Halloween Fun

Good one, Maren!

Life in Wichita

We've been in Wichita since February, and we are finally moving into a place of our own. Thanks to a neat family who recently moved to Brazil, we have a house to live in for a few months with a huge backyard. There's a guest room, too, so feel free to come visit, you far away friends.

Casey has been keeping busy with mowing, roofing and lots of other labor-oriented jobs. He's getting quite tan because of it!

Jackie has been working at Friends University in town and has kept busy with photography projects in her spare time. And...she is about to be the newest member to the Mac-user family! This new computer paired with the newest versions of Adobe's design software will be stellar for her photography "business."

We've enjoyed spending time with family the last two weekends at family reunions, but we will welcome this "weekend off" of travel, so to speak.

New blog

To make things more confusing, I have created a blog solely for photography. It is jackiecooperphoto.blogspot.com. I imagine I'll still be posting some photography-related things here, but the majority will be on this new site.

jc

sibling photo shoot

final letter as missionaries

Friends and supporters,

Please consider this a follow-up to our first letter regarding our transition off World Impact missionary staff. Our first letter was to inform you of our decision to leave staff, and the purpose of this letter is to let you know about our next step.

Our official last day on staff will be 20 February 2008. We very much appreciate your faithfulness in supporting us until this date. Please feel free to continue your financial support of World Impact and your prayer support of us as we transition to Wichita.

Casey will be working alongside an old acquaintance in the lawn care business in Wichita. He is very excited about the opportunity to work with someone who has the same high work ethic and values. Jackie hopes to get her foot in the door of wedding photography, but first plans to find a job – possibly in the marketing/public relations/communications industry. (If you know of any great opportunities, feel free to call or email! 316.371.3383/caseyandjackie@gmail.com)

Thanks again for all of your prayer and financial support of us this past year. We hope this journey has opened your eyes to the city. We are very blessed to have served His Kingdom as full-time missionaries.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.
Ecclesiastes 3:1

Serving Him as best as we know how,

Casey and Jackie Cooper
caseyandjackie.blogspot.com

p.s. For our future address, keep checking our blog. We’ll post it once we find a place in Wichita.

kim and brent

At the beginning of the year, I found myself privileged enough to take some engagement photos for Brent and Kim. They were wonderful to work with. I think this is why there were some great ones.

Here are a few selections. Click on a photo to see it in Flickr or click the title of this post to see the set:

jc

Elk Crossing

The other day Jackie and I had a hot date planned out in Evergreen. We enjoyed a couple hours of ice skating around the lake there and had a great time watching all the bloopers that happen on the ice. Afterward, we headed to Wal-Mart (because when you are that close to one you just have to go!). We were driving down the road, I was lost in my thoughts, thinking back to elk hunting and wham there was an elk on the side of a four-lane highway! To make a long story short we ended up seeing almost 30 elk and about 15 crossed the road right in front of our pickup!

Here's the proof:

cc

365

As promised, we began our "Photo a day" journey 01.01.08. It has proved to be much more challenging than I anticipated. Some days are full of photo opportunities and others seem dry and bland. For the photo-filled days, it has been hard to choose just ONE photo. Hopefully we'll get better as the months progress. I am very interested to see the outcome of this project as this year could bring about much change and prove to be very eventful.

To see this photo journey, you can access the set from the right column of this blog.

transitioning off missionary staff

Friends and Supporters,

We hope your Christmas was a delight! We were very glad to spend it with family and friends in Wichita.

We are writing to inform you about our very recent decision to leave World Impact staff. After months of prayerful consideration and assessment, we sense the Lord leading us away from direct ministry at the camp. We will no longer be missionaries with World Impact. The staff at Deer Creek has been very gracious. They agree that Deer Creek is not a long-term place for us. Over the past months, we have been reevaluating the strengths and gifts that God has given us, the vision of the camp, and obtaining godly counsel from family and friends. There is not a doubt in our minds that we were exactly where we were supposed to be for this past year. We believe God wanted us to be with World Impact to teach us about ourselves, our strengths, His sovereignty, life as missionaries, marriage, submission and so much more. This past year has truly been a blessing to our marriage.

God has used you to bless and encourage us while in this ministry, and no doubt He will continue to. We have greatly appreciated your prayers and support for us this past year. Your prayerful intercession for us during this time of transition would be greatly appreciated.

After a short time in Wichita, we plan to return to Deer Creek camp to discern God’s next step for us. We would appreciate your continued financial support until we are no longer official staff of World Impact. A follow up letter will be sent to inform you of our resignation date, which we anticipate will occur within the next few months. We also hope to include our future plans and our new address.
Thank you for your faithfulness in 2007. We would be more than happy if you decide to continue your support of missions with World Impact.

'know thyself'

Socrates was right on. The developers of Strength's Finder [https://www.strengthsfinder.com/] contend that we should improve upon our strengths rather than our weaknesses. Casey and I took this test a few years ago. I recently took it again only to discover that my top five strengths were all different! After talking with those closest to me, I feel that these are a much better representation. I've been through many life changes and it only makes sense that these would become more and more clear. Here they are. If you've taken the test, you probably have a good idea of what these mean. If not, take it! It's $20 to buy a book with a code, but I think it aids in the process of knowing thyself...

Casey's : Responsibility, Consistency, Belief, Relator, Achiever
Jackie's : Analytical, Connectedness, Intellection, Deliberative, Maximizer

jc

oh christmas tree

'Tis the season. Living in Colorado at a camp means a real Christmas tree for no charge. The guys came over to help us decorate the real tree (only after a "snowball" fight in the house), and then Casey and I decorated the fake tree with Nebraska and KU colored balls. And, yes, those are deer antlers as the topper; he's so creative. (By the way, check out the cool tree stand Casey made for the second tree.)

What a better way to end Christmas-tree decorating than with The Christmas Story.

jc

our missional thanksgiving

In the last post, I talked about what we would be doing for Thanksgiving, and I'm here to report that it went very well. I've always considered Thanksgiving to be a family holiday, but many of the people we served downtown were hurting because they were without family. The day of the year I most look forward to is the day that many across the country dread. We were able to serve food to, pray for and hand notes of encouragement to about 150 people living in about four different motels on E Colfax in Denver. Casey and I prayed for one lady and her husband. Her child had been taken from her at the age of three and given to her ex-husband. Of the two, he was the one with the criminal history. Through deception, lies and a faulty court system, she has not been able to see her son for the past five years. She and her husband were having a very difficult time finding joy this Thanksgiving. What could we do but pray for her? She was not alone in her grief. Definitely a new way to look at this holiday. We are grateful to have had the opportunity. The family we went with used to do this every weekend. It is quite possible that we will be joining them again!

Now if you're feeling like we are such selfless people, let me counter it by saying that we went snowboarding the next day. It was neat to serve one day and then be able to bond with other Christian Leadership Training Program staff and students on the slopes.

jc

turkey day approaches...

This, our first major holiday as a married couple, doesn't leave us in battles over whose family gets what holiday. We are staying in Colorado as we anticipate visitors from Kansas. Morning Star Ranch will be coming out to celebrate Thanksgiving with the staff and students here. Naturally, there are mixed feelings on our part. We'd love to be with family, but we have a packed schedule to keep with our visitors. And since we won't be with family, we are taking the opportunity to serve on Thanksgiving. We will be going to Denver with a family from our church to serve a feast to the working poor who are living in hotels. Please pray for this to be an opportunity to be imitators of Christ and that it would also be a bonding, rewarding experience for all who take part.

May your Thanksgiving be filled with delicious food and great company.

Happy Halloween...

christian leadership training program

Here are the guys to be praying for:

Lamar, Darail and Bradlie.

Bradlie is a CTLP recent grad and came to Deer Creek to be the house leader/mentor for Lamar and Darail during their first three months in the program. Our November prayer letter highlights each of these three individually -- be watching for it.

yellows of fall

Colorado autumns just don't quite measure up to the multi-colored autumn of Kansas. Here it is beautiful but short. Winter first crept in when it snowed Oct. 7. The first snow to stick came Oct. 14. It is interesting, though, how fall's leaves are resisting the changing of seasons...

Fall

7 October: yes, the white dots are snow.

Battle of the seasons...



jc