I am a meteorologist and a former youth leader at church…I have a lot to say on both subjects…and then some
Thursday morning at 400am, Karlie and I took Mary to meet up with her missions trip group and send her on her way to Nigeria. It sounded like a crazy day for travel, because when they got to the airport, Delta had canceled their flight (my hunch is that it was a MD-88). So there they were trying to figure out how to get to Nigeria. Initially, I thought that they lost their fight from Atlanta to Lagos, but it was the DTW to ATL flight. She called and said that they were possibly flying Air France to Rome for a 2 day layover then to Lagos. Then a call late in the day said that they drove to Toledo and flew to Atlanta, in plenty of time for their flight to Lagos.
So we went about 24 hours without hearing anything, then as I was working my way through the afternoon traffic in Gaylord, my phone began to ring with a really weird number on it. My hunch was right as it was Mary calling from a borrowed cellphone in Lagos. The connection wasn’t great and we got cut off twice, I knew she was there.
Today, as I was beginning my shift at work this afternoon (I swapped shifts), she called again with a much better connection. Mary had been at an orphanage most of the morning and had just gotten back from a church service. Here is a copy of her email to me:
Hi Family from Africa!
Hello everyone!
I am typing this email to you live from Lagos, Nigeria Africa! We arrived Friday morning and now it is Saturday evening. All is going very well! Sara and I have been blessed to be able to visit the orphanage twice so far! We had the first visit scheduled, but today’s visit was not! It is such a blessing to be able to go and love on those kids! We were able to take them many gifts, like toys, clothes, shoes, and such. And today, Sara and I gave out our Lifesavers and Starbursts! They loved it!!!!! The head of the orphanage, Deborah, is doing an amazing thing there, and Denny (from Gaylord) has been able to raise several thousands of dollars over the past few years to help build it further! What an awesome way to build God’s kingdom!!!! I will have many pictures to share when I get home!
If I don’t get to email again, God bless you all my family!
Especially you Jeff for taking care of everyone while I’m gone and holding down the fort! And for allowing me to come on this amazing mission!
I love you and miss you all!
Mary
So she is doing well, and we are holding down the fort. Trisha came over last night with Ethan and she and Kara were in the midst of fixing supper for us when I got home. A far cry from the chaos that reigned on Thursday when I got home, but that’s a story I’ll leave off.
We are going to try to do something for Brandon’s birthday tomorrow and Kaleb leaves early in the morning from Traverse City for England. Spring Break is this week for our teens so I won’t have to worry about bus duty this week much. If everything goes well, my mother-in-law will help out with that the following week while I am on midnights. Mary comes home then at the end of my Mids (Yeah!).
Unfortunately, I wasn’t there for these pictures.
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Just wanted to say “Hi” to some of our counterparts and let you know we’re thinking of you! We’re suffering from a little “spring fever” up here in the Great White North (as evident by the attached pics).
Wish we were there!
WFO Gaylord, MI Staff
3/26/2008
150″ of snow and still counting
I have been struck at the number of people that I have come across recently that have expressed faith in Christ, or have in the past, but for what ever reason push it aside as if it was just the one or two hour a week thing at church. I guess that’s the frustration that comes sometimes in youth ministry when you are doing everything you think is right. You think you are doing the right things, and you think they are beginning to get with the plan, but then they fall into the same patterns. A few people over the past couple of months have gotten me thinking about this.
So with a culmination of things, it has me feeling a bit down. However, on the brighter side, we are getting back a big chunk of our taxes. Which means, that I need to make adjustments to our W4’s so that we can keep that in our paychecks. Besides Christ is Risen!
I’m always listening to podcasts. If you don’t know what they are, they are nothing more than independent (mostly) producers making audio or video broadcasts and making them available over the internet generally for free to be played on your mp3 or mp4 player (obviously the video (mp4) broadcasts need a video player). With the iPod Nano that I got for Christmas, which plays video, I have subscribed to a bunch of podcasts both audio and video. I have gotten pretty cynical about most of the radio and even most tv stations out there. Most radio, especially up north here, just doesn’t have the programming I enjoy. So with the help of Podshow, Itunes, and my iPod, I have created Radio Jeff.
To see what I listen too go to my Podshow page.
The way I listen to my collection is like this:
Pray-as-you-go – this is the only podcast not on my Podshow page because individual day’s mp3s come in weekly. Then I listen to my Today channel – which is mostly my daily podcasts. Then I listen to the rest of my channels.
If you are near my truck (which is a silver F-150) you can receive my broadcast. Some of it is religious stuff. Some of it you will say, “You listen to that?” because of the language that is used from time to time, but not regularly enough or I would drop some of them. Some of it helps me wrap my brain around popular culture and popular youth culture, so it is more like information and attitudes, rather than enjoyment.
You’re Dune!
by Frank Herbert
You have control over a great wealth of resources, but no one wants to
let you have them. You’ve decided to try to defend yourself, but it may take eons before
you really get back what you feel you deserve. Meanwhile you have a cult-like following
of minions waiting for your life to progress. This would all be even more exciting if you
could just get the sand out of your eyes.
Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.
Things have been tight financially, recently. I won’t go into all of the long litany of things, but suffice it to say that we are running on the edge of red and black ink. Well, to top things off, yesterday (Friday), I took Brandon to the Mountain for work, it’s about a 1 or 2 mile drive. About half way, the oil pressure gauge went to low. There was now smoke or anything so I dropped Brandon off and went home. I opened the hood and the oil level was full. So I didn’t lose any oil. In the past, I had a bad sensor on the truck and so I thought that this was what the problem was. I was wrong. I forgot that there is a pump that maintains the oil pressure in the truck and that it failed. So when I went to work in the afternoon, the truck started, but as soon as I began to drive down Elm Street, the engine died. I tried to restart it but it wouldn’t go. I called our roadside assistance and the Ford Garage in Gaylord and made arrangements.
Once at the garage, I got a rental car and proceeded to work. Then the phone call…they pushed it into the garage and tried to start it, but the engine had totally siezed. It wouldn’t even try to crank like it did for me. A remanufactured engine with labor would be $4000. So we are looking at options. We have a great one from inside our family here that looks like we can do. We just have to wait until Monday to work out the paper work.
However, I’m still a little down. My little Ranger has been with me for 9 years. I’ve driven that thing all over the eastern part of the US. I know that it is just a truck, but sometimes you run into one that just seems special, and this one was one of those. Goodbye old friend…
