Well, after a few weeks of getting situated back in South Dakota and getting our lives in order, we’re back with an update! While things aren’t quite as exciting these days as they are when we’re out on the road, we’re incredibly thankful to be back with our families for the holidays (and the rest of winter as well).

The transition from walking down the road every day and camping on the side of the road at night to “normal life” has been an interesting one, to say the least. On the one hand, it’s wonderful having a real bed to sleep in every night. On the other hand, many of the challenges that were forcing us to rely so heavily on God have been made much easier to handle ourselves by living in the “regular” world. For starters, we can drive wherever we need to go these days. And we’re not exactly wondering if we’ll find a safe place to sleep at night or have enough food/water to make it through the day.

What this has taught us is that, while it’s easier to rely on ourselves instead of Christ, it’s up to us to continue making Christ the focus in our daily walk. For me (Mike), this has meant surrounding myself with Christians who will continue to push and challenge me in the right ways. One benefit of being in a city like Sioux Falls is that it’s much easier to get involved with Bible studies led by uplifting Christian friends than when it was just the Storming Jericho crew (i.e. – me, Lindsie and Jaeda) on the road. And having gone so long without being involved in a traditional Bible study, it has been fantastic to see how that daily challenge of studying the Word and developing a better understanding of God’s will have improved me spiritually.

I know Lindsie has also enjoyed the opportunity to escape from the world and find her personal quiet time with the Lord. She’s a little bit more of an introvert than me, which means she enjoys her alone time. Unfortunately, there’s not a ton of true “alone time” to be had when you’re with your husband 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And while I’m sure Lindsie loves me dearly, she also loves being able to spend time one-on-one with the Father, and we’re both thankful she has more of an opportunity to do that these days.

Now that we’re in the groove of things, we plan to update much more frequently than we have the past couple of weeks. For now, we just wanted to share a little bit of what’s going on in our worlds and let you guys know that we’re still fired up about this cross-country journey and we’re looking forward to continuing it as soon as winter is over.

On a final note, we’ll be speaking with the youth group from Lindsie’s church in Watertown, SD, tonight, so please pray that God gives us the right words to speak and the right thoughts to share with the youth. It’s such an honor to even be asked to share our journey with a group like that, and we want to be sure we make an impact for the Lord. As mentioned, your prayers are welcome.

Thanks again for the support, even during our hiatus, and we’ll be back with more soon.

-Mike and Lindsie (and Jaeda)