Hello friends and family!
March came in like a lion and went out like… well, a lion, actually. April has been far more lamb-ish, if only because the cottonwood trees have covered every surface in wooly white. Even the most veteran desert-rat among us has kept a stern weather-eye on the horizon while trying to tailor our busy camp schedule to the current whim of Mojave weather.
Camp News
We’ve had several weeks of almost non-stop camp! This month saw several Ironwood sponsored retreats including Paintball Camp, Family Camp, Mother-Daughter Retreat, and a newer retreat for pastors’ wives called RefresHer. Each one of these camps has its own ‘flavor’ but all of them provide excellent context for fellowship, whether that’s the rough-and-tumble camaraderie of Paintball or the treasured girl time of Mother-Daughter. What a privilege to have a front-row seat in watching God build His body of believers!
As always, projects are running full speed ahead here at Ironwood. A donor graciously provided enough money to rent a bulldozer for the month of March. This piece of equipment made it possible to level the new arena, clean up an old burn-pile site, do some serious road repair and so much more! Also on the list of God’s provision for this month are two new modular buildings, one for staff housing and one for intern housing.
The Ides of March was especially exciting for our staff this year. On the afternoon of the fifteenth, God opened His storehouses, pouring rain and hail on us by the bucketload for over an hour. The occasion was such an anomaly that the entire staff was given a snow day! (My Alaskan friends are laughing right now.) How good God is! Not only did He give us an awesome display of his power, but He allowed it to happen while we had the bulldozer to fix all the roads that washed out in the flash-flooding.
Palkki News
Gabe stayed busy with a few work trucks going out of commission at the same time. One of these projects included a rusty, cantankerous CV joint that took quite a bit of convincing to get out of the truck. (In shop-language, convincing sometimes means angle grinding, welding, hammering, etc.) We both got to help out on our food truck, the Tin Toad, for a few adventure meals. It’s as much an adventure for the kitchen crew as it is for the campers! Gabe also had several full day shifts on the bulldozer so we could accomplish as much as possible in the few weeks we had the equipment.
This month was ‘office work’ month for me. With a new semester of classes starting for our Defined students, I spent a lot of time buying textbooks and putting together binders. I also began the monumental project of creating the yearbook for 2022-2023 and building picture slideshows for graduation. On the kitchen side, we celebrated the last banquet of the season with a sigh of relief and a fond farewell to caramel apple tarts. As of this week, I will officially move from working full (over) time for Ironwood to only working thirty hours a week. This means I will be a full-time wife and a part-time camp worker for the first time ever! While I’m very excited for this change, I do covet prayers that I would use my time wisely to build ministry relationships, serve my husband better and develop my talents for God’s glory.
It’s been said that the desert is like a lady and she puts on a new face every morning. In the last several weeks, she’s put on a new face every other hour! Nothing about life is static; the weather changes, technology changes, society changes. And people change faster than any of those! Even Christians are constantly growing, being reformed into the image of Christ in a thousand different ways every day. Sometimes those changes are overwhelming. When God reveals a new facet to a truth I thought I understood, I’m tempted to ask, “How can I be sure I’m doing the right thing? What if I’m making a mistake?”
God answers me in the book of Hebrews, “Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward.” (Hebrews 10:35)
Confidence is a buzz word. As followers of Christ, we reject the ‘believe in yourself and you can do anything’ culture that surrounds us. Yet a Christian without confidence is a paralyzed, useless thing in a constantly turning world. How should we reconcile the need for boldness with the need for growth?
The solution is in the source of our confidence. We are confident, not because we are always right, but because we have been enlightened in God’s truth. We are confident, not because we don’t make mistakes, but because we can rest in a God who is at work in us. We are confident, not because we know what will happen, but because we believe in His promises for the future. (All neatly included in the verses surrounding Hebrews 10:35, by the way.)
So Christian, stand up, step out, and be bold in the name of your Sovereign God.
Love in Christ,
Gabe and Cheyenne Palkki
PS: Be sure to check out the gallery for pictures of the Ides of March Storm! And don't forget to glance at our praises and prayer requests too!