We left Missoula on Saturday at noon and arrived at the Kathmandu airport, 29 hours later. Here’s a recap of our transcontinental migration:
When we were in Denver, I tasted a bit of Aidan’s candy and left it on the seat when we boarded the plane. Oops!
The flight to Frankfurt was the longest at nine and-a-half hours. I liked that one because they have personal screens on the backs of the seats and we got to watch a few movies.
Another thing I like about airplanes that I don’t get when I fly, is they serve snacks and meals and desserts (like delicious raspberry cheesecake).
In New Delhi, the capital of India, we had a 12-hour layover. We left the airport and visited friends who live in a high-rise apartment complex. Each tower is eight stories high, the perfect heighth for an aerie. (An aerie is what an eagle calls its nest.) Perhaps there I could catch a breeze and escape the humid, dusty pre-monsoon heat.
As we flew into Kathmandu, I was hoping to see the Himalayan Mountain Range; instead they were hidden behind mountains of cool cumulus clouds. When I saw tiny, toy-size villages spread along the hills below, I could just imagine swooping over the rice paddies and stealing a fresh fish or two that live in the shallow water the rice grows in.
Unfortunately, I won’t have a chance to do so. Kathmandu, as the capital of Nepal, is a quickly growing city. In the last ten years it has tripled in population from one million to three million. The nests are getting crowded.
There is however; one way that Kathmandu is similar to Missoula. Like my hometown, it is surrounded completely by mountains, though they call them “hills”, dwarfed as they are by the towering Himalayas.
More about Kathmandu next time…

Eddie “Exhausted-from-traveling” Eagle

I grew up in Plains, MT, went to Bible school in Seattle, WA and received a K-12 Music Ed degree from Montana State in Bozeman.  Presently I am the K-4 Elementary Music teacher here at Valley.

The summer after 7^th grade brought me to Big Sky Bible Camp where I asked
Jesus to come into my heart. Life with Him has been a huge adventure. I’ve spent time working with young people, teaching music in public school, traveling the U.S. in a Christian band, serving as youth pastor in the Cayman Islands for 7 years, servicing as youth & associate pastor in Norcross, GA, moving to Missoula 16 years ago to plant and pastor Living Word Church for 12 years, and then becoming part of Clark Fork City Church.

There have been numerous short-term mission trips to many countries. Besides teaching at VCS, I tune and repair pianos and am also the Director for the Missoula Christian Network and have a desire to see the Body of Christ in our city come together in unity and see our city transformed by the love of Jesus.

I have been married to my beautiful wife, Janet for 22 years and have 4 wonderful children – Sarah, Paul, Samuel and Joshua. We have been a Valley family since Sarah was in Kindergarten and she is now a Senior. How did that happen? Valley has been an awesome foundation in our lives and it’s an honor to be part of the staff.

We learned of VCS from several friends from church whose kids attended. We liked the idea of having more Christians help us raise our kids. Since VCS makes Christ’s preeminence a priority through education, then we are helped as parents by our kids being educated through a Godly view instead of a worldly view. This also plays out daily on a highly spiritual level by teachers praying with our kids, being examples for our kids and creating a Godly environment throughout the school experience. Instead of doing damage control or re-learning when they get home from school, we are just re-emphasizing the positive. In other words, they are creating lifelong habit patterns of living like Christ during their very formative years instead of compartmentalizing their Christianity because of the world’s rejection. How much better can it get from a parent’s perspective?

We expected the partnering in parenting because it was an upfront claim or goal of VCS. We did not anticipate the exponential increase of Christian relationships for our entire family. Because VCS agrees to disagree on some of the minor religious issues, but insists on Christ likeness, it fosters an environment of love and unity. We have relationships throughout Missoula in business and recreation that are based on Christ. For example, we have volunteered with other churches for events such as Love & Respect conference. Our family has been involved with several sports teams from VCS families. We have many business relationships spurned from VCS. God’s design is that His people would have each other to help while we are a part of this world. VCS has helped to facilitate these relationships.

Now we should talk about the specific benefits of the education that is provided. By all testing standards that our kids have taken, none of them are Einstein’s. However, they were pushed by us and VCS to work hard and do their best because that is what Christ would have done. They took several AP courses but received only limited college credits. However, the two oldest were accepted to every college they applied and they both maintain above a 3.0 average while being awarded many scholarships and grants. Jessalynn is currently a junior at The University of Montana and Caleb is finishing his freshman year at Washington State University. They were very well prepared for the academic challenges of college.

In closing, as parents we simply dreamed that our kids have a better life than us. As Christian parents, we dreamed they would never leave God and have a closer relationship with Him a lot sooner than we did. VCS has really helped us in this noble endeavor. Caleb’s basketball coach calls him with spiritual encouragement while he is taking ownership of his life away at college. Jessalynn married her first love whom she met in 7th grade with both wedding parties being made up of VCS classmates whom they still see on a daily basis. Audrey is plugged into several youth groups and activities throughout Missoula to positively guide her teenage energies. These are just snapshots of our dreams unfolding.

– that was the advice I received a few years ago as I was finishing my Masters degree!

Imagine! How is that supposed to happen?

Thanks to Jessalynn Huber Kasun, my Desktop Publishing Class had a demonstration of that principle and we all learned how to create, edit, publish, link, and maintain blogs that are credible and helpful for social networking and learning. Jessalynn taught us the procedure for blogging and then gave us tips that help keep people informed and interested. She told us that this is the first year that the UM has offered the class entitled “Online Social Media Marketing”. Do you want me to tell you how marketing has changed since I studied it years ago?!!

And yet, do you know what is still the same? People are important. Action is vital. People still have choices in what they read and believe. People still look for beneficial ways to build relationships, evaluate truth, and invest their time.

This social media craze is a whole new field for me. Jessalynn remarked that my students would be great candidates for jobs in helping businesses create web connections because of their current interest and experience using social media. Don’t worry! I’m not intimidated by this huge technological change, just a bit befuddled.

Mrs. Job

Here is the link to the UM class blogs:

http://osmm.net/student-blogs/