the countdown begins...

Oops, I just realized I haven't posted for a month...sorry to anyone who has checked in the meantime. Time seems to just fly by. Speaking of...it is currently Sunday evening, and I am down to my final five days as an employee of Open Door Ministries. I am eager to be done, although of course I will miss the kids and my coworkers. I've spent the last month or so training up my replacement director--she'll be taking over once the kids are back in school after Christmas.

Last Friday, Dec. 14, was our annual Childcare Christmas Party. Always a good time! The big event of the year for the kids and their families. A corporate donor provided the funds for this year's bash, allowing us to purchase a gift for each child. All the shopping and wrapping and party prep is a big (but fun!) job. It's a nice way to bless these kids, and each year it seems that plenty of other opportunities pop up where those who have more honor the season's celebration of Christ by providing for our kids and families who have little. A picture is attached from the party.

And so, MERRY CHRISTMAS to all!!! I'm looking forward to celebrating with family next week, and then starting to wrap things up here in Denver and go hardcore on the support raising.

One item of good news--a church missions board has decided to become a major monthly supporter!

made it out alive....

Just wanted to let everyone know that I had a near brush with death last weekend ( see photo for proof). I went hiking with my roommate and "fell" off the mountainside...luckily no lasting harm was done :)

We hiked to the top of a peak called Mt. Vigil, which is located on a trail starting at Bear Trap Ranch in Colorado Springs. I worked at Bear Trap, a camp and conference center run by InterVarsity Fellowship (a college campus ministry), for the fall and winter of 2004-2005. So--now I have one more thing (visit Bear Trap) crossed off on my "do before moving to Southeast Asia" list!

Current Happenings

As I write this, Denver is cool and cloudy (which I love), the trees are changing, and we had our first snow fall of the year a week ago. In short--fall is here. Which means plenty of fall activities for our preschoolers, generally involving pumpkins and leaves to some extent or other. We took our annual fieldtrip to the pumpkin patch yesterday (Friday the 26th), and were glad to find a dusty farm instead of the mud we usually slog through :) I recommend Anderson Farms near Longmont, CO for anyone who is feeling the need for an expanded pumpkin education: we chose from varieties in the field including cinderella pumpkins, ghost pumpkins, snake squash, wart squash, frankenstein pumpkins, and birdhouse squash, plus the plain old orange variety. In the picture--some of our boys waiting to ride out to the pumpkin field!



Through the end of the year, I will be continuing as the Acting Director of the preschool at Open Door Childcare, part of Open Door Ministries in inner city Denver. This means most of my time and energy is devoted to the preschool, so while I am continuing to prepare for Cambodia, those activities are taking somewhat of a second seat. The preschool is in the midst of looking for a replacement director to take my place starting in January, and while we have had a few solid leads, nothing has panned out at this point. So--things are a little up in the air!

Introducing....

Ok, so, I have officially started this blog as a communication tool--anyone who wants can get updates here more regularly than through my newsletters. And I want to hear from all of you a well! So read, post comments, give me feedback about what you want to know. Please also feel free to always direct other interested people here as well. You may have received literature from me at some point that listed my website as fhconnect/site/mcmurdo or something along those lines. Don't go there--it no longer exists! This site is the place to be.

Good info to know:

• If you are saying, "What is a blog?"--this is it! A blog is a site that is run by an individual or group that regularly posts info on some subject to be read by others. So, I post updates about my activities with Food for the Hungry for you all to read. If you would like to start your own blog (to keep friends and family in the loop, to start a group to discuss...whatever, you can go to http://www.blogspot.com/ . This is the site I am using, although there are plenty of others.)
• Each new chunk of info I publish is called a post. Under each post, you'll see a line that says "x number of comments." If you click on this, or on the post title, you'll be able to add comments for me and others to read.
• Old posts can be found by looking in the post archive at the bottom of the page.
• You can make this site easy to locate by saving it under your favorite pages on your web browser.
• Be sure to check out the links on the side of the page--they'll take you to other sites where you can find info about Food for the Hungry and Cambodia.