Yuma

Today we left thr Phoenix area for Yuma. We decided that we would look for oppertunities to be missional along the way as we were finding it very hard to find contacts in the city.
We tried a few places in Peoria that all ended up not working out.As we pulled into Yuma, Kalli was needin a break from sitting in the van. We had been driving for about 3 1/2 hours. She was amazing till the end when she had enough.

We stopped at Painted Rock Petroglyph site. It was a great place to run around and streach our legs.

When we arrived in Yuma, we basically stopped at the first hotel we saw. Because of it being low season the price of the hotel was much less than we expected. Then they told us the hot breakfast was included as was the happy hour with snacks in the evening, internet, pool with hot tub and the best part is that they also have a BBQ that we can use to cook up the farmer sausage we brought along to cook a real Mennonite meal for our hosts in Mesa. Thats what we had for supper today. BBQ sausage burgers. Mmmm so good.

The coolest part of our day was when we wenrt for groceries for supper. We punched in grocery stores into our Borrowed GPS (thanks Ted & Dar), and we followed us to the one near us. As we drove up to the store we noticed it was in a poorer area and as we turned the corner we saw a big sign that said "FOOD DONATIONS ---> " then we noticed a sign that said Mission ahead. We forgot about the groceries and headed for the mission. We walked in and said we had come to help, did they need us. They said sure, when could we come. We told them we would come tomorrow for the day. They also have a family homeless shelter that we could donate the sweatshirts we had brought along. YEAH!!!! We are needed!!!

So tomorrow we will go to the shelter from 10:30-2 and then again at 4:30 to help with supper and hand out the clothes. I think this will be an amazing experience and we will see where we go from there.

Airport mystery

Have you ever been in an airport and had someone stare at you? That happens to me all the time. People always think they know me or someone in my family. Well, this time it happened to Cindy. As we sat in the Winnipeg airport waiting for our delayed flight. A lady who had been watching Cindy and Kalli walked over and started a conversation with her. She was interested in Kalli and her age as she has a granddaughter similar in age. As they were talking about their little ones they got talking about where they were going and where they were from. She happened to be from Landmark Mb. and was going to visit her brother in Phoenix. She asked why they were going to Phoenix. Cindy told her about our mission trip. She asked if Cindy had ever heard about Angel Food? A ministry that helps feed homeless people. She then told her about it and the church that is affiliated with it in Arizona. The church that she talked about is called Discovery Point Church. Cindy came over after her talk with the lady and wrote down the name of the church. We talked a little about about it and then off we went onto the plane.

Yesterday as we were told that we would not be serving as we had planned the first thought that came to my mind was the Discovery Point church. I thought maybe this was the plan after all and the lady Cindy met was the contact we needed.

We googled it last night and found the church is located in Peoria. Peoria is an hour away from Mesa, so in the morning we packed up our bags, checked out of the motel and went to the 10:30 service. It was a very nice small church similar to the church we go to in Altona. We talked to the pastor after the service and he told us he would check out some places he knew in Peoria and e-mail us. So as of now we will wait and see what is in store for us. Two families, ready and willing.

Mesa here we come...

Hmmm...where do I begin?

Many months ago our vision of going as two families began to take a trip to Arizona and spend time together serving and learning. Friends of ours had just moved from Costa Rica to Arizona and were launching their outreach program in the USA. This seemed a perfect opportunity to take advantage of the cheap airfares into the states and to take a leap of faith to see what we could do to help in another country. We want to show our kids a different culture and awareness in them to experience the poverty that is really so close to home.

So we started planning and praying to see what God might place before us. The heppner kids collected sweatshirts from school and church and friends and a local lady who had a big bag of cotton started sewing and sent a box of receiving blankets for us to bring along to warm up a baby in need.

We loaded 10 bags of donations onto the plane and filled up the trunk of the rental car and van. Off we went, Arizona bound. What did God have in store for us now. As the excitement of being in a new place mounted we finally arrived at our destination.

That's when God changed our well thought out plan. We learned that as much as you can think you know exactly what's going to happen and think that everything will be as planned, we are not in control. God is, and so the plan is changed. We spent the night at a motel 6 in Mesa instead of the home of our friends. They couldn't host us or minister with us as some unexpected circumstances happened and as of now, we are on our own. In a city we have never been in, without any contacts. We will now spend the rest of our time here following God's plan because we don't have one.

Grab & Run

Every Spring and Fall, our church puts on an event called the Grab & Run. I love it. It is a free garage sale type event. Local people from the area donate gently used children's and adult clothing. People from all over who find they could use some clothing for their family come over and take what they need. Some people bring a bag and leave with a new batch for their family to use. We put it out for an afternoon, fry up some hot dogs and call it a great time. The whole event is tones of fun. Everything is free.

From the unpacking to the packing up of the leftovers. We have a blast. This year I actually remembered my camera.

Starting the great unpacking

All the racks are ready to hang up the clothes. Thanks Ken and Ruth

There are a ton of bags here!

Hmmm this is a nice dress. What do you think?

Even this granny came to help.

Would these fit me??

All ready!! Let the people come....

Ready to hand out free drinks

Hanger girl

Frying hot dogs. Oh they smell so good!

Yes Donovan, you can have your frying job back.

Checking out the clothing

Would this fit me?

Clean up, clean up, everybody clean up!!

How much will fit in this bag??

All done......till Spring!

El Salvador

Almost 4 years ago our family took a leap of faith and followed Ray Loewen to El Salvador with MCC & Build a Village. It was an amazing trip. We worked and made relationships with the people who lived in a tiny squatters village on the side of a mountain. God opened our eyes to the beautiful people of La Linea. Recently there was a hurricane that devastated El Salvador and in particular the village of La Linea. Lives were lost and homes are gone. My question as I sit here sobbing is what can I do??

I just received this e-mail from Ray...

Four people died in La Linea as a result of the storm including a two year old baby along with her mother and grandmother … the church many of you have worshipped in is seriously damaged … the “Manitoba chicken ranch” (named for a fund raising drive we helped coordinate while the El Salvador team was in Manitoba) has been totally destroyed … at least 10 of the Build a Village / MCC homes have been totally destroyed … many people have lost everything and are “temporarily” staying at the community centre … Milton says that “much of the village is in dangerous condition and it has been recommended not to rebuild houses there again” and that “given the situation, they are working together to buy a piece of land (they don’t know where yet) where they can build permanent houses” …

An MCC volunteer is in the community right now helping people assess the situation and we are hoping to make contact with them to get more information … and as expected, Carmen (who lost everything she has) is coordinating the distribution of supplies and help for others … while Bernarda says “my home is your home” … I remember again why I have always found the people of La Linea to be so amazing … a 12 year civil war, natural disasters in 1997, 2001, 2005 and 2009, abject poverty, violence and more, yet their first thoughts are about others …

The questions many of you have been asking is what is next and how can we help. … I don’t have answers yet but expect that a very small group will travel to El Salvador in the near future to stand with our brothers and sisters there and to see how we can help … we have been warned not to go because of the extreme violence El Salvador has struggled with in recent months … but after reading Bernarda’s comment – “they are our friends and if they come we will be filled with strength” – I know that God will be with us and things will be fine … I will provide additional updates as they become available …

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1184614595?bctid=49375455001

The Hairy Lemon

We hadn’t researched Albania at all before we arrived by ferry from Greece. Some people that we talked to thought it might be dangerous and said we might not want to go. But after asking them questions about why they really couldn’t say. They just had heard maybe it wasn’t safe. These people had also never been there. So it was hard to believe people who didn’t really know. When questioning people who had actually been there we found the people who did know said it was a wonderful country. So we really wanted to experience this Eastern European country. We took a short boat ride from Corfu, Greece. Albania is so close to Corfu that you can very easily see it across the water.

When we stepped off the boat we had to go through customs and the first thing we looked for was a tourist information booth. After some language struggles we were pointed far down the

beach to a little yellow roofed building in the distance. We started the hike along the shoreline

passing stony beaches, authentic looking shops and restaurants. When we reached the booth we were looking for we stepped into a well-deserved air-conditioned room. The girl at the info booth tried to help but she did not have information about Albania. She actually didn’t even know much about her country. We asked if she knew of an inexpensive hotel or hostel.

She told us of a hotel back by the ferry docks we had just walked from. So off we went, for a few blocks and then broke down and grabbed a taxi. It was just too hot and we were too tired.

The hotel was really nice, too nice. But then again you never know. Possibly it would be a decent price. After some more language issues we learned that the rooms were not too bad but they were all two person rooms and we would not all fit in one room and would need two rooms, which increased the price by too much to be affordable. Plus we really didn’t want to get two rooms and have to sleep separately.

At that time we remembered a little card a girl from our hostel in Corfu had given us when hearing we were coming to Albania. It was a card for the Hairy Lemon hostel. It sounded like a strange name but worth a call. I asked the guy at the front desk of the hotel if I could borrow his cell phone. He passed it over and I called the number on the card and an Irish lady answered the call. Annette said she was right down the road. I asked if she could come and pick us up. She said she would be there to pick us up in a few minutes. Annette was right there in her crazy UK jeep.

We loaded up and she admitted that she had never had a family stay in her hostel, but was sure it would work fine. The hostel was on the eighth floor of a new apartment building. It was beautifully decorated and had three rooms, which she moved a couple of girls out of so we could have the whole room for ourselves.

What a wonderful hostess. She gave us all the information that we needed about Albania and what we would need to see.

She was so informed about the area is like we were in a tourist info booth. Annette had a crazy Irish accent and was fun to be with and cooked a mean breakfast crepe. We bought a metal sieve so we could boil water and use a napkin in it to make coffee every morning. Annette and the other travelers at the hostel loved our "Canadian" coffee. My friend Cindy sent a bunch of individual coffee pkg.s with so we could have a taste of home. It was wonderful.

We spent 4 nights at the Hairy Lemon and had a very comfortable stay and absolutely loved the friendly people and amazing sites. Below is a photo of our backpacks. This is what we carried everything in. Whenever we stayed at one place for longer than one night. I would unpack everything and lay it all out on piles. I think it was the way I nested and made every place we stayed in feel like home.

The balcony gave us a very nice breeze at night because the temp. never really went below 100 degrees till early morning. We had a ceiling fan so we put it on high and left the patio door open to get the wind blowing through. We learned to just go to sleep very hot.

Rome Train Station memory

We started our trip to Europe after selling our home of 15 years. Putting everything in storage, giving our 2 family dogs Sandy and Tasha to very great families and boarding our 2 ponies Arnold and Missy with friends. We signed up for Skype put a message on our answering machine saying we went to Europe for 2 months so don’t leave a message and off we went. Just like that. Kinda.

We boarded our flight in the afternoon after dropping the last dog off at her new owners. I thought there might be a few tears, but the excitement that lay ahead and the knowledge of the good home must have been enough to hold them back. Our journey started with a flight to Minneapolis to board the overnight flight to Holland and then the shorter 2 hour or so flight to Rome, Italy. I was smart enough to book the first 3 nights at a hostel in Rome to recover from the flights, time change and just the overall fatigue from the last 2 months of packing up an 8 acre yard and a big house with 15 years of I’ll deal with it later “stuff”. The overnight flight was actually not too bad. We didn’t really sleep very much but the plane had a variety of different movies at each seat and I think we each watched 3 or 4 movies during the 9 hour flight. We were also fed continuously. The weird part was to be fed breakfast at 2 am our time and lunch a 6 am our time. We dozed and ate all night. It was fine.

By the time we arrived in Rome it was afternoon Europe time. Somewhere in the morning we just flipped over and never dealt with much jetlag at all. When we arrived into Rome airport we knew we would need to get to the central train station to take a train over to the hostel. We bought our tickets and saw the train was just about to leave so we started the journey in Rome, running to the train. We of course made it and proceeded to find a seat. The seats on this train were all in little rooms. The room we found had a couple of guys in it and they made room for us. We sat down and double check with these guys that we had the right train. This move would prove to save our butts many times during the next 2 months.

*Lesson # 1- Always check to make sure you are on the right train.

We of course were on the right train. Whew…but forgot to validate our tickets. The guys in our room explained to us that the tickets always have to be validated before getting on the train and this had to be done at the little yellow machine back from where we had just run from. What to do? As we where in a bit of a not panic, but trying to quickly figure out what to do mode, the guy told us to give him the ticket and he would validate it for us. He also explained that if the ticket wasn’t validated it could cost us a 200 Euro fine. Each. As the train started leaving the station we said a little prayer and it worked. The train ticket checker (can’t remember right now what they are called) came and looked a bit undecidedly at our ticket and when the guy in our room explained the problem to him he just nodded and gave us back our ticket.

· Lesson # 2- Validate the tickets.

We get to the central train station and are excited, nervous and tired. We can’t wait to get to our hostel and relax. We are in Europe!!

As we step out of the train we are overwhelmed by the amount of trains, platforms and people. We first got out the address of the hostel and started walking with the group of people from our train to somewhere. At this point we were sheep following the herd. After walking for 10 minutes or so we finally get to an area that has a few signs and start looking for ticket sales or an info booth, or something that will direct us to our hostel. As we pass other backpackers I ask a few if they know where the info booth is and they pointed us to an out of the way place where we found the ticket booth. The lineup was really long and so the kids sat with our packs as we tried to figure out the schedule and where we wanted to go. The ticket guy seemed really helpful and off we went to find our train.

-Lesson #3- Always double check the ticket destination.

As we passed out of the ticketing area, Miranda said the dreaded words “ I have to go to the bathroom”. Dreaded because the bathrooms were down a long flight of stairs, and with our packs it was a hike. So Dean and Colton stayed with the packs and Miranda and I ran over to a barricade with a pay before you go in door separating us from the toilets. Ahh, frustration begins as I firstly try to figure out the money and the machine and realize I have enough change for only one of us to enter. So I pay and send her in. As I stand nearby looking in I hope she doesn’t have any troubles working the European toilet and sink. A few minutes go by and she comes out smiling and we run back up to the guys.

-Lesson #4- Always keep spare change in your pocket.

Once again we are on our way. A little bit closer to the hostel and a bed. While Miranda and I were in the bathroom, Dean and Colton tried to figure out the platform number where the train was supposed to leave from. The thing we finally learned after some help from other travelers is that they only post the platform numbers 10 minutes before the train departure time. So now we had to wait ½ an hour to learn where we had to leave. This in itself wouldn’t be bad other than the station is huge; there are many platforms and hundreds of people.

When the massive overhead schedule board finally changed the times of departure, hundreds of people also standing there looking up for their platform took off running for a good spot on the train. Being the first time we had no clue as to why they would be running but we also couldn’t find the mane of our town on the board. Dean, being the one great with names in our family recognized the name of a town along the same schedule line as our town, from when he was looking at the main schedule paper at the ticket office. We quickly asked an official looking man who nodded and said yes, this was the train. So we ran and jumped in the first train car. As we were jumping into the extremely crowded car, people looked at us like we were crazy with our backpacks and I’m sure a tired, frazzled look. I once again asked the first friendly face I could find. Who of course could not speak English, and happened to be squished so close he couldn’t possibly ignore me, if we were on the correct train. I showed him the ticket we had purchased and he nodded until I showed him the address of our hostel. Then he started talking quickly in Italian to me and the other passengers around us. I started to get a bit nervous when they all got that confused look on their faces and also started shaking their heads. Oh no, this was bad. We were on a train that was seconds from leaving the station and had bought the wrong ticket! All around us people encouraged us to get off the train. It felt crazy, how could we have bought the wrong ticket. Where these people out to get us? Where they intentionally telling us wrong information? No, we had to trust they were not all in cahoots to fool us. That was the ½ hour of sleep last night talking. We had just for some reason gotten the wrong ticket and we had to get off, now.

-Lesson #5- Ask people for help

We did make it off the train and stood there for a moment a bit stunned. So, now what? Well, we decided to find a tourist info booth and ask them where we were going and what was the correct train. So we waked around a bit looking for a sign for the tourist booth and saw nothing. Where was it. This was a top tourist destination. There should be info booths all over.

As we were looking I started feeling like I had booked a bad hostel, that we were in this predicament because I hadn’t researched enough and it was my fault. I also started to worry about getting to the hostel in time so that they wouldn’t give our room to someone else and we would have no room tonight. So while we struggled to find a info booth I felt like we also needed to contact the hostel to let them know we were coming and also get instructions for the train.

I shared with Dean what I was feeling and as we looked for the info booth we also looked for a pay phone. As we walked alone we met a train station security guard. Great! Finally, someone to help us. I walked up and asked him for directions to the info booth. He looked me right in the eye and said in perfect English that he did not speak English. So I put on my nicest Canadian smile and said in my best Italian accent again if he could tell us where the info booth was. He leaned closer and in his rudest, meanest Canadian accent said “I DO NOT SPEAK ENGLISH”. What a jerk. What a rude, rude mean man. Did he not see that we really needed his help? Did he not see that I was on the tip of loosing it, obviously not. So I did what any tired Canadian woman would do and walked away while muttering under my breath what a ***** he was and we would find it ourselves.

- Lesson #6- Just because someone is wearing a uniform does not mean they are nice or friendly.

That may have been the end of it if my all about the rules son had not heard it and called me on my unmotherly language and looked very hurt that I would be anything less than perfect in times of stress. I of course again did what any very tired and stressed out mother would do and walked very quickly in front of the disappointed son while wiping the tears of embarrassment and complete exhaustion from my eyes.

-Lesson #7- Its O.K. to cry but not O.K. to call people names. (at least not when kids might hear).

Dean took one look at me and decided that was it. We would walk all the way back to the ticket counter and get some new tickets and make sure it was to the right place. It would take some time but at least we knew where the ticket booth was.

Along the way we spotted a pay phone along the wall. It gave us something else to focus on for the moment, which was a good distraction. Or, maybe not. Dean grabbed some change together and put the correct amount into the phone and dialed the number. Nothing happened. So he tried to get his money back. Nope. It wouldn’t come out. So he tried another phone. Same thing. It didn’t work and he couldn’t get his money back. As he was getting ready to loose it on the phones, a man stopped and asked if he could help us. We told him what had happened and he commented about the stupid Italian phones and how people intentionally broke them and rigged them up to steal your money and they could then get it back once you walked away. He banged on a few phones and finally found one that worked. He called the hostel for us and told them we were on the way. They said they would wait for us at the train station and they could drive us back in their car.

-Lesson #8- Pay phone in Europe can not be trusted to work.

We got back to the ticket booth, talked to the very embarrassed ticket seller. He was very sorry for selling us the wrong ticket. The next train was in another hour or so and we did eventually make it to the hostel and supper and a room with beds.

- Lesson # 9- It will all work out already.

We now knew how the train stations worked, the hard way.