Go west..... days 1 and 2

California Road Trip August 09

Day 1 - Monday, August 24

We wanted to leave at 5:00am but didn't get packed up on time. We couldn't take any of our bikes because it was too much weight for the van, that made me cry. We finally left our house at 10:22am. About a mile from home Josh asked how long it would take to get to California, we said "all week." He had a shocked look on him face and he was speechless. At 10:24 we were in front of the Hudsonville McDonald's when Caleb said, "look how far we are already!" It was a beautiful, sunny day in the 70's. The drive through Michigan and Indiana was pretty uneventful. Of course the kids loved crossing the border out of Michigan.

We took 94 to 90 (toll road) near Gary, IN and stayed on 90 to Rockford, IL and up to the Wisconsin border. The boys were amazed with the Chicago skyline. We pointed out the Sears Tower and John Hancock buildings. As we neared O'Hare airport there were a ton of planes landing and taking off. The boys were constantly spotting them. At one point Caleb let out a yell when a low flying plane scared him. Josh became irritated at this point because he is packed into the back seat of the van with the seat beside him full of stuff. Since he can only see out of one side of the van he claimed it and said that no one else may look out HIS side. He'll put up his hand and sternly say "no peeking!" We ate the yummy sandwiches that grandma VJ packed for us between Chicago and Rockford, IL. We were starving and daddy didn't want to stop driving. It was about 2:00 MI time. About an hour later we stopped at an oasis for gas, the rest of our lunch and a bathroom break. The boys thought it was cool to stand in the oasis, over top of the road and watch the traffic pass below.

Wisconsin was pretty uneventful. The boys watched some Superman videos while mom took a much needed nap. Even daddy took a couple of micronaps. The last hour of Wisconsin and first part of Minnesota were beautiful. We went through some hilly, rocky, tree covered areas that made for interesting scenery. We crossed the Mississippi River as we crossed into Minnesota. We stopped at a rest stop for some pictures. The boys had fun rolling down a small hill on the bank of the river. After driving in Minnesota for a while we were all getting sick of it. We'd been on the road for almost 10 hours and didn't want to drive to our goal of Albert Lea, MN. We called to book a room at a Comfort Suites in Rochester. It was a new hotel with free wi-fi, and the tiniest pool I've ever seen in a hotel. The boys were obviously stir crazy since they 'thought' they could run down the halls and jump on the bed. They were wrong! We swam a bit then ordered Godfather's pizza. We highly recommend their taco pizza, it's amazing! Daddy and the boys finally hit the sack at 10:30 while mom spent a little time on the computer.

Day 2 - Tuesday, August 25

We had a wonderful stay at Comfort Suites. Everyone slept till 7:30 (very impressive that the boys slept that long since that's 8:30 MI time). The hotel breakfast was fantastic and even had bacon and these cheesy, sausage things. The weather was cloudy and cooler, great for travelling. The boys and I walked around a small pond while daddy loaded pictures on Facebook. Nathaniel cried a bit when a Canadian Goose 'chased' him. I even pulled a couple of giant weeds out of the hotel landscaping (gardener at heart). We left the hotel at about 10:00, it was just starting to sprinkle. Later than I thought we would but that's ok. At about 10:30 we drove through a big wind farm. The boys LOVED it! They kept pointing and looking and exclaiming. At 11:15 it was pouring rain when a nut came loose where our wiper attaches to our van. Of course it was the driver side, the wiper flipped back up against the mirror. Dan drove for a couple of miles looking out my side of the windshield until he was able to pull over until a bridge. Oh, and this was in a construction zone so traffic was going in both directions. Thankfully, he packed a tool kit so he fixed it in just a couple of minutes and we were off again. As we pulled away Caleb said, "goodbye old, faithful bridge that kept us dry."

By 1:00 the sun had come out, we stopped for lunch about 1:30 at a rest area. Later "Here I am" is on the radio reminding us of what we are doing. We crossed the border into South Dakota the first time at 2:40. My picture of the sign was blurry and since I was showing Dan the picture he missed the tourist info rest area. So we turned around and looped back for a redo. I was happy! He rolled his eyes at me. :-) Still 1 hour to the corn palace. This day is going way too fast, it'll be another late night. We arrived at the corn palace at 4:00. It's really an entertainment auditorium with a really cool looking outside and a lot of corn murals inside. There were photos on the wall of the corn palace dating back to the late 1800's. They have to replace the corn every year so all the pictures were a little different. There was also a tourist trap gift shop and concession stand inside. The outside was the best part. We got gas before getting back on the highway. The boys jumped out for a quick snack and had fun stomping on crickets in the parking lot. We were on the road again by 4:30. The east side of South Dakota is very flat, similar to Iowa. Then, out of nowhere, there is a big hill that you go down before crossing the Missouri River. After that it's pretty hilly with almost no trees or signs of life. There are giant fields of corn, hay and bright yellow sunflowers. There are a lot of pastures too. There are giant fields covered in round bales, they even bale the grass along the sides of the highway. Day 2 to be continued.........

What do I know of Holy?

I love the new song by Addison Road "What Do I Know of Holy". Take a few minutes and listen here.

Or you can read the lyrics.

I made You promises a thousand times
I tried to hear from Heaven
But I talked the whole time
I think I made You too small
I never feared You at all No
If You touched my face would I know You?
Looked into my eyes could I behold You?

What do I know of You
Who spoke me into motion?
Where have I even stood
But the shore along Your ocean?
Are You fire? Are You fury?
Are You sacred? Are You beautiful?
What do I know? What do I know of Holy?

I guess I thought that I had figured You out
I knew all the stories and I learned to talk about
How You were mighty to save
Those were only empty words on a page
Then I caught a glimpse of who You might be
The slightest hint of You brought me down to my knees

What do I know of You
Who spoke me into motion?
Where have I even stood
But the shore along Your ocean?
Are You fire? Are You fury?
Are You sacred? Are You beautiful?
What do I know? What do I know of Holy?

What do I know of Holy?
What do I know of wounds that will heal my shame?
And a God who gave life "its" name?
What do I know of Holy?
Of the One who the angels praise?
All creation knows Your name
On earth and heaven above
What do I know of this love?

What do I know of You
Who spoke me into motion?
Where have I even stood
But the shore along Your ocean?
Are You fire? Are You fury?
Are You sacred? Are You beautiful?
What do I know? What do I know of Holy?

What do I know of Holy?

What do I know of Holy?

It's a very real look into myself. If you play me in Bible trivia you'll find that I'm very knowledgeable about the Bible, but I think that I tend to keep the knowledge in my head and don't allow it to trickle down through the rest of me. I don't apply what I know in my life. I treat God too small and play along the edges of His greatness instead of diving headlong into what a wonderful and powerful God that He is. I can't listen to Him because I only hear myself talking. This is quite surprising when you consider what my family and I are heading into. We leave four weeks from today for our training in Chico. I look forward to the things that God is going to teach me about Himself. I hope I can be open to what He has to say and respond with a heart that longs to be like Him. God is greater than anything I can imagine. My feeble human brain cannot comprehend His greatness. I think I know so much but I don't. I've let pride ruin what could be a great relationship with God. What could be a most intimate relationship with God I've reduced to a meaningless memorization of ambiguous facts that I've managed to retain in my brain. I long for that intimacy more than I can tell you. These are some of the things I hope to learn while in Chico. I hope I can take the plunge and become what God wants me to be, a true worshipper of Him. He desires that more than anything else in this world. He has created us specifically for that purpose. That relationship is to be more intimate than that of the relationship between a husband and wife. This training I am going to is meant to foster that relationship and to make it grow.

Dear Lord, may I become the person you want me to be. Remove from me the things that are hindering my complete devotion to you. This is my prayer.

So what do I know of Holy? Very little.

Temple

I love food. I love to eat good food. I love food so much that it has become an idol for me. Those of you who see me regularly see the results of this idol worship. I am currently about 70 lbs overweight, and I am on blood pressure medication because of my bad choices. The last couple of weeks I have begun to do something to improve my health. I have been walking every couple of days to try and get some exercise in my life (one day I accidentally walked 7 miles... yes I said accidentally, but we won't go into that right now). I like to walk it gives me time to talk and listen to God. I just got back home from a five mile walk and God was talking to me about my food consumption. I have no self control when it comes to eating. I go away from almost every meal feeling overly full. I am a glutton. I live to eat, not eat to live. I think the worst part about it is that I see my older son following in my footsteps. I am constantly warning him to have self control over his eating. But am I expecting him to do something I'm not willing to do? I think it's a case of do as I say not as I do.

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

The context of this passage is talking about sexual sin, but I think it applies to any aspect of your physical body that is out of control. For me this passage shouts at me that I am to watch very closely what I put into my mouth and how much of it. Instead of two or three greasy GFS burgers why not have just one and savor it a bit longer instead of gulping it down. I eat so fast that my stomach doesn't have time to tell my brain that I don't need any more food. I need to slow the pace down at our dinner table and actually have conversations with my family instead of rushing through the meal so we can get going on the next thing that doesn't really need to be done all that quickly.

As I prepare to move temporarily to California for training, God has impressed on me that this needs to be a time of total preparation: mind, spirit and body. God wants the whole package, not just the parts that you are willing to give Him. I will continue to work on giving up the idol of food and continue to exercise so that I can be prepared for what ever service He has in store for me.

All glory to God my provider.

California

It looks like we'll be heading for California instead of Texas. We were really torn between California and New Zealand, but in talking with trusted friends and prayer partners, we think that God is leading us to the base in California. There were a number of reasons why this seemed to make better sense to us. We weighed the extra cost of flying the entire family to New Zealand (between $5,000 and $10,000) and driving cross country, and realized that that extra money could be spent in a much better way. We would get to visit some friends in Colorado on the way. We would also get a chance to see more of this great country that we live in. We really didn't get the knock over the head realization that this is where we should go, but a number of friends reminded us that sometimes God doesn't specifically tell you where to go. Sometimes He lets you start down a path and if it's not where you're supposed to go He'll redirect you, like Tyler. That door was closed for a reason, we may never know why, but God does and that's good enough for me.

We continue forward with the expectation that God will guide us and provide for us.

God is good, all the time!

?

Well God has told a resounding NO to Tyler TX. We got a call today telling us that the CDTS there has been canceled due to lack of applications. So we are asking for prayers for a new direction. We are currently looking into a few different places for CDTS, and trusting that God will open a new door for us to enter into. It's hard not knowing what we are supposed to be doing. We covet your prayers as we listen to God speaking, and we hope that He will guide us.

Break me Lord

Robin recently found a blog describing a CDTS Outreach that was taking place in Guatemala (link here). The people were ministering to a couple of different areas in Guatemala City. One of the areas was located near a garbage dump where scores of children and families live, yes they live in the dump. A friend of mine who has seen a video of this area told me that the children will fight with the seagulls to get food. It just breaks my heart that people have to live this way. I feel so spoiled here in America. I can hardly wait to get away from here and hopefully make a difference in the lives of people like these. We are so easy to complain and grumble when we are inconvenienced just a little. It almost makes me sick to my stomach to think of all the time and money and resources that are wasted in the U.S. while these people have to fight birds just to get something to eat.

I have also been reading a story (link here requires Adobe reader) in a World Vision magazine that we receive about a reporter and her camera man living with a family in Turkana in northwestern Kenya. The writer and camera man lived with the family and ate what they did for five days. The area hasn't seen significant rain in 18 months. The people have been forced to go long distances to feed and water their animals which puts them at risk to be attacked by raiders looking to steal the animals. The family she is staying with was just attacked and lost a significant portion of their flock to the raiders (they lost 312 goats, 38 camels and 10 donkeys, leaving them with just 7 goats and 2 camels.) Please read the rest of the story. These people are starving and yet any little thing they receive they see as a gift from God and praise Him eagerly for it. We take for granted that our grocery stores will be full. We squander and waste so much we aught to be ashamed.

God has blessed this nation, but we are not fulfilling our responsibility to pass that blessing on to others. I realize that we do a lot to help, but are we doing enough? I challenge you to examine your life to see where you can change to help impact the world and make it better. If it means not getting that gourmet coffee, or giving up some entertainment choices (movies, TV, etc...) even something as simple as lowering your internet service to a slightly slower speed, or cutting back on your food choices (eating at home rather than eating out.) I am writing this to myself just as much as to any of you. The choices I have made when looking back at them sometimes disgust me. To think of all that could have been done with the money that I have wasted. I just pray that God will forgive me and guide me to better choices, and that He will break me and show me the things that break His heart. He sees those starving kids in Guatemala and in Africa and He weeps for them. I want to feel the way He feels and do something that makes a difference. I believe that is what He is calling our family to do. We will continue to listen to His calling and follow where He leads us.

We've been accepted!!!

We have received our letter of acceptance from YWAM Tyler! Our plans are as follows:

June 22ish leave for Texas for 5 months training. (See here for course information) This includes 3 months classroom training and 8 weeks outreach somewhere in the world. Outreach will be determined during the training phase.

November 15-? visit the base in Creel, MX and get to know the people on base there better. We have been in contact with them on Facebook and through email. During this time we will be particularly listening for God's confirmation as to whether this is where He is leading us or not.

November ? - January ? gather support for permanently moving to Creel. We hope to leave at the beginning of next year. This of course will be determined on exactly how much we need to raise and how quickly we can raise the funds. We will get a better notion of what exactly we need to raise when we visit down there.

We really covet your prayers during this time. We have a lot of things to take care of and not a lot of time to do it. We are still waiting on the other couple to sell their house. They have had it listed for a couple of months now. Please pray that their house will sell soon so that they can purchase our house. We are still in the process of cleaning out or house and disposing all of the stuff we have accumulated during our time in this house. It's amazing how much junk you can gather in one house. Pray for us to stay on track and to remain diligent in our work.

If you have been blessed and feel God calling you to support us financially, you can do so through our church. Checks can be made out to Friendship Chapel, but DO NOT write our name on the check anywhere. Please insert a separate note saying that this is for Dan and Robin. They can be sent to our church at:

Friendship Chapel
7754 28th Ave.
Jenison, MI 49428

The cost of the CDTS is $6990 for us as a couple, plus $1755 for our children to be there as well. This covers all of the training and room and board. The outreach phase will cost an additional $2000-$2500 for each of us, depending on where we go. We understand that this seems like a lot, but we feel that the training and experience we will receive will help us tremendously in our future.

We thank you in advance for all your support either in prayer or financially.

"Mission has two categories: those who go down into the well and those who hold the rope. Either way it will cost you, and either way you will have scars." - Paul Washer, director of the HeartCry Missionary Society

Would you be willing to hold our rope while we venture down into the well?

Going forward in God's grace and guidance.