Encouragment

 AS IN ENCOURAGEMENT

The past few days have been a whirlwind of activity and emotions for me.  Tuesday morning I woke up at 3:45 a.m. drove to Michigan and picked up my friends the Lebedevs  (Vladimir and Tonya) who I worked with in Russia almost 20 years ago. 

It was a wonderful trip culminated by taking them to Chicago and going to the top of the John Hancock Building.  It was also a stressful trip.  The kids were well behaved much of the time, but the long trip and the early hours did seem to be getting to everyone.  After a fantastic dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, on the first floor of the Hancock Complex, I drove the Lebedev's to where they would be staying for the night and Amy (who had met us at Hancock) drove the girls home.  Since the family they were staying  with lived in the polar opposite suburbs than us, I did not get home until 12:30 a.m. 

After such a long day on Tuesday, I was wiped out physically and emotionally on Wednesday.  Wednesday night I was supposed to again travel about 50 miles to see Vladimir speak.  This would be their last night of their trip and my last opportunity to see my dear friends for some time.  Yet, I was still very weary and not looking forward to the meeting as much as I had one day earlier.  Still I went and am very glad I did.

Vladimir shared about his work in Russia as a church leader and Bible College teacher and gave an excellent talk on Colossians.  It was so encouraging.  It was especially amazing that he gave this talk in English which is his 2nd language. 

While I was there, I saw Dwayne King who was a missionary in Khabarovsk, Russia at the same time I was.  Dwayne is a missionary pilot from Alaska and a book was written about his life recently.  Dwayne gave me a copy of his book, which had this inscription:

"David, I have great memories of working with you in Khabarovsk.  They remember you and still appreciate your ministry."

That inscription, Vladimir's message and time spent with all 3 of my fellow co-workers meant an awful lot to me.  Words (written or spoken) and acts of encouragement are so vital and important in thriving in this life time. 

In future posts I hope to share more about my visit with the Lebedev's and also to review Dwayne's book

Come back tomorrow for some fragments about my first week of Blogging from A to Z. 

How to say Marshmallow in Russian

 AS IN CAR TRIPS

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

I mentioned yesterday in my Boring post that I would be seeing my dear Russian friend Vladimir today.  He would probably be somewhat hurt if I left it at friend, which he is.  He is my Brother, not only in Christ but I was practically adopted by his family when I lived in Russia and Vladimir and I even lived together in my last months in Khabarovsk, or the Big K, as I grew fond of calling it. 

As you read this, I am probably driving from Illinois to Michigan to pick up Vladimir and Tanya or I am driving them to Illinois where Vladimir has a conference to attend tomorrow.  Do you have a friend that you would drop everything for?  Vladimir is such a friend.  Home schooling the kids makes travelling to Michigan on a moment's notice much easier.

All 3 kids are travelling with me and we will all meet up with Amy once we get back into Illinois. 

Since I am spending the majority of today in a car, I thought I would blog about car trips and some of the things I have done on them.

Marshmallow - 3 years ago a cousin of Amy's graduated from high school in Kentucky.  A large contingent of family members from Illinois travelled to Kentucky for the ceremony. Another of Amy's cousins who is just a few years older than our kids decided it would be fun to shout marshmallow each time we crossed from state to state.  It is now a staple of all interstate travel.

Alphabet Game - Amy and I play this more frequently w/o the kids than with, so it will probably not come up today.  We are getting the kids more interested in playing and sometimes they will "throw a letter" out the window if we get stuck. 

Play-A-Ways - A play a-way is an audio book in it's own mp3 type player.  They are available at our public library.  When we go on a long trip (like this one to Michigan) The kids and sometimes the adults get some Play-a-ways from the library.  Our kids love books and listening to books in the car is one of their favorite ways to pass the time,

Madlibs, Random and other word games.

Random is a game I was taught in 1986.  I have been a devotee for more than a quarter century now.  Here is a previous post about it.  Mad Libs and Random are great games because they are both fun and educational.  I guess mostly fun.

Kid Directed Play.

The kids create games that they play on car rides.  The ones they play most often are the frowning game, which is very similar to Make me Laugh and the Dolphin Game, where they pretend they are workers or animals in a zoo.  Amy and I can entertain ourselves just listening to them.


We do lots of other things on car trips, but that's a pretty good list for now.  I'll be back tomorrow with some Donuts. 

Spring Break So Far

Not all homeschoolers take a Spring Break.  But since Amy is employed by a local  school district and gets the week off, we take the week off. 

We are not going away anywhere this week.  Here is what we have been doing. 

Our co-op met on Monday, so Amy went in to work. Only a handful of people were there, but it is one less day that she has to work once school is out of session.  We had a major tire blowout as we were travelling from co-op to dental appointments.  Not 5 minutes after we pulled over on the side of the road, a man who works at the same tire company we bought our last tires pulled up behind us and assisted me in putting on the spare.  A family from our co-op noticed us on the side of the road, dropped most of their kids at home came back and drove Amy and the kids to their dental appointments while I got the tire changed.

We have been watching movies this week as part of our break.  We watched Hugo and it is certainly worth all the hype.  I found it very enjoyable.  (Not everyone in the family enjoyed it.)

My father had a surgery to remove his prostate last Tuesday, as it was cancerous.  He is now cancer free and after being releases from the hospital last Friday on his birthday he is getting back to normal life.  Today we visited him and my Mom and he had fixed an old computer and gave it to Spider Droid.

Tomorrow my brother is coming over and he, SD and myself are going to do a little work in the bathroom.  We have been without a bathroom sink for almost a week now.  I bought one at Menard's yesterday and we are going to put new floor tiles in while we were at it.  The girls will have an action packed day at Lincoln Park Zoo and Navy Pier while us men beat the bathroom into submission.

We have other day trips planned on Thursday and Friday.  I am also trying to write a few blog posts for next month's blogging A to Z which starts this Sunday.  We are relaxing and enjoying.  This accounts for no posts since Saturday. 

Hope you all are having a great week.

Thanks Swimming!

I love t-shirts and would love to have one that says "I brake for symmetry".

I am always looking for book ends to catalog my life .  One such moment of symmetry appeared to me when our family was picking up my oldest niece in South Bend to bring her back to the Chicago area for Thanksgiving.  I invited our niece to go swimming with us in our hotel.  This was on Tuesday, two days before Thanksgiving.  I realized that my younger sister had invited our niece as well as our family to go swimming with her 2 days after Thanksgiving.  So I', thinking swimming, Thanksgiving, swimming and it came to me, Thankswimming.

Here's A Recap . . .

Thankswimming Day 1

 

Then after drying off,

leaving the hotel,

inspecting the dorm,

Catching The Muppet Premiere,

 

Eating,

and waiting

for the tryptophan to kick in.

We were ready for . . .

 Thankswimming Day 2

This summer, my older kids started going off the diving board.  The problem was, every time I tried to take a picture of them, I would get this . . .

and then this . . .

This year, no doubt due to the miracle that is Thankswimming, I got this . . .

and this . . .



and even this . . .

All this  while Puppy paddled.

In short Thankswimming

made a big splash!

************************************

Today's featured HSBA category is Best Homemaking or Recipes Blog.  This years winner, The Happy Lil' Homemaker seems to have a lot of great recipes like the one I saw today fro Spritz Cookies.  I was surprised that they didn't have any Thankswimming recipes.  Although this  Sample Post does look delectable.

Birthdays and Home Schooling

Like many home school parents, I was not home educated. Unlike my kids I went to school rather than stay at home. One of my favorite days to "go" to school was on my birthday. I loved going on my birthday, bringing candy for my class. I also loved when it was someone elses birthday and they brought in candy.

At our home school we have a tradition of taking the day off school on our children's birthdays. Last week Spider Droid went all double digits on us.

When SD was younger he really enjoyed trains. He loved playing with trains, watching and reading Thomas the Tank engine stories, visiting train museums, riding trains. He loved all things trains. As he has become interested in other things like robotics, Lego's and soccer, his train love has waned a bit. Thomas is old news, and he only plays with his trains when younger kids come to visit. He still likes to ride trains, though.

So for his birthday we went on a short family train trip. 2 of his friends, brothers who had gone to Joplin with us, came with. We took a Chicago commuter train from one suburb to another. Our destination was a place called the Choo Choo Cafe. It is a real cool restaurant that serves your food on a model train.

Here are some pics or Spider Droids special day. . .

After we ate lunch the train brought out some ice cream for the kids.

Not all our birthday celebrations are so elaborate. This was a nice birthday/field trip. So I got to wondering how other home educators spend birthdays. If you are visiting from this weeks Carnival of Homeschooling please comment and tell me what you do for birthdays. To get back to the Carnival click here.

Next Time: HSBA Challenge

Joplin Day 4

Wednesday night/Thursday Morning let's call it 3ish, I was woken up to a major major storm. In the area I was sleeping there were no windows, but it sure sounded like a major major storm. With how hot it had been, a storm would generally be welcomed. My main concern was the team member on the cot next to me. I don't want to name names, but let's just call him Spider droid. Before the trip he told me his only concern about going was that he did not want to be caught in another tornado. I guess from a 9 year old perspective that makes sense. So, while some other team members went downstairs to watch the storm, I just watched my son sleep for about 30 minutes as the storm went on until I fell back asleep.





A few hours later, it was time for showers, breakfast devotionals those sort of things. The team went off in many different directions with a number of us going back to Joplin Family Worship Center for various assignments. I wanted to volunteer inside for the day at their distribution center. The rain had not really cooled down things all that much and I didn't want SD in the 110 degree heat again. Especially since Friday we hoped to be doing some outside work and I thought a day in the AC would be just the thing.





When we got there the distribution center was filled up so it looked like another day in the clothing tent. I am usually not the don't take no for an answer guy. But, I really felt like going in and see if they could make room for 2 more. Hey, 1 of them is pretty small. I finally found someone who knew who the person in charge was. She said that they were trying to help a guy who might have heat stroke and could I sit down for a minute while they sort that out.

It turns out I was sitting next to the heat stroke guy. His name was Taylor , a guy working at the center, who had heat stroke a few weeks before and was not recuperating well. I asked him if I could pray for him and I did. After a few minutes I walked into the hallway and saw the supervisor trying to figure out who would drive Taylor to Urgent Care which they figured would only take a couple hours. I thought to my self that Urgent Care would be a good enough place to be for a few hours, it would have AC and we would be helping someone in need. So I offered for SD and I to accompany Taylor to Urgent Care. They took me up on my offer and then something strange happened. SD did not want to go.

Spider Droid and quite enjoyed helping in the clothing tent with the other kids the day before and wanted to do that again. Providentially the group we worked with the day prior, was working again at the clothing tent. They were very willing to let Spider work with them while I was helping Taylor.

On a missions trip it is easy to spiritualize everything. However, I really feel that God put on my heart to keep SD in the AC so that I could
So, I drove Taylor, in his car (the people at JFWC did not want him driving alone), and SD sorted shoes with his new friends. Taylor and I talked in the car how his own house was affected in the tornado. The house was able to be fixed and his home owners insurance was enough to fix it.

Cutting to the chase I was at Urgent Care for more like 5 hours than 2, Taylor and I waited for about an hour and a half before he was seen. Then it seemed like all the people waiting after him were released before he was. While I waited I watched the View, and then countless hours of CNN. At the time the big story was the plummeting stock market (This was right after the debt ceiling was raised and right before the Country's credit rating was downgraded.) The whole Joplin trip had affected me in a way, that the news was not so important to me.

After Taylor was seen, I kept waiting for him to come out. I didn't want to say anything because the people at the desk were so very busy. I just watched and checked in with the people working with SD every hour or so. After 4 0r 5 people who came in after Taylor were released I checked at the desk. They had just started an IV to help hydrate him. They let me go see him and he advised me that his wife was coming by to see him and to drive me back as he would be there a few more hours.


About an hour after that Taylor's wife drove me home. She told me how Taylor was not taking it easy after the heat stroke. After she took me back to JFWC, I prayed for her and then went to see Spider Droid. He was still working at the shoes and didn't even really miss me. He told me about his experiences and was very pleased with how he had helped a boy try on roller skates and shoes and find pairs in his size. .

On a missions trip it is easy to spiritualize everything. However, I really feel that God put on my heart to keep SD in the AC so that I could take Taylor to Urgent Care and that SD could minister in the clothing tent. He was confident that God had sent him to Joplin to help that boy get shoes. I am inclined to agree with him.


There is still a bunch of Day 4 beyond Urgent Care and shoe shopping. So come back tomorrow for Ice Buckets and Wheel Barrows.

Joplin Trip Day 3 Part II

This is the ususal time of the week that I participate in the meme Friday Fragments hosted at Half Past Kissin's Time. I have decided to recount Joplin Day 3, Part II in fragment form.

A blog fragment is a piece of info that usually doesn't make it into a traditional post. But if you weave a bunch of these fragments together you can get some pretty interesting stuff. Here we go.

Fragment 1: Church Name Symmetry

While I was waiting at Joplin Family Worship Center between the closing of the clothing tent and the beginning of meals and wheels, I began talking with some people from a church who were distributing Bibles to anyone who wanted them. They had a small table set up right next to where those affected by the tornado signed up to get the kind of materials I mentioned in the last post. The people from that church agreed to give us a bunch of New Testaments that we could offer when we delivered meals. I thought it was really cool because their church was a Bible Chapel and the church that I go to is also a Bible Chapel. This was not the only church name symmetry as the church that lent our team a bus and provided one member to the team is called The Lighthouse. First Christian Church of Carthage who was housing us is also called, wait for it, The Lighthouse.

Fragment 2: Meals on Wheels.

JFWC has a Meals on Wheels ministry. Everyday at 4 p.m they prepare meals for 4 blocks in the tornado area that people are living in and that are accesible by car. They go door to door handing out meals and water. We prepared 40 meals and distributed them.

Fragment 3: There's one in every disaster.

I mentioned yesterday, that all the people I saw being ministered to were receptive to the help. Until we came to the door of an elderly lady who just yelled and yelled at us. I was walking with a bunch of kids and when we came to her door, she knew the drill. Before she even answered she started shouting that she didn't want any food. I asked her very nicely if she wanted some water. She said something like she only used water to wash with, she never drank the stuff. I backed the kids away from her door and she continued to yell at us. She was saying that it was too hot for us to be out (it was 110 degrees) with the kids and we should get them inside. I thanked her and started walking with the kids to the next door. She very loudly said "Fine! Don't listen to me!"

Fragment 4: Who's serving who?

At the same time this heated monologue was taking place, something else was heating up. The vehicle we were in started overheating. We drove it a few more houses and realized what happened. We were running it in 110 degree heat stopping at every house with the AC on. Since there wasn't anthing else for the kids and I to do, we kept walking down the block offering food and water. Many of the houses had no one in them, and often the neighbors would tell us that. We were walking up to one house when the across the street neighbors told us no one was there. I asked them if they wanted any food. They said no but they would gladly take 6 bottles of water.

As we tried to figure out what to do about our vehicle, the family with the six waters came up to us and offered to help us. There was a 91 year old mechanic who lived at that house. He came up to the car which we were able to inch over to their house, and started cooling the radiator down with a hose. We took that job over for him and as we waited, they let the children that were with us cool down in the small pool that some of their children were in. Come on guys, we're here to help you!

We cooled down the car and were able to drive back to Carthage without any problem. We did not have any problem with that car for the rest of the trip,

Fragment 5: An Opportunity

When we got back to the church, the teens on our trip were attending the church youth group. We were told about how the family with the grandchildren were ministering to a man who needed to get his property cleared. His house has been destroyed and he had many family members including his wife pass away shortly before the tornado. We decided that as a team on Thursday night we would work together to get this man's field cleared. One of our elder's grandsons felt compelled to give that man a Bible. I remembered about the Bible Chapel giving Bibles away and said I would get one for him tomorrow.

Fragment 6: This Place is Hopping

I don't remember noticing it Tuesday night when we arrived but on Wednesday night around 9 p.m. all the kids started noticing that the streets and parking lots were teeming with flying grasshoppers, crickets, cicadias and the occasional praying mantis. The kids spent about an hour each night on grasshopper patrol.

At about 10 pm, it was still hot. But probably 100 degrees, rather than 110. So Spider Droid and I walked a few blocks up to the town square. This town square had a clock tower like the one in Back to the Future. After a nice walk, it was time for bed.

For more Friday Fragments, click here. For more Joplin stories, tune in tomorrow.

Joplin Trip Day 3 Part 1

Before I get too far in the daily recaps of our Joplin trip, let me introduce you to the 4 members of our team that didn't go on the series of adventures recounted in my last 2 installments. They were an elder emeritus (not sure if that is his official title) of our church, his wife and 2 of his grandsons. They traveled up earlier than us and were volunteering prior to our arrival. They figure in to some really good stories coming up. In the radio business, we call that a tease. So keep your dial right here for future installments.

On Wednesday morning we woke up to a very warm day that would be 110 degrees for most of the day. We were served breakfast and then we had devotions. People were excited, but most of us still did not know what we were going to do for the day. Many of the team members had considerable skills in construction and knew exactly what they were best suited for. Others were so moved by the needs, they wanted to get to work right away. I can't speak for all the people who brought children on the trip, but the prevailing mood among them seemed to be to get them in a place where they could serve along side their children and keep them safe. Did I mention that it was 110 degrees out? The team drove to a church in Joplin called Joplin Family Worship Center. We filled out some paperwork for each team member and were then given our daily assignment. Many of the workers would go from JFWC to homes that needed work and some of the workers would volunteer at the center itself.

We were also told of an opportunity to do meals on wheels later that day which seemed like it would be a good place for the children to volunteer.

Since this is my trip log, I will concern myself with what Spider Droid and I did. Before I do, I should mention that all volunteers had to sign in and out every day. This is because the City of Joplin receives money from government disaster relief agencies for every man hour worked.

Spider Droid, myself, and a few other members of our team worked at a clothing distribution tent at JFWC. Spider Droid got to work immediately matching women's shoes with other children. He really enjoyed this task. I got to work putting men's shirts and pants on hangars and helping the customers, those affected by the tornado find what they need. Although I have very little experience in clothing retail, I took to it very well. As a customer service guru, I just love helping people.

We worked with volunteers from many states and situations. There was a team from Walmart in Benton, Arkansas. The individual employees came there about once a month and got paid by Walmart to volunteer. There were church groups from Indianapolis, day trippers from Kansas City and that was just the tip of the iceberg. Some of the workers were Joplin residents affected by the tornado. Our customers would come and go but they were priority one.

As I worked, I heard many people comment about how disorganized things were. But as I watched the customers, all their needs were being met and they never commented on any disorganization. It is natural when working in a disaster area to think that you should be knowing more, but all I saw that day was God meeting peoples' needs.

I am going to finish day 3 tomorrow because I want to spend some time on the meals on wheels ministry we participated in. So, I will finish with one story that I think shows how peoples' needs were being met even when the person meeting those needs didn't get to see the impact she made.

It was so hot, that the volunteers would often leave the tent and go inside the air conditioned church building. I of course mandated this for Spider Droid who was having the time of his life serving with other children. On one such time out, I encountered a Joplin woman who was getting a little frustrated. She had brought a small bag of things to donate and was getting the unintentional run-a-round. People suggested that she go to the clothing tent to donate it. She said she had just been to a tent and was told it was not needed. (There were at least 4 outside stations and one inside station giving all manners of things from furniture to housewares besides the clothing.) I told her that I would take her bag and get it to the right place. She had donated 4 pairs of jeans and 3 alarm clocks. The people at the clothing tent reassured me that they were taking donations and were not aware that anyone had been turned away. I brought the alarm clocks to another tent and chatted with one of our team members who was working there for a minute. When I came back to the clothing tent, I was asked to help a customer who was having trouble finding jeans in his size. We looked and could not find any in his size. I realized I had the bag of jeans from that lady. Guess what, all 4 pair were his size! He took all 4. This woman probably will never know the immediate impact of her gift. But it was a reminder to me of God's providence.

To those who are regular readers of this blog. You know it's usually not all about Joplin and journals. For a little return to what passes for normal on these pages, I have decided to participate in a meme called Two Questions Thursday over at Self Sagacity at the end of this post.

My two questions are Joplin related.

1) reread this post and the previous two. What have I told you that has had the most impact on you?

2) What would you like to hear more about?

For those who have never played before go ahead and answer my questions as a comment here and then go back to Self Sagacity and look at the other questions out there.

Next Time: Warm Dinners, Hot Cars, Cool God!

Joplin Trip Day 2

When we last left our intrepid Joplineers, they were horsing around on the Illinois/Missouri border.

To recap, car troubles kept us from making Joplin on Day 1. A good friend of mine whose family runs a ministry at a place called Cornerstone Farms, put us up for the night. In the morning of Day 2 some helped with the chores before breakfast.

After breakfast and a short devotional, we prayer walked around the property asking God to continue to use this place and people for His kingdom.

After that, we hit the road once again hoping to reach Joplin by day's end. The thing is, this time we actually did.

Just a little sidebar about delays: Delays are what we call them, I am not sure that God calls them that. When we left Faith Ares on Monday, few of us had heard about Cornerstone Farms, and none of us planned to stay there. We planned to travel 1 day, work 4, and return on Saturday. I think God wanted us to experience being helped when we were in need just prior to helping others in need.

Perhaps you feel like you should be doing something different in your life and God is somehow got you on a holding pattern. As many of you know, I would rather not be the one home schooling my kids. Amy is more suited to it, but I have been unable to find a job that would allow her to stay at home and do the job she loves. So often I feel like our family is in a holding pattern.

After we took off from Cornerstone Farms we came to the Missouri/Illinois border. This of course brings two things to mind: the gateway arch and marshmallows. Well maybe not marshmallows. We have a family tradition of shouting marshmallow as we cross state lines. We made the other vehicles aware of this "fun" little eccentricity and marshmallow was yelled by many.

The rest of the trip there was relatively uneventful except that we were driving in 110 degree heat and the bus AC decided to break down. Windows, it turns out, are more than just a computer platform. You can open windows up in a vehicle, and a cool breeze will circulate in said vehicle. I guess they do have an app for that.

We arrived at our destination late on Tuesday afternoon. Lighthouse First Christian Church in Carthage, MO. Carthage is a neighboring town of Joplin. FCC housed us and fed us breakfast and dinner on the trip.

After using amenities like showers and ping pong tables, we had dinner. Then the pastor's wife took many of us to see the tornado affected areas of Joplin.

Team members who were there in June attested to how much had changed since they had last been there. The devastation was still palpable. We drove by the Joplin High School that had been hit hard by the tornado. You may have already heard this story but it is still worth repeating. The sign on the high school was ripped apart and the O and the P were all that remained in Joplin. After the storm someone duct taped an H before the O and an E after the P, so the sign now read HOPE HIGH SCHOOL.

I did not get a clear picture of that sign but did get one of this.

One of many signs encouraging faith in the midst of disaster.

We stopped our car and saw a team just finishing work for the day.

Then we visited a church that had major damage done in the tornado. Here is a video of me explaining the damage . . .

While we were there we discovered 1 banner and several hymnals including the pianist's hymnal that were just sitting there outside in what was once the inside of the church. While we were there, a family who attends the church came over. They told our team a little more of what happened that night. There were people in the church that night but no one was killed or I believe injured. We gave the hymnal to that family, who said they would give it to the pianist.

As we drove back to our home for the week, I had a feeling of being both overwhelmed and inspired by what I saw. I debriefed with Spider Droid on the way back to see how he was feeling by what he saw. The church we saw had made an impact on him as had many of the other sights. He tried to describe it to his sister on the telephone but the words didn't do justice to what he had seen. Tomorrow,I thought, we could start putting some of those words into actions.

Next Time: Perception and Reality