More Peru Pictures!

John took a lot of great Peru pictures and has posted them on his picasa site - take a look right here!

You can see the rest of the Peru Pictures I took by clicking here (or just look and the embedded slideshow below).

Thank You and Emotions

I'm one of "those people" who don't like to display my emotions for the world to see. "Why," you may ask "are you then talking about this on a forum such as a blog?" I don't know. It's something that I thought about a lot yesterday as the emotions were present, so it's all I can think of to write today!
Saying goodbye or writing a thank you note can stir up a lot of emotions. If I'm saying goodbye to you, I will probably strive to keep my sadness from showing. I understand that saying goodbye is a part of life. If I'm the one leaving such as when I left Alabama, I have a good understanding that I have already considered my decision and have chosen myself that I will leave. I think I'm doing what is best. I've already decided that I'm not going to change my choice even if I'm sad. In this particular case, I am both happy to go since I get to be near John, and sad to leave since I moved away from so many friends as well as my parents and siblings.

If you're the one moving away, I will also try to keep the goodbye from being sad. I don't want to make it harder for you to keep your emotions in check so I will keep things lighthearted. If I start to get emotional, I will tell myself to think about this sadness another time - preferably when I'm by myself and unlikely to be disturbed.

Writing a thank-you note can be even more emotionally draining for me than saying goodbye. That is one of my excuses for taking six weeks to write thank you notes for my showers, but procrastination plays a big role as well. Amazingly enough, I am finished! I've been writing these thank you notes on and off for several weeks now. Finally, after focusing on them totally for more than four hours yesterday, they are done and in the mailbox! I guess it's funny that I waited until they were all done to mail any of them, but somehow I didn't want to mail any of them unless I mailed them all. So, that means that some of you will get thank-you notes dated several weeks ago.

Just know that as I wrote your thank you note, my brain thought through many of the precious memories I've shared with you and how awesome each one of you has been in my life. I certainly don't deserve the wonderful friendships I've had in Alabama. I could never have imagined that I would even know fifty people, much less that so many would become such dear friends. I have enjoyed thinking back through all the memories with these people and loved to finally take the time to write a special thank you for each one.

Most of the thank you notes were for friends from work or church or camping circles, but some of the thank-you notes went to several of John's friends who mailed gifts to us. We have had a lot of fun receiving so many awesome things in the mail that are perfect for our home.

Now that I've finished the thank you notes, my next task will be to start going through pictures - both for Peru stuff and for myself!

Our First Ohio Visitors

My sister Lydia surprised me last week by calling to let me know she was thinking of taking a road trip to Ohio with some of her camp friends. Lydia was supposed to have made it home from Georgia to Alabama by then, but due to car problems was stuck in Georgia. Her friends were coming to Ohio just for two nights and would then head back home. To make a spontaneous decision is not very Lydia-like as she does a very good job at thinking things through (I'm often very much the same way). But due to the encouragement of everyone around her - me included! - she decided to be crazy and take an extended route from Alabama to Georgia by going through Ohio first!
It was great to see Lydia again and to meet her friends. I got to make dinner for our first guests here in Ohio. John got to show off his Peru pictures as we told stories. And all us girls were able to enjoy tickling Lydia! The family I'm staying with up here was awesome and let Lydia and her friends stay there that night. So, I was able to learn a lot more about the camp Lydia was at as just catch up on sister talk and stay up late together! We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast that Rhonda made for all of us and then had to say goodbye once again. I'm so thankful to have a sister crazy enough to be willing to sit in a car for 20 hours in order to visit! I hope that visit will be the first of many to occur. If any of you reading this blog are driving through Ohio, give me a call!

Taking Your Father's Advice!

The first way in which we learn to take our father's advice is through simple obedience. A child is told what to do and then corrected if the command is not followed. Through direction obedience early in life, we can learn that commands are to be obeyed. The command may come from our earthly father, or from our Father in heaven. Commands from God our Father can be found written in His Word, the Bible.


As a child grows up, sometimes the directions are not always given as simple commands. Often the directives change to suggestions or advice based on life experience. The father wants to allow his child to make his own decision. Input is given for the child's consideration.


A wise child will consider what his father says - even if the advice is given in terms of a suggestion rather than a command. My father rarely gives direct commands. My siblings and I often get advice or suggestions, but it seems that all involved in the conversations understand that in the end, we (as the children) are responsible for our own decisions. I enjoy getting my father's advice, but sometimes I don't exactly follow it.


Other times, I like to follow it word for word. Especially when the advice is somewhat unusual as in this case. . .


When I begin talking about marrying John, my family wanted to know what my plans were once I moved to Ohio. Well, my plans are to look for another job and to work somewhere hopefully as an engineer not too far from where John works. Once I find a job, we plan to find another place to live since John's current apartment doesn't have a guest room.


Now my dad retired last year and has really enjoyed having the time to work on the many projects he has going on. He is of the opinion that I should simply take a break from working. So his fatherly advice (often stated) was that I should "sit around and eat grapes."


As this advice was so often given, I have been very careful to follow it in the week and a half that I've been in Ohio. I have made sure to sit down every single day and have eaten grapes several times a week! John wanted to make sure that we showed how carefully we were following dad's advice, so we took a picture!

Extended Vacation

You know how all the days seem to run together when you're on vacation? Well that's what's been happening for me. I have had a good time so far here in Ohio. The days have been full of different things, and they feel like a vacation.

Today I'm going to the zoo whith the family I'm staying with. Lydia might be visiting this evening or tomorrow. I'm spending most evenings hanging out with John. We played soccer with his coworkers last Thursday evening. That was a lot of fun. Many of them are really good - I just play for fun (i.e. I'm not that good). We've walked some and gone to the YMCA a few times.

I've been organizing, shopping and somehow filling my days. I'm still on the job search. I spent yesterday afternoon looking up a lot of the companies in the area and sending my resume to a few of them. I also now have Ohio tags which I need to put onto my car.

Well, we're off to visit a lady from church and then on to the zoo!

Settling in Ohio

We made it safely here to Ohio last night. The drive went well and I'm beginning to settle in here. I am staying with a great family from John's church. They're not home this week so I guess I'm kinda house sitting right now. I've spent the day unloading the contents of my car into John's apartment. It's been a successful day. Here's the living room as of 10:30 this morning.

Here it is this evening:

Thankfully John's apartment has a lot of closet space that he wasn't using until now :) It's nice to have everything out of my car again!

Back from Peru

What follows is my best attempt at condensing a week long missions trip in Lima Peru into a short blog post written over a few minutes of my lunch break.

I'll start with a few basic facts. John and I joined my church (Fountain of Grace) and another Christian Missionary Alliance church (Elizabethton Alliance Church in Tennessee). Our team of 27 people traveled out on Sunday morning to join the Alliance Churches in San Jaun de Lurigancho, a district of Lima Peru of about 1 million people. The Alliance church is thriving. They have a large church and then many smaller sector churches that meet throughout that area.

Our team was involved in several different ministries during this trip: children's vbs, medical, eye and dental clinics, evangelistic meetings, gospel presentations at local schools, drama presentations, ladies meetings, youth meeting, and Bible training seminars for church leaders put on by three of the pastors that came.

This was my second time to be a part of a trip so I wasn't surprised at the poverty, but it still was a reminder of how little some people have. But as Amanda who was on the trip with me said so well, what the people there really need is not the stuff we have, but the Savior. This world is temporary. I think sometimes we get to liking our lives here a bit too much.

One ministry that I was privileged to have a closer look at on this trip was the medical ministry. On two of the mornings, John and I were able to hang out taking pictures and video of the medical, dental and vision ministry.
Seeing people receive glasses and better sight was a joy. But the more exciting part was seeing the care at which the local church volunteers took in sharing Christ with the people that were coming to the clinics.

I don't have all the pictures I'd like to post yet. And I don't have enough time to talk about my upcoming move to Ohio on Sunday, but more will come eventually.