Park Day

Today after doing the laundry we took the kids to the park.

They had a blast. Jordan spent most of the time running from Daddy with the football or sliding down the slide backwards. Audrey really enjoyed the swings and Joey played kept going back and forth from football to following around another two year old girl.

I had problems getting a picture of Jordan by himself as my camera only works part of the time. Half of the pictures I took did not turn out. At least I got some.

We were given a digital camera by the Tates, but it has no view finder and I didn't get it figured out until last night. We now have one that will do until we get a good one. The Tates gave us this one in protest of no new pictures of the grandkids. :-)

New camp site

We have moved camp sites. The church didn't want us to have to mess with the bad electrical. We are now in a trailer park that has a few travel trailer sites. It is quiet (or it was until Jordan and Joey got here) and nice. We will be here until Sunday afternoon.

Today we went to the wedding of the assistant Pastor of Central Valley Baptist Church. It was a lot of fun. We are all tired now and I still have to go and wash clothes. Ah the joys of being a wife and mother.

Central Valley Baptist Church

Last night we were at Central Valley Baptist Church in Manteca, CA. Jason was the only one to attend when we presented our work the first time. It was great to be able to come this time. Last time I couldn’t be there because of Jordan’s immanent arrival.

The Lord has really blessed this church and it was great to see what God is doing. We are parked at the site of the new church building that is in construction. I am excited to see what God will have done here when we return in a few years.

We did have the biggest blessing while here. London Guimon, a lady in the church, let us come over and do laundry. It was getting late when we got there so she told us to just leave the clothes there and she would wash them for us. She brought them back yesterday afternoon all washed and folded. She even hung up most of the hang up clothes. That was a huge blessing as it saved me a few hours of work.

Please continue to pray for our safety and comfort. Our Air conditioner is working well when we have enough current to run it, but during the day it doesn’t work as we only are plugged into a 15 amp plug and our trailer requires 30 amp to run everything. We keep having to go and reset the breaker. It gets hot, but praise the Lord we have some airconditioner.

Starbucks policy

Today we are in Manteca, CA. It is in the central valley due east of San Francisco. We are here to give an update in Central Valley Baptist Church and present our work in Liberty Baptist Church.

Yesterday when we got here we hooked up and then the assistant pastor took us to a shopping center and filled our tank with gas. He also drew us a map of the most important locations in Manteca. The first things he put on the map was Starbucks. Jason felt right at home. He said that he has an average of 10 Starbucks drinks a week. I would hate to see what he spends.

I bet you like me didn’t know Starbucks has a policy that if they don’t have what you order or if you don’t like your drink, they will give you a coupon for a free drink of your choice. I found this out yesterday when Bro. Jeremy took us to Starbucks and they didn’t have any syrup to make a white chocolate Frapaccino. I got a caramel one instead. It wasn’t as good as my favorite, but it was ok and now I get a new drink of my choice at a later date.

Karen

Yesterday I had the neatest thing happen to me. It led me to realize how small the world is with Christ.

We had arrived at church for soulwinning and there was another missionary family there. They are the Pilalas family going to start churches abroad for the US military. We seemed to get along good and were talking as we looked over the bulletin board. She found a brochure for Ladies Conference in Lancaster, CA where her Pastor's wife was speaking and showed me her picture. I told her that we had visited her church while I was on tour group and I had stayed at someone's home on base. She said that she thought it was her. I told her that it wasn't because the family that I stayed with only had two or three kids and they have six.

She laughed and told me that two years after I had stayed at her house (her husband was out of the country) they adopted three kids. Talk about small world. I told her everything I remembered about staying at her house and she was amazed at some of the small things that I remembered that she had forgotten. I remembered how she took us to the Jelly Belly factory. It was so much fun.

They were even thinking of going to the military base in Honduras to start a work, but decided against it when they heard that military dependents don't get sent to Honduras and personnel are only stationed there for 6 months.

We had a great time of fellowship. It was like meeting a friend from long ago. What a blessing to see her again.

Jordan Update:

He is learning not to hit, spit on, or call girls names (unfortunately the hard way)

Joey Update:

He still is not potty training (I am not ready for the stress while travelling). He is learning to talk really well. Yesterday he said, "I like this song".

Audrey Update:

She is starting 1st grade tomorrow (we are starting early to allow for a few days off for conferences) and is very excited. She has started going up during the invitation with me to pray. Normally she prays for her friends in Honduras, but today she prayed for her to learn a lot in school this year.

Air conditioners

We are now in Sunny San Diego where the sun is shining, the wind is blowing, and our air conditioner is getting a well deserved break. It feels wonderful here. I can definately see the attraction of living here as I am told it is like this most of the time. We are staying at Bible Baptist Church in National City, but are attending the Missions Conference at Berean Bible Baptist Church in Chula Vista. Both churches have supported us for over 5 years. It is a blessing to see how both churches have grown.

Next week Audrey starts school. I am planning on starting a few weeks before normal so that if we have to take days off for conferences and travel so it won't affect us as much. My goal is to not be behind when we get ready to go back to Honduras. I am not sure I am ready to start though. I was reading through her lessons today and I am not sure I am cut out to teach it. The first grade curriculum is much harder than kindergarten.

Jason, the kids, and I have started playing tennis when we can, for exercise. It is a lot of fun, but Jason is getting a lot more exercise than I am as my balls are a little wild. Next time, I am going to try to hit them a little lower.

Los Angeles

We are in Los Angeles this week at Los Angeles Baptist Church. It is in downtown. It has been a lot of fun for us to see what God has done here. The church has grown so much and now supports 24 missionaries. We had a surprise when we got there. The pastor had entered our phone number in correctly into his phone. He was just one number off, but could not get a hold of us. We showed up at 9:00 am which means we had to leave Tehachapi at 6:00 am. That was a early morning for the kids. They kept telling me, when I woke them up at 4:30, that it was still night and they couldn't get out of bed when it was still night. We made it there with a few minutes to spare.

When we got there the Pastor appoligized for not being to get a hold of us, but asked me to teach a Ladies Class that afternoon. If any of you know my Spanish, you know that I was doing this with fear and trepidation. It normally takes me a week of studying to have a Ladies Meeting in Honduras, but here I only had a few hours. They told me I could say no if I couldn't prepare in time, but one thing I leaned at West Coast is that you do what the pastor wants. I usually am slow about cleaning out my bible from past lessons. This was God ordained because I had two lessons in my Bible that I had already taught. One was How to be a Good Friend and the other was A Woman That Pleases the Lord. I prayed for a very short time and decided to do the lesson on pleasing the Lord. I had to retype it and make some changed to adapt it to people from the states, but I was able to get that done just in time and was able to share it with the Ladies.

I am so thankful for the Lord's help. I know it was Him as my Spanish is not at its best when I am tired and I was exhausted from getting up early that morning. I can't say how it went, as I was doing the speaking and not the listening, but the Ladies seemed to follow along so I guess I was understandable.

Yesterday after church a man from the church bought us some "ensalada". If you have ever had it you will know how great it is. It is an El Salvadorian drink called "Salad" because it is made up of diced up fruit and fruit juices and then had a little diced up lettuce on the top. If you ever have the chance to buy some, do it. It is wonderful and you will not regret it.

Today we travel back to Tehachapi and leave early Wednesday morning to drive to San Diego for a conference that goes through Sunday. We are looking forward to being in our home again.

Mira Mesa Bible Baptist Church

Tonight we were at Mira Mesa Bible Baptist Church. We first visited them 5 years ago when Audrey was a newborn. We were one of their first missionaries. Since then God has really blessed them. They now support many missionaries and have had to rent a new facility for their church as they outgrew the old one. They are now praying that God would provide the money for them to buy a building. They are located in San Diego, CA so the land is very expensive.

their Vacation Bible School took up their missionary offering for us. They presented us with a $200 check from the kids of VBS to us. They had all the kids come up and present the check to us and took a picture. It was so special.

My-Mart and voices

The kids have done a few funny things in the past few days that I thought I would tell you about. Deputation and furlough kids have the distinct honor of knowing the name to every store and restaurant that they pass. The newest store that Joey has learned the name for is Walmart, but when Joey says it, it sounds like, "My-mart". He loves to go to My-mart with Mommy and I have to admit that I am glad to take him.

Jordan did the other funny thing that I have to tell you about. This past week we were staying with the Stalnaker family in Dinuba, CA. Pastor Stalnaker had the boys working with him in cleaning out a garage. He asked Jordan why he talks so much. Jordan told him, "I have to because I have a lot of voices in my tummy. If I stop talking the frog voice will come out."

The imagination of kids. :-)

leaving Dinuba

I had been meaning to write a blog before now, but the conference in Dinuba kept us so busy that I was not able to get away to update my blog. Today I am at McDonalds while waiting for our laundry to get done at the Laundromat.

Last night we got to go to a different church in the area that supports us and we had a great time.

Today we are driving to Tehachapi to drop off the trailer. We have a one day meeting in San Diego tomorrow and then we will be back in Tehachapi to make some minor repairs to the trailer. We have to replace some caulking and weatherstripping that keeps falling off. We also have to make the repairs to the plastic that was damaged by the exploding wheel of a week ago.

The kids are doing great. They have really enjoyed this past week in Dinuba as the people's house that we have been staying at have lots of kids and a pool.

Thank you all for praying for us. We will try to update again soon.

Online for the moment

I finally was able to get online after many days. I have not written a new blog for today, so I will try to drive to this parking lot again tomorrow to check my emails and let you know what has happened today.

Please read the next four or five blogs to find out what has been happening this past week.

Rain

Please scroll down and read what has been happening the past few days. We do not have internet access so I type and save offline then update when the internet connection is available.

Yesterday we were awakened in the early hours of the morning with strong winds and rain falling. We did not think that when we came to Arizona we would see more rain than at any other state so far. We have since discovered that there are a few leaks in our trailer. One of them is in Jason’s closet. We didn’t discover it until Jason tried changing his shirt yesterday and found it wet on one side. We had to take all of his clothes out of the closet last night in case it rained. I did rain last night, but without the high winds. There was only a slight amount of moisture in the closet this morning.

Jason realized that he will not be able to procrastinate anymore. He knew that there was an area of caulking that needed to be replaced, but it has been so hot he didn’t want to take care of it right then. We were not expecting to have so much rain while in the desert.

Today Jason gets to go soul winning and I get to watch the kids. I wish I could go out too, but at least I can allow someone else to go. This time I have my three kids and the assistant Pastor’s son. He is 19months and just as cute as can be. He has enjoyed playing with the kids, but when his mom dropped him off at the trailer this morning he was not happy to be left. He is doing fine now. He loves all of the new toys. My kids are a little cranky as they didn’t get to bed until late last night. We went to Blockbuster last night and rented them a kid’s movie. Audrey got Samantha an American Girls Movie and the boys got the Disney American Heroes Cartoon collection. They watched the cartoons last night and ate popcorn. They really enjoyed it, but didn’t get to bed until late last night. It was a nice treat for them.

Kitchen Aid

Today I got the biggest blessing. I got a Kitchen-Aid mixer. I have wanted one for just about forever. I tried to get one in Honduras, but they cost way too much money. I had plans to bring one back with me, but hadn’t done anything about it yet. I was talking with Mrs. Webb about what I wanted to bring back to Honduras with me. I told her a whole list of things, but when I mentioned a Kitchen-Aid she looked at her husband and he nodded. I had no idea what they were nodding for. Mrs. Webb then told me that she had just bought a new Kitchen-Aid that was on sale that was bigger than her old one. She had not done anything with her old one yet. It was still in perfect shape, but her new one is bigger as her family has grown by a few members since we saw them last. She asked me if I wanted it. Of course I said, YES! I now have a Kitchen Aid mixer stored in the trailer. In fact I am thinking on getting it out and using it today as it is raining here in Marana, AZ and we could make cookies.

The Drive to Arizona

Yesterday we drove to Arizona from Hesperia, CA. It was a long drive for the kids, but everything went well. We got up early and were making good time when we hear a loud pop. We knew that sound it was one of our old tires that we had not yet replaced and it had blown. It was a little worse this time though as it didn’t just burst, but destroyed some of the metal underside of the trailer around the door. We were going to pull it off, but we discovered a screw that we could tack it up with. It is still a little misshapen, but at least it works. We will have to try and pound it out later. The tire did, however, destroy the plastic piece that goes around the wheels and protects a small amount of wood at the bottom of the trailer. We are going to try to get that fixed, but who know how we are going to do that. Jason is headed out today to try and replace our spare tire for one that does not have a huge hole in it. We were extremely thankful that this happened near the beginning of the day as it was only starting to get hot.

We had plans to be at our destination in Arizona by dinner time and without the blowout it probably would have happened. I only had enough lunch items for one meal which was lunch so for dinner we got to eat out. In this area you cannot cook and eat in the trailer without air conditioning. As we were walking into IHOP to eat dinner (we all ate breakfast for dinner), Joey’s sandal broke. Audrey and Jordan had also used them so I guess it was time to replace them. The restaurant just so happened to be in the JCPenneys parking lot. I had wanted to find a Cracker Barrel, but Audrey’s extensive drinking of water prohibited us from going to any restaurant but the closest. We were in the Phoenix area and couldn’t stop on the side of the road to use the trailer’s bathroom. Anyway, back to the shoe story. JCPenneys had a sale on and we were able to find Joey some sandals that were on sale!!! I just love it when God puts us in the right place at the right time for something as small as getting shoes that were on sale.

Today, I have a full day of trying to find a Laundromat and washing the seemingly endless pile of laundry that I seem to have. I don’t understand it; I just did laundry a few days ago. Oh well, I guess that is the story of the life of a traveling missionary wife and every other mommy on the planet. :-)