Driving in the States

Nothing like driving down the Interstate when things come to a standstill. Gotta love driving in the Lower 48 where you can be going 3mph on the highway when there's no good reason. No accidents, no snow or ice, etc. Oh well, guess that's part of the reason I love the remote areas of the world. :) 

yep, 0 in a 60 zone. lovely

Was on my way home to Alaska, when a winter storm hit the central Lower 48. Snow and ice in Alaska is one thing, but it's something totally different in the south. I had gone down to Austin to see a couple friends, the day my flight left from Dallas to Fairbanks, I was driving north. I knew they were expecting bad weather, but it got really rough the farther north I drove. About 1/3 of the way to Ft. Worth, I received word my flight had been cancelled. Called the airline and got rebooked, then kept driving. About half the time I was going 40mph on the Interstate. Thankfully most people stayed home that day, so there wasn't much traffic. At one point, I had to pull over and take a break. I was a little uptight with driving a small rental car on such nasty roads with others on the road, especially semis. After stretching my legs a bit, I continued on north. 

Eventually I figured out my flight I had been rebooked on had also been cancelled. So they reserved me a flight for the next day. I was slightly disappointed, cause that first rebooking had me in First Class! It would have been my first time traveling in style. Not that domestic first class is anything like international first class, but hey! it still would have been cool. Thankfully I have friends in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, so found a place to crash for the night. Spent an extra day chilling with my friends in a nice, warm house, eating pizza and sweets, watching Christmas movies. 

The next day I headed to the DFW airport. Took me about twice as long as it should have normally. The roads were still pretty bad, but at least it wasn't still raining/snowing. And many people still chose to stay home, which meant less traffic for me to deal with. Was glad to drop off the rental car. In conditions like that, I'd much prefer to drive my own vehicle. 

signs around Dallas/Ft. Worth

Travel may be discouraged, but I'm not stopping! I know they were talking about the road conditions, but there are times when people think I'm crazy for some the places I visit and things I do while traveling. Some might want to discourage me, but until God tells me to stop, I'll keep going! For some reason, I love traveling and can't get enough of it. New places are so exciting and the people I meet..... life is far from boring. Ha! 

my life story

Made it home to about the same weather I left in Texas. But honestly, I'll take snow and ice in Alaska any day over snow and ice in Texas. We are a bit more prepared for it and it's (kinda) normal, so we are used to driving in it. It may be cold and all, but Alaska in the wintertime is beautiful! And beautiful in the summer..... actually it's beautiful all the time, just in different ways. 

Anywho, I am glad to be home. Especially for Christmas time! 

our driveway my first week home

Back to America

Between my stay in Fiji and getting home to Alaska, I went down to the South for a quick visit. Figured it would be a good transition between the extreme heat and the extreme cold. I hadn't planned on the winter storm though that was to hit Texas. Oh well, just a bit of preparation for coming back to the Alaskan winter. 

While in Louisiana I ate some good seafood - crawfish rolls, shrimp pasta and fried catfish. Also enjoyed some jambalaya during that weekend. Yum! that is next on my list to try making. Gotta get that recipe. Also had beignets and au lait, which for those (like me) who don't know French, is donuts and coffee with milk. 

eatin' shrimp, catfish and crawfish

au lait and beignets

enjoying friends

Thanksgiving Day we drove from Louisiana to Texas. So our lunch was a delightful, delicious meal at McDonalds! Okay, so maybe I exaggerated with the delightful, delicious part, but it was actually better than my Thanksgiving meal last year. While traveling we tried to spend some holiday cheer. We gave a loaf of banana bread to a guy at McDonalds and he was really thankful since he was spending the day at work and away from family. The other guy we gave cookies and water to, said they were "kinda hard" cookies. Well, so much for the gratitude. Ha. 

road trip!

stuck in Dallas traffic

I am SO thankful for all the wonderful friends God has blessed me with. 

People are so much fun, aren't they!? :) 

Graduation!

Last Saturday was the BBTI Graduation! 

It was a overcast, drizzly day, so the decision was made to move the ceremony from BBTI to the church in town. The ceremony went well. Bro. Rex's challenge to the students was excellent! and Bro. McElroy preached a good message. 

Afterward, we had an great lunch of deep fried catfish - thanks to Pastor Terry! It was actually my first time having catfish. By then, the skies had cleared up some, so we were able to eat outside.

It was a bittersweet day. 

Exciting to be done with school, hanging out with all my marvelous friends from my time in Texas and looking forward to being home in Alaska.

But also knowing that I would be saying goodbye to those marvelous friends in just a few short hours. 

Days like that make me ache for heaven, where we won't have to say goodbye!

an amazing friend! I love you, LL

haha! the Schnell kids! gonna miss them

oh the stories that could be told about this group ;)

!Fabulous Four!

next time... across the globe? 

always in my heart!

On another note....

Yesterday was my 26th birthday! 

Yikes!

Those who are younger than me think I'm old and those who are older think I'm still a child. lol

But I am thankful to my Lord for the 26 years He has given me. 

And I hope that I will be able to please Him in whatever time He gives me from today forward. 

more Jungle Camp pics

Team #1 with our shelter

Tim giving instructions about collecting water

another method of getting water from the environment

Abigail and I watching the chicken butchering

skinning the chickens

Tim and Steve butchering the pig

fresh chicken on the spit

man, it was tasty when it was finished!!

homemade raft 

had to get everyone across

Arianna and Elicia on the raft

Jungle Camp

Right after I got back from California, we began Jungle Camp! 

Monday morning we started and then finished up Friday around noon. We slept outside, some had tents, but myself and some of the other girls had a shelter built out of natural resources and a couple tarps. The weather was a little chilly the first night, but after that it was not to bad for sleeping. Course we had sleeping bags, so it was all good. Though by the end of the week, I was starting to hurt from the hard, uneven ground. But coffee made in a percolator over an open fire makes it worthwhile. :) 

nothing better than coffee around a campfire

On Tuesday, we butchered a pig and 4 chickens. Earlier we had been split into 4 teams, so each team got a quarter of a pig and a chicken to cook for a dinner that night. We had a community meal that night with everyone contributing. Our quarter of pig got stuck thru with a long stick and roasted over the fire. The chicken we started baking in the clay oven, but it didn't cook all the way, so we threw it in a pan and finished cooking it over the fire. 

roasting a leg of pig

carrying the meat to dinner

lots of yummy food

There was so much food. All cooked out the "jungle." Our team did skewered pork, baked/fried chicken, fried cactus (like fried okra, but better), onions & carrots, and (wild) garlic potatoes. Tim also baked a snapping turtle. And Josh killed and fried a snake. 

snapping turtle, anyone?

how about snake?

I think everyone had a great time living in the woods. I know I did. We learned how to make a fire, build a shelter, collect & purify water and snare/trap animals to eat, all with natural resources. Its amazing what you can do to survive with just a knife. 

We also had a great time of fellowship. Three of the nights, we all gathered together and had some singing and preaching. You can't beat singing praises to the LORD when you are surrounded by His creation! 

special song during camp service

our team's natural shelter

our team - #1

I was exhausted that week, since I had just gotten back from California Monday morning and we had some late nights. But it was amazing to be around fellow believers, who have the same focus in life and learn to work together "to survive." I think if I had to be stranded somewhere remote, I'd pick the people from my team to be stranded with. (ok, maybe Tim C. also!) :) 

I don't have many pictures I know, but might post some more soon!

Remember the Alamo!!

This past week for Thanksgiving, I went down to Austin, TX to visit with some friends for the long weekend. I had a great time and it was a nice break from classes. Thanksgiving Day was gorgeous! about 70 degrees and sunny. It was kinda weird, since we normally go sledding that day back home. But I enjoyed the sunshine. :)

On Friday, my friend and I went down to San Antonio. Walked around the riverwalk, watched a short IMAX video about the Alamo, went to the actual Alamo and did some Christmas shopping. We had a marvelous time!! 

I love history, so seeing the Alamo was pretty cool. Its pretty amazing that all those men decided to fight to the death for freedom. They didn't know that their death would inspire many others to stand and fight and eventually Texas would send Mexico packing. By dying, they helped pave the way so others could live in freedom. You know our lives are to be lived for Christ,  but we should be willing to live or even die for Christ's glory. I think of people like William Borden who died shortly after arriving on the mission field. He didn't get much of a chance do much there on the foreign field before God called him home. On the human level, we would say 'what a waste.' But in God's eyes, nothing is a waste if it is done for His glory! Because of Borden's death, many others in America were inspired to give their lives for the service of their Saviour. God was honored even in William Borden's death. Are you honoring Christ now with your life? 

 John 15:13 "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

out Soulwinning on Saturday

yeah right!!! ;) 

Lightning!

"The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook." (Psalm 77:18)

"His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled." (Psalm 97:4)

I have always loved thunder and lightning. In Alaska, I don't get to see it all that much, not where I live in the Interior. So, when it begins to shower lightning from the sky, I always try to watch. Seeing the magnificent light display in the sky reminds every time of my Lord. He is the One who makes the lightning. To me, it is a symbol of His great power.

This evening, I was outside talking with a friend on the phone, when I noticed the night sky was being lit up every 5-10 seconds. I continued to watch for quite some time. It was far enough away that I couldn't hear any thunder, just saw the lightning.

After a while, my roommate and I decided to go for a little drive. We drove to the other side of town and parked in a large, empty parking lot and sat on my car just watching the sky continue to shine. It was amazing!! The dark, black, cloudy sky would become brilliantly light with just a streak of lightning. Impressive!! I think we sat outside for about an hour just watching God at work.

"And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.

 His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:" (Matthew 28:2,3)

 Finally we came home and eventually went to bed.... only to get back up later because the storm had moved directly over us. We got up and watched through our livingroom window at more of God's awesome display in the sky. We stayed up till past 1am (I'm still up) watching the amazing lightning. I love lightning! 

and now I love it even more since I read this verse. 

"For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Matthew 24:27)

Just think one day when Jesus comes in the clouds to take us blood bought believers home to heaven, it will be like the lightning, the entire sky will be lit up! Everyone will know He came for us. I can't wait!!!

still hot!

 Its still HOT every day! Each day gets over 100 degrees, which is hard for this Alaskan to endure. I have survived so far, but some days I really feel worn out and exhausted from battling the heat. They tell me it doesn't last forever. One lady told me the other day at church, that they even seen 20 degree weather in the winter. That sounds wonderful! :) 

Classes are moving forward. We are learning a lot of new things in Phonetics. Some are easy for me and some not so easy. I have a hard time with learning different tones and saying them. The actual sounds are easier for me to produce. Hopefully with more practice, I'll get the hang of it. 

Culture class has been informative. One can not stress enough that a missionary needs to know much of the culture before 'forcing' new beliefs on the people. We read one story about a tribe in South America..... after a man's wife had a baby, he would lounge in his hammock for several days. The missionary kept pestering him, telling him he was lazy and needed to get to work. All the man would explain was that his wife had just a baby so he was staying in the hammock. He would lay there all day. After several days of the missionary bothering him about it, the man got up and went back to work. Later that week, the missionary heard that the mother of the new baby had killed her child. Appalled, he asked the villagers why she did so. It was a custom of their culture for the husband/father of the child to remain in his hammock for x amount of days after his wife had the baby - this signified it was his child. By getting up before the number of days was fulfilled, he was telling everyone it was not his child, though it really was. Rather than live with the shame of an illegitimate child, the mother killed the baby. This missionary did not try to learn the culture before trying to 'correct' it. Remember you may have the Truth of the Gospel, but they have a culture and way of life... you may be doing more harm than good, by simply coming in and sharing your culture/beliefs before first studying theirs.

For those of you who are curious about my living arrangements, here are a few pictures. I live on the right side of the duplex with another girl, Nicole. We have a nice little 3 bedroom place. We get along really well, which is a blessing, since we'll be living together for the next 9 months. :)