Happy New Year!! So many things run through our minds when we do the whole “new years resolution” thing, and reflect on what the past year has brought to us, and what we “vow” to change for the New Year. Why is that? I think it is because we are a people who are never quiet satisfied with who we are and what we are doing. I am too fat, too thin, too short, spend too much time at work, don’t spend enough time working, don’t spend enough time with family, spend too much time watching TV; and the list goes [View Full Entry]

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The last month has gone by fast. So let me get you up to speed. I’ll try to cover the high points without going into too much detail. Who am I kidding? If I am telling the story you get the details no matter what - if you are short on time read it in two settings, or sign up at the local University for a speed reading class. We are staying with Cy and Stephanie Stafford in their home. Fortunately it is large enough for us all and we aren’t having to camp out on their couch, although she has [View Full Entry]

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As easy as the words came to describe what we were going through when we were preparing to make this trip, I am finding it difficult to find the right ones to fill you in on what life has been like since we have arrived. Not the general life itself, as that is all coming along smoothly; but the real life that is going on here in Africa. A plethora of emotions transcends words. The look on a face can say more than the right string of letters in the right combination, put together with punctuation marks. What can you say [View Full Entry]

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An empty room, an empty refrigerator (wait, that doesn’t really mean anything at my house), and an empty house are all that’s left. Two years of preparing has found itself knocking at the door. It seemed like such a long time to wait, and now it is here. Thursday the 12th, a group of wonderful friends from Pinewood (our home congregation) helped us load the container of our household possessions so it could make its way to Tanzania. We should teach a class on how to pack - because I think we accomplished putting the proverbial square peg into a round [View Full Entry]

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All Work ?? For almost two years now I have wondered what it would feel like to walk out the door of the office building where I work and know I did not have to go back. Today, three days into “other employment”, I sit on our front porch wrapped up in a blanket, eating Kashi cereal and watching the dew burn off the grass when the sun’s rays finds it from the shadows like a fire smoking just before it burst into flames. It’s barely 50 degrees, and the calm of the morning was deafening. WOW! …. That pretty much [View Full Entry]

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The Power of the Printed Word. We’ve all heard that phrase before … maybe about poetry, the Bible, political debates on the front page of the newspaper, or words of wisdom from a simple children’s book. I have never witnessed such a reaction to something I have written myself until June of this year. Most of you know that the Kensington Woods Church of Christ distributes a monthly newsletter for the TZ2000 work. Several try to pitch in and provide articles for it as we can, and I was excited when my “Sew Bee It” article was printed in the June [View Full Entry]

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Now that we have the dropping off done, we are under control and ready for the next step. Joshua is settling in his new home for the next 4 - 6 - 8 years …. (Yikes!). As you can see there isn't much space. Anthony, being the handy man that he is, has built some shelving that we are taking down this weekend for the guys to have at least some way of organizing their mess. I was stunned they wouldn't let me color coordinate their clothes or alphabetize their CD's, but maybe this will at least get it off the [View Full Entry]

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I was told after the last entry that I should put a tissue rating on these entries … 1 tissue rating means give it a few minutes and your OK, 5 tissue rating means you could be red faced for 30 minutes to an hour or so, 1 box tissue rating means take the rest of the day off. I think the last one was a 1 box rating .. sorry for not letting you know of the rating system up front! Maybe you had some sick time built up you were able to use. This one is probably not but [View Full Entry]

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We were sitting in a room full of couples, moms, dads, and grandparents. The lights down, a power point presentation running and a box of Kleenex in the middle of each table. The speaker was giving an unsuccessful speech to prepare us parents for our children leaving home. The words were coming out of her mouth, I saw the pictures, but they were not of the Microsoft family she had pasted into her presentation. The pictures I saw were of Joshua. Squatting in front of our home in Monterey sipping the water from a puddle on the sidewalk where it had [View Full Entry]

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I thought since we were going to be talking and letting you in on our lives that it would be nice to introduce our family. A lot of you know Anthony and I - maybe even Joshua, but as for the rest of the family you may not know them. We'll start with the parents. Anthony and I are very fortunate to have parents who even though they stressed out about us leaving and moving to Africa and taking their grandson - have been very supportive and wonderful about our decision. Anthony's parents, Walter and Jean Brown moved from living in [View Full Entry]

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