Right Before Christmas

It has been a really long time since the last blog.  Plenty has happened and I will do my best to remember it.  It may not be in order.  Please just go with the flow.

First thing is Greg was just promoted to Captain!  I am very proud of him!  Although he says anyone can make Captain (I think he is more excited about it than he lets on).  I will put some pictures up with captions.  There is a video, but it is hard to hear because it was windy and I cannot get it to upload from my computer.

Me learning that I have to pin Greg's rank on and when I have to go up.

Group that came to the ceremony

Trying to pin Greg's rank on (didn't have a clue what I was doing)

Greg reading his post ceremony card from his flight

I have been becoming more and more active with the spouses club.  I have been helping with the gift shop that the AOSC runs (Andersen Officers Spouses Club).  We just got a shipment in from the Philippines and we open 2 to 3 days a week for people on base to come in and pick up some of those cool things you would get if you could travel there.  The funds that we make go to support scholarships and non-profit organizations.  We also did what we call the Cookie Caper.  We baked cookies and had a turn in so that we could collect at least 800 dozen for all the single and deployed airmen here at Andersen. We ended up doing 880 dozen and we were able to give some to the Marines here on base as well as the USO.  It is cool to be making more friends and finding things to do.  However, I would still really like a job and it seems that everything I apply for gets cancelled.  I guess the government has even less money than I thought.  Some of the other things I do to fill my day are cleaning, teaching the dog to be good, hiking with friends, on occasion bowling/golfing.  Also note to anyone who cleans and listens to their computer.  Don't let your lysol wipes to close.  I did that and accidentally spilled the leftovers all over my computer, it got mad and then it died.  On top of that windows 8 is a pain to learn.

A picture from Mango's first hike and she had some friends along too. 

We were smart about sending Christmas presents this year and sent them at the beginning of the month, before the rush and so they would get there early/on time.  It is very different here, because it is the same temperature it was when we first got here.  We are used to the cold winters we get at home.  I will not complain though, because I would rather be warm than cold.  We are only a few days out and Greg just got home to start his 4 day weekend.  He has to go back to work next week after Christmas, but has the following week off.  We decided since we have that week off that our Christmas presents to one another would coincide and we are learning to scuba dive.  I am sure there are a bunch more things to write to you about, but this seems good for now.  We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!  Remember to play for those military members who are deployed and cannot be with family at this time of year.  Thank you all for being such a wonderful and caring part of our lives.

ps we have been getting some Christmas cards in the mail from friends and family. THANKS!

Mango

Let me tell you about our new little puppy Mango.  She is a lab mix of some kind.  We got her from G.A.I.N. (Guam Animals in Need) it is the only shelter on the Island and they have a lot of animals come in.  I have been volunteering there since about the first week we were on the Island.  It has been interesting and fun.  I have not trained a puppy on my own before.  Greg got her for me for my birthday, but made sure that I knew it was my dog and I was in charge of training and such.  Which was okay with me.  I love dogs!  She does all of the puppy stuff like chewing and playing.  I can't wait to take her along to the beach with us.  She needs one more shot before she is allowed to play with other dogs and go to public places.  Parvo is problem on the Island so they suggest these things to help keep your animal healthy.  We have been working hard on no biting and no jumping.  These are challenging when you are a puppy.  It is fun to watch her run around the yard and chase bugs, her tail or anything else that may move.  It has been way fun having her and I can't wait to train her to walk on a leash and play with other dogs. 

Greg has been doing lots of updates to his Jeep.  His first update was to put rhino lining all through the Jeep and take the carpet out.  It is much easier to clean and wash out this way.  It was also fairly in expensive to do, because he did it on his own.  It looks really good.

Yesterday he received the spacers he ordered for the wheels.  He noticed he couldn't turn the wheel the whole way with out it rubbing on the body.  So he looked up some information and ordered the part.  He put them on and it seems to drive smoother now.  We are still waiting for the dealership to set up an appointment to get the car realigned.  This is not an easy task and you have to have someone special do it, because it is lifted and the specs you use to align it are different than the factory specs. 

On Sunday we had our first church picnic.  It was awesome we had all sorts of different culture foods and normal picnic foods.  The best part of the entire picnic was the baptisms.  We were at Ypao beach and several people gave their testimonies and were baptized in the ocean.  My favorite testimony was that of an older lady who gave her testimony in Korean and had it translated.  I couldn't understand what she was saying until it was translated, but I could tell how excited and thankful she was to have God in her life. 

We finally got our homegoods on my birthday.  What a way to spend your birthday and the days following.  There was so much to unpack.  We had a whole bunch of lamps, but that is something that we don't need here at our house.  So we have sold some of them and others are on the facebook garage sale pages.  Here everyday is a garage sale.  People really enjoy swapping things or finding them for cheap.  We found a new table on craigslist.  It was a nice rectangular table with 6 chairs and a leaf to make it bigger in the middle.  It has been a fantastic addition and I feel like we are ready to have people over now.  We are selling the old table and someone is supposed to come get it today at 11am. 

We are still having loads of fun here on the Island.  There is so much to do, see, and taste here I don't know if it will ever get old.   I entered the Chili Cookoff on base.  That is today at 2pm.  It says the secret ingredient is spam.  I don't know if that means we are really supposed to use it or not, but I have managed to make a chili with spam that tastes good.  So here is hoping the judges like it too.  It is in the crockpot as I write becoming it's delicious self. 

I am still on the hunt for a job.  I have not found anything, but applied for many things.  I can't even seem to find a part time job.  If you could pray for that, it would be much appreciated. 

Prayer requests:

• patience (everything takes a longer here)
• that our marriage continues to grow
• that we might find other couples in similar situations as us to befriend

The Horn as promised

We have been doing lots of different things, but I will update that later when I am not watching the puppy run around the yard.  I promised you the horn and here it is.

Vehicles

Where to start...  As you probably already know my car turned out to be quite the lemon.  We decided the best option was to go to a dealership even though it was going to cost more and there would be no way to get all of our money back on it.  So as a run down on the montero sport.  We fixed the following: inner and outer tie rods on the drivers side, radiator, and EGR(did I say that right this time Dad?) valve (which was supposed to fix the check engine light and that didn't happen).  After all that was fixed we noticed some other stuff so we took it in and had them look it over.  They said there was a swaybar link problem and and oil leak (the oil leak I noticed before that's why we had it checked).  I asked about transmission and it still looked good.  I put a box under the car to catch the drippings since we are renting.  A few days later I noticed that it was not just brown like oil.  So I climbed under to check and sure enough it was red fluid, which is transmission fluid.  At that point we took the other parts back and cancelled the appointment and decided to get another car. 

The thing about driving around here is when it rains it doesn't always drain and there are lots of holes in the road (a bit like Burkina but not quite that bad), plus our driveway is very steep.  Greg had talked about how he would like to have a jeep and I told him if he really wants want he should get it.  I always liked that type of car too.  So he began a hunt for a jeep.

I went to the dealership and talked to Renee about trading in the cars and what we might or might not be doing.  She was very helpful.  The second time I saw her we did an appraisal on my montero.  They were gonna give me $2300.  A loss but much better than I thought it would be.  Renee took me around the lot and I found a Jeep that I thought Greg might like.  We set up an appointment to meet with Renee on Saturday.  We had several days in between to think about what we wanted to do and what we could afford.  When we arrived on Saturday at 9:30am and started with a ride in the Jeep.  The funniest thing about the Jeep is the horn.  It is what I would call the mexican car horn.  Here is a link to what it sounds like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAo4lE3dPD8 I will try to record the Jeep doing it and put it up later.  He really liked it, it was a manual, which he wanted, and it already had a lift sat nice and high.  It appeared to be in good condition it only has 54,000 miles on it.  It was a salvage at one point.  So we decided for sure we wanted the '99 Jeep Wrangler. 

The next task was to find a car that would work for me.  So we had them appraise Greg's Accord.  They did not give us nearly as much as we thought they should.  The manager came out and talked to us about it and explained it.  He did raise it some for us since we were going to purchase 2 vehicles.  I think they ended up only giving us like $6000 for the Accord.  I had seen a Tacoma on lot which was amazing, but too expensive.  Then we thought about another Jeep, but still too expensive.  My only requests in a car for here were SUV or truck and hopefully 4 wheel drive.  Well the Jeep had 4 wheel drive so we have at least 1 vehicle with that.  So the one in our price range was a Ford Escape.  For those of you who are in my family you know we always pick on each other for that, because I am on the Chevy side of that debate.  It was tough for me, but I did it.  It is pretty nice though.  I promise to leave it here on the Island and not bring it home.  And I feel much safer in it than the montero. I almost forgot to tell you the night before the transmission leak on the montero I had a dream about crashing the car, because I had no control.  The end result was 2 new cars on Saturday and we were there until like 5pm. 

To top things off for me yesterday I went in the game room to play some video games.  I went to sit on the chair and there was white mold all over it.  I tried sitting in there for a while I got red watery eyes so the chair made it's way to the porch.  We had talked about using air conditioning, and we didn't want to spend too much.  But today I found Greg's had totally coated in it.

So then I began to look around and there was a little on the couch and I can't tell for sure, but it may be in the tiles.  I have some serious scrubbing to do and Greg said to go ahead and turn the ac on.  If anyone knows anything about mold or anything or cleaning that stuff let me know.  I think we may have to keep the ac on at all times and just set it for like 83 degrees or something. 

There have been other things going on, but nothing quite as exciting. 

Frustrating day

We have been settling in to our new house.  We have gotten some new furniture and are waiting for the rest of our homegoods to get here.  Today we picked up a free grill and a free la-z-boy.  We also spent $10 to by a set of washers (the game).  Yesterday we got a great deal on a 42" tv full HD not to mention it was only $375, because we got the display model and that was 25% off.  So those are just some of the new/used things we have picked up.

I had a day earlier this week that was so frustrating to me.  Everything that could go wrong went wrong.  I tried to go on base to get Greg's car so that I could get the oil changed.  The guy at the gate said no and took my paper from my car.  So Greg had to come pick me up at the back gate.  I did get the oil changed quickly.  Then we went to the DMV to get the title and registration put into our names for my car.  While we waited I picked up and filled out a paper to get my Guam driver's license.  The line was super long for driver's license line.  So once we did get the title and registration in our names and left.  Then I went to get my stickers for my car to get on base and the guy had to check to make sure my window tint was too dark.  The guy who had the car before us said it was never in question.  He said it couldn't be more than .2 in darkness and it was .4. So I could only get a temporary pass.  The guys told me the pass was good for 2 weeks, but I had to get the tint fixed.  I left and went to put air in my tire after that it just barely registered it was so low on pressure.  Back to the DMV I went after this.  Only to get there and realize I did not have my social security card.  So I ran back home and grabbed it only to wait in line again.  I finally was called and I showed them everything including my endorsed motorcycle license.  In PA they only give you a stamp on the permit once you have passed the test.  The guys said they would not count that as a motorcycle license, because it has to be on the plastic card.  After and infuriating conversation with this guy he told me I could get the operator license and they could do the motorcycle later, but I would have to pay full price both times.  I have to have my license changed by 30 days after we arrived.  It was a super frustrating day.  When I got home I started working on the tint in my car.  It was some sort of adhesive contact sort of paper so I could peel it off on my own.  Once it was peeled off it smelled terrible and you couldn't see out of the window, because of the adhesive.   I then scrubbed the window with rubbing alcohol.  Fun times!

taking the contact paper stuff off

adhesive leftovers

that's better

Yesterday I joined the praise team for my first rehearsal here.  I had a good time.  These people know how to have a good time.  They would break into a different song when we finished a song.  They had so much fun.  You could see how excited they were to be there and that they meant what they were doing.  

Last night we went out with our friend, Bruce, to a karaoke bar.  That was so much fun!  I got a shout out when I sang "If you wanna be happy" and some cheers when I sang Cher's if I could turn back time.  (Michelle if you would have been there with me we could have done I got you babe.)  Greg even sang 2 different songs, one being "Don't stop believing."  It was a great time and I was so excited that Greg decided he would sing.  Bruce rocked out some of the good oldies and even played his harmonica with the songs.  Super cool!

I think that is all I have to report for now I will let you know when there is more.  

Mysterious

On Wednesday night we went out with some of Greg's friends from work.  We headed to Chamarro Village which is a local spot where you can pick up cool local gifts and try some local cuisine.  We were shown around by a guy who has lived on the island most of his life.  He took us to get some food and told us his brother worked there.  So we waited knowing it must be good, because the line was forever long.  We finally got up there and he told us to stay together and get whatever we want, there was no limit.  So we got food and at the end we just got to take it and go. We didn't have to pay anything the guys brother took care of all of us!  It was very cool! When we finished we wandered around the village.  We learned about some of the traditional tools the Chamarro's used for different things.  I learned about betel nut, which apparently is something you chew that gives you a natural high and also stains your teeth.  (See the crazy things you can learn if you just ask questions!)

We continued to wander when we saw a sign for tuba, which made me laugh.  Tuba is a drink that locals make.  It is a fermented coconut milk.  What an interesting drink.  We continued walking and found more very cool things and foods.  We will have to go back just so we can try the foods.  Before we left we went to get smoothies.  I got a delicious strawberry colada (strawberry and coconut flavored).

After we were done at the village we went to a little place called the Mermaid Tavern.  We sat and talked with one of the guys Greg works with.  We were not there very long and we paid our bill and got up to leave.  About that time a guy sitting there said "Penn State".  I wasn't sure where that was gonna go, but he had seen it written on my shirt.  So we started talking and I found out he grew up in PA and went to high school in Camp Hill, which is right up the road from where I grew up.  As we talked they pulled up chairs and invited the 3 of us to have a drink with them.  We probably talked for at least a half an hour.  It was really neat.  I have this habit of starting conversations and they turn into really long great conversations.

I want to push ahead for just one minute, because I want to tell you what happened Saturday morning.  We got up early to go to a rummage sale, which was a total flop.  It was near Navy so we decided to go snorkeling at Gab Gab.  It was amazing so many more fish and reef to look at!  We saw some awesome things and watched some people go diving right from the dock.  We were in for about and hour and decided we had better get out we don't want to get too sore or do anything too crazy.  We were washing off when who pulls up right in front of us.  These two guys that we met at the Mermaid Tavern, Bruce and Pete.

They saw us smiled and asked us if we would like to go out on a boat with them.  They needed at least one more person on the boat so they could dive.  It is required that at least one person stays on the boat while the dive is happening.  They took us on a free boat ride! We had a blast!  We jumped off and went swimming while they were diving. We sat around on the boat. Everything about it was great!  We went on 3 different dives so it was cool!  We both got a little too much sun.  So we are still a little sore. 

After our boat adventure they invited us out for dinner at a really cool place called House of Brutus.  I had the burger called the "The King" it was enormous.  I will be eating that another day.  We had a lot of fun with these new friends and all because of a Penn State shirt!  It was so cool the way that God worked that whole thing out so we could see these awesome guys we met a few nights before. 

Now back track with me to Friday.  Friday Greg had off and we spent a lot of our day getting all of our utilities transferred into our names.  We also stopped by the DMV, which was so packed we decided not to wait.  We stopped by the stand outside and got a classic sandwich of Guam...egg, cheese, and spam.

Afterwards we just went home, because it just kept raining.  After sitting around we thought we should do something so we went to Jeff's Pirate Cove.  We explored and ate.  The burger we had there was good, but very small. 

I am not thinking of any other super exciting stories so that is the end of this blog. 

New things

I now have a new, used, car.  We got a Mitsubishi Montero Sport.  I really enjoy driving a big car again.  We just hope everything is ok with it.  It was a craigslist car and you can only know so much without driving it for a while.  It has the check engine light on so I am taking it in tomorrow.  It will probably need some new tires as well, but we have to do one thing at a time. 

We have found the house we want and are currently processing everything.  It takes forever because the government has to give us the money to do everything.  We have all the papers signed and just have to go to housing to have them give us the new money.  The house is awesome we were over there today and realized there is a papaya tree, mango tree, breadfruit tree, citrus tree,  and avocado tree.  On top of all of those amazing trees the yard is amazing and has so many beautiful things growing in it.  The inside is very nice.  It has 4 bedrooms and a nice sized living room.  The kitchen is great, except the lack of dishwasher.  There are 2 bathrooms inside and a half bath outside.  The outside bathroom is cool, because bbq's are the thing here.  We have a great side porch with cover and lots of space for such great events as bbq's.  I will get you more pics once we have the keys and are moving in. 

Last night we had the opportunity to go out to eat with a friend Greg knew.  He brought his family along with us and they were spectacular.  The wife was so friendly and the 3 girls were adorable.  I got to hold the baby while I ate and she fell asleep on my lap.  When we went to leave the other 2 girls grabbed my hands and we walked out together.  It was really fun and we can't wait to spend time with them again. 

Today after church we went out to lunch with another couple from church.  It was a lot of fun.  They have been here for several years and they took us to an awesome restaurant called the "Sunset Grill." It had some awesome pizzas that they make on the grill.  Ours had a avocado and shrimp with a garlic oil base.  It was delicious.  We talked about what each of us did.  Then we talked about some cool places to visit while here and just got a helpful view of the island.

After our great lunch we went to NEX to get some snorkeling gear.  We were so excited to go, but we had to wait a few hours, because of signing paper work for the house.  When we finally got to the beach it was closed.  So we went back to the beach on base and snorkeled.  It is really fun and you should see the gorgeous fish in the ocean.  God made a whole other amazing world under the sea.  If you ever have the chance you should try it. 

It was a big day and I just wanted to keep you all informed.  It has been fantastic here and we are really enjoying ourselves. 

New Islanders

It has been a while since I have updated this.  I think we are finally over the jet lag but who really knows.  We were waking up around 4am the first few nights and taking naps around 4pm until bed time.  We no longer need those naps, we do still go to bed early between 9 and 10pm.

Greg spent most of last weekend doing in processing.  I don't think that is done, but we have a doctor and a place to stay so those are good things.  He is going to see the doctor this morning his smashed finger nail doesn't seem quite right it is not attached in the back anymore but looks weird in the front.  While he is there he will also be asking about his ear which has not popped since our plane ride here.

I have spent most of my time learning about where things are on base and volunteering at the local animal shelter (G.A.I.N. Guam Animals In Need).  I have also learned to drive stick much more smoothly.  We got Greg's car the 3rd day we were here and he lets me use it during the day.  The first day we had it I had told him I felt like I should practice on my own so he said to drop him off and practice.  It is kinda fun once you get it.  The commissary and the BX are interesting places here.  The commissary has everything frozen for its journey here so checking bread sometimes ends up in wet cold hands.  The BX seems bigger here than at Andrews, but I don't know if there is a home traditions. 

Driftwood down from the beach on base

House hunting has been interesting we have been working with Martin who is a retired Marine.  He knows all the ins and outs and takes us to the houses.  Finding the houses here is not that easy.  Road signs do not mean a whole lot and sometimes roads turn into side dirt roads that are not labeled at all.  Greg keeps calling Guam a 1st world country with 3rd world charm.  You will drive down the main road and see some shops and then see some jungle then what can only be described as a Burkina stand ( I have yet to get a good pic of this, but when I do it will be up).  Anyway side note on the traveling to and from houses.  We looked at houses from the center of the island the whole way north which is where base is.  It is hard to decide where to live because you hear things like well crime is there, but this is so far, and traffic is so terrible.  We decided we should probably live closer so that it will be easy to work out and go shopping on base.  So we have mostly been looking in the Yigo area.  It is actually pronounced Gigo.  We will look at 3 more houses today and then we need to make a decision.

Our Beach on Base

A second car needs to be bought so that I can get around the island when Greg is at work.  We looked at a rockin' truck yesterday.  It was a '90 Toyota Hilux.  It has a 3in lift, some serious off roading tires, and a nice stereo system all for $3000.  You ask well why didn't you buy it.  Well it was definitely a boonie truck and it was very rusted and certain things in the truck worked and didn't.  It would have passed inspection, because here they just check the important stuff like brakes and lights.  Greg couldn't see us buying that one.  I think that with the price range we have we won't find much nicer than that with 4 wheel drive.  We shall see if we change our minds and want it we can ask if it is still around.  The wife of the guy who was selling the truck is a nurse on Andersen so Greg will probably run into her at work when she gets back from leave.  It would be easy enough to find out about the truck that way.

Church on Sunday was great.  We went to Christ's Bible Fellowship, which is located center of the island,  we were warmly greeted by all sorts of people of different ages.  We were invited to their outreach concert that night in the park with Jamie Jamgochian (famous for being a part of Modest is Hottest).  It was cool it poured at one point and that is how I met Lani.  She shared her umbrella with us and we got to talking.  She has all sorts of connections, because they have lived on the island for 16 years with her family.  It was nice to get connected.  I can't wait to go back again this Sunday and meet more people.

Prayer Requests:

• Our focus on God
• House hunting
• Car buying
• Good, new relationships to form

WE MADE IT!!!

All of our planes were running on time and we made every connection without a problem.  On top of that in Tokyo they called us to the desk to give us seats closer to the front with more leg room and so we could sit next to each other.  (As a side note to that I thought of Joani and dericious, because the lady greeted me and said hello Mrs. Rathbury.)  When we arrived at the Guam airport we got all of our bags and made our way through customs without any problems.  On the other side 3 people from Greg's new flight (I think flight is the right grouping) they gave us leis and greeted us.  The first person I was introduced to was named Michelle.  I looked at her and said I can remember that that is my sister's name.  She said I think I will remember yours because my sister's name is Beth.  Hahaha!  They packed our bags into one of the cars and took us to the inn on base.  This is when it became more fun.

We arrived at the check in at the inn.  We had a house on base reserved for the first 30 days.  We went in and they looked us up and had booked someone else in that house.  But one computer said there were people in it and another didn't.  So we took a drive to see if there was anyone there.  There was.  We went back and the guy called every hotel on the island to see if they at least had something for the night.  Everything was full.  We were getting bored and were watching the tv in the lobby that had the Fast and Furious and decided to get the computers out.  At this point the guy decided to go drive and see if it looked like any of the houses were available.  So like a creeper the man walked around the house didn't see any lights and finally went in.  Turns out that house was available.  We were able to go to the house.  At 2am we finally got to go to bed.  (Reminder we are 14 hours ahead of you here). 

I have not gone on my walk yet but just looking out the window here at the house I can see a gorgeous view of trees and in the far distance the ocean.  I am excited about looking at houses and finding a good house, hopefully with a nice view and plenty of room for visitors.  I am excited to be here and cannot wait to see how things turn out. 

Prayer Requests

• Find a good church
• get adjusted to the time change
• make friends

Maybe today

We have been sitting in the USO for about an hour now.  We got here around 8am and got all checked in. It feels much smoother than yesterday.  We had no problems with the bags being checked in, although we did have to ask about the Tuareg sword because it sticks out of the bag.  They said it would be fine so we shall see.  We did come to find that since I am on the orders as well we could have had a total of 8 bags, but when we asked yesterday we were frustrated and did not clarify so it is what it is we still checked 5 bags.  We know for the next time.  Although I am just not sure how one carries around 4 bags each plus a carry on. 

I have noticed that my stomach has been upset for the last few days.  I think it must be a nervous thing, because it comes and goes and feels different than the normal upset stomach.  For those of you who know me I don't get too nervous or excited about things so this is a new feeling for me. 

Our flight is now as follows we depart at 11:51am to Minneapolis, from there to Tokyo, and from there finally Guam.  We do not have a whole lot of down time in between so I will try to update you as we have time. 

Prayer Requests:

• safety during travel
• bags all arrive
• we make our connections
• we embrace the culture in Guam and shine our light

Heading out or so we thought

I started my day out around 6:30am so we could meet Greg at the airport by 10am.  We got about half way to DC when Greg called and said they changed the flight to 2pm.  Ok we just agreed to meet up and hang out.  About the time we found a place to pull off and meet Greg called again and they had changed the flight to 4:20pm.  We decided to go for lunch at this point and Greg couldn't find the place we had pulled off.  So we met at Hard Times Cafe in Old Town.  We had a fabulous lunch and then went directly to the airport to try to resolve the missing flights and connections problem.  We arrived and waited in line, after parking in 2 separate garages and having to find each other, to find out what to do next.  The lady told us we had to use the check in kiosk.  We checked and all of our connections were the same and we would have missed them all.  So we went and waited in another line.  We waited there while an older gentleman and his family argued that he should get 2 free bags that are checked.  After about 15 minutes of this there was some sort of resolution and it was our turn.  The man at the counter checked everything and the earliest flight he could get us was for tomorrow at 11:51am.  So we told him we wanted to be put up in a hotel.  He said he could at least get us a discount and we argued a little bit with him.  He did get us a free hotel stay.  He told us it was the Hilton airport hotel.  How we were supposed to know where that was I don't know, but the first try we ended up in Old Town.  That was not the right one they told us it was Crystal City.  So as we drove to Crystal City we made a wrong turn and ended up back at the airport.  We took a 20 minute detour and finally arrived.  My Mom and Dad were there for all of this.  They brought me down this morning and they were waiting to take my care home with them.  They were very patient even though driving around down here can make you crazy.  Greg was fairly calm through the whole thing as well.  I believe I would have felt more pressure and not have been as easy going as I usually am.  So I am grateful for everyone involved and the way it worked out.  All this to say we are at the Hilton now resting and enjoying the time we finally have together. 

Back from Burkina

I did not do a whole lot of journaling when we were in Burkina.  I have several names written down, but not much on what we did each day.  I realized when we got back that because I did not journal when I tell people what all we did it is in order of importance to me.  So as I share some of these stories and illustrate how God works they will not be in chronological order, but in order of importance to me. 

Our Team

We left in the afternoon hoping to be allowed into a Tuareg Refugee camp.  We were invited the day before by the church at the L.A.C. We took an offering to purchase sugar and tea, (which are a staple of the Tuaregs) so we would be able to show Christ's light through the act of sharing.  As we arrived and carefully made our way out of the vans.  The missionary men from our group and the local Pastor named Agabus walked over and met with the head men of the Taureg refugee camp.  While they were meeting we all stood around quiet just taking everything in.  We did not know if pictures were allowed so we waited to hear from our leaders.  Slowly children and women came out of their tents.  They came up to us and greeted us.  One little guy named Amadou came up to me and said "comment tu t'appelle" I was confused at first even though I knew exactly what he had asked me.  So I slowly put out my hand shook his and said "Je m'appelle Elizabeth" (for those of you wondering why I said Elizabeth.  My name does not translate into anything nice.  If you say Beth it means stupid.) He then brought over some more of his friends to say hello and no sooner had I looked down at them and back up and we were surrounded by people who were meeting and greeting us.  We began to let our guard down.  Not long after our the missionaries came over and told us we were allowed to stay and take pictures, but asked that only a few of us take pictures.  We congregated under a hangar where we took the tea and sugar.  They asked our guys to remove their shoes and sit with the men.  The leader then gave a speech thanking us for our gesture. 
Here is a link to the video http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=637331061583 
We then proceeded to hand out 5 sets of tea and sugar.  We were welcomed into the tents to give the gift. 

(The thing to remember is that this was during Ramadan so they could not eat or drink what was given to them until later.)
Once everything was handed out they invited us to play with the kids and look at the items they had made.  They asked us to move into the shade so the kids would not get too dehydrated.  We played and bought some of their homemade items.  The really cool thing was the people wanted us to take pictures and they did everything to help us get good pictures and feel comfortable.  It was a real God moment just being there sharing with these people.  While we were hanging out they took Pete one of our Missionaries and dressed him as a Taureg.

We went in not knowing what to expect they only thing we knew is prayer was the only way in.  God provided us with this awesome opportunity to be the first Christians welcomed into this Taureg Refugee Camp. 

Another high and low point all at the same time was passing out grain to the local village.  We did this through Grain of Hope 58:10.  Charlie's team purchased a few bags of grain and invited us to help hand it out.  When the bags of grain were purchased the Pastor at the L.A.C. went to the village leader and asked him to give out tickets to the 30 neediest families in his village.  These people with tickets would receive 2 buckets of grain to take home with them. 

We were set up to have a person take the ticket and the bag for the grain and it would then be filled with the 2 buckets of grain.  It was then given back to the person to take home with them.  When we were through with the tickets the girls who were up front switched with the guys.  At that point there was some grain left and the Pastor would tell the people who did not have tickets whether they would get some grain.  (The grain distribution is to be done in secret to minimize the amount of people who will beg for food who have not been chosen as the neediest.) 

The guys had to form a barrier holding hands with each other and standing as close as they could so that those women who were fighting to get in and get some grain would not get in unless Pastor Agabus said so. 

It was a truly challenging experience.  It was amazing to give out grain to those who need it, but humbling to see how much grain means to the rest of the people who were not chosen.  They would fight and push to try to be the one to get grain.  We cannot truly understand how much it means to be in need of food to keep your family alive.

There were so many different experiences that we had I cannot sit here and write about them all.  These were 2 of the most intense experiences.  I will gladly fill you in on more as time goes on, but this is a lot for one day. 

Here are 2 things you can pray for:

• Sali is a muslim kitchen worker at the team center in Burkina.  We had the opportunity to pray for her.  She asked that we would pray she finds Jesus and that her kids would do the same.  She said she needs a change.  We also prayed for her existing heart condition.  
• Suzanne the kitchen worker who runs the kitchen has been having ulcer pains in her stomach.  Pray that those would go away. 

Shift of Focus

It is funny how your focus shifts from one big task to another.  We have been working on Guam and have now shifted to Burkina for the next few weeks.  So let me share a little about Burkina, what we do and why we go.  Burkina took me captive the very first time I went.  This people group whom I could not speak with, because their primary languages were French and a tribal language, shared an immensely overwhelming sense of love and gratefulness.  You go on these trips thinking you will serve and in the end they serve you.

The Burkinabe (the people of Burkina) live on very small amounts of money and with a lack of food.  Yet through all of this you never see them complain.  Some of the families live on less than a dollar a day.  They will use only one gallon of water a day for everything they need water for.  (That is less than when you flush your toilet once.)  Some of the families have large amounts of children, but cannot feed them.  How do you choose who doesn't get food?  Could it be you? No, if you had no food and died who would take care of your family? One of the children?  How would you choose one?  Would you walk around and look for the weakest?  What if someone came up to you and promised you that your child would be cared for and able to make money and all you had to do was give the child to him?  Did that child just become a child trafficking statistic?  Is that better than a child dying?  Needless to say it is sometimes hard for these parents to love on their children for just this reason.  Other times they have trouble because they have such a small amount of money they cannot afford the doctor.  The number one killer there is preventable disease.



All of this talk of reasons not to love on children, but what happens when the foreigners show up?  The children come chasing the van to follow us to our destination.  Why because even though we don't know them God has given us the gift of love to share.  They will come up and grab your hand and walk around with you.  Some of the children will not have had someone hug them or love on them for a long time.  As you are loving on the children you start looking at their faces and the dirt on their faces.  You realize this, but your eyes are drawn away from the dirt and back to the biggest, happiest smile you have ever seen.  Then you look at the dirty, tattered clothes and your mind starts to race, because you look back at this huge smile.  How is it possible that a child who looks and is dressed like this can be so happy?  What have I been doing wrong?  I have all of these things yet I am never content.  I have parents who love on me.  I have a bar of soap and water I can wash with.  I have new clothes, but I ever thought that was satisfying?  No, I always WANT more.  Do I NEED more?  No!  Now I am stuck in thought about the difference between want and need and just how ungrateful I am for everything.  I wake from my grueling thought process to realize I have just come out of the van and have been at the site for about 2 minutes.  What will happen before the day is out?

Now that you have had a glimpse at the life of a Burkinabe let me tell you what God has in store for our gifts.  You never go on a missions trip with your own agenda.  You go with God's agenda which is to be flexible and help where ever is necessary.  I am not sure how this years giftings will turn out so let me tell you about last years team and giftings just to give you an idea of how things work.  Last year there were 2 engineers, 1 nurse to be, 1 teacher, 3 youth and a college student.  Our engineers encouraged the missionaries just by traveling out to the bush to take a look at a leaky dam.  Because we went out we got more information on the dam than we had over the past 6 months.  (There is something to be said for the physical presence of a person.)  Another time we were at Tanghin and the nurse to be noticed a child with an injured toe.  It looked bad and she talked to the missionary and the pastor.  She happened to have money along to finance the boy getting his foot checked which included a moped ride there and antibiotics.  This may well have saved his life.  Yet another time 2 of our guys were handing out flip flops and inviting people to see the Jesus film.  They ran across a guy who would not be able to come to the movie, but would tell all of his family to go.  This same man was a guard at the airport and when we went to leave he stopped the 2 of them and ask if they remembered him.  They thought about it.  Before they answered he said "you gave me shoes."  I have many, many more stories, but all I am trying to do is illustrate how God gifted us each differently.  God set some of the craziest things every up just so we could see Him and He could show Himself to the Burkinabe.  We were tools, we were God's workers, we were the light in dark places.  In situations like this it hard to see these things until afterwards.  There were many times we prayed as a group, because we did not understand the way we did something.  Had we really done that stuff biblically and the way that we were being called to?  He answered those prayers.

Prayer is the greatest part of a missions trip.  We pray when we are there and even better our prayer warriors back in our hometowns pray for us while we are gone.  The more people who pray the more prayers that go up.  The more prayers that go up the more God reveals himself in exciting ways.  Thank you to all of you who will pray and are praying.

Our team this year will arrive Tuesday evening.  We have 2 high school girls, 1 new male leader, Greg and me as leaders.  We will start some actual team building and bonding on Wednesday.  We have invited the other team members from Grace Chapel to come with us for team building on Wednesday.  We will be going with Grace Chapel and basically becoming one team.  So we are hoping to have everyone grow together and get to know each other.  On the Grace team there are 2 male leaders, 2 female leaders and 7 high school girls.  So we will have a nice team of 16 at the end of the day.  We will actually leave for the airport at noon on Thursday.  That will begin our 2 day journey to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.  There we will be met by the missionaries and taken to the team center.  What will happen after this no one knows.  What I do know is God is going to do some amazing things in and through people.

I have written much more than I usually like to, but this is where our hearts and minds currently are.  Once we are gone on the 26th you will not here from me again until August 7th when we return.  If you would like to keep up with how things are going go to this blog: http://burkina2012.com/ This will be updated once a day when possible.  You will know what is going on and how to better pray.

We will see how the the shift of focus goes upon return.  It is never easy to transition from a trip quickly.  We will be heading for Guam August 11th so their won't be much time for that step.  Hopefully we are given the grace and strength to do exactly what God needs us to do. 

Prayer Requests:

• Safety in Travel
• Team Unity
• Open communication
• Flexibility

getting started

So we have been preparing to move to Guam for the last month or so.  We were hanging out with some of our friends last night and they thought a blog might be really helpful for letting people know what is going on in our lives.  I will give you the run down of the last 3 days.  On Monday we had the first moving group come to move our homegoods that will go by sea.  That group was called Coleman America and the staff that we had were excellent.  You do not always know what to expect when you are being moved by someone for the first time.  These 3 people were fabulous they were professional when necessary, but had fun with one another to help themselves get through the day.  They had all the supplies they needed packed everything better than I ever would have.  When they finished wrapping things up they started moving it out to these big wooden bins on the back of the truck.  The rotten part was that it started raining and they had to re wrap some of the stuff.  To top that it poured again later.  I felt bad for them because they were working so hard.  They were only able to take about half of our stuff on Monday because of the rain so they came back Tuesday.  They came around 8:30am again which was fantastic and they were totally done loading the bins and shutting the with nail and hammer.  We were given all of the seal numbers that go on each crate (bin).  These things go on all 4 sides of the crate to ensure no one has messed with it.  If one or more is missing you will know something went down.  I thought that the people who packed us for this were just great.

Today on the other hand I would not say was as great it was 2 guys they were supposed to come between 8 and 10 and they did not get there until 10am.  They did not have all of the tools they needed, and we had to hold the doors open for them.  It took them a long time to wrap the few things we are sending by air.  They tried to tell us that 2 of our items weren't going to fit.  They turned out to be wrong and the things it in no problem.  I was hungry and annoyed by the time they were done.  I don't even know what the guys names were.  At least with the other group they introduced themselves and had all their own supplies.

We are currently staying on base at Andrews in the hotel they have.  It is a nice little room, but not something you want to sit around in all day.  We will be leaving here on Friday to go to Havertown.  We will be staying in Havertown until we leave for Burkina on the 26th of August.  We will return from Burkina August 7th and Greg will have to come back to work until the 10th and I have to make sure our team members from Burkina get back to the airport.  My parents will be coming to pick me up and I will stay with them until we leave August 11th at 12:35pm.  We will go down and meet Greg there and my parents will be taking my car back home with them so we have something to drive around when we do get to come home to visit.
We fly out of Reagan national, to Detroit, to Tokyo, and finally end up in Guam.  That is a total of 19 hours in the air.  I will probably not have a whole lot of problem because I am a huge fan of sleeping.  Greg may have a tough time because he just can't sleep on planes.  I told him I would try to stay up with him for a while and he told me I would just fall asleep and that I am boring to sit next to on a plane. I will let you know how this all turns out. 

Prayer requests for us:

• Our marriage continues to strengthen and grow
• Our trip to Burkina is fruitful
• Our stuff arrives in Guam without a problem
• We have safe travels