White Christmas

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas:
Snow's been coming regularly now. One of BearHunter's jobs is shoveling sidewalks at our facility and around the adjacent church building. Since all other staff are gone for the Christmas break, BearHunter shovels alone these days. I did help him once, just cuz I thought it would be fun. Some days after he digs out all the walkways, by late afternoon the strong winds have drifted snow right back on top, deeper than they were in the morning. He also had the fun of driving a snow plow! A friend came to donate an old table to the YWAM base and plowed the driveway for us while he was here. He let BearHunter get behind the wheel and experiment a bit. This was happening after 10 at night. Plowing seems to know no bedtime.

Feeling Baby:
For two mornings in a row this week I found that I could locate my baby - it's on my right side. But I knew that from the first month. This week it felt like a tennis ball in my abdomen when I laid on my stomach...but only in the mornings. I think my innerds relax and settle during the night. One morning in particular this tight little wad would move around in my belly. I didn't feel any "kicking" sensation, just funky movement and could tell with my hand that the little ball wasn't where it just was! Pretty cool. The Hubbie has a harder time feeling it, he's afraid to press too hard.

Christian Emotions:
We heard a great sermon last Sunday. Main thing I want to relay to you is the necessity of emotion in a Christian faith. Some people fear emotionalism (emotions for the sake of emotions) among fanatical Christians. But to have a stoic faith, a salvation of only your mind is not really salvation. The pastor read from a book which I can't recall the title now, but it read something to the effect of this: Can you truly know the damnation of your sins and feel nothing? Can you claim to know and receive God's love without some joyous and happy response? What have you been saved from if only your mind is aware of it?
Our minds weren't headed for hell alone without our souls. Rather, our whole person has been saved and is being changed. So our response to God is with our body, soul (mind, will and emotions), and spirit. And all three are part of your person and are interconnected.

Landed in Alaska

We arrived safely on Thursday morning to our new hometown. We had only a few hours sleep the night before, due to snow storms causing our flights to be delayed. But a very friendly host picked us up at the airport at 1:30 and returned us there by 7:15. So we were able to stay in a real home for the brief evening. Hopefully next time we're in town, we'll be able to spend more time getting to know this neat family.

We moved into our room on the base. They gave us the "nook" which is a T shaped room with an elevated nook. BearHunter was immediately excited to make that his little reading or writing space. We moved furniture around and found a layout we like. Turns out we'll need to buy a few household supplies to get our room all ready, but it's a cute spot. Right now it's barely below freezing temps and it's light out between 9:30am and around 5pm I think.

Walking is our way of getting around town. So Saturday we made a few trips around the town, by foot, carrying our new pillows, mirror, laundry soap, etc. My hips hurt! But I think that's the pregnancy talking.

Pregnancy Update: I'm still feeling great, as I have been for the last few weeks. I have energy most days and no nausea. I still have some breast tenderness. And my urine volume is massive. Happily, it doesn't wake me up during the night yet. This is my last week of first trimester. I'm looking forward to my skin clearing up sometime soon. And my belly is showing a bit more all the time. I feel fat, but know I'm not supposed to diet. I'm buying my own soymilk to help me drink enough calcium. At the school here we're allowed just one glass of milk each morning (usually used for cereal). So I have a personal stash of cereal and soymilk for breaks. The last week or more I've had a dramatic increase in my appetite as well. I found myself wanting breakfast or lunch AGAIN just a few minutes after eating it. So when I have the chance to eat, I'm eating more to try to make it last a bit longer in my stomach.

Baby Shower

It's early for a baby shower, I'm only 13 weeks along. However, since I'm moving out of state, it seemed the best time to have a shower with my friends in California. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a chance. A group of girlfriends from church came to celebrate our pregnancy. We spent time talking and hanging out, eating, playing games, opening cards and gifts, and praying. I loved having the time to chill with these friends, since I've been out of town most of the last two months. One gift, seen in the picture, was a little red knitted hat (with bears on it) that BearHunter's mom saved from his toddlerhood and gave to us. Sorry the pictures is sideways, I don't know how to change that!

Thanksgiving

Here in America we have a big family holiday at Thanksgiving. Nowadays it's mostly about having a big meal with your family and continuing your traditions, whatever they may be. Now that we're a new family unit, we think about what holiday traditions do we want to do as we raise our kids. Callalily loves decorations for all holidays. Especially the apple-spice smelling candles during fall and winter. We don't get into Halloween because there's so much demonic activity. But Thanksgiving and Christmas are great.

Since we're leaving the lower 48 and won't be around for Christmas, we tried to be with both families for Thanksgiving this year. Whereas we've been alternating the in-laws in the past. So the actual day of was with CallaLily's parents, sister, and a couple ladies from the church. Then this weekend we repeated a banquet with BearHunter's family, including grandparents.

Maybe we're a little obsessed with log cabins. For the gingerbread contest at the county Christmas fair, I made a gingerbread log cabin with the Three Bears around it. They are so fun to make and be creative with, but take a lot of work I found out. Getting the royal icing a good firm consistency to stick jelly beans to but not so soft they drip off the roof before drying...is difficult. But we managed. I didn't win anything, but I got an honorable mention ribbon...which I think means since I didn't win first or second place and no one else entered in my age group that they decided to give me a ribbon! I don't know. Mine was pretty cool though, I have to admit.

12 Weeks Pregnant

Here's our profile at 12 weeks pregnant. There's a little pouch showing a wee bit already. This is actually taken Thanksgiving day. I've been feeling great the last few weeks. No more nausea. Even my energy is back to normal. Though some days I do get tired and want to nap. But in general I don't even think about being pregnant, because I don't feel any different. I do wear looser pants though, to be more comfortable. My pregnancy acne is still here, unfortunately. I don't know if that will disappear in the second trimester or not. I've read that it usually does. Good!

In response to our diaper query, I've been told about gDiapers. They are a washable outer pant with a flushable liner. Designed to be more environmentally friendly than either other option. In a few days we'll be in our new hometown in Alaska and can ask around up there what's available.

To get from Anchorage to our base, we'll have to fly in a single prop plane for an hour ride. Unpressurized and seats just a few people. Since we'll only be going up to 4000 feet, it should be safe for the pregnancy. We're so excited to get started up there. Ready to brace the cold. And our first Christmas alone away from family since we've gotten married.

Maternity Update

It's amazing how the days can flipflop. The last few days I've been feeling great, I have energy and no nausea. I'm cheerful and laughing and enjoying some long walks in the fall foliage around the community with my husband. I had a good week around week 8 as well. But then as soon as the good days start they end, and it's back to the couch feeling lethargic and headachey all day, not wanting to do anything or go anywhere.

The fall here is still beautiful, in the Sierra Nevadas. Some trees are are red and yellow, while others have already dropped their leaves. But when I walk I can smell the damp leaves and earth. I love the fall for that reason, the sights and smells. Being pregnant most normal smells can be a problem. Even smells you've never noticed before are suddenly strong and repulsive or make you feel like gagging. Getting outside into the fresh air is best, no unnatural smells to bother me. It's the house that has bad smells, each room it's own hovering haze (not that I can actually see it).

So just for kicks I looked up the weather in Homer, Alaska where we'll be the end of this month and it reads 19 F. Yikes! That's winter weather already. So forget packing any of my summer clothes, it's back to long johns, thick pants, turtlenecks and sweaters. By the time I could wear any tank tops or summer pants, I'll be pooching out a basketball belly or perhaps already breastfeeding, which brings its own clothing needs. Big changes coming up. I just hope they salt the sidewalks, so I don't slip on any ice. As I get bigger, they say it's hard to keep balance, plus your joints are softened and less stable due to the pregnancy hormones.

I'm hoping to get BearHunter to blog some of his side of things: living with a pregnant me.

Survey: anyone have experience with cloth diapers? How does it compare to using disposables? What's the cost difference and is it horribly annoying to have to rinse them off all day long? Thanks!
-CallaLily

Baby Blog

I guess it's time to tell the world.
Ahah, we finally had our first positive ept last month (early pregnancy test). Yep yep, we're pregnant, nine weeks along as of today. We had been trying to get pregnant for a few months while traveling in Thailand and New Zealand, but traveling makes it difficult. So our first month home, we did it! No pun intended.

At the request of my sister-in-law who is ultra curious about the pregnancy process, I'll try to include my experiences as they are noteworthy. Reader be warned that my sense of which bodily functions are proper or improper to mention is somewhat skewed by my career as a pharmacist. I'm comfortable talking about everything! However, I am aware that this blog can be viewed by anyone in the world whether I know them or not, so that will temper my discussions. By the posting title it'll be clear whether I'll be talking about pregnancy/maternity stuff or not.

Here goes; my first nine weeks. First off, I need to clarify that you don't conceive until week two, which means when you're actually two weeks post conception you're called "four weeks pregnant." Those two weeks between conception and ept are the slowest two weeks in the world, if you're really hoping to be pregnant. Although this last month for me wasn't too bad because the first week I was sure we weren't pregnant again, that makes it less nerve wracking. But then for the second week post-conception I was having signs that I probably was, so I was kind of confident and that made the time go faster, too.

Morning sickness; I've had it pretty easy. I felt rather queasy the first few weeks, even waking up at night feeling really full and needing to sleep on my side. So I would carry saltines wherever I went. In fact while driving the three hours to my parents' place, I was feeling carsick on top of queasy (0r maybe it's all the same thing). I didn't want to eat anything I just needed some saltines and water. So we were near Vacaville and pulled into the closest option Sam's Club. While I waited in the car, BearHunter arms himself for the hunt. He is able to get a free one day pass to shop at Sam's Club, and some time later arrives back at the car loaded with a jumbo box of saltines (we're talking twelve packets) and enough water bottles for a football team. How cute is that? Now we're stocked with enough to last me through Christmas probably. I have learned that eating small quantities, even if I feel like I could eat plenty more really helps. Needless to say I've been feeling a ton better these last few weeks than I did the first four. My problem was that at first I was going health crazy. There's a millin books you can read on what to eat or not eat during pregnancy. If you're a bit OCD (like most pharmacists are) this will create a problem, actually trying to abide by those nutrition rules. What it made me do, was eat three meals a day, three snacks a day of whole wheat something or other and plenty of fruits and veggies, nothing processed. But really, that's why I was overeating. You don't need 1000 extra calories a day during the first trimester. An extra dab of ice cream or cup of juice is enough calories for now. I've also got to listen to my instincts and not eat what I don't feel like eating.

Ok, that's enough writing for now. I'll get to my other symptoms later.
-CallaLily

Bored

So here we are in the interim between being overseas and starting to work in Alaska. This is Callalily here and we're at my parents' place. Actually BearHunter is gone this week, he's doing a solo backpacking trip into his favorite fishing spot near Mono Hot Springs. I worry a bit about bears since it's late in the season and he's going alone. But he's never seen bears at this location in his previous 5 or so trips.

We have almost three months of this interim time, of which half has passed already. I find myself extremely bored some days. Cabin fever or something, I go crazy with nothing to do. We're out here in the hills of a small town, I don't know any friends to visit. And my parents work during the day, so I'm kind of stuck. My husband thinks I should be able to do all those things that I wish I had time for when I was working full time and oh-so-busy. But we're living out of suitcases and I don't have access to those things like scrapbooking materials, violin music, or a dance class.

Today I will start working on my continuing education to renew my pharmacist license. I need 30 CE's by the end of December. So far I have at least 6, but I don't have access to my file cabinet up here to check if I have any others completed and filed away.

Off to do some pharmacy reading thing,

God's Will in Alaska

What's next in my life? What's God's will? Those questions are constantly pondered by many Christians, especially ones like us that are very serious about wanting to be missionaries. So, like others, we prayed about this. God led us to YWAM in New Zealand, now what? While we were in Thailand on outreach, we continued to ponder our future. We're beginning to internalize that God designs people with passions and interests and gifts SO THAT they use them, and find fulfilling life in the process. But we can't even imagine what sort of missions career would be "perfect" for our combined interests.

I was elated during our Thailand outreach to come across a webpage for a YWAM ministry in Alaska. As I read more and more I couldn't believe how perfectly it fit both BearHunter and I. It mentioned using fishing and sports as ways of reaching the community (both BearHunter's loves). And they have a First Nations school, which excited me very much. If you've known me awhile you might wonder why!

Both of us have planned on and dreamt of overseas missions work, like forever pretty much. For me it was going to be Africa and BearHunter had his eyes on serving in Papua New Guinea. When we married, we trusted God to decide between the two. As we discover more about ourselves, our gifts and interests, it's been hard to let go of our previous hard and fast plans. We feel like we'll be letting people down if we don't go overseas, because for so many years that's what we said we would do. But I have to be real with myself and with God. During the six month program in New Zealand, I realized that I do have a deep passion for the Native Americans. Perhaps from my few years living on a reservation after college. But I didn't want to be called to work full-time and forever there. It's a HARD place to thrive and minister. But I can't deny the compassion rooted in me. One of my Thailand teammates helped me to realize I just need to face it and do what I'm passionate about while I can. That's why I started searching for Native Ministries within YWAM. And upon finding the Alaska school with a vision to reach rural Arctic communities, I was hooked.

We continued to keep this discovery quiet and pray, waiting for confirmation that YWAM Alaska was God's next step and gift to us. We decided to make a careful visit and meet the staff we'd be working with and see how things are run. To make a long story shorter, it was an awesome visit and we decided we want to join their staff.

PHOTO:
While in Alaska, we visited some of BearHunter's college friends. This is her sending us off at the airport with some family and friends, including her newest baby.

Yosemite

We met up with CallaLily's family in September at Yosemite. However, only the two of us dared do any hiking. We all drove to Glacier Point to enjoy the view of the valley. Then the two of us hiked down 4 or so miles. It was a terrible trail, never do it downhill! I was wearing tennis shoes instead of hiking boots and slipped many times because the old trail used to be paved. Now, it is crumbled away concrete, covered with sand making it very slippery. The view was nice. I had to hold BearHunter's hand most of the way down so I wouldn't fall completely on my butt, after the first few slips. The park is still pretty busy after Labor Day weekend, but surprisingly I hardly heard our canvas tent neighbors after quiet hours. Two weekends later BearHunter returned to Yosemite with some church guys and hiked Half Dome in a day, the 20 mile route.

Final Thailand Pictures

We spent one extra week in New Zealand driving around the south island in a campervan before returning to the US. It's the tail end of winter there, so we were bundled up most days. And we had to plug in at camp sites to get heat. We had thought we could park anywhere overnight out in the boonies, but the cold forbid it. Twice we roughed it without heat. Overall, it was a fun time. Good to decompress a bit after an intense six months. We needed to process still some of the harder aspects of our time in Thailand. The top picture is taken at Moeraki Boulders relatively near Dunedin. The remaining photos are of Thailand

Then there's our Thailand outreach team. Us in front of a buddhist temple stairs, Doi Saket I think. Team policy was not to enter any buddhist temples, but this one we got to see the outside of it. Notice the 7 dragon heads with 7 crowns at the base of the stairs. Kind of like Revelations, but where did they get their idea? Next photo is the almost finished mud library project from ChiangMai that BearHunter worked on for over a month. And the last is Calalily at the primary orphanage where she volunteered during those same weeks.

Finally some pictures

Got rice? Imagine feeding almost 500 kids plus adult volunteers three meals a day. We spent one week here doing work projects and evening songs/skits/devotions. The brick wall is a project BearHunter worked on at an Akha boarding school. When we left we found the Akha kids love getting their picture taken. I've also included the mosquito net room, referred to in a previous post.

Alaska

I had wanted to be posting entries more often than we have. So many interesting and exciting events have transpired. Once we are home I hope to get some pictures of Thailand up here and more of our stories. For now, we’re in Alaska! With our New Zealand school completed, we were wanting to join YWAM staff. Before making any commitments, we chose to visit our preferred school location, to make sure it we could felt at home there with the community, staff, and facilities. So we’ve been in Alaska for a week testing the waters. The YWAM base is in Homer, which is the southernmost tip of the Kenai Peninsula. This week has been amazing. All of our potential concerns with joining a new base have turned out to be of no concern. The current staff are great and took so much effort to get to know us personally. They will be a wonderful team of people to join. The only unmet desire was for a house to live in, rather than the typical dorm situation. As the base is very new and expanding rapidly, they are looking for more housing options. So who knows, we may yet get a private residence. While here, we “just happened” to run into one of our long-distance supporters at the airport. One that Calalily had never met before, so that was a blessing. And we took in the Alaska state fair while staying with one of BearHunter’s college friends. Her two month old baby was the sweetest to hold. Then, another God moment; we dropped by a realtor’s office to get a map and ended up getting to know the agent personally; she asked to become one of our monthly supporters!

Chiangkham

When we chose Thailand as our outreach country, we had just a fleeting thought that we might get to visit BearHunter's retired missionary aunt. As the time to go to Thailand got closer, we learned that we'd be in cities relatively near her in the north. We really wanted to visit for a weekend, to get to know her and learn of her lifelong work there. With a turn of events, our team decided to spend a week of ourteach at her compound in Chiangkham. So not only did we visit, but we got to serve her, hear her preach in Thai, and stay at her houe. She's an incredible woman, very similar to her brother that we know, BearHunter's grandpa in the states. Our work there was mostly grounds' maintenance and improvement for the Mong Leadership Training Center facilities. Our team also spoke and sang at various churches. Calalily's job for the week was to be a guest speaker for the public high school's English classes. I attended 9 classes and spoke to perhaps 360 students. I didn't really get to teach. I just shared my stories, drawing pictures on the chalkboard and acting things out so they could understand and laugh at me. The teachers were very welcoming and the students rather timid with foreigners.

Lice and Mosquito Nets

We arrived safely back to New Zealand yesterday. Two more teams from our school arrived as well, so we all travelled back to Oak Ridge on a chartered bus. I can hear the screaming outside now of the Argentina team arriving to the base! Everyone that we haven't seen in two months looks different. Some girls chopped off their hair because they got lice in Vanuatu. That's how one of the children's homes that we stayed at dealt with lice, too. One girl on our team got lice but kept her hair and treated it with chemicals. The next girl who got lice was my roommate.

This particular week, BearHunter and I were in separate rooms. I was on the floor with all the girls and our wall to wall mattressees and mosquito nets. So I was concerned to learn that lice were living two feet from my head. But actually I had set up my head at the oppositie end of the bed, so I didn't freak out. And I never got lice! It's common among the children that come to the children's home to have skin problems, lice, etc. At the home they get these problems treated and get well fed. Visting doctors can tell the difference between the children who have been there awhile and the new ones.

We were awakened every morning around 5 or 5:30am to hear hundreds of kids singing at morning devotions. Then they scurry off to do chores before breakfast. Some kids came to sweep and do medical clinic for their chore. Teenage girls have been trained by visiting nurses and doctors to take care of the other kids. So there's a line up outside the "clinic" around 5:30am. The clinic is also the bunkroom for extra guests like us. The married couples and single guy were put here in bunks. This clinic adjoins the guests' shower/toilet stalls. So there's always traffic coming through, besides curious eyes of children peering in the windows and doors. There didn't seem to be any reason to stay there, so I, Calalily, decided to room with the single girls for a change. I left BearHunter with the other guy and married couple. That was fun. The girls stayed up late at night, shaking our mosquito nets with laughter.

Tape Head

Yesterday we planned a youth event for 7-12 year olds. We did a simple skit, some funny songs (anyone know the Bananas song?), teaching, and games. BearHunter and I had a large part in the game planning, drawing on our experience with junior highers. The children loved the Tapehead game which we have played with our church back home. Each team wraps tape (sticky side out) around the head of their designated runner. These looked like turbans today. They then race to a pile of small itemsa nd roll their heads around in it, trying to pick as much as possible to their heads. The teams then pull off the items from their heads and return back for another go. The team with the most items wins.

Walking across the court with an orange between their legts was pretty funny, too. Some of these kids have skinny leds and therefore difficulty retaining the orange as they walked or jumped.

Friday night in CHiang Mai the local Christian had a huge prayer meeting in celebration of the king's 60 years of reign. We all met at theThaPae Gate, entrance to the old city. Many people wore yellow shirts, the royal color. Dance teams accompanied the worship songs with flags, tambourines, and choreographed movements. All the songs were in Thai! But we recognized some tunes and sang along in English.

BearHunter's in the Library

Surprise, surprise, eh? BearHunter has always loved libraries. Now he's helping to build one out of mud and straw. They make the bricks by hand on site. When our group arrived the walls were already up on the structure, the Solomon Library at the church school. Now, a few weeks later, the roof is on completely. To make skylights, portions of the corrugated fiberglass sheets were replaced with a plexiglass type material which allows light through the roof. Our team's job was making the indoor furniture including computer, keyboard and book shelves. The shelves were first formed with bamboo and sticks to make a frame. Then mud and straw mixture was plastered around it and allowed to dry. That simple! One chair was made by piling two bags of mud and covering them with mud/straw. The girls on the team did some relief murals on the outside wall of the library. They made bigger-than-life sized trees, animals, flowers, and symbols. Last Friday the muddy floor had been cleared, smoothed and dried, almost ready for opening.

Volunteers

We visited three children's homes, one church with a preschool and elementary school, and a hospital in our first week. We're slowly developing a schedule and projects for our teams. CallaLily is volunteering at the government children's home three mornings a week to play with the children and serve the staff. We were pleased to find an open door at this government orphanage since in the past they have stopped allowing westerners in. BearHunter is helping to build a mud-house library at the church's elementary school. He's excited to learn this new inexpensive way to build. Afternoons are personal project time. So CallaLily is currently taking a massage class on the first floor of our guest house "Thai foot massage and reflexology." BearHunter will pray for Thailand, study Scripture, and continue on his novel as his personal project.

Many evenings we'll do evangelism in the local area at the street markets and prostitute bars. Since we're here for a month, we're building relationships with people over time. For a nation that is less than 2% Christian, it's amazing how many Christians we meet. One lady is from Myanmar and sells silk items at the street markets. Many people from the hill tribes and neighboring countries come into the big cities to earn money. Her husband works hard on a farm back home and her children stay with him in the hilltribe. Because she is here to earn money for her family, she sees them only once every few months. BearHunter was really touched by her story. He initiated a gift from our team to help her buy a new mobile phone to talk to her family again. Her current phone had broken and she couldn't afford to buy another one. When we asked how she shared her faith, looking for ways our team could come alongside, she explained that no one in her church has time to because they work sometimes all day at one job then come sell at the market all evening. Her pastor may do an hour Bible study once each week, but he's the only one with time to do that. It's not surprising the gospel is spreading so slowly in Thailand.

Chiang Mai, Thailand

The first two days in Thailand seemed the longest. Everything was so new and we went so many places. Surprisingly, the heat and humidity is not as bad as we had expected. The pilot said it was 32 C in Chiang Mai, but it feels cooler than Singapore.
Our first week in Asia was spent in Singapore for the first ever GO Fest Asia conference. Groups anc churches from many nations gathered to network, worship, and prepare to go out into Asia. Loren Cunningham and John Dawson were two YWAM speakers. Other speakers from Indonesia, Cambodia, and India shared about different aspects of the work they do in Asia.
We had a short orientation to Thailand inclusive of a humorous demonstration "how to use a squatty-potty." We practiced the greetings and accompanying bow of the head with hands flat together below the nose. Sawat dii kha is what the girls say and sawat dii khrap is the boys' greeting.
The Thai language is tonal. So one sounds can be said with five different meanings! This makes it hard to learn, especially from a book. We've found in Chiang Mai (the largest city second only to Bangkok) is used to tourists and has many English signs and menus to help us out.

We're blessed that the best priced guest house we could find, by meandering through the narrow streets, has air-conditioning and very clean, spacious rooms. After a week of sleeping on the living room floor in Singapore, BearHunter and I are happy to have our own bedroom and bathroom.

Leaving New Zealand

Yeah, here's some of our pictures.

There's Callalily on our Maori cultural weekend for the creative group. We learned how to weave flowers traditionally. I was pretty fast, though not meticulous about getting a tight weave. It's pretty fun. Once you use a knife to soften or cut the reed (total brain lapse, I cant' remember the type of stalk!), you cant' use it for anything else. You also may not sit or stand on the grass while you're working on it.



The next picture is our treehouse project. BearHunter was assigned to replace any rotten boards or fix unsafe conditions in the multilevel treehouse at our school. He chose me for his helper. We did quite well and hauled large 10x7cm support beams all the way to the top level.

Feijou are these green fruits here. We get them by the bowlfull from the friendly neighbors. You eat them by rolling them on the table to soften (sweeten) them first. THen cut it in half and suck each half to get the juice and pulp out. As a child in California, these fruit grew in our backyard and we were told they were pineapple guava, but never really ate them. But here in New Zealand we eat them tons! THey are nicely sweet.

Then there's a picture of me doing my gardening work last week,carrying leaves to clear.

The final photo is from the zipline experience which was part of our last creative weekend as well. We stayed at a christian campground for one night and enjoyed their ropes course in the morning.

In two days we fly out for 2 months in Thailand. We expect to have good internet access there, but wont' be bringing our computer to download photos with. So we may not have new pictures on the blog until August. But we'll see.

By the way, thanks for all the craft ideas you've posted and emailed to us. :)

From Auckland

From CallaLily: Hallelujah we have great internet access for today! But there's errors when I try to upload photos, so doesn't look like I'll get any pictures on today. I’m in Auckland for the weekend with the creative group. We did street evangelism using creative arts to start conversations yesterday. My partner and I had some interesting conversations with a couple Fulan Gong followers and a Maori lawyer and his brother in law. It’s amazing what people believe. One guy I talked to who has “been a Christian twice” thinks Christianity is a branch of Buddhism. Another guy doesn’t believe humans can do anything “wrong” and that we are sovereign. I got sick during last night. There's been a bug going around. and we went out to a nice Italian dinner and saw Mission Impossible 3 at the theater. What a treat. Too bad Bear Hunter was off on the backpacking trip for the weekend, it would have been great to share the day with him. Next weekend is our free weekend, completely unscheduled. So we can go anywhere we want to. Our current plan is to come back to Auckland and have a restful two days here by ourselves.

Auckland city itself is pretty large. Multicultural. Full of cute shops and restaurants and hilly streets. It's a bit like the Bay Area. Of course, it rained off and on cuz it’s fall here.

Only 3 weeks left til we fly out. We go to Singapore first for a conference, then to Thailand. Our team of 13 is preparing now. I’m in charge of bringing craft and art ideas for children of all ages. And apparently paper is a difficult item to get. Any tried and true suggestions, especially for younger ages?

Heart Living

Wow, no one has commented on my last blog's theology question. Perhaps that's not up your alley. I'll give you another opportunity today. But first, what's up with us...

More info on Thailand. The orphanage/children's home that we'll be at for two weeks currently has 8 staff for 80 children. The assistant director is a graduate from the school that we're currently attending in New Zealand. They are building more space to accomodate an expected 80-500 more children soon. That's pretty amazing. So we'll probably be helping with some building projects, maybe cooking for everybody or helping to feed the babies and clean up afterwards. Sounds good, eh? Here is another opportunity for us after graduation to return and become a long term volunteer there. All the staff are "volunteer" and supported by friends as we are.

Tomorrow CallaLily is giving the sermon during a local church service! First time, yikes. And BearHunter felt he should volunteer to lead the worship, first time, too. It turns out the church is a traditional type and sings hymns, so that actually should be easier for BearHunter since he grew up on that style of music. The sermon is about our freedom in Christ.

Here's the newest lecture topic from school. My summary of the teaching is Live From the Heart. Bring God into each emotion we experience. Instead of trying to ignore or bury our emotions that we don't like to experience or think we "shouldn't" because we're Christian. God doesn't want to just deliver us from the feelings, He wants to be with us during them. Will we allow God into our pain and be honest with Him when we're mad or disappointed with Him? What stops us from being real before God? Be real about who you are and allow your heart to come alive. God can touch your heart, lead you there, give you abundant life through your desires.

He gives us desires and passions. And we meet Him when we pursue those things that are so important to us. It's part of God's heart, the piece that He's give you to carry out. One of my passions is truth. For others it's being compassionate. For another it may be to dance. The area that God has a gifting for us and a role to play in the kingdom is often where the enemy attacks us and tries to make us believe we're insignificant or we can't do that thing. Like me, part of my calling I believe is to teach and speak. But somehow in my school years I became a insecure quiet person, especially in groups. I thought people didn't want to hear what I said, so I said nothing unless I trusted the person already.

Biblical WorldView

It's been two weeks since I've gotten on here. Thanks to all our friends posting comments and sending us email. Remember to use screen names and make one up for yourself, so we know who's leaving us messages!

As for what we're doing in Thailand. What we know so far is that we'll be spending two weeks in one orphanage in Chiang Rai. And the rest of the time we'll be in Chiang Mai doing orphanage work, art projects with the kids, and whatever else we think up. BearHunter has a relative in Thailand which we might get to visit...that would be supercool.

Last week's lecture topic was biblical worldview. The Scriptures show a view that God is seen in everything he has created. He is always with us. And so we don't need to "make holy" activities in our lives by making sure we have some worship before it or talk about God there or pray, etc. Instead our focus is on finding God in whatever we are doing. What is God doing on your sports team? What is he doing at the place where you work? Everything you do is sacred. The things we thought were secular activites are important to God still and He wants you to be aware of Him while you're doing it. This idea I agree with and I've heard taught back home in my church.

The previous week however was more controversial. What are you thoughts on this: God chose to limit his powers in order to have relationship with people. We see this in Philippians 2. Did that shedding of powers include living within our timeframe, such that he does not "know" the exact future of our lives. He has plans and purposes for us, but doesn't necessarily know what we will choose. The future is not already set in stone. What do you think? I'd never heard this idea before. It explains and agrees with some things. But at the same time was rather disconcerting because it made God seem smaller and less able to answer my prayers. I'd like to hear any thoughts on this...looking for truth not just arguments for their own sake. :) Have a great day

Dorm and cookies

This photo of the students' dorm CallaLily took while exercising some "creativity" with her new digital camera.

Thought for the day: cooking and measuring is not universal. I, CallaLily am on kitchen duty twice a week. We often bake cookes for "supper" which is around 9pm and consists of sweet munchies and hot drinks like milo (NZ rendition of hot chocolate). While baking these cookies, I'm reading from a local cookbook. It asks for ingredients that I've never heard of like brown syrup (a molasses type of liquid). And it requires ingredients by weight. So 200grams of butter instead of X number of cups. When I was measuring a gravy powder, the recipe called for 400grams of powder. But no where on the tin did it indicate how much volume of powder makes a gram! Luckily, the staff has a chart in one kitchen binder with some common weights of various dry ingredients so I took a middle range of powdery things and chose 110grams per cup volume. And it the gravy turned out all right in the end.

Here's a kiwiism for you. What is an "ankle biter?" The answer is not an insect or animal, but an annoying child! Figure that one out. How about this one "Good on ya"? that means congratulations in kiwi. Kiwi is the name for anything from New Zealand: the fruit, the birds, the people, and the local slang.

Good night. Tomorrow we're off an more adventures and creative activities.

AND BIG NEWS: we found out that our last two months we'll be in Thailand! Yippee.

Cape Reinga Pix

Here we are at Cape Reinga, on top of New Zealand. There's no one on the computers right now, so I'm taking advantage and trying to upload as many pictures as I can!

Our first book report is due on Tuesday. BearHunter is trying to finish his second book report, just to be done early. But CallaLily, the procrastinator, is finishing her book tonight (Sunday here).

The weather has turned rainy every other day or so. However it's always warm and almost muggy feeling. Even in the morning, when we attend the REQUIRED 7AM breakfast (that's whether or not you're eating you have to be there, for the "fellowship"), the weather is perfect outside for a t-shirt and sandals. At night it gets almost too warm in our room, because we shut the windows to keep the mosquitoes out.

CallaLily put a massage appointment schedule up for people to sign on. Then found out that the room she was using will be taken for the next two weeks by some family guests. So we'll be hauling a table down to various dorm rooms for these appointments! Not ideal. At least the table isn't too heavy.

Bye for now...

New Zealand Pix

Ahah! I was able to post another picture from Samoa, I added it into the older blog, scroll down to see it. It's from the firedancing during the Fiafia. I tried adding a few more pix there but my computer errored halfway through so I had to give up on that idea. I'll try to add some New Zealand pictures onto this posting from our trip up to the Bay of Islands (kayak photo), which is where BearHunter went kayaking and got stuck on the island as referenced in "Where's Dino." And then our trip continued up to Cape Reinga and on down through the Kauri forests.






A few days later: Today a group of 9 of us went to "do" the church service at an AG church in Kaiwaka. CallaLily was the vocalist for the worship set, accompanied by a guitarist/male vocalist. BearHunter played Jesus in a controversial skit. Others gave testimonies, shared the word, and did children's program. For our final song "Days of Elijah" we taught the congregation actions to accompany the chorus and had the children join us up front as we all sang and did the actions together. That was quite fun. Even BearHunter was up there with the team flailing his arms at the appropriate times. :)

Where's Dino

Unbeknownst to us our flight was stopping first in the Kingdom of Tonga before arriving in Auckland, New Zealand. It made the trip longer, but was cool to see another green island. We expected to be greeted by Dino and a friend at the Auckland airport. But our flight came in early and our car rental wouldn’t wait. So by roundabout way, and driving on the left side of the road, we arrived at Dino’s YWAM base and waited for his return. Not too long, we were greeting one another and heading North on the Twin Discovery Highway, around the Northland. The route is mostly green lined, rolling hills, occasionally going through round-abouts. We made it to the bay of islands the first night. We walked around the small town of Paihia and enjoyed the ambience of the Pickled Parrot Backpacker’s Hostel.

Next day, we hit the road again winding our way up to Cape Reinga, the farthest north one can drive in New Zealand. There we witnessed the merging of the ocean and the sea from two different directions. Water in almost all directions. CallaLily is not keen on so much driving, but taking VitaminB helps keep the carsickness away. We stayed that night at a farm hostel in Waitawa. Their pet sheep, only 6 months old, is named Tim. He occasionally would sneak into the yard behind an inexperienced guest who forgot to lock the gate quickly behind them. The host have a hottub, animals to feed if you're so inclined, and a friendly open home. We ran into the other hostellers there who were an American couple doing some ministry training themselves, but doing some travel and a half marathan at 90 mile beach in the morning. Which reminds me, we did stop at some massive sand dunes to play. Playing consists of walking barefoot across these mini deserts and up steep inclines only to turn around and leap right back down them for the adrenaline rush I suppose. CallaLily was not up for the full hike, so she just watched the other three and their barbarian antics. The funniest moment being Dino descent. He had inspired the others by saying it's really fun, you run down faster and faster until you fall into the sand, "it's really soft" he said. At the end of his running fall was a loud thud and "Uhhn!" Apparently the sand wasn't as soft as he had remembered.

Samoan Massage

We spent our last full day on a Green Turtle bus tour, to deliver us back to Apia but also to see home highlights of the country. We were told the bus would pick us up at Boomerang Beach sometime between 9 and 10. So we were ready, playing cribbage to pass the time until 10:30 or so when the tour came by. We hopped into the van with air conditioning…that was a shock after 24/7 muggy heat. In fact, CallaLily felt cold and didn’t like the AC at first.

We stopped off at some other resorts of various budgets to get a feel for what they offer, or we could stay the night had we planned it. One of our early stops brought us to watch coconut processing done in the village. We each had to pay 2tala to support them. Apparently they don’t make enough by selling the coconut itself. Here they were cooking/drying the shredded coconut meat on a large metal table over a fire. We could purchase bottles of coconut oil for cooking or lemongrass/coconut oil for various skin treatments or MASSAGE OIL. So CallaLily bought a small bottle, having always loved lemongrass scent and being interested in having more massage oil New Zealand.

Actually at our resort I, CallaLily, had scheduled a “Samoan massage.” It turned out to be a one half hour massage of the back and shoulders using cooking oil, which had a rather unpleasant scent. For the second half of the massage I was told to sit on the floor while the lady sat on the bed behind me. She used only one or two types of strokes, mostly brisk finger work. Then before finishing, she wiped the oil off my back using my own towel. I was dismayed at having aromatic cooking oil over my bath towel, which I wouldn’t be able to wash until we got to New Zealand. Overall, the massage was okay, there were a few moments of deep pressure between my shoulders that felt really good. The massage cost 20tala for 30 minutes.

The Green Turtle tour soon brought us to Sapooago ( I really don't remember how to spell that) Falls for a quick view and a coconut demonstration. Here we watched a guy remove the coconut husk with a stick, then crack open the nut perfectly with a round rock, making us drink the inside juice. Next he scraped the meat off with a metal tool attached to his chair. The scrapings he squeezed to make coconut milk, which we also tasted…mmmmh. Our other stops were Togitogigo National Park, for a peek at a waterfall. Next to last we were brought to a village home for a traditional lunch served on banana leaves. Boiled taro, spinach cooked in coconut something, and a type of tuna meat were an excellent meal. We were each given a tub of water to wash our hands before and after the meal. And the lemongrass tea was served in a cleaned half coconut shell set upon a slice of bamboo stalk…the coolest looking cup ever. After lunch they demonstrated how to weave a carrying basket out of a huge leaf. Pretty resourceful. Finally we parked by a little pond to watch the large green turtles eat papaya.

We arrived in Apia, checked in to our hotel. We paid triple what we had our first nights, to get some air conditioning. We really wanted a good night of sleep before catching a taxi at 2:30AM for our early flight on to New Zealand.

Boomerang Beach

Boomerang Beach Bungalows was our home for most of our time in Samoa. This spot is a "resort" on the south coast of Upolu. Here we enjoyed a family run fiafia, which included meal followed by traditional dancing, fire dances, and concluded with a hermit crab race for all the guests.

As the storm brewed far off over the ocean, the tide came in higher and higher (hours after the hermit crabs had raced to our bungalow for shelter). Rain came, and some creeks swelled, but our shelter had only minor leaks through the thatch roof during the night. The mosquito net didn't keep out all the bugs, unfortunately. We opted to put up the net and burn mosquito coils instead, which was much cooler and afforded us less bites, surprisingly.

We visited a local church. The two options were Catholic or LMS, we chose the latter and hitched a ride with some other guests with a rental car. The whole service was in Samoan except twice the pastor spoke in English directly to us to welcome us and ask for our introductions. Everyone in Samoa wears white, head to toe, to church. There were few exceptions. The men mostly wear lavalavas, which are wrap-around skirts, when in the villages, church, or anywhere really. The adult women wear fancy white hats to church. I had not brought a hat, but had prepared to wear white and had required BearHunter to buy a white shirt before we left the USA. So we didn't stick out too much, except for our skin color, and my skirt length was shorter than theirs. I don't think we were offensive, though. A group of 5 Americans from Boomerang Beach. One fellow with us was a retired dentist returning some years after doing a volunteer dental trip to Samoa. He happened to sit next to a man that he recognized from his previous trip! It's a small world. And a small country.

Ah, Samoa

Our week in Samoa is long past, but we lacked access to the internet so must now tell the story. I'll break it up into separate postings so they're in smaller chunks. Unfortunately our current internet hookup is slow, so adding pictures to these postings will have to wait until I have a nice long turn at the shared computers here (in New Zealand). Back to Samoa...

Our week was spent on Upolu island, the first two nights at Cloud 9 Eco-Lodge in the mountains out side of the capital Apia (pronounced pee-uh). Our taxi driver didn't know where this lodge was and upon finally finding it his car couldn't make it up the hill. So at 5 in the morning we were hiking up hill carrying our luggage. Luckily, the lodge host was notified by the barking dogs that we were near and sent out two young men to help carry our bags the rest of the way. The taxi driver technically shouldn't have been paid because he didn't drop us all the way, and he didn't know what price to charge because this location was not on his price list. So we gave him 10 tala, which we thought might be fair.

Apparently the lodge wasn't expecting us this early, so we were given a room to rest in until lunch time when our room was ready. Then we became the only two guests in the lodge for the next two nights. It was a small place, overlooking the green jungle ravines that stretched out to the north coast of Samoa. We loved the quiet up there and cooler breezes that frequented the hills.

Most of our time we spent on the breakfast veranda with 180 degrees of view of the ocean, sky, and greenery. Geckos came out in the evening to eat the mosquitoes while we ate dinner. Both nights offered a tastey dinner of mahi-mahi, boiled potatoes, and shredded carrot, cabbage, and cucumber salad.

The staff left us pretty much to ourselves, as they repainted the dining hall. We recognized some of the radio's tunes such as worship songs sung in Samoan and American hits like Titanic's theme song. We actually would have been happy there resting for the remainder of the week, but had reservations on the other side of the island and wanted to see a bit more of Samoa while here. We hired a taxi to take us the 1 1/2 hours to our next spot and stop along the way for us to be tourists when we felt like it.
-Calalily

Spring Flowers

Today was my last day working as a pharmacist, for a while anyway. Yippee. It's just about springtime around Stanford and the tulips are now out. I'll miss smelling the year round flowers as I make my last few steps into work every day. The grounds are beautiful here, I only wish I had gone outside more often to take breaks.


Last week my nurses unit threw a farewell potluck for me, and the pharmacy staff had a cake party yesterday to say good-bye. Some church friends hosted a potluck and prayer for both BearHunter and I over the weekend. So we've had wonderful opportunities to say goodbye to most everyone around us, thanks to the organizing and hosting of our many friends.
-CallaLily

Mississippi Adventure

Two weeks in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi was an experience to remember. We ran a distribution center (a place for people to pick up donated goods). Though the devastation was incredible, it was uplifting to hear how God rescued so many from the wind and water. Many are grateful just to be alive. God is definitely at work there. It was hard being away from my wife, but I'm glad I went.
-BearHunter

This last weekend we kicked off our monthly prayer meetings. A great group of friends and family gathered to sing and pray with us for our upcoming adventures. It was awesome. During prayer, some friends gave us some cool "pictures" that inspire and encourage us.

Look at all those boxes!

BearHunter in Mississippi, volunteering at distribution center after hurricanes.

Welcome to our blog!

We'll be posting pictures and short narratives here from time to time relating to what and how we are doing.

This'll be fun!