met with an organization today called Hope for the Nations. they have opened a home where young girls who are single moms can live. these girls all come from desperate circumstances....being disowned for being pregnant, being forced to drink poison to kill their baby unless they ran away, being shunned by their communities, being at risk for being sold into prostitution....etc.....The couple who runs this home have a heart to see these girls become whole and to begin to break the cycle of poverty in their own lives. They are given a safe place to stay and they live in community with one another as they learn about Christ, learn how to take care of their babies, and learn to handle the responsibilites of finances and jobs. the goal is to open small businesses and to train the girls in different fields that they are interested in so that they will have means to provide for their children. the first venture is to start a bakery that will sell baked goods to local hotels and cafes. so today we had the privledge of spending time baking with the girls. they are just practicing and learning the basics and we had so much fun just being able to do this activity together. we made brownies, cookies and coffeecake....it was really fun to have a taste of home and some of the sweets we have missed!


i felt hopeful as i was with these girls and as i looked at their babies....lives that could have been destroyed but are in the process of being redeemed. it showed me once again what a little bit of love and security can do to dignify someone and cause them to see the beauty and value in themselves. and it reminded me that while i often feel i have little to give, i can look into somone's eyes and smile and listen and let them know they are worthwhile and for that moment, that may be enough.

Chiang Mai (by Zach)

We've been in Chiang Mai now for a little over a week now. It hasn't gone quite as we expected it to go, but it's still been good. We've had a number of things planned that have either fallen through or have gotten moved back. There has been some frustration, but I really think that we're making the best of the situation. Our team has been able to meet quite a few people, which has been really fun. Tomorrow night we're inviting our neighbors over for an Ice Cream Social. How social of us...

We've been learning a lot about the issues of prostitution here in Thailand, and specifically the northern part of the country where we're located. I think I've learned more about this issue this time in Thailand than I learned my other 4 times combined. It was more of a focus for our team coming here this year, and so we've tried to make it a priority in terms of how we're spending our time.

Last week we met with two different organizations who are working with women coming out of prostitution. The first one is called Garden of Hope. It's an organization that provides training and skills for the women, so that they have other means of creating income. The other organization that we heard from was International Justice Mission. They are a large organization that does some incredible things around the globe. In Thailand, their work invloves rescuing women (and girls) who have been trafficked and are now being held against their wills as sexual slaves. Both organizations are doing great work here, attempting to be a part of the solution to an issue that is overwhelming here in Southeast Asia--the sexual exploitation of women. I apologize if the language seems graphic, but the issue itself is inherently graphic. There are no easy words to describe what is happening here.

It's been a very eye-opening week for our whole team. The issue of prostitution is a very obvious one here, as the city we're in is littered with bars proudly selling women. There are so many layers to the issue: Who are the girls? Where did they come from? How did they get here? Who's making the money? Why is it ok for men to purchase women so openly? What happens after the girls' value is diminished (with old age or disease)? One of the most disturbing things we learned is that the blatant prostitution that we see is only a very small part of the extent of the problem. Western tourists make up only a very small percentage of the overall number of people soliciting prostitutes here. (Thai nationals make up 95% of the customers)

The challenge for me personally is to continue to have hope in the One who is bigger than all these issues. It's too easy to focus on the surface circumstances and get completely overwhelmed by them. The issue seems too big to do anything about it. And the reality is that I can't "solve" the problem by myself. There's a quote from Mother Teresa that says: "In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love." That's what I'm seeing as the mission for our team here. We've done a lot of praying, a lot of learning, and had a lot of conversations. On some days that doesn't seem like enough, but we're doing all that we can.

Last night we went on a prayer walk with a couple people from Garden of Hope in one of the main areas of prostitution here. The two people we went with had spent quite a bit of time in the area, so they were very familiar with everything. As we walked down the street, girls in the bars came running out to see our two guides. It gave me a boost of hope/faith to see that happen. Our guides were loved and respected by the girls because they had been coming to this area consistently over a 6-month period. It helped me see the power of doing a few small things, and how those seemingly small things can make a huge difference.

Moving!

Hey everybody... Our time here in Chiang Rai is coming to an end quickly. Monday afternoon we'll be getting on a bus and taking a three hour trip south to Chiang Mai. Our last couple of days here will be fun. Tomorrow (Saturday) we'll mostly just be around the Youth Center, hanging out with the kids we've gotten to know over the last month. It's been fun to see our team really get to know a lot of the kids. It seems like each of us has 2 or 3 that we've really clicked with. It'll definitely be a hard transition as we have to say good-bye to the kids. On Sunday, we'll be visiting a church up near the border of Burma. We'll take a brief visit across the border and visit Burma for little while. Gotta get Zara into as many different countries as we can!

The focus of the second half of our trip will be very different than the first half. We will have two main types of ministry that we're working with:
1. We're working with a couple different organizations that work with women coming out of prostitution. Most of what we'll be doing will be centered around education (us getting educated). Because we're only there for 3 1/2 weeks, our involvement will be somewhat limited. But we're really praying and hoping that our eyes would be opened to this enormous issue that is so prevalant here in Southeast Asia. The organizations we'll be working with help to provide education and training for the women, enabling them to get jobs. The issues surrounding prostitution here are myriad, so we're hoping to get a glimpse into this problem.

2. The other thing we'll be doing is hosting an English club for University students at a University that is very close to the house where we'll be staying. Basically all students here really want/need to learn English, so that's an easy way for us to meet people. Our desire is to build relationships with the students we're able to meet. When we came here 4 1/2 years ago, we met some friends that we still keep up with, and who we'll be seeing when we get to Chaing Mai. We hope that our team can also build lasting relationships with people here.

Thanks for your continuing prayers. We appreciate them. Things have been going really well. You can be praying that Zara does well on the bus ride Monday.

a few more photos...

The team playing the thai version of duck-duck- goose with the kids

The boys having a great time in the water

Zara and friends

Little village girl