Sunday, June 28, 2009

Short and Sweet

I picked up Alyssa from the airport a couple of hours ago. We're just sitting on the couch catching up on all the shows I DVR'd for her while she was gone. I'm savoring all of the stories that are pouring out about her trip. I'm taking notes so I can share them with you later.

I took Kevin, Zac, and Katie to the airport at 5am yesterday to begin their travels to Arizpe. I wasn't expecting to hear from them at all since there is no internet in Arizpe and phone service is not great. But I guess the Daddy had to make sure his baby girl made it home safely because he called tonight. We had a whole minute and a half to talk and I got that it was raining, which is highly unusual, and they are supposed to have a movie night in the town square tonight. There was also some trouble at the border and Kevin's van didn't get to Arizpe till 4 am so there are some things for you to pray for---cooperative weather and no border issues on the return.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

My lips are sealed

I've been a full 26 hours with no news from Venezuela..no phone calls, no blog posts...but who's counting? Of course, today I have HUGE news to tell Alyssa and no way to tell her. I have her ACT scores and I am very happy with them but I can't tell you how she did because that just wouldn't be nice for her to find out after the 6 people who read this blog find out so I must be excited for her without sharing the news....a very difficult task when you have good news and a blog.

So to distract myself from the fact that I haven't seen my child in 6 days and had to go see 'The Proposal' by myself since my chick flick buddy is out of the country, I'll tell you about how Nathan got to have a light saber fight with Darth Vader.

At Disneyland, they have a Jedi Training Academy. Kids are randomly selected to be 'trained' then they get to fight Darth Vader using their newly acquired skills. Nathan could discuss Star Wars with you for 12 hours straight, go to bed, then still have more to say the next day. There have actually been times when I have banned him from discussing anything related to Star Wars with me. My brain can only take so much Darth Maul, Ewoks, and Yoda debate in one day. He also uses 'the force' to open automatic doors.

When I tell you that this was the highlight of his little life, I am not exaggerating. I think my heart might have broken if he hadn't been picked, but seriously, who could pass up that cute face?

Darth Vader didn't stand a chance!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

All My Fears Calmed for $1.50

I got to talk to Alyssa on the phone tonight! Woo Hoo! She actually called while I was still at work, time difference and all. (Apparently it's a genetic thing to not be able to figure that whole time thing out because she didn't realize I was still at work.) I'm sure everyone in my office thought I had lost it. I sounded like a giddy school girl when I answered the phone. And may I just say that technology is a wonderful thing when my child can call me from another continent for $1.50.

First, I had to get all the 'mama' questions out of the way: Are you sunburned? A valid concern since she is practically sitting on the equator and has her father's redhead fair skin. Thankfully, she reports just some pink cheeks and that they're staying in the shade most of the time. "Is your stomach upset?" Also a valid mama question given the fact she's in a South American country where she can't drink the water. Good news on that front too! No one on the team seems to suffering any maladies. All that paranoia and trip to the dr. for prescriptions for doxycycline and cipro paid off.

I had to calm the potential mama fears first before I could move on to the actual important news of her trip just in case our call got dropped. We were dealing with a pay phone in a small town in Venezuela and a cell phone in America after all! Anyway, the ministry is going well. They are visiting different villages each day. Some team members are doing door to door evangelism while others do VBS or sports camps with the kids and teenagers. The team all wrote their testimonies in Spanish before they left and they also have translators with them. Alyssa's also part of a drama team and they are doing a drama in each of the areas they minister to also.

It was great to hear her voice after 5 days, now just 5 days to go. I'm glad she has this opportunity of a lifetime to make an eternal difference in the lives of others, but I'll also be glad when she's home again. Because seriously, The Bachelorette and So you think you can dance just aren't the same without her. We're going to have some serious DVR catch up to do next week!

Monday, June 22, 2009

Finally!

We didn't hear from Alyssa yesterday at all which I'm okay with. I know they are extremely busy and it's not convenient to find a phone to call home on when you have 18 people in your group. But, there was no new post on the blog yesterday either and while I know that more than likely everything is fine, I like seeing something tangible that reassures me of that fact. So finally, there are 2 new blog posts today along with some pictures.

Here's an excerpt from Sunday's post:
It is hard to imagine just how large your Christian family is and today we were reminded of this. It was great to meet together with our brothers and sisters as the morning began and worshiped our Lord together. We sang songs (half the time not even knowing the words but still singing!), listened to preaching, and even spent some time teaching students and children. Afterwards we gathered together and enjoyed an amazing meal. It was a picture of Biblical community! Brothers and sisters united together through Christ; smiling, laughing, and worshiping together in fellowship!

Tonight we spent some time with the church and reached out to the community. We gathered together at a local park and played basketball, volleyball, and soccer with the community. We took some time with the people and shared our testimonies and got the chance to see over 30 people accept Christ!


I tried to put some pictures on here for you but I'm having techinical difficulties saving it from their blog and uploading to mine so here's a link for you. If you want to read more about the trip than I've posted here, just click 'daily blog' at the top of the page. Thanks for praying continually!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

1 Missed Call

Alyssa's team finished their traveling yesterday. She tried to call us but, sadly, we missed it. My phone was in my purse and set to vibrate since I had been at work all day. And the synapses that registered the phone was vibrating more than once, meaning it was an actual call, to realizing it was probably Alyssa, to leaping from the couch across the room, to digging it out of my purse...the call went to voice mail which when played back was a bunch of static. Bummer. I'm hoping she'll try again tonight. Today is their first full day of ministry so I'm anxious to hear how it went.

Here's a post from the team's blog about yesterday's travels:
So your probably wondering how was the drive. Well, we were told it would be a 6 hour drive. Thank goodness this wasn’t the case. It actually only took us a little over 4.5 hours. The sites were wonderful as we made our way through Caracas. The mountains, the ocean, all the house on all the hillsides made for a great first part of the trek. It’s amazing to think over 4 to 5 million people call Caracas their home. The houses are in places on the side of mountains that you wonder how you could even walk up to the houses. We had the opportunity to relax in our wonderful bus until the police decided to pull us over. Come to find out the police pull you over just if they feel like it. No reason, no purpose, but I guess to say hi. Turns out our driver knew one of the police men. We get back on the road then all of a sudden our bus dies. Our driver opens the hatch inside the cab and starts going to work. Cranks the engine to no avail. Vladimir decides we should pray. So, he prays in his native tongue and we pray in ours and we once again were being protected by Jesus. A few minutes later, a few cranks, a few turn this and that on the motor and it starts. We pulled over a little later down the road to stop and use the el banĂ³. What was sitting in front of us? Did you think it was fast food, because it was. Burger King and his royal burgers awaited us. We all ate some Whoppers and pappas, some had ice cream sundaes(Alyssa) and of course Coca-Cola. We arrived at our hotel, checked in, changed clothes, and then came to the church. They prepared a wonderful lunch for us(yes it was our second lunch) and we felt so unbelievably welcomed to be apart of their work in the kingdom. Well we have just been hanging out here at the church for a while now and we are meeting some really incredible people. We have been able to share our favorite music with them. John and I were amazed to learn that they loved Hillsong United music and knew most of their tunes(of course they knew them in spanish).

Friday, June 19, 2009

Tulsa, Dallas, Miami, Caracas

I took my baby girl to the airport this morning to send her off on her first mission trip without her mission pastor dad present. I did get a little choked up which is unusual for me, but in my defense, just before we left for the airport, I had gotten the news that a friends' mother passed away during the night and I was already feeling sad for her. Then, Alyssa started rubbing it in that she was going to have a stamp in her passport before I did and then I wasn't so misty eyed anymore.

She should be in Caracas by 6:40pm Venezuelan time but I have no idea what time that is for us. I'm a fairly intelligent person but for some reason, time zones require way too much thought for me, coupled with the fact that President Chavez gets an ego trip from declaring that Venezuela doesn't fall into any of the internationally accepted time zones and adds or takes away 30 minutes from whatever time zone they're supposed to be in just to be difficult so I've decided I'm not even going to try to figure it out.

In other news, I am aware that I still haven't posted anything about our vacation yet which I'm planning on working on in the next week. As soon as we got back, we had VBS, lots of dr. appointments, Alyssa taking the ACT, and football practice everyday. I haven't been home long enough to fold the towels I washed on Monday yet much less blog about Mickey. And now, I must go color and highlight my hair since I have a black stripe going down the middle of my head with a few gray hairs poking through. It's reached defcon 5 status and I can no longer comfortably go out into public until it is fixed.