Category: Other Page 77 of 181

Bethany was a teacher at HOPAC and a leader in our youth group many years ago.  We kept in touch, and a couple years later, she and her brand-new husband led a team that served at HOPAC for a few weeks.  She and Matt stayed with us during that trip, and on their very first night with us, I burned down my washing machine. (Not burned out, burned down.  Literally.)

I thought about linking to the post which tells that story, but since it wasn’t one of my best moments, I’ll just leave it to your imagination.  If you are terribly curious, go ahead and look for it.  Good luck.

Thankfully there were no fires during our visit to their house.  And it was wonderful to catch up.

In California, we don’t have pools that look out over cornfields.  It was pretty cool.

First of all, as a side note, the title of my previous post came from Field of Dreams.  Really?  You didn’t get that?  If you haven’t seen it, you either are younger than me, not American….or maybe you just have really great taste in movies.  After all, I’m not really sure why a movie about a baseball field in a Iowa cornfield was so popular.

Ahem.

Anyway.

Onward to Missouri.

In St. Louis, we met with Ed and Janet, wonderful friends who date back all the way to my first trip to Tanzania in 1998, when they hosted the short-term team I was on.  They’ve been encouragers and cheerleaders for us ever since.

We got to spend a whole day being tourists in St. Louis, visiting Grant’s Farm (as in Ulysses S. Grant), the Arch (“Gateway to the West”), and the Zoo.  

at the top of the Arch (over 600 feet), which you get to by riding in a very tiny little claustrophobic capsule.   They only give you a few minutes at the top, but I was totally fine with that!   

 Mississippi River

Unfortunately we were not anywhere near the Field of Dreams.  (Gil checked…..because, of course, I really wanted to see a baseball diamond in a corn field.) (Umm…that was sarcasm.)

But what we did see was a whole lot better….our wonderful friends, Peter and Becca and their kids.

We’ve known Peter and Becca since our college days, when Becca and I lived in #9.  In fact, the prank war that I mentioned in that post?  Peter was one of those guys.  

Later, we both joined the same mission, but went to totally different parts of the world.  Now they are in Iowa.  We hadn’t seen them in 8 years.  Feeds the soul to spend time with old friends.  The amazing corn on the cob helped too.  

I met Melodie in first grade.

We were the only two white girls in the class (I am on the far left).

Melodie and me in second grade sewing class

I had not seen Melodie since our freshman year of high school.  But we’ve stayed in touch, as MK’s often do.  We have millions of shared memories that only other ELWA kids can relate to.

So it was very special to see Melodie again and to meet her family.

At the Y with Melodie’s kids.  Shoot…I want a Y too.

We also got to visit with a wonderful mentor from my college days, Marlene.  Marlene taught me so much about ministry and is partially responsible for who I am today.  

Another family to visit in Colorado was of a high school friend, Maria.

1993

(Please nobody kill me for posting this picture!)

Junior girls from our high school youth group.  I’m in the front and Maria in the back.

 And that’s us yesterday.

Our last stop in Colorado was in a little town near the border of Nebraska, to visit our friend Eileen.  We’ve known Eileen since she was a little girl, and 8 years ago, she was on the very first team we hosted in Tanzania to put on our very first Youth Camp.   

Eileen gave the kids each their own horse back riding lesson, and the kids were super excited to meet a real live Cowgirl!

Colorado was significantly more interesting than the previous states….partly because it is far more beautiful, but also because the company was wonderful!

Mommy, it says here that the state flower of Nevada is sagebrush.  What is sagebrush?

Look around, Darlin’, look around.  

Grace wrote in her journal, “Nevada is a desert.  And there are a lot of casinos.”

And that pretty much sums up Nevada.

In Utah, there was salt.  

And in Salt Lake City, there was a free planetarium.

We stayed the second night in Middle of Nowhere, Wyoming.  

We learned that Wyoming is the least populated state of America.

Yep.

I can tell you all are so excited about our trip so far.

I think the most interesting part was when we all did the Hokey Pokey, in the car.

But I don’t have a picture of that.