Korea

So...I'm in Korea.

It only took me 30 hours to get here! I flew out of Detroit on the 26th at 1:45 P.M. and the adventure began. When I left my moms house in Michigan the roads were covered in ice. I had to drive 20 MPH for 1 1/2 hours! I arrived at the airport and had to wait in line for two hours to check in. I boarded my plane and flew to Tokyo. Once in Tokyo I immediately boarded another plane to fly to Seoul, Korea. Once I was on the plane we sat for an hour. After an hours wait we were told that we needed to get off the airplane. They had just replaced the brakes on the plane and needed to simulate a landing before we could take off. Everyone exited the plane and then 20 minutes later we had to board again. Once on board we had to wait 2 more hours before we took off. It was great...not really. We arrived in Seoul 3 hours late and then we had a 4 1/2 hour drive. We didn't arrive at the school until 7:15 A.M. our first meeting began at 9:30. I have been going all day on an hour of sleep. So if some of this doesn't make sense I'll blame it on that.

The camp has been really fun so far. We spent all day today in orientation. We went over rules, where my classroom is, discipline, philosophy, cultural understanding and where to go to eat. The food is very spice but is really good. Lots of rice and noodles and soup with every meal.

Most of the other teachers are from South Africa and it has been fun to get to know them. I have been spending some time with a guy named Nate who is from Birmingham Alabama. He is a great guy and this is his first time at the camp as well.

I'm sharing a room with my good friend Kendal Ludwig. His luggage got lost so we've been sharing a lot!

Our room is on the 5th floor of a college dorm. Once you reach the top of the stairs for our floor you take off your shoes and put on slippers or walk around in your socks! I love it. Plus, the floors in our room are heated. It feels really nice when you roll out of bed in the morning.

I'm really tired and need some sleep. I'll try to have some pictures up in the next day or so. Keep reading and I'll keep telling you whats going on.

Love, Joy & Peace!

Thanksgiving Weekend

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving weekend! I had a great time! Kara came to North Vernon on Wednesday night and went to Jubilee (our church youth group) with me. After church we loaded up the van and headed to Michigan. We pulled in the drive way at my moms' house around 1:30 A.M. it was a long drive!

On Thanksgiving day we all had a wonderful breakfast of bagels together and then Brad Gallup took Kara and I off for a photo shoot. This is my favorite picture of the shoot! It was really cold out, the wind was blowing hard and there were birds everywhere (which is a big problem for Kara!).

 

That night Renee and Don and the Girls girl's joined us for dinner along with my parents neighbors Marty, Mandy, Macie, and Mason! We had turkey and ham and all of that other delicious Thanksgiving stuff. I always enjoy eating anything my Mom makes. After dinner we hung out in the living room while everyone took turns playing the Wii.

On Black Friday we all slept in and Kara and I left at around noon for her parents house in Lima Ohio. We stopped to pick up her Grandma in Fort Wayne along the way and we had a really good time with her for about an hour as we traveled.

Kara's Mom had a huge meal prepared for us for dinner that night! There were 13 of us around 2 tables enjoying the feast. Kara's Grandma even cooked oysters for the occasions! Nothing says Thanksgiving like fried oysters! That night we went and look at Christmas lights, sang Christmas carols in the living room and watched Home Alone 3!

On Saturday morning after being woken up by Caleb and Tyler (Kara's 16 year old brother and his friend) we all enjoyed biscuits and gravy for breakfast!

Kara's brother Jonathan left around 2:00 in the afternoon to drive back to Olivet. He had been gone for about 20 minutes when the phone rang at the house. Jonathan was calling to tell his Dad that while he was pumping gas a couple in the car next to him could not get their car started. Jonathan tried to help but they couldn't find out the problem. So he called and asked his Dad to come and help.

So Kara's Dad got up and traveled to the gas station while we all made plans to put up the Christmas tree and other Christmas decorations. About an hour later as we were moving furniture and boxes into the living room Kara's Dad walked into the house with two strangers behind him. The strangers came in and sat down in the living room. They were introduced to us as Stan and Lucy. They were both seem to be around their 50's. They were from Toronto Canada and their car had broken down at the gas station.

They figured the problem was with the starter so Jon and Stan purchased a new one and were on their way to install it. They asked Lucy if she wanted to stay at the house instead of waiting in the cold while they worked on the car. Lucy agreed.

So here we were with a perfect stranger in the living room as we were about to put up the Christmas tree. We talked with Lucy a few minutes and then asked her if she would like to help with the tree. She smiled and said yes! Lucy jumped right in and even started vacuuming the living room at one point! After the tree was up we talked a little more with her. We learned that Stan and Lucy moved to Toronto in the 70's from Krakow Poland, the home town of Pope John Paul II. When they were children they were confirmed by Pope John Paul II while he was still Bishop in Krakow. I was so impressed with how comfortable she seemed given the situation. Kara's Mom then made hot chocolate and coffee and had us all gather in the living room as Lucy shared how they celebrate Christmas in Poland.

Kara and I had to leave at 6:00 and Lucy was still at the house when we left. We figured that her Dad would fix the car and they would be on their way. That night we called to see how things went and we were told that they couldn't get the car started and Lucy and Stan were going to spend the night at their house!

On Sunday morning they still couldn't get the car started and Lucy and Stan needed to get home that day. They decided to get a ride to Detroit and take a train into Toronto and then ride the subway to their home. Their son-in-law drove up from Cincinnati to drive them the 1 ½ hours to Detroit. But before they left Stan walked into the house and told John that he would have a hard time having the car towed into Canada and that it would be difficult to get back to fix the car, so he pulled out the title and the keys and gave them to Kara's Dad and said, "You can have the car!" They hopped in their son-in-laws car and drove of to Detroit!

The whole thing sounds like it should be in a movie! It was great. We have their address and phone number and I'm hoping to meet up with them this spring while I'm in Toronto!

I had an amazing weekend. It was so much fun to be with family, to relax, to eat some good food, and it was really good to be with Kara for 5 days in a row.

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving! I'll be posting soon about my upcoming trip to Korea, so check back soon!

Love, Joy & Peace!

The Beast in Me

So I found this video today too. I like it. I hope you do to. Seriously what could be better than Johnny Cash, an old man and a dog?

Johnny Cash |MTV Music

Mc Skat Cat

So I discovered a web site www.mtvmusic.com the other day and it is great. The site has just about every music video ever created. I thought this video was amazing! Enjoy!

Paula Abdul |MTV Music

Momma T

So I'm a few weeks late on my post! But to my defense it seems as if no one cared about my game! Oh well. I had several people make guesses in person and my favorite guess was from Seth who thought that the quote on the last post was from Marilyn Manson. Actually the quote from my last post was from none other than Mother Teresa.

Mother Teresa? Really?

The quote is from a book titled "Come Be My Light" by Brian Kolodiejchuk. The book includes some of the private writings of Mother Teresa. Although the writings are not the typical hope inspiring snippets you often find in other books. This book deals with the very personal struggles of faith and love and nearness of God.

A quote from Mother Teresa listed on the back of book exemplifies the tone of the book she says, "If I ever become a Saint - I will surely be one of "darkness." I will continually be absent from Heaven - to light the light of those in darkness on earth."

What I love about her struggle is that although she tried to keep it from the public, it was a very real struggle that she had. Her story is that early in her life she felt a strong call from God to minister to the people of Calcutta and after that point she rarely felt his presence. Could I suffer what she suffered, experience what she experienced and see what she saw and still be faithful to God's calling even though God seemed distant and far away? I hope so.

This book also gives me hope that sometimes the doubts and fears and insecurities of faith that I have are not something that only I deal with. This woman, who for many people exemplifies the word Saint, struggled too, she had doubts too! I believe there is strength from our honesty with one another.

So if you struggle, if you doubt, if you have emptiness or misery and yet are following the calling and direction of Christ seek him all the more. Long for him more. Desire him more. I also urge you to share your true feelings and thoughts with a mature Christian as well.

I love how she ends this section of writing with this, "...here I am Lord, with joy I accept all to the end of life and I smile at Your Hidden Face - always."

May we also be able to say, "Here I am Lord." Even when He feels distant. Even when He feels hidden.

I love this C.S. Lewis quote from the book "The Screwtape Letters,"

“He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger, than when a human, no longer desiring, but intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.”

Who Said It?

So I haven't blogged in a while. I'm sure if many of you are even reading still. A lot has happened in the past few months that I would love to tell you about in some future blogs but for now I want to play a game with you. I want you to read the following quote and post a comment guessing who wrote it. Next Thursday I will tell you who said it and add some comment to it. But for now read it and post a comment on who you think it is. Love, Joy & Peace

"Lord, my GOd, who am I that You should forsake me? The child of your love - and now become as the most hated one - the one You have thrown away as unwanted - unloved. I call, I cling, I want - and there is no One to answer - no One on Whom I can cling - no,No One. Alone. The darkness is so dark - and I am alone. Unwanted, Forsaken. The loneliness of the heart that wants love is unbearable. Where is my faith? - Even deep down, right in, there is nothing but emptiness and darkness. My God how painful is this unknown pain. It pains without ceasing. I have no faith. I dare not utter the words and thoughts that crowd in my heart and make me suffer untold agony. So many unanswered questions live within me I am afraid to uncover them becasue of the blasphemy - If there be God, please forgive me. Trust that all will end in Heaven with Jesus. When I try to raise my thought to Heaven there is such a convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul. Love the word it brings nothing. I am told God loves me and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul. Before the work started there was so much union, love, faith, trust, prayer, sacrifice...I don't feel not even a single simple thought or temptation enteres my heart to claim anything in the work.

The whole time smiling...people pass such remarks. They think my faith, trust, and love ar filling my very being and that the intimacy with God and union to His will must be absorbing my heart. Could they but know and how my cheerfulness is the cloak by which I cover the emptiness and misery.

In spite of all - this darkness and emptiness is not as painful as the longing for God. The contradiction I fear will unbalanc e me. What are You doing My God to one so small? When you asked to imprint Your Passion on my heart - is this the answer?

If this brings You glory, if You get a drop of joy from this - if souls ar brought to You if my suffering satiates Your Thirst here I am Lord, with joy I accept all to the end of life and I will smile at Your Hidden Face - always."


Who do you think said it?

What would your Cardboard testimony be?

I found this video on accident today and as I watched it I began to cry in my office. This God I worship, I serve, I (as Paul said) am a slave to, puts broken pieces together, heals, restores, makes new! It's pretty powerful I think. Watch it to the end!

What would your Cardboard testimony be?

Love, Joy & Peace!

Test Your Awareness

I saw this video a long time ago (probably 10 years ago!) on the news one night. I thought it was pretty amazing. I just saw it again today and thought I would share it with you!

It does raise a few questions for me though:

- For those of us who claim we never see God working could it have something to do with what we are looking at or for?

- What are some things that distract me from seeing what Jesus is doing?

- How can I focus more on Jesus and what he wants me to become or do?

Mission to the Gulf: Pascagoula Mississippi

For the past week I have been working hard in the state of Mississippi with 94 adults and teenagers from the Indianapolis District Church of the Nazarene NYI. All 94 of us traveled by bus and five 15 passenger vans to the town of Pascagoula Mississippi.

We partnered with Mission Encounter a missions ministry group out of Nashville Tennessee to pull of this trip.

Our team spent the week working on 8 different homes throughout the Pascagoula area. We did removal of old dry wall, installation of new, painting, bathroom remodels, brush removal, concrete work, and a list of other work. It was amazing to get the work done and see the progress that can be made by 94 teens and adults in just a few days of work.

I worked on and off throughout the week with teens from our church. When I was not working with them I traveled with our Mission Encounter director to every job site. I had an opportunity to see all of the work that was being done, talk with most of the home owners, and see students grow in their love for God and their neighbor!

There is so much work that still needs to be done in the Gulf coast region. I talked with directors from several different mission groups that shared with me that they may have to shut down their rebuilding efforts in Mississippi if more groups don't start signing on. In fact, this was the last weekend for one ministry group down there.

There is still so much work that needs to be done in this area. As you drive around the towns you still see people everywhere living in FEMA trailers provided to them by the government. One home we worked on still had wet carpet in it from the hurricane. The hurricane happened three years ago!

Check out our blog at to see some video of the work we did this week.

It was amazing to hear the stories we heard from different people about the Hurricane. I will end this blog with a few stories about people I met this week.

. I talked with one family that had major flooding in their home as Katrina hit. There home was so damaged and help was so slow they had to spend three months living in tents in their front yard. All of their meals were cooked on a grill they had. This month they may be able to finally move back into their home!

. One woman I met was able this week to use a bathroom in her home for the first time since Katrina. I asked here if she was happy with the work our teens were doing and she responded, "I couldn't be more happy! I was just able to pee in my own house for the first time in 3 years!"

. One woman shared with me how after the storm they had no water or food in their home. They had to go to a central point in town and wait for hours in line just to receive some water and some MRE's which are military food pouches. She told me she never travels anywhere without water now!


If you or someone you know is responsible for planning a missions trip in the next year I strongly encourage you to look into traveling the Mississippi and the rest of the Gulf coast area.

I was amazed to see how God used 94 people to make such a huge difference. Someone commented that they thought it was great that what the richest most powerful government in the world has been unable to do in three years a group off teens from Indiana compelled by the love of Christ pulled off in just 4 days!

Bus Barn Part 2

So i've been working on this building for the past um...2 years now! And we are finally about done. We are converting an old 3 sided barn into a youth center. If you scroll down you will see some pictures that show where we were about 2 months ago. These pictures show how things look as of today! We've finished painting, installed ceiling fans and lights. We will have the floor painted in 3 weeks. Brad will appreciate the color of our back wall! Let me know what you think!

My Fun Week!

This past week has been full of excitement!

I started last Sunday driving our church van pulling a wagon full of Kids in a parade! Honestly, what's more fun than a parade?

Once the parade was over I traveled to camp camby our district camp group for Junior and Senior High Camps. Three other people from my church went with me. We had an awesome time. One student responded to God during an evening service and told me, "I don't want to tell you what I was praying about. But I will tell you I plan on coming to church a lot more!" So that's always good!

Then Friday morning I woke up and traveled to Ottawa Illinois the town I went to High School in. I married a couple at Starved Rock Lodge. We had rehearsal on Friday and the Wedding was on Saturday night. The wedding went perfect.

While I was in town I was able to spend a ton of time with most of my Family. I slept at my Aunt and Uncle's home for two nights. They have three little Kids Drew (7) Kate (5) and Drake (2). They are about the best looking kids you will ever see!They also have as much energy as I have ever seen. (Although their parents claim that its only when I'm around!) We had a ton of fun.

They woke me up at 7:00 AM on Saturday morning. I heard them all walk slowly into my room trying to giggle quietly. I peaked at them from under my pillow and I heard one say, "Who's going to wake him up?" then Drake the youngest said, "I will!" And then he screamed in my ear "WAKE UP!!!" I faked like I was scared and then they all jumped on me in bed while Drake began to sing, "Drop it like its hot!"

I really can't think of a much better way to get woken up in the morning!

My friend Jake Heaton who is interning in Sterling Illinois drove down and hung out with me on Saturday. He drove down and we went to Marseilles (my home town) for an event called the freedom ride. They expected over 30,000 motorcycles to show up for a war memorial event they have in town. It's a pretty big event! The town only has 4,000 people living in it! It was pretty crazy! I might have some pictures of that day up soon. We hung out with my Grandma, Mom and Step-Dad. It was really good to see all of them!

Jake and I left the freedom ride and went to starved rock. We went to St. Louis Canyon and climbed to the top of Starved rock. It was a lot of fun to hang out with him and enjoy creation together. I love that kid!

I attended Ottawa First Church of the Nazarene on Sunday with all of my family. My mom and Step-dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Gina and Andy, Roger & Cortney and their 3 kids. It was really cool to worship with all of my family!

I'm sitting in Jeremiah Joe's a coffee shop in Ottawa about to leave for Bourbonnais to eat dinner with a good friend! I'll just say I hope it goes well!

So it's been a great week a few other things I did: Dinner at Sam's Pizza, dinner at Uptown Bar and Grill (the restaurant I learned to be a gentleman in! :) ), six hours of hiking, farmers market, meeting Henry the Hobo, lunch a Betty's, sitting by the river, being with family!

I hope you have a great week!

How to stop a fight

Not a week goes by that I don't hear about a fight between students at our local high school or middle school. I often have students run up to me on Wednesday night before our youth service to tell me about a fight they saw, a friend that was hurt, or how they were attacked by someone at school. I really get sick of students thinking that fighting is the only way to solve problems!

Whenever I have students that talk about wanting to fight someone I always tell them, "God didn't make you for that!" I always half joke when they tell me that they saw a fight at school by asking, "Why didn't you run into the middle and yell "God didn't make you for this!" to get them to stop fighting?" They usually laugh me off. Usually...

Last night as students were coming in for our service one girl came running up to me her name is Alison. She ran up and said, "Ryan, you will never guess what happened yesterday!"

She said she was walking down a hallway at school and saw a very large crowd of students in the middle. She looked a little closer and saw two boys facing each other walking around in a circle getting ready to fight. So Alison took off running through the crowd, jumped in between the two boys, stuck her hands out and yell, "STOP! God didn't create you for this!" Everyone looked at her funny and the boys and the crowd all walked away. She stopped the fight!

She then said, "But they ended up fighting today! And it was really bad!" I told her how amazing I thought it was that she was willing to step up and speak truth in a crazy situation and not give in to the crowd and animalistic behavior around her.

I read somewhere (I think it was something from Shane Claiborne) the "Violence is for those that have lost their imagination." I challenged my students to use their imagination against violance. What else can you do to help show the beauty and sacredness in each person? What can you do to help call into question the idea that violence is the answer to every problem. What can you do to be a peacemaker?

This Jesus that I worship calls us blessed and children of God if we are peacemakers! May you be blessed today! May you be called a child of God.




"Nothing is so characteristically Christian as being a peacemaker."
– St Basil the Great

The day I met Bill

Today was a pretty exciting day around Southern Indiana. Bill Clinton made a stop in Columbus and in Seymour to campaign for Hillary and share some of her plans for the economy.

I arrived about an hour before he was scheduled to speak and waited in line for about 30 minutes before they allowed us to enter a practice gym at Seymour high school. There were a few seats that were mainly used by some older folks while the rest of the crowd of about 800 stood on the floor around the stage.

The Seymour High School band was playing while we all waited for President Clinton to arrive. While we waited the band entertained us with such numbers as Cheeseburger in paradise, love potion number 9, and Holiday by Greenday! Exactly the music you would expect for the arrival of the one time leader of the "free world."

President Clinton finally showed up 2 hours late! My feet were tired, people were sitting on the floor, people were leaving! It was a bit frustrating. He talked for a while about the economy, jobs, schools and health care. He claimed that if Hillary were elected we would have access to cars that get 100MPG. Sounds good. He also claimed that there are already 50 of these vehicles on the road today. He also mentioned that the United States is not in a recession, because the definition of a recession is 6 straight months of economic decline. This is not the case for the U.S. but he says it is true for many Americans on a personal level.

After the speech he went around shaking hands and hugging babies. I managed to make my way to the front and was able to stretch my hand out far enough for him to shake it!

I didn't have my camera so the only pictures you get are small ones off my cell phone!

I still don't know who I'm going to vote for...I sure wish Edwards was still running!

More barn pictures

Working on the Barn

For the past two years our youth group has been working on turning a barn into a youth center! I know they both have a lot in common. We have raised most of the money and done most of the work on our own. Here are a few pictures of the work we have done and where we are today. We will be finished by April 5. At least I hope, we have a band scheduled for that weekend! Enjoy...

Celebrate Life

I am packed and ready to head out to our district camp grounds in Indianapolis. Tonight starts our weekend Celebrate Life retreat. This is the first time we have done celebrate life as a weekend retreat and I'm pretty excited about it!

I am the speaker for tonight's service and I'm pretty pumped up for it! It is always exciting talking to a group of teenagers and sharing what God has placed in your heart. I'm talking about Jacob and Esau tonight. I'll be sharing how Esau traded all that God had created to be for a momentary craving for soup! I think we all have many moments just about every day where we can sell out the person God has created us to be for a momentary craving that never fulfills and leaves us hungry for more.

I have a quote on the wall in my office that says, "I have created you for so much more! Why do settle?"

It's my prayer that I refuse to buy into lies and momentary cravings and instead pursue passionately the life and the person that God has created me to be.

Love, Joy & Peace!

President Obama Hama

I met a woman today who volunteers at a local elementary school. She works with kindergartners and 2nd grade students and she told me a story about a 5 year old boy that she was helping. The little boy asked her,

“Have you heard of President Obama Hama?”

She said, “I think I know who you are talking about.”

The boy said, “Have you heard of President Hilary?”

She said, “I think I know who you are talking about.”

The boy said, “Did you know they don’t like each other? I heard them say that on the news last night.”

She said, “That’s not very nice! You can say I don’t like something you do, or I don’t like something you said but you should never say “I don’t like you.”

The boy said, “I know! I can’t watch the news anymore. I get too depressed.”

The wisdom of a 5 year old!

I agree with him. When I see the news, when I see how things really are, when I see how much evil is in the world I tend to get rather depressed. I tend to feel a little hopeless.

But I am convinced that we have great reason to hope. I am convinced that Jesus Christ is the solution for the world. That the way of forgiveness, love and peace will ultimately triumph over the world of evil, hate and violence. I am convinced that the way of Jesus is the best way to live.

Pics & Vids

Pictures Are Here!

I've been home for about 20 hours now and I can finaly upload some pictures and Videos for you today.

I had hoped to have a few more posts while I was gone but I hope you enjoyed what I was able to post!

I'm in a bit of a return culture shock now that I'm home. It was a little odd going to wal-mart and the grocery store, I think about 12 villages could fit inside of one!

We arrived home on Thursday night at about 9:30 p.m. it was a long trip. I think we spent about 23 hours traveling. I was pretty tired! When we were in Detroit the flight was overbooked so that asked for 7 volunteers to spend the night and fly out in the morning. I was volunteer number 6 and for my sacrifice I was offered a free nights hotel, free dinner and a free roundtrip ticket to anywhere in the US including Alaska!

So I was pretty fired up about the free flight and a good nights sleep at the Hilton. I said goodbye to our team and waited for my ride to the hotel...when suddenly I heard my name paged over the intercom. I went to the counter and they informed me that there were two empty seats on the plane and I had to board! So I lost it all!

But anyway, here are some video's and pictures, I'll post some more tomorrow too!

Worship On Sunday Morning at the Church in Kitchumboora:

The Church of the Nazarene at Kitchumboora:

My Boy, I don't know his name. This is the kid I hung out with all week:

Hanging out with Dennis and his family at their home:

Some of the kid's at church on Sunday: Daniel:

The Nile River

Today began the relaxing part of our trip!

We were unable to attend a local church this morning because of confusion of service times, so we had church together in the front yard of the hotel. We sang a song together, Don preached, and John Kraft prayed. It was interesting that we came to build a building for a church that was worshiping under a tree and today we were the ones worshiping under a tree!

After Church we loaded up our vehicles and headed to Murchison Falls Park. It is a large game reserve on the Nile river. It is the largest game reserve in Uganda. It took us two hours to drive on the bumpy dirt roads roads! But once we arrived they greeted us in the lobby with cold towls to wash the dust from the roads off of our faces, and a cold glass of passion fruit juice!

The hotel is amazing! The name of the hotel is the Paraa Safari Lodge. If you google it they have a web site. Apparently The Queen stayed here before as well as Ernest Hemingway. All of the wood in our room is Mahogany. The whole place has an Africa explorer feel to it. We have a balcony in our room that overlooks the Nile river. I just had tea on the roof and you can hear the hippopotoms in the river below! It is amazing! There are more stars in the sky than I have ever seen before.

We took a 3 hour boat ride up the Nile today to Murchison Falls. It is a 100 foot waterfall near the start of the Nile. We traveled along the shore the whole way up and encountered all sorts of animals. We saw hippos everywhere! We also saw several Elephants and their babies, Crocs, warthogs, a Giant King Fish and some gazzel and plenaty of baboons! I couldn't describe to you how amazing it is to be that close to a giant animal like an Elephant or Hippo.

We could not get very close to the falls but even at the distance we were at you could feel the power of them! The entire Nile river has to pass through a very tiny gap and it comes crashing down!

Tomorrow we have brekafast at 6:30 and then we will head out into the park for a Safari of our own! I will be riding on the top of one of our vans for most of the day!

As I wrap up tonight I want to put a few sections from a journal I have been keeping.

I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this so if you are post some comments!

Love, Joy & Peace



"I had a lot of fun with the kids today. None of them could speak English but we still communicated and we still had lots of fun! I taught the kids some very cool things today, like how to make glasses with their hands and that thing where you twist your hands around your middle fingers. They couldn't do the finger thing but they had the glasses down. A whole village of kids was walking around with their hands flipped on their faces like glasses!"

"There is one boy I played with most of the day but I don't know his name. He has a huge smile and is really cute. He wears the same shirt everyday and it has all sorts of different animals. We can't talk to eachother so we just hang out together and smile and laugh!"

"The women went to the Pastors house today to see his wifes garden. While they were there several of the woman asked about me. They wanted to know how many wives I had!"

"Kathy and I went and walked all around the town of Masindi toady. It was amazing! As we walked past all of the shops we dodged cars, trucks, bikes, and motorcycles all while walking on the left sid of the road with people laughing and point everywhere! Everywhere we went little kids would get very excited and yell "Wazungu!" which is a white person. We must have been a site to see, two white Americans in a sea of Ugandans."

Thats all for now! I'm off to sit by the river Nile. It hard work serving Jesus!

Uganda Part 2

Hello again everyone!

I found time and a ride back into town to post again. We just finished the construction of the church today. In the past 6 days we built all of the trusses, hung them, and hung the metal sheets for the roof. It has been hot, especially hanging on the roof of a metal building.

Today while some of the guys were finishing up their work I was able to go with a teenage boy I met here to visit his home. We walked about 1/4 mile up the road and turned down a long lane leading to his mud hut. Once we arrive there about 20 members of his family came running out to greet us. His mom was mad that he didn't tell here he was bringing friends over! (Not to different from home!) The had goats, chickens, ducks, and a couple of pigs running around. It was awesome! They gave me two pineapple and a papaya.

We then walked back to the church in time for the dedication of the new building. We presented a soccer ball to the youth of the church and they were very excited about it! They all agreed that in the front of the church they would build a soccer field for God! IT was great! Then the pastor of the church thanked us for coming and for giving our time. Then pastor Don prayed a prayer of dedication for the building. Many people were crying as they knew this would be the last time that we would see each other. After the dedication prayer we all sang the doxology together.

We passed out candy and beanie babies to all of the kids as they left the church. They were pretty fired up about receiving one. (See there is still a use for all of those beanie babies you have laying around!) We said goodbye to our friends and drove home. They gave us so much today. We had a box full of pineapple, papaya, jackfruit, sugar cane, banana's and passion fruit!

Tomorrow we leave Masindi for the game park. We will take a boat cruise down the Nile!

One more quick story and I need to Run.

Those of you who know my grandfather have probably heard his story about a cat drinking gas. Well yesterday I had to lead devotions at the church and I was looking for a story to tell and I told Grandpa's cat story. The people fell off their benches laughing! I thought grandpa would appreciate that! Maybe he has a future as a comedian in Uganda?

I need to run! I hope you are still reading! Thanks for praying for us!

Love, Joy & Peace,

Uganda

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't been able to write anything in the past few days. I'm in Masindi Uganda at an Internet Cafe. I don't have much time so I'll be quick.

These past few days have been amazing.

We are working on a church here. IN the past 3 days we have built all of the rafters, hung them, and tomorrow we will begin hanging the metal for the roof. I'm the youngest on the trip so everytime something has to be done high up I get sent up. So it's been fun trying to balance on the tip of the rafters in the hot sun of the Equator. I'm impressed with all the work everyone was able to do in just a few short days.

Our hotel is very nice, the food is good, and we almost always have hot water and electricity! Today in the middle of his shower the water just shut off on Don!

We worshiped here on Sunday morning and it was one of the most amazing worship services I have been a part of. The Ugandans shared testimonies and songs, and so did we. There was such passion and intensity in their worship. .

God has been so good to us! The people are amazing. I love to hear them laugh, and sing. I told one team member you kind of just want to hold the kids down and tickle them all! She said the would probably be really afraid of the crazy white man holding them down!
I have had a fun time playing with the kids and teenagers here. Today I had a group of about 15 kids following me around everywhere I went. They were cracking up laughing because I was afraid of a lizard!

ON Saturday I am going to visit the house of one of the teenagers named Dennis. I have to walk a 1/2 mile to get there! We have talke alot the past few days. I have a video of him singing a song that I will have to post when I get back.

Well I'm running out of time so I need to run. I should be able to post again tomorrow or Monday! Keep Praying for us!

Love, Joy & Peace

Amsterdam

We're sitting in Amsterdam now. The time at home is 3:30 A.M. and its 9:30 A.M. here.

Everyone is having a great time so far and we haven't had any problems at all. I have never traveled so quickly through security at an airport! Things are going great.

A lot of our group is getting pretty tired...ok all of our group! and it's really starting to show on their faces! But I still think they are all beautiful!

Our entire team if finally together here. Kathy and the Shorbes met us in Detroit and the other couple (I don't know their names!) just now met us here in Amsterdam at our gate.

The flight to Amsterdam went faster than expected we had a strong tail wind and ended up arriving an hour earloy. The phrase "hurry up and wait" keeps coming to my mind along with the lyrics to a Jerry Garcia song "Sitting here in Limbo".

I've really enjoyed the mix of people here. On the plane today the man in front of me had his new born son and 5 year old daughter and they were traveling to Kuwait to see his mom. Behind me was an Indian family, and next to me was a woman from Laos and in front of her a man from Kenya. I really enjoy being around such a diverse group of people. There were some interesting smells as well!

We will be waiting here for about 3 hours and then we head off to Entebbe, which is another 8 hour flight! We will spend the night at our hotel in Entebbe and then we are off to Masindi in the morning, which I think is about a 5-6 hour drive.

This is all still a bit surreal. When we landed here it was a fun realization that 7 years ago I was in the exact same place and I never really thought that I would ever be here again. It's crazy where life takes you. I was telling someone the other day how increadible my life has been. I have had such a blessed and privelaged life to go to all the places I have been to and to see all the things I have seen. Before I left I said that this was about it on my list of places I would like to see but now after browsing airling magazines I'm thinking about Kuwait, Greece, and Korea! And I'm not even in Africa yet!

On the plane I watched the movie "The assination of Jessie James: by the Coward Robert Ford" it was pretty much amazing and I can't wait to watch it on a normal t.v. when I get home. You should check it out. It's really long...

Well I'm off to wait in line at security to board our plane to Entebbe. I'm really excited to touch down and finally be in Africa. I can't wait! I'm really excited and looking forward to having my whole world changed these next 2 weeks. I'm anticipating what God is going to do in my life here. I don't have a clue what it is but it is my hope that when I return home I will be a different person!

A friend of mine in North Vernon has been telling me the past few week, "I can't wait for you to come back your are going to be so different!" I hope so!

Keep praying for us! I only have a few minutes left so I need to post this! Hopefully you will here some more from me tomorrow!

Love, Joy & Peace!

Off to Uganda

So I'm leaving for Uganda in about 47 hours and wanted to get some information on here for everybody to follow along with me on my journey. I don't know how often I will be able to post on here while I am in Ugand but I know we will have a few days throughout the two weeks where I will be able to throw something on here real quick.

In the next two days I'm going to put up some thoughts out of my journal that I've been keeping as I prepair for this trip. But for now here are some quick details about what will be happening:

We leave Thursday February 7 out of Cincinnatie to Detroit. We have a 2 hour layover in Detriot then we have a long flight to Amsterdam. After a 5 hour layover in Amsterdam we fly off to Entebbe Uganda. We arive in Entebbe at 9:00 P.M. their time. We will have to get thorugh Immigration and then spend the night in our hotel in Entebbe.

The next morning we have a 5 hour ride to Masindi Uganda. Misindi is the town we will be working in. Our goal is to build a church for the people of Masindi. We have 6 days to do the whole building!

Here is a link to the hotel we will be staying in at Masindi http://www.hotelvictorybijja.com/

Some time during the trip we will be visiting Murchison Falls National Park for a three day safari. You can check that out at: http://www.uwa.or.ug/murchison.html

Here is a rough map of where Masindi is located: (the bottom left)

I hope you read along the next few weeks!