Wyatt

Check out Wyatt's first time on Camera!  It's also one of the first times he opened his eyes for more than a couple seconds!   

Well we have been quite busy since the last time we have updated all of you.

This past week we had two of our good friends, Ian and Jeremy, come out to visit us. They are great friends that Luke has played soccer with and known for a few years now. It was so fun to have them out and show them around Steamboat and the snow. We rented some snow shoes for a couple days and went on some sweet hikes up a mountain and across a frozen Steamboat lake! We also went tubing one night which was very fun. The week they came we got somewhere between 15 and 20 inches of snow in just a few days! We are so thankful and blessed to have such good friends and are looking forward to seeing where we all end up.

Jane has been very busy lately as she has started to record her songs!! She just finished recording six of her original songs at a local studio. The songs are awesome and we are anxiously awaiting the final copy of the demo which should be done any day now. We are hoping to send the demo to some contacts we have made in the music business and pray that the Lord will allow it to get into the right hands if that is what He has planned. And if any of you have some contacts in the music business then be sure to let us know!

Luke was invited to a player combine down in Austin for the new expansion USL-1 team. This seems to be a great opportunity for Luke to move up and would be a great stepping stone to continue to progress his soccer career, not to mention we would be able to be back in Texas! This is a new team but it's a team that has lots of great connections with the owner of this team also being a part owner of Stoke City, in the English premiership. They have a developed a formal partnership with the two teams. Please pray for this opportunity and that the Lord will lead and keep Luke away from injury and be with him during the trail.

We are excited about where the Lord is leading us and we thank you for all your prayers and encouragement!

Enjoy some pictures...

Mount Werner and Steamboat Springs seen from the top of Emerald Mountain (the mountiain across the valley)

This is Steamboat Lake completely frozen over and we hiked across and around it! Kinda sketchy in some spots, but it was fun.

Ian (right), Jeremy (middle) and Luke after crossing the lake. Hans Peak in the background.

This is what happens when you snow shoe after 12 or 13 inches of powder falls!!

Ian, Jane, and Jeremy with Mount Werner in the background

This tractor can really launch the snow!

Happy New Year

Hello and Happy New Year!

We hope everyone had a fun and blessed Christmas and New Years! Over the holidays we were reminded how much the Lord has blessed and surrounded us with such wonderful family.

We spent Christmas down in Texas with the whole Williams clan. It was a little weird for Jane since this was the fist non-white Christmas she has ever had, and it was 70 degrees on Christmas day. Even though we had to leave the beautiful snow of Steamboat, we still had a blast in Texas. We had such a fun time hanging out with everyone and it was the first time in a long time we all got to hang out together as a family without having to plan something like a wedding. After some crazy flight delays we finally made it to Texas late Saturday night and were able to stay the whole week and eventually left Friday morning to head back to Colorado. Our cousins, the DeZonias, as well as Grandma Shack came down from Iowa and enjoyed the warmer weather. Our house was definitely busy but we had a great time cooking up some amazing food (including deep frying a turkey and other assorted foods) and playing fun games with everyone. It was great to be back in Texas for a little while, and who knows, before we know it, we might be moving back there.

When we made it back to Steamboat after some more crazy flight delays and had a little mini Christmas with the Melvins and enjoyed a relaxing day. We then got up the next morning and headed over to the Crooked Creek Younglife Ranch near Winter Park which is only about an hour and a half away. We met up with Emily and Cody and their YL kids for their annual ski trip. It was so fun to be able to see Emily and Cody interact with all their kids. They are both so passionate and talented at what they do with those kids and it is so evident that the Lord is really working through them to make an impact in the lives of these high schoolers. Even though we only got to spend one night there we were so glad we went. And Jane got to experience her first ever Young Life Club, which she really enjoyed!

We brought in the new year with our friends the Kings, and had a great dinner and played some fun games as well as shot off a few fireworks. Then, on new years day, we went snow shoeing. We hiked up Emerald mountain which is just down the road from our house. It was so much fun hiking on the trails or making our own trails through the powder. We are going to try and make this a more regular thing since we enjoyed it so much, not to mention it is quite a good work out!

Enjoy some pictures:

Here is the local expert snow shoeing guide!

First time in snow shoes!

Christmas picture!

The whole clan: Williams', DeZonia's, Blair's, Benac's & Shackelford

The beautiful Williams/Blair/Benac family girls

The deep frying team!

The massive hot tub and gym at Crooked Creek

These are the cabins where all the kids stayed

A huge moose we saw on the road to Crooked Creek

Let it Snow!!

Greetings friends and family,

The past few weeks have been crazy here in Steamboat. We have started to get some very nice powdery snow that Steamboat is famous for, the ski mountain is open, and winter is in full swing.

Jane has been busy writing and arranging some AMAZING songs. Her husband is very proud of her! Her older brother Sam and his wife Sharon came home for Thanksgiving and Sam was very helpful in giving some advice on some of the song arrangements.  She is continuing to tweak and finalize some songs and hopes to get into a local studio to record a demo of about 3 or 4 songs. We are hoping that she can get something out by early January.  We'll keep you posted.

For those of you who were not aware, since the end of the Cleveland season Luke has had a groin injury that has stayed with him and has not gone away. We finally saw a sports doctor and Luke was diagnosed with a sports hernia and a little bit of tendinitis, which requires surgery. To make a long story short, we were recommended to a good doctor by one of the MLS trainers Luke had a contact with. The doctor was in Milwaukee, WI and almost exclusively works with professional soccer and hockey players who had this injury. The surgery was pretty simple and only took about 45 minutes. Everything went great and the doctor said it was very successful. Jane went up to Milwaukee with Luke to take care of him and did an absolutely amazing job since Luke was a little out of it after coming out of anethesia. This doctor is the only doc in the U.S that does this surgery laparscopically, which cuts the recovery time in half. Luke should be back to training again in about 4 weeks. After 2 weeks, which is tomorrow, Luke will be able to start jogging and biking and non contact cardio stuff. He is getting very antsy and is ready to start moving around a little more than just walking.  Thank you for all your prayers!

This Saturday we are heading back to Texas for Christmas, which we are so excited about! Our whole family will be coming home as well so it should be a great time of fun and fellowship and lots of good home cooking and barbeques. And just so everyone knows, the projected high for Saturday here in Steamboat is 8! Yeah.....8 degrees for the high, are you serious? Let's just say it will be nice to be in Texas!

Enjoy some pics...

A beautiful picture right out the back door of the house!

Some fun in the snow....

Jane showed her gifting with arts and crafts in making this incredible sign for Momma Melvin's birthday!! She got a new laptop.

A wonderful Colorado Thanksgiving with Sam and Sharon who came in from Sacramento

Family Pic

Back in Beautiful Colorado!!

Hello All! We hope all is well with you...

Well, we have left Cleveland behind and are now back in Steamboat Springs, CO living with Jane's family. Our time in Cleveland was an awesome first year of marriage and we met many wonderful friends. Luke had a great season and the Cleveland City Stars won the USL II Championship! This was such a wonderful time for which we will be eternally grateful.

The past month for us has been absolutely crazy. We moved out of our apartment not knowing where we were going to be next. Right after the Cleveland season ended, the Chicago Fire invited Luke to go on trial and play with them for a month. Jane stayed in Cleveland with a host family and wrapped up her job with Ambassadors. On free weekends she would go to Chicago to see Luke. Jane's grandfather passed away and she went to Kansas for the funeral which was a sad but blessed time. Jane flew back to Chicago and we both headed back to Cleveland to get/sell our stuff in storage. Luke did well for the Fire, but they did not have a contract available for him to sign this year. They wanted him to stay for the rest of the year and want him to come back in February for training camp with hopes of signing him. So, for a week back in Cleveland, we sold the stuff we could and loaded everything else up in a trailer and made the 26 hour drive to Colorado... and, now we're here for the off season.

Two weeks ago we were in Texas for Hannah's (Luke's sister) wedding. It was such a beautiful wedding out at a ranch outside of Boerne. It was an awesome time to be with the Williams. Drew and Hannah are a great couple and it was really great to see them get married! They just got back from an amazing honeymoon in Hawaii! We're so blessed with wonderful family.

Colorado is beautiful and we've had so much fun being outside! We've gone hiking, fishing, and biking and we're trying to get it all in before the snow flies. It's only snowed once, but all of it's gone with the exception of the tops of the mountains. We're still trying to figure out our job situation. We're both working for Jane's dad and will be doing that at least part time for the time we're here. At least one of us will hopefully get a job on the mountain, which means free ski passes! Jane has been subbing for her old music teacher at her old school this past week. It has been fun and challenging, but it has been good to see many familiar faces. She is working on making a demo in her spare time. Luke is rehabbing his groin that was pulled at the end of the season. It is slowly but surly getting better for which we are very thankful. We are planning on being here till February. We should know by then what team Luke will play for. For now, we're praying and planning. God has really been stretching our faith!

We've had such a great time hanging out with the Melvins. It is so much fun for Jane to be back home... Luke loves it too. The Melvins are happy to have us here too. Jon and Sophie (Jane's parents) got a "Jack-a-Bee" puppy - Jack Russell and Beagle mix. His name is Earl and he's a handful! He's SO cute, but it is a full time job for all of us to train him. Daniel (Jane's brother - freshmen in high school) has loved having a guy in the house to play with. Luke and Daniel are frequently outside playing basketball and training. We are so thankful for the Melvin's gracious hospitality and being exited for us to invade for 5 months. :)

Thank you all for your prayers...

Blessings,

Luke and Jane

CHAMPIONS!!

Jane's grandfather's memorial. She sang for the service in the chapel.

Hiking around Steamboat

Little Earl!

Luke made Gorilla Bread for our church's annual men's dessert bake off... it was delicious!

Enjoying the warmer weather...

Hello All!!

We are finally enjoying better weather here in Cleveland!! It's been in the 70s the past week or so... hopefully it sticks around and we don't have to get the winter coats out again, but no guarantees!!

I had the opportunity to go down to Costa Rica and Nicaragua in early April with three friends from Westmont. It was one of the sweetest times I've had with them! One of my friends' mom is originally from Nicaragua and she has a house down there. Another friend is in Costa Rica teaching English. We flew into Costa Rica and crossed the border into Nicaragua where we spent most of our time. We went zip lining down a volcano, walked around a lot of different markets, went to beaches, and just hung around their house and enjoyed awesome food and sunshine. And, laughed a lot... It has been a struggle being here away from my friends and family, so it was truly such a blessing to be able to spend some girl time with some of the greatest friends I will ever have. :) Enjoy some pictures below. I definitely missed Luke, and I know he missed me, while I was gone. But, I came back with some presents. I got a hammock, which Nicaragua is known for, and Luke and I hung it up on our patio. It is so nice to sit out there and read or just lounge. As much as I would love to be with my friends again, I am back here and busy at work. Ambassadors gets busier with the coming of summer. I've been putting in extra hours getting things done. And, I'm also busy keeping my husband healthy and rested for the summer...

As many of you know, the Cleveland City Stars season is under way!! Luke is busy training with the team and getting to know some of the new guys on the team. The Stars had the opportunity to scrimmage the Columbus Crew (MLS team) two weeks ago, and Luke scored an awesome goal!!! I wish we had a recording of it that we could play for you guys. It's in the running for best goal of the year already. You can read about it on the Stars homepage. The mention of the Stars game (and Luke's goal!!) was on three local Cleveland news stations that night, and Luke's picture was in the main Cleveland newspaper. He's already a star, and the season has barely started. :) The Stars had their first league game last Saturday night against the new Pittsburgh Riverhounds. Even though it was not their best game, they won 2-1 with a last minute goal. There is a lot of anticipation of this season being a promising one for the Stars. Luke is doing really well and feeling great. He's liking all the guys on the team and already having a lot of fun with them. Pray that Luke and some of the other Christian guys will have the opportunity to share Christ with some of the others on the team.

Luke's dad had the opportunity to come up for the first home game - it was awesome to see him and spend some time with him. The Williams family will be coming up the weekend of May 10th to catch a game and celebrate Sara's birthday. My mom is also coming up next weekend to see us and catch a game. We are so excited to have our families out here soon. We are so blessed by their love and support for us!

We'll keep you posted on the games and summer happenings. Blessings!!

This monkey jumped in our boat on a tour of Lake Nicaragua. We named Bertram... and he ended up biting Christie's arm!! No wonder I have a scared look on my face... but it's a hilarious story!

Surviving the Blizzard!

Hello Friends,

Sorry for such as long time in between updates. It’s been a little busy around here especially as we try and survive the crazy winter storms. I’m sure a lot of you saw our beautiful city on the national news this past weekend and somehow we did make it through unscathed.
The blizzard sure was a crazy one! We got about 3 feet of snow in two days! (see pic below) As much as I loved the snow since I have never had a winter with snow it really is starting to get old. The snow is also driving Jane crazy cause there are no mountains ski on. Well, there are “Ski Mountains” here or more like ski hills. There are a couple “hills” about 45 minutes to an hour away. We have seen one and all you can really do is laugh. If you try and take it seriously you will just get depressed, especially if you have had the incredible privilege of skiing Mt. Warner in the one and only Steamboat Springs!
Jane has been busy with her job and trying to keep progressing on her future music career. Jane has been such a blessing for the Ambassadors ministry mainly helping to get the ministry organized, not just here but in our offices all over the world. One of her main projects lately has been making up an entire updated database of every missionary we have in every office across the globe, and making a Cleveland office updated directory. Both of these are much needed and everyone is very excited and thankful that Jane is working so hard on completing this task.

Jane is also so excited because she was asked to sing a solo for the Easter service at our church. She gets to choose her own song which she is not sure about yet but she is pumped to be able to sing again. Jane’s parents got her a mini “recording studio” program for her computer that gives her the opportunity to record the songs she’s writing. She has been writing and recording songs and they sound awesome! She is really learning a lot and I’m really lucky cause I get to hear her sing all the time and I love it!
I am excited to we are less than one week away from official check-in to training camp! We started training everyday last week so it’s nice to start getting into it a couple weeks early and maybe get a head start on some of the guys that won’t be showing up until next week. We have been training about 2-3 times per week for the past couple months and it’s been really good. I’m excited to come into this training camp and pre-season already feeling relatively fit instead of coming in and having to work to get fit. We even have a pre-season scrimmage this weekend, and we have exhibition games lined up almost every weekend until our first regular season game. So we are hitting the ground running. We also have a big pre-season tournament the weekend before our home opener. We are hosting the tournament and playing against the Columbus Crew and Rochester (a USL 1 team). So we should get some high quality competition and some good exposure for some of our players including myself. I’m really going to work hard to try and get some trials at the end of our season with some MLS squads. We feel God that is the way God is leading us right now, but we are still praying and thinking about going over seas after the season. As of right now the only open doors God has shown us has been here in the states with the MLS but we will wait and see what happens this season and how the Lord works. Please be praying for the upcoming season and the plan that God has for us.
As for my work with the churches, that is still going great! As we get closer and closer to the season we are getting busier, but we have locked in 7 different partnerships with local churches in Cleveland. The City Star players will be putting on 7 different clinics at those churches throughout the season. The point of those clinics is to encourage the church to reach out to their community and introduce them to sports ministry and the ways they, the church, can use sport, specifically soccer, to share the gospel. It is very exciting! We are getting a great response and it’s looking like we are going to have a lot of kids at each clinic.
Jane and I are also still going to the City Mission and playing with the kids and also teaching them Bible stories. Last week, I had the opportunity to share with the kids and I shared the story of Jonah being swallowed by the big fish. The kids seemed to enjoy the story and the looks on their faces when I started talking about Jonah being swallowed by the fish and staying in there for 3 days was really funny. I told them that God is always watching out for them and He will always want to use you if you are willing to listen to Him and obey, not be scared and run away like Jonah did. Please pray that the kids took at least something about that story and can use it in their lives. And thank God for speaking through me and enabling me to connect with those kids. Also thank God for Jane and the amazing woman role model she provides those girls. Jane is the only girl that goes with and it’s so awesome to see all the girls just absolutely adore her! She is such a blessing to them, and it gives them the opportunity to try and braid a white girl’s hair!

Thanks for your prayers and support!

Here is a pic of the blizzard! It's a little dark but the snow is up to my thighs and we still got about 6 more inches after that!!

This is a shot of the morning after from our side door of our front yard. Lots of snow, and it was fun but hopefully that was the last of it, we are ready for some warm weather!!