The Companions a Rough Draft of Life

Volume 2 February 2007

We have been settling in and getting used to living together as husband and wife. There is a lot to adjust to and I learn more about myself everyday as I work out what it means to love and care for Alice and partner with her in running a household and planning for the future.

We spent Christmas with Alice’s family at her uncle Johnson’s house in San Ramon. Christmas at the Chiu’s is always festive, joyful, and filled with wonderful kids. This year we had a lot of fun enjoying their house on Christmas eve and marveling at the new renovations they have done in the last few months. We are always impressed by how creatively and frugally Johnson is able to furnish their house using craigslist. This was also the first Christmas that Alice was able to spend with her mom and two sisters here in the U.S. Her mom and sisters are getting settled and adjusting to living here.

We celebrated Christmas with my family in mid January. While we were there, we took a day trip up to Savannah Georgia from Jacksonville. It is a town that holds a lot of family memories for the Snyder’s. My brother Scot lived, worked, and attended art school there in his twenties. We visited the famous Clary’s cafe and walked past the old apartment where Scot used to live while he studied there. We also dropped by to see the line at the new Lady and Son’s Cafe in the market area of downtown Savannah. We enjoyed the beautiful 18^th and 19^th century architecture as we walked and drove through the tree lined streets of the city. While we were there, we picked up a few real estate brochures (my mom likes to where ever she goes). After looking at a few ads we dreamed of finding one of the historical homes in San Francisco for the same price.

We quickly realized how dreamy we were when we returned to the Bay Area and started thinking through where we want to live and what we can afford. We have some tough decisions ahead, but we trust that God will provide for us as his vision for our family becomes more clear.

I’m excited about the work that we are doing with ReIMAGINE. I started co teaching a class at Menlo Park with Mark Scandrette called Rhythms in the Life of the Master. The class invites the participants to embrace their role as servants and healers and to see Jesus as a teacher and example for life. I’m really excited about developing the curriculum and partnering with Mark to teach. I’m also working with the team to redo the website and setup better infrastructure for communicating with our constituents.

Alice has been busy with her work at General Growth and is ramping up on developing her skills and her customer base as a Creative Memories consultant. She is really excited to start pursuing her dreams of using scrapbooking to help people tell and preserve their stories.

Please pray for a firm foundation to our marriage in this first year and that God will use us to become a tree where “the birds of the perched on it’s branches” as Jesus describes in the parable of the mustard seed. Please also pray for the resources, discipline, and fortitude to “plant” this mustard seed in the Bay Area.

Damon & Alice Snyder | www.damonsnyder.com | www.alicesnyder.com