Flat tires, jet lag and culture shock

Have you ever driven a stressed out lady and her young son and infant two hours down a bumpy logging trail after she had major surgery trying to find her husband that lives eight hours walk from the meeting place only to find him not there and then driving on a crazy 4by4 trail and waited for him at that spot until he finally arrived only after trying to use an interpreter relaying through two other people over the radio to try to communicate? Now we can say we have done that. They shared a slice of their giant hot dog the size of a sumo wrestlers arm, literally, the thing was huuuuuuge, for lunch before we disappeared in a cloud of dust.

I have often dreamt of sailing across the Pacific Ocean, actually it is one of my life goals. It took us fourteen hours to cross the great ocean going over 500 miles an hour, it is a stinkin long way over here, that would be a long trip going seven or eight knots over all that water. I think we'll stop in Fiji for a break on the way. We have been in Chiang Mai now for two nights and the jet lag is wearing off. Tomorrow morning we hit the road again heading into the Burmese jungle!!! We are so excited, so excited I just peed myself a little thinking about it. We have been drilling people with questions since we arrived, feeling a little naive as to what to expect and what we will be doing. For the next six to eight weeks we will be hiking the jungle, arriving first at the training area helping the FBR army guys and participating as we can for a week or two. Next, we will be helping with the good life clubs or hiking further into the jungle and visiting villages along the way. We will be unable to update our blog until we return to Chiang Mai in six or eight weeks so both of you who read this (thanks moms : ) will have to hold your breath until we come out!

Before we left our friends in Mexico Heidi and I both filled our days as best we could using up our last hours to finish all the loose ends. Heidi installed all the trim in three rooms that she had been cutting and painting, I built three sets of shelves for Mark, we watched a three hour movie in Spanish, Dave and I agonised over how to get some tires to Mark after his had gone irreversibly flat, and we packed our bags to enter the next phase of our adventure.

Sometimes Heidi and I look at each other and exclaim at how lucky and blessed and fortunate and maybe even a little stupid we are for jumping into an adventure like this. We have had more adventure in the past month and a half than many people experience in a lifetime. Heidi and I are struck at Gods provision for us along the way already, mostly the friends that He has clearly put in our lives to bless and be blessed by, God is so good!! Sometimes we have felt an expectation of what God is going to do and we feel that now as we head out into the jungle, we are waiting, and praying to see His hand move!!

"STINKING POOPY"

Our favorite quote in flawless english by Daves wife Delia after losing a game of UNO

Picking the scab

The flight would have been longer if I hadn't thrown my headset out the door with the air drop we were making. Yes, you read correctly, it seams I have a habit here of destroying things right and left. First it was the pots we scraped some of the Teflon off then snapping one of the living room chairs, cutting the cord on the skill saw, and the list goes on. I feel a bit like an accident waiting to happen. Anyway, Dave and I prepared the airdrops the night before and I was able to ride along with Mark to throw the packages out for John the Mennonite. The first two dropped perfectly with the shoots opening to soften the reunion with the earth. The last one I forced from the plane with half my body hanging out the plane but somehow my arm hooked the headset cord and flung the thing off my head and out into space. Angry with myself I forgot to look to see if the package landed OK and see if my headset missile killed anyone on the ground as it plummeted to earth.

The following day Mark, Carmen, Heidi and I along with Dexter the dog, piled into a jeep to bump our way out to Rowadiche and spend the next three days hiking to rural villages to help the sick and visit friends. Carmen is a doctor at the mission hospital and has spent many of her days off hikeing to the bush villages to help where she can. For Heidi and I it was a spectacular dichotomy seeing the awesome beauty of the high sierra and immensity of the canyons with shear cliffs and unforgiving beauty and seeing the beautiful people that carve out an existence there and their rugged way of life and the palpable spiritual darkness. We feel honored to gain insight into this place and see what life is like for our neighbors here.

It is a staggering reality check for Heidi and I gaining a little idea of life for these folks. Many of the friends we have made live a true subsistence lifestyle growing corn and beans to last the year and find other work occasionally to provide the other necessities. Infant mortality here in the sierra is the highest in the Western Hemisphere. Simple sanitation education would dramatically improve that statistic but new ideas are slow to take root.

One of the nights we spent out in the bush the family we stayed with offered their own house for us to sleep in. We were honored still even when we found that they had been spending the last several moons sleeping under the stars to avoid the starving flees that were infesting their house. We enjoyed an evening under the milky way that night.

Carmen put us to work on one of the children that had scabbed over wounds on his head with the dried puss mounding up in his thick black hair. With my leatherman I cut the hair away to expose the wound and we picked away at the scab to expose the bloody flesh in order to treat it with ointment. If left unattended Carmen informed us the problem would eventually cause serious kidney damage.

We are two days away from leaving our new home down here and looking forward to the next chapter. Mixed feelings follow as we must leave old friends and our new friends alike. I don't think I will miss the flees, but the parasites in the jungle are bound to treat us less kindly.

Chinese proverb say - Don't open a shop unless you like to smile

Hospital, hospital, we have a transport

It took exactly 2 weeks, numerous discussions on the best methods, several e-mails to Super Cub experts (thank you Jeremy and Matt), and lots of laughs for Lyle and Dave to finish the annual on the plane. The timing could not have been better either as Mark and his new wife Carmen arrived home on Friday evening and the plane was needed the next morning. Praise the Lord! Often during those two weeks, while I was puttering around the hanger doing odd jobs, I had the privilege of listening to Dave and Lyle banter back and forth. It brought me such joy because I could see Lyle was really filling a need for Dave. He helped with the annual and was a wealth of information about different ways to do things in the aviation world. God's timing is perfect and I really feel He orchestrated our trip perfectly for Lyle to be of service to Dave.

The rest of the week leading up to the completion of the annual was filled with much the same task as the previous week. On Saturday we had one more chance to head to Delia's family ranch to retrieve the picked corn before all the little animals had their way with it. Lyle and Dave spent the week days working tirelessly on the plane and I found jobs here and there to be useful. The hospital had an eye-surgery weekend where they bring down skilled doctors from the states and do hundreds of different eye-surgeries. Therefore I spent a few days there helping with the preparations, including one day where I spent 3 hours doing nothing but laundry because the hospital uses one load of water twice, draining one machine into the other. You must watch the laundry to catch it at the right moment. Spending time at the hospital is always a comical event sense I know very little Spanish. Creative hand-signalling has become my new second language. One additional activity Lyle and I were able to be part of was a patient transport. We drove about one hour in the hospital ambulance to a near by town, dropped of the patient, then Lyle drove home sounding the sirens merrily all the way.

Over the past two and a half weeks I have thought endlessly about God's blueprint for saving people. Questions about methods, and approaches, techniques, and attitudes have all run over and over in my brain. Always God has brought me back to one basic but difficult answer. There is NO set method or formula. God uses all kinds of people in all kinds of situations, in all kinds of ways to meet all kinds of needs. The way to be used by Him in His smorgasbord approach is to continually be seeking a deeper relationship with Him so we are sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. To punctuate this answer to all my burning questions He had my beautiful sister-in-law send an e-mail that they recently found great truth in.

"The impact God has planned for us does not occur when we are pursuing impact.

It occurs when we are pursuing God."

unknown

The Hard Way

The teacher, John the Mennonite.

Last weekend Heidi and I tagged along with Dave, Delia and their four month old bambino on an overnight trip to see a friend that lives up the valley from Samique past Wachochi. A location becomes a village when more than one family lives there and from a distance you can spot a town by the cleared ground for growing corn. John the Mennonite lives in just such a place, two hours walk from the nearest road and road is a loose translation of a sketchy logging trail where Dave should never drive his van. You can easily spot John from a distance and recognise him by his lanky body and long stride lengthened by hundreds of miles of trail troding in his sandals cut from a car tire and skinny Amish beard squaring off his ruddy good looks. John seems wise beyond his years and talks easily and honestly of the trials and problems he has and sees and the joy in his life pours out of his body like water from a spring. John originally hailed from Tennessee but God clearly placed him with the Tarahumura Indians and he came and found a bright eyed young Tarahumare to marry and now he is sowing his oats evidenced by two rugged children. John has hewn out a life for himself in this jagged rock strewn territory but it was his sweet tooth what allowed me the chance to meet him in the first place. He had come to town, a full days walk with the children, to get his fill of Coke and cookies and run a few errands before strapping on the kids and hiking the eight hours back home! Every Sunday John leaves at dawn and walks to several villages to share what he has learned from the Bible as most of the people can not read and there are very few writings in the Tarahumura language. He returns before the sun makes its exit from the evening sky, on most nights, to enjoy his family. It is interesting experiencing the adventure of the teachers life when it has worn off for them but through our eyes still vivid, dangerous, and strangely alluring.

The days and nights since then have been filled with projects, chief among them for me is helping Dave complete the annual inspection on the super cub they use for the mission hospital. For Heidi, helping out at the hospital and hanger where ever needed has been her work de jouir. On the mundane side several of Heidi's hours were filled by plucking a pinch of cotton from a pile to make a cotton ball while listening to the fellow laborers talk, in Spanish, about all the goings on around the place. Heidi has also been asked to cut and paint and install trim in the guest bedroom and tend to the home made water filter that is being tested for use with the locals for personal use. We are stoked to feel needed and soaking up the experience, loving every minute of it!!

There exists no politician in India daring enough to attempt to explain to the masses that cows can be eaten.

Gandhi

No Mi Gusta Raton

"Usually we don't take Saturdays off" is what Dave said so I thought our corn picking foray with the "disco" might be a leisurely afternoon. After doing some house to house hunting for a disco, not exactly sure what it was in the first place, we finally gave up (Dave found one later). The sights and smells that filled my head and burned my eyes were amazing in the van filled with Dave's family as we bumped down the rutted gravel road toward the ranch where his in-laws farm their crop of corn. This crop will provide their corn supply for the year giving them tortillas, corn on the cob, and any other possible concoction imaginable.

It is a good harvest this year, they will have corn through the winter. The peaches and apples have come in strong as well and canning will allow for more good food this winter. It is a privilege to be a part of this process. No machinery is available so the work is all done by hand. We hand shuck the corn on the plant, with sore thumbs to prove it, then toss the cob into a burlap bag to haul up to the cabin. We kick the stalk over when done and when the bag is full heave it to the shoulder and walk up the hill, climb the ladder, and add it to the drying pile!

The "disco" did come in handy in the middle of the days work. The "disco" did not provide just the right atmosphere for a party though in one sence I guess it did. It is a cast iron concave cooking pan with legs to straddle a fire. Dave's wife Delia made us an amazing lunch on the device and we ate like royalty under a juniper tree in a picturesque valley of the high sierra.

Back to the beginning. Our last few days in Portland with Laura were chuck full of activities. One of the highlights was running to Goodwill to grab a couple wallets to fake out the pickpocket's when a spontaneous cloths swap happened. We really felt bad about rousing Laura the morning we left at four AM to catch our six AM flight but we were off and made it to Chihuahua with out a problem and our bags followed like faithful puppies. Dave from Mexico Medical Mission, a college friend, met us at the airport after driving all the way from San Antonio, TX. After a spectacular drive through the high sierra and down through some rugged canyons we arrived at the mission hanger that we would call home for the next month.

"He was like a butterfly that flew over several flowers and landed on a cow pattie."

John the Menonite

Crabs

We started the week sleeping on the floor in an abandoned house. Reid, Eike, Heidi and I drove over to the coast for the weekend to hang on the beach and hopefully fill our dinner plate with fresh crab. After visiting the Tillamook cheese factory we found a picturesque beach to make dinner and ate fresh Cod over the hot coals. The next morning we were unable to use the bathroom with no running water so Heidi and I found a nice spot to relieve ourselves and a huge huckelberry patch at the same time! The crabbing adventure payed off and after a few tries our skills were sharpened and the crabs started flowing into our boat. We only caught one keeper of the Dungeness but many smaller rock crabs. We dined that night on fresh huckelberries and sweet crab meat!

The next several days we moved over to my sister Laura's house with Dan and Kai and we enjoyed several days running errands and picking up last minute items for our trip. We also took a day to design and sew pack covers for our backpacks to make them less conspicuous and slightly waterproof. Heidi and I made ourselves useful and took up some house projects for Dan and Laura in the midst of eating great food and enjoying Laura, Dan, and Kai's company.

In order to get Mom and Dad Robertson to ourselves for a day Heidi and I left early for Maupin Oregon before her brothers, Nathan and Jared, arrived. We filled our days with them seeing the sights including the local Bible camp, hiking the gorge, seeing White River Falls and scoping the Deschutes river for our rafting trip. When the boys showed we headed down to the river and Heidi and I tried our hands at the rapids first. The first section was punctuated by long flat stretches on the water where I became convinced that days in these little crafts might not be all that comfortable. The second half of our journey made me forget my aching legs and concentrate on navigating the walls of water ahead. Shooting the largest rapid just as planned we hooped and hollered as the family watched from shore. The good sections of river came in quicker succession and we rallied through them all. At the end Heidi didn't quite get up her speed and a big standing wave caught her and sent her over. A short swim later we met on shore with all our parts and pieces. Twenty pushups on the rocks made me the loser as neither of the boys flipped their rafts as they plied the same waters.

Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.

C. S. Lewis

WE'RE OFF

And we're off. The match has begun, in one corner we have Heidi the Freight Train Wilder weighing in at a lean 144.6 lbs and the other corner we have Lyle the Cyclone Wilder tipping the scales at a hefty 165.9 lbs. One week down, 31 to go. Feeling guilty for leaving but very excited, we flew out of our precious, comfortable home for the journey of a life time, leaving our comfort zone in the dust. Our trip officially started on Oct. 1st when we left Port Alsworth, however, I think the adventure started several weeks before as Lyle and I frantically finished up the "must do" list before departing.

So far the journey has been better than anticipated. Before leaving Alaska Rhet and Rebecca had us out to the valley for a fun evening with friends. Lyle had a great time catching up with old friends and I enjoyed building new friendships with his compadres (I'm practicing my spanish : ). Thank you Rhet and Rebecca!! While in Anchorage, Lyle and I also had the privilege of being a part of a new life in Alison and Dennis' delivery of their baby! (no Lyle did not practice his doctor skills) Alison went into labor 3 weeks early and it was a great experience fo us to share that time with them. Seeing Dennis and Alison only hours after the baby was born allowed us to share in their tremendous joy over their new little bundle of fun and witness their first sleepless night!

October 3rd Lyle and I winged our way to Portland, OR. where we have been doing house remodel projects, running most every day, eating delicious food, rafting the Clackamas river, and enjoying crazy good weather!! Reid and Eike TenKley have been putting up with us for a week now and we have savored every day with them. Truly, it has been such a joy for me to have a relaxed, informal environment to get to know my new cousins better. Lyle has been trying to work out some opportunities to sell our salmon at local farmers markets here in Portland. I am excited about the future of Iliamna Fish Co. and visits with Eike have given me some real concrete ideas about ways I can come along side Lyle and help him grow our fish business, which is a real answer to prayer.

On Wednesday Lyle and I drove to the Clackamas river, inflated our pack rafts, and explored the river. Apparently we went through some class 2 and 3 rapids and for only my 3rd time pack rafting I was feeling pretty jolly good about myself. The truth of the matter is, I have a good guide who looks out for me. After five miles or so we finally decided to pry ourselves from the water and we embarked on my first hitch-hike ride back to our car, very exciting! A little disapointed but releived we didn't have a psycho driver, we returned to our car unscathed. Thursday night we joined the TenKley clan for a dance lesson where we were introduced to the waltz! It was a blast, such a great time. Dancing with Lyle is never boring and to share the experience with family was awesome. We loved it!!

As I reflect on the last week there is one word that comes to mind: Rest. I feel like this time in Portland has been a time of rest. We have been able to catch up on much needed sleep, we have been able to get some quality exercise, and most importantly we have been able to spend more valuable time in God's word and in prayer-together. The more I experience quiet time with the Lord and with Lyle the more I am convinced of the tremendous value of a quiet time together. We are both drawn closer together and we encourage and challenge each other in our personal walk with the God. And prayer, there is power when two or more pray together, praise the Lord for this time!

Speaking of prayer, I know some of you out there are praying for Lyle and I, thank you!! On Sunday before we left Pastor James had the church pray for us and it was fantastic for me to feel the Holy Spirit move as so many believers gathered around us and lifted us up, it was so energizing, uplifting, humbling, encouraging, exciting! For those of you praying for us we would ask that you pray that both of us have open ears and soft hearts to the Holy Spirit's leading. During our trip there will be a fair amount of time when we will not be working with a specific mission group and I think during this time it will be easier for us to get wrapped up in satisfying our own desires. We just don't want to be so distracted that we miss opportunities God may have for us to serve others, be a testimony, and glorify Him. Therefore, we want to constantly be listening for His leading.

We love all of you and are so thankful that the Lord has given us so many people who care for us so deeply.

Schedule Me

I swallowed hard and pulled the trigger.

It was hard seeing it go, it took so many years to grow and now it is gone.

We finally bought our tickets, the tickets for our trip and now the bank account is withering. We are counting down the days and feeling the time crunch to get our chores done. Only a few "Have To Do" items remain and the weight on our minds grow lighter. I wanted to publish a list of our travel dates and locations to let you know where and when we'll be and to invite any of you to join us along the way! Seriously consider it, lets meet up in Egypt and explore the pyramids together or in Tanzania and climb Kili together, or maybe in Peru and we'll surf the beaches and explore Pachu Picchu or raft part of the Amazon!

- OK here goes -

Alaska to Portland - October 3rd


Portland to Mexico - October 21st

Mexico to Thailand - November 18th

Thailand to Egypt - February 11th

Egypt to Kenya - February 27th

Kenya overland to South Africa

South Africa to Brazil - April 6th

Brazil overland to Peru

Peru to Panama - May 6th

Panama to Alaska May 15th

All right now you know, its your job to come! See you there!

The New Wild(er)

At this point in my life I find myself on the craziest adventure I could ever imagine. First, I got married to the best man I know last December and as all of you married people know that is the craziest adventure of all time. Second, I quit my teaching job, the job I spent over seven years of my life training for, thinking about, and planning for and have become a commercial fisherman and a receptionist/dispatcher/whatever else needs to be done person. Third, Lyle and I have decided to spend seven months travelling around the world, seeing the sights, checking out several mission organizations, and most importatnly seeking the Lord's will for our life together.

With these three major changes in my life I find myself doing and experiancing things I have never done before, never imagined doing before. I often find myself completely out of my comfort zone just looking around for some clue as to what our next move may be. However, through all this newness, that can bring discomfort, God is bringing amazing blessings that I could have never received had I stayed in my comfort zone. I have a Godly, tender hearted, protective, funny man who is constantly trying to love me the way God loves me. Lyle's devotion to me has been one of the greatest gifts God has ever given me and I have seen a real picture of how Christ loves me through Lyle's love for me. Praise the Lord for a Godly husband. I also have a part in a thriving commericial fishing family and buisness and learning to fish this summer was so much fun. I was able to get durty, live on a boat, pick fish, and hang out on the sea in the sun (praise the Lord it was sunny most of the time). Most of all Lyle and I had a chance to do something together that was high stakes, dangerous and lucritive. It was a growing and bonding experiance for us to see each other in that tough environment and I look foward to next season! I also have a year of travel set before me that will challenge me, force me to rely on Christ and Lyle, and give me a "reality check" of what life is really like for most people on the planet. I have dreamed of doing the things Lyle and I have planned to do in the next year but never thought they would really be able to happen, but Lyle is a doer (to my advantage) so off we go.

When I think about the last few years and the year to come I think of Lyle's analogy of life being a river with many unknowns, rappids and whorlpools, shallow water and deep water. He is right I think, life, as God intended it, is an ADVENTURE! He intends for us to have an intimate, meaningful, completely fufilling relationship with Him where we take His out-stretched hand and willingly follow Him wherever He leads. He can lead into some crazy stuff, but there is a place inside us that desires that kind of adventure, the kind of adventure that has purpose, passion, meaning, value, the real gut wrenching stuff that cuts right to the heart and really means something because it cost something!! This kind of adventure, this kind of life attitude that is willing to abandon worldly security and comfort to follow a sometimes crazy God of the univeres is scary, terrifing, and risky. He could ask me to give up everything but that is still what we want! So, we find ourselves coming into another turn on our river and asking that the Lord will strengthen us and humble us to follow where He may lead.

His Name is "Dolly"

Dolly rhymes with Dall I think.

After a long night of packing we finally fell into bed after midnight and set the alarm for 5AM with a little sick feeling in my gut knowing the time would slip by so quickly. The relentless racket of the alarm broke my dreamless rest only moments after shutting my eyes and my arm shot out to pound the snooze button for another glorious 6 minutes of rest. The excitement of the days prospects slowly ran through my brain and and I chased them away to gain those last few moments of bliss before the buzzing returned. Finally ousted from our bed Heidi and I set about our final preparations for our adventure. We set out full speed ahead on Lake Clark and up the shore to Copper Mountain where we intended to go to the far end of the mountain to start our assault of the 4500' peak. We changed our plans a bit after seeing the large cloud cap on the top quarter of the mountain. Not wanting to get turned around in the fog on top we opted for a more cautious and probably arduous journey up the south west rib. Our fears where not ill placed and with-in hours we were battling up hill into a sea of alders. We felt like the alders were the mountains sentinels sent to protect its slopes from the human invaders and trying to turn us back at every step. Every now and then we would find a small clearing that would afford us a few modest gains but then back to the war until we were allowed to gain the high ground and set foot above tree line. The cloud cap on the mountain soon absorbed us and we crept up the hill expectantly, only able to see a few hundred yards in front of us. It was nearing noon and the thick clouds were persistent, we worked our way up the ridge and stopped to check some suspicious shapes that turned out to be rocks. Suddenly the clouds disappeared and no more than 200 yards away sat a group of nine rams resting peacefully in their ignorance of our presence. For thirty minutes or more we sat and studied our new friends trying to decide which one to take home. We finally decided on our favorite one and Heidi took care full aim. The rifle shot pierced the crisp afternoon air and all the sheep jumped to their feet and our new buddy headed down hill away from the group. We chased the poor fellow and finally got a chance for a second shot and Heidi nailed him. He plunged down the slopes and landed on his feet only to bed down behind a large rock and nurse his wounds. The fatal bullet found him in his bed and the rugged terrain swept him down hill. Over and over he rolled, end over end all the while Heidi and I willing him to stop only to see his feet once more raising over his head. Finally it came to a rest and we began to make our way down being care full not to succumb to the same fate ourselves. We were amazed to find his beautiful horns unscathed by the tremendous fall and his body hardly worse for the tumble. First came the pictures and then we set to work quartering him up for the long walk down the mountain. We boned him out on the slope to save weight and began the death march back down the mountain eyeing the alders waiting for us with open branches. Apparently those alders didn't mind us leaving their lofty terrain, we found the controlled fall down much more appealing than pushing up. Soon we were down into the woods and the lake not far in the distance. We pushed on, eager for a long drink as our water supply had run down to nothing and our mouths were feeling thirsty. A stiff walk down the beach a few miles returned us to the boat and we retrieved our packs only to head off into the waining light in search of our bed and a warm house. We had made a memory that we will not soon forget and long after the meat has passed our lips his horns will grace our wall. She called him Dolly on the way home and I thought it was an odd name for a ram but . . . it did rhyme.

Fish Stretched Around the World

We were estimating the pile of fish it would take to send us around the world before the season and it looked pretty huge, gigantic in fact. The Bristol Bay salmon season has come and gone and Heidi and I are back in Port Alsworth preparing our big travel plans. It was Heidi’s first summer in Bristol Bay trying her hand at the commercial fishing industry, for the last five years she has been a BLM firefighter in Lewistown Montana and now jumping to yet another dangerous job. Heidi was excited for the challenge of something new and I knew she would excel at this new experience. In fact she did, she learned faster and caught on, as if through osmosis, to the process and skills required for the unpredictable living and working on the boat. My buddy Rhett Buchanan and I have been fishing together for many years now and he has honed his own skills in the fishing industry and we work very well together, he was an excellent teacher for the skills she needed through the season. The first day of fishing brought a slow start for team Maggie (the name of our boat) but the catch steadily increased as well as the amount of fishing time for us. The last two weeks we slept about four to six hours per day split between two naps. Nothing I have experienced will keep a guy awake like a beautifully set net boiling with freshly caught fish up and down its length.
Success is measured in many ways. We consider ourselves successful. We made it through the season and kept all our fingers, none of us left the boat unintentionally, Heidi and I are still married and love each other more than ever, and we caught that gigantic pile of fish we were praying for and more.
Maybe the married folk will relate but Heidi and I had so much time together through the salmon season and we enjoyed our time together but we seriously lacked the quality time that we were use to up to that point. Quantity doesn’t make up for quality I am finding. We have had a few days of rest recently and the chance to reconnect has been great. I have found a jewel of a woman, she is truly a Proverbs 31 woman!

River Wild

The river is still there. I am still at its mercy. The rules have changed a bit though. My companion, my friend, has joined me. I love this woman, this companion of mine, ya shes mine! I love her from the hairs of my head to the tips of my toes. It seems a bit irrational at times. We are both quitting our jobs and packing our backpacks and taking off on an adventure in the midst of a economic downturn, we are giving up some personal security to invest in others. We are trying to be sensative to that still small voice telling us to go when we dont really know where. We have our ideas and plans but . . . who knows. In October we will be leaving our home to spend a year on the move, touching down in different places to lend our strong backs to the work at hand and listen to that vioce to see if our home has moved.

The mind of man plans his way,

But the LORD directs his steps

We're still on river now and excited for the future! Excited to see what adventures and rapids the river will bring.