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Praise Songs

Just got back from the Light in the Night event sponsored by Calvary Chapel. Listened to the Christian bands Hawk Nelson, Grand Prize, Olivia the band, and Manafest. Jonah 33 was to be there, but couldn't make it. Probably a good thing, 'cause after several hours I was going deaf. This just wasn't my kind of music--Christian punk rock and rap. Dustin and I went together, going out to dinner first at Panda Express. The event included a skate board contest, and was a great alternative to a traditional Halloween night.

Posted by David at 11:11 PM

Reality Check

I went out for a ride this afternoon on my road bicyle. It was in the upper fifties, so as far as temperature goes, it was almost perfect. I had an opportunity to go on a mountain bike ride this morning, but passed because I didn't get a confirmation back in time from those going. Well, that was my excuse. Really I should have showed up anyway, but I was thinking it was going to be really cold and I wasn't sure I could hack it. Five years in the tropics of Ecuador hasn't helped me at all with my ability to deal with cold. Won't be long now before riding outdoors will be a bit more difficult, what with temps dropping, and rain making the trails muddy, and Standard time bringing us darkness late in the afternoon. All that said, I enjoyed my ride over to our new house and back. A pleasant way to spend an hour any day of the year. Good roads, flat roads, cool temp, not too windy. I was excited to see that two guys were hard at work putting shingles on the roof. I was so glad to see that. I knew they had stacked shingles on the roof yesterday, but I could only hope they'd actually work on Saturday. They won't be able to finish until Monday, but that should work out fine. There has been a chance of rain today, but that's supposed to be clearing up tomorrow and into next week. We've had insulation and sheetrock in the house for over two weeks, and no proper roof. Then we ended up having rain showers over the past several days, which wasn't a good thing. The roofing contractors here are maxed out, because there is so much new construction going on.

As I arrived back home and hung up my bicycle, I was lamenting the fact that my bicycle is getting close to twenty years old and that my riding shoes are wearing out. Due to current financial priorities, those are things I can't replace right now. But, when it comes right down to it, I had to realize that I have quite a lot that I am really thankful for. It's not how low-tech my bicycle is, it's how I'm blessed with good health. It's not that I gave up that great paying job at the county office of education five years ago, and those side jobs at Fresno Pacific University, it's that I have a roof over my head, a comfortable bed, and food on the table three times a day. I think of the people in Sumatra still without a proper house, and a reliable source of drinking water, or the people in Pakistan who are facing winter in tents without sufficient food. I am blessed. Why me?

Posted by David at 04:09 PM

Progress

We are now at 81% of our monthly support amount!

Posted by David at 09:15 AM

Rain Showers

Well, I'm totally disappointed. I'm trying to get over it though, and not obsess about it. I'm telling myself it's not my problem. The roofing shingles are still not on the new house in Boise, and we're getting rain showers. Nothing super heavy, but I can guarantee you some of the rain is getting through the tar paper and the wood sheeting, especially around the vents. The problem here is that the sheetrock and insulation are already in the house. In fact, they've been painting the interior all week. Oh well, at least it's not pouring buckets like I'm used to in Ecuador.

Posted by David at 10:39 AM

House on Fireglow Avenue

Our new house got some paint today. I can't wait for them to get the roof on. Thankfully this is the high desert, and it doesn't rain much here. But with the sheetrock and insulation in, I don't want to see any rain at all. We have a buyer for our house in California, and the sale is in escrow now. We are supposed to close on the house here on November 30, so we are praying for a fast escrow on the California house sale. Meanwhile we continue to drive the boys back and forth to school, and we are all anxious for this routine to end. We're spending a total of three and a half hours and driving forty miles each day. What is making it so bad is that the boys' have school start and end times that are an hour different. That means we have some waiting with Taylor in the morning and Dustin in the afternoon.

Posted by David at 10:45 PM

Fire Call

For a couple week Dustin has been telling us that his friend was going to have a bonfire at her house and that we'd all be invited. That sounded like fun, and we said we'd go. Yesterday we found out that it would be Saturday night at 7 PM. He said that they would light the bonfire at 6 PM, which sounded a bit early to me, but I thought it's not to hard to keep a fire going, so we won't miss anything. We arrived to see that the fire had just been lit, and that the bonfire was a pile of tree branches, with some brown leaves on some. Before long, the flames were over ten feet tall, and there was a plume of grey smoke high in the sky! It was huge. This was in the middle of a large field, with a hose right there, so I wasn't too concerned.

Somebody else was though, and before long there were about three fire trucks in front of the house, and about eight firemen standing in the driveway, checking it all out. The family had a burn permit, but they were supposed to be burning before sunset, and they were a little late. I think too that the fire was a little larger than it should have been. Well, they didn't get a fine, and were told to hose it down a little bit, to get it smaller. We did, and it was dying down quickly anyway. Later, when it wasn't too hot anymore to stand in front of it, we made some smores and enjoyed hanging out and talking by the fire in the cool fall air.

Posted by David at 05:59 PM

Missing Shell

I was only there five years and I miss it. I miss my Scarlet Macaw, the rain, kayaking trips, and my job. My heart feels for all the MKs who grew up there, who miss it, who know it as home, and who would like to return. Every once in a while, while I was in Shell, I'd receive letters from MKs who found my web site and wrote to tell me how much they enjoyed it. Now I'm the one who is going to be happy if and when someone from Shell posts photos and news. Probably the best way to get that is from the prayer letters of the MAF families there.

Posted by David at 10:54 PM

Carving Pumpkins

Taylor and Dustin each got a pumpkin the other day. Even though it's not quite time to carve a pumpkin, Taylor couldn't wait. It probably won't last 'til the end of the month, but that's OK. He hasn't carved a pumpkin for a long, long time, and he can always carve another one if he wants. In Ecuador we could ignore Halloween, and there was nothing there to remind us. We hardly noticed it for the past five years, and that was just fine with us.

Posted by David at 10:50 PM

Dreaming Of Home

I didn't think it would hit me so soon. Friday I was feeling low, both physically and mentally. Discouraged. Friday night I dreamed I was back in Ecuador, saying hello to friends in Shell. When I woke up Saturday morning I realized I was missing Ecuador, and the my old life there. When I left, I figured I was ready to leave, but I also knew that in about six months I'd probably wish I could go back. For me, living in Ecuador was love/hate, and I knew it wouldn't last forever. The missionary kid part of me loved living in a foreign country. The part of me that is from the US got frustrated sometimes with living in another culture. It's hard to explain, but any third culture kid will know what I mean.

I don't think I'm really ready to go back at this point, and that I am probably feeling this way because of this strange stage we're in right now. We've been working on deputation, or fund raising, since the beginning of August. We are just over two months into it, and our goal is to be done in another two and a half months, at the end of the year. So far we have seen our monthly support increase to 75%, and we have $7,000 out of the $8,000 we need for our one-time amount. That means we are on target, because I figured we'd need to see our monthly support increase 10% a month to reach our goal by the end of the year. Despite that, I was feeling down on Thursday and Friday about our support raising. Not because of our progress so far, but because I was feeling uncertain about how we would raise the rest of the amount. Specifically, we've been letting our friends in California know of the need, and I feel like we're coming to the end of the support that we will receive from that area. That means we probably need to look for the rest of the support from the Boise area, and we are still getting to know people here, so I see it as a slower process.

But really, when it comes right down to it, I can't worry about it, and I have to leave it in God's hands. He will supply all our needs, I'm sure of it. God already knows what He's going to do about it, He just hasn't told us yet.

Posted by David at 07:19 PM

Un-welcome Entry

Lucio flew to Manta today, and was arrested. I'd love to be in Ecuador right now to see how this plays out.

Posted by David at 08:23 PM

Lucio Is Going Home

Now this is interesting. I think if he does show up in Ecuador, he won't find what he's looking for, unless he has the military behind him. Otherwise he's going to either end up in prison or high-tail it out of the country again. The ironic thing was that he was involved in a coup once himself. How upset can he really be he was ousted from power in a coup?

Posted by David at 01:25 PM

It's Been A While

Well, I guess it's high time I made use of this web log. I've been back from California for about a week now. The weather has cooled off since I left, and we are enjoying the autumn season for the first time in many years. The cool days, colorful leaves, and windy afternoons are welcome changes. Taylor is thinking already that it's cold, but I'm afraid he has no idea what cold really is! Since his last winter was at age four, he's having a hard time remembering just how cold winter will be. He is looking forward to learning to snowboard, and I hope we'll get up to Bogus Basin a couple times this winter. He's only got two more football games this season, and it's not as light or as warm at practice any more. He continues to do well with football, but I'm not sure he'll want to do it again this year. I'm glad he played this year, and it's been a positive learning experience for him.

The boys continue to do very well in school. Both are making excellent grades, and have adjusted well to some very dramatic changes. I'm really looking forward to living in the new house, so we don't have to drive them to school each day. That is taking quite a bit of time and gas money, but we feel it is very well worth it to keep them in the same school all year long.

We continue to attend the Covenant Presbyterian Church in Boise. I'm going to the men's Thursday morning Bible study, and Ellyn is attending a two-year long Bible class on Wednesday evenings. We've had a chance to share with the missions team what we are doing with MAF, and we're hoping before too long that we'll be able to share with the congregation. We getting closer to our support raising goals, and we still need more people to join our team. We're excited about the progress we've seen so far, and we continue asking the Lord to allow us to reach our full support goal by December.

Posted by David at 08:32 PM

Long Haul

I'm back in Idaho. It was a long drive yesterday from Oakhurst to Meridian, and I didn't pull in until 5 AM local time. I was getting pretty tired in Oregon, and pulled over to sleep for a while. How long, I know not, but it helped enough to get me home. Good thing I like to drive, because 730 miles is a long way to go in one day.

I'm not prepared for the weather here. It's not exactly cold yet, but to me it feels like I'm freezing. It didn't break sixty degrees today, and rained last night. I'm going to have to toughen up if I'm going to make it through the winter.

Posted by David at 08:36 PM