Looking back and moving forward Part 2

Since coming home I have felt the Lord calling me back into some kind of missions away from home.
I had thought I would be going to Salem, OR and going through FCM (foundations in counseling ministry) I had some input from my Fiji friends and thought that was it.
Dates and internet all confused and so it just was not the way the Lord works no chaos!
 My sister chick Becky and I had been thinking of doing something together and heard of TESOL.
 I checked into it and then forgot until I received a call from Courtney. We prayed together and then everything just fell into place.
TESOL is just a month long intense course and happened to fall right after my commitment to my daughter Terah.
My daughter Terah and her husband Aaron are youth leaders at their church in Estes Park. They have been planning a Missions Trip with their youth to an Apache Reservation in Arizona and had asked me to watch my 3 grand kids.
  My daughter, Tenaya graduated on May 4th and I worked my last week of OE (outdoor education) at Calvin Crest the 19th - 24th.
 I sometimes felt like this was crazy giving up a perfectly good job, but definitely knew the Lord was telling me to go, so in obedience I am going.
Many sad SEE YOU LATERS since I don't like goodbyes.
 My last life group which was very hard.
 I have come to love these people so much and enjoy our times together just sharing life!
With all of this my car decided to break down right before my trip to Colorado.
I feel like forces were working against us and did not want the kids to go on this trip or me not at TESOL.
We fought back and the Lord prevailed!
I trusted that the Lord was in control and through it all there was a peace.
I had no extra money to fix my car. At Christmas before going to Colorado my water pump went out in Azusa. I had it fixed at a franchise and off we went. I guess they did not quite tighten things because I was still losing water slowly.
So this week I called them and we had it towed to Fresno and they fixed it all under warranty!
Praise God
So early in the morning (4 am to be exact) off to Colorado I went with my car loaded.
Here I am enjoying my grand kids.

My daughters youth group had a phenomenal trip where they finished construction on1 home and began work on another.
I have a couple more weeks to visit and play before driving to Montana for TESOL.
Please keep me in your prayers.
 I am not working and have no income for the next few months. I have paid for my TESOL course and saved the money for travel. However I did not quite reach my goal of being debt free before leaving and do have a couple bills to pay on. I am close. So finances, traveling mercies and my car to run well and the ability to absorb all that is taught and then be able to do the same as a teacher.
Thank you to all for support, friendship and prayers.
May our Lord bless and keep you,
may He shine His face upon you
Shalom

Looking back and moving forward Part 1

        Well hello there! Yes I know it's been a long time since you've  heard from me, and I am overwhelmed at how fast so much time has gone by.
As I was considering how to start up this blog again, I asked the Lord" why is this so hard?"
 I was not ready for the answer I received.
"You should never have stopped" was my answer. However, as is my norm, I thought I knew better than the Lord.
" Lord, who wants to hear the mundane goings on of my life?"
The Lord said" take a look back", and as I did I found there was a lot to share and much of it was from Him!
 I always thought people were only interested when you were out"" in the field" doing the work of missions, the Lord has reminded me we are all out in the field everyday and everything we do is important to Him. A simple smile given can change a persons day. So here is a short re-cap of life since I returned from "the field".
          My last post I was in Colorado. I left there in May 2011 to find a place back home in Bass Lake, California so I could spend some time with my other daughter Tenaya. Tenaya was coming home for the summer from APU (Azusa Pacific University).Tenaya graduated in May 2013 from APU with her BA in Liberal Studies.

So it was much harder to find a good place to live than I thought and we endured some stressful trials. The Lord sent help.
My dear friend Christine and her husband Tom invited us to stay in their camp trailer. Not perfect, but it worked. Tenaya went back to school and I had found the perfect place to draw closer to the Lord.
 In March 2013 friends Traci & Eric offered their loft for me to stay in. What a blessing!
Many thanks to you both for providing a roof over my head. I have been camping since 2011 and still need to go through a large storage unit to lighten my load.
On returning to the area I  was reunited with my Sister Chicks prayer group. We met on Mondays and enjoyed sweet fellowship and wonderful time in prayer with so many answers and PRAISES.
 I worked part time at Oakhurst Beauty Supply and met new friends and also ran into so many older friends and shared my travels and revelations.

 In October I was blessed by the women of Sierra Pines Church with a scholarship to the women's retreat at Avilla Beach. What a great time of refreshment and getting to meet new friends.

At Thanksgiving I was invited to Tenaya's boyfriends family in Livermore. We had such a good time getting to know each other and enjoying good food!
 Our Christmas, both 2011 & 2012 was spent in Colorado. All  my kids together, my favorite time celebrating the birth of our Savior and having my family together. Adam (Tenaya's boyfriend) has joined us for the last two years, I think this might be permanent?

 I was blessed to return working at Calvin Crest in March 2012. What amazing healing! I was fired as registrar in 2009, which is when God took me to Crossroads at YWAM Kona (Genesis 50:20) and back as a cook in the kitchen with my friend from high school Elin. I really enjoyed my year at Calvin Crest and reconnecting. I was also able to touch others through baking. I will always have a family at Calvin Crest. Miss you all!

            

Home again, Home again!

My sister and her daughter picked me up at the airport when I arrived. (Late I might add bless you for staying up to get me sis) I spent the next few days getting things in order to head for Colorado and spend some time with my daughter who is expecting her third child in January. I exchanged all my tropical wardrobe for wool socks, long underwear and all the warm sweaters I could find! Terah and her family live at Covenant Heights Christian Camp and Retreat Center in Estes Park, Co. about 9,000 foot elevation!
Before we left I did have the chance to go with my sisters and visit my older sister in LA, whose husband has gone home to be with our Lord after a long battle with cancer. I so enjoyed just hanging out and being with her and my other 2 sisters. Sweet fellowship.
So that leads me to present. I have been working as Head of housekeeping at Covenant Heights and getting a manual written up for them to follow here at camp. I have been enjoying hanging out with my grandbabies and welcoming our newest baby boy Levi to the family. I am not sure what plans the Lord has for me but I am eagerly listening for His voice and being obedient to the Spirits leading.
I get to be a part of a Small Sabbatical for Pastors here at camp and looking forward to hosting a Prayer Labrynth and a time of meditating on the attributes of God. I will continue to share my journey and where I am. I hope to continue to go out into the nations and share the love of Christ with those who have not heard. What this will look like I do not know, but I do know that He has a plan for my life. I only pray that I will be obedient to all He calls me to do. Thank you for joining me thus far on my journey and I hope that you continue to grow in the knowledge of Him who so greatly loves us and travels the journey with us.

Coming Home

So coming home was a long trip with some confusion at the baggage counter but Sciri and Bill and Ladua worked it all out, some sad farewells and off we went. The plane home was more crowded than the way there but we managed. We were welcomed home by our wonderful class leaders Bob and Caroline Hopkins. What a blessing to see their faces. We spent the next few days debriefing in a group and then one on one with a leader. What care we were given. I must say I am not sure what to do with myself. Many desires but will wait to hear from the Lord. One by one we all left. Except for John who has stayed on with maintenance at the YWAM base, Byung Su (Joe) who is taking the Biblical Studies class and Jan & Dazza whowill be class leaders for the next Crossroads class! I will greatly miss all of my new family and hope to cross paths on this journey we are all on.

Our last week in Fiji

We spent the last week in Fiji in the city of Lautoka. We decided we wanted to finish strong so after 2 days of resting up from the island we hit the streets, literally.We went back to the area of Pastor Mikes church and went door to door in the Indian-Fijian population. Joe and I were sent out with Vere (an evangelist for sure) she knew the area well because it was her own backyard. We were able to visit with 5 different homes. We decided to revisit the homes all week rather than just stop in at many homes we would build relationship with these 5. What a Joy it was to get to know these people! This in retrospect was one of my best weeks.
We also continued our kids program for the last week. Visitation in the mornings and kids club in the afternoon. I was definitely spent at the end of the week. All in all a very good trip and I would not have done anything different except maybe try to give more of myself.

Adventures on Waya Island

Our adventure began at 6 am when we left the PTC Base and headed to the Post Office where we would meet up with the Awsome Adventures Tour Bus. The bus would take us to Denarau Marina where we would be catching a cruise boat to the outer islands.(Yasawa Islands) We made sure all our luggage got from the bus to the boat and some of the girls went and got the last of real food as they know it for 12 days! The cruise boat ride was about 2 hours and very nice from the sundeck. I took many pictures of the individual resort islands we made stops at for the tourists. WOW pristine waters and beautiful white sand beaches great vacation stops for sure. When we made it to Waya Island we all loaded onto a small fishing boat with all our luggage in the bow! The water was right at the edge of the boat and we had a 15 minute ride into the village. (exciting to say the least) There were 2 young Fijian boys (dads boat) riding with us and I think all the white faces scared the youngest because he began to cry (Sciri gave him her Coke and all was well) We arrived at the shore and unloaded into the water it was fantastic! Louisa and Lissi where there to greet us with fresh coconuts to drink and enjoy the fresh meat, so very good. The men of the village unloaded all our baggage and set us up in the Pastors house. (from the Methodist Church, they moved out into a Bure (traditional Fijian house) and let us take over ther home. Pastors wife had a 2 week old baby, incredible hospitality!) We all rested and got settled in for the rest of the day. We slept community style in the living area putting our beds away each day. (Dazza & Jan, Mark & Stephanie+Joshua, Keisha,Grace & Christie all had rooms the rest of us were together, great experience) Sunday morning we all went to church at the Methodist Church. It was "Bula Vou" the begining of a new month when each of the cell groups (similar to our home groups) gets up and sings in front of the congregation and then an offering is taken after each one. (there where 6 different groups) There are many traditions kept in this church, standing to sing(acapela mind you, no instruments)many announcements, the main sermon, communion (come forward to be given)and more that just did not translate for me. The service is from 10 am till 1 pm and in Fijian. I loved the singing but was lost during the rest and just read my bible. Some of us had trouble staying awake the whole time but all was well.When we returned from church for lunch we were told that we would be in charge of the Womens Ministry meeting from 3pm -4pm that afternoon. Semper Gumbie has been a great motto on this trip!(always flexible is translation for those of you that didn't get it)We had an excellent time with the women. Our theme was Proverbs 31:25 "she is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs with no fear of the future." I shared times in my life when God clothed me with dignity as a single mom and my journey with Tyson when I trusted in God and did not fear the outcome. Our diet has been a bit over starched! (casava, taro, potatoes, white dough fried,boiled,baked and any other way you can think of) and our guts are screaming! Curry and Dahl(which I actually like) are also staples. Monday we began house visits 2x2. We met many new people and began some great relationships.Tuesday we would be hiking to Natawa, a village on the other side of the mountain from Yalombi where we are staying. (15 minutes Fijian time 1 1/2 hours American time!) We would also be teaching here and so we spent Monday afternoon preparing for that. We were up early and left at about 6:30 am and made it to Natawa at 8 am. What a hike straight up the mountain then along the ridge and back down the other side! When we arrived we had tea and biscuits(cookies to my american friends)on our hosts veranda. At 9am the conch shell was blown calling the village together. The men would be helping with the buiding of a new house for the Pastor and the women would be teaching on a closer relationship with God (Sal did Father Heart and Jan taught on our own quiet times and what they could look like).We had lunch as a community (roti and curry begining to be a staple) and then visited with some of the women. More teaching in the afternoon (I taught the 8R's of freedom and walking them out in our daily lives and Keisha followed with her testimony that completely follows all I just taught, God is so amazing at putting it all together!) We all met back on the veranda for tea before we left for a little rest. Suddenly Landoa is up and telling us "time to go it is going to rain." Now if you had hiked the cliff we hiked there you would understand that rain and the path do not mix. You go from hiking to sliding! So off we went and some went ahead at a little bit faster of a pace (not my option of course, I am slow and steady wins the race! LOL)Well, the rain started and it was beautiful to see when we reached the ridge and looked back at the sky but at the same time dangerous for us hiking in. Jan and I are somewhat in the rear middle (if that makes any sense) and we are praying for John behind us who has some back and knee problems not even thinking of the young ones ahead. As we were desending we all came to a stop when Sal got her foot stuck in a root and then her body slid down the path! (the sound effects were definately not good ones.) Things went both fast and slow from there (I know it sounds odd but thats just how it went!) Dazza splinted Sals leg, Keisha fainted, the rain got heavier, Kim and Grace went ahead for help from the village, the Rugby players came to carry Sal off the mountain, we all followed going ever so carefully and John had a couple Tarzan moments off the side of the trail but we got him back on track and everyone off the mountain as the rain subsided. (doesn't it always work that way?) All the same it was an incredibly adventureous day! When we all got back to the house Sal had the nurse checking her, dinner was being prepared so Ladua, Bill, Dazza, Jan and I all went for an evening swim in the ocean! So relaxing after that day. Jan and I got out and headed to the shower room to help each other wash our hair and have our bucket shower. Joe was an angel that night and gave Jan and I both foot massages. I slept so well that night. Unfortunately Sal was being sent back to Lautoka for x-rays and to see what could be done. Wednesday Sal, Dennison and Sciri left for the mainland. We heard that evening that Sal had a vertical break in the tibia and would be flying back to Australia for surgery, pins and casting.


After they left that morning we continued with visitations and Kids Club in the afternoons. There is so much that happen in our visitations I can't wait to share with you but to much to put down here. Suffice it to say we serve an AWSOME GOD! The plan is to catch a boat this evening for Namara Island and go to the village of Yamata for a crusade. We will be preaching, teaching and praying.Jan is not doing so well and is in bed with fever and diareah.(we are keeping our eye on her and much prayer for her healing) We were all on the beach ready to go and waiting for our boat (and waiting and waiting) a few phone calls later and Ledua informed us that it was cancelled! There are many strange things happening here on the island. Jan is going to have to go back to Lautoka in the morning. She is very dehydrated and still has diaoreah. The enemy has not wanted us to minister in the places we have been going, many other forms of attack have hit our team and the pastors compound is very opressing. There is more here than meets the eye! Later that night we received a call and the schools teachers were all going to Lautoka on Friday for testing and the one teacher that was staying back was not feeling well and was asking if we would be interested in teaching about God to the 1st through 7th grade classes? What an opportunity! Of course we said yes and off we went with skits, the 10 commandments and the wordless book as our tools. What a great day, we spent the morning teaching and singing praises, went home for lunch and returned for an hour in the afternoon. That night fishermen from Nalwaki( a village we will be visiting next week)brought us some octopus and other fresh fish for our dinner. I was surprised how much I enjoyed the octopus(i only ate the inside meat, I could not get the tenticle part to go down hehe!)Saturday we got to have a day off and did some return visits to villagers homes.

Week 2 in the Islands

Sunday another long Methodist service at the church in Yalombi. Ledua did translate the passage the Pastor was speaking on Zechariah 8:16, so I followed along somewhat and read the scriptures.(I tried to apply this to what I knew was going on in the village)Monday we did more visitation through the village and we have been so warmly welcomed everywhere. The people are so kind and generous.We have also continued with kids club. Dan and Jarryl (our new names for them for some reason we have all picked up on this and find it very funny) will be coming back to Yalombi today. While in Lautoka she got intravenous fluids and antibiotics and is doing much better . We are looking forward to their return and have missed them. You really do become a close family over time and circumstances. Tuesday a group of us headed out early in the morning by boat to Naluwaki for a youth camp. We are going to do the Sin Chair skit and give our testimonies.When we arrived it was my turn to be sick...The team prayed for me and I felt better so Keisha and I went out in the village for some visitation until noon. I almost made it but my intestines where not happy with the situation so we headed back to the pastors house where we would be staying the night. Soon others were returning and they decided to walk over the hill (7 minute Fijian time and 30 minute our time LOL) to the Octopus Resort after we had lunch.


What a spread they put out for us! There was raw clams in lemon juice, fried fish, baked fish,fish head soup and cassava.Some very good lemon juice also. I split my small piece of fish with Christie and tried some of the clams and juice. Not long after ingesting my food it was all ready to come back out. Christie and I stayed back from the hike to Octopus, not feeling well. We both slept hard until the others returned. Then we were off to the church for a special service. The service went from 7pm till 10:30 pm, we went back to Pastors house to rest and Christie and I were out for the night. Ledua came and got everyone else for the dinner prepared by the villagers and they had some skits and lots of laughter. Bill had said we would sleep in and be ready to go around 8am. In the morning around 7 Ledua is calling us all saying the boat is ready lets go! We went out quickly and had some tea with the Pastor and thanked him for his hospitality then back in the boat. The boat trip went all the way around the island so we got to see Natawa from the sea and then arrived in Yalombi in time for lunch. Christie and I were feeling a little better now. This was going to be the last Kids Club and they would be making the bracelets that share the gospel through their color. Gold for the kingdom, dark/black for sin, red for the blood of Christ, clean/white for believing and having faith and then green for our growing in the knowledge of the Lord. I prepared everything and then rested more. We were all getting packed up as well so we could take off the next afternoon. Thursday afternoon and the Chief and villagers all came out to say good bye to us and gave us shell necklaces. We were all invited back and had some very nice relationships started. All the luggage was put in the bow of the boat again and we began loading. Out we went to meet the big ship at 3:00 we got to the meeting point and waited. At 4:15 the ship finally showed up, we had been kidding around singing the theme song from Gilligan's Island (especially a 3 hour tour!) and seeing which character each of us was. Lots of fun waiting on the open sea in a small fishing boat!!! LOL Getting on the ship was so nice. We all felt some sort of relief. We would be going back to Lautoka for the next 10 days to continue visitations and Kids Club.