Flirting with disaster

I just changed up the music on my ipod. I have it on shuffle mode to keep me cruising along on the treadmill. I think I should probably take the stuff with a Latin beat out of the mix. I really love it, but that's the problem. Whenever it comes on I feel this craving to bust out a little salsa move. I have a track record with disaster (I guess I even have a track record with falling off of gym equipment) so trying to dance on a moving surface is like, well, sticking a match inside a gas-filled oven. Trust me, that doesn't turn out well either.

I asked for it, I got it.

I've never really been afraid of spiders. Never really gave them a second thought until today. If you have issues with spiders, just skip this post.
It's laundry day today. I was taking my clothes hamper out of my closet and noticed something odd. So odd, in fact that I ended up throwing everything out of my closet to see just what was going on. The floor of my closet was covered in dead spiders. A hundred dead spiders. Last week there were none. Today, there were one hundred. Sick. My question is if it's still called arachnophobia if don't scare me so much as make me want to vomit?
So, in response to my last post, I think I've found a new gross. Well, whoopee-ding.

Re-evaluating gross

Lately I've been puzzled by my lack of odd and/or gross experiences. I'm used to having a "guess what happened to me" story in my pocket. And must admit that over the last few weeks I'd been wondering if my special Emily charm had worn off.

It hasn't.

We came in the house this evening after a day of staining the wood in our new barn. I was sitting in my chair, attempting to both pay attention to family conversation and decide of that slight odor was anything to be concerned about and if so, where it was coming from. I did the usual glance at my shoe bottoms. Nothing. Smelled my dog. Nothing out of the ordinary. I resigned to the fact that I might just be going crazy and headed into my office. That's when I walked into what can only be described as a thick wall of stink.

My brother's dog was hiding in the corner and that's when all the pieces of the puzzle came together. Suddenly I understood why the horse had been so intent on sniffing her earlier. It turns out she'd taken a nice long roll in a skunk carcass. Personally, I don't know what smells worse: skunk on the dog, or skunk coming off the dog in the bath water. Six of one, half a dozen of the other I suppose.

I always thought skunk would top the gross list. But now that it's all said and done I can honestly say, "I've seen worse."

Happy Birthday to Jeff!

Well, there it is, folks. Jeff Gordon (my car) hit 100,000 miles on the last road trip. He's beginning to show his age. Last night, just 200 miles from home, the service engine soon light started flashing. But, hey, there's nothing like a flashing orange light and that nagging fear that the engine could drop out at any moment to keep a person alert for the last 4 hours of a 17 hour solo trip. Thanks, Jeff. You're always looking out for me.

A serpent in the garden

There is a prophecy in the book of Genesis that speaks of the enmity between the serpent and the descendant of Eve. "...He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise His heel." In my understanding this prophecy was fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Satan thought he had his victory when Christ was crucified. But that crucifixion was actually just a bruising of the Savior's heel, not the end of the story. Christ won the ultimate victory when He defeated the powers of sin and death with His resurrection from the dead. In my mind Easter is the celebration of Christ's resurrection and the fulfillment of the prophecy that the serpent's head will be crushed. Keep that in mind as you read the following story about my Easter Sunday afternoon.
I'm in Kansas at the moment and staying with a great, gracious family that is kindly hosting me and encouraging me as I try to raise some financial support in the area. They invited me to join them in their family Easter gathering at Grandpa and Grandma's house. Every year they have an Easter egg hunt in the yard for the grand kids. Apparently Grandma has been saving the large plastic eggs from pantyhose containers for decades and there were almost 100 eggs to hide. I jumped at the invitation to help hide the eggs outside. I was given the task of hiding the eggs for 4 year old Laci. It was a sweet job because you don't have to be sneaky at all to hide for someone that young. Literally, I was setting the eggs in plain sight in the grass. While placing one such egg I screamed and nearly had a heart attack when I realized a little too late that I put the egg on top of a snake! I hate snakes. Apparently so does Grandpa Lyle. He came right over and killed it by stomping on its head. All on Easter Sunday...what are the odds?

Chocolate Milk Mustache

Hannah spent the morning drinking out of mud puddles. Her muddy snout doesn't look so bad because she wiped most of it on my pants when she came in.
I'm going to miss her clown antics for the next couple of weeks while I take a short trip to Kansas. While I'm in Wichita I'll get to meet up with some friends I haven't seen in a long time and hopefully meet some new folks, too. Join me in praying that God uses these 10 days in Kansas to bring in the next 15% of my total support needs so that I am at 85% of my total goal by the end of the month.
And you can pray for my family, too. They're going to need a little bit of extra patience taking care of crazy Hannah. :)

Sleep on it.

If I got a buzz cut I don't think I would mind all the wind so much. Tonight I almost got blown down by a 50mph gust. That was after I got blasted with gasoline blowing off the nozzle while I was filling up. I smell like a truck stop. Last week an empty dumpster about had its way with me while I was trying to bring it up from the street.
Now for those of you who know me well you're thinking, "Emily, all those things would happen to you regardless of the wind." You're right. And that's not what I'm complaining about. What irks me is that my hair gets tied in knots and smacks me in the eyes while all of the accidenting is going on. That's why I want a buzz cut...so I can stumble in style. Maybe I'll wait a few days to make any big decisions.

Close to home

I'll be the first to admit that in this day and age when we are constantly bombarded by waves of urgent news and tragedy on the news all I want to do is turn it off. I've even become so hardened by it that I find myself apathetic to world events all together. I get tired of media hype that seems to last just a little too long and then forgets last week's tears and moves on to this week's sensation. Call me cold, but I tend to stop caring about the news because I don't actually think about it affecting real people. With all of the information overload, I have reduced these people in my mind to nothing more than extras in a never-ending made for tv movie.

But this morning my heart breaks as the world news headlines strike close to home and I realize my foolishness. There was a plane crash in Venezuela. Not just any plane. It's a flight that I've flown a dozen times before: from Merida (which is the last place I really called "home") and heading to the capital city of Caracas. In fact, one of my dear friends missed being on that flight by just 24 hours: same route, same time.
We always picked the same airline and condsidered the questionable nature of the aircraft part of living an adventure. I still have my frequent flyer "card," which is really just a piece of paper, tucked in my wallet as a humorous reminder of the backwards ways things often work in my beloved Venezuela.

Today that worn piece of paper becomes a reminder of the fragility of life. In the face of instant and continuous news sensations that little paper card now sits as a reminder of the deep reality of our fallen world. Friends, we are deeply fallen yet deeply loved by the God of the universe who sent His Son, Jesus, to die for us while we were yet sinners. (Romans 5:8). For the moment I find myself torn between emotions of grief and joy. We live in a place that is overwhelmed with tragedy and brokenness, but yet there is hope in Christ.

Redefining genius

Last night I happened to catch this little gem from the less than witty banter between the local meteorologist and the 10 o'clock news anchors.
"Today's wind speeds topped-out at 45 mph. Just imagine getting in your car and driving 45 miles per hour. That will give you a good idea of how fast the wind was blowing today."
Sheer genius.

Mission accomplished.

Yesterday I was talking with my new friend Melina, who is from Mexico City. We were just shooting the breeze in Spanish when she stopped and said, "You know, you really do speak Spanish with a Venezuelan accent. It's funny. You don't even sound like an American."
That's about the best compliment a foreign language geek can receive, I think.

The week my PhD genius brother came home to play with me

For a kid who has 5 brothers and sisters, I spend an amazing amount of time feeling like an only child. My younger brother came home for Christmas this year. It was nice to have some sibling company we quickly returned to our normal habits :
Watching the Discovery Channel...







Watching the Discovery Channel and pretending like mom hasn't already taken 20 pictures of us...









Going on a hike and putting all those years of watching The Kids in the Hall to good use...


And then there was the photo shoot... Supposedly we're the same height, but each of us claims to be taller than the other. I'm taller. That's the truth. We took turns standing in a hole just in case.

Weekend Warriors

The fence is in, the barn is almost finished, and the new place is starting to look and feel more like home each day.

Life looked like a Chevy commercial the past couple of days with all of the work vehicles around this weekend. My parents and some local helpers spent the whole weekend putting up a whole lot of split rail fence. A job well done, I'd say, especially considering the way they dodged the gasline. I can't claim much credit for any of the finished product. My job: Junior Credit Card Swiper. I did a couple of odd jobs here and there buying construction materials and food, but all the credit goes to the Weekend Warriors. Here's a look at the weekend in pictures:

One crazy thing that makes me smile

Meet Hannah. She's my sassy Australian Shepherd puppy who absolutely loves to keep me on my toes. There's no snooze button on this 4-legged alarm clock. She'll do whatever it takes to wake me up, even if that means hitting me in the head with her water bowl.

She's beautiful and has all the dignity and delicacy of a WWF wrestler. And I have to admit that's exactly what I love about her. Lately she's had to spend a lot of time inside and seems to keep herself busy by herding the flies that make their way in from the yard. She'll chase them all around the house with great enthusiasm. From time to time I'll hear a clatter and thud coming from the kitchen where Hannah has jumped into the air and body slammed the cabinets in pursuit of a stray fly. 'A' for effort.

I've been grateful for her companionship and crazy antics throughout this transition of leaving behind some dearly loved friends and life in Venezuela to walk into this next glorious chapter of life.

Emily + Jeff = Love

Jehova jireh, my God provides. Saturday our family got a third vehicle and we are all now able to independently transport ourselves. I'll be driving my old car, lovingly nicknamed Jeff Gordon...nothing fancy, but Jeff absolutely fits my needs and then some.
Thanks for praying!

Praying for a car

One thing that's been interesting about living at my parent's new house is the fact that the three of us share 2 cars, live 20 miles out of town, and have really different schedules. We're juggling things around well enough, but it would be a huge blessing if the Lord would provide a vehicle for me in some way. I've had to laugh sometimes about my mom dropping me off for work, waiting for my stepdad to come pick me up, or my personal favorite: my mom leaving messages for me with the coffee shop guy who makes me my Earl Grey tea while I work and wait for my parents to show up. Oh, no, that's not embarassing at all.

Start this thing up again

I'm writing this assuming that people still check it from time to time...even though it's been ages since I've posted.
I just moved to a brand new country: Texas. They tell me it's still in the Union, but this, my friends, is a whole new ballgame. The language here is different and sometimes I wish I had my own Texas to Yankee pocket translator. Like when the store checkout girl asks me, "How are y'all?" I just don't know what to make of it. There's only one of me. Do I know her? Is she asking about my family? Is she seeing me with double vision?? I'll chalk it up to poor subject-verb-reality agreement. My question is answered as I hear her greet the family behind me, "How are all a y'all?" Got it. I might just become fluent.

I actually just returned from New Staff Training with Campus Crusade in Orlando. I'm currently in the process of finding a team of ministry partners to help send me to my next assignment in Salt Lake City, Utah. And while I don't know much about what ministry looks like there (yet) I know that I am really excited to go.
While I was still in Orlando, I got a phone call from the student leadership meeting in Salt Lake and was able to say hi and answer some questions via speakerphone. I've got to admit that it was one of the most encouraging and welcoming things that's ever happened to me. Like I said, I am super-excited to head to Utah.

Home!

The return to Merida has been a great success so far, praise the Lord! It has been so great to be back with my team and with the students here. There has been lots of hugging and catching up. Without a doubt I feel loved by everyone I work with here.

I had a little over a week after coming back to readjust and get ready for our National Conference. It was a lot of work for our staff team of 35 to put on the conference, but to see God at work in the hearts of the 200 students that attended made all of the exhaustion worth it. More than that, it was an honor to be a part of creating an atmosphere where students were able to get away from their daily routine and be refreshed and challenged in their walks with the Lord.

I thoroughly enjoyed goofing off with my friends from the staff teams in other cities in Venezuela, getting to know students from all over the country, praying over students in Spanish, and, yes, playing on the teeter-totters with my teammates. My health held up surprisingly well with all of the activity and stress, so that is a great praise. We are home again in Merida recuperating from the conference and getting ready to take a well-earned rest on the Venezuelan coast.

Trust me, I'm in this picture. See that bright blue spot in the upper right-hand corner?

It's official!

Or at least the one way ticket is non-refundable....
I'll be leaving for Venezuela on Tuesday evening and getting to Merida on Wednesday morning. It will be a big day for me physically: 18 hours of travel. Bring it on. I am ready for the next challenge and I am ready to see some familiar and dearly loved faces at the Merida airport. That's enough to get me through any airport weariness or patience-wearing situation. And hopefully I won't get into too much trouble without Bryon always asking me where my passport is...sheesh! The man is relentless. Although it's not entirely unwarranted...one little incident and now I have a reputation.
I have two days left here in Kansas. My mom took some time off from work, so we'll get to have some good, quality time together before I leave. I am excited about that time and blessed to have it, too.

Let's hear it for the Fast Shoes

Sometimes it really feels like this recovery process is slower than slow. I had hoped to be back in Venezuela by now, but I'm not. And I'll be honest and say that the slowness of all this jazz has frequently been discouraging. BUT then there are days like today when I am able to celebrate small victories. I walked over a mile and a half this afternoon AND even took a handful of running steps! My leg muscle is down to almost nothing these days, so I'm sure I will feel the consequences of my actions tomorrow, but I'll gladly take them. Lately I've been feeling like a prisoner in my own body and today's micro-adventure gave me a sweet, sweet feeling of freedom that I really needed.
Still no word on when the doctor will let me go back. I'm praying for soon, but trusting that the doctor will help us make the wisest decision.

Milestones and setbacks

When my sisters were little they had a pair of shoes for everything. There were shiny shoes they'd pull out of the closet just for dancing, school shoes, rubber-soled shoes for running, the next pair of hand-me-downs shoes they were waiting to grow into.... My youngest sister, Tracy, even had a special pair she called her "jumping shoes."
I 've never really vocalized it, but I've always thought of my latest pair of running shoes (which haven't seen much action lately) as my fast shoes. Look at these bad boys with their metallic blue trim and tell me I don't run like the wind when I wear them. Okay, I'll admit it, I don't do much of anything like the wind....maybe more like a lazy summer breeze?
Today I took the fast shoes out for some adventure: instead of twice around the block, we ended up going over a mile! It felt great and I just kept smiling and smiling. Praise the Lord for continued improvement!
While I am celebrating today's achievement, I'm also acknowledging that it's been a bit of a rough week with some disappointments and setbacks. Most notably, my doctor asked me to delay my return ticket to Venezuela by at least 2 more weeks. He'd like to see me be stronger before I jump back into things. (He'd let me if a had a pair of jumping shoes like Tracy, but since I don't...nuts!) It's the wise decision, but it hit me hard. My heart is homesick for my team and students in Venezuela and at first the 2 week delay felt enormous. I'm still not excited about it, but there's really nothing I can do at this point other than make the best of things and continue to rest in the Lord's care.