Off-Road Christmas Tree Adventure

Our friends Michael, Heidi, & Hunter invited us to go with them to Franklin, NC (where Michael is from) to find & cut our Christmas tree. So, we went on Saturday. They had warned us that the tree farm was a bit off the road and the forecast was for snow!

We followed Michael (white truck) & his dad (red truck) up the mountain.

It had snowed earlier in the day and the higher we got the more snow there was.

Still going up...

At this point Josh started talking about "engaging the lockers" & got really, REALLY excited.

We didn't stop at this tree patch...

or this one...

or this one...

We went to the very top! Where it was very cold.

We tried to get a picture of Sam & Troy with the valley in the background. Sam is looking...

now Troy is looking.

Josh & Sam before we start stomping through all the trees to pick ours out.

We found the perfect tree, had it cut down & loaded on top of the Cruiser for the trip back to Seneca. What a great day. Thanks Bowmans!

Roommates

Before Thanksgiving I was able to get together with my favorite girls EVER from Clemson. We roomed together my first senior year. What a wonderful year that was. We were quite the mix of personalities and passions but somehow it worked.

We met in Greenville at a cute girly restaurant. It was a lot of fun hanging out and talking with them. Our lives have changed since college but we still have that connection with each other that no matter how long it has been since seeing each other we can pick up where we left off and have deep, meaningful conversation.

Allison and I served one summer together with World Changers as summer staffers. What an experience and it was amazing to share some of that with such a close friend. She is also the reason for my biggest claim to fame...my interview on NPR's All Things Considered with Linda Wertheimer. We were helping out with disaster relief in New York during Thanksgiving '01 and Allison was on the planning & logistics team and mentioned that I'd be a good candidate for the interview. Wow! She still works for the North American Mission Board and has all kinds of amazing adventures...I never know where she's going to be when I leave her a voicemail.

Kristi and I performed together with the group Take Note...she has a GREAT voice (the only reason I was in the group was because I would smile & occasionally maintain enough of a beat to do vocal percussion). Kristi & her family (hubby Jake, son Logan, & soon to be baby girl!) now live in the Atlanta area.

April always seemed to be able to introduce me to so many new people and have crazy unplanned adventures. I remember going to a Clemson bowl game with her. We were going to stay with one of her former roommates but one of the guys with us was allergic to cats and there was a cat in the apartment so we randomly ended up staying with a family that one of the other girls parents knew. April & her family (husband Brad, son Samuel, & daughter Abby) are preparing to leave for the mission field. North Africa has no idea what is about to come its way!

While walking around downtown we saw this stationary bike chained to the tree. Which brought up 2 interesting questions...

#1 - How did it get there?

#2 - Why was it chained up? Did they really think someone was going to take it? How?

Marvin Boggs

Josh's grandfather, Pappa, died the first week in November. This is the first person to die that has been a significant part of Josh's life.

Mr. Boggs was quite a character. He was a World War II veteran. His main job during the war was as an ambulance driver. He helped clean out one of the concentration camps in Germany. Carol (Josh's mom) said that it was only recently, in the past 9 or so years, that he would talk about what he saw. Josh remembers him telling about how when the engines in the ambulances would die, they would unbolt it, drop it to the ground, put in a new engine, and drive away. No difficult field fixes, just leave the problem and start over!

Josh also likes to tell how Pappa always wore his hats cocked at an angle. And that he told Josh that the best way to impress the ladies was to wear a clean, crisp, white shirt. He had a quiet, yet jovial, manner. He was always up to something. It seemed, to me, that he never asked a direct question. Instead of saying "When can you come visit" he would say "Do you think that Toyota can make it over the Arkansas hills?".

Having come from a family of fair headed-ness he was initially taken aback at Josh's dark features. According to him Josh is the first person in his family to have brown eyes! He was quite the craftsman. Carol would frequently ask him to replicate tables and benches that she saw in Pottery Barn catalogs...and he would. His shop behind their house kept him busy with all kinds of projects. I remember him telling about working on a boat motor. He thought he had fixed the problem but wanted to make sure. So he lowered the prop into a bucket of water and cranked it up...he claimed it took him two days to clean up all the water! He gave us our first lawn mower. It was terribly old but ran great thanks to his tune up. We only replaced it two years ago.

One of my favorite memories is playing Rook with him. He was a champ at talking across the table! You never could tell though if he was being serious or joking and trying to convince you to let him take the bid.

We were able to travel to Arkansas for the funeral. It was great to see family and get caught up on all the news. The service was touching and meaningful. He was buried in a quaint cemetery that had several family members buried there also. Pappa will be greatly missed but we rejoice in the knowledge that he is in heaven.

At The Ponderosa

While in Arkansas we were able to go and spend the day at Josh's aunt & uncle's house/ranch. They have 20 acres, 3 dogs, 2 cats, 2 guineas, and 2 horses! I love it there!

Mamma, Carol, Meg, Troy, & Rita Kay rocking and swinging on the front porch.




Rita Kay & Phil adopted 2 rescue horses and have given them much better lives. Maggie & Hotshot have definitely recovered from their near starvation and are living the life as yard horses and the occasional saddle horse. Rita Kay & Phil made the mistake of telling me they would like for me to ride Maggie...that was all the encouragement I needed! She is a sweet mare, a bit set in her ways but is going to be great for them. After I rode her around the pasture a few times and made sure she wasn't going to act crazy Sam got on with me. Loved sharing that first ride with him!

That's right, we need some horses.

Mamma had the touch and put Troy to sleep after lunch.

After Sam and I finished our ride, Phil made his second mistake. He asked me for some tips on getting Maggie to mind. If only I had stopped with him...I felt the need to "help" everyone who forked their leg over Maggie.

I wonder if anyone else can relate...to have all this information stored up, mostly unused and then have someone ask you a question about it. I immediately had diarrhea of the mouth. I couldn't help myself...the information keep coming, and coming, and I could not stop it! I know everyone got fed up with it but I had no shut-off valve. I was telling them to keep their heels down, hands out of their stomach, the correct wrist angle for optimum bit function. And it wasn't just riding information it even crossed over into personal preference. I heard myself extolling the virtues of untwisted reins and having the buckles lined up on the bridle. I hereby apologize to everyone...I'll try to be better next time (if there is a next time).

While I was in my element and planning how to get some horses Josh was falling in love. He was driving all over the property in Phil's Kubota diesel RTV. What can I say...I'm about horses and Josh is about horsepower. We had some time constraints otherwise we would still be there.

Fall Festival

I had two days to get the boys costumes for the Fall Festival at our church. Sam decided to be Superman (again) and Troy was a Tiny Ninja.

Sam loved the big slide

Troy got to hone his golf skills with Pro Jessup.

Pumpkin Carving

After I got back from Ecuador we had one week to carve pumpkins and get ready for Halloween. Josh planned out the pumpkin face...

Scooped him out and got to carving...

Sam and Troy had their pumpkins to play with too.

Our happy (albeit a little distracted) pumpkin

What A Drain!

Proof that the equator is a pretty neat place...

Ecuador

As I mentioned on a previous post I was privileged to go to Ecuador on a medical mission trip with a group from our church. We left on October 17th and returned on the 25th. This was not my first international mission trip...Josh & I have been to Romania twice ('03 & '04) but this was the first trip I had been on without Josh. We had a wonderful group of people go and were able to serve with another group of equally wonderful people. How incredible it is to be part of the body of Christ!

This is a picture of most of our group. Everyone in yellow is from Utica and the non-yellow wearers are some of the nationals that helped us and a couple from Houston that translated for us.

We helped and were hosted by Mark & Sherry Cody. They are serving with the International Mission Board in Ecuador. They took great care of us and were a pleasure to work with. Sherry's parents are members of Utica so it felt like "old home week" for us.

Seven of the Ecuadorian nationals that helped us during the week. They are an incredible group. Our work was in partnership and almost a special event for the work they do in and around Ambato, Ecuador. They translated, transported, fixed lunches, and prepared the sites for us.

Nancy & Juan from Houston. They are members of Mark & Sherry's home church in Texas. They willingly joined our team and served as FANTASTIC translators for us. They are honorary members of Utica's mission team.


Our trip over to Ecuador was eventful. Instead of landing in Quito on Saturday night we were rerouted to Guayaquil because of fog. We landed around 11PM. Guayaquil is on the coast and about a 7-8 hour drive from Quito. After being on the airplane for way too long as it sat on the runway we were able to go inside the airport and wait some more while the airline folks tried to figure out what to do with us. We were an international flight and because of the late hour were not able to go through customs. Finally at 5AM our group was called to the desk and told we were being taken to a hotel to wait until our flight to Quito at 6PM. What a mess! There was much frustration and concern but everyone handled the shake-up of plans pretty well. My roommate (Sherry) & I got into our room and in bed at 6AM. We got up at 11AM to have breakfast/lunch and see the sights of Guayaquil.

First place we went was a park dedicated to Simon Bolivar and across the street from a beautiful cathedral.

The park was also known as iguana park...can you guess why? There were huge iguanas all over the place. Also a pond/fountain with some fierce looking turtles. After looking in the cathedral (which had flat panel television screens on columns for the services!) we walked to another park/shopping area on the water. A beautiful city but much warmer than where we were planning on being. We did get back to the airport to wait some more and finally make it to Quito by 8PM. We had four of our bags containing medicine and glasses held in customs. Our other bags made it through no problem and we had all the medicines and supplies that we needed for our first clinic.

We stayed in Ambato, about a 2 hour drive from Quito, and our first clinic was in a village that was about a 2 hour drive from Ambato. The landscape was BEAUTIFUL. Being a mountain girl it was restful to see the countryside as we traveled to our first clinic.

The landscape called to mind the following quote...

"When you are a child of the mountains yourself, you really belong to them. You need them. They become the faithful guardians of your life. If you cannot dwell on their lofty heights all your life, if you are in trouble, you want at least to look at them. The man who wrote three thousand years ago: "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help," knew this, too. And even Our Lord, when He was weary and tired out and wanted to be alone with His Father, ascended a mountain." - Maria Augusta Trapp

The ride to and from the clinic was when I missed Josh the most. He would have loved it.

The pictures are a bit deceiving...these are not low rolling hills, we are at about 11,000 feet.

Here is a picture of the snow covered volcano Tungurahua. The clouds are seldom open enough to get a good clear view. She last erupted in 2006.

Fortunate to get a picture of Tungurahua's peak.

Our first clinic was in the village of Cahuaji Alto...elevation 12,000 feet and across the valley from Tungurahua!

The community center where we set up our clinic. The red bus was our transportation for the week.

Inside setting up the various stations.

Pharmacy station where I ended up working most of the time.

Another picture of the village. The cemetery is the walled in area at the top of the mountain. Check out the clouds on the left...we were higher than some of the clouds!

With some of the local children. They were having "recess" and came and played Duck, Duck, Goose (Patu, Patu, Ganse) with us. The orange sherbet building in the background is the Catholic Church.

I tried to throw the Frisbee with this little guy after the older kids had returned to class. Tungurahua is in the background.

This is cuy, a delicacy in Ecuador...we call it guinea pig. On our last day the president of the village El Rosario brought us cuy and abas (sorta like lima beans) as a thank you. I had a touch of the Ecuadorian two-step so decided not to try it. Those on our team that did eat some claim that it tastes a bit like squirrel. We were honored and humbled at their gift...cuy is not cheap.

The second village where we had our second clinic...El Rosario.

Inside the community center where we had our clinic. There was a school across the way and all the children came to have fluoride and get some treats. The kindergarten class.

Another class...most likely second/third grade.

Gerri was one of our triage nurses. She would take the patients temperature, blood pressure, weight, and when needed prick their finger to test their blood sugar level. Here Katherine translates for her.

Susan filled in as triage nurse (even though she's a banker here in the states!) and had Byron translating for her. These two women loved on so many of the Ecuadorian people. Susan was given a huge pile of onions at the end of the week as a thank you!

Kathy was our floater. She filled in wherever she was needed...triage, pharmacy, nurse practitioner. She also gave me a crash course in "squatting"...Ecuador facilities leaving lots to be desired!

Sherry (my roommate for the week) and I worked in the pharmacy. Sherry is fluent in Spanish, having grown up on the mission field in Peru. She is a delight to work with and room with. The two of us had "debriefing" each night in our room...which always turned into giggling.

Doug was able to get to work on Thursday giving out glasses. Our four bags that were confiscated by customs were released on Wednesday. He had a Spanish Bible that he would use to help the people judge their improved sight.

A family that came to the clinic.

The school in El Rosario allowed us to come into their classrooms and hand out sunglasses. Being at their elevation and on the equator means that there are lots of eye problems. Sunglasses are one way to help prevent/slow down the progress of some sight issues.

Dave, our trip leader, was able to hand out Spanish New Testaments to the two oldest classes. Victor translated for him.

What precious faces!

Our last day in Ecuador we returned to Quito. On the way there we went through a town that was having a festival of some sort with a parade.

We went to the equator! Very neat place to visit. I learned all kinds of random trivia (it's what I do). For instance on the equator you have no resistance. You can't keep someone from pulling your arms down if they are over your head whereas only 3 feet away they are unable to. Our tour guide also had a sink display where she was able to show us the water swirling different directions as it drained on the south and north sides and also no swirl on the equator. We also learned about the indigenous tribes...think shrunken heads.

Perhaps the coolest things was getting the chance to try and balance an egg on the head of a nail. You can be successful in other parts of the world on the vernal & autumn equinoxes but everyday on the equator it is possible.

Very cheesey picture of me but I was SUPER EXCITED about balancing that egg!

I have a lot of pictures on this post but it is nothing compared to the total amount of pictures I have of the week. There are so many stories to tell but I know this post has rambled on long enough. Thank you to everyone who prayed for me and the week. It was amazing to see God work through us and such a privelege to be used by Him.

"To go to people and say "Jesus loves you!" and yet do nothing to help change their circumstances is not a complete message." -John Richard Wimber

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. -Ephesians 2:8&9