Archive for category: Life

It has been a great summer for the Redden family – filled with great times with family and friends, and it’s hard to believe that it’s  coming to a close. Here are some of the highlights of what we’ve been up to since our last update in May.

In June we decided to take a few days as a family to explore part of our beautiful state of Colorado. We started in one of our favorite places on earth – Crested Butte. This month Stephen and Kate celebrate nine years since they were married in a wildflower meadow on a beautiful afternoon in Crested Butte. It was fun to go back with our boys (this was Andrew’s first trip) and to share a place that has become so special to us. We continued our trip with a day in Ouray to soak in the hot springs and wrapped up with the trip with a ride on the Durango to Silverton railroad.

That long weekend trip was just getting us warmed up for the traveling still ahead in July and August. In late July we loaded up the whole family and flew to Raleigh, NC to visit Kate’s aunt Harriet and uncle Dick on our way to a week at Ocean Isle Beach, NC with Kate’s mom, aunt, uncle, sister, and nieces. It was a great week. The boys were so young the last time we were at the beach that this was a totally new experience for them – building sand castles, playing in the ocean, and raft riding the waves. After a week at the beach Stephen headed back home for a week while Kate stayed in NC to visit her grandmother in VA and spend some time at her aunt’s lake house with some extended family. The boys loved riding in the boat, swimming in the lake, and playing with cousins they hadn’t seen in years. The following week Stephen flew from Denver, and Kate and the boys left from Raleigh to converge on Nashville, TN for a few days with Stephen’s parents. Stephen’s dad is still recovering from a bacterial infection that he contracted in May that brought on arthritis-like symptoms and has significantly limited his mobility. Thankfully he is slowly but surely recovering, and we had a great few days visiting with them. Stephen’s brother Jason and his family came up for a couple days, and it was great to see them. Kate and the boys flew back to Denver late in the week, but Stephen tacked on a short trip down to Atlanta to see friends before flying home to Denver a few days later. Whew – what a whirlwind few weeks!

In between all the traveling we’ve had a great summer in Denver as well. The boys stayed busy with sports (both playing baseball and taking swimming lessons), local summer camps, and play dates with friends in the neighborhood. Both boys started school this week. Andrew began pre-kindergarten three days a week and Ethan started into first grade and is even riding the bus to school on his own this year. Mom and dad are going to have to get used to that one!

Kate continues to stay busy with her work at Ronald Blue and Company as the stock market keeps her clients (and all the rest of us) anxious about the economic future, but it is a great opportunity for her to minister to people to remind them that our security is in Jesus Christ not Dow Jones! Stephen had a busy summer at New Denver Church, teaching a short series on friendship and a July 4th weekend message about faith and politics, leading a class on marriage, and beginning to prepare for launching new small groups this fall.

As we look forward to the fall and a new season of life and ministry, we are so grateful for so many things. We are so excited to see God at work in our lives, in our family, in our church, and in our city, and we are humbled to be a part of his great plan. We hope this update finds you well and hope you will help us stay in touch by reaching out with a phone call or email when we come to mind. As always we are grateful for and covet your prayers for our family and our ministry here in Denver.

After a wonderful and relaxing holiday break, 2011 got off to a fast start at the Redden household, and it seems like we haven’t slowed down much since! It seems like even our best attempts to create margin and a sustainable pace of life are challenged at every turn by the demands of work, travel, kids’ activities, and the unexpected opportunities and challenges God places in our path. We are so grateful for our life right now, but it seems very full these days!

Stephen didn’t have any time to ease back into his work with New Denver Church after the holidays as he was preaching the first sermon series of the year entitled, Moving Beyond Belief. The opportunity to preach and teach on a regular basis has been a great opportunity and God has used it to stretch and grow him every time he teaches. It’s also been a good stretch for Kate as she gets more nervous about him speaking than he does! One of the great joys for Stephen over the last few months has been working with the Leadership Development Program (LDP) associates at New Denver. One of his great passions is investing in leaders and seeing people achieve their God-given potential, and he has had the opportunity to work with all of the LDP associates on various projects in this capacity. Travel is not a regular part of Stephen’s work with New Denver or his contract work, but two out-of-town trips have made this an especially busy season. In February he traveled with the team to the Ecclesia Church Network National Gathering in Washington, DC. This was a great chance to connect with pastors and friends from around the country and be encouraged and equipped for the work of growing a young church. Stephen’s second trip is coming up in early March when he will travel with Norton to Guatemala to continue developing relationships with a church with whom New Denver will partner in its cross-cultural missions efforts. All great things, but on top of his regular work shepherding small groups and meeting regularly with members of the congregation, it has been a busy start to the year. As if all that wasn’t enough, of course Stephen has also been making time for regular trips up to the mountains to enjoy his favorite pastime, snowboarding!

Kate has also been busy – work with Ron Blue & Co and keeping up with the boys is more than a full-time job. In February Kate traveled back to Atlanta for Ron Blue’s annual meetings. These regular trips are a great time to reconnect with colleagues and old friends in Atlanta, but they are also quite exhausting! Kate has also taken the primary role in working with our friend Nicole in helping her continue to move toward a long-term sustainable living situation. As you may remember from our update in October, Nicole is a friend we met here in Denver who is a single mom trying to find employment and a stable living situation. After bouncing around homeless shelters in the greater Denver area, Nicole came to stay with us back in September, and we’ve been trying to help her get her life moving in a positive direction. We’ve been working with a great local organization called Josua Station and are waiting and praying for her admittance into this program. We’ve learned a lot about problems and challenges we’ve never had to face personally, and God has definitely stretched us over these last six months. Fortunately Kate has made some time for rest and relaxation in the midst of her busyness. In early March she got the opportunity to unwind at Beaver Creek Resort with our friend Mary from Atlanta whose family owns a time share there.

The boys continue to grow and become more and more mature. This has been very apparent to Kate and Stephen during the times when the other is away, and one of them is playing single parent. While those times are still challenging, Ethan and Andrew are coming to an age where it is much less stressful than in years past.

Ethan didn’t sign up to play any winter team sports but has continued to stay busy this winter. He’s had the opportunity to continue getting better as a skier, and he also got the chance to try out his skills as a rodeo cowboy at the Denver Western Stock Show! His Papa Gene would be so proud to see the cowboy coming out in his grandson. Ethan also continues to love his first year of school. The last week of winter break he actually started asking when he would be able to go back to school! He continues to make friends and his social schedule of play dates stays pretty full!

Andrew continues to surprise us every day as he gets more and more articulate in expressing himself and gets more confident on his own. We’ve actually seen fewer tantrums when dropping him at school, and with mom and dad traveling so much he’s had plenty of opportunities to spend extended time at school and has actually enjoyed it. Andrew has also recovered well from his first traumatic injury – 4 stitches in his chin. While delivering cookies to neighbors at Christmas he tripped and fell, hitting his chin on a concrete step. To no one’s surprise he wasn’t the greatest patient, but he has persevered and made a full recovery with only a small scar as a memento of the experience!

As spring approaches we’re all looking forward to getting outside, getting back into spring and summer sports for the boys, and reconnecting with friends and neighbors. While Colorado winters aren’t nearly as bad as friends and family back in the south think they are, people definitely “hibernate” a bit. So we’re looking forward to longer, warmer days and time hanging out with friends and neighbors on the front porch.

As always thanks for tracking with us. Please stay in touch and let us know what’s happening with you as well. We’re so grateful for all your love and support.

Fall has been slow to arrive this year in Denver, but you won’t hear us complaining! Locals tell us that this is a very unusually mild fall, but we are soaking in the beautiful sunny days and unusually-warm temperatures! And the beautiful fall colors and first mountain snow capping off the Rockies make for a pretty breathtaking sight!

As we approach the end of our second year here in Denver we are so grateful for all the things God has done and continues to do in our lives. The boys continue to grow at a shocking pace – physically, emotionally, and spiritually. They have both changed so much in the last two years. They barely resemble the toddlers they were when we first arrived (don’t believe me, check out this video from our arrival).

Ethan started kindergarten this year at our neighborhood school, Steele Elementary. True to his outgoing personality, he loves it. He quickly made many new friends and keeps us busy with after school play-dates around the neighborhood. Recently he told us he even has two “girlfriends!” In September we celebrated his sixth birthday with a party at Chuck-E-Cheese (mom and dad will be glad when we outgrow that place) with friends from the school and our neighborhood, and Kate’s mom and sister came down with his cousins Lily and Caroline too. Of course sports remains a big part of Ethan’s life. Shortly after finishing tee ball season, Ethan jumped right back into soccer. This is the third season we’ve played with the same team as part of the Fusion Soccer Club. It’s been great to track with the same families the last 18 months and to see the kids develop together. One of the highlights of this season was the team getting to play at halftime of the University of Denver vs. Penn State soccer game!

Andrew is still doing preschool three half days a week, but he doesn’t like it any better than he ever has! Most days start with the question, “Do I have to go to school today?” While he may not love it, school has definitely been good for Andrew. He’s still pretty reserved, but interacting with new kids at school is definitely helping him come out of his shell. Andrew was very excited to sign up to play soccer for the first time this fall. Unfortunately he wasn’t as excited to actually play soccer when game day came along. Sitting with mom and drinking juice seemed much more attractive. Of course he wasn’t alone . This team of 3 and 4-year olds had a pretty hard time staying focused on playing the game, but by the end of the season they actually made a lot of progress.

Kate continues to stay busy keeping our family organized and her work at Ronald Blue & Company. Ethan starting school has opened up even more for her to do including volunteering as a room mom, going on field trips, getting involved with the PTA, and keeping track of Ethan’s busy play date schedule! But it hasn’t been all work for Kate. Continuing a new tradition, her friends Niki and Jennifer came out from Atlanta over Labor Day for a girls’ weekend in the mountains. They enjoyed hiking, mountain biking, and most of all a brief respite from the daily duty of being moms! Kate also recently traveled back to Atlanta for meetings with her team which also gave her a chance to see some friends (and to catch the Braves’ last playoff game). These trips are always a mixed blessing – great to see friends and colleagues but very hectic and tiring.

Stephen survived coaching tee ball for both boys and rolled right into coaching Andrew’s soccer team, maybe his toughest challenge to date. Three and four-year olds aren’t the most focused or coachable group, but the kids all had fun and seemed to get better as the season went along. Of course working for New Denver Church and doing part-time I/T contracting continues to fill most of Stephen’s working hours. The last few months have been very defining for our young congregation. We’ve had some good people leave the church over differences in opinion over mission and strategy, which is always disappointing for any church but especially so in a small church plant. However, God has brought so many more people whose heart beats with ours and share our desire to reach this community with the love of Jesus. We have seen slow and steady growth in our weekend attendance (hitting our all-time high in September), added new small groups this fall, and have seen new leaders stepping up to fill the needs that growth brings. Most exciting for us have been the friends and neighbors who have no church background or affiliation who have begun taking steps of faith. We feel like these are the people that God brought us to Denver for, and after almost two years of planting seeds and watering, it’s encouraging to see the first signs that he is at work and using us in these people’s lives.

We continue to deepen in our love for this city we now call home. As we continue to invest in relationships and see real friendships blossom, we are so thankful that God has planted us here for this season of our lives. As we’ve been intentional in the process of building community with friends and neighbors, people are beginning to take notice. Several neighbors have made comments to us at how different our block is since we’ve arrived and how people seem to be growing in relationship with one another through us. Through dinners, cookouts, and front-porch conversations we believe that these new friends are getting a taste of the Kingdom of God and the love of Christ. Please continue to pray that God will open opportunities for us to be used to help these friends begin or progress in their relationship with him.

We’ve also made some special friends who have become a special part of our family. Back in April we met Nicole and her sons Aidan and Christopher at McDonald’s. They began attending New Denver and we soon learned that they were homeless and living in temporary housing. When they were forced to leave a shelter and didn’t have a good option for a place to stay, we invited them to stay with us. They all lived with us for a couple weeks until Nicole found another shelter and left hoping to get help from the programs and services offered there. We hadn’t heard from Nicole and the boys since this summer and were unable to get in touch with her. Then a few weeks ago we got a call from her at the hospital. It turns out they had bounced in and out of several shelters and had been living in a motel on the south side of town when she called for help. The boys are now living with their grandfather and Nicole is staying with us while we sort out how to help her get her life headed in a positive direction. She is a great mom and wants a better life for herself and her boys. But bad decisions and difficult circumstances continue to make this difficult for her. Please pray for Nicole – that she would get opportunities to improve her situation and that she will take advantage of them. Please also pray that God would give us wisdom in how to best help her.

If you read this far, thank you. Thank you for caring enough for our family to check in and keep up with us. Your prayers and encouragement are fuel for the journey.

Spring has finally arrived in Denver…we think. Of course we’ve thought that a couple times so far this year and been surprised to look outside and see snow flurries! Just your typical springtime in the rockies! As the weather has warmed we’ve enjoyed getting back outside to enjoy the park, visiting with neighbors on our front porch, going to Rockies games, and watching Ethan play another season of soccer.

Yes, Ethan, our tireless little sportsman, finished up basketball and rolled right into soccer again. We’re playing with the Colorado Fusion Soccer Club again this year, which is great, because this program keeps the same team together season to season so we’re getting to know the parents and kids better than other sports leagues we’ve done. We also got Ethan up on the slopes again several times before ski season ended. He continues to progress and even was able to do a few blue (intermediate level) slopes on our last trip! Ethan is also starting to get excited about starting kindergarten this fall and keeps asking about when he gets to go to his “new school,” the local elementary school in our neighborhood.

We’re slowly coming to grips with the fact that our little Andrew isn’t a baby anymore. In April he turned three and as with Ethan, we’re finding that “terrible threes” may be more appropriate than “terrible twos” in our household! We had a big birthday party for Andrew with friends from church and from our neighborhood. We had snacks, cake, ice cream, and the big hit of the day, a jumpie house! After months of frustration watching his big brother play sports, Andrew is finally getting his turn. We just signed him up for tee ball for the summer, and he’s so excited! We’ll see how tee ball for three year olds turns out…Stephen’s still praying they don’t ask him to coach!

Kate continues to wear more hats than anyone else in our home and doing her best to keep her three boys in order! She continues her work as a financial planner with Ronald Blue & Company and recently got involved with an association of Christian financial planners called Kingdom Advisors. She still loves what she does and feels that it is the ministry that God has given her. She also stays involved with her family’s ranch in Wyoming, Willow Creek Ranch at the Hole in the Wall, helping her mom and sister however she can. In April Kate traveled with her sister to Seattle and to the San Juan islands off Washington to celebrate her upcoming birthday (we won’t mention which one this is but it starts with 4 and ends with 0). They had a great trip and both enjoyed getting away from the normal busyness life for a little while.

Stephen remains busy working in his role as a pastor at New Denver Church. In April he had the opportunity to preach a three-week series entitled The Good Life. He enjoys the opportunity to preach and teach but is very grateful to be part of a teaching team so that he doesn’t have the pressure of doing it every week! Things continue to go well at New Denver, and we continue to be encouraged by what we see God doing every week at our church. Starting a church from nothing is hard, slow, tireless (and sometimes thankless) work, but it continues to be our driving passion. Life hasn’t been all work for Stephen though. It took him a little while to get motivated, but he finally began scheduling days to get away for some snowboarding this season and loved every minute of it. With summer approaching he’s ready to put down the board and pull the backpack out of storage! In the midst of all that we also made time to celebrate the last of Stephen’s 30s with a little birthday trip to the Rockies game with some friends. As you can see from the picture, Andrew didn’t quite make it all the way through the game!

At the end of April we got the chance to be a part of a very special first for our church. We traveled back east to North Carolina for Stephen to officiate the wedding of our good friends Matt and Molly – the first wedding for New Denver attenders. Matt and Molly were at one of our first informational meetings for New Denver and have been committed members from then on. They’ve been in our small group for a little over a year now, and it was such a joy to be part of their special day. Of course the traveling Reddens didn’t miss the opportunity to take the whole family out for a visit to Kate’s aunt in Chapel Hill, NC and her grandmother in VA. We always seem to be traveling somewhere don’t we?!?

Thanks for continuing to track with us on this journey. We are so grateful for your friendship and your support along the way. Please stay in touch and let us know what’s going with you, and remember, you’re always welcome to come visit us in Denver!