Better @ Blogging: Branson

I figure I have to start somewhere.... my life (@least when the interns are in town) is definitely worth blogging about so here I go again! Girls what's my weakness?! Dang it! I'm sure I have ADD sometimes! Of all the bloggable places I visit I'm going to start with BRANSON!

We DID tour The Titanic Exhibit there, which was totally cool & I encourage you to go check it out BUT unlike The Pepper Palace they did NOT allow photos so, here's your HOT sauce blog!

"See Jane on Fire! See Dick Burn! & See Spot in Heat!"

And this is the set I PURCHASED! I figure I'll serve it on my next date! I mean a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!

And even the folks in Branson have good taste in college football! Go Vols!!

But they DO NOT have good taste in snacks... Bacon and Cheddar Crickets?!? I guess that's better than just the plain ones?!

And last, but not least here's a preview of some Hot n Saucy attire you can purchase @ The Pepper Palace.

PETA: this one reminds me of my dear sister, Carrie. (And not because she'd wear it, because she wouldn't be caught dead in an oversized t-shirt!) But, one day the news was showing a PETA protest,

to which my sister rolled her eyes. (No one in my allergy ridden household is much of an animal lover of any kind!) But I questioningly asked my hippie sister, "Oh you're NOT a member?!" And her reply well, it was very, Carrie!! " "NO! If I had money, I'd wear a real fur everyday!"

And last, but not least, there's THIS t-shirt!

As I get better at blogging I am sure that this will be a re-occurring theme, but I HATE cats! Before I can seriously date a man I must ask him, "Do you like cats?" If his answer is yes, he is NOT God's will for my life... or a man for that matter. I once asked a prospect, "Do you like cats?" To which he replied, "Sure! I love Chinese food." I thought for sure we'd get married. Sigh! Still Single.

My First Mission's Trip

Backstory: When I finally submitted to the call of God to full time ministry, I reluctantly said, "okay," but there was one stipulation I gave Him, "I'll do anything but be a missionary!" (there were 101 reasons for this addendum, but that's another post entirely!)

6 months later, Christmas break of my freshman year of college, I found myself in Quito, Ecuador. The sights, smells, and sounds were overwhelming, beautiful in retrospect. I chose a ministry option away from the "dirty" people. (Is there a real ministry option away from dirty people?) The least amount of interaction the better, if I had my way I'd come out of this place untouched and therefore un-diseased!

We performed songs and skits in the middle of a busy plaza each day. The only reoccurring audience members were the vendors and their children. One such child was a bit unruly. Angelica, was 5 years old, her older sister would scold her and try to corral her, but nothing could keep little Angelica away from the gringos! It became my job to make sure she was at least somewhat quiet during the prayer times. Each day, we would play behind the stage. In the evenings we were doing services with a local church, we invited Angelica & her older sister, who was maybe 8? They didn't come.

The next day at the plaza, Angelica stayed close by her mother's stand and the older sister sat silently beside her mother with an arm wrapped in a homemade sling.

Around lunch time I began to miss my little side kick, so we approached the stand. Their mother did not acknowledge us, the sister kept her head down, & Angelica clung to my leg playfully as I approached. Realizing something was not right I had the missionary speak with the woman.

As it turned out, the children had tried to come to the service the night before, their father a drunk and not a believer, had physically stopped them, hence the sling.

At 18 years old, I was furious, confused, outraged that this could happen. (Imagine a mad chihuahua held on a leash!) For some reason that's the image that comes to my mind when I think of this day! In my young mind the solution was simple, we take the girls! ha! It's not even THAT simple in the USofA, it definitely wasn't in Quito, Ecuador 15 years ago! Sigh.

The next day was our last. My side kick had rejoined me and I was keeping her quiet for the last time, although on this day she was already quiet and sitting STILL in my lap, my mind was far off and it took me a minute to notice this change. When I looked down into the biggest, most beautiful brown eyes I've ever seen and saw tears dripping from them, I went into panic mode. I thought for sure I was sitting on her little leg or something or that she was hurt in some way! When I asked her in my very poquito spanish... "What's wrong? What's the matter? Are you okay!?"

Her reply: "I want Jesus in my heart like you!" In that moment, MY life changed! Angelica's life with Jesus began and I'd venture to say mine did too!

My Thoughts while Unloading a SEMI by hand....

They did not teach me this in Bible college, but they tell me it's ministry?

Didn't I get my masters to avoid this?

Why on earth did they not use pallets? Who on earth packed this like this?

Always, take the box labeled toilet paper, avoid the ones marked canned goods.

If you're going to drop and break something, let it be something other than balsamic vinagerette dressing... it stinks as it bakes in the hot, humid, semi trailer.

I'm all for miracles Lord, and sure it was cool when you multiplied the little boy's lunch and fed the 5,000, but it was so NOT cool when we could never find the back of the semi today... I am confident that you multiplied those donations and I thank You, but next time could you do it once they are stored in the warehouse?

I'm sure that guy did NOT mean to drop that extra large can of lysol off the truck and onto my toe... I co-currently apologize for any new words the church groups working with us may have learned as a result of this event.

Cases of Pedia-lite are NOT lite at all!

Why did people donate so many snuggies? it's 110 degrees outside, these people lost everything including their couches and tv sets... I'm just not sure how a snuggie is going to be helpful, but what do I know, plus why am I complaining I know I by passed 6 cases of water to grab the snuggie boxes, light as a feather!

I really should get my fork lift certification so I can drive around in one of those all day like Ryan and not have to do all this heavy lifting, but then again I'd probably run into a lot of stuff .... like Ryan.

boxes marked "toilet trees" go on the hygiene pallets. Boxes marked "juce" go with the drinks.

why is no one taking pictures of me carrying this really heavy box?! But when I was standing around at the registration table the TPE guy sure wanted to shoot fotos of me then, just hanging out, there wasn't even sweat on my shirt yet and my mascara was still on my eye lashes, c'mon, where's the paparazzi when I'm actually doing something?

Disclaimer: The above entry does not represent the thoughts, beliefs, or values of Convoy of Hope. It does however, give you a glimpse into the depths of my mind. Your choices are to: Pray for Joplin. Give money to help Joplin. Or meet me at the semi!

My First Day at the Convoy of Hope Office

I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of the idea of "going into the office." I mean my days of sitting behind a desk and listening to people's problems are over, no?

I pulled into the parking lot and saw the fleet of 18 wheelers ... and I was proud. I work here!

It's the first full week of the year and it's spiritual emphasis week, therefore we had a morning chapel / prayer service. The offices emptied and met in the "training room" where we discussed something you wouldn't normally discuss in the corporate world, "staying in the vine." I'll post my notes, it's good stuff! We were then asked to get into our teams and pray for a few moments for the upcoming year so... we did!

After chapel, Matt took me around and introduced me to everyone in the building, some people weren't at their desks because they were in meetings in Washington DC about how to better serve our nation. Then there was the office where someone was speaking Spanish to our partners in Latin America about our feeding programs there. In the donor area they were on the phone with Coca Cola, who is evidently a HUGE donor for Convoy! How cool is that? My high school BFF works for Coca Cola, it's my favorite drink, and they're making the world a better place (as well as a bigger place, but ....) Then we didn't disturb the two ladies in one office who were joined together in prayer. When we got to the disaster relief area they were sitting in front of a couple of big screens of the world with all the current disasters marked watching them closely to see if response is needed on our part, the weather channel was playing in the background as well. On the way to our offices we dodged the fork lift drivers in the warehouse moving product to load trucks!

A pretty cool first day indeed!

The Hollander, The Scotts, and The Asian

The Hollander, The Scotts, and The Asian describe my companions on the next 2 legs of my flight! From Atlanta to Amsterdam I'm going to have to admit that I was like that little kid on the Disney commercial, "But I'm tooo excited to sleep!"

The 2 Scottish girls were on their way home from "A Holiday" in the states and they were perfectly pleasant, the one right next to me chose to watch Avatar and any time something jumped out she nearly jumped out of her chair and gasped and even held my hand a few times! She definitely reminded me of my Danish foreign exchange student so it was okay, she liked to hold my hand too!

The Hollander, or what ever you call ladies from Holland, she was one of those missionary types (I know right?! Could you change my seat please? I think she was grateful when she began to witness to me and I said, "no evangelism needed (especially not for the next 8 hours!) Me and Jesus are tight!" However I have to tell you that she had personal space issues, or rather, I have personal space issues and she violated them excessively! She also was a public nose blower (this is never okay, but especially not when you're going to run out of places to put your used tissues and decide to us my seat back!) However, I have to give her props for at the end of the flight when I asked her how long it would take her to get to Holland from Amsterdam, she was very gracious as she informed that Amsterdam is, in fact, IN Holland!

In case you're wondering I viewed Toy Story 3, Diary of a Wimpy Kid (which was super funny, and the kid in it reminded me of a young Logan Ellis! I love you Logan and you've turned into a handsome strong marine from that cute little jr. higher who scraped his face on the bottom of the pool trying to impress the ladies!) :) Oh, and I watched a laugh out loud funny episode of Modern Family. Manny is my favorite!

The last flight well, it was not so entertaining as I was soooo sleepy! I, likely being the last passenger booked, was in the middle of the middle row, up against the wall, seated between 2 very large men (don't you wish everybody used dial?) who claimed both arm rests and some of my seat actually immediately, however, there was an aisle seat EMPTY in my eye sight, I yelled across the plane to ask the stewardess if I could stake claim to it, I couldn't chance waiting on her to respond to those people who had pushed their call button, certain that they all had their eyes on my empty aisle seat treasure! Suckers, I sat by the tiny Asian girl on the aisle and slept like a baby! Because she was Asian I assumed she did not speak English because only white folk speak English, right?! So, when I was using my sign language to speak foreign to ask to borrow her pen to fill out one of those form thingys, she looked at me and in nothing but a New York accent politely asked me if I needed to borrow her pen! Oops! What?! I'm always culturally appropriate with my stereotypes!

Seat 21 C

The journey to Kenya begins: Nashville to Atlanta (1 whopping hour!)
Atlanta to Amsterdam (8hrs)
Amsterdam to Nairobi (8hrs)

The adventure began on the first flight, Seat 21 C - Aisle 21 is what I'd probably call an "afterthought." I imagine it went like this: Some Delta stewardess wanted to make a little extra money and on a plane with 20 aisles she created Aisle 21... basically she sat a couple of children's folding chairs behind row 20 right beside her little pop out seat - you know the one- directly up against the wall where people lean their buttocks while they await the restroom! Sound terrible? Nooo, it has its perks, it has a special back massager .... your chair vibrates every time someone flushes the toilet! We hung out on the Nashville tarmac for about an hour just for fun I think.... but don't worry the stewardess in my lap made sure I kept my tray table in the locked and upright position! (There were no worries about my seatback as the wall made sure of that!) Oh and evidently you had to pay extra for A/C! (Oh and NO mom I did not meet a man on this flight, the grown man seated beside me was reading Harry Potter!) It may sound like I'm complaining....I'm soooo NOT, I'm smiling ear to ear, just happy to be on the plane on my way to Kenya (well, Atlanta first!) Currently reading Midnight in the City by Hal Donaldson I'll submit a book report later!

The GULP Heard Round the World

Lesson #1 with Convoy of Hope was to be learned near .... IMMEDIATELY! It's the Biblical principle of being ready in season and out of season! At a moment's notice! Friday, October 8th was to be my last day with Centerstone and while I was enjoying a final lunch with co-workers, my telephone rang:

Matt Wilkie: "Do you wanna go to Africa this week?"
Me: "Sure, when?!" (thinking to myself, today is Friday, we're probably talking heading out NEXT Friday...no sweat! )
Matt Wilkie: Monday!
Me: GULP!

Only my co workers could officially tell you what my face looked like, but my missionary friend in Argentina assures me she heard me GULP! Here's my re-inactment photo!