Humanitarian Trip #2 - Michael

We have been working towards this trip for some time.  We had one planned a bit earlier, but decided to put it on hold for a variety of reasons.  This trip was coordinated with our British contingent.  They handled our security detail and transportation - and a fantastic job at that.  All told we had seven volunteers to do the distribution and a large number handling everything else.

Right after the worship service on Sunday, I mean right after - amen, bless you, we gotta run kind of "right after, we ran over to movement control (MoveCon) dispatch for a briefing.  After the briefing we had a few minutes to load the supplies into a van, grab our personal gear, and head for the vehicles.  The drive over was no more or less eventful than any other drive.  It had its normal share of crazy Kabul drivers where any lane can be the right lane.  We arrived on site right on time.  Our folks from the NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) had already organized the people to receive the supplies.

 

 We brought shoes, toiletries, clothing, paper, pens, pencils and a whole assortment of other items. to give away.  A team of folks had come by on Saturday to organize and build bags to give away.  We put together 86 bags in about an hour - they did a great job!  We had a couple of big boxes of candy and other such goodies that we set aside to hand off to the village elders at the very end.  They were to give them out to all of the families equally after sunset - it is Ramadan, you know.

The giving went very well with only a few glitches and hitches.  A few kids got through and decided to assert themselves as someone who should receive a bag of supplies.  I had to pick one up and set him outside of the group in the care of a man who was there to help us with this sort of thing - although to be fair, he apparently did not know that that was why he was there.

After the distribution of supplies, we, SSgt B and I along with our NGO representative spent a few minutes talking with the IDP camp elders.  We had to explain the purpose of the goodie boxes.  While we were talking, our British security team told us it was time to go.  With farewells to the elders and to our NGO rep, we piled into vehicles and were gone.  The security team collapsed the perimeter and the show was over except for the ride through traffic with all of the crazy Kabul drivers where the right of way is defined as that which gets me to my destination by the most direct route.

We had a British PA team with us as well as a US combat camera Marine.  I will be posting more photos as they come available.  If anything shows up in the media, I will post that as well.

- Michael




Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Water Baptism in Afghanistan - Michael

It is not too often that you have the privilege and honor of baptizing someone in a deployed environment, but this was one of those moments. It was a few weeks ago that Amber asked to be baptized. This began the search for a suitable baptistry. We began by asking our woodshop folks for help, but then saw a packing crate that appeared to be very adequate for the job at hand. We had the woodshop guys come by and shorten it a bit. We needed to line it, but could find no plastic anywhere on the compound. It was just as well because when we were giving the crate a very close inspection, we noted that there were a significant number of lag bolts missing from the bottom. Basically, if we had tried to use it, the sides would have blown out.   Not good.

We then had the woodshop guys build one from scratch. They had it done in under an hour. They came by to caulk it shortly after that. It did spring a couple of leaks, but we were able to stanch the flow of water just long enough. We threw in a few buckets of very hot water, and we were ready.

Amber had never been baptized. We spent a little bit of time talking about the meaning of baptism. The next day, after the evening service, we had the actual baptism. We read a bit of Scripture, and then we rehearsed the technique so she would not drown (it is always good to avoid drowning, particularly in this setting), and then came the moment. She affirmed her faith in Jesus, and then in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit... It was a great time.

I hope to do a couple more before I am out of here.

Blessings - Michael



Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Favorite Deployment Photo

This may be my favorite deployment photo yet. It sums up our current season. Stacia talks with her  Dad after opening (and putting on ) the gift he sent.

It so clearly shows the BLESSING of having a spouse deployed in the 2010's.....I still remember Michael's first deployment. We had to go to base once a month for a Video Teleconference call. I was pregnant and we told him the baby would be a boy (Nolan - 11) with a room full of airmen looking on.

It also shows the LIMITATIONS and the LONGINGS of a deployment regardless of the era and technology. Stacia's eyes are sparkling but her bottom lip was quivering. They miss events, we miss them....We're proud of them.

180 days down....56 days left.

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Living in a Whirlwind

I promised an update and so I won't go to bed until I catch up. 


This week FOOTBALL entered our lives. There is a morning practice from 7:45 - 10:30 (ish - big ish).  There is an afternoon practice from 3:45 - 6:30 (ish - usually more like 6:45 or 6:50).  I drove 20 hours this week back and forth to the base. 


I discovered the a.m. practice is perfect for going to the gym.....meeting a friend afterwards, checking the post office, returning library books, quick grocery run and birthday shopping. 


Arielle has supervised table school during that time. We get home and have lunch. 


We do couch school. Yes, we DID get a full week of school in this week (well the youngers did). We take Jared back to football and then the youngers and I go play. We went to the beach, we went to a park, we played with friends....you get the idea. 


Beyond that...this gal got a new look. She learned to speak and eat again. Only once did she get floss stuck in the braces. They are purple and pretty cool. We all approved of her decision NOT to go with yellow. 

A funny aside has to do with rain and Arielle's dental trips. It has ALWAYS rained when she goes to the dentist.  Monday was HOT and sunny....and yet...it POURED, lightening strikes, thunder....during the time she was in the chair. She and Jared had had a running dialogue about this BEFORE the appt.....as Jared had practice in the storm. LOL 


We experienced our first tropical storm of the season coming through - bit of a dud, I think. 


I continued work on local and regional PWOC things. 


Tuesday night I got a call to meet Jared and a coach at the Emergency Room.  Half the kids had helmets, half did not and they were learning blocking drills or some such thing. Jared got 3 stitches......

And....*I* added another bit of wisdom to my mommy repertoir...."When going out, always wear clean underwear and SHAVE your face...never know when you'll need stitches...requiring big band-aides to be ripped off your face daily for 3 days. They didn't shave due to risk of infection. 

We had dinner with various deployment buddies, park outings, walks, workout dates.....the accuracy of this sun dial always amazes the kids. 

Thursday was a Chaplain's spouses breakfast. I love this group of women. I'm blessed.  We also received a package from Michael.....it contained a birthday gift for Stacia and a few other goodies. 

This rug....

This really cool chess set....inlaid...Stacia claimed it and I told her this would be a family set and stay home when they left home. 

We stopped for our free smoothies at Cafe Aomori (deployment perk). On the way out I visited briefly with some kids in the lobby of the club. Their parents walked in and the mom said, "Are you De'Etta? I recognize your kids." She's an Internet/Facebook friend. She lives further north than us and we've not met before. FUN. 


We attended Jesse's last baseball game (yep, Dad's deployed). He pitched a great game and the kids enjoyed playing Red Rover with friends behind the bleachers. Twyla showed us a great, quick, healthy Italian dinner.....With a name like Clizignxosneyojpgoiueoho you know they're Italian. ::snort:: 


Saturday morning, after the gym, bright and early......I went to Twyla's and watched a DVD she had by Lou Giglio. I ordered the set. He's wonderful. I want to attend a Passion Conference. 


We attended a Missoula Children's Theater play. The kids were disappointed not to be able to audition. We were told if you were late for a practice or missed a practice you would be kicked out...and knowing Arielle was getting braces, we chose to simplify. I'm glad we did. I'm not sure how else we would have survived last week. 


After the play we met a friend and her son at the park. Kids played, mommies walked and encouraged one another (another deployment buddy). Is anyone still reading? Saturday a.m. I had started a roast. By the time we picked up Jared from the last practice it was 6:55 and I was tired. We went to the Food Court with Renee and Ricky (deployment buddies). Yum. Great day. 


We walked in to the house at 8:30 p.m. to the smell of roast! Oops....we had a great roast for dinner today. I think I'll do that much more often. I baked fresh bread before we went to chapel. 


We are celebrating this girl's 5th birthday today (it's tomorrow for real). We went to her favorite park after lunch. (Yes, I know she has an under bite...THIS one I figured out on my own. LOL)

She took us all on a "birthday walk".....not sure what's up with THIS pose. LOL 

Jared found a reel - he's DETERMINED to build his own pole. I would buy him one. 

What do you think? Horse fly? 

Zander's new obsession. He bought it. 

Back at home, our birthday gal came out in a truly international outfit. The NEW pig hat from Japan....her American tank and a skirt/scarf from Afghanistan.

At this point, Michael Skyped. She opened his gift. 

I snorted when the call dropped. I was trying to call and she came in to model the gift.....and he wasn't responding to her chattering and posturing...finally she said, "He's just staring!" Poor thing...we all lost it. 

Michael joined us for the rest of the birthday party.....but we couldn't share the cake. I'll write another birthday post....afterall I'm not behind, the birthday is tomorrow. 

It was a BUSY week and I'm thrilled it went so well. It was so busy, I didn't even upload photos daily. It's good I took some, or I would not remember all we'd done. As unbelievable as it feels, this next week will be busier. 

• Double football practices continue (one more week)
• We're going to continue trying to do a full week of school....we want time off in October when Michael makes it back to Japan. 
• I have a PWOC Regional board meeting via Skype
• I need to work on the Regional PWOC budget a bit more
• We're watching Ricky  - which will be a blast and give Renee time to pray through her upcoming speaking for the Ladies Fall Rally. 
• I will be speaking a bit at the MOPS leadership retreat. 
• We need to get 12 hour fasting labs for Jared, and stitches removed. 
• I need to continue working on details for the Ladies Fall Rally/PWOC Kick Off.
• Saturday is our local training. I'm doing parts of it. 

In the midst of it all, God is teaching me to rest, to submit to His timing, to stretch and grow and delight in His word. To listen for HIS voice in so many different ways. To dance with Him. It's been a fantastic week. 

It's only 9 p.m. but I'm EXHAUSTED...heading for bed with the hopes I wake up early enough to make a dent in some of the "to dos" before heading to the base field and gym. 

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Car Makes and Such

Another new car make....

We've moved on now to documenting messages on wheel covers. Some are cute, some are hilarious....most often the messages are in English. 

Words to live by, "Nature is our precious properties. Nature is our leisure land."

Faithful blog readers....we are fine....we've been soooo busy this week that I've not had time to blog...but I'll try to recap the week sometime today....or TOMORROW....We love ya' TOMORROW.....

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Alas, no photos!

It is HOT around here today....I think it was above 95*...I KNOW where we were it said 38C....so that is hot for Northern Japan. LOL 


We were happy to be on the way to explore Tanesashi Beach. What a gorgeous coastline....grassy meadows, cliffs, rocks, trees, sandy beaches...HOT SAND....who knew you could burn your feet on sand?  


The waves were quite a bit bigger and the water deeper than at Veedol Beach....so we had to really watch Stacia. The waves were knocking Jared and I off our feet....but it was a great day. We'll be going back often I'm sure....45 min from our home. 

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Watshitachino karui koya (our light shed)

What a blessing to have a young man in residence who could take my thoughts and make them a reality.

Last weekend Arielle organized the youngers to help her clean out the playroom...during the winter/spring many things had "landed" there that didn't have a HOME there. ::snort::

This reminded me that it's bothered me to have all the bikes in the "play room" since we arrived. We went on a hunt. We finally found what we wanted at Sanwado.  It's a shed. Not a fancy or sturdy shed...but I see a lot of these around town and figure they must work. The small wooden ones are nearly $1,000.00.  This is a rental and we will move in 2 years. I bought light.

Jared agreed to put it together. I dreamed there would be room for garden tools, winter yard stuff and five bikes. We debated where to put it. Did we want to lose yard on the side or the back....and what about my view of the farmer's fields....but we knew we'd put the shed up.

Jared seemed surprised the instructions were all in Japanese. Once he adjusted he discovered the joy of being able to put it together however you want without nagging directions and warnings. ::snort:: 

We settled on this spot. Our farmer sold his horses. The white fence is the corner of our subdivision. Our landlord is supposed to take care of our yard - but weed eating and trimming is evidently not a part of the deal....and I've not found one to buy yet. We settled on this spot.  Jared began the magic of turning poles, ties and tarps into a shed. 

It's taking shape....Jared isn't so sure that this will hold what I want it to hold.  About this time one of the farmers came over. Through pantomime, broken English and even more broken Japanese it became apparent that he was suggesting Jared move the shed to the spot between our fence and his. He came over and took the weed eater and trimmed our entire yard for us. Not the neighbor's side...but hey...I figure this is still payback for the time the kids and Mike helped to dig his wife out of the snow when the snowplow deposited mounds of snow at the head of their road. Evidently, if you do something nice once - you're a friend for life....wonder if the same is true if you make a mistake. Hmmm.

Here it is.....and everything fit! I did leave Michael and Jared's bikes in the garage/playroom. I'm wondering if I dare try to install those big bike hooks in the ceiling? What do you think Michael? 

I'm so pleased at all the work the kids did to make the playroom "workable" again.... I like to just go look at our tarp shed or...."karuikoya".

Tidbit - learned last night that when writing Japanese words....they don't put spaces between the words...run em all together...only use commas and periods.

Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...