IT'S TIME. . . TO EVALUATE A VERY BUSY WINTER.

In a word, I would say "Excellent." We have thoroughly enjoyed being excellent-ly busy serving excellent retreat groups, programming two excellent winter camps, working alongside excellent volunteers, enjoying excellent speakers and worship, and hearing about many excellent decisions to follow Jesus. We're thrilled with the opportunity to use this old school building for such an excellent purpose! Since December 27th, we have served 348 guests!

Each day, we are at least one planning step closer to 2010 summer camps! Oatmeal & Rougie are taking on leadership of Home Ec/Man Camp. Kids Missions Camp and Missions Encounter 201 have been promoted at MissionConneXion, and a big planning meeting is happening this week. One-by-one jobs are being assigned and great ideas are being put on paper! Be sure to go to www.campjonah.com to read about each of our hands-on, unique theme camps. You can either register online or print out a registration form to mail back with your check. Be assured that this will be money well spent on a week that will last a lifetime!

One staff, under God, indivisible, with purpose and "next step" for all.

Staff applications are coming in every day, which makes us smile. We love our staff and we love seeing how God completes our staff needs each summer. If you're considering applying and you think this is where God wants you, then hurry to www.campjonah.com and click on Forms, then
Staff Application. I promise you the best, most challenging, most stretching summer of your life! Don't put off your decision or you might lose the opportunity to serve. We're praying for our summer staff every day.

Does God want you at Jonah this summer?

IT'S TIME. . . TO CELEBRATE THE COMPLETION OF TWO MORE DORM ROOMS.

Friday night at about 8:30, we welcomed yet another group of 100 this year, and we didn't have to scramble for places to sleep them all! Both Mt. Hood and Mt. Jefferson dorm rooms now sleep 18 people each. Both rooms are beautiful and complete. We've noticed that as God allows us more space in our chapel and dorms, that he also brings in larger groups to fill these rooms. And guess what? That means more guests have fun, hear about Jesus and make choices to follow Him! Thank you to the MANY people who helped with this dorm room project!

Now that the dorms are finished, we can switch our concentration to the Dining Hall! Thank you to those of you who sent year-end gifts to boost the funding for this project. Pray for Jeff as he now switches gears and begins to focus once again on completion of this long-awaited, much-used room. Pray for perfect timing of volunteers, contractors, and a few more precious dollar bills. We're anxious to serve you a meal in our new Dining Hall the next time you're in the area!

IT'S TIME. . . TO GO FOR A WALK.

Knowing the importance of taking a Sabbath day, we often sneak out just before dusk to take a walk around our three mile loop. It's a favorite time for Jeff and me to talk, pray, and be wowed by Mt. Adams, cattle, wildlife, wild flowers, and the energy that a brisk walk in any weather can bring to us. The next time you head out for a walk (or the like), please use it as a reminder to pray for your friends here at Camp Jonah.

IT'S TIME. . . TO BE GRATEFUL.

We are so grateful for the team that God (He definitely gets the credit!) has put together here. Steve is a great bookkeeper who does many jobs for us that are not in his job description. God popped Molly into the secretary job the very week that Harmony and Donna decided that being a mommy was number one priority in their lives (we agree). She's been a huge blessing and is using talents that even surprise her. Julianne continues to bless us by shopping and cleaning and working in the kitchen each week. We don't know what we would do without Dianne's hard work, fantastic sense of humor, and incredible butterscotch brownies. Chazz, our intern, is putting forth great effort doing whatever he is assigned-from planning winter camp to cleaning dorm rooms. And then there are all the volunteers that we'd be lost without who show up each weekend to do whatever job is needed. At this moment, there are three guys helping Jeff run the zipline, while two girls are helping Dianne and Julianne in the kitchen. Only a big God could put this all together so perfectly. And the cool thing? We all like each other! It's fun to come to work! Jeff and Grandma and I are so pleased to team up with the likes of all these special people (and all the others not mentioned here).

Do you ever wake up in the morning and find it hard to drag yourself out of bed, hard to open your eyes and mind enough to read your Bible? I finally admitted my struggle to the Lord this week and I felt like he quickly answered me with, "Don't expect hard things to be easy." Well, there's a lot of truth to that. I think I expect everything to be easy, all the while knowing that accomplishing hard things brings true satisfaction and good habits to fall back on. I was reading in Mark this week and was struck deeply by that fact that when Jesus was very, very, very tired, he still got up before dawn to spend time in prayer. If Jesus did it, I need to do it! Do Hard Things is our theme for the summer. I guess I'd better put into action what I'm promoting. I'll be setting the alarm for 6:00 AM this week again...

PRAISES:

1. Full retreat groups this winter!
2. Many decisions made to follow Jesus!
3. Better finances due to full groups!
4. Two more completed dorm rooms! Mt. Hood and Mt. Jefferson look beautiful!
5. The grant application is completed and submitted!
6. Wonderful summer staffies returning each weekend to serve our guest groups!

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. We have some available spring weekends that we would love to have filled.
2. Pray that we would be desert-like thirsty for Jesus.
3. Please pray for our summer staff application and selection process.
4. Please pray that our recently submitted grant application would find favor with both God and man.
5. Please pray for our Annual Board Meeting on Monday, February 8th. Pray for wisdom, guidance, and a keen understanding of the desires of God, our
Camp Director, for the upcoming year.
6. We would appreciate your prayers for health. It's hard to keep up the fast pace here when we take turns being "under the weather."