The Bird Family Chronicles... Tales In Heroic Fashion

On the road to family and adventure

2010-09-07T14:48:00.000-04:00

2010-09-07 12:17pm

It's Day 1 of my 16-day adventure that will take me to New Jersey, Connecticut and Montreal, Quebec much of that by Greyhound. Okay, so maybe adventure is a little bit of a stretch for part of the trip, as I am going to NJ to work as a nurse taking care of my Aunt Rose while her daughter is on vacation. And the CT part of the trip is to take my aunt to see my mom (her sister)...well, that actually may be an adventure as putting the two of them in the same room for any length of time will at the least provide an interesting viewing experience for my cousin Sandy and I. Hopefully it will not escalate to a volatile situation as they are both old and set in their ways. LOL!

It's now 12:23pm and I am 1 hour and 12 minutes away from pulling into the NYC Greyhound Terminal. I have a 2:20 layover in there, and need to find WiFi to fix a PayPal link on the church website. I'm hoping I won't have to stray too far to find WiFi...

Thus far the bus ride has been uneventful. I've sleep much of the way as I started out at 1:45 a.m. from Roanoke.. I've only had one transfer so far, in Richmond, VA and will have the transfer in NYC as well. Then on to Easton, PA where my cousin Sandy will pick me up at the bus station. We're currently passing an Newark Airport on the left along with signs for the Holland Tunnel. That helps me to be a little more oriented as I was pretty clueless to location up until this point.

Going to hop off now to conserve battery life for the web stuff I need to do, but it's easier to remember thoughts if the3y are freshly laid on virtual paper as they take place. Frankie and LC are with me, my faithful traveling companions who have been to 4 continents with me. Til later....

2:44 pm On a smaller bus line's bus that is an affiliate of Greyhound. They got me on a bus 2 hours earlier than my originally scheduled bus, and there's free WiFi and electrical outlets, yay!

Just another Bird Family canoe trip

2010-06-02T00:26:00.000-04:00

So Troy, Jed and Clint decide to go canoeing yesterday in the Roanoke River. Clint has no canoe experience, it's a two person canoe...and there are no life jackets. Well, the first time the canoe flipped, Jed's glasses got kicked off as Clint's foot creamed him in the face. Mind you, Jed's previously lost two other pairs of glasses. One in 2007 in the same river and one in 2007 in the Everglades in Blackwater Creek. He still hasn't learned to wear a sports strap on them when he's around water...

The canoe ended up flipping two more times. The third time they flipped it, everything went sailing out. Clint tried to retrieve my Nalgene that they'd borrowed, but he got into trouble when he stepped into a deep hole. For some reason he'd been carrying a coil of rope that he'd retrieved from the water. As he bobbed up and down yelling for help he tossed the coil of rope...down stream. Moments later he managed to make he managed to flounder to shore. That left Troy to retrieve the rope and the Nalgene which by this time had drifted out of the main current into an eddy.

Unfortunately there were some "over-the-head" spots between Troy and the eddy, but with paddle in hand he managed to swim over to the shallower area. But then there was the submerged tree...After grabbing the wayward rope, Troy took a step and his foot jammed in between some roots.

The current there was swifter and twisted him around, causing the leg to lodge in the roots. Then the rope got tangled around his arm and leg, and...still clutching the Nalgene and the paddle he got pulled under. At this point he was certain he was going to die. And it was a distinct possibility but for God.

Somehow he managed to free himself and by that time Jed and Clint had gotten the canoe upright and paddled down to Troy. Troy tossed everything into the canoe and hung on the back of it until they got it to a flat area along the walking trail. Once on shore they discovered that my Dry Bag hadn't kept Troy's phone dry...

A seriously bruised and bleeding Troy turned to Clint and said that it wasn't usually like that and hoped this trip hadn't scared him from going canoeing again. Clint sincerely and enthusiastically replied, "Heck no! I definitely wanna go canoeing with you guys again!" ...Just a normal Bird Family Adventure! Now if Jed would quit losing his glasses in the river!

Bird Family Christmas - Happy Birthday Jesus!

2009-12-28T16:50:00.113-05:00

Wishing you all a joyous holiday season! We had a great Christmas. Probably the best one in recent years. For once we were all in the "holiday spirit"...which translates into putting up a Christmas tree and decorations. In recent years I just haven't felt like it. Even the house fire at Zip's house on Christmas Eve didn't dampen our spirits. If anything, it made us even more aware of the blessing of family...and more thankful for God's protection on us.

We all got together Christmas morning at the home that Troy, Rachael, Jed and I share. Zip and her children had spent the night so all 10 Birds were in the same place. I'd had great plans of making Christmas breakfast for everyone, but my 3 oldest grandchildren went across the alley to play with friends and my 2 youngest grandchildren went to spend the rest of the morning with their dad. I still cooked pancakes, but for a much smaller group than first planned.

Anyone who knows us knows that our Christmas giving is always low budget. Number one, we don't have a lot to spend. Number two, that's not what Christmas is all about. I'd told my kids not to get me anything...yeah, right.

I got a cool LED camp light and a camp toaster from Troy and Rach. Both very appropriate and appreciated gifts. My old camp light had died, and I used to have a camp toaster but had lost it years ago. The girls gave me a little wooden elephant...one that I'd given them after one of my Uganda trips :-). Zip, A and Caspian gave me a beautiful plaque that they'd made with A and Caspian's picture on it.

I When I got to the present from Jed I unwrapped it. It was a cute little change purse. Now, I love change purses, zippered pouches, etc. so I was excited. It was something I knew I could use. I could feel something inside so I asked Jed if it was phone bill money. I was surprised to actually find a wad of bills inside. Again I asked if it was phone bill money. He told me to read the note.

I started to cry. This is what it said:

There was $200 in the change purse...a gift of love from my son to me toward me upcoming Uganda mission trip taking place in February. As I was crying and speechless Jed grinned and said, "Score!" Zip told me that it had had the desired affect...it made Mom bawl like a baby! They will honestly never know just how much that wonderful gift touched me. It let me know that my kids believe in me and in the call of God on my life to do missions. I have the best kids in the whole world!

I'd planned Christmas dinner for around 4pm. (I didn't know Zip would have to leave before then...) We had a couple friends coming over and one CouchSurfer I'd met online in one of the groups. We'd never met him before. He was a student from Egypt studying at Virginia Tech and didn't have anyone to spend the day with (although I don't think he would normally have celebrated Christmas anyway, being Muslim), so I'd invited him to join us as a part of our family.

What a treat! Amro was a hoot! He fit in with our motley crew perfectly and we all had a blast. Pete from Troy's band had joined us as well as Jean-Phillipe (an "adopted" son of mine). Amro blessed me with a cool set of statues of the pyramids and the Sphynx. We all laughed and talked for several hours. What a great chance to make a new friend! I appreciate the opportunity that the internet and various social networking sites affords to be able to meet new people and make new friends.

I hope everyone had a wonderful a day as we did. Wishing you all a relationship with the One for whom our celebrations are about! Jesus is the Reason for the Season.

Uganda 2010: Pre-mission trip journal

2009-10-22T23:45:00.003-04:00

MySpace-Countdown-Clocks

First pre-mission trip entry:

I'm in Charlottesville tonight. I attended the introductory meeting for the mission team with which I'm traveling to Uganda in February of 2010. It will be my 3rd trip to Uganda, and I'm totally psyched for it. This time I'm going with Mission Link International, headed up by Rick Sadler. He's been to Uganda approximately 40 times if I understood correctly. And he and his wife Cathy are preparing to move there in the not too distant future.

I was excited about meeting the team, which ranged in age from 17 to retirement age. Close to 30 people in all. The majority were veteran short-term missionaries, with many having been to Uganda 5+ times. Everyone was very friendly and outgoing. I felt at home with the group immediately. There was a group here from Smith Mountain Lake, and one of the ladies suggested that I meet them part way next time and ride up with them.

I'd heard a lot about Pastor Rick from Rocky, who's traveled with Mission Link before. The things that I was mainly impressed by were his passion for evangelism and discipleship and his willingness to sacrifice his own comfort to take the gospel to the nations. You can tell by listening to him speak that his heart is so full for the call God's placed on his and Cathy's lives.

One of our assignments was to start journaling right now, before we ever set foot on the plane. So I'm doing just that with this post.

As I was listening to Pastor Rick review the trip information, one of the first things that struck me was, “Wow! I'm not responsible for any of the logistics of the trip. I don't have to try to make sure everyone's on track with finances....I don't have to schedule planes, vans, housing or anything. Boy, that feels weird!

We're going to be based in Jinja, but the various teams will be going to different villages every day. We'll all have an opportunity to work on medical, construction, puppet ministry, evangelism, and prison ministry. I'm so excited that I don't know if I'll be able to sleep tonight. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the medical missions aspect, but the prospect of being able to go into the prisons and the streets to minister is absolutely fantastic! God is awesome!

On the road to Connecticut by way of Yonkers

2009-10-02T19:56:00.004-04:00

I'm sitting at a McDonald's in Woodstock, VA listening to the sounds of two of my grandchildren playing with their mom in the play area. It's around 8pm and we're really far behind on the schedule that we had set for the day. My daughter, Zipporah, and I are on our way up to see my mom in CT. I only get to see her once a year, and I try to plan the trip to spend her birthday with her. Normally I do the 12 hour (one way) drive by myself, but this time I'm blessed to have one of my children and two grandchildren with me.

We're hauling a heavy load, including a bunch of stuff strapped to the roof of my overburdened Kia Sephia. We left Roanoke at 4pm and had to stop three times because of the roof load. Finally gave in and bought a couple big ratchet straps and now the load is fine. Kia Sephias are not meant to have stuff strapped on top...hence no built in luggage racks. I snagged the one bar from on top of Troy's truck and stuck it on top of my car. Everything's lashed to it.

Our destination tonight is Aleena and Ali's in Yonkers...an 8 hour, 400-ish mile drive. We've done only 140 or so miles of that. Still a looong drive yet. The kids have been good, and since the roof issue has been fixed it's been an enjoyable ride.

We'll be posting more soon. We've got lots of stuff on the itinerary including a sunset stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge.

A Short Update

2009-05-03T13:31:00.004-04:00

Don't laugh, it will be short! I haven't posted anything since January so I want to give a quick rundown on What's Up With The Birds...

Troy is running for House of Delegates in Virginia's District 11 (Roanoke City & the City of Vinton).

Rachael completed her CNA training and is awaiting her State Boards this month.

Jed's working for the US Census Bureau.

Zipporah's first real music video, "No, No, No," was completed a couple months ago. You can find it on YouTube by searching for "Zipporah Bird music video".

I'm preparing for my next mission trip to Uganda July 28-August 17, 2009.

All five of my grandbabies are wonderful and a blessing.

South of Sanity plays at Icthus Fest in Kentucky on June 13th, 2009 and will be in a big Battle of the Bands in Knoxville, TN the last week of May.

More later!

Night Hike to MacAfee's Knob

2009-01-28T23:49:00.004-05:00

A couple nights ago Jed and I decided to do a night hike up to MacAfee's Knob. We hadn't had any mother-son time in a while, and my days are usually pretty full. The weather was, of course, cold, but we decided that it was worth it to have some quality time together.

Now, Jed is not normally a talkative person (unless the topic is Alien Assault or World of Warcraft), but surprisingly most of the way up to the top Jed kept the conversation going with some really cool facts about the Cold War, Germany, Russia, and so forth. I was never a History buff in school, and have long regretted that fact. So now I actually do enjoy reading and hearing about historical events. The information Jed shared was pretty interesting, and I feel like I learned more in the 1-3/4 hour hike to the top than I would have in several weeks of school classes!

We took the Fire Road up from Hwy 311 to where the Appalachian Trail crosses it. There had been a trail re-lo since the last time I'd been to MacAfee's, so the new trail was totally unfamiliar to me. I was pleasantly surprised though, in that the grade of the trail was easier than the original, and we reached the top fairly quickly.

God blessed us with a relatively warm pocket of air at the top and we lay down on the rocks for a while and watched the clouds blow by while we talked some more. The trip back to the car went by quickly due to more good conversation, and we got back to the car less than 4 hours after heading out. Not bad for a 7 mile hike that included an attempt at night-time photos and a 20 minute rest at the top.

I'm so grateful for the kids that God's blessed me with. They are all grown, but they all find time to spend with Mom...without me having to beg them to do so... In fact, it's usually them calling me saying, "Haven't seen you in a while, Mom. You ever gonna come over and see us?"

Thanks, Jed, for joining me on the hike! I enjoyed it tremendously, and am looking forward to our next outing!

A New Political Blog...

2009-01-23T02:13:00.002-05:00

I've been meaning to start a new blog in which I can share my thoughts on politics. It seems fitting, being the president of the Roanoke Valley Republican Women and being active in grassroots efforts to promote the conservative values to which I adhere.

Well, I finally launched the new blog! It's called A Bird's-Eye View On Politics, and you can find it at: http://birdseyeviewonpolitics.blogspot.com. Check out my first post on the Sanctity of Human Life and the 2009 March For Life Rally that I attended yesterday in Washington, DC.

Reflections From A Night Hike On The Appalachian Trail...

2009-01-04T04:10:00.004-05:00

I just got done with a 5 mile round trip night hike. [For my blog post on the Leadership Lessons God showed me from this hike go to my business blog.] It was such a pretty day Saturday, and I just wanted to get outdoors. I was originally going to walk somewhere in town, but after my attempt at finding a walking partner failed, I considered an actual hike. At first I thought about the trail up on Mill Mountain. But as it was already late in the day, and I hadn't hiked that trail in years, I decided to do a more familiar one.

There's a really nice hike along the Appalachian Trail from Black Horse Gap to Wilson Creek Shelter. I decided upon it, as I'd done that section within the last couple years. During berry season it is a hiker's dream! But this is not berry season. I thought it was a 2 miles hike each way, but I found out when I got there that it was 2.5 miles to the shelter. Poor memory or trail re-lo's, I'm not sure...but it's still a great section.

While it isn't berry season, it is the season where the trail is COVERED with leaves for long stretches. DEEP leaves. And, while hiking along an 18-inch wide trail on the side of a mountain carries with it a certain amount of risk anyway, when you add calf+ deep leaves and night time it adds an extra dose of "excitement" to the mix.

OK, so traversing said 18-inch wide path while "cross-country skiing" through deep leaves in the dark is probably not of interest to most of the people I know. Maybe that's why I have a hard time getting hiking companions... ;-)

When I realized that there was heavy "leaf-fall" on the ground it made me think back to March of 2000 when I had a bad fall on the AT while solo-hiking and spent an extra night out on the trail, because I couldn't put any weight on my one ankle. I thought I'd broken it, but it was only a bad sprain. My second night out I had to sleep on that lovely 18-inch wide trail somewhere between Tinker Cliff and Cloverdale/Daleville with my back against a rock and my legs dangling over the side of the mountain...I'd learned a valuable lesson on that hike - don't hike through deep leaves on a steep descent without paying attention to your footing. I have to admit, deep leaves on the trail still cause a little unease.

But with my new "cross-country skiing" leaf-technique, I managed to travel the 2.5 miles from the Blue Ridge Parkway to Wilson Creek Shelter without incident. It took me a LOT longer than normal - 1 hour 20 minutes. But slow and safe is better than fast and falling down the mountain. (Oh, yeah, been there, done that before too...in the rain and fog at night on a never-before-hiked-by-me trail...and, of course, by myself! You've never lived until you've clawed your way up a mountainside in the rain, mud and dark with a 45-pound pack on your back...)

I thought I'd still had my hiking poles in the trunk, but much to my dismay they weren't there...so I promptly found this little stick whose sole purpose was to make sure there was actually solid ground underneath the leaves before I attempted to plant my weight there. I figured that was a pretty good thing to do! LOL!

Each bend of the mountainside gave me a different view of the valley below. The distant lights twinkled a happy greeting to anyone blessed enough to be on the trail at that moment. The sky was clear. The air was crisp and clean, and only the occassional call of an owl broke the stillness of the night. My only regret at times like that is not having someone special to share those moments with...being single is wonderful most of the time, but... I guess that's one reason I love to blog. It gives me some hope of maybe even one person catching the same sense of wonder and excitement that I feel during times like this.

When I got to the Shelter I set up my trusty Whisperlite International 600 backpacking stove. I've had it since 1998, and it has been very dependable. I'd planned my meal based on the HCG Diet that I'm on, so I poured the bag of shredded cabbage in one cookpot and browned the Laura's Lean Hamburger in another. After adding the container of seasonings I'd prepared ahead of time to the meat, it all got dumped into the pot with the cabbage. Within just moments I had a BIG steaming hot bowl of Cabbage Beef Soup in front of me...all 240 calories worth! I love this diet! I get totally stuffed on massive quantities of food...all for less than 500 calories a day.

After my yummy meal, I spent some time in prayer and Bible study. Then I pulled out my trusty laptop...YES, I brought my laptop on the night hike! Did I hear you call me a Geek?! I resemble that remark! I worked on the report that I have to have turned in from the Health Care Community Discussion last Sunday until my laptop battery died. I was actually going to video blog a few minutes while sitting there at the shelter, but didn't get a chance to. :-( (Yes I brought my webcam with me too!)

I wanted to make a short entry in the Shelter Register before leaving. (The register is simply a notebook where people who pass through can write their thoughts, shout to other hikers, etc. The person who leaves a new notebook usually puts their address on the cover, so whoever fills in the last page and leaves a new notebook can send it to them.) I couldn't believe my eyes when I opened to the first page to see who'd been through lately...Rockfish & Turtle, whom I'd hiked with on my attempted thru-hike in 1999, had been through on November 4th! Oh how I wish I'd known they were in the area! (Turtle is actually a small stuffed turtle. My hiking companion that year was Mouse, a small, stuffed, green dinosaur...Mouse & Turtle got along well!) Oh well, maybe this year I'll get down to Trail Days or over to The Gathering and catch up with old friends.

Anyway, the temperature dropped dramatically while I was sitting there at the shelter, and I was glad to get back on the trail to head for the car. I was really glad I'd brought an extra fleece shirt, but was missing my polypro long underwear! :-) The 1-1/2 hour hike back (where did all of those UPHILL sections come from on the way back?) warmed me up nicely, and I arrived back to the car without incident. It was a great night, and I'm so glad I went.

I know there are those of you who are shaking your heads as you read this...most of my friends do that too. Life is a gift from God to be lived to the fullest. I've never wanted to get to the end of it with dreams still left unfollowed and years worth of regrets over things left undone. There is an element of risk in almost anything we do...just hop in your car and pull onto your nearest freeway or try being a student at your local high school or university! And statistically more people die in car accidents within a couple miles of home than do anywhere else. Yet that doesn't stop us from piling into the car to head to work, the grocery store, or wherever. So until that time when I go home to be with my precious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I'll continue to follow my dreams along whatever precarious paths they may lead me. I live my life to the fullest with No Regrets! And I hope that sharing my journeying will inspire you to do that too!

Kenneth Copeland Victory Campaign, 9:30 AM Session Continued - Part 4

2008-11-14T11:25:00.000-05:00

A continuation of Sandi's Live Blogging from the Washington, DC Victory Campaign in Woodbridge, VA.

DISCLAIMER: Remember, this is MY INTERPRETATION of what I'm hearing. For the actual meeting audio go to Kenneth Copeland Ministries' website to listen On Demand to the service for free. Click on the Media tab. Or go to Believer's Voice of Victory TV for live or replay streaming of Bro. Copeland's services.

Jesus didn't go into hell "believing" that He'd be raised from the dead in 3 days...He "KNEW" it!

The power that raised Jesus from the dead...that defeated all of death, hell, and the grave and paid the penalty for every sin we'll ever create through just one man, Jesus...that same power DWELLS IN US!!!!! Why aren't we walking in the authority and victory that are OURS!!!

Daniel, praying in Babylon (that confusion system), had to wait 21 days for that angel to get through... because the Holy Spirit wasn't fully loosed upon the earth yet. That happened in the Upper Room on the day of Pentecost. The angels couldn't operate the way they do today. That mighty rushing wind may have been 2/3 of heaven pouring out upon the earth to take their places as the Word says in Hebrews 1:14, "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?"

What are we doing to allow them to minister for us? Are we speaking faith or confusion? "Well, now, every year I get the flu, Bro. Copeland. I can't even plan a vacation during that time of the year 'cause we're always sick." Your angel is standing there going, "Did he say he wants to be sick every year at this time?"

(Speaking of angels, some people are waiting to see an angels to make them believe, when in actuality seeing an angel would rob them of their faith...then their faith would be tied to seeing an angel. God's not going to do anything that's going to rob you of your faith...You see an angel and you'll go off and start an "angel religion" and have everyone going around looking for angels rather than having faith in the living God!)

We cannot put our trust in ANYTHING BUT the WORD OF GOD!!!!!!! I am blessed by GOD! When we are trusting in God and His Word, then the blessing of God can manifest in your life!

Take those "illegal" thoughts and put them into captivity. Get your, "yeah, but," out of the way! Stop thinking that your thoughts and feelings are more trustworthy than the Word of God. Don't be like Thomas, who had had more faith in what his fingers touched and his eyes saw than what he'd heard from Jesus for 3-1/2 years! John 20:29,

Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."!!!!!!!!!!! [Emphasis Mine]

You need to be saying, "I'm blessed! The blessing of Abraham is operating in me now! God loves me!"

I will obey the Word of God! Father, Your will be done in my life as it is in heaven!

Daniel in Babylon got a picture of the Babylonian system (confusion) and how that it could not stand. It still won't stand today. Stand in the healing line and get healed, but then lose your healing the next day..."Well, I guess Bro. Copeland lost his healing anointing."

It's not the world and other people that are our problem, it's our mouth --> Change you. Get rid of the fear. Believe only. And you will be made whole!

Well, that's what God spoke to ME through Bro. Copeland's message this morning. Again, understand, it's not necessarily word for word, but what the Spirit spoke to me. NOW, go and listen to or watch the service for free online at your convenience by going to Kenneth Copeland Ministries' website to listen On Demand to the service for free. Click on the Media tab. Or go to Believer's Voice of Victory TV for live or replay streaming of Bro. Copeland's services.

Kenneth Copeland Victory Campaign, 9:30 AM Session Continued - Part 3

2008-11-14T10:46:00.000-05:00

Part 3 of Sandi's Live Blogging from the Washington, DC Victory Campaign in Woodbridge, VA.

DISCLAIMER: Remember, this is MY INTERPRETATION of what I'm hearing. For the actual meeting audio go to Kenneth Copeland Ministries' website to listen On Demand to the service for free. Click on the Media tab. Or go to Believer's Voice of Victory TV for live or replay streaming of Bro. Copeland's services.

Homework Assignment: Go to John 13:31-John 17. Read straight through without looking at the ch/vs numbers and let it impact you...
Anchor Verse for the conference: John 16:13

Christianity is not an "-Ism" it is the reality of God and His family.

"Faith as a grain of mustard seed..." (Matthew 17:20, Luke 17:6) It doesn't say "faith the size of a mustard seed..." It's the POTENTIAL in the mustard seed, not the size. And when that mustard seed reaches it's potential, it can house a thousands of birds, produce a large area of shade, and produce food...all from the POTENTIAL in that seed.

Back to the tower of Babel. At Babel, God confused their ability to communicate and imagine...He capped their potential to create. But He also spread the seed that produced all the languages we know now...

Confusion doesn't understand that it's killing itself, because it doesn't understand the power of its words! What my spirit tried to do that got left undone leaves my spirit unfulfilled or disappointed. When we exercise our love, it gets stronger and stronger. Our Spiritual Food is the Word of God.

Fear. God can look at our heart and know what we mean...satan can't do that. he's a legalist and can only take our words that we speak and try to shove them back down our throats..."Are you going to church tonight?" "No, Brother Copeland, I'm afraid not." he'll take that word, "afraid", and look it up in the dictionary and throw it right back at you!

We need to be speaking God's language, the language of faith! We have to stop putting our faith in money, political signs, the government, etc. We have to put our faith in God and our ability to CHANGE those things by prayer! Making people totally dependent upon any thing other than God, makes them a slave to that thing...look at the welfare system and how it has enslaved people.

Everything that happens is the church's fault. If our country fails, it is the church's fault. If our country succeeds, it is the church's blessing. The angels of God take their orders from US, and if we are speaking doubt and fear and mixed commands, they are in confusion and cannot go forth and effectively operate to bring the plan of God into fulfillment.

More in next post...

Kenneth Copeland Victory Campaign, 9:30 AM Session Continued - Part 2

2008-11-14T10:12:00.002-05:00

Live Blogging from the Washington, DC Victory Campaign in Woodbridge, VA.

DISCLAIMER: Remember, this is MY INTERPRETATION of what I'm hearing. For the actual meeting audio go to Kenneth Copeland Ministries' website to listen On Demand to the service for free. Click on the Media tab. Or go to Believer's Voice of Victory TV for live or replay streaming of Bro. Copeland's services.

Homework Assignment: Go to John 13:31-John 17. Read straight through without looking at the ch/vs numbers and let it impact you...
Anchor Verse for the conference: John 16:13

He needs MY mouth to BLESS instead of Curse!
Military Analogy: Why is it so vital to learn the correct terminology when you are in the military? Because when that commander is formulating a strategy to WIN the battle for his side and needs to relay it to 1500 soldiers, he needs everyone to be on the same page. When he says, "pick up the rifle," you better know "rifle" not just "gun" so you pick up the correct weapon. He doesn't have time to explain what he means to everyone who comes from a different background than his. Everyone being "on the same page" is crucial to them operating as a well-oiled team. We need to think the same thoughts based on the same words! Example: fixin'. Some people may think "repair". Bro. Copeland is thinking "about to..." As in, "I'm fixin' to go home!"

For the Church, we have to come to Our Common Standard, which is the Word of God! And we need to understand it...get a Greek/Hebrew Lexicon!

Babel example: Once God confused the language during the construction of the tower of Babel the people were not able to be on the same page...they couldn't get anything done, and the construction project had to be left unfinished.

If the body of Christ would all get on the same page...imagine what we could accomplish...Look at Genesis 11:6

6And the LORD said, "Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them..."

Everything you do and everything you say gets a response!

Here's MY VERSION of Genesis 11:6...

6And the LORD said, "Indeed the body of Christ is one and they all have MY language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them..."

More in next Blog Post in a few minutes...

Kenneth Copeland Victory Campaign, 9:30 AM Session

2008-11-14T09:44:00.003-05:00

Good Morning to All! This is Sandi, and I'm blogging the 9:30 AM KCM Victory Campaign service from Woodbridge, VA. (I'm moderating comments on this blog, so if you're a Copeland or Word of Faith basher, don't bother. It's my blog, I still live in a country where I can blog a church service without fear of reprisal from someone.)

DISCLAIMER: Remember, this is MY INTERPRETATION of what I'm hearing. For the actual meeting audio go to Kenneth Copeland Ministries' website to listen On Demand to the service for free. Click on the Media tab. Or go to Believer's Voice of Victory TV for live or replay streaming of Bro. Copeland's services.

Already the Holy Spirit...and Bro. Copeland...have stepped on my toes. Bro. Copeland was talking about his Worship Team and making the statement that they were the finest worship team, period. He said to the effect, "Some of you may say, 'Well you're just saying that by faith.' NO, I said it by faith before it ever came into being. No it's here!" That kicked my butt regarding my confession over my website team at Valley Word.

Now he's talking about the current US situation in relation to John 13:31-John 17. Our "homework assignment" is to read those verses straight through without looking at the ch/vs numbers and let it speak to us. And he's echoed the same verse I've used so many times in the last few years, "A kingdom divided cannot stand." And, what I wholeheartedly agree with, that the Church is responsible for not fulfilling her responsibility to provide the prayer covering for our country that we SHOULD be doing.

More in a few minutes...

A Writing Retreat...With a Lot Of Copeland Mixed In!

2008-11-13T22:43:00.004-05:00

Hey everyone! Sandi here. My goal is to post a brief update on the status of my book...Yes, the one I was supposed to finish a week and a half ago... :-(

No excuses, as I couldn't see trying to "talk my way out of it" with Daddy...so I won't list my "reasons" for not being done yet here either. BUT, I am on a retreat for the next few days up in Woodbridge, VA with one of the two retreat goals being to finish my book.

I got up here later than I had planned due to trying to follow a "computer generated route" in the dark, rain, and fog (and WHY would the directions say "slight left at Dumfries Rd/Hwy 234" when you're actually supposed to go STRAIGHT and NOT turn left onto Dumfries Rd? (Which apparently both goes straight AND turns left...???)

I'd debated on whether or not to go straight to the opening meeting of the 3-day Washington, D.C. Victory Campaign or to go to my hotel and stream the meeting, and after the delays and driving on no sleep the hotel room was calling my name. I finally found it, and by the time I got my Verizon Aircard working--since the "Free Wi-Fi" doesn't, at this point in time, seem to reach my room in the back of Rodeway Inn--the first meeting was already underway.

I only caught part of it, so I'm starting at the beginning and listening to the replay while I'm writing. Kenneth & Gloria Copeland were instrumental in my faith walk in my early years as a Christian, and they still have a POWERFUL Word from God any time I hear them.

Well, anyway, I'm working on Chapter 5 of what I believe to be 7 plus the Introduction and Conclusion, and I'll be on Retreat until early Sunday morning. I'll head back toward Roanoke about 5:30AM Sunday morning so I can get back in time for church Sunday morning. My Pastors have been ministering in England during the last couple weeks, and I am excited to hear about all that God has done while they were there. You can read their blogs by going to: Pastor's Blog and Rev. Deb's Blog. I highly recommend both of their blogs as regular reading.

I'll be updating again in the next day or so, and will also post about this last week of babysitting my three oldest grandchildren. We had a blast touring Washington, DC's museums, going camping in Shenandoah National Park, hiking to a waterfall, seeing a bear (it ran across the road in front of us), and going to a real Tea Party. We have lots of pictures to share and I'm looking forward to getting it all journaled in the next day or so. Until then...be Blessed!

LOL! God's Sense of Humor!

2008-10-20T01:19:00.004-04:00

I gotta hand it to God. He's got a great sense of humor! In a 48 hour period God told me to write a book, gave me the title, gave specific command as to when to do it and how long it would take to write, and gave me the introduction for it. I'm going to share the introduction here, with my faithful blog readers. Comments, suggestions, and questions are welcome! You're all a part of my accountability team now! So Here's the Introduction...

Introduction

For 20+ years now God has spoken to me about writing books. And for 20+ years now I’ve said, “Yes, Lord, as soon as I get time I’m going to do that!” I always have had great intentions, but my follow-thru has been lacking…a lot! But as I was in the process of returning home from a recent 48 day deployment as a contract Disaster Housing Inspector contracted to FEMA to work the Hurricane Gustav and Ike disasters the Holy Spirit almost yelled these words at me. “You’re going to write a book!”

I’d been reading more of Margaret Feinberg’s book The Sacred Echo, which is a Must Read for anyone interested in hearing God’s voice in every area of your life. I’d cried my way through part of chapter 6 as Ms. Margaret related a story about her friend Shana. As I read the words on the pages in front of me, I saw myself and my life, desires, and calling so vividly.

"I've watched Shana's life for almost a decade now, and her latest exploits are always a cliff-hanger resting on the hope that once again God will save the day. And he does--time and time again. Somehow Shana has managed to start her own entertainment company, film several movies, and launch a significant ministry with less than $1000 to her name at any given time."

She later says,

"Just watching Shana's life provides countless snapshots of faith in action and what it looks like to answer the call, You follow me. If God can do so much through one woman pursuing the passions of her heart and the calling on her life, then what could he do with me?"

Now granted, I have no aspirations to have an entertainment company, but there are other equally as daunting things that I desire to do and have already been doing. And some of them do involve filming documentaries, and a HUGE chunk of them involve launching a missions ministry.

But the two things that caught my eye and heart were, “…and her latest exploits are always a cliff-hanger resting on the hope that once again God will save the day” and, “…with less than $1000 to her name at any given time." I had to laugh at that because it was so fitting! When I got to Ms. Margaret’s question, “If God can do so much through one woman pursuing the passions of her heart and the calling on her life, then what could he do with me?" I had to cry. Not a “bad cry” though. I cried because of the immense implications of that question.

It was later that night, after reading that chapter, and reading about Ms. Feinberg’s own lifelong desire and call to write, that I heard that loud, firm voice telling me, “You’re going to write a book!”

God gave me the title the next night, the night I got back from Houston. I was getting ready to go to bed and grabbed a book I’d received in the mail while I was gone for a few pages worth of “bathroom reading” before turning in. The book was Mark Batterson’s Wild Goose Chase: Reclaiming the Adventure of Pursuing God. Right off the bat I was captivated by part of the excerpt on the back cover.

“Most of us will have no idea where we are going most of the time. And I know that is unsettling. But circumstantial uncertainty also goes by another name: ADVENTURE.”

A few pages into the book I came across this statement,

“If you would describe your relationship with God as anything less than adventurous, then maybe you think you’re following the Spirit but have actually settled for something less—something I call inverted Christianity. Instead of following the Spirit, we invite the Spirit to follow us. Instead of serving God’s purposes, we want Him to serve our purposes. And while this may seem like a subtle distinction, it makes an ocean of difference. The result of this inverted relationship with God is not just a self-absorbed spirituality that leaves us feeling empty; it’s also the difference between spiritual boredom and spiritual adventure.”

I’d been thinking about all the various adventures that I’ve embarked upon in my life, including my recent South America trip and my FEMA deployment. I’d asked for God to use each one for ministry for His Glory, and He’d answered accordingly. As I read this excerpt in Pastor Batterson’s book I realized that that’s what I always seemed to be seeking—Spiritual Adventure. It was then that the Holy Spirit told me, “You’re going to call your book CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE.”

I thought, “OK. I’ll do that Lord. I’ll work on it sometime soon.” Yeah, right! Like all the other things I’d mentally assented to work on that never even got started. But God had other plans. The next day I was at church. The service had ended and I was standing in line to enter in to the Pastor Appreciation Luncheon. Suddenly, as I was talking to some friends, the Holy Spirit spoke to me—very clearly. “You’re going to take the next two weeks, and you’re going to write the book. I’m going to give it to you. I’ll use it for my Glory.” I almost laughed out loud! It was so unexpected and random! I told him OK, and here I am—writing my book…His book.

In the almost 28 years that I’ve walked with God, I’ve experienced some pretty wild adventures. Some were of my own choosing. Some were the ramifications of other people’s choices. Most were good adventures. A few weren’t. But I’ve asked God to use each one to further His Kingdom.

To echo Pastor Batterson’s words a couple pages farther in, “...Jesus didn’t die to keep us safe. Jesus died to make us dangerous.” It is my hope that in writing this book I can encourage you

To Choose Your Own Adventures with God.
To Challenge you to Not Settle for the Mundane, Boring Existence that brings a smile to our enemy’s face.
To become Armed and Dangerous to the kingdom of darkness!

Let The Adventure Begin!

Homeward Bound...

2008-10-18T21:00:00.001-04:00

Well, I've been gone 48 days now. At times it hasn't seemed long, but right now it seems like an eternity. Not in a bad way, but in the way that some things just seem like distant memories, even though 48 days really isn't that long.

By the time anyone reads this, I'll probably be home. I'm actually writing this while sitting in a hotel room across the street from NASA's Space Center outside of Houston. In about 2 hours I'll be headed to the airport and in 5 hours from now I'll be on a plane headed home. BUT, since I'm trying to surprise as many people as possible, I'm setting this to post on Saturday evening late. I don't know how many people actually read about my wanderings, so it shouldn't spoil the surprise too much.

I know if I wait until I get home to record my "final thoughts" about this tour of duty, I'll never get around to it...like my last South America post that has yet to be written. So it's really important to me to actually put my thoughts to "paper" right now, before I get home.

Once I knew I was being released from the field, I arranged for Evelyn (one of the inspectors with whom I'd roomed previously) to come and pick me up. She was being released as well, so I knew we could ride to the field office together to turn in our equipment.

Before she came to pick me up I carried my laundry the 3+ blocks to the Washateria (that's a laundromat if you hadn't already figured it out!) and finally got my dirty clothes washed...YAY!!! When Evelyn came to pick me up I was somewhat surprised at the pangs of regret I had for leaving the area with which I'd become very well acquainted over the last several weeks.

I have enjoyed the opportunity to sow seeds of God's love to the people whom I've encountered on a day to day basis. Many had voiced concern for my safety in that area, which opened the door for me to share how I felt about the people in that area. I had to laugh at one lady on Thursday, though.

I had just finished my last inspection for this deployment and was walking away from my applicant's apartment. My camera wasn't co-operating, and I was carrying it and trying to get it to turn off. A man and woman were walking by and said, "Hello, officer..." I laughed and made it very clear that I was NOT a police officer, but a contract inspector contracted to FEMA.

They cautioned me about having a camera out in that area (for a couple reasons 1- theft risk and 2-people who are using and/or dealing drugs get real nervous when there are people with cameras around taking pictures). Then she asked me my name and age. She introduced herself by saying that people called her "69" but that her real name was Re-----. The nickname "69" kind of makes me think she was a prostitute, but I'm not sure...

The thing is, SHE was concerned about ME. Before she walked away she cautioned me again to put away my camera and my cellphone, "You're too pink to be carrying a camera or a cellphone around here!" I laughed at her comment and thanked here sincerely for her concern. I've found most of the people in the Third Ward to be really nice, caring people.

I was talking to an applicant a couple days ago about why she chose to move into the area in which she is living. She said that it was a big decision for her at first, because the neighborhood was pretty run down when she bought her house. But she pointed out that if people who do care will move into a neighborhood that's run down and crime/drug infested, they CAN change the neighborhood.

It takes guts and time, but that's what happened in her case. She started caring, not only about her own house and self, but about her neighbors as well. She became pro-active and it rubbed off on a few of the other neighbors as well. Now her block is totally different than when she first moved into her home. The neighbors work together to keep the area clean. They look out for each other. They've run the drug dealers out of their block. They take pride in their community.

What I got from talking to her is that sometimes the easy road isn't the road that we have to take. That to get something worth having it may take some hard decisions and you may have to put up with adversity along the way (and people may tell you you're crazy for doing what you're doing!). BUT, there is a tremendous reward in the end. And when we stand up for Good and Right, we naturally draw other people to do the same. We shine the Light into the darkness and the darkness has to fall back.

I know that many times when we hear that term "shine the light into the darkness" we think of preaching the Gospel...telling people about Jesus. But shining the Light into the darkness can also mean looking out for our neighbors' well being, showing a love and compassion for others, giving of our time and energy to help those around us, encouraging others...being a "good neighbor."

I could ramble on and on, but I don't want to lose you as a reader, so let me just finish with this. I had a little time at the washateria to read more of Margaret Feinberg's book The Sacred Echo. At one point she was talking about surrender. I want to leave you with a couple quotes from her book and some final thoughts from me...

"Surrender means it's not just about getting things done, but how you get them done that matters. When Jesus speaks of walking two miles instead of one and giving your coat instead of just your shirt, he's saying that surrender takes many forms--everything including your schedule, your possessions, and, of course, your heart. Surrender asks us to hand over not just what we have but who we are to God."

There are many people who look at me and don't understand why I do many of the things that I do. I often step out of what little comfort zone I have left, and as my pastor commented to me on the phone the other day, "You do seem to get yourself into some interesting situations, Sandi."

In another chapter of Ms. Feinberg's book she talks about a friend of hers named Shana. At one point she states,

"I've watched Shana's life for almost a decade now, and her latest exploits are always a cliff-hanger resting on the hope that once again God will save the day. And he does--time and time again. Somehow Shana has managed to start her own entertainment company, film several movies, and launch a significant ministry with less than $1000 to her name at any given time." She later says, "Just watching Shana's life provides countless snapshots of faith in action and what it looks like to answer the call, You follow me. If God can do so much through one woman pursuing the passions of her heart and the calling on her life, then what could he do with me?"

That question resonates throughout my very being, "Then what could he do with me?" I truly have always striven to live my life as faith in action in response to God's call on my life (I didn't say I've always succeeded! :D ).

My dear family & friends, though you may not ever fully understand me...I hope & pray that you'll join me in the adventure of this pursuit!

To God's Glory!

Ministry To The Hurting...

2008-10-12T22:43:00.004-04:00

Hey, this is Sandi! I finally have the time to take a couple minutes (yeah, right...I know my posts are never only a couple minutes long :D ) to talk about the stuff that really matters to me here. The ministry...

Each day as I make my way from one applicant to the next I am trusting God to order my path. I ask Him to place me in the right place, at the right time, to speak to the right people...Divine appointments. He says He will in His Word (Psalm 37:23 AMP and Proverbs 3:6 AMP), so I remind Him of it.

Yesterday my first appointment was with an elderly woman who had a couple trees still on her house. I knew when I first met her that she was a Believer. You can just tell... As I started talking with her and her 16 year old granddaughter whom she'd raised from a small toddler, the Holy Spirit began moving.

We'd talked about the way God had done a healing miracle in her granddaughter's life after a severe child abuse incident as a 2 year old had left her paralyzed on one side. Now as a teenager, she was walking with just a mild limp and was involved in Junior ROTC in high school. I listened as the young woman shared how God had challenged her and transformed her life to overcome the disability and the poverty of the area in which they live. I had tears streaming down my face almost the whole time she was speaking.

By the time I was done with my inspection we were "havin' church" right there in my App's living room and God opened a door for me to pray with both of them. The 3 of us were crying, laughing, and praising God for His faithfulness. My Applicant looked at me and said that she "just knew" that God had sent me to her and was so grateful for me coming. Little did she know that I was the one who got blessed by meeting them!

A few weeks ago I did an inspection for a single mom who has 5 teenage+ kids. She herself was back in school pursing a Medical Assistant degree. I had been talking to her and two of her children about their dreams and goals in life. Her one son wanted to pursue a career as an architect and I'd seen some of his drawings. They were really good. I saw a Bible laying on the counter, so before I left I used that as an opening to just simply say, "I'll be praying for you."

That opened a door, and she responded by saying they could use all the prayer they could get. I asked if she'd like for me to pray with her before I left and her face brightened. The thing that was so awesome was that her two teenagers reached out to grab my hand to pray with us, so we all gathered in a circle and I got a chance to pray for each of them. We were all hugging and crying. God was just so awesome!

I've seen countless incidents where God's placed me in the right place at the right time. Case in point is one day last week. I'd made a decision to walk to Denny's for dinner and take a taxi back to the hotel since it was going to be dark by the time I got done (home girl don't walk in the hood in the dark!). Anyway, I always try to let the Holy Spirit guide me as to which road I walk down.

I looked down at the ground while I was walking, and there was a gas company credit card that someone had dropped. I picked it up and called the toll free number on the back to report that I'd found it. The lady at the credit card company was so amazed that I had turned it in, and it was a good feeling knowing that God had used me to keep someone from having their card stolen. If I had taken a different street someone else may have found it that may have misused it. God is good!

To all those back home, I send my love. I don't know when I'll be back, but I want to encourage all of you with the same encouragement that I give to myself...only those things done in the Spirit and for the Kingdom of God will stand for eternity; so, no matter how the economy or the election or anything else looks, "keep your eyes on the prize of the high calling of Jesus Christ" and press through to finish the race that we are running. Fight the good fight of faith.

A friend of mine wrote to me the other day and voiced the thought that he couldn't wait to get to Heaven...and I agree...I'm longing to hear my Heavenly Father tell me, "Sandi, you made me right proud! Come on home!," and to see the countless lives that I'm believing God to touch through my life.

Until then, Daddy, let me touch one more life for you...

Gasp! My Son, Jed Wrote A Blog Post!

2008-10-11T12:58:00.004-04:00

Just had to get a word or so in out of my shock at Jed actually posting...and to let any new readers know that there are 5 of us who have the ability to contribute to our family blog (I need to get my grandkids blogging too...hmmm) so not every post is necessarily from me. You can usually tell Jed's: short, to the point, and infrequent! :D His will be the ones that say Brother Grymm. Troy's will say Brother Gromm. I don't remember what Rachael and Zip's pen names are, but you get the point...Anyway, gotta run!

Has the world ended?

2008-10-10T23:57:00.003-04:00

Probably not, but it should have, because I am writing a blog post. Very short, very much to the point. If there was one.

This is Jed. I've been in Texas for a little over two weeks, and right now would give almost anything to be able to go to Dallas tonight and watch a football (A football game? No, THE football game...) The Red River Shootout. I love college football, and I have two teams I cheer for any time they are on the field, one of them is Oklahoma University, and the other is the University of Florida. Anyway, Rivalry Weekend is going to be awesome, I just wish I could watch the games rather than work.

Other than that, nothing major to report, been inspecting houses and generally just wishing payroll woul get their act together. I will say, however, that this would be the perfect place/time for a bum to live. Meals can be found on nearly every corner of Galveston Island, and sometimes they find you first (Mobile Salvation Army food trucks driving up and down the streets all throughout the day, serving hot food, cold water, and even some Gatorade.) Two nights ago we slept in the truck on Galveston, in a parking lot. There was a furniture place that had thrown all its sofas out because they had gotten wet, but were dry now. So, being the Birds that we are, we pulled a sofa over to the car, pulled a stack of crates over, ran the power cord of Troy's laptop out the passenger window, and watched a movie on it, sitting on a couch for the first time in ages. So, yeah, if you ever thought about becoming a transient, this would be the perfect time.

My biggest complaint while down here, though, has got to be the McDonald's Dollar Sweet Tea, or lack thereof. First off, most of them don't even have sweet tea. Its like, are you all freaking yankees or something? What the hell is wrong with this country when the southern restaurants don't have sweet tea. Second off, when they do have sweet tea, it isn't a buck. It's a buck 69, plus tax.

Anyway, going to cut the chat now, so until next time, take care and have fun.

Where Angels (Some Folk) Dare Not Trod...

2008-10-10T04:02:00.004-04:00

Hey everyone! This is Sandi. I'm still here in Houston, TX on deployment with FEMA. I had a little time to write tonight, so I wanted to try to catch things up a little bit. To do that, I'll have to back-track to last week. I hesitated to share part of this lest I concern people back home, but I don't think the people I'm worried about being concerned for me actually read my blog anyway! (And if they do, yes, I Know...!) :-) And hopefully none of you who are reading this will get freaked out...I'm laughing about it as I write it, so I hope you'll see the humor in it as well...a typical Bird Family Adventure! And I've had a chance to minister to and pray with a LOT of the people here. That's where my heart is in all of this.

I'm still in the Third Ward, an area that I mentioned in my last blog post. Due to a payroll issue that has persisted over the last couple weeks, I had to turn in my rental car last week (which had doubled as my hotel room for two nights)...that made it kind of hard to do my work. I stayed with Evelyn down across from NASA for 4 nights, but that was 25+ miles from my assigned area. So on Sunday I moved into this divey little hotel where I've been staying ever since.

Let me describe my humble surroundings...At $150 for the week, it's a pretty good bargain. It comes complete with mirrors around the bed, a cable channel that I have to turn my head to pass over (since I'm not into hard-core X-rated programming), and a shower stall that took 1/2 a bottle of Tilex and an hour of scrubbing to get it to the place where I felt comfortable using it. By Day 4 they finally put a working deadbolt on the door and fixed the door where it had obviously been forced open at some point and been broken in the door knob area. They even let me borrow the vacuum cleaner on Wednesday!

Classy place, right? ;-) It does, at least, have an air conditioner and free local phone calls. And a perfect view of crack deals going down in the park that borders the property...I won't mention the name of this fine establishment while I'm staying here though. The best thing it's got going for it is the people who run it. They are actually very nice, and are concerned about me being here without a vehicle.

Oh, it gets better though! I've had the lovely opportunity to walk to all of my applicant's houses. It's a lot slower going, of course. And as I mentioned in my last post I have some pretty rough neighborhoods in my area. I've become somewhat of an oddity, I'm sure, as I walk all over the "hood". I am learning which people not to make eye contact with, which people to ignore, and which people to avoid altogether. The up-side is that I've been getting some great exercise by walking 4-6 miles a day in the last few days. The walk time is also great time to talk with the Lord. Plus it gives my angels something to do as, well,...I normally lead such a "boring" life...I figured I'd spice things up for them. You know, keep them on their toes! :-)

I've had applicants ask me if I was afraid to be walking around this area. My reply has been this: If I were to be afraid to be in this area then I would be judging the whole community based on a few "bad apples". I figure there are a lot of good people here who just happen to live in a poverty, drug, and gang-infested area. (Yeah, I forgot to mention that there's gang activity here too...) I do make it a point of being in my room before dark, and most importantly to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit when He tells me to "turn here", "go this way", or "DON'T go that way.

My heart really goes out to the people here. I went to one applicant's house today. He is an elderly, disabled man who looks like he's going to fall with each shaky step, despite using his cane. There is still a tree on his house that messed up the badly deferred maintenance roof and walls, tearing up the termite-eaten/dry-rotted rafters and the top plate on the exterior bathroom and bedroom wall. There's a hole in the bathroom where you can look out and see tree limbs and sky. And the sewer is STILL backed up into his tub and commode. And he's afraid to leave there because of the number of break-ins/thefts in his neighborhood.

Another thing that amazes me is the number of people that will fit in a 1 or 2 bedroom house. Back in Virginia it's a violation for a landlord to rent a one bedroom to a family that's larger than 2. Here they'll let a family of 8 stay in a 2 BR...

Anyway, I let the time slip away from me, so gotta go. Will try to actually get more of the stuff I really want to talk about (the stories about the people)down in print soon. Bye for now!

A Houston Update

2008-10-03T19:35:00.000-04:00

Not much time for internet, but wanted to update everyone. I've been in Houston for 2 weeks now, and it's been an interesting experience. A great many signs are blown down, so finding my way around has been interesting nonetheless! If you ever want to find someone to take wrong turns with and explore Houston the hard way, you should have ridden with me the first week...I know God has a sense of humor and was ROF LOL watching my navigational attempts! The street I was looking for was always the one that had the sign blown down... :-D

My first night here was spent in a hotel with Barb and David (two of my roommates from New Orleans). That was when we got the news that our first paycheck was going to be held back TWO weeks, not just one, so the paycheck we thought we were going to be getting wasn't going to be there that Friday.

Since I'm a member of CouchSurfing.com (you can check out my profile at http://www.couchsurfing.com/people/mouses_motor) I got on the local Houston Group and posted a request for a place for the three of us to stay. I got a phone call that night and the next day we had the absolute honor and privilege of meeting local CouchSurfer Steve McNulty.

Steve and his wonderful family opened up their home to the three of us and another inspector (Kendall) for over a week until our inspection assignments caused us each to relocate. His wife, Lorei, fixed us some of the most delicious meals, and they just plain spoiled us while we were there. It was a nice place to come home to after seeing destruction and hearing sad stories all day long.

And that leads me to the people and homes affected by Hurricane Ike. My assignment finds me meeting with people in the Third Ward area of Houston. It's where you find the University of Houston and Texas Southern University. And it's an area that has a strange combination of HUD projects, student housing, really old falling down shacks, really old nice homes, and some modern urban living buildings mixed in. At any given time of day there's probably a crack deal going down within a few blocks of you, and many of my male applicants have the tell-tale extra long pinkie fingernail. But there are a lot of really good people in this area who have lived here for years.

As I go from house to house to perform my inspections I am appalled at the conditions in which many of the area residents live. I see houses that should have been bulldozed years ago. Many landlords do little to nothing to maintain their properties. And I'm surprised to see how many of the buildings actually managed to remain standing after the hurricane. I'm running out of time, but I wanted to post a few pics...

Tree vs. House 01

Tree vs. House 02

Tree vs. House 03

Tree vs. House 04

Ram Tough

Double Whammy

A House On Galveston Island

A Soft Answer Turns Away Wrath, But A Harsh Word Stirs Up Anger

2008-09-22T11:42:00.000-04:00

Well here we are... Houston, after what seems like three weeks. We are here. Jed just cussed out a lady on the phone at PaRR, right now I am more than a little concerned that she is going to cause us more trouble. Yes she was being unreasonable, but Jed needs to learn to keep his temper in check. If his little outburst costs us the chance to work here, then he better hope I have better control of MY temper. After all this I am swearing-off ever going out working for PaRR again.... but then again everyone does, each time they leave the field. And somehow they always come back. It’s like getting Malaria, it never really goes away, but with the right medicine you can control it, and mask the symptoms.

Other than these little bits of excitement the trip here from New Orleans was uneventful, which is a blessing. After the three months we battled through Katrina, we have much appreciated the traveling and mechanical mercies God has granted us. Well for now I guess this is all. We shall see what happens from here. We arrived to Houston with a third tank of gas and about 80 cents between us. If we are able to get the quick pay through, then we should have some money in about 4 days, but somehow we have to survive between now and then. As I said we'll see…

City of... Humidity

2008-09-21T07:35:00.000-04:00

Troy here...This morning found us... sleeping, imagine that. Casey our host said she had to bike uptown to meet with someone about buying her car, and she wanted to know if we wanted to bike with her. They have a pile of bikes on there back porch for couch surfers to use. Of course we said yes. We were sitting around waiting for a phone call to say that money had been wired to us so we could head out to Houston.

So we hopped onto our bikes, one which was referred to as "Deathtrap" and the other one had a seat which refused to stay in one place and continually flip straight up—pointing right at one’s rump... this of course made for awkward riding. We headed out for our leisurely 9 mile bike ride, much out of shape from a week of sitting around twiddling our thumbs, and sleeping in the car. Ridding through Downtown New Orleans was beautiful—an amazing city to be sure.

As my brother put it, "It’s not every day you get to ride on a bike that’s older than you are, through a city that’s older than your country." We rode to Tulane university, and rode around Audubon Park. While in the park we saw a gorgeous stone pavilion and headed for it. When we got there, we had to stop and watch the locals who were practicing what can only be described as some odd mixture of tai-chi, and 80's pop dance.

To top it off, at everyone’s feet was a nice warm can of Papst blue ribbon beer...mmmmmmm yummy! I can only imagine the taste, as it was close to 90 degrees. We finally got a phone call that we were not going to get any money, and we were pretty much stranded in New Orleans. So we headed “home”. Then Rachael called back, I tried to answer the call while ridding Deathtrap and nearly wiped out into a street car. She had called to tell me she had managed to borrow some more money, and we WOULD be able to get to Houston. Whew what a relief!

Hopping back on Deathtrap I caught back up to Jed and headed back to the apartment. After nine miles of no injuries, in the last half block I turned a corner and the peddles caught the ground…jumping and throwing my foot off, to be run over by said peddle and gouge my Achilles tendon. Not to complain, but…ok I will complain!!! Arrgh. Anyways, we decided to stay around and hang with our hosts for a while, there was no reason to leave so early and still get there late at night in the dark, with no idea where to go.

Later I walked the six blocks to find the closest Western Union, and found it in a literal hole in the wall convenience store called "Royal Convenience Store." Tucked in a nook in the base of a tall building down town, the inside was about the size of my living room, with a small glassed in booth for the Western Union guy. The man inside was…very unique. A small thin Jewish man, about my age, wearing both a Yarmulke and a pony tail.

He was dressed in a maroon polyester suit straight from the 70's. And had on a green and purple paisley shirt and a necklace with the symbol of the Klingon empire on it... Why I know the symbol for the Klingon Empire I refuse say, but other than that he was completely normal looking. I filled out my papers and slid them through, then as an afterthought I slid my passport through the slit as verification.

He thumbed through it and then asked "is this a new passport?" "Yes" I said laughing. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a worn-looking passport and slid it through the slot to me. "Man look at mine its so boring looking, these new ones are sweet.” Overlooking the absurdness of the fact that I now had his passport, I had to agree, the new ones are "way cooler." I slid his back through and remarked, "Yeah, I spent some time in Papua New Guinea earlier this year, so I had to get a new one." He stopped dead. "You've been to PNG?" he practically shouted.

Then he began to ask me a landslide of questions, "Did you fly into Port Moresby? Did you get to see the highlands? What were you doing?" I told him I was doing cultural and linguistics’ studies with New Tribes Mission. He was floored. Turns out he has been trying to go to PNG for five years. He is a philosophy major with a minor in cultural anthropology. And a special interest in PNG. A year ago he had written the embassy and asked them if they had any spare literature, so they sent him some flyers and a police manual in Pison {the trade language of PNG} and then he starts rattling of words and phrases in Pison, and asking me all these questions.

The clerk at the counter was staring at us like we were insane. We began discussing cargo cult, and cultural syncretism. In all, the whole thing lasted about 7 minutes but when I left, I was blown away at yet another odd "coincidence" in our journeys. Ahh, the life of a Bird! Oh yeah, when he asked me where I was from he was laughing when he said he girlfriend was from Roanoke as well. Yup, another good night. Later we rolled out of the “Big Easy” and headed to the “Lone Star”. Texas, here we come!!!

Sloshing Through Swamp Muck...

2008-09-20T10:17:00.000-04:00

Trying to make time for a quick update. Here are a few more Houma pictures:

The water was rising while I was in this area...

You can see the water line in this house where the water was receding by the time I came through here.

The water was up into this home before going down...the levee broke in this area.

For More Pictures Go To My Online Album

I spent two days in Houma, and then got called back to the Marrero area, outside of New Orleans. The storm surge had hit there as well, and whole towns were inundated with water. On Monday I tried going to the area where my applicants were located (lower Barataria Blvd), and ran up on a "road closed" barricade due to high water. I consulted my "trusty" Streets & Trips software and decided to try to enter from the Lafitte Larose Hwy side, but came up on a police roadblock. There was standing water across Barataria in both directions, and floodwaters surrounding the houses. The police weren't letting anyone in there. On top of that, it was raining heavily, and during the several hours I was there while waiting to meet with some of my applicants the water level actually rose a little bit.

Over the next couple days I trudged through a lot of swamp muck (blackwater form the bayous mixed with contaminants like raw sewage from flooded septic tanks, fuel oil, etc). But I met a WHOLE LOT of great people. I'm sharing a few pictures with you here, and I'll blog more later...I'm late for an appointment right now, so gotta go!

On The Hunt

2008-09-20T04:34:00.002-04:00

This is Troy. Well it started off as a pretty straight forward morning. Waking up in the Explorer... trying to stretch and get the kinks out of my neck, then realizing that I'm 6'1" and the Explorer is a foot and a half narrower than I am tall. Then you begin to notice the rain. Heavy rain, and of course we have the windows half down. So it dawns on you that you’re wet. The sun roof is leaking, despite the fact that we have a large silver boat strapped over it. Jed is sitting there wild haired, with my laptop checking game scores. It’s of course Saturday, game day, and he is all about the games.

Well I'm still sore and more than a little hungry. so of course I make the obvious suggestion, "lets find some sort of sports bar where we can eat some cheep wings {one of my favorite foods in the world} and drink free ice tea refills all day, and you can watch your games on the big screens. seemed very simple, but in the end it cost us nearly two hours of peoples misdirection’s, to places that had been closed for years to places that weren’t even wing joints.

Finally in the end I was so annoyed I said, "Frick it, I’m pulling in the next place and asking for better directions. The next road veered of to the left, I turned down it and was upset to see no store for a ways, and I considered turning back but kept forward. Pulling in I saw the sign. "Wow, World of wing! Cafe and wingery." Yeah it was a beautiful thing.

Hours and hours later, we headed out to find our couch surfers place. Whew that was fun; they live two blocks off Bourbon St... well if you know anything about Bourbon Street that means is a heck of a thing to get to it on a Saturday night at 9:00 pm thousands of drunk college girls wearing a speck of thread and a thought. Stumbling around running into an equal amount of completely smashed rednecks. Throw in a few hounded transvestites strutting around in about the same thing as the college girls. And even a few dozen midgets and some people that looked like they stepped of the set of Pirates of the Caribbean. Oh yeah, and cops... lots and lots and LOTS of cops.

Finally we were able to find a parking spot a mere 8 blocks from our destination. When we got to our home for the night, we were greeted by Heather and Casey, a couple of extremely friendly and happy hosts. Their house was full of their art, from paintings of Jafar and Cruela devil in the stairwell to many beautiful ceramics upstairs. Later we were lead down to a comedy club that performs freeform comedy, which was incredibly funny, I would recommend it to anyone. It’s called "Yo’ mamma’s." All in all a great night, and a nice break from the annoying life of a parking lot dweller.

We were sitting in the living room, and I was playing guitar, and singing into my amp like at the Drainage canal the night earlier, when it hit me. "We are two blocks from Bourbon Street! What am I doing here; I should go make some money! Well it was already 1:00 in the morning at this time, but I grabbed all my stuff, and of course at 1:00 there are still 20,000 people stumbling around. So I sat on the corner, and actually made 16 bucks.

But it was cool. I had a lot of people gathering around me and listening. Then after it was all over and I was walking home, I heard a familiar style of guitar slicing through the night, I turned to see Bill Gregory, a guitarist whom I had the honor of seeing three years earlier, playing on the stage of a club I was passing. I walked in and he saw me and smiled walked over to my corner of the stage and proceeded to pretty much show off, because he remembered me.

I personally think he's is one of the greatest guitarists out there…period. And as a semi-professional musician and a perfectionist, I don’t say it lightly. Here is a link to a video I found of him on YouTube...it really doesn’t do him justice, but it’s still pretty amazing. We walked home together and watched each others back from getting mugged, until we parted ways on St Louis Street. Wow another freaking cool night. And hey, now I can say I have been a street performer on Bourbon Street. Now that’s paying your dues! LOL!

Just another reason to never ever come back to do this again... Just like all the other times I never came back...

2008-09-19T17:00:00.000-04:00

Today I got a shock.. Yup, I lost it too. When going to go check into the base camp as usual, I got a phone call from PaRR. It seems now, 13 days after I drove up to Winchester VA to get my FBI fingerprints and background check done--Which was supposed to come back in 48 hours}, it had finally come back, and low and behold.. It was "Not favorable" so after 6 1/2 years of working as an inspector, and no problems, and busting my bust for FEMA, they tell me Ii can’t work for them. Of course they won’t tell me why. They just say, "Go back home." Too bad I had to borrow money to get here in the first place, and now I don’t have enough to get home. We have been waiting for them to give me the go ahead, so we could request a Quick Pay which basically advances us enough money to live off for the next couple weeks till our real pay comes in. Plus the entire time we were there I was supposed to be getting paid a per diem each day. It is a large per diem, and would have actually made it worth while. Since you can be sitting there for a week waiting, but then I was informed that not only were they sending me home, they were not going to pay me the per diem. But rather a very small lump sum which was smaller than one day of the per diem. And no matter if I was sitting there for one day or two weeks they hadn’t planned on paying anymore than that.... Now hundreds of new inspectors are being paid the per diem to sit around the hotel and await their FBI results... Be me, a 6 year veteran. I get shafted. Yup, sounds pretty normal from PaRR

Adventure calls..

2008-09-16T03:22:00.001-04:00

Adventure calls.. and its probably calling collect

Flooding In Houma, LA

2008-09-13T23:47:00.004-04:00

Well I got to Houma a lot later than I meant to. I passed flooded areas along the way and when I got to Houma I realized that many areas of the city were already flooding. I found my way to my first applicant's house, and the street was flooded. I'm in an SUV right now (A Chrysler Torrent) so I wasn't concerned about driving in it, because it wasn't that deep.

Southwest of Des Alemands...

It WAS a mobile home...

Just dock your boat at the front of the Family Dollar and come on in to shop...

Starting to flood from the backwash of Ike...

By the time I got done with my inspection, the water had risen about 2 inches. I don't know how high it's expected to get, but I heard someone mention waist deep water in places. I'm camped out in my car for the night in the parking lot of the Days Inn (that has no room in the Inn...) They said I could use the restroom during the night if I need to. It's a beautiful night with a lovely breeze. Almost no mosquitoes...

I had Chinese for dinner before parking here. I'll share my two dinner buddies with you...Crawfish and Frog Legs...Mmmmm Mmmmm Good!

Oh, I actually prefer that my food DOESN'T stare at me while I'm eating it! LOL!

The Calm Before The Storm...

2008-09-12T22:32:00.002-04:00

9/12/08 08:00 It’s Friday morning, and we’ve been experiencing the outer bands of Ike since yesterday. On my way to my first appointment this morning I heard the Tornado Warning on the radio, and there was already localized flooding and small scale power outages in our area.

18:00 Here are a couple pics fron Metairie, LA (a suburb of New Orleans) along Lake Pontchartrain.

21:00 Well, we've had wind and rain, but not anything major by our hotel. I saw on the news that one of the levees in Plaquemines Parish was breached. That's where I was for quite a while after Katrina.

I was on the phone with one of my applicants in the Houma area earlier today. Last night the water had crossed the raod and was in his yard. This morning it was into his house. He was "gonna grab a few things and git in m' boat and try to leave." I've worried about him so much. When I spoke to his wife she said he'd been having chest pains too (and that he was a stubborn man!)...She and I cried on the phone together.

The emotional strain on the people in this area is just tremendous. With the threat of residuals from Ike and the financial burden of mandatory evacuation expenses taking their rent and utility money it's created tremendous pressure. Please pray for all those who are affected by Gustav and Ike (and Hanna too). I've laughed with, cried with, and mourned with many of these people, and they all have a very special place in my heart.

As I watch footage from Ike's assault on the Texas coast all I can do is pray... They've issued a "certain death" warning for all the Galveston residents who decided to ride out the storm. Rescue efforts have had to be canceled due to the 110 mph winds. I pray that God spares their lives...

Our little "family" is dissolving. David left tonight. I'm leaving tomorrow for Houma. And Evelyn leaves Sunday for Baton Rouge...

More later...

From Pearl River, LA...

2008-09-10T13:29:00.000-04:00

9/10/08 I’m sitting in Pearl River, LA at Pearl City Seafood (64207 Hwy 41, Pearl River, LA 70452) eating Crawfish Etoutfee. It is really good. When I pulled in I thought this was a restaurant, but it’s just a store. BUT, the lady was so sweet…she pulled out a folding chair and pulled over their “garbage can” that they use to store sugar, so that I could sit and eat. I love the food in Louisiana, and wish I could come sometime when it’s not following a hurricane, just to do a “food tour.” I want to find some Boudan sausage this time. I got addicted to it when I was here after Katrina.

So glad that the level of destruction out here is not like after Katrina. One of my applicants out here today lost everything because of Katrina. Not to downplay anyones losses with Gustav. All losses are still that...losses.

More later...

Quick Update From New Orleans

2008-09-08T13:22:00.002-04:00

I’m sure everyone’s been wondering when I was going to post about my current deployment to New Orleans in response to Hurricane Gustav. It's going to have to be in bits and pieces, but here it is.

Those who know me know that I “moonlight” occasionally as a Disaster Housing Inspector contracted to FEMA through PaRR Inspections. I’ve been involved in Disaster Relief since 2002 when my sons and I went to WV to volunteer with the Salvation Army for a few days after severe flooding wiped out whole communities.

While there we met a number of inspectors who were contracted to FEMA and decided that we’d like to do that as well. My oldest son and I checked in to that and ended up driving to E. Syracuse, NY for training. Since that time I’ve been deployed to New Orleans 3 times (2003, 2005 – Katrina, and 2008 – Gustav), Baltimore (2004), and Puerto Rico (2004).

As a Disaster Housing Inspector my function is to go out and verify whether or not the applicant has damages that are disaster related and record them for FEMA. Long hours, little sleep, 7 days a week, mentally and at times physically challenging. If you like to help other people and don't mind being out of your comfort zone, then this job is for you! :-)

I've hooked up with three other inspectors whom I met when we first got to Dallas on the first. We're all sharing a room here in Kenner (a New Orleans suburb). Let me introduce you:

Meet Barb from Spokane, Washington. She’s been with PaRR for a long time and has a very interesting background. She’s got a bunch of kids, a passel of grandkids, and her stories remind me of things that I have done or would do. In her spare time she fights to promote safety and fair laws for taxi drivers.

David...a new inspector, from Albuquerque, NM. He’s one of the few real gentleman that you run into (polite, opens the doors for you, protective of women, and makes it obvious that he’s happily married and not interested in anyone else). He’s been a great addition to our happy little group.

and Evelyn from...I don't remember... LOL! Evelyn is also a new inspector…and she’s a hoot! I had an opportunity to spend some time talking with her on a deeper level one night, and realized that she’s like an onion…there are lots of layers filled with great things inside. And there’s never a dull moment with her around, She’s got a heart of gold.

It's been nice having a team of people to hang out with (aka work until 12 -1 AM with and know you aren't the only person working at that time of night/morning). We haven't even had any issues with getting on each other's nerves (too much) or in each other's way! That's pretty good with only one bathroom for the four of us.

Out of time, more later...

Special Olympics Benefit

2008-09-01T01:27:00.001-04:00

Well, I don't have much time, but I wanted to write a short (I hear you laughing, stop that! LOL!!!) post about the Special Olympics Benefit Concert that I attended on August 30th. The band that my daughter, Zipporah Bird, sings with, Ryze, performed for the 3 hours in Covington, VA and most of the proceeds went to help sponsor the Special Olympics athletes in that area.

I had the opportunity to go with them and take some photographs and home video (surprise, surprise!) So I wanted to share one of the videos with you.

It was a great concert, and I danced for almost 2 hours with one of the Special Olympics athletes named Jimmy. Outside of dancing during Praise and Worship at church, I hadn't danced in 26 years, so it was a lot of fun.

I want to encourage everyone to check out the Special Olympics group in your area and help support these very special athletes!

A Price To Pay

2008-07-06T07:55:00.000-04:00

I met Emerson today. He seems like he could be a nice guy, but he also seems waaaay to tightly wound right now... and he told me to shave off my beard... blah, “good bye rocker, hello little boy face.” {sigh} Whatever is required. Though I guess it could be worse... what if they only allowed eunuchs. Ugh!

The Beginning Of A Great Adventure Around The World

2008-07-05T12:07:00.000-04:00

Troy here. Well I haven’t had time to think or even breath it seems…Let alone time to write. We just got here to our new “home away from home”…Lapilo Center, the hub, the Mecca of NTM in PNG {New tribes Mission, Papua New Guinea}…after my crazy 8 hour bus ride to DC and then sleeping on the floor for 6 hours at Reagan Airport. I had a long flight with several layovers on my way to LA. When I got there I walked out of the terminal just in time to see bomb trucks go by, and hear that they were shutting down the terminal. Soooo, I had to carry my over abundance of crap all the full length of LAX international airport... which if you have ever been to, you know what that means. And there were mobs of people all pushing, trying to get away.

Welcome to Los Angeles. Anyway, next morning early it was off to Fiji, then the Solomon Islands, then Port Moresby, then Goroka, and finally a 20 minute bumpy ride in something called a Canter to here…home sweet home-away-from-home. I heard it called Little America and The Bubble. I can see that. As soon as you round the bend and see the neatly lined up houses with shiny tin roofs you know something isn’t normal. Anyway adventure awaits! What a beautiful and wild land.

Oh the Stories I Have to Share!

2008-05-30T05:27:00.000-04:00

I’ll pick up from where I left off on my last post. When we got back from the indigenous community on Saturday, we did some sightseeing in Cuenca. Then it was time for Brenda to catch her flight, and me to go buy a bus ticket to Quito. I had planned an overnight bus ride so I could save my daylight hours for sightseeing. You may not be able to sleep wonderfully on the bus, but you can at least nap on and off. I had an uneventful bus ride, even arriving early, and hopped into a(n) (always available) waiting taxi to go to the hostel that I’d chosen out of Lonely Planet’s Ecuador guide.

After a nap in a real bed and breakfast, I went out to explore a little of Quito and find internet access. Within a very short time, it started raining, so I don’t have many photos from Quito. I did get to walk through Parque La Alameda, which was very nice. There were pedal boats and various other things. I was really brilliant and left my rain jacket at the hostel when I began my exploration, so I was pretty wet by the time I found internet. The internet was REALLY slow, so I didn’t get a whole lot done on it.

I did manage to stumble across Museo del Banco Central, which was a fantastic museum with lots of artifacts from the various people groups, including, of course, the Incas. I really enjoyed wandering around the museum, but it was closing as I walked up. They let me in for a short period of time though. It was very cool.

I had KFC for dinner and finally made my way back to the hostel shortly after dark. I worked on the computer a little while and then got my two packs ready for the airport. I’d made a decision that when I got to Lima I would check my large backpack in to the luggage lockers, and just carry the small one. I was looking forward to not having to lug both of them around. I had to get up at 4 AM to get ready for the trip to the airport, and was grateful that another traveler was heading there as well. We shared a cab, so it only cost $6 each.

My flight was uneventful. I landed in Lima pretty early in the day. It was lunch time by the time I got through immigration, check my backpack, etc, and I still had to make my way to downtown Lima. The official taxis were S./55 (Peruvian soles), which is equivalent to $20.30. When I hit Peru, I only had $160 left. That had to last me for 4 days in Peru (bus, food, lodging, sightseeing, luggage storage, taxis, etc.) and my trip back to Roanoke from Dulles.

Needless to say, dropping $20 on a taxi didn’t sound like a desirable thing to me, so I walked past all of the taxi drivers and the airport security who were all telling me that I HAD to take one of the taxis. I firmly told them, “No dinero!” and ignored them as I made a beeline for the airport perimeter where the city buses were supposed to be. The challenge that I realized I was facing is that the buses there only stop when you flag them down. And you have to know which of the 100’s of buses going by is the one you need…Uh huh! Right! Fortunately the tourist police helped me to get an unofficial taxi that only charged me S./14 ($5.17), and I headed for Lima Central.

(A note about taxis in Peru: The official taxis are sanctioned and regulated by the government. The unofficial taxis are pretty much anybody who throws a taxi sign on their car to make a few extra bucks. You have to kind of play it by ear, and if you flag down one you don’t feel comfortable with, you don’t get in. You also check to make sure windows roll down and doors open from the inside, before you shut yourself in one. I’ve learned lots of things from other travelers and from the tourist police…)

After walking around Central Lima and visiting museums, I headed to the bus station to buy my ticket on the 12 hour all night bus to head toward Chiclayo and the archaeological sites that I wanted to visit (Sípan and Túcume). I bought the really nice seat on the way there as it was going to be my transportation, bed, and included 2 meals as well. I traveled via Cruz del Sur, which is a bus line that puts our Greyhound buses to shame in a heartbeat…too bad we can’t learn from them!

Anyway, I found out that my bus was leaving from Cruz del Sur’s OTHER terminal, so I had to flag down the RIGHT local bus to go across Lima to get there. With the help of instructions from the tourist office, I actually made it without incident. And the bus attendant made sure I knew when I was supposed to get off. (The attendant is the guy who hangs out the door shouting out the destination and who takes the money when someone gets on…the driver just drives, this guys does everything else.)

I got to the bus terminal without any problems, and at 8pm I headed off towards Chiclayo. I was in first class in a seat that was like a Lazy-Boy recliner, the bus attendant (on THESE buses they are the equivalent of a stewardess) brought me my dinner and beverage, and I settled in for the long ride. I’ve copied my handwritten journal to describe what happened next:

02:20 AM martes, 20 de mayo, 2008.

Boy, will I have stories to tell from this trip! I’m on a bus on my way from Lima to Chiclayo. I was asleep, so I’m not sure exactly what time, but 83km south of Casma we ran into a parking lot of cars on the Pan-American Highway. Apparently there is a strike…farmers somewhere, and it’s not safe to proceed. I’m really getting a taste for what non-English speaking travelers must go through in the USA…when I woke up enough to figure out that this wasn’t a “normal” stop, I had the challenge of finding an English-speaking person to tell me what is going on…yeah, in the middle of Peru, uh huh! Not easy!

One lady spoke a tiny bit of English, and managed to tell me about the strike and that we were stopped here where we were safe…and that we may go on to Chiclayo TOMORROW NIGHT! OK, so my American mind freaked out for about 10 minutes at that point. :D

Then my training from somewhere past kicked in. Oh yeah, Gabriel Call! I’d never imagined using Gabriel Call info on a bus in Peru, but I specifically remember Peter Daniels telling us that when we are facing trials in our business, to figure out what the worse thing was that could happen. Oh, and the author of the book The 4-Hour Work Week said the same thing…Hah! What a way to put teaching into practical use! LOL! Not ROL, not enough room on the bus!

OK, Worst Case Scenario:

1. We’ve been told we’re safe here and that we may go on to Chiclayo a day late…so I may get there, do an hour or so of sightseeing, and then have to head back to Lima the same day with the return ticket that I already paid for.
2. And worse, the return road could be closed again due to the strike & I miss my plane—I’ll eventually get back to Lima and board a plane and get home, somehow, some way!

It’s not the end of the world. Jesus isn’t sitting in heaven going, “Father, I didn’t see that coming. Did You?!” Also, I had a peace about getting on this bus, and I know that my steps are ordered by God…so I might as well buck up, enjoy the experience, and learn whatever I can from it.

OK, back to what I was thinking at first: “Why didn’t the bus company workers come and explain to me in English what was going on?” WELL, because I’m in Peru and it’s MY problem that I don’t speak the language, not theirs! We don’t expect one of our Greyhound bus drivers to explain things to his or her foreign passengers in their language if the bus breaks down or if the traffic is stopped for hours due to a wreck or something.

Like I said earlier, I have a greater appreciation for what non-English speaking people experience in the States. Well, I’m going to close for now, because I think my headlamp is annoying people…although I can’t be sure, as I can’t understand them!

At least we have the always present South American street vendors who came through earlier selling agua! I wish I had realized that we were stranded here for an indefinite period of time. I’d have bought more than one water. As far as a bathroom, I think the one on the bus is still functional. If not, I guess we just go by the side of the bus next to the multiple other vehicles that are parked on the highway…ah, the joys of South America!

I have the chorus of “Trust in Me” floating through my brain, and the sound of someone’s iPod
A few rows back playing American music… “oo ooo oooo, oh baby, please don’t go…” How ironic—they don’t speak it, but they play it. Hah!

Still having a great time! And my stuffed traveling companions, Frankie the ferret and LC the purple hippo, are here with me.

…The bus is moving! YAY! I think… We’re driving through a section of highway that’s lined with police officers in full riot gear on both side of the highway. They are guaranteeing our safe passage through the area of conflict. It’s a little surreal, like a scene out of a weird movie…not scary, just weird. “On the road again, I can’t wait to get on the road again…”

A long story and an Open Door...

2008-05-22T17:49:00.000-04:00

(18 de mayo, 2008) I’m not sure when I’ll get to upload this, but I wanted to take a little bit of time to let everyone know what’s been going on. On Thursday (15^th) I was talking to 3 young women at the hostel I was staying at in Cuenca…they had all gone to college together. And where did they go to college together you might wonder? Of all places, Hollins University, Roanoke, VA…just a couple miles from where I live. Who would have thought (or…who’d a thunk it?) that in the middle of

Ecuador

I would run into 3 Hollins graduates!

As I’m writing this I can’t quite remember where I left off earlier, but I’m going to go to back to Friday.

When I got done with my last Spanish class on Friday (16 de mayo, 2008), hopped a cab to meet the other two solo female travelers from the hostal, Kapa and Brenda. The three of us had scheduled a trip to Tarqui, an indigenous community (the Cañari’s) just 30 minutes outside of Cuenca. There is a non-profit organization there that runs a Cultural Center and Restaurant called Mama Kinua. It is run by members of the Cañari people, and the profits from the restaurant and the tourism project help provide medical care for children and pregnant women in 6 communities. That’s really important for you to remember, because that comes into play later in my post when I get to the awesome praise report that I have to share.

Back to my account…When I got to Mama Kinua’s Brenda, Kapa, and another solo female traveler from France, Joannie, were already loaded into the mini crew-cab pickup truck that was our transportation. I tossed my pack into the back, and we headed off. Our driver, Manuel, was much better than any of the taxi drivers I’d ridden with, and we had a good, but very bumpy once we got to the dirt road, ride out to the community. On the way there it started to rain, an everyday occurrence in Cuenca in May (one of the rainiest months of the year there.)

We arrived without any unexpected events and were ushered into the Kañari Kushi Waira Lodge building. I hope that you check out the pictures once they are uploaded. The lodge was a simple, square, two-story building with a dirt floor. There were benches inside, and a couple tables. We were asked to sit down at the tables. I was very grateful that Brenda speaks VERY good Spanish, and both Kapa and Joannie spoke passable Spanish…I had 3 translators! :D

Within a few moments, a woman in traditional attire (which you can see in some of my pictures) brought in a tray with small cups. It was the special drink that was only used for welcoming guests and for special occasions. I was warned by Brenda that it had alcohol in it, which was obvious from the aroma, even at a distance. It would have been a dishonor to our host’s hospitality to refuse it, and although it was tasty, I was glad that it was in a small cup. Our host/guide, Alfonso, told us that the hot drink would keep us warm on the inside and on the outside…yep!

Next came a tray with a light breakfast of mote pillo (can’t remember if I’m spelling it right, but it’s a mixture of hominy and cornmeal) and herbal tea. After the breakfast we watched a short video, and prepared to take our hike up to the primary forest where all of the medicinal plants grow. I thought it was interesting, the people there live to be very old, many of them over 100, and they use the same medicinal plants that their forefathers used for generations before.)

As we hiked up the hill (at a starting elevation of 9,342 ft.) I was glad that our total elevation GAIN was only going to be 274 ft to an elevation of 9,616 ft. I’m still getting used to hiking in higher elevations, and it does take some getting used to. I did OK, though. I was pretty excited about that. I wish I could remember all of the plants, their names, and uses. Alfonso had spent his whole life studying the medicinal plants and their uses, even having taken a university program that was specifically started to ensure that the cultures of the various Ecuadorian indigenous groups were not lost as more and more of the people migrated to the cities (a BIG problem here).

We stopped to eat a flower that was supposed to help with the respiratory system at high elevations during exertion, and then went on. Alfonso explained the history of the area, about when the Spaniards had come and how it had influenced and affected the indigenous people. I was interested in hearing about the religious influence from the Spaniards. They came under the banner of the Catholic church, and the local people adopted many of their beliefs, but continued to worship the sun, moon, rain, wind, and mother earth…as they do to this day. Alfonso said that even though his people practice Catholicism, they were very angry with the Spanish who came in conquest, because the Word of God says to not steal, kill, lie, etc., but that’s exactly what the Spaniards did to the Indigenous inhabitants as they claimed more land area.

After about an hour or so we got to the Cañari Sacred Area, and area at the top of the mountain that was used for worship rituals and festivals. Brenda asked what Alfonso meant when he said that they kept the area undefiled, and he replied that they did not allow any domestic animals in that area, and if humans were there they had to leave the area to “relieve themselves”.

There were some wooden benches up top, and we sat and listened as Alfonso talked about their worship of the elements that brought them the crops that they needed for provision. He said that we were all going to participate in “taking in the energy” from that area, and that if we focused, and really believed, we would not be tired at all that day, nor the next.

We went through a ritual in which we closed our eyes, raised our arms in front, and slowly lowered them down to the side as we “took in” the energy of the sacred area. We did this procedure four times as we faced each compass direction in turn, and Alfonso prayed his prayers to the elements and mother earth. (I, of course, was praying to MY God, thanking Him for the light of His Word, and His goodness and provision in my life.) It was interesting to see the sincerity with which these beliefs are held.

Afterwards we all ascended up onto the observation platform that is at the very top of the sacred area, and we were able to see a great deal in every direction. Alfonso told us more about the history and geography of the area and his people. The view was breath taking, and the pictures we took just don’t give an accurate portrayal. After we descend from the mirador- observation platform/tower we learned even more about the area, and then we caught sight of one of the women from the community, dressed in traditional clothing, and carrying a blanket wrapped bundle on her back. It was lunch time.

Lunch was served on a tablecloth on the ground, with the food being distributed along the middle of the length of the tablecloth. There was hominy, potatoes, mixed vegetables, popped corn, greens, and chicken…enough to feed an army. We all sat, or half lay due to the slope of the ground, and ate from the tablecloth with wooden spoons. We ate until we couldn’t hold any more it was SO GOOD!

It was siesta time after that, so we stretched out on the ground for probably 30 minutes, then we went to see the areas of multi-colored earth. It was a large area where the clay soil ranges in color from shades of red to brown to yellow to red. It was absolutely beautiful. From there it was time to head back to the Lodge. After another hike we got to the Lodge and were welcomed by another steaming cup of the “Welcome Drink” as I’m calling it.

They were beginning the preparation of the cuy (aka guinea pig) that we were going to have for dinner, and we’d indicated that we’d like to watch the process from beginning to end. We had seen the cages with all the guinea pigs in them, and it brought back memories of raising hamsters and gerbils. Now we were watching them as they killed two for the community meal…I will not go into any detail; it was somewhat emotional for me, and even “camera happy me” didn’t take any pictures. We half-heartedly offered to help with the process after they were dead, but were told that we would just be roasting them, someone else would do all of the prep work…we were grateful.

We played with some of Alfonso’s grandchildren (nietos) for a long time until it was time to help with the supper chores. Alfonso’s wife came walking up with a load of corn stalks strapped to her back…freshly cut from the field. We helped shuck corn (something I AM good at) and then went into the kitchen to help with the rest of dinner. I peeled a bunch of potatoes, and then it was cuy-roasting time. It takes 30-60 minutes to roast cuy over coals. You have to constantly turn the rotisserie stick so as to not burn the cuy. Someone else has to fan the coals to assure a good hot temperature. You can see pictures of us roasting it.

Dinner was very good, and we were stuffed, again. During the dinner we were talking with our host/guide Alfonso. I don’t even know how we got around to the question…since he and I couldn’t communicate directly, but we got onto the topic of advertising and the internet. I had Brenda ask if they had a website. Alfonso replied that they did NOT have one, but hoped to Someday (…hmmm…I have a t-shirt that talks about someday. It says: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday…See, There Is No Someday!)

I checked the Spirit real quick before speaking, and then asked Brenda to tell Alfonso that I work on websites, and wanted to donate my time to work on a website for them…You’d have thought I’d offered him a thousand dollars. He was so grateful! We gat together later to get the information together for it, and then Brenda, Kapa and I did a little brainstorming. Brenda (who just “happens” to have a background in International Marketing) told him his prices were too cheap for the overnight add-on. She raised his prices for him from $11 to $15 per person per night. That was really reasonable still, as the price included dinner and breakfast.

Remember back at the beginning of my 2 hour long discourse here, I mentioned that the proceeds from the tour go to help provide medical care for children and pregnant women in 6 communities? As I was talking with God later that night the Holy Spirit reminded me of the prayer that I prayed before leaving the States, “God, allow my visit to Ecuador impact the nation for you.” Now I know that we affect people everywhere we go, but I wanted to impact a nation, not just a handful of people. And that’s where my faith was…I have a world-wide vision. I’m called to a church whose mission is to impact the entire world, and I have a call on my life to impact the entire world. That what God told me a long time ago. That’s what I’m believing to do.

When I realized that by doing the website for them it had the potential to drastically increase revenues, therefore providing medical care for more people, it hit me…I was impacting their nation…the people are the nation. And I was showing the love of God to them, without asking for or wanting anything in return…GOD IS SO FREAKING AWESOME!!!!!!! Then the Holy Spirit started talking to me about the rest of the trip…how I had considered my plans to have fallen through (the rain forest trip and then the Peru route that I’d wanted to do) and having had to switch to “plan B”. He told me that “plan B” was His plan all along…and that He had guided my steps every single day.

Every delay that I thought I was going through was His divine timing. As He began to bring different things to my remembrance I started to cry. The Bible says that the steps of a righteous man are ordered of God. It also says that if we trust in the Lord with all of our heart and don’t lean on our own understanding and if we’ll acknowledge Him in all of our ways, then HE will direct our path. While I’ve experienced that time and time again in the past, it always brings me to tears to know that God wants to and does use me for His glory! That’s the only thing that I want to be remembered for…what I did for the Kingdom of God…

The next morning we had breakfast and then headed back into town. We purchased the domain for their website, and over the next couple weeks Brenda, Kapa and I will be collaborating on designing and launching their website. Once it’s done I will post the URL and a notice that it’s live.

I’m closing this post here. I’ll start a new one for the next portion of my trip. Thanks again for all who have lifted me up in prayer. God is so good!!!

A long awaited update...

2008-05-16T10:18:00.000-04:00

I know, I haven´t posted much recently...I´ve been goofing off, which is the point of being here, right? I can´t stay on long, because I am going to an indigenous village near here from this morning until tomorrow morning. Plus, I´m at an internet place, not on my own computer. So I´ll try to figure out how to use this Spanish keyboard well enough to update everyone.

I´ve been in Cuenca, Ecuador since last Sunday at 12:30 in the morning when the bus rolled in. I can´t remember if I mentioned in my last blog that I´ve been staying at the Hostal Macondo, which is a beautiful hideaway in the heart of "al centro". If you remember, I was going to stay here just a couple days and then head for Peru since my rainforest plans fell through (I WILL be back here next year if the Lord tarries and allows)...but when I spoke to the airline, they told me that because of the type of ticket I have, I couldn´t change my flight. OK, so the best laid plans of mice and men (and women) sometimes fail...

Plan B. There are always Plan B´s when you're vacationing in South America. There's too much to do to get frustrated when your plans fall through...So When the airline said I couldn't change my flight, I decided to stay in Cuenca for the week and do Spanish classes here...which are very inexpensive...and be a tourist. I have to be in Quito Sunday night, because I have to catch my flight to Lima EARLY Monday morning. (That's the segment that I wanted to skip- Quito to Lima.)

So a quick update on my 6 days here... On Sunday, Mother´s Day, I walked around the old part of Cuenca. Cuenca is a beautiful city, and it is one I could move to in a heartbeat...in God´s timing. Which reminds me, I've talked to several people who don't think I'm coming back. I wanted to confirm that I AM coming back. If for no other reason than that God has called me to the place of ministry that Í'm in at Valley Word, and until I'm released from there, I won't be MOVING anywhere. I can still WANT to move though...

Back to Cuenca. I've uploaded plenty of pictures from around the old city. I started Spanish classes on Monday, and am now armed with enough Spanish to be dangerous! I can at least understand a lot more than before! I met another solo woman traveler at the hostel on Tuesday. Her name is Brenda, and she's from Seattle, Washington. We've hung out and walked around Cuenca quite a bit. Yesterday we met another lady at the hostal, Kappa from Hickory, NC. She'd just graduated from UNC, Chapel Hill on Sunday and hopped on a plane Monday morning to come here. So the three of us did more sightseeing yesterday.

We also went to the suburb called Baños, not to be confused with the Baños where I stayed for 4 nights. They did however have a thermal fed pool and a Turkish bath at the one hotel...$5.50 for the day. It was wonderful, and the setting with the mountains around us was perfect. We soaked in the naturally hot, mineral rich water for a long time.

Our taxi ride back to Al Centro was definitly interesting. I think I´ve mentioned the driving here...Picture doing 50mph in downtown Roanoke (or whatever town you live in). Remember, traffic lights and stop signs here are just mild suggestions. And he who has a louder horn and is daring enough to face head on traffic to pass 3 vehicles on a blind curve gets there first! Yeah, anyway...It was an experience.

Then we finished the day with a 1/2 meter of pizza (Yes, they sell pizza by the meter at one of the local places here. It was REALLY good.) and ice cream from the local ice cream store that would remind you of a Baskin Robbins back home.

So anyway, I'm getting ready to head to this indigenous village for 24 hours (for not much more than the normal cost of a hostal and food.). We get to learn about their customs and rituals, find out about the medicinal plants they use, hike in the forest, ride a horse, eat comida tipico (typical indigenous food) AND we get to slow roast our own Cuy (guinea pig) tonight! We'll sleep there, eat breakfast in the morning, and then come back to Cuenca in time for me to do a little work and catch my bus to Quito.

Well, my time is up...have to catch another taxi to get to where I leave from (another adventure in itself). I haven't had time to proofread this post like I normally would, so I hope there aren't any typos. There are extra keys, and keys in weird places on this keyboard, so....

I give my love to all. I'll be home in a week from tonight!

Happy Mother's Day From Cuenca!

2008-05-12T04:25:00.000-04:00

OK, so Mother's Day ended 1-1/2 hours ago from when I'm writing this. But I still wanted to send Mother's Day greetings to all of the moms I know!

I'm in Cuenca, Ecuador right now, and it was a beautiful day. I've uploaded some pictures from the day, and I have some video to upload too. Hopefully I'll get that done Monday. I had a great day exploring the city. I met a Russian couple, a couple from Australia, and some expatriates from the states. I treated myself to Mother's Day lunch at a very nice, but...like all of them, inexpensive restaurante. I got to watch part of a free concert in the Parque Calderon, and tour a 190 year-old home that an elderly woman lives in with her 3 dogs...pictures of it are uploading as I type.

It's late, and I'm tired, so I'm going to shut up for now...first close...but I have plans to catch everything up sometime Monday. My love to all! Dios Bendiga! (God Bless You!)

Of Volcanoes and Waterfalls...In Banos and loving it!

2008-05-08T17:48:00.000-04:00

[I started writing this last night...]

Well, it’s Wednesday night, and I’m sitting in an Ecuadorian Hostel (not the one I mention in just a couple paragraphs) watching a German movie with Spanish subtitles! I’d planned to travel to Puyo today, but had some trouble with a website that I was working on, and ended up missing the bus. 8 hours online (at $1/hour), and I still didn’t get done what I needed to get done! So since I’m here another night, I figured I’d try to catch up on my blogging.

I’ve tried to keep a journal in my notebook, so I’m going to start with those entries, and add to them as I go:

Monday 2008-05-05: OK, so I’m staying at this very beautiful (muy bonito) hostel called La Petite Auberge. It’s even nicer than the Oasis in that I have a private balcony that overlooks a flower-filled courtyard. There’s also a common area with a big fireplace. And desayuno (breakfast) is included. I took an ~2 hours long nap when I got in.

Before I left Riobamba, I realized the effects of the altitude there. The elevation in Riobamba is 9750 ft. I’d done some walking around Riobamba previously, but without my packs. I walked the ~ 1 mile to the bus station (I could have taken a taxi, but I wanted to take a few more pictures and find an ATM) Oriente Terminal, and by the time I got there, I was almost gasping for breath and felt exhausted. It dawned on me part way there…I’m used to the 1200 or so feet above see level in Roanoke, not the almost 10,000 ft where Riobamba is located. I don’t know that I’ve ever been to a place with such a high elevation…but this was sure kicking my butt! :D

I took a couple baby aspirin…it seemed like the right thing to do…make the blood thinner and easier for the heart to pump, which seemed like it would increase the ability to circulate O2. It sounded good anyway, but I could be wrong…again, no experience with high altitude issues. At least I didn’t experience any of the altitude sickness symptoms that I’d been warned about by my Lonely Planet guide book.

Anyway, the bus ride was uneventful. We dropped a lot of elevation I a short time. I thought I was taking the bus to Baños that passed through Penipe- a 1 hour ride, but I’d been directed to the bus that went through Ambato- a 2 hour ride. I hadn’t had much to drink that morning, intentionally, but by the time we completed the 2 hour drive, necesita el baño muy rapido! The one at the bus terminal looked quite questionable, and it looked like they were making people pay for the use of it, so I decided to find my hostel. I found the one I was looking for without a problem, despite the fact that (according to the tourista map) there are well over 100 hostels in this little town of 18,000 people. I counted 16 in a just a 4 block stretch!
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2008-05-05 7:00pm: I’m eating pizza right now, and at 9pm I’m going volcano watching. The tourism trade here is booming, thanks in part to the active volcano, Tungurahua, which sits right behind us. There are tour guides in every block offering Volcan Tours, mountain bike rentals, cascade tours, white water rafting, 4-wheeler rentals, trekking, mountain climbing, jungle excursions, horseback riding, paragliding, and more! I paid $4 for the Volcan Tour and $8 for the half-day cascade (waterfall) and cable car tour that I’m taking tomorrow.

Two things I’ve observed about traveling in Ecuador: 1. Unless you are in a very high tourism are, they DON’T speak English, and 2. They don’t take American Express…or Visa…or MasterCard, hardly anywhere! It may not be as bad as Uganda, but this is a poor economy, and I’ll hazard a guess that a great many people don’t have bank accounts, and even fewer have credit cards.

23:30 Just got back from the Volcan Tour. We rode on the top of the bus up the mountain. When we got there the clouds were starting to descend, so we weren't able to see the volcano shooting out any lava or anything, but there was a bonfire, and a guy playing guitar. We stood around the fire and people sang. They gave us this warm spiked...I mean spiced drink from a thermos jug...served in little 4 oz plastic cups. It was rather suspicious smelling (and tasting). It kind of kicked on the way down. I took some video at the campfire and am including it for your experiential pleasure.

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2008-05-06- Tuesday: I’m on a tour to see the cascades. There are many lovely waterfalls in the area, and we’ve seen several from a distance so far. I also had a chance to ride a cable car across a canyon-y thingy several hundred feet over a river. It was a beautiful view, and I was excited in that I wasn’t scared at all (I’ve worked on overcoming a challenge with heights for years.)

A little while ago we stopped at a bridge where people do bridge jumps (not bugee jumping, more of a jump-swing). It’s only $10 to do the jump. Right now we’re stopped along the road waiting for the “highway department” to clear the big mudslide that affected probably a ¼ mile of road. Somehow the slide came within just a few inches of this little shack on posts…and missed it! It was amazing considering the amount of mud and rock that plowed through there. I don’t know why we can’t have hindsight during an event instead of afterwards…except that it couldn’t be called hindsight…We were stopped long enough that I could have gotten out and taken some great pictures, if I’d thought about it. I couldn’t tell if there were any houses under the mud and rock on the mountain side of the slide. On the downhill slide it took some power poles and came close to some small homes.

After the mudslide was cleared, we continued on through the tunnels and finally reached a waterfall that we could actually hike down to…and when I say hike, I mean hike! It was about a 20 minute hike straight DOWN. Thankfully there were some stairs built in a couple places that were particularly steep- a relative term…the whole thing was steep.

I’d worn my bathing suit under my clothes, because I’d been told that we could get in the water if we wanted to. There was only one other person (one of the guides, a young man named Elder – I don’t know if I spelled it right) who was stupid brave enough to get in the cold water. It was an exhilarating experience, and I’m glad I did it.

The hike back UP from the bottom absolutely Kicked my Butt! I’m blaming it on the altitude again…5500 feet. The young guide that got in the water with me waited on me the whole way. I think he was concerned I was going to pass out :D with as much gasping for breath as I was doing. At least someone was nice enough to help the “old lady” up the hill!

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2008-05-06 16:00 Tuesday: I’m at a little café called Café Ali Gumba, and I just finished a great smoothie and a delicious heated jamon y queso sandwich on French bread with chopped tomato, onion, and cucumber. Talk about GOOD! MMMmmm. The café is run by a lady from Denmark who is married to an Ecuadorian. She’s had the café 6 years, and I can tell she does good business. And she serves fresh ground coffee…NOT the instant stuff that most of the places serve. She makes some yummy banana muffins too. :D

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That was all I had handwritten in my notebook, so I’ll fill in from there. After I left the Café Ali Gumba (did I mention how good the food was?) I went in search of a massage. You can get a one hour massage at some of the spas here for $20. Kinda hard to pass that up! After my massage I figured a nap was in order. It’s a tough life here, but someone’s gotta live it!

I’d passed a café earlier that day, a few storefronts down from my hostel, that showed free movies nightly, so at 7:30pm I headed down to Café Good to watch Seven Years in Tibet, and old Brad Pitt movie that I’d never seen before. It was in English, with Spanish subtitles, so I could understand it! Whoo Hoo! I was pretty moved by the movie, as I know that the Tibet-China struggle is still being played out at this very moment. I also was challenged by the relationship that developed between Brad Pitt’s character and the Dali Lama (at that time a young boy)…the trust, love, and respect. The Holy Spirit referred to several points in the movie during my prayer time later that night. I think it’s interesting that God sends you to South America to see an American-made movie to teach you things that apply to your walk with God! God has a BIG sense of humor!

Anyway, that leads me back to where I started off…I was going to leave Baños yesterday, and head to Puyo after I did a few hours work online. Finding internet wasn’t the problem, but finding a place where I could hook my laptop to internet WAS a problem. There’s no Wi-Fi here. At least none that I’ve found. I finally found a place that would let me unplug one of their computers, and hook my laptop to their service.

I thought I’d only be online about 3-4 hours…(if you aren’t a computer geek, you’ll want to tune out about now!) upload some web pages to the server, change the DNS settings, add on some new domains to the host server, set up some lists in our auto-responder, etc… Yeah, well, “the best laid plans of mice and men…”

Eight hours later I was still fighting with the host server to get it to recognize a domain I’d added. I’d gotten a confirmation when I added it, but then it didn’t show up in the listing when I went back in…anyway, it’s till giving me problems, and I missed my bus because of it! I love computers!

It was 9pm EST/ 8pm local time when I left the internet place and went in search of LUNCH/Dinner and a place to stay. I settled on the RainForestur Hostal for lodging. The rooms are small, but clean and secure. After dumping my big backpack I headed down the narrow streets to find Casa Hood, a funky restaurant that most foreigners go to at least once. At Casa Hood you can find any kind of food, from Thai to Italian to Mexican to American to Ecuadorian. Most foods are served your choice of either vegan or con carne. You can take yoga classes there, play a board game, watch a free movie, or sit and relax by yourself or with friends. I had the vegan lasagna which was probably the best lasagna I’ve ever had…sorry Troy, it was even better than yours… And they make an incredible mocha shake…thick and rich…for $1.30.

I sat and played several rounds of solitaire then wandered back to the hostel at around 11pm EST/10pm local time. I’m not sure why I turned on the TV, I guess I had hopes of English speaking CNN to catch up on current events. Instead I settled on the German movie I mentioned at the start of my post.

After that went off I watched a Spanish-speaking minister from somewhere in south Florida. I actually understood part of it. He was talking about the prophetic word of God for this day and time, and how that God was looking for people who were willing to be radicals or revolutionaries for Him…in my way of explaining what I heard, to get off the pews and start really living out the Word of God (de Palabra de Dios) …in our churches, in our communities, in our workplaces. Anyway, it was good!

This morning I’m sitting back at Café Ali Gumba, and had a great breakfast (coffee, juice, eggs with cheese, homemade wheat bread, mixed fresh fruit, granola, and yoghurt.) I’m enjoying a second cup of fresh ground coffee, and then going in search of internet. I need to leave for Puyo today! (Because if not, the temptation to just move to Baños might get too great to overcome! :D ) Going to close for now…Thanks to all who are following along with me.

In Riobamba...

2008-05-04T17:12:00.000-04:00

I'm finally getting caught up in my blogging! Yay! I know some of my posts are lengthy, but I have ulterior motives. I plan on turning my blog into a book, and I need to write enough for the framework that I'll need later on...

Now...Riobamba. Riobamba is another city...not much of a tourist place, especially on Sunday. BUT God has planted me in a beautiful spot! I'm staying at the Hostal Oasis, and it is just what it says it is, an oasis. Tucked away behind the nondescript outer walls is a wonderfully inviting and charming place. It is run by a family who live on the property. You enter through the reception room, but once you pass that, you walk through a lovely little courtyard and then into a smaller courtyard from which the guestrooms are reached. They have at least one dorm room that sleeps 3. And at least 3 private rooms. I believe they have 1 or 2 apartments as well. The private room that I was led to is so nice! It is kept immaculately clean, and I feel very welcome here.

I walked around town last night in search of groceries to cook my own meals while I'm here. After walking about a mile, and stopping in smaller stores that didn't have a full line of groceries, I finally found a mercado that was open, and was able to purchase bread and queso to go with the huevos, pasta, and margarina that I'd purchased in two other stops. Saturday was market day in the city, so there were still plenty of people around town. Indigenous people come from all around to sell there goods. I wish I'd been here earlier in the day to experience the sights and sounds.

The nights get very chilly here, and the warm blankets and comforter on the bed were very welcome when it was time to turn in for the night. Despite the proximity to the equator, the elevation provides respite from extremely hot temperatures. I got a full night's sleep, waking to my alarm at 8am this morning. I wanted to take part in VWM's pre-service prayer, albeit from a distance...

I've worked on the computer most of the day, and still have more to do tonight. But it's been a very relaxing and enjoyable day. The clouds that blocked the sun earlier are gone now, and it's beautiful! God is SOOOO awesome! There's no way that I can describe how I've felt so far on this trip. Blessed is an understatement. This has been one of those times where I feel like God has just stopped everything else, just to do something special for me. He's such a good God, and I love Him and appreciate Him sooo much! It's been one of those times where I truly feel like I'm God's favorite! (I know...and YOU are too!)

Well, I took a break to go in search of Pollo! Most everything is cerrado (closed) on Sunday, but I found a fast food Pollo place abierto (open). All I can say is..."I'm stuffed!" I ordered the Combi Asado which was the pollo asado (roasted chicken) combo. It came with 1/4 pollo asado, arroz (rice), papases fritas (french fries), cole slaw, and a gaseous (Coke). Grand total: $3.45. I love the prices here!

I'm getting better at recognizing some words. I guess I don't have much of a choice though. Oh! I was so excited! I walked all over last night hoping to find a panaderia (bakery) and I took a different route this evening and found one just a few blocks from the hostel. I'd already bought a loaf of bread, but I was able to get some yogurt there...and a dessert. :D

I hope everyone is enjoying my blog and the photos. I have more video to upload yet, and once I do, I'll have a video sharing page for that. I appreciate everyone's prayers. Thanks for being there!

From Guayaquil to Riobamba...

2008-05-04T15:19:00.000-04:00

When I left you last, I was being dropped off at the bus terminal. It was a huge place that had a multi-story shopping center incorporated into the building. As I approached the entrance, a young man walked up to me and asked me (best as I could figure) what bus I was wanting to take. Before I go on, I have to say, this was a God-thing...you'll find out why in just a moment. I said Riobamba, and he motioned for me to follow him...fast. He led me through the crowds of people and around the right turns to the ticket counter.

It turns out that the bus driver was there getting his bag, and the bus was going to leave as soon as he got to it. I paid the 10-cent fee to the terminal itself, and they motioned that I'd pay the cuatro cincuenta ($4.50) to the bus driver on the bus. After an exchange between the driver, the ticket agent, and the young man who'd led me there (with the "non-Spanish speaking me" being the obvious topic of conversation), the driver grunted to me to follow him, and we were off...weaving through 100's of people, up the two sets of escalators to the 3rd floor loading area, through the gates, and onto the bus. I'd planned to stop at the ATM before going on the bus, but if God hadn't sent that young man to lead me to the right place, I'd have missed the bus!

Within moments the bus headed out. I was a little disappointed that I hadn't had time to buy a drink before boarding, but that would end quickly...this is Ecuador, and there's always somebody trying to sell you food or drink. Even on the bus. At every traffic light, or even at random places along the road, there are street vendors waiting to pitch their wares to you. And being the thirsty, hungry, and curious gringo that I am, I was happy to oblige them. I bought water and juice through the window at a red light...reach out the window with your money and grab a bottle out of the bag.

Then some vendors flagged the bus down and hopped on for a sort distance so they could sell helados (ice cream!!! God loves me!!! :D ), frozen juice, pirated record copies, more water, etc. I bought, of course, ice cream and frozen juice in a baggie. (You poke a little hole in the baggie and suck the juice out as it melts.) Later in the ride one of the vendors had these flat bar -looking things (see picture.) I'd ignored him at first, but he kept talking straight to me, and I was curious as to what they were...so for cincuenta centavos (50-cents) I figured I'd give it a shot. Seemed that lunch would be a series of snacks.

Mainland Ecuador is broken up into 6 regions. Guayaquil is in the South Coastal Region, and Riobamba is in the Central Highlands. By the time I got my "some-kind-of-fruit-maybe" bar, we were leaving the Coastal Region, and starting to enter what I'll call the foothills. I was snapping pictures like a tourist (oh, I am a tourist, so it's OK...) and getting weird looks from the other passengers...I WAS the ONLY gringo on the bus...I'd have gotten weird looks anyway. By the time we got to the section of the highlands with all of the spectacular, majestic views...I'd blown through 2 sets of batteries...and the rest were in the luggage compartment in my backpack! I was definitely kicking myself.

I've been to several foreign countries before, and I'm accustomed to seeing poverty. It never ceases to amaze me though the wonderful strength of the people who live in countries like this. You can see from the photos on my Flickr site that outside the cities they live in very meager dwellings, yet they have such a pride in themselves and their country. They are hard-working, resourceful, and have an entrepreneurial spirit to be envied by those back in the states. Lest I get on my "welfare-mentality-everyone-owes-me-something" soap-box, suffice it to say that there's a wealth to be learned from the people in countries like Ecuador.

Back to the bus ride...and the Central Highlands. Oh my gosh! What a magnificent ride! Ecuador's mountains are wild and beautiful! And Ecuador hosts some of the most active volcanoes in the Andes. Tomorrow I'm taking the bus to Banos which is a jungle town that had to be evacuated in 1999 when Volcan Tungurahua was changed from a yellow alert to an orange alert due to a climber and his guide being burned by a gaseous eruption. It's was changed back to a yellow alert in 2002, and though it is still active...burping ash, smoke, and steam... they don't consider it to be an imminent threat of eruption. It is continually being monitored.

As we drove, we passed numerous mudslides brought on by recent rain. None blocked the whole road, so they posed no problems for us. We stopped in a mountain town to let some street vendors on, and since I was hungry, I bought what I was hoping to be chicken on top of hominey. It came in a little styrofoam bowl, and you had to eat it with your fingers. It didn't quite taste like chicken, and was very salty. As we passed another little stand in the village the whole, splayed open pig on the table told me what I needed to know. Pork, not chicken. That explained the salty flavor. That also explained the suspiciously shaped piece I was gnawing on...pig ear...I ate part of it, but passed on the cartilage...I don't think you're supposed to eat that part.

I watched the mountainsides as we drove. They were amazingly steep, but what was more amazing was seeing the homes clinging to the steep mountainsides and the successful attempts at cultivating those steep areas.

I shot a little bit of video while we were driving...crazy! The buses pass in the fog, on a curve on a mountainside...they all do it! It was SOOO "just like in the movies!" I kept expecting either Harrison Ford or Juan Valdez to show up on the road...I'd have preferred the former! :D But neither one appeared, darn! The memorial crosses that were scattered along the steep mountain road were a grim reminder that there is a lot of mistaken judgment on the part of the drivers who traverse this area.

During the last couple hours of the trip, they driver's assistant turned on a Jean Claude Van Damme movie for us. You couldn't hear what was being said, but who needs to? It had the same basic plot that all of his movies have...pretty girl, seemingly endless bad guys, and he wins in the end. It ended just shortly before we arrived in Riobamba.

The bus doesn't actually go into TOWN, just to the outskirts, so I grabbed my bynow normal mode of transport...a taxi, and we went in search of my chosen hostel. That was a trip in itself. He didn't know where it was. We drove all over Riobamba, a city of 126,000 people, and no one we spoke to had heard of it. I finally got him to look at the map in my Lonely Planet guide book, and he realized he was on the wrong end of the very lengthy street that it was on. We finally arrived at about 8:30-ish, and I gave him a good tip for all his trouble.

The son of the hostel owner greeted me. I was so excited because he speaks a little bit of broken English...someone who understood a little of what I was trying to say! Whoo Hoo! English, by the way, is NOT widely spoken...anywhere that I've been here in Ecuador. They all look at me and shake their heads...I know they think I'm crazy for being here without speaking the language. Heck, I'M beginning to think I'm somewhere off center for being here without speaking the language as well! Oh well! To late to turn back now...just adds to the adventure! More in the next post.

In Guayaquil, Ecuador...

2008-05-04T13:16:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone! I’m sitting in the courtyard of a beautiful little hostel in Riobamba. It’s called Hostal Oasis. I’m amazed at how nice some of these places are at such a low cost. My private, en suite room is only $10 a night, and it’s lovely!

But, I need to backtrack, because I didn’t get to post anything Friday night or yesterday, and there’s SO MUCH to share!

I got to Guayaquil Friday afternoon, and had thought about taking a bus downtown…but after the 5th or 6th taxi drive tried to drag me to his waiting taxi, and I got this one talked into Cuatro Dolares ($4) for the ride, I decided it was easier than having to find my way around a city of over 2 Million people by bus…That and the fact that the buses don’t just STOP at the bus stops. You watch for the one you want, and flag it down…yeah, well, I didn’t know which one I wanted. So that wasn’t too good a plan!

I had decided to check out the Hotel Alexander, as my trusty Lonely Planet Ecuador guide book (I won't ever go to another country without a Lonely Planet guide book...they are fantastic!) told me they had free Wi-Fi. It was pricier than some of the others, but was supposed to be nice. (And it was, but I’m not to that yet.)

The taxi ride…How do I describe my taxi ride? Well, I won’t use that language…but anyway, I think the driver was trying to do everything in his power to scare the daylights out of me. It didn’t work, but he gave it a good shot! For those who went to Uganda with us, picture 10 times worse than what we saw the taxis/boda bodas driving. The taxi drivers use their horn frequently. They literally force their way through traffic, cutting people off, riding down the center lane between vehicles, pulling in front of buses…uhmmm, they’re MUCH bigger than a taxi. It was definitely a wild ride. And the whole time I was kicked back taking it in thinking, “I am NOT going to let than man even THINK I’m concerned about his driving!” Not for the faint of heart.

Ok, so he pulls up in front of Hotel Alexander and the armed security guard/bell hop with the flack jacket on came out to the taxi and promptly grabbed my bags and led me into the building. Didn’t look like quite that bad an area, but whatever.

The lobby of the Hotel Alexander is reminiscent of one of the hotels in those old 1920’s or 1930’s movies. It had that look and charm to it. My pictures will describe it better than I can.

My stay at the Hotel Alexander was pleasant. There was a restaurant off the lobby, and I had dinner there Friday night. I ordered what I THOUGHT was a chicken chalupa :D. This is what the menu had on it: Chaulafan de Pollo. Ok, so I know pollo is chicken...I got that part right. But chaulafan definitely was NOT a chalupa! What I did get though was a HUGE plate of rice, veggies, and chicken that was wonderfully seasoned. The food was great, and the prices were very reasonable for the city.

I ordered the Desayuno Alexander for breakfast the next morning. Mainly because I was SURE I knew what all those Spanish words meant! And I was right! It included coffee with milk (cafe con leche), fresh juice, 2 eggs (huevos), 2 croissants, 6 slices of bacon, a plate of fresh fruit, and jam. All for only $3. I wonder if we could get them to move to Roanoke?

Anyway. I'd originally planned to stay in Guayaquil for 2 nights, but after my view of the city on the way to the hotel, I decided there probably wasn't a whole lot for me to see there within walking distance...I just wasn't "feeling" staying another night. So I finally Got my stuff packed up by around 1:00-ish and checked out. The always available taxi was waiting outside the door, and I headed off towards Terminal Terristre. That's the bus station where you catch the buses to other cities. My new taxi driver was a much safer driver...or there was just less traffic, and the ride to the bus terminal was uneventful. You can check out the pics on my Flickr site (which is now organized into several sets for my trip).

A Backpacker's Load...

2008-05-02T01:12:00.001-04:00

I had a request for a picture of me carrying my load! Someone was curious about how I can carry two packs at once. So I took this picture after I packed up my gear for my flight in less than 12 hours. This is actually a common load for a "European style backpacker," and actually distributes the weight better than if it were all in one on the back.

In the USA, the word backpacker brings to mind mountain trails, white blazes, and maybe even Boy Scouts. But to the rest of the civilized world, the word backpacker is used to describe budget travelers- usually college age people, but not always- who frequent the dorms in youth hostels for lodging, carry their belongings in 1 or 2 backpacks...like my load here, and roam the globe in search of adventure and the opportunity to expand their understanding of the world and people around them.

Many are women. Many travel by themselves. I've met LOTS of them during my wanderings, and have never had a bad experience. I've seriously met some really cool, interesting people during my travels, and when adventure vacationing, wouldn't trade the experience for all of the 5-Stars out there. (I don't have anything against 5-Star hotels...If I'm going to a business conference or a ministry conference- or just want to stay in one. But there's just something special about traveling this way.)

I can see some of you shaking your head right now...and can even hear that, "Dear God, what are we going to do with Sandi?" come out of your mouth! I can't help it...I'm just not "wired" like some of you! To ME this is normal! I bet Jesus would stay at a youth hostel...and hang out with all the cool people there... Hmmm maybe like he hung out with the publicans and sinners? ;D

Okay, enough of my soap box... Hasta luego!

Do You Know the Way to San Jose...?

2008-05-01T17:27:00.000-04:00

Ok, I don't know if the song that's running through my mind was about San Jose, Costa Rica or not. But I know the way to...or at least around San Jose. I spent about 4-1/2 hours walking around San Jose today. It was great weather, although I see that I got a little bit of red on my shoulders. Hmm...need to pick up some sunscreen!

I guess I need to backtrack...my day started at around 4:30 am local time, when one of my roommate's got her wake-up call- the staff banging on the door after a failed attempt at getting it unlocked! I'd gone to bed pretty early yesterday, so even though I tried falling back asleep, I was awake. My phone slid out of my pocket into the bed at that point, and I remembered that I had Wi-Fi on it. I sent a couple emails, and then headed to what I'd hoped would be a hot shower... HAH! I followed the directions that were taped in the shower stall. It even teased me with 30 seconds of hot water. Then....COLD! Oh my gosh, it was so cold! Brrrr!

Anyway, enough of my shower woes! I went back to the room and finally started my Proverbs Bible Study that Pastor Debbie had challenged all of us to do (read one chapter from Proverbs every day...corresponding with the day of the month you're on.) I had a great prayer time, and then I went in search of breakfast...mmmm Pancakes! The hostel has a restaurant on the property, and pancakes with refresca (juice) were only ₡1500 colones (about $3 USD).

After breakfast I was ready to embark on today's adventure...wander around the streets of San Jose, Costa Rica! I managed to be here on a holiday, so the museums were closed, which was a little disappointing, but I had a good walk around the city, and got to see lots of interesting things.

Just 1-3 blocks from the hostel I came across the Supreme Court building and the Justice buildings. Shortly after that I turned onto Boulevard del Museo Nacional. I saw what looked like a turret a couple blocks away, and headed off in that direction. It was the Museo Nacional, but, alas, it was closed. Gotta love holidays! After receiving more catcalls and "comments" (from a group of men on the porch of the Legislative Assembly building) in 30 seconds than I've had in several years, I headed off towards the central area of San Jose. (You learn VERY quickly to ignore and walk away!)

Next I came upon the Cow Parade. Not the kind of Cow Parade you might be thinking of...there were cow statues spread all over San Jose central, painted in all sorts of interesting ways. There was one dressed in a pigeon costume (trying to blend in with the 100's of pigeons there!), one had an underwater scene, there was one standing up dressed in a skirt and showing her legs and udders, there was a Ronald McDonald cow...can't get away from Mickey D anywhere!...and even a Pole Dancing Cow!

It was getting warm, so I figured a pistachio ice cream cone was in order :D to the tune of ₡950 colones (just under $2). I found a bookstore and got the Spanish Phrase book (₡3,900 colones)that I'd meant to pick up in the States, and then wandered down to the Wendy's for a bowl of Chile and a Coke Light- I Had to have a place to study my new phrase book, right? Chile and a medium Coke runs ₡1440 colones in San Jose. (Yes, all of the same restaurants that we have at home are here too...Papa John's, Church's Chicken, McDonald's, etc...)

I got to see the outsides of the Museo Nacional and the Teatro Nacional...again, closed due to the holiday. Then there was a parade. I'm really not quite sure what the parade was all about. The few banners that I read were in regards to Human Rights, but I don't think that was the purpose of the parade...if anyone can read the banners I caught on my pictures and decipher for us, I'd appreciate it!

I got to go into two really cool churches. I've always loved the big Cathedrals, and San Jose has a few. Two were within my walking area today, and I got lots of pictures. I got a short video of part of the service in Catedral Metropolitana. I was a little nervous filming in there, as you can tell by the shakiness of the video! The security guard told me it was OK to take pictures inside, but I didn't realize they were doing some kind of service when I went in. The cathedrals are open all day for people to go in and pray whenever they want to...maybe they know something that we don't...?

After I left there, I headed down to a church I'd passed yesterday on my walk...Iglesia de la Merced (Church of Mercy, maybe?). It was much different, but also way cool! I got lots of pictures there as well. When I left there, I snapped a few pictures at Parque la Merced, and then headed in the general direction of "home". My route led me down Avenida Central, some of which was MAYBE tourist area, and some of which definitely didn't seem like it.

I was getting thirsty, so I got the always available bottle of Coca-Cola- ₡800 colones ($1.60 USD) then wandered by a pizza place that I couldn't pass up! The special was a big slice of pizza and a refresca natural (watered down juice! ;D) for only ₡880 colones. (~$1.70 USD). After that I headed "home" for the day. I was back to the hostel by 1:30 pm local time, and have been uploading and labeling pictures ever since. (The connection is SLOW, but I'm SO grateful for the ability to communicate with those back home. ) After dinner I have LOTS of real work to do...an eBook to finish for my favorite clients... I'll stay in touch as often as I can. I don't know what Ecuador has in store as far as internet, so my posts may not be as long... Did I hear a BIG AMEN to that? :D My love to all back home! Dios Bendiga! God bless you!

From Dulles to Costa Rica...the Adventure Begins

2008-04-30T16:00:00.000-04:00

I slept during most of the 4 hour and 15 minute flight from Dulles to San Salvador, El Salvador. They did feed us a very tasty breakfast on the flight, which I did wake up for. ;D The walk between terminals in El Salvador was the usual "feels like 5 miles" distance, but the wait at the gate wasn't long. The armed police with drug dogs sniffing everyone's carry-on luggage just added some good old Central American charm to the scene.

The flight from El Salvador to San Jose was roughly 1 hour, and I slept on it as well. Remember...no sleep Monday night, and I'd been awake at Dulles all night Tuesday night. I did stop to pray for the elderly lady seated next to me. As we were taking off, she was praying the rosary and had a look of terror on her face. I felt sorry for her!

Once I landed at the San Jose aeropuerto things continued to flow uneventfully. My luggage showed up...on time...with me...Whoo Hoo!!!! I was, of course, assailed by the 500 taxi drivers and van drivers wanting to take me to my destination, but at close to $20 for that versus the $1 for el autobus (the bus), I opted for the bus. I'd say I'm on a "shoe string budget", but I think it's more like a "string budget." I don't even have the "shoe" part of it right now...but that's another tale for another day!

Ah, the stories that come from my travels!

So, anyway, I took el autobus from the aeropuerto and got off "somewhere" downtown San Jose. Many of the streets are not marked, and no one seemed to even know what road we were on. Literally EVERYONE I asked gave me different directions! After over an hour of walking, I finally gave in to hunger and thirst and stopped at this little tiny restaurante that had un servicio for clientes. (Public restrooms aren't as easy to come by here!)

I ordered pintos con queso...what should have been pretty normal, and un hamburgesa. And they gave me a choice of two juices of some unknown variety (both tasty). Well, the Taco Bell pintos with cheese and Costa Rica's are two entirely different things! The cheese was fried, and on the side. And the pintos were small black beans mixed in with rice...Still very yummy, but not what my North American brain was thinking of. It was all actually muy bueno though!

At least I didn't order the perro con queso...cause as far as I know, perro means dog... I pass on Rover this go round!

I did finally find the hostel. Certainly not on the beatten turista path, but not hard to find once I figured out the street naming convention! I did figure out that all that razor wire I passed was because of the jail and courthouse nearby! I don't think most tourists walk down this end of Avenida 6. The security at the hostel is fantastic, and once you come through the locked gate and up the stairs to the reception, it's like a piece of heaven on earth. Here's a short video from the hostel:

Oh, had to throw in a picture of Frankie (on the right) and L.C. (on the left) going at it in a "game" of foosball. This is one of the pics for the children's book we're making from this trip...

Thoughts from Dulles...

2008-04-30T15:16:00.000-04:00

I'm sitting at Dulles International Airport right now, where I've been for the last 2-1/2 hours. Well, I'm not actually sitting, more like stretched out across my backpack on the floor in the line that is quickly forming at the baggage check-in. When I got here at 10pm, I was the only person in sight other than airport staff. Now people are arriving pretty quickly.

I had a great bus ride up to DC from Roanoke. On the first bus I sat next to a lady named Teresa. She was a divorced mom of 6 who was enjoying a new career in the medical profession. She'd spent 22 years of marriage as a homemaker. She'd been somewhat isolated, and hadn't even gotten a driver's license before her marriage ended. Her enthusiasm over her new career was refreshing. We talked all the way from Roanoke to Lynchburg, at which time I settled into a semi-comatose state after my night of no sleep. (How can one plan a trip for 5 months and STILL be so unprepared when it was time to leave?) I woke up before we got to Charlottesville, we talked a little more, and then it was time to change buses.

On the next bus I had a seat to myself, as there weren't as many people on board. I napped most of the way from Charlottesville to Union Station in DC...Actually, I guess I roused up about 30-40 miles outside of Washington.

The last part of the trip, from Fredericksburg to Union Station I conversed on and off with the bus driver about city traffic, commuters, and the fact that I was going WAY out of the way by going to Dulles via Union Station. Oh, well! I'll learn for next time. About 30 minutes out I sent a text message to Aleena, my "adopted daughter" and Zip's best friend for the whole time we've lived in Virginia. I was hoping to hook up for a glass of tea or something, but she surprised me by offering to pick me up and take me to the airport.

It was really good to see her, and to meet her friend Amy who'd ridden with her. Aleena (who is from Pakistan) treated us to dinner (which Amy and I tried to stop her from doing) at a great Pakistani Restaurant called Shalimar just a few miles from the airport. The food was fantastic, and I ate too much! We laughed and talked and had a great visit. Amy treated us to juice from the market next door to the restaurant, and then we went in search of ice cream...but, alas, too late! =( Ben & Jerry's had just closed...on free cone day no less!

_____________________

OK, it's 03:20 AM as I'm sitting here writing this. We (the whole crowd of Latinos and one lone gringa!) finally got to check our bags just after 2AM...I made it through the x-ray machine with only having to take off my shoes and empty my pockets, so I considered it to be a pretty uneventful check-in. I've got about an hour and 20 minutes before they start boarding. I have an aisle seat (my preference) on both flights today, and I'm very happy about that. I believe I'm right behind the bulkhead from the partial diagram that I saw online.

I think I'm beginning to feel the, "WHAT am I doing?" feeling...that same one I had in Ireland when I got to the airport and was sitting at the bus stop trying to find the right bus to take. Oh well, comfort zone? What comfort zone? I don't remember anywhere in the Bible where it says to only do things that DON'T stretch us and cause us to grow. On the contrary, that's the only way we do grow. And I always love a good challenge!

One thing I do want to know...I waited until 24 days before leaving to START to study Spanish...for WHAT REASON?!? Sometime I just amaze myself! "I really should have..." Never mind. ...Hindsight, it's great, isn't it!

Lest you get the wrong idea, I haven't lost my enthusiasm for this trip! On the contrary, I'm more excited now than I have been. And I guess part of it IS the opportunity to stretch myself past any perceived comfort zone. And it's the thrill of adventure, too!

Sometime I think about how many times God spoke to people in the Bible and told them to do things that, in the natural, didn't make sense. You know, like, "Hey, Abram! I want you to pack up your family and go to the land that I'll show you!" "Uhm, OK, God. Where we going?" "Oh, you just head in that direction, and I'll tell you where to turn just before you get there." "Dude, God, how am I going to explain that to my family?" "You just tell them you're doing what I told you to do." "But, they're going to think I'm crazy, God!" "That's OK. They'll be wrong...you've got faith. And one day I'm going to base an entire nation on that faith, and your obedience to me." (OK, so I used a little bit of literary license there...that's my version of how the conversation may have gone!) =)

Well, they're going to start boarding soon, so I'm going to turn of the computer and get ready. I'll finish my update later today, and get this posted once I get to San Jose, Costa Rica.

PS, for those who are following my two "traveling companions", L.C. (a purple stuffed hippo) and Frankie (Troy's little stuffed ferret) they are doing fine! We're doing a children's series/book with pictures of the two stuffed compadres as they go on this South American adventure. It's for my grand babies to read and enjoy!

A South American Adventure: The Preparation Before the Journey

2008-04-22T16:58:00.000-04:00

Well, it's time to blow the dust off of The Chronicles, and do a little more writing.

I'm not the stereo-typical "Adventuress"...Laura Croft and I don't have much in common, except for a love for adventure! But though I may not "look" the part, I do however claim the title. In the past I've roamed around Ireland and Scotland by myself, wandered the back roads of Puerto Rico, been stranded in the Everglades in a raft, and backpacked 700 miles on the Appalachian Trail...a good part of it solo. So it shouldn't be surprising, for those who know me, that two days from now I will be on a Greyhound bus on the way up to Washington, DC. And two days from tomorrow I'll be on a plane on my way to Central and South America. My excitement has been mounting, and the long awaited departure has come up amazingly quickly.

I've been planning this adventure for 6 months. Seems like a long time, doesn't it? But there's a lot to consider when you're going off the beaten path, especially in a foreign country! The video above provides an introduction to my trip. Since I've had a number of people ask me what I'm packing, I've included a description of the choice of gear, and what some of the considerations were in choosing it. When you have to carry everything you need to live for 3-1/2 weeks on your back, you want every bit of that 60-lbs of gear to be useful and necessary.

First a little background. When I originally started planning this trip it was going to be a business trip to Ecuador. I was going to look at land...which I'm still planning on doing, and I was going to take an import/export tour to look at products to import into the States for resale. I bought my ticket in December for only $579 round-trip, which included a 2-night layover in San Jose, Costa Rica on the way to Ecuador and a 3-night layover in Lima, Peru on the way back. Without the 2 layovers, it would have been just under $500.

At the beginning of the year, as I was praying over my businesses that I already have, I felt that the Lord was telling me not to expand into something else right now (i.e. the import business) but to focus on what I already had going. I didn't have a problem with that, but that did change the course of my trip. I still felt that I was supposed to go, and began praying for clear direction. It was at that time that one of the dreams that has been on my heart to do for right at 25 years resurfaced.

Long ago, not too long after I go saved, I had read about the Huaorani indigenous people in Ecuador. If you've watched the movie The End of the Spear then you've heard about them. Anyway, for years it's been my dream to go to the Rainforest and spend some time with them. As that dream resurfaced and began to form itself into solid plans, my excitement has mounted. This is Number 2 of one of the major "have-held-onto-them-for-years" dreams that God has brought/ is bringing to pass. The first was last year when I was able to be a part of a mission team to Uganda.

I've been asked, "What are you going to do there?" Well, I'm going to spend time with the people. Hopefully work along side them. Hunt with them. Cook with them. Learn about them. Others have asked me, "Is this a mission trip?" Well, I guess that would depend on YOUR definition of a mission trip. If your question is, "Are you going to go preach to them?", then the answer is no. BUT, the Holy Ghost and I ARE going there together...and HE has a mission in mind, so as far as I'm concerned it IS a mission trip. It's just not what you typically think of as a mission trip.

My Pastor has been teaching a series called Evangelism by Fire for the last several weeks. It is a series that was birthed out of one of our Saturday Night Corporate Prayer meetings. It's been an awesome series (which you can listen to by going to http://www.valleyword.org and clicking on The Media Room link in the left nav bar). In the series, Pastor made the point that Fire was used in the Word to represent the Presence of God (the Pillar of Fire by night for Moses and the Children of Israel, the cloven tongues of Fire on the Day of Pentecost, etc.). [You can check out Pastor's blog to get some great nuggets from his teaching.]

What his point was is that it is the Presence of God in our lives that draws people to God, not how many tracts we pass out or how many people we "witness to." If we abide in God, and allow His Presence to flow in and through us, people will be naturally attracted...without us waving Bibles in their faces telling them to repent or they'll go to hell! Remember, the Gospel is the GOOD NEWS of Jesus Christ...telling people to "turn or burn" just don't sound good to me! =)

Having said all that, let me back up and say this...I'm going to experience them...to live with them for a short time...to learn about them...to show God's love by just being me. Anyway, I've got to get up in 3 hours for church, so I'm going to shut up now! I hope you'll enjoy yourself as you follow along with my adventure. There's a lot more planned that I haven't had time to mention. Until next time...

What God Did On Conference Day 3...

2007-10-06T18:20:00.000-04:00

[I started writing this before passing out from exhaustion Friday night, so the "today" references are speaking about Friday when in regard to the conference. Some of what I say here is strong. It might step on some toes. I'm giving you fair warning! I'm so excited about how God used this "Hallway Encounter" to change my thinking about missions and my behaviour as a missionary. I'm wanting to challenge others to re-think their thought and behaviour patterns as well!]

What a week! The conference is over, and all who attended are left to try to process and absorb all of the teaching. As a volunteer my time was split between attending the conference sessions and manning my station...I was assigned to be a cashier at the upper Resource Station. I never did make it in to any of the sessions today...(I could have, but I felt like I was supposed to be out at my post the whole time) , but I'll be getting the CDs (which I just realized I never picked up after the event, because I was still working) AND the DVDs (which will be mailed to me probably in December.)

Now that I got all that out, I want to focus on how AMAZINGLY God works. I was so brought under conviction and to a deluge of tears earlier today. It was one of those divine appointments that Pastor's been teaching about.

Next to our Resource Station, was a booth that was set up by The Land of a 1000 Hills Coffee Ministry. The ministry is an outreach to Rwanda. What they have done is partnered with the people of Rwanda who grow coffee, and employed many of the poor, the widows, etc. at a very good wage...higher than what they would normally make, and they provide an outlet for those people to sell their quality products at a fair market value price and actually be able to support themselves.

One of the gentleman who works with them was standing there talking to one of the conference attendees. I was next to them pouring creamer into my coffee...minding my own business, and not prepared in the least for the paradigm shifting changes that God was getting ready to put in motion in my life in the next couple minutes. I'm tearing up even now as I think about it. Because I was positioned right next to the two men, I overheard their conversation. Boy, talk about "positioning yourself for change", Pastor!

The coffee man was sharing about when Americans go over to Rwanda (and other countries, as well) to "help the people" with their missions projects. We go over with our missions projects, our plans, our agendas, our programs, etc. And we say we want to make a difference. Now here's the part that started to really get my attention... Yet those same people will go to the markets, the souvenir places, etc. and try to talk them into charging Almost Nothing for their products. [Now he wasn't saying that it was wrong to bargain with them so long as it truly provides a win-win situation, so listen to the whole thing before you get offended!]

We who come from our society of affluence and the land that has sooo much...we get to a place where the people are just trying to survive, just trying to provide enough money to feed their families...and we'll talk them down from $5.00 to 0.50-cents and feel so good about ourselves. Yet, we may have just robbed them of the very opportunity to feed their children that day. [As I share this, the tone I'm using is actually a little stronger than what the coffee man was using. I'm conveying it the way it hit me.]

Some might say, "They didn't have to sell that item to me. I didn't force them to take my offer." Well, that might be true, but since there was no other guarantee of any income coming in, you may have been their only hope. If they didn't sell to you, there might not be another sale that day, or enough sales that day to support them. The man's point was that if we say that we're really interested in helping them, then why don't we treat them like the Word says.

I've gotten off his words a while back and I'm preaching now...I can't help it. As the man had been speak, my conversation of just 20 minutes prior to that flashed through my mind, and my heart broke. I had been talking about Sales to another Resource Center Volunteer. "Somehow" I had started talking about Uganda and our marketplace experiences. You know, "I was able to talk them down to...!" As I thought back to that the Holy Spirit brought such conviction on me, and the tears wouldn't stop.

The Word says about workers that, "the laborer is worthy of his hire," and tells us to, "not muzzle the ox." About the poor, he says, "He that has pity on the poor lendeth to the Lord, and him He will repay." Those of us from Valley Word who went to Uganda in February went there with a sincere desire to help the people. That's why we worked in the hospital and toiled to build the Chicken-Fish Pond Project. So that we could "Teach a Man to Fish." Yet, how would it be for THOSE people once they raise chickens, fish, eggs, and crops from the project if the buyers would only pay them far less than what they were worth, and maybe even at a loss to the sellers? If those were the only buyers, the chicken sellers couldn't say "no." What would they do with their chickens then?

There's no way that I can convey how all of what I've attempted to put into words has affected me and my mindset (1) as an ordinary traveler and (2) as a missionary. I re-read it, and it's so inadequate in conveying the impact that encounter had on me. In talking about it later that day with Pastor Doug, a pastor who I met there at the conference, he echoed my sentiments. He shared a story from the years he spent in South Africa as a missionary. He said that one of the most embarrassing experiences he'd had was when he had taken a visiting church group with him to the market area before they returned home.

The people who sold things in the market were the people to whom he'd been ministering and with whom he'd built relationships over a period of time. One in the group, a pastor as well, came up to Pastor Doug at the end of their shopping experience and bragged about how he'd gotten the seller to come down from the original price in Rand to a MUCH LOWER price in Rand. Basically he had talked the person down 80-90%. Pastor Doug turned to him and said, "Congratulations! You've just succeeded in taking the food out of the mouths of that person's children today! Enjoy your trinket!"

I want to challenge everyone out there who reads this. We can have our cute little slogans, like teach a man to fish, etc. But we can't empower him to do that if we want to take advantage of him in our marketplace dealings with him. If your boss walked in to you and said, "I don't want to pay you what you're making (or what you're worth). I want to get a bargain! I'm only willing to pay you half of what you're making now!" How would you react? Wouldn't be a pretty sight, I'm sure! Let's learn to empower people and allow them the dignity of earning an honest days wage for their work. My life will never be the same...I hope I've at least caused you to think about what I've shared.

Continuation of LIVE BLOGGING from Catalyst 2007

2007-10-04T18:09:00.000-04:00

These are raw notes, probably with spelling errors, formatting issues, etc., but it's what I can get down in print during the speaking.

Pastor Sunday Adelaja from the Ukraine. Founder and Senior Pastor of the largest Evangelical Charismatic Church in Europe.

Launching something Feb 8th to take back the US for the Kingdom of God. Do Church in a new way and go out and engage every area of culture/society: media, business, workplace, marketplace, politics, music, etc.

Speaker: Rick Warren

Stop praying, "God Bless Me," and start praying, "God help me to do what You are blessing."
Where is the Kingdom of God? It is wherever Jesus is King.
What is the Kingdom of God? God's people fulfilling God's purpose on God's planet for God's glory.
If you want Jesus to come back, just get out there and start sharing your faith. Because the end will not come until the Gospel has been preached to all people.
If you want God's blessing in your life you must get with God's agenda.

How would you feel if someone said to you, "I love you but I hate your wife."? Or, "I love you, but I hate your body."? You'd be offended.

God wants you to learn to love the real church, not the ideal church...with all it's failings and shortcomings.

The only thing that's going to last on this earth is God's family. The heavens are going to pass away. The earth is going to pass away. It's His family, that he created for himself that's going to last.

God to Moses: What's in your hand Moses? "A staff." Something that was dead became alive. Then when he picked it up again it was a stick.

When God asks you a question, it's not for His benefit.
Whenever God does a miracle it is to teach a truth.

The staff represented Moses' identity.
1. Represented who he was.
2. It represented his income or possessions. (They didn't have stocks, they had flocks! :D)
3. It represented his influence.

I want you to lay it down, your identity, your influence, your income and I'll make it alive. And every time you pick it up into your own hands again it will turn back into something dead again. From that point on it is no longer called Moses' Staff, but "The Rod of God!"

What is in YOUR hand? Your personality, your education, your position, your finances?

What did you do with my son, Jesus Christ? I hope it's that you made Him your Saviour, Lord, Master...we don't have a snowball's chance in hell without Him.

What did you do with what I put in your hands?

Forever changed and challenged by a church of 50 people in Africa "that was doing more for the poor than my Mega Church in California." That Pastor would walk 1.5 hours to the Post Office in S. Africa where there was internet, download Rick's sermons, then walk back 1.5 hours. He told Pastor Rick that HE WAS THE ONLY TRAINING he'd ever had! That challenged and brought tears to his eyes.

Purpose Driven Life..."I figured if 'it's not about me' then the money (10's of millions of dollars) wasn't for me either.

The spirit of Affluence vs. the spirit of Inflluence. Money vs. Fame. 1 Corinthians 9. Paul refused to take wages.

Stopped taking a salary from Saddleback Church. Added up all the money he'd been paid as a salary over 25 years, saved "$1000's of dollars not buying socks!" :D Became Reverse Tithers...give 90% and keep 10% to live on.

Designed a bumper sticker: "Tithe if you love Jesus, any fool can honk!"

Psalm 72 What did Solomon pray for and WHY? The Purpose of Influence is so YOU CAN SPEAK UP for those WHO HAVE NO INFLUENCE!

It's been 500 years since we've had a reformation in the church...the first one was about Creeds, the Second one needs to be about deeds. Not what the church knows, but what the church does! The arms and legs of the church have been amputated, and all that's been left is a BIG MOUTH!

1. ___________________
2. Corrupt Leadership. Don't let SERVICE become ServUs!
3. Poverty
4. Pandemic diseases. 500 million people will get Malaria this year...why do we still have that disease when we know how to get rid of it? 30,000 kids die every day of preventable diseases,
if we don't care we are saying that they can all just go to hell. Care for poor, educate the people, healed the sick, equip the next generation... [I missed a good part of this...he talked too fast]

"If we don't go out into the world where they are broken and hurting and pick up the cross...then I doubt our Christianity."

Live Blogging from Catalyst 2007, Day 2

2007-10-04T09:50:00.000-04:00

Conference day 2. Live Blogging from Gwinnett Arena, Duluth, GA.

Speaker: Andy Stanley

The word Power...has become a new 4-letter word among leaders.
If you're in leadership you have power. You must use it in a way that glorifoes God.
Question: What do you do when it dawns on you that you're the most powerful person in the room? Confrence setting? Counseling session? Board of Directors Setting?
This is the moment in the life of a leader that shapes the character of a leader!
Youn have no idea how many people God wants to influence through you! You're fear of power might be the very thing that makes you a prime candidate for God to use you!

John 13:1-8, 12-17

1Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He now showed the disciples the full extent of his love. F65 2It was time for supper, and the Devil had already enticed Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to carry out his plan to betray Jesus. 3Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. 4So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, 5and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel he had around him.

What's your next move when it dawn's on you when you're the most important person in the room? What did Jesus do? He took off His robe, the symbol of His Authority, and leveraged His power for the sake of the others in the room...he stunned His disciples and made them uncomfortable at His place of humility!

6When he came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, "Lord, why are you going to wash my feet?"

7Jesus replied, "You don't understand now why I am doing it; someday you will."

8"No," Peter protested, "you will never wash my feet!" Jesus replied, "But if I don't wash you, you won't belong to me."
12After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, "Do you understand what I was doing? 13You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and you are right, because it is true. 14And since I, the Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other's feet. 15I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. 16How true it is that a servant is not greater than the master. Nor are messengers more important than the one who sends them. 17You know these things—now do them! That is the path of blessing.

Jesus was saying, "There's coming a time when YOU will be the most influential person in the room, and this is what you need to do! In my moment of GREATEST RECOGNITION OF POWER...I took off my symbols of power and decided to leverage my power for the good of the people in the room."

The disciples GOT IT, they got the message in the upper room.

What's your next move when it dawn's on you when you're the most important person in the room?

You look around and leverage that power for the sake of the other people in the room! If you do anything other than what Jesus did...if you leverage your power for yourself, you're saying that you're greater than Jesus. And you're operating out of an actual weakness!

You HAVE TO ASK YOURSELF, "How can I leverage the influence that I already have for the good of the people in my sphere of influence?" As you do, you will also grow in influence. Doing this will define who you are, what the character is, of your leadership. I'M NOT GREATER THAN MY MASTER. I'M NOT GREATER THAN MY SAVIOUR. And if HIS first response was to humble Himself and leverage His power for the good of those in the room with Him...then who am I to do anything less?

Catalyst 2007 Conference Labs Highlights

2007-10-04T00:36:00.000-04:00

WOW! What a day this has been! I'm here in Duluth, just outside Atlanta at the Catalyst 2007 Conference. There have been various Labs all day long, and, oh my gosh, they've been great. I don't have a way to share all that I heard, but I'm going to share a nugget from each lab.

The first one that I attended was called Intercultural Competency. One of the points that the speaker made was that we can't achieve an intercultural environment in our churches "just because we should," or because, "we'll look better," or because, "it would be nice." The only way we can achieve that is by realizing that we NEED an intercultural environment. She stated that if we aren't creating an environment where people are needed, feel needed, and there would be an empty hole if they weren't there, then people won't stay! If you say you want Hispanics or Asians in your church, do you really mean it? Are you reflecting a need for them to be there? And what are you doing to reach out to that ethnic group to draw them in? Any music geared toward them? Any speakers geared toward them? She made so many good points and challenged the listeners to the max!

The next Lab I attended was on Catalytic Thoughts that Catalytic Leaders Think. The speaker was the leader of the Axis Group at Willow Creek Church...a very large, growing church. One of the first questions that she asked the couple thousand listeners was, "Who is the most difficult person that you lead?" My immediate thought was, "myself!" And, lo and behold, that's what she said next. "The most difficult person that we lead is our self, and the most important person that we lead is our self!" And if we aren't leading out of a life that's overflowing with the life and vitality of God, we can't bring about change in other people's lives. There was so much that she went on to say...I wish I could just post all of my notes (but they're handwritten..so not real legible to most normal people :D ).

Then there was the Lab on Change Without Compromise. I don't even know where to start to share what that speaker said. I guess I'll echo his statement that, "Jesus was a walking Defining Moment, and He always called for transformation!" God is all about CHANGE. And he went on to say that when we have the attitude that CHANGE is a 4-letter word, we're actually going against God. There is one thing that CANNOT CHANGE, and that's the message, BUT the METHOD HAS TO CHANGE TO MEET THE AUDIENCE! One thing he said was that, "If the people cannot understand the truth [because of the way it is communicated] then it is irrelevant to them. In order for a truth to be relevant to someone, they MUST UNDERSTAND IT!

Well, it's late, and I have to get up in 3 1/2 hours. There's so much more to say....I'm at my CouchSurfing Hostess, Amy's, house right now. It's been awesome, because she spent 3 months in Israel this past summer and I've had a chance to look at pictures! :D :D Anyway, bed is calling!

On the Road Again!

2007-10-03T08:27:00.000-04:00

Well, I don't have time for a long post (Go ahead, say it...Yeah, right! You don't know what a short post is!), but wanted to update everyone who cares...I'm on my way to Atlanta for the Catalyst Conference [www.catalystconference.com], and I'm EXCITED! And, I'm in a weird mood, as my writing style, I'm sure, will reflect.

In typical Bird fashion, my trip didn't start out exactly as planned...What should have been a routine tire rotation before leaving Roanoke ended up being a 6 1/2 hour long process of getting a CV Shaft installed, and then...after breaking down on the off-ramp coming off of I-581 onto Orange Ave...realizing that the parts place sent them the WRONG PART.

Well, that shouldn't have been too big a deal, right? --oh, I seem to have gotten ahead of my story! Well, as I said, the car broke down on the off-ramp, just as I was merging onto Orange Ave. The LOUD GRINDING NOISE kinda gave me a hint that SOMETHING was wrong. Uhm, that doesn't sound too good...and then the fact that after a couple of jerking motions the axle froze...well that wasn't too good either. Even in my tired state I had a clue that something wasn't quite right!I called the shop (Merchant's Tire on Franklin Rd.) and after being lulled by their hold music I got a live person who offered to send a tow truck for me.

In the meantime, my best friend, Debbie, showed up to make sure I was OK (friend's are awesome!) and after about 20 minutes, 6 police officers in 4 squad cars also dropped by and protected me and my poorly positioned car from traffic. It was funny at the time, because there were so many of them that showed up...I kept thinking, "I hope no one from church drives by and thinks I'm being arrested or something"...yeah, tired minds think weird things! :D Well, the tow truck showed up (and so did another good friend..thanks Shelley!), and brought me and the Kia back to the shop. I sat down to wait...again.

Now the plan had been to be in Atlanta by 7pm Tuesday Night (you know...strange area..daylight...etc). I was going to look up my CouchSurfing host (Amy) where I'm staying Wed-Fri night to meet her in advance. By 12:15 I was getting the feeling that I might not make my plan happen...At some point after that I had a chance to ask the nice man (who seemed to have bad news for each customer) what the status was on my car. It was then that I learned that they were still waiting on the RIGHT part. It seems that every CV Shaft that was delivered was a repeat of the first incorrect one! The accuracy of their parts providers just exudes confidence in them!!! NOT!

Still...I had to laugh, as I am right now (at 5:10am in my hotel room in Statesville, NC multiple hours late for my 8:00am workshop in Duluth, GA. Only 5 hours away...I digress...) it was all very comical to me the whole time it was happening. That, of course, comes from the fact that when things start to happen I try to run to God first and trust in Him as my source (I think I've heard a wise man say something about that a time or two recently...thanks Pastor!). Well, several CV Shafts and several hours later, I finally rolled out of the Merchant's parking lot. It was only 3pm by that time...no sweat! I still had about an hour or so worth of running to do before I could leave Roanoke, so I didn't actually leave town until close to 4:30pm. So much for making the Atlanta International Hostel for the night. Their Check-In Desk closes at midnight.

One fact I forgot to mention earlier is that I'd only had 1 hour sleep Monday night...go ahead, make that sarcastic comment. I know you want to! Anyway, by 4:30pm I wasn't the most rested person. I downed a bottle of the 5-hour Herbal "Keep You Awake" Stuff. Uhn-huh, sure! By the time I got to Statesville, NC my body was saying STOP! NOW! Which I did. Which is why I am here. I tried to log on to the free WiFi when I got here to send "a couple quick e-mails" (yeah...I know...), but it wouldn't let me online! Funny (yeah, Lord, funny!) when I got up at 2am it let me on without any problem...OK, so I needed the sleep.

Well, I've put in an hour and a half of work this morning and need to shut up and get on the road. So I'll update you all later on. Love to all my family and friends! Sandi

Sandi's Final Florida Vacation Entry

2007-06-25T15:27:00.000-04:00

Well, I finally finished the Everglades entry, and...Praise God!...other than recuperating from the burns and bites we've had no major problems since then...well, except for May Ruth's two falls from that tree Friday...

When we left the Collier-Seminole it was already pretty late, and we were all exhausted. We hadn't planned on any hotel expenses, but due to the emotional and physical state we were all in, we spent the night in a hotel in the Naples area. We also got a good warm meal at Cracker Barrel. It wasn't until in the morning (Tuesday) that Rachael and I really realized how badly we had been burned. Neither one of us could hardly walk. Talk about pain! That was a week ago, and it wasn't until yesterday that we were able to stop taking pain meds every four hours around the clock. The makers of acetaminophen and ibuprofen made some money on the two of us and the kids.

There is a place called Dinosaur Playground in Naples. It is an incredible indoor playground for kids that even has a music room complete with a drum set and guitars. We took the kids there to try and make up for some of the pain and suffering they had endured the last couple days. They had a blast. Someone needs to build one up here in Roanoke or Salem. After we left there we headed towards Palmetto, FL. The boys had agreed to work with their dad one day to make an extra $100 each as our cash supply was somewhat low. We arrived at Sonny's without mishap. The guys went fishing that night and Rachael and I went to bed early. She and I spent much of the next day doing laundry...washing the swamp muck from our clothes and gear. I also had a chance to visit with my mother-in-law whom I hadn't seen in years...I guess it's been since before my divorce in 1998. She's as feisty as ever! :D It was really good to see her. I've missed her a lot, and we only talk occasionally by phone.

After the boys got done working that day we said goodbye to everyone (Mom, my-ex, and my sons' half-brother, Dakota) and headed towards Ft. DeSoto State Park. Oh my gosh! I've visited and camped in State Parks all across the USA, but this was the best one I've ever been to so far! The park covers five interconnected islands and is unspoiled by the commercialism of the nearby Tampa Bay area. It was pretty much perfect. We had two campsites the first two nights that we'd had to purchase back in January. They were the most sought after sites in the park and the Park Ranger who checked us in was stunned..."How did you get both of these sites? And for TWO NIGHTS!" Troy and I looked at him and simply said, "It was God." He looked back and said, "It HAD to be divine intervention, becasue NOBODY ever gets both of those sites at the same time and especially for more than one night!" We smiled. God is so faithful, even when we're less than obedient!

They save a few sites for walk-up registration for the weekends, and we wanted to stay Friday night as well. I got in line at 6:45 am and there were already over 20 people standing there hoping to get a site. I had to stand there over an hour with the biting no see 'um, but I got that third night! We had to move to a different site, but that was just fine. It was beautiful too. We spent our time there swimming, fishing, relaxing, and recovering from the first part of our trip. We have a lot of family within 30-90 minutes of Ft. Desoto, so we had a cookout Thursday night and invited all of our family to come out, but the only ones who actually came were Sonny and Dakota.

Saturday we packed up, toured the old Fort DeSoto, and began our trip home. We picked up a hitchhiker named Bill on I-4 and gave him a ride to the point where we were exiting the interstate. He'd hitched from California and was going to the Daytona area to do roofing work. We were glad we could offer him a ride, a cold drink, and a snack to eat. We made a detour to Apopka and swam in Wekiwa Springs, which was wonderfully refreshing. Florida Springs are beautiful. From there we headed home. I'd planned on driving all night to get home for church Sunday AM. I felt like I was starving for some good teaching. I got so sleepy, though, that I wasn't able to drive any more. Troy was exhausted as well, so I decided to suck it up and get a hotel room for the night. I was still in a lot of pain from where some skin had sloughed off of my leg and it was raw and oozing. I wanted a real bed. The Holy Spirit led us to an inexpensive, yet nice and clean hotel, and we all got some much needed rest. We got back to Roanoke late yesterday evening where my wonderful daughter, Zipporah, and her finacee, Thurston, had food ready to throw on the grill for us. It's good to be home!

Part 3- What Happens When You Ignore That Still Small Voice Inside?

2007-06-25T06:43:00.000-04:00

When I left off on my last post I was talking about the swarm of bees around our screenroom. I know that Troy and Rachael have already given their accounts, but I've got to finish mine...because I'm back home now and if I don't finish it tonight it won't get done. And I've got so much to say!

Back to...the bees. You remember those cartoons you used to watch as a kid? The bees would swarm some cartoon character and form a big arrow as they chased the poor schmuck! That picture flashed across my mind briefly during this ordeal. That and one of those horrible movies that they used to come up with, you know "Attack of the _________" You fill in the blank with anything deadly or creepy and there's a movie out there somewhere with that name. Well, "Attack of the Bees" came to my mind...it was like a horror movie when they were swarming all around us, but there was this sick sense of comedy to the whole thing too. It was almost surrealistic.

Thank GOD for our screen room. I'm going to write to the company and let them know that their First-Up brand screen room saved our life! I had originally purchased one of those cheapie screen rooms from Kroger, but it broke on the first use the weekend prior to this trip. The boys and I had discussed going ahead and spending the money on a good one. One that was easily set up and much sturdier. It didn't come with the screen option. That was an afterthought during our last late-night Wal-Mart run before leaving for Florida. We grabbed it because of the mosquitoes (too bad we couldn't have used it in the boats!), and we've praised God for that $30 investment ever since.

It is so funny know as we look back at the scenario. I SO wish we'd had a way of filming the entire scene! Once someone got the idea (Troy, I believe) to slowly move our screenroom from under the bees' nest we moved all of our gear to the end of the room closest to the boats. Then we each picked up a corner--lifting very little--and walked the whole screen room several feet towards our escape vessels. It took a couple tries, but we finally managed to get over to relative (Ha ha!)safety where we could start to pack up the boats. By this time the bees had either gone away or back into their nest so the boys and I were able to venture out and begin packing our boats.

By the grace of God there were no more bee incidents as we were packing, and we were even able to engage in some interesting conversation with this really nice biologist who was studying marsh snakes. I thought it was funny...He's canoing around, HOPING that a snake WOULD fall out of the trees into his canoe, and all that last night in the dark as we kept dragging into the overhanging mangrove trees I was HOPING that a snake WOULD NOT fall into our raft. Again, by the grace of God, none did. The biologist, Kerry, had planned to stay where we were just leaving, so we warned him about the bees. He taught the kids a little about the different crabs and birds around us [and the history of the area where we were standing] while we got the rest of our gear loaded, and we were able to leave without further incident.

The Tide was with us on the way back towards Mud Bay. And a short way down the river we were able to catch a tow from some guys on a fishing boat. That rocked!!! Saved us probably 1 to 1 1/2 hours of return time! They towed us as far as mud Bay, which was too shallow for their size vessel to navigate, and we had a peaceful trip across the now beautiful area. We could even see the white PVC pipes we'd been searching for...imagine what a little daylight will do for you! :P Once we exited the Bay and entered Blackwater Creek again it was a little tougher going, for the boys that is, because they were pddling against the current again.

Oh, I forgot to mention the sun...how could I forget! We had all applied liberal amounts of SPF 30 sunscreen, but the sun was literally baking us. We had packed quickly, so hadn't thought to leave any cover out [and at 90+ degrees who wants to sit under covers?]. Rachael finally dug out a towel and threw it across us. We were pinned in one position for the several hours that it took us, so we couldn't move around to change which parts of our legs were exposed. The sunblock failed and we've got some nasty 2nd degree burns to show for it. In the SPF 30 vs FLA Sun, the sun was the definite winner. Mary Ruth has drawn a number of pictures since then where, as she explained, "this is us MELTING in the sun." KFC's extra crispy doesn't have anything up on us!

Only one more incident before getting back to the boat ramp...the horsefly that flew under Jed's $250 Ray Ban sunglasses...which now reside somewhere at the bottom of Blackwater Creek. If you've ever been bitten by a horsefly, you'll understandwhy he swatted at it. And, yes, he...all of us who wear glasses...should have had a strap on them. Another lesson learned the hard way. Jed tried diving for the glasses, but couldn't even get to the bottom. At least he didn't run into a gator while he was in that nasty brackish water. There's a reason for the name Blackwater Creek.

Back at the boat ramp we got our stuff loaded (as we fought with mosquitoes again!). Rachael was dehydrated. I hadn't realized that she wasn't drinking anything that day. We had plenty of water, but she was afraid she'd have to use the restroom along the way, and that was...uhm...somewhat difficult to do in a mangrove swamp. We insisted that she drink and sit while the kids played on the playground. After a lot of liquid she felt much better. We all made use of the campground shower facilities and then quickly left "The Real Florida" (see Troy's Post and picture from Thursday, June 21st).

Part 3, LOST (actually stranded)...in the Everglades

2007-06-24T21:14:00.000-04:00

So……did I say “get out of hell”? HA! Not too awful long after we left Mud Bay from being stuck, it had started to get light out. My first thought when I saw the sun was, “Oh my God, we’re going to burn to death and it’s going to get soooo hot.” Well, since it was still early in the morning, it was really not all that hot and the sun was not directly above us, so it was very bearable and actually quite nice. But it was basically mid-day now as we were setting out to leave Grocery Place, so the sun was set nicely almost directly above us. Joy!

Like I said before, the raft was incredibly hot, but we all had to just suck it up and take it. The kids didn’t really seem that bothered by it, but then again, nobody really complained about it out loud so maybe they didn’t realize they could, who knows??? So anyway we shoved off and started leaving hell behind. But it was pretty apparent after just a few minutes that hell was all around us anyway, in the form of a shiny yellow ball high in the sky. You’ve never felt hot or even helplessness until you’ve been stuck in a raft in the middle of a river with absolutely nowhere to go and nothing to shade yourself with or cool yourself off with—with three kids, who just don’t understand the situation. It was bad enough being stuffed in the raft overnight with them and trying to keep covered from the mosquitoes, but now we were broiling in the sun with no way to cover ourselves (it would have been too hot to put the tarp we used for the mosquitoes over us). Emma was squished between me and mom, and Layla was tired and cranky, and Mary Ruth was the only one of us who could move around at all, she sat on top of all our gear. But poor Emma and Layla were cranky and squished and HOT. Beads of sweat poured down all our faces for hours.

Thankfully not too long after we set out, there were a few guys in a motorboat fishing. I thought, “Oh, wouldn’t it be nice if they could tow us back to the van?” And it was right after that that Troy asked, “jokingly,” “Hey, could you guys give us a tow?” At first they thought we were really joking and took it as just that, a joke, and laughed a little bit. But then we started to paddle by them, and they got a really good look at us and saw the kids, and so one of the guys asked, “Do you guys really need a tow?” I was so overjoyed, because when they took it as a joke and laughed, I could have cried. I felt like screaming at them, “Hello!! Do you see us squished here and these kids bathed in sweat?? Do you feel how hot it is?? HELLO!!!!!!!” But I did keep my mouth shut even though inside I was boiling, but I was so happy that they saw that we really did need help.

So they towed us all the way back to where we had gotten stuck before, except the tide was in so there was enough water to get through. But we were all ever so grateful that they had towed us that far. It saved Troy and Jed a lot of work, and cut a lot of time off our trip back to the van. So then we started paddling again. Oh it was so hot. Layla was so unhappy. She was writhing and thrashing around, and I felt so utterly helpless because I couldn’t do anything for her. She finally fell asleep for some of the time, and I tried to cover her with a towel we had unearthed from all our gear. She sweated very badly under it, but at least she wouldn’t burn.

Emma also fell asleep after a while, and I looked at her poor little face and it was all swollen up from all the mosquito bites. And Mary Ruth was just as happy as she could be sitting on top of all the stuff. She was hot, I’m sure, but she never really did complain or cry that much, thank God. But she did have soooo many mosquito bites all over her entire body, and as much as I wanted to feel sorry for her, part of me did not because she would not stay under the cover. But anyway…so we’re sitting there. And sitting there. And sitting there some more, the sun beating down on us constantly with absolutely no relief, no break—just NONE whatsoever at any time for several hours. It was absolute torture. And I had not drank anything since before we got stuck in Mud Bay because I did not want to have to pee. So I was dehydrated and getting more and more dehydrated as we went along. My and mom’s legs were exposed to the sun—I mean, everything else was too, but usually your legs aren’t, so they are more sensitive than anything else. I mean, we were just sitting there, not moving around in the boat, with the sun literally baking us.

I don’t think I can possibly describe how it felt. There was just no reprieve. Just imagine the worst, and that’s about what it was. So anyway, other than it being incredibly and unbelievably hot, the rest of the way back to the van was pretty uneventful, thank God. We were ever so happy to see the van. It took us a long time to get everything packed up, and just like when were packing up the boats to go to the camp site, it was thunder storming, but it wasn’t as bad as before—just ironic. Well, right after we got back, we all went and used the bathroom at their bath house. I tried so hard to carry Layla over, but I was obviously very dehydrated and I couldn’t walk or see straight, and I felt kind of delusional. So mom took Layla from my hands, I went to the bathroom, and then had something to drink. And drink. And drink. Then I began to feel better.

The kids played on the little playground for a while and I watched them while everybody else put stuff away. Then finally we had everything put away and we went and took a shower, which felt ever so wonderful. And then we were out of there, on our way to the next place. Yes, we were finally out of hell. So by this point, all our original plans we had had gone down the drain, and our experience thus far had not been all that great. But from here on out things were going to get better. To be continued…

Part 2, An Overnight Trip Into Hell, Or..."Welcome to the Real Florida!"

2007-06-24T20:32:00.000-04:00

I think it’s funny when you go through a horrendous experience, your mind automatically tries to wipe all memory from your thoughts. The past three days of sitting on the beach swimming, fishing, and just chilling have at least dulled the pain. Last time I left you, I was covered in stinking lake mud. Of course it was brackish water, which is semi-salty and very muddy. Sitting there I though how if Mary Ruth were to wake up to me at this moment she would probably think I was some kind of monster. Rachael thought I was a monster. I had a couple hours to sit and think things through. Jed was sleeping, mom and Rachael were trying to, and the kids evidently thought it was a nightmare they couldn’t wake up from…Which perhaps was an intuitive look at our present situation.

After hours, I vaguely thought I saw some difference in the distant blur that was the shore. It looked like water? Maybe? But I wanted to be sure. So I sat another twenty minutes. And waited. Yup it was water, slowly rising. How ever it occurred to me that there was no real point in saying anything to anyone, since it was obviously going to be another half an hour before it reached us at this rate. Finally Rachael said something about the water, and I mentioned I had been watching it come in. She sounded so happy, it made me want to cry. As the water rose we set out slowly, since we were still getting grounded in the mud quite a lot. At one point we decided to leave the raft floating and scout ahead. Though our canoe was by far heavier and sitting ridiculously low, it was so much easier to scout without the huge raft dragging us around with every current. We found the way out, then lost it again when we came back with the raft. Then we found a sand bar and stuck a Tiki torch in it as a marker. Which gave the girls a chance to get out and use the uh... facilities.

The water was rising fast so I drove the torch in deep and anchored the raft off to it as we once more set out to find the passage out. This time we found it, and I left Jed there with a light to mark the channel that had been cut into the sand bar with dredges. I must admit that the next leg of our journey is a little blurry. I had been concerned about conserving our drinking water while stranded in the mud, and so had chosen not to drink anything until I was sure we were going to get out as planned. Then of course there hadn’t really been much time to do it since. And I was suffering from exhaustion. As we entered the mouth of the river, exiting from the lake, the water was surging into the lake at an incredible rate. Unfortunately we either had to sit and wait it out for another two hours, or row “up hill” so to speak, against the current. Of course we chose to do this.

Like I said I don’t remember much except at one point we were next to a tree, and we couldn’t seem to pass it. Me and Jed kept pushing each other to row faster, but for several minutes we couldn’t beat the oncoming water. After two hours of rowing, {only about a mile and a half} we were searching for the camp spot on the LEFT side of the river. Mom was certain the ranger had told her it was on the left. Good thing that Rachael really didn’t have to do anything but sit and look at the scenery, or else we most likely would have passed right on by the darn thing. Yes… it was on the RIGHT side of the river, and actually we had already passed it a little when she chose to mention the, uh, sign. We were however overjoyed to have finally reached our destination.

As we rowed to the “beach,” which consisted of an in-cut pile of shells, I wondered if this place was really all I had been lead to believe. As we closed the last thirty or so feet I began to notice dozens and dozens of what looked like huge spiders sculling all over the beach and among the roots of the closely encroaching trees. As we neared, they all seemed to disappear into dens or burrows. As we stepped out onto the shore I was much relieved to realize from a couple of stragglers that they were, in fact, some kind of crab. Later I found out they were Mangrove crabs. The, err, campsite was, small. Really we had some great question on whether this could really sleep ten? But nonetheless we pulled out our handy quick setup screen room. And after a VERY short discussion decided that we would sleep a few hours, and go back to the van. This time we were going to ride the tide. {That’s using our brains}

I lay down on the ground and fell into a deep if strained sleep. I was awakened by a strange sound, a buzzing? My mind was still groggy, but it was definitely buzzing. I heard Mom shouting to the kids to get into the screen room. I opened my eyes and stared up out the back through the screen into the trees. Mom was shouting about a swarm of huge mosquitoes? It was all so weird. I saw the swarm way up in the air, it was huge. But it didn’t look right. Then my eyes focused in closer and I saw the large honey bee nest in the branch over our tent. Or rather I saw a mass of honey bees covering something which I assumed must be a nest. “So many,” I thought, then spoke out loud, “Yeah, uh, mom, they’re not mosquitoes.”

Then they started swarming our screen room. They would swarm for a few minutes, then stop. And come back a few minutes later. We would stand at the ready to kill any that made it through the gaps. Only a couple did. So we decided to accelerate our plan to leave. I mentioned that our pavilion was free standing, so we could theoretically move it from the inside. We began piling all our gear towards the river side, and after they quieted down for a second we moved it, then readjusted our stuff towards the river again. In this manner we made it to the river completely in the relative safety of our screen room. Funny, even at the time—which was rather tense, we were still laughing at the ridiculousness of what we were doing.

We got to the shore and loaded our stuff hurriedly. After a few minutes a guy in a canoe paddled up and introduced himself as Kerry. He was a marine biologist studying river snakes in the everglades. He was also a very, very nice guy and talked to us for some time as we packed. He even let the kids look through his binoculars and gave lectures on the birds, fish, snakes, and yes, the crabs. When we finished, we said our goodbyes and began to retrace our steps of the morning. After only a few moments however, we rounded a bend and found three men fishing in a motor boat. I “jokingly” asked them if they would mind giving us a tow. At first they laughed, but then they asked us if we really wanted one. Normally I would consider this cheating. BUT, well, at this point I didn’t really care. Besides we really had earned a chance to relax.

Jed held onto a rope and the guys pulled us along. They took us to the edge of the Mud bay, which now was a beautiful lake. Other than having to tack back and forth into the wind to cross the lake, it was pretty uneventful and beautiful. The fish were insane leaping and jumping nearly into our boats. Did I mention the previous night when Jed and I had left to find the way…the second time? The entire time we had been paddling I had been in the stern providing the power, letting Jed sit in the bow steering. But for some reason I asked Jed to let me sit in the front. {I think it was so I could see} No sooner had we set out with me in the front than a school of jumping fish about 18 inches long came jumping across the surface. And one leapt right into my face. I ducked and barely managed to miss being creamed. Right after this I let Jed get back in the front. Anyway, we made it into the other river that emptied into the river leading back to the dock.

Things went well until disaster struck. A large horsefly {about the size of a peanut} flew into Jed’s face and went under his glasses, which resulted in exactly what one would think. Jed violently swatted at his face knocking his $250 Ray Ban prescription glasses off and into the water. What a sickening feeling watching them sink into the dark brown water. Jed tore off his life jacket and jumped into the swampy water, only to find it over 15 feet deep. Goodbye glasses. After that it was a more …mellow trip. We made it back to the van, and realized how badly mom and Rachael had gotten burned…2nd degree burns. It’s now four days latter and skin is falling off mom’s legs. Uh, yeah, it was that bad. The only real alligators we got to see were the ones who came to watch us pack our stuff back in the van.

Well, I think that about does it for that leg. I hope you have enjoyed reading my rather long account. I’m sorry…I think I make a better novelist than a blogger. Cheers!

Part 2, LOST (actually stranded)...in the Everglades

2007-06-22T21:50:00.001-04:00

It’s the middle of the night now as we start to pull out of the mud. Troy and Jed finally realize that they’re really not sure where they’re going. So they kind of leave us sitting there and scout out ahead. Then they come back and we keep going, only to come to another spot that the tide had not filled with water yet. Troy stuck a Tiki torch in the sand here and anchored our raft to it and he and Jed waded around in the water trying to find the right way. Now, I had not peed since well before we set out on this journey, and I had to go REALLY bad. And so did everybody else. So we all got out and stood by the Tiki torch and peed. In the sand. With the mosquitoes biting our butts. But it still felt SOOOOO good to pee.

So then finally we knew where we were going, and off we went again. We just paddled and paddled until it became daylight. Oh, blessed daylight!!! The mosquitoes all got scared away by the daylight and we did not have to cover ourselves with the tarps anymore. And the kids were so very overjoyed by that, especially Layla. So now, with all of us except the kids getting hardly any sleep at all, we still had rowing to do to get to our lovely wonderful campsite. It was really quite uneventful as we searched for the site. I had taken my glasses off a while ago by now because they got so foggy and dirty and I couldn’t see through them anyway—remember that. So now we were looking for the sign for our campsite, called Grocery Place. Troy, Jed, and Sandi are all looking around for some sort of sign or something, and they are all completely missing the sign for the campsite.

[Admin note: Sandi thought the Ranger had said that the sign and campsite were on the left hand shore. Thus the people trying to find this sign/landing area were searching the left bank. The one person who wasn't paying attention to anything save sight-seeing happened to glance over to the right-bank, and lo, what light through yon window breaks? Blessed Grocery Place. Rather, Cursed Grocery Place!]

I saw it, but I couldn’t read it because I did not have my glasses on, so at first I didn’t say anything because I thought, ‘Surely they have seen the sign, and it was just not the right one.’ But I decided to say something. So I said, “Guys, a sign!” They all looked and were happy because, that was it! And I was like, “Well, the girl without the glasses on found the sign.” Yeah, it was funny at the time, it really was, I promise. Anyway, we paddled over to our campsite. As we neared the site, we started getting bitten again by mosquitoes AND gnats, or “no-see-ums.” The two combined were like hell, an itchy hell of which there was no reprieve. I would rather have been on fire because then at least I would know that I was going to die soon instead of have to wait for hours and HOURS in absolute agony for the mosquitoes and gnats to drink my blood and chew my flesh off.

So anyway, all three kids are sleeping so we leave them in the raft and everybody goes ashore to lovely ol’ Grocery Place.
The bugs are so bad that I am walking around whining and slapping my arms and face and flailing my arms every which way in an empty attempt to thwart these hellbugs from making me their dinner. It is not working AT ALL. So I duck inside the screenroom which thankfully has been put up by now. I feel like I’m about to cry and after I had just gone through I just wanted to break down. But all I did was look at Troy with a sad face and quietly say, “I want to go home.” But there was nothing he could do about it.

But we did all decide that we didn’t want to stay there that night, but Troy and Jed were completely exhausted from canoeing and staying up all night in the mud flat. So everyone except Sandi took naps in the screen room. She stayed awake to watch the kids. I was sleeping when I was awakened by Sandi telling me not to put my arms behind my chair because there was some sort of nasty flying creature right above me on the wall of the screen room. She killed it and all was well. I went back to sleep. Then was rudely awakened once again by everyone talking about the honey bees that were swarming around the screen room. There was a very loud hum of all the bees buzzing everywhere. Then I learned the sickening fact that their nest was right above the screen room. We watched in horror as clumps of them were just falling out of the nest onto the ceiling, and my stomach was in a knot knowing that if we didn’t have the screen room, we could all be dead because the bees would have stung us so bad and there would have been nowhere to go. Finally they all flew away for a little while, but then they came back about ten minutes later.

It was that we decided the next time they went away that we would need to get the heck out of there. So we packed everything up that we had taken into the screen room and moved it to the front of it. Then we picked up the four poles of it and moved it up so the back touched the stuff we had put in the front. We did that a couple times until the screen room was at the edge of the campsite at the water. Then we proceeded to pack everything back up into the boats. Then a guy named Kerry came along and talked to us for a bit while we packed up. He was trying to research water snakes for college. He let the girls look through his binoculars at stuff. He was pretty cool. So then we piled into our boats, and the raft was REALLY hot because it had been sitting in the sun. But I dealt with it, and then finally we were out of there, to row back to the van and get out of hell… To be continued…

Quick Catchup

2007-06-22T01:58:00.002-04:00

Not going to give a lot of info here, yet, but figured I needed to post something.

So far, on this trip, we have survived Mom's driving, being stuck in the sand in the middle of no where (In the van), being stuck in the mudflats all night (In a canoe), millions of mosquitoes, killer bees, hours of paddling a canoe up river with a sail (AKA Raft) full of people and gear dragging behind catching current/wind, bad sunburns, and a couple beautiful days on the beach. Those were tough.

Anyway, will detail further at a later date. Adios!

Part 2- What Happens When You Ignore That Still Small Voice Inside?

2007-06-21T05:49:00.000-04:00

OK, so it's Thursday now, and I'd planned on finishing my last post much sooner than this...sorry! I've been silently agonizing over the 2nd degree (sun)burn on my legs. It's blistering up now...maybe it will go away soon? [whimper, whine, moan...] And is it time for more Tylenol or Ibuprofen yet? Sorry, no, I don't want any cheese with that WHINE, but the almost constant pain has brought me to tears more than a few times. If KFC got a hold of my legs, they'd be tossed in the Extra Crispy pile!! Ahhh, the price of enjoying another Bird Family Vacation...brings back such good memories... :D [If you haven't already noticed, one predominant trait of the Bird Family is that we're really good at laughing at our own stupid mistakes...It does more good than the alternative! :0)] I actually tried to start this post last night sitting in the screen room on our BEAUTIFUL little corner of the island in Ft. Desoto State Park near St. Petersburg, FL. We didn't stay here the whole time for what reason?!? Well back to my account of our Everglades Travels...By now Troy and Rachael have gotten a little farther along in their accounts, but I'll go back to where I left off, because we each have our own viewpoint. I hope that all who are vicariously experiencing Florida with us are enjoying your "journey!" Be glad you weren't here in person for this particular leg of the trip. Only the strong survive! When I last posted we had just climbed into the boats (one canoe and one 6-person raft.) We set out at around 9 PM-ish. It was pretty well dark and WAY too late to start...duh! My hulking sons, Troy and Jed, had the unfortunate job of not only paddling their own canoe (full of gear), but TOWING our raft with the rest of our crew and gear. Because of the way things had to be packed (and our unwillingness to do "minimalist" camping for a couple nights) and the fact that the kids had to be piled on top of Rachael and I. I was the only one who could even attempt to paddle, and that wasn't working real well either.

Now Troy and Jed are experienced canoeists, and the distance that we had to travel (approx. 5 miles) would not have taken them very long if it were just their canoe. BUT, towing an 11-foot raft laden with at least 800 lbs of people and gear complicated matters just a lit....LOT! If it would have just been a river trail it would have been great, but our path took us down Blackwater Creek through the mangroves to Mud Bay. There is a (BIG) reason that this seemingly beautiful Bay is called Mud Bay. When the tide is high it's gorgeous. But during low tide, most of the water leaves, exposing open, muddy flat areas (a.k.a. mudflats) over much of the "Bay". It took us over an hour to get to Mud Bay from where we put in at the boat ramp. Remember, we left after 9 pm. Low tide was supposed to be at 10 something!

When we got to Mud Bay we were supposed to be looking for three landmarks that are quite visible in the daytime, but at night it is almost impossible to find them. White PVC pipes sticking up out of the Bay...one at each entry/exit point and one in the middle. Yeah, well... From the satellite map that the park ranger gave us we gathered that we were supposed to skirt the left edge of the Bay and go over halfway around it before finding the correct outlet. That was VERY important, because there are LOTS of inlets and outlets in the mangroves.

We knew we were having some potential issues when we kept bottoming out in the raft and the canoe. And there was no way to find the channel in the dark. Oh, and how could I have forgotten to mention the mosquitos before now? By this time they were ferocious. As I stated in Part 1 of this post, we were armed with mosquito repellent: including Deep Woods 100% DEET, Children's Mosquito Repellant, cans of mosquito repellant for our gear [the "lasts 2 weeks" kind], and even 3 Tiki torches with citronella in them. The Children's Strength Repellent (20% DEET) didn't do squat! We really didn't want to spray 100% DEET on the kids, but had no choice...well, that didn't work either! We rapidly experienced what it felt like to be at the BOTTOM of the FOOD CHAIN!!! We tried spraying the cans of Outdoor Gear Mosquito Repellent on us...that worked for a minute or so longer than the non-effective DEET.

Remember the tide I mentioned? Well, it went out completely. We were "grounded" in the middle of the mudflat. But this isn't just mud. It's the kind of mud that you sink thigh + deep in when you try to get out of the boat...just ask Troy and Jed. They tried it. We were stuck until the tide came back in! Now if it hadn't been for the mosquitoes, it really would have been pretty nice. There was this awesome alignment of the crescent moon with three really bright stars/planets. Of course the camera was buried where it couldn't be gotten to very easily in the dark. Troy's post talks about the shrimp, the blue crab, and the fish, so I won't go in to those, but there were some really cool things out there. There are pictures on the Online Photo Album.

After what felt like an absolute eternity, the water started to come back into the Bay. [God really amazes me with things like the ebb and flow of the tide and how it affects so many things.] As our vessels started to regain buoyancy we all rejoiced. It was such an awesome feeling to not be "grounded" any more. Troy and Jed unhooked the tow rope from the raft and paddled around to find the correct channel to exit the Bay. They located a sandbar that had semi-solid sand [I only sunk calf-deep a few times!]

They came back and towed our raft over to the sandbar so we could get out, stretch, and create our own little puddles (8 hours of “holding it” in a raft…oh yeah!) After a short time the guys found the marker for the correct outlet, and we walked our raft out as far as we could before getting back into it. The sandbar that we’d been standing on was already under water. It was not yet daylight, but we were at least back on our way towards our goal. The Grocery Place campsite…still about 1 and 1/2 miles down the river! I felt SO TERRIBLE for Troy and Jed. They now were not only paddling their own overloaded canoe, and pulling us in our raft; they were also paddling AGAINST the incoming tide! Joy, JOY! I only saw one alligator on that part of the trip (the boys had seen one earlier as the canoe went over it in the water.) The one I saw had just the top of its head above the water. I watched it turn and follow us for a short distance, and then it disappeared into the murky water.

Around 8 AM we finally pulled up to the one piece of real ground to camp on and drug our vessels up onto the tiny beach. The guys were physically wiped out from all the paddling, so as soon as we put up our screen room, I told them and Rachael to take a long nap in the screen room. THANK GOD for the screen room!!! I had just finished cleaning the mud out of the canoe, and the girls and I were catching mangrove crabs. I heard a loud humming noise above the tree that was over the screen room. I looked up and thought that there was a swarm of mosquitoes above us. I thought, “Great, here we go again!” Then that still small voice said, “Get the kids in the screen room, NOW!” This time I listened, and I’m so glad I did! I pushed them in, and tossed much of our equipment and supplies too. As I yelled to troy to let him knoe w that there were mosquitoes swarming, he looked up and said, “Those aren’t mosquitoes, those are honey bees. They have a nest right above our screen room!” Suddenly the area around the screen room was full of bees…it was like a scene out of a horror flick! And screen rooms don’t have floors. So we were trying to put things on the bottom of the screen panels to prevent the bees from getting in and watching the top where the screen and the canopy meet.

I’m falling asleep typing, so I’ll have to leave you hanging there. Sorry. I haven’t been able to sleep this past night because of the sunburn. Maybe it will stop hurting long enough now to get a quick nap!

An Overnight Trip Into Hell, or “Welcome To The Real Florida!” Part 1

2007-06-21T05:45:00.000-04:00

My, my… sometimes hindsight is twenty-twenty, but, then again, you can’t see the past for the black eye it gave you the first time around. Now I know it’s been a couple days since I have written. But I honestly feel like I have more than adequate excu- errr reasons for my hiatus. June 17th was my 7th anniversary. I had originally planed to spend it doing something romantic with my loving wife Rachael. Instead we drove. We were supposed to camp out in Collier-Seminole State Park on an island camp spot called Grocery Place.

When we got to the park no one would rent us another canoe. After some thought, we rushed back up the interstate and purchased a six man raft from Bass Pro Shop. As we drove into the park I read the sign: “Welcome to the real Florida”, at which I turned and smartly quipped my wife, “Now you get to see the REAL Florida.”

By the time we had managed to get the raft inflated, all our gear packed, loaded, and in the boat it was nine at night…… yes, like idiots we decided to go ahead anyway. You see to get to our camp spot on the island we had to traverse several miles of mangrove swamps and salt marshes…And cross an inland tidal mudflat. Then only a couple of more miles of mangroves…sorry, I am fighting nausea at the memory.

First off, we quickly figured out that the raft wouldn’t even dream about keeping up with our canoe {which was so heavily laden it was barely afloat} so we took a tow rope from our van and towed the raft behind us—All 800 pounds of people and equipment. After two hours we actually found our way through the mangrove swamps, into Mud Bay. What we didn’t know until right before we started our journey, was that this whole swamp and basin was controlled by the tide. Yes, you guessed it, we have great timing!!! The water went out in a hurry and left us sitting in the middle of a “dried up lake”. And by “dry” I mean no water and four feet of mud. The helpful ranger had given us a tide chart that informed us we only had six hours to go before it came back in. Joy!!!!

So, to recap: me, my brother—Jed, my mother, my wife, my five-year-old, my four-year-old, and my not-quite-two-year-old daughter, are now stuck out on stinking mudflat at 11:00 at night. We just so happened to have Tiki torches with us, so I lit them and stuck them in the muck all around our canoe and raft. It was a sight to see, I’m sure. But, then there were the mosquitoes. We came prepared—we thought—with four types of repellent. That included the much vaunted “100% DEET.” Six hours of hell. I swear the things were catching a buzz off the stuff.

We kept using the stuff, and after a while I was afraid to use any more, for fear of using everyone else’s. So, after much thought, I asked my self, “What would an animal do?” The answer was obvious, “Mud, an animal would roll in the mud if it was being attacked by vicious bugs.” So I began the task of covering myself with copious amounts of mud, dredged from the sticky lake bottom located just an arms-width away. While I was doing this I discovered many interesting things in the mud. A shrimp jumped into my boat. And by the peak of low tide there were thousands of shrimp crowded around our boat. I also caught a crab about ten inches across scuttling near my craft. All this wonderment wouldn’t have been quite so bad if it weren’t for my three children who were having one of the worst nights of there short lives.

It was almost 90 degrees but we had tried to keep a tarp over then. However, they didn’t understand that they had to keep the tarp over them to keep from being eaten alive by the mosquitoes. Mary Ruth especially would not keep it over her. Consequently, she has so many bites on her we seriously considered taking her to the emergency room when we finally made it back. I am tired now but in the morning I will write the rest of our misadventures in the Everglades. It should suffice to say I am sitting on the beach, relaxing in a cool gulf breeze, and drinking iced tea. Oh yeah, life is good…. That is when it doesn’t suck like a fricker……anyway, there is much, much more to be told, so tune in next time to hear about:
• Being trapped on our island camp spot in a screen room by killer bees.
• Meeting the snake man.
• Paddling three hours “uphill.”
• And much more.
Oh yes, it’s my birthday now. I’m 25. And I often wonder how I get myself into these situations. Being on vacation is so much work!

LOST (actually stranded)...in the Everglades, Part 1 of Rachael's Viewpoint

2007-06-21T05:25:00.000-04:00

Well, I last left you with my experience being stuck in the sand waiting for Troy and Jed to find rescue. Not long after I wrote the blog, they came with four “rednecky” type people in a big old pick-up truck and they pulled us out. When they first got to us, they drove their truck in a marsh and spun out their tires, and I was like, “Oh my God, this can not be happening! Our help can not have gotten themselves stuck!!” But they quickly got their truck unstuck and pulled us out. And guess what? We were not hardly far away at all from the big road on the tiny little road we were on. Isn’t that nice? So anyway, we got out, and we swam in a water hole that Troy and Jed and Sandi swam in a long time ago, so it was kind of nostalgic for them.

And the girls had played in the sand while we were waiting, and it looked like they had basically rolled in it, so we stripped them down naked and threw them in the hole. They at first were not too happy about that, but then Mary Ruth loved it, and Emma and Layla were okay until Layla fell down and submerged her head, which freaked her out, and then Emma did the same thing like two minutes later, and Layla fell asleep on me, naked (Layla, not me), in the swimming hole, and Emma clung to Gramma almost the whole time. But all in all, the swim felt SOOO good after waiting so long in the hot van.

So anyway, after we left the swimming hole, we went on our search for a campground. We were supposed to stay at the campground near where we got our van stuck, but it was closed, and after that experience, we really didn’t want to stay there anymore anyway! So off we went down the road, searching for campgrounds. We visited about three of them, and after Sandi decided they all cost too much money, we kept on looking. We finally found one for a reasonable price, and that’s where we stayed. It was nice, not really any bugs, and it was just pretty nice. Troy and Sandi made a Wal-Mart run for some food. I put the kids to bed, and then I chilled in the enclosed canopy thingie with a notebook and wrote some stuff while Jed played on the computer. And then after a little while Jed and I just sat and talked, waiting and waiting for Troy and Sandi to come back. Then we made sandwiches and went to bed. Little did we know that was probably going to be the most uneventful night we’d have…..

So in the morning we packed up to get the heck out of there and drive to Naples to go to Collier Seminole State Park. Well, on the way there, it was decided that we were going to eat some pizza. We spent like almost an hour searching for a pizza place, ending up in Marcos Island, some VERY rich Florida city, and they had one pizza place and it was closed because it was Sunday. We went back and forth several times through the same cities, before finally finding a Pizza Hut. Now, time was very important today, so please note the time we got to Pizza Hut at 4:00 (roundabout). We were supposed to rent a canoe, because the plan was to have two canoes and canoe down a river to a secluded campsite. So sitting in Pizza Hut we made call after call to try to find somewhere that would rent us a canoe over night. No one did.

So we had seen a Bass Pro Shops 30 freaking miles back, and decided we were going to go there and buy a raft instead of a canoe, because if we didn’t do something, our plans were shot. So they closed at 7:00 and we left at 5:30 from Pizza Hut to get there to buy a raft. So we go, we buy the raft, and then we drive to the State Park to canoe out to our campsite. By now it’s about 7:00 or something, and the sun is obviously wanting to start setting. So, time was very important to us. So we get there with our canoe and our raft and start packing up. And a thunderstorm comes. So here we are trying to get all our stuff packed in these two watercraft and there’s lightning all around and wind blowing. And I’m thinking, “Is this really safe?”

Everybody assures me that it’s completely fine. Well, we take an awful long time to get all our stuff packed, and it is almost dark by the time we set out. The campsite is about five or so miles away. So guess what we are doing? That’s right—we are canoeing in the dark through waters we’ve never been in to a campsite we have no idea where it is!! Sound fun? Okay, well add the fact that Troy and Jed had to tow our raft behind in them, because I couldn’t help paddle because the kids were all stuffed in the raft with me and Sandi. And then add the tide going out (this river feeds right in the sea). And then add the mosquitoes. Ohhhhhhhhh, the mosquitoes. So anyway, here we are paddling down this river in the middle of the night, dodging the branches hanging out over the shoreline, trying to keep the raft straight so it doesn’t pull too hard on the canoe. And trying every so desperately to keep the kids happy. HA!

Eventually the mosquitoes got so bad that Sandi gave me a tarp to cover up me and the girls with. Well, the girls did not like being covered up by the tarp because it made them sweaty, but they also whined and complained about the mosquitoes.
And Layla—ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh, Layla. She was tired, being eaten alive by mosquitoes, did NOT like the tarp being over her, so I had to endure the mosquitoes without the tarp until she fell asleep so I could put it back over us, and then when she woke up from SOMEthing, God knows what, she would writhe around and scream and scream and SCREEEEEEEEEAAAAAMMMMM!!!!!!!!! Until she got so exhausted from that that she would just stop in some random position and sleep. It was NOT fun. For me or for her.

And poor Emma suffered in silence. Every time I looked at her, she had a bad face on and tears were rolling down her cheeks, but she was trying to so hard to keep quiet. And Sandi had the huge job of keeping the raft straight, and the girls talking and crying and moving around so much were really getting on our nerves, and we both lost our tempers quite a few times, including me screaming at Layla and threatening to throw her overboard, to which she responded to me with more screaming, to which I responded to her with a huge hug and tears because I had gotten that mad.

Then finally, there was a lull. All three kids were asleep and we were covered with the tarp so the mosquitoes wouldn’t get us. I tried to get a few winks of sleep, but it was nearly impossible in the uncomfortable, twisted up position I was in with three kids laying all over me. But I did, just a little. And then I realized we had stopped. And Troy and Sandi were talking about a sand bar. I woke up and realized that we were actually stuck in the middle of a large part of the river in the sand. We had left too late and the tide was now going out. We had run aground. Which meant only one thing—we were going to have sit there in the mud and wait until the tide came back. I couldn’t believe it.

So I watched as the water continued to leave the river, feeling this sick hopelessness deep inside me. Then, the mosquitoes came. Oh, we thought they were bad before… HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!. There were literally MILLIONS of them and each one that came up to us MUST have been going home and telling all their friends and family about the marvelous cook-out they were having in the middle of the river. The mosquitoes were literally eating us alive. Sure, you’ve heard that expression before, but this was the real thing. We were doing our best to keep us and the kids underneath the tarp, but they still didn’t like it and Layla threw a fit every time she realized it was over her. But we couldn’t let them stay out of the tarp because as soon as you lifted it off, you were covered in at least 20 mosquitoes in a second, and more several seconds later.

So here we are in the middle of this river in our canoe and our raft, trying to stay covered with tarps so the mosquitoes didn’t eat us alive, our three Tiki torches stuck in the mud to try to ward off the mosquitoes, Jed completely covered in his sleeping bag and curled up in a ball in the end of the canoe, and Troy, who did not have a tarp to keep safe from the mosquitoes, covered himself with the mud from the exposed mudflat. He didn’t know what else to do, so that’s what he did. He also wore mosquito netting over his head, too. So, needless to say, he looked pretty scary! And we had to wait until 4:00 in the morning for the water to start coming back before we could go anywhere. It was the longest wait of my entire life. We waited for about five and a half hours, just sitting there like that, with the mosquitoes getting angrier and angrier as they realized they could not get us because we were covering ourselves. They were!!! Their buzzing was so obviously an irritated and annoying and angry buzz. They were dive-bombing our tarps, trying to get in!!! So then finally the tide started to come back in, and we were able to pull out. Only to discover that we did not really know where we were going…

To be continued…

What Happens When You Ignore That Still Small Voice Inside?

2007-06-19T10:03:00.000-04:00

Well, it's Tuesday, and we're all just getting a chance to post today. I'm sitting in a Super 8 motel room after a good night's sleep...A great change from the night before! [Before I go into any details, I want to assure everyone that we all made it back OUT of the Everglades in one piece. No snake bites, no alligator bites.] As the title of my post should imply...things have not all gone well in Paradise (a.k.a. our Florida vacation). As many of you know, we had planned for months to include a canoe trip and camping in the Everglades as a part of our vacation. And, before I go into the now somewhat humorous, but at times nightmarish journey, let me preface what I'm about to share with the following: I would certainly go canoing down here again, BUT [all VWM people will know what that word means :0) without children along for the journey and with something a whole lot stronger than the 100% DEET that we had with us.

We thought we'd done some decent planning for this part of the trip. We'd researched online, bought a book that included a section about the Collier-Seminole Stae Park, and even made phone calls to them. And, other than knowing that we'd need to rent another watercraft once down here, we thought we'd brought the supplies we'd need. Those supplies includedDeep Woods 100% DEET, cans mosquito repellant for our gear [the "lasts 2 weeks" kind], and even had Tiki torches with citronella in them. We also had a 10 x 10 screen room [more about that lifesaving piece of equipment later...]

We arrived in the Naples area early enough in the day that things SHOULD have gone well. But in trying to locate a place that would agree to overnight canoe rentals we ran into a snag. Now, back in the Roanoke area there are places that will rent canoes and kayaks overnight without any question. Not the places in the Naples, FL area though! We finally ended up driving back up I-75 almost to Ft. Myers to the Bass Pro Shop we'd passed to buy a 6-Person Raft. By the time we got to the State Park a storm was rolling through (imagine that in Florida!) and it was getting close to dark. The park officer told us that is was pretty late to be starting out, not only because it was a long (~5 mile) canoe ride, but also that a part of the canoe trail ran through Mud Bay (shudder...) and when the tide when out the bad would dry up into a mud flat. I was feeling sa growing sense of uneasiness as we were loading our canoe and raft. Those of you who know the Lord (and attend VWM) will understand what I mean when I say that I got that "scratchy feeling" inside. And I really felt impressed that we weren't supposed to head out that night. BUT...there's that "but" word again! BUT, not being willing to spoil (haaa!) the trip for others, I quietly voiced concern and loaded up into the raft anyway. (Can all VWM Family say, DUH to that brilliant move?!)

Time snuck up on me, it's time to check out of this haven...more later. Someone else will probably get to this before me, but I'll finish my account later today.

The Fourth Gospel (Day 2, through Troy's eyes)

2007-06-17T12:16:00.000-04:00

Wow, so yesterday was the first day down here, and what a day it was. To start with, I’m not a big fan of mapquest. And after yesterday I'm REALY not a big fan.After being lead down a series of progressively less navigatible “Roads” we eventually got to the soon to be NFS 51. if any of you have ever driven in sand dunes, up and down side to side, then you will be able to picture the driving condition. “But wait, there’s more!!!!” now add palmetto’s and scrub brush so close to the side of the road, that at several points we simply had to gun it to force our way though. These are full sized tree’s mind you. Still in all for the majority of this section it was fun. Our huge 16 passenger van sits so high, that we rocked and pitched like some tiny ship in a tempest, or a friggin awesome rollercoaster. I was feeling pretty confident in moms driving, and was impressed with how she had handled some of the tight spaces {though a bit over cautiously} so I was about five seconds to late to ask, when she merrily plowed into the deceptively calm looking sand pit. “Mom, do you uhh….remember how to drive in sand?” {whump} back axle hits ground. “No I don’t” well in the end we only spent a few hours stranded there, Jed and I decided to head for the primitive campground we were supposed to be heading for. And hopefully find some to pull us out. After all we were only .25 miles from it!!!! Curse you mapquest! three and a half miles later, we finally reached said camp. And were greeted with a sign proclaiming “Open October 1- June 1” it being the 16^th of June we were…. Disheartened. No biggie, we’ll just walk back the 3.5 errmmmm .25 miles and tell every one. Well we prayed that god would send us some one to pull us out. We had no signal on any of the three phones in our group no signal on the computer, and figured we would be out here some time if we had to wait for some one to find us. As we walked Jed pointed excitedly is that a Truck? And sure enough we could see the back end of a truck sitting on the side of the road. “Yes! Proclaimed some one there will have to ba able to help us.” When we got there it was rather bazaar. After taking a closer look it appeared that some time the night before someone {insert drunken redneck name here} had been traveling down this road at a ….high rate of speed. At this speed they didn’t see the 36” diameter log laying across the road, which they hit at said high rate of speed. The end result was they snapped off the log with enough force to completely snap off there front end in the process, and pushed the log some forty feet. Then bounced over the log and slid sidways another 40-50 feet be for coming to a stop 16 inches from yet another fallen tree that surly would have skewered the vehicle. The note read, in scrawl. “ChArlY _____ Be bAcK In tHe MorNin!

Well no rescue there but shortly after that we heard the roar of a ridiculously over powered engine and new help was on the way. {or maybe charly} we were rescued by four guys in a huge jacked up truck, who seemed to think it was quite funny that we had some how gotten our massively over laden Van down NFS 51 “Why did you ever go down there?” well in the end it was fine, Rachael and mom had a good time typing, and the kids played with there buckets and shovel in the sand. After we got pulled out we got to swim in the blue hole. A local swimming hole spring, that was more black than blue.

But the awesome thing about that, was that the last time we had been there was 1989 when I was a mere 7! Wow it was really cool to see it again, I Remember catching a tiny turtle about the size of a quarter. Once again God kept us safe {in spite of the devil and all his wiles…. Mapquest} and we had a very enjoyable time. Anything less than this would be …. Well boring. And to any of you who know our family, this is all routine. At least it didn’t happen in a 72 datsun pickup that runs on propane, right after a hurricane….. today we head down to our next destination. As Jed so affectionately put it. “Florida’s very own alligator petting zoo. The Everglades” oohhhhh yeah!!!!!

Day 2- From Rachael's Viewpoint

2007-06-17T02:07:00.000-04:00

This is my first entry into our blog, and I’m typing it up in the van like everybody else has done, except we are sitting here “stranded” after Sandi tried to drive through some sand, but she didn’t make it. Troy tried to ask her if she remembered how to drive through sand, but he asked her a little too late, as she drove right through and got stuck. But it’s all good, I mean, it’s funny, in kind of an ironic way. I just got back from taking a number two in the woods, bringing my toilet paper with me in a Ziploc baggie and a big knife in case I had to cut a snake in two if it tried to bite my exposed buttocks. Oh yeah and then I had the joy of burying my poo—yippeee!!! But please don’t mistake my sarcasm for disdain at the current situation. I am still having fun. The girls are playing in the sand behind the van, and Mary Ruth was rolling in it and they’re all pretty much covered in sand. It’s hot as hell (well, maybe not, but it’s pretty hot) but there is still a nice breeze every once in a while that keeps us fairly cool. Now, let me tell you the story of how we got here. Soooooo we Map-quested Hopkins Prairie, which is where we were going to camp for a couple days of our vacation. Well, DON’T EVER MAPQUEST SOMETHING MORE THAN 100 MILES AWAY FROM WHERE YOU LIVE. Because…..it took us the back way on a dirt road for 3 and a half miles, and then we turned down another dirt, uh, road that was filled with bumps and tree trunks and all that sort of thing. We’re driving through trees and our van is barely making between them. And actually it was all really fun and the kids were having a blast, but then, yeah, we hit the sand and poof! We’re stuck. Sooooooooo, yeah. But, it’s all good, not a big deal. The only people who are probably not having a lot of fun right now are Troy and Jed, because they had to walk to the campsite we’re trying to get to to see if there’s anybody there who could come help pull us out of the sand. They’ve been gone for about an hour, and they had to walk in the sandy trail in the sun, not even knowing how far we really are away from the campsite. So they’re probably not having a whole lot of fun. But anyway, so far, our trip had been pretty uneventful until this, and I anticipate many more wonderful adventures in the next eight days!! :O) HOORAY FOR BIRD VACATIONS!!!!!!! :O)

Day 2...Sandi's Version

2007-06-17T01:54:00.000-04:00

Well, it's Day 2 of our trip. We got as far as the Florida State Line EARLY this morning and then had to stop for a few hours for a nap in one of the the always safe Florida Rest Areas. I awoke to the gentle (Haa!) snoring of my eldest child. The sun had just risen, and it was a beautiful sunny morning. We've made great time despite leaving home so late. We had a yummy breakfast of Krystals and are getting ready to get back on the road.

Kickin' back, chillin' in the van. It's noon right now and really hot.(Yeah, I know I just said I was chillin'. That was figuratively.) Remember that old saying that starts out, "The best laid plans of mice and men..."? Things were going REAL good, TOO GOOD, up until aout an hour ago. We were driving along the dirt "road" that is called NFR 51 (you'll have to check out the pictures!) dodging tree limbs, tree trunks, fallen trees, biting deer flies, and so forth. You know..the usual Bird Outing type of things. We came out of the woods and into the sandy part of the road through Hopkins Prairie. Just as we hit a really soft, sandy spot in the road, Troy thought to ask me if I remembered how to drive in the sand...wish he'd asked me that a couple minutes earlier--before I buried the rear tires in the sand! Oh, did I mention that there's no cellphone or Wireless signal out here? Yeah...and no people either. For a long way away! So what do you do in the middle of nowhere when your van is stuck in the sand? Throw up a tarp for shade, let the kids play with their bucket and shovel in the sand...(Maybe they can dig us out?) and do some writing for the blog. Sure, I can't upload it right now, but it's a great time to put my thoughts down while they're still fresh! Aside from that, our trips are always an adventure, so there's no telling what might happen next! I wouldn't want to get behind in writing!

The guys have set out to try to find help. We're hoping that there is someone at the campground (a very PRIMITIVE campground) that might be able to pull us out. Until then...we just wait! It's actually comical...and we've had vehicles stuck in much worse places in the past! Hope you enjoy the pics when we finally get back to civilization to upload! Things could be a whole lot worse. :0)

Addendum: Well, we're sitting at a campground right now. The boys' entries will fill you in on the rest of the story from earlier.

On our way!

2007-06-15T20:48:00.000-04:00

Ohh yeah! how sweet it is to finally see months worth of planning and anticipation coming to fruition. this afternoon after attending Mary Ruth's graduation, we finally managed to get out of Roanoke. In true Bird family fashion....several hours behind schedule. Some how I, being the most grammatically and phonetically inept, get put on blogger duty. No prob, i like to talk! So far we have had a very {and thinking back to many many many trips} very good trip. mom is apparently the only person allowed to drive our new van. Which I've affectionately dubbed "The Flaming Bird Wagon" Or "Ark" for short. I guess my Commercial drivers license and years of experience don't count. Its ok though, other than getting lost in a Burger king parking lot. we have had no "Navigational" errors. And other then being 7 hours late, we seem to be right on schedule. I'm sending up a pic that Jed's boss John, so nicely snapped of us as we left. I look forward to sending a stream of pic's, movies and blogg entries. I'm gonna hop off here for now. see you guys later!

Welcome to The Bird Family Chronicles...a.k.a. What's Up With The Birds?

2007-06-15T03:12:00.000-04:00

[Note to VWM Leadership: I'm temporarily adding this on the Personalized Start Page so you can check up on me to make sure I'm behaving! :0) I'll remove it when we get back.]

We're getting ready to head out on our long-awaited family vacation to Florida. The "we" about whom I am referring are myself, my sons: Jedidiah and Troy, my daughter-in-law: Rachael, and three of my grandchildren: Mary Ruth, Emma, and Layla. Unfortunately my daughter, Zipporah, and granddaughter, Alyanah, were not able to join us, but there's a backpacking trip sceduled in July for Zip and myself...

In discussing our upcoming vacation with friends, co-workers, and family, many people have voiced concern for our safety...you know: What about the alligators, pygmy rattlesnakes, copperheads, theft, murder, etc...the usual stuff people try to speak over you out of their own fears... (I didn't intend for that to sound mean, but it is the truth.) Then there are others who are just plain curious or excited about our camping plans which includes a couple nights in the Everglades at a campsite that is only accessible by canoe or some other watercraft and two nights on the beach in Ft. Desoto State Park. I decided that the easiest way to disseminate current information about our family to those who are interested was to post to our own blog. Thus...The Bird Family Chronicles Blog was born!

A little bit about our trip: While we're gone we'll be celebrating: Emma's 4th Birthday on June 15th, Troy and Rachael's 7th Wedding Anniversary on June 17th, and Troy's 25th Birthday on June 20th. I was blessed as a mom to be asked by my son and daughter-in-law to come along and help them celebrate. How cool is that?

We were originally going to be driving two cars to haul our group, but thanks to the provision of God we are setting out in a 15-passenger van that we just purchased from a friend at church. It used to belong to our church, so it's got an anointing on it as an added bonus! :0) Much nicer than having to rent a vehicle and drive separately; plus, we've got lots of room for us and all of our gear!

We're planning to camp in three different places in Florida, all of special significance to us in one way or another. The only family "visiting" we're planning on doing is inviting everyone out to our campsite in Ft. Desoto State Park for a cookout one night. We'll be about an hour from everyone, so we didn't think it was too much to ask people to come to us.

Well, time to get some sleep...yes, I'M going to get some sleep! We'll update you soon, and we'll be posting pictures on our family Flickr site. We hope you'll all enjoy our vacation as much as we're planning to enjoy it!