November 1, 2011  Hello friends and family,

I love hearing from you all and keeping in touch.   We had another great year here in California.  I keep saying, “ This has been the best year of my life!”  I think the older I get, the more I let go of what I thought was important and am truly enjoying life in God.

We continue our work with our church http://www.gatheringplacechurch.org/.  Again, it has been the best year yet in ministry! (do you see a trend here?)  The team seems more like a family each year that goes by and we are so grateful to God.

Mark is thrilled with all the wonderful worship team members.  We even have a youth band now that plays in the rotation and they really rock the house!  He teaches at church about once a month and is continuing his Life of Jesus series that he started 20 years ago.  I really enjoy it.  You can hear any of Mark’s sermons on the web.

Mark has also been mentoring a few younger men and taking them with him on his speaking trips.  I guess turning 60 this year put some wind in his sails to be sure to do all he can for the next generation.  He continues to be the court jester we all know and love.  One of my favorite sounds in the world is hearing Mark laughing.

Shell has enjoyed leading the women’s team, the mission’s team and updating the church web.  We had our first women’s retreat and it was a great success.  We also are getting more intentional and have started a Titus 2 approach – matching up older women and younger women.  There is a lot of hunger and momentum right now.

My teaching in the community ended last year as the government grant was finished.  We are sure seeing a change in the economy here in CA, lots of unemployment and not as much social type services being funded.

I started a fund raising http://createdropsoflove.wordpress.com/.  This is a real passion of mine to help people that don’t have any natural resources.  I love to hear the stories about how providing a micro loan or drilling a water -well provided a platform for them to hear the Good News of Jesus.  Can you think of anything better?

I have also enjoyed my mentoring times with Dr. Dave Currie.  He was my favorite professor in Bible College and when I saw his name on the web page of http://www.doingfamilyright.com/ in Canada I emailed him.  He and his wife were visiting their family not too far from San Diego so we had them over and struck up a great relationship.  Check out his web site – excellent materials.  I continue to plug away at my blog and http://shell.cowpersmith.org/

Mark and Shell – we travelled to Houston in September where Mark taught the men of the church Friday evening, Shell met with the women Saturday morning and then together they taught the Sunday morning sermon.  We did a tag team on communication between the genders and even role played a fight and had them rolling in the aisles with laughter.  I think we are going to do a 2 day seminar here in San Diego next year.

We have really been blessed with many extended families here in San Diego.  The Puplava clan has up spend the holidays with them and it is so much fun as our friends have 3 grandchildren.  Family is such a blessing.

We also got to perform some weddings and do the pre-marriage preparation.  It is such a privilege and we feel so close to those we get to know.  We keep in touch with many whom we have married and I feel like an honorary grandmother to their kiddos.

Pete – our little 3.5 pound Chihuahua is such a joy.   We lost track but think he is about 11 years old.  He is still so playful, but slowing down a bit as we all are.

So that is about all our news for now.  Please drop us an email or phone call from time to time.  You are in our prayers and in so many good memories.

xxoo The Cowps

May 2011

What can I say – perhaps there was one too many bald or blonde jokes and we cracked …..

Anyway – here is our update.  We celebrated Mark’s 60th birthday with a surprise party.  50 people kept a secret and we really fooled him.  Our dear friends the Kockerbecks came from Arizona and we had an incredible time talking, eating ribs and laughing.  Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to pull the party off.  We created a slide show of Mark’s earlier years that you can request with an email to us.

Life is going great.  We are enjoying our friends, work, nice weather and most of all our faith in God.  There are no words to describe how knowing the God that created all things wants to love us and have a relationship!  Seriously, could it get any better?

Work is good.  The church is doing well.  We are focusing this year on genuine Christian community.  We have several wonderful small groups that are like family.  Mark and I started a new young people’s group.  We had started one ten years ago, and now they are ALL married with at least one child and a home.  We hardly see many of them – they are deep in diapers and home renovations!  We are both on staff at Gathering Place Church. Mark is an associate Pastor and leads the worship teams, and Shell leads the missions and women’s ministries.  Mark loves not being the senior leader, and we really enjoy the people we work with.  It still gets hard at times when people aren’t happy with the church.  But we have learned more to roll with the punches and let the squeaky wheels squeak while we serve God as best as we can.

Both our families in Canada are doing well.  Mark will go to his niece’s wedding in Victoria and he is looking forward to that.  Shell will do here Canada travels later in the year to see her family in Calgary.

Our health is good for the most part.  Shell is still having multiple dental surgeries and has discovered God’s comfort is endless.  We can even laugh a bit now with each tooth she gets pulled….  Thank goodness for implants (dental that is!!!!)

So please, drop us a line on facebook or email.  We always love hearing from our family – far and wide.  And by the way – as we age – are we all getting wide??????

I couldn’t resist showing you our church preschool living nativity group.  It was so wonderful.

To see our Christmas letter click here

Canadian Thanksgiving – What a wonderful time dedicated to stopping and giving thanks.  Holidays are a great time to connect with people and share what you are thankful for.  Well this year has brought so much blessing I wouldn’t be able to write it all down.  Mostly it has been a year of enjoying being with God.  Our schedules have ebbed and flowed, lots of opportunities to serve in the Kingdom, and lots of times to soak up His love through worship, friends, study and enjoying our home and backyard.  So this update is to say, we are thrilled to be active in our church and community, and grateful for the times of rest and play.  Thank you Father.

click to enlargeCowps 2009

2009 coming to a close. It was a fantastic year and still have some fun coming up. Mark and I get to go to Arleta, CA where Mark will do the men’s retreat for a church and Shell will teach at the Sunday services. On the home front – our community food and prayer night is growing from 7 churches working together to provide food and ministry for 45 families – to 12 churches working together to provide food and ministry for 165 families once a month. We still get to enjoy our weekends with very good friends who Mark sails with and Shell and her girlfriend share with each other Saturday night what we learned studying the Bible that week. We are truly blessed and love keeping in touch with friends. We had several visitors from Canada this year and had a blast at our pool splashing around with everyone! Have a great Thanksgiving friends.

2009 has been a whirlwind of adventure so far.   Mark has travelled to churches in Texas a few times to speak at conferences as well as a few in California.  Shell has spoke at a few ladies retreats – one in Texas and one in Arleta, CA.  Our home church is a wonderful place of activity as well – we just finished a great day of Church in the Community – where we went out in teams and visited Seniors homes, single mom’s homes where we fixed screens, built ramps, cleaned and prayed.  It was a fantastic day with over 100 participants – Yeah God.  Our fearless leader  John and his wife Hope just got back from Ethiopia where they adopted their sixth child.  This is their second special needs child – so we rejoice with them and join in prayer.  This family has inspired us so much – and we welcome you to join us in sponsoring a child from Ethiopia – go to www.partnersinaction.org