GoWests!

February, 2019.

In brief: Back from Christmas and New Years in Australia; a very full January quarter on campus, sending and graduating students; developing and moving the campus ministry forward; and, the upcoming Spring quarter looms.

Greetings from snowy Montana.  It’s hard to believe that three months have elapsed since our last update.  Happy thanksgiving!  Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! And, Happy Australia Day for my folk =).   The arrival of 2019 saw a very full finish to 2018, and a wonderful start to our next season of family, and ministry busy-ness.

As many of you know, in early December the Montana Wests headed Down Under for a huge West family reunion.  With my Mum turning 80, her dream gift was a time of was bringing her 5 children and all the families together for one huge gathering around Christmastime and New Year.  We did it: Wests from Wollongong, Sydney and Brisbane, more from Hawaii, and of course Montana, all converged on a massive property for 6 days together.  So much fun.  And yes, we finally got all of the perfect family combination photos for “Nana”.  Well worth it.  Our kids had not been back since my Dad was ill with cancer 10 years ago, so this time was one of reviving old memories, and making new ones.  On a more selfish personal note, Molly and I were just so happy for warm weather during the cold winter over here.   Back to Montana reality, we returned mid-January to cold, but beautiful “Big Sky Country” Montana.  We hit the ground running and haven’t stopped.

On the work front, we have been putting students through our programs, sending them out, receiving them back again, and preparing for the next schools to arrive.  This week we welcomed back 65 in the DTS program from their outreaches in Greece, Thailand, Cambodia, Ukraine, and Taiwan.

I (Jer) continue to teach students, as well as develop staff and train our school leaders.  I’m also still traveling and teaching in other schools around the place (watch for another roving-update very soon!). Molly is living an extremely full life at work as the assistant to the Campus Directors.  From frantically organizing life from her desk, to participating in meetings (from strategic-departmental to Corporate Board) she does an outstanding job of helping so many to do their work well, and making so much of our campus life and ministry successful.  In the next couple of months, more DTS students will arrive, as well as our DTS EQUIP students; leaders and staff from various YWAM ministries around the world. But we can talk more about that later.

The family is well, reentering school well and adjusting to the (very) cold winter this year.  We love to hear from you too, and always welcome visitors here in Montana, ‘The last best place”, as they say up here.  Love, and blessings and thanks to you all,

Jeremy & Molly

Here are a few photos of our time in Australia, including one of the view from our airplane window about to land in Montana: a shock to the system.