it could always be worse…

{So, it took me almost 2 weeks to write this post. Life is a little nuts at the moment. Anyway, here’s what we did with Hopeforce in Indiana.}

After we got back from Harvest, Alabama, we had one day to put our stuff in storage before we left again to help out in Marysville, Indiana. So, off we headed to get our free month of storage that was promised to us when we rented the trailer. Seriously, the place was, like, an hour away. I think they did that on purpose just because it’s free. Thank you Uhaul for your “convenient” location and for “accommodating” people like us who don’t have a place to live.  Anyway, when we opened the back of the trailer, we found a small disaster. A huge crack in the glass of one of our wedding pictures {I hope that’s not an omen}, broken Christmas ornaments, a box of broken cups… and who knows what else. It’s seriously such a terrible feeling to have your stuff, especially sentimental things, broken. My DAD got me those ornaments… stupid Uhaul!

But after I had my pity party, I realized, it could’ve been a lot worse. It could’ve looked like this:

Even though some of our stuff was broken, I’m actually thankful it happened, because it helped me identify with the tornado victims– if only in a miniscule-tiny-teeny-weeny way.  If loosing some christmas ornaments and cups was so hard, I can’t IMAGINE what it must be like to loose EVERYTHING. And yet, our new friend, Tony, said “I’m just glad my family is safe. It could’ve been a lot worse. Anything else I find is just an added bonus.”

That’s Tony on the left. We noticed him because he was walking with a cane and was asking one of the bulldozers to wait a few more minutes before they swept his stuff away. We ended up helping him look for his belongings. We found a one of his daughter’s baby pictures and her wallet/ID. You would’ve thought we gave him a million bucks when we handed him that picture. We saw Tony a few times throughout the week and he showed that picture to everyone he talked to. Ironically enough, the memory card in my own camera decided to stop working that day and so I lost a ton of amazing pictures, including one of Tony and the baby picture. It was devastating to loose those pictures and I almost cried. It seemed like God kept giving us a small taste of what it would be like to loose everything. And again and again we heard the people whose homes were destroyed say, “It could’ve been a lot worse.”

Tornados, or any disaster for that matter, are really devastating. But people are resilient, strong and courageous. It was amazing to hear their stories. And to be there for them during this time. Most of the week, we ran the food tent for the Salvation Army. Not the most glamorous job, but you’d be surprised how far a good hot meal can go. I also made tuna noodle casserole for the first time… for over 200 people and more banana pudding than you can imagine. Everyone went nuts over the banana pudding.

This is “Pork Chop”. I honestly don’t know his real name because everyone called him Pork Chop. Pork Chop is a pretty incredible guy. He postponed his surgery and drove from Memphis to cook bbq for the food tent. It was AMAZING. Comfort food at its finest.

This is Helen.

This is Helen’s home.

Helen’s husband is about to finish is 100th day in a rehab facility. He also recently stopped eating. She said she doesn’t think it will be much longer… and she doesn’t know what to do. We prayed with her and just listened to her talk. It’s a helpless feeling when someone has so much need and you can’t do anything tangible to help. However, at the Hopeforce training we went to a few years ago, we  learned about the ministry of presence. Just being there with someone, offering a hug or listening to their story is so important. Helen’s daughters were there to help and they are determined to rebuild. Like I said, these people are so resilient and courageous.

We know that we are in the right place for such a time as this. We love working with Hopeforce and can’t wait to see what God has in store!

* If you would like to join Hopeforce and become a “reservist”, then check out the trainings that are coming up by clicking here. Seriously… this training will change your life. It’s amazing. And if you come to the one in Nashville, you can stay with us… if we find a place by then 🙂

the great unknown.

Since we’ve been home, we’ve been swept up in a flurry of activity. We’re making decisions about our car, our bank account, cell phones, insurance and… drum roll… doing our taxes. All of those things are somewhat dependent on us knowing certain details about where we’re going and what we’ll do next, ect. But we don’t know those details. In fact, there are more unknown’s than known’s.

One of the most popular questions we’re asked is what we’re going to do are after our 6 months with YWAM.

And we have no idea. It’s a great unknown.

We love the advice we received from our friend Jack:

“When you can’t see how far to go, go as far as you can see.”

And that’s what we’re doing.

We have so much peace as we take this step of faith into the unknown, trusting that although we don’t know what the future holds, but we know WHO holds the future.

We can’t believe we leave on THURSDAY! We would so appreciate your prayers as we continue to grow in the Lord on this journey of serving him with our lives. Please pray that we would adjust well to the discipleship training school and when we go on our overseas outreach. Pray for safety and good health, wisdom in decision making and God’s provision.

Thank you for all of your support, excitement, encouragement and prayers this far! We are grateful and thankful for you and your impact and investment in our lives and in God’s kingdom!

Day 3

 

We both woke up feeling like we got hit by a truck. Not to be a Debbie downer, but too many hours in the car breathing the same air, coffee overload, unhealthy food, creepy hotels and lack of sleep has made us sick. I find that so ironic because I NEVER get sick when I’m working at the hospital and people cough on me all day. Nevertheless, we still love road trips and are enjoying the journey! I had been searching for a Dunkin Donuts since we left California and it was our lucky day because there was a DD in Missouri! We plugged it in the GPS and knew that in 3 hours we would be enjoying delicious hazelnut coffee and munchkins! Just the thought of it made our achy bodies and sore throats feel a little better.

Until the GPS led us into the airport. WHAT? The dunkin donuts was IN the airport. Oh no! Davey was quick to search for another one and when we saw the orange and pink DD in the distance we were like giddy children! The girl was SO nice and gave us 10 munchkins for the price of one! DD… always going the extra mile!

And we were ready to drive the many miles ahead  now that we were on a sugar/caffiene high. We were a little dissapointed though becuase the next 3 states we drove through had their welcome signs in the middle of the highway so we couldn’t get out and take a picture. So without further ado, here’s Missouri, Illinois, and Kentucky… and speaking of states, we have found 38 state license plates!

We stopped for gas and Davey went inside to “buy a bag of carrots”. This is what he came back with:

We saw some pretty sweet cars on the road. Well, we almost missed this car because it blended in with the surroundings. I wonder if his color scheme helps him avoid speeding tickets?

We finally made it to Tennessee! Oh Daveyyyy, are you from Tennessee? Because you’re the only ten I see. Haha! Couldn’t resist!

Once we were in Nashville, we met our friends, Jack and Cherie for dinner. Jack and Cherie have made a huge impact on our lives… in fact they were the ones who inspired and suggested this adventure that we’re on! We had a BLAST talking and catching up while feasting on some amazing Tex Mex. Good friends, chips, salsa and tacos… doesn’t get much better than that!

Whenever we drive through a new state, we try to imagine what it would be like to live there. We can NEVER EVER picture a life in Kansas, but Nashville… maybe one day 🙂

Day 2

It was FREEZING cold at 7am in Wyoming. I took the morning driving shift and headed down the road toward Colorado. It was slow going at first because there was a cop in front of me and I didn’t want to speed by and get a ticket, so I just followed him at his turtle pace.  Add to that 60+ mph winds, 18 wheeler trucks crowding the road and snow whipping up everywhere and you have Wyoming. Here are a few trucks at the rest stop to prove how strong the wind was:

Goodbye Wyoming, hello Colorado!

We drove through Denver just to say we did, and then we stopped at the YWAM base in Arvada. There were only 2 buildings, so we opted out of getting a tour and drove on.

Davey and I both HATE when our car is dirty. I tend to empty the windshield washer fluid pretty quickly because I’m a sucker for a clean window. At this point, the jeep was so dirty that it didn’t even look yellow anymore. As we were heading toward the highway, EUREKA! A car wash! So, we gave the jeep {and our poor bikes} a MUCH NEEDED wash, bought a coconut air freshener and left feeling like a million bucks!

We had some looming errands to run and figured this was a good time to stop at the post office, starbucks, the bank and somewhere to find lunch. We pulled into a “shopette” as the guy at starbucks called it, and were so excited that our bank, post office, food store and starbucks were ALL there! Yay! We ordered a ‘California dreamin’ sandwich {not for the name, but for the bacon}, ran our errands and headed to Kansas. We’re looking forward to saying “we’re NOT in Kansas anymore” But we’re still in Colorado. Since Davey is driving, he gets to pick the music. And John Denver is killing me! But he’s having fun jamming out over in the driver seat. However, me ears are not happy. Neither are my eyes. All I see are “amber waves of grain”… forever.

When we’re not listening to 70’s and 80’s folk, we’ve been enjoying an audio book called “The Power of a Whisper”. It’s about hearing when God whispers in a still small voice and obeying his nudgings. We’ve had a great time recounting all of the events that led us up to this point in life and we’re so thankful that God’s plans for us are so much more fun and adventurous than we could have imagined. Although the journey hasn’t been all roses and butterflies, we are stronger because of the thorns.

Speaking of thorns… around 9pm we both felt like we were getting the flu. We downed vitamin C packets and crashed for the night…

side story: we almost ran out of gas again! We still haven’t learned our lesson! I’m going to blame it on Kansas though because it’s their fault for not having a gas station for 50 miles. We figured we should come up with a plan of what we would do if we ran out of gas. We decided we’d have to ride our bikes in the dark to get gas. But before that happened, we spotted a remote gas station and rolled in, running on fumes and prayers. It was a sight to behold! Lesson learned.

900 ish more miles under our belts… 13 hours of driving… and we’re nother time zone closer to home.

read about the rest of our trip here, here and here

Day 1

Today is my amazing, beautiful, wonderful, loving, hard working, fun, fabulous mother’s birthday! Happy Birthday Mom! We Love you!

The biggest decision we made the past few days, besides “keep or throw away?” was: Rt 40 or Rt 80? The answer was a no brainer… 80! Rt 40 is boring and flat and goes through way too much of Oklahoma and Texas. Rt 80 is much more scenic and since I took Rt 40 to drive to California, we decided 80 was the way to go. But there was one problem. Snow. We checked the weather in the Sierra Nevada mountain area and there was a storm passing through which meant tire chains or 4WD with snow tires was required. Yikes. The jeep has 4WD, but it definitely doesn’t sport snow tires. We decided to take the risk and so with a full tank of gas and starbucks in hand, we left Sacramento and headed for the open road. It wasn’t long before we were surrounded by snowy pine trees… it was breathtaking! It reminded me of Narnia. Davey has never seen the Narnia movies so if you haven’t either, then just disregard that last comment. We were also surrounded by stalled 18 wheelers and stopped cars that decided it was a great idea to put their chains on in the middle of the road. Needless to say, it was slow going. At least it was a feast for the eyes. I mean, look at this, isn’t it just GORGEOUS!?

We prayed the whole way to the chain checkpoint and to our delight, we were waved through with a smile! Yipee!!!

It wasn’t long before we were in Nevada.

I was so sad because we missed taking a picture by the sign. It just came up way too fast. So we decided to take a picture on the other end of Nevada when we got to Utah.

But let me tell you, although Nevada isn’t that wide, Nevada is the state that never ends. We did pass through Beverly Hills though.

We could hear the hallelujah chorus when we passed the border into Utah! For some reason, driving into another state is like a fresh start. Even though the scenery is somewhat similar, I always feel rejuvenated and accomplished. There is a lot of salt fields in Utah… that’s salt in the background, not snow.

To pass the time, we like to play the license plate game and see if we can find all 50 states. So far, we have 23! We were pretty excited because the further east we got, the lower the gas prices!

Utah was really pretty…

but before we knew it we were in Wyoming. We knew we were in Wyoming for 2 reasons. 1.) a deer ran across the road just like the sign warned and 2.) the guy at subway wrote His and Hers on our sandwiches.

11:45 pm and 917 miles later we found a cheap hotel and crashed. And by cheap, I mean gross, creepy, and ugly. Neither of us slept very well… I think I was too worried someone would break in or that our jeep would be gone in the morning. But then I remembered that the only living creature that we saw in Wyoming was a deer and I’m sure there’s more deer than bad guys, so I drifted off to sleep.

check out the rest of our trip here, here, here and here

Without a hitch… or any sleep

Friday turned into Saturday all too quickly and we were still up to our eyeballs in packing and cleaning. Before I get into that, I have an AMAZING GOD story!

So, Davey decided to sell his car on Wednesday. That meant we only had 2 days to sell it. So, we looked it up to see how much it was worth and it was about $2000. I told Davey that we should up price it to $2500 because, as I learned from the garage sale, people always try to lower the price. We prayed about it and decided to price it for $2450. So Davey posted it on Craigslist and we prayed for the best. We both weren’t worried about it and had a feeling that God would send us the perfect buyer. Davey got a bunch of e-mails from people who wanted to come look at it and on Friday afternoon, and this guy Steve and his wife were the first people to come look at it. They were buying a car for their daughter and they thought Davey’s car would be perfect. So they offered us $2000. Davey told them he had a few others looking at it and then he told them that we were going to do missions and needed the money. Then, out of the blue, they asked him if we were going with YWAM! It turns out, they are Christians and have a foundation (http://www.firstfruit.org) that funds missions and so they gave us $2500 for the car… that’s MORE than we asked for! We were blown away by God’s provision and faithfulness and were so encouraged by this incredible couple!

With our spirits high, we put our heads down and continued packing and cleaning. After about 5 minutes, we were overwhelmed and had no idea how we would get it all done. We plugged along and our friend, Steven came over to help. Thank God for him! He helped lift all the heavy stuff and by the time he left, the Uhaul was almost full!

It was now 9pm and we still had a load of stuff to do (no pun intended). We kept plugging along, a piece of pizza in one hand and a sponge in the other. We were thrilled when our friend Ken came over around 11 and so we put him to work.

By 2 am we were delirious, but DONE!

We had every intention of sleeping before heading out, but we were wide awake and had planned on leaving at 4am anyway, so we decided to just leave. Goodbye 409 13th St. Apt A!!!!

On the road at a meager 55mph, I was staring in the side mirror making sure the jeep didn’t fall off. The ride was so bumpy, but I guess that was a blessing in disguise because it kept us awake. It was so bumpy I couldn’t take a good picture:

4 am rolled around and we were desparately praying because we were running low on gas with no gas station in sight for miles. We finally rolled into a rest stop with 1 mile of gas left! Thank you God!

Fueled up with gas and coffee, we pushed through and made it to Davey’s parents house at 10:30!

36 hours later, no sleep, and a lot of memories, we’re safe and sound and have the first leg of our journey under our belt… without a hitch! 🙂 (get it?!)

p.s. Happy TWO year anniversary to our friends Erik and Julie!

the “plan”

Even though we’re planning not to plan, we figured it’d be a good idea to at least google a potential route. Here’s what we came up with:

On Saturday at the lovely hour of 4 am, we will hop in the Uhaul and drive at a turtle’s pace of 55mph all the way to Sacramento where Davey’s parents live. {Thank you so much Mom and Dad A for storing our stuff!} We’ll spend a few days there and then head across country! {I’m not really sure why google took us up through Wyoming and Nebraska, but I’ve never seen those places, so why not!}

Points of interest:

1. Nashville, TN– we’re gonna stop and see our friends, Jack and Cherie… the couple who inspired us to do this whole adventure in the first place!

2. Tate/ Roswell, GA– We’ll be attending Davey’s good friend, Sam’s wedding. Sam was in our wedding, so it will be fun to see him get married! We’ll also be seeing our friends Nikki and Ross! Woohoo!

3. Washington DC– Davey’s only request on the trip was to see Washington DC, so Washington DC we will see!

4. Grantham/Mechanicsburg/Hummelstown, PA– I’ve always wanted to show Davey where I went to college and we just happened to be passing right through on our way! So we’re gonna stop and he’ll get the tour of Messiah College, then we’ll see my friend Krista and then stop in Hummelstown to see my friend Greta!

5. Philadelphia, PA– I cannot wait to see my cousins and little baby LENA! So, we’re gonna stop and see them because I just can’t wait until they come up to NJ for the weekend!

6. Oakland, NJ– Home sweet home! ❤

From there, we’ll fly to Kona with a 7 hour layover in Seattle. Davey’s brother lives in Seattle, so we’ll venture out for a “tornado tour” to drink coffee, of course, and to see the sights. Then Kona here we come!

I have been getting overwhelmed at times during all this packing. I’m actually avoiding our bedroom at the moment because you can’t see the floor… clothes and shoes EVERYWHERE. My dad reminded me to just take one day at a time. Simple, but good advice. I also am trusting that if God brought us this far, he won’t let us down now! We have a peace that passes all understanding and we’re so excited to embark on this adventure together!

look what we got today!

Stay tuned tomorrow for our tentative itinerary!

goodbye stuff

Yesterday we hung up signs and today people walked away with our stuff…

Here’s how the day went:

6:00 am- My alarm goes off and I press snooze.

6:01 am- Davey’s alarm goes off and he presses snooze.

6:10- We finally get up and walk like zombies to the coffee pot and down cup #1.

6:15- We head to the garage and start bringing our stuff outside. It’s cold and cloudy and wet.

6:16- Yes. Only a mere minute after we brought out the first few things, we have our first customer. He starts to rummage through a bag of clothes we haven’t even dumped out yet. We shrug and just start getting more stuff. I guess the early bird catches the worm.

6:20- This really nice guy… I think he lives down the street… drives by and comes out and offers to help us carry the heavy stuff. He also tells us our signs are terrible and so he pulls out a garage sale sign from his car and nails it to the palm tree. He says he has lots of practice with this stuff because he manages estate sales. He tells us we have WAY too much stuff for people our age. We agree.

6:30- All of the stuff is out. Poor Davey has an allergy attack from all the dust we spewed up with the moving. But he’s still smiling. First customer man gets a killer deal on an arm full of stuff because I don’t know how to bargain yet. 

7:00- Vans and cars and trucks pull up and out comes 4-5 people from each vehicle. It’s crazy. They all must carpool. Most people are interested in the surfboards and guitar, but I still manage to sell some nic nacs. Yessss!

8:10-  Davey sells this guy from Australia my surfboard, a guitar and some picture frames. The guy asks us to hold it while he gets his car…

8:15- He pulls up in a Mustang and offers to take Davey for a spin around the block. Davey hops in. He LOVES Mustangs. 

8:30- They get back and he walks away with my beautiful yellow surfboard. Sigh. Moving on…

8:45- Enter cup of coffee #2 and 3. Davey leaves to go to work and I’m left to fend for myself. It’s just me and our stuff.

9:00- 11:00- I impress myself by selling most of our stuff for the actual prices we asked for and reward myself with cup of coffee #4. While I’m sitting back enjoying my victory, FOUR cars pull up, NINE people come out, and it’s mass chaos. “How much is this?” “Will you take $5?” “Do you have anything for free?” I try to answer all the questions while counting change and keeping an eye on all 9 people to make sure they don’t run away without paying. I swear it was a conspiracy. I’m sure they probably got a few unofficially free items without me knowing. Oh well.

11:30- Two Asian ladies come by and look through the pile of clothes. They hold up a pair of my jeans and laugh, “these are big!”. I don’t laugh.

12:00- No one has come by in 30 minutes and I’m tired of sitting around, so I start packing up.

12:15- Davey comes home! Yay! We load the stuff in the garage in a pile because the Goodwill is coming to get it on Monday. We come back into our apartment and it doesn’t even look like we got rid of anything!

12:30- A guy who lives down the street calls Davey and comes by to purchase his weights, dumbbells and bench. Davey says he might stop by his house and lift one last time. It’s hard to see it go. But now there’s SO MUCH ROOM in our garage!

1:45- We count our earnings and are very excited!

2:00- We go into packing/cleaning mode and we decide to cut up our bed (Davey made it with 2×4’s) and have a celebratory beach bonfire. We also have a lot of important papers to burn and since we sold our paper shredder, a bonfire is the next best option. Of course Davey chops up the wood “beach style” with  “protective” sunglasses and VonZipper headphones.

4:30- I run to the food store and to the bank to deposit the moolah. I come home and bake cupcakes for our bake sale tomorrow. Chocolate coconut, chocolate with chocolate shavings and chocolate peanut butter. YUMMMMMMMMM!

6:40- I’m writing as you read this and Davey fell asleep on the couch. We’re about to go to the beach to burn our wood and papers. And make hot dogs and s’mores.

Stay tuned for more moving montages…

March Madness

My dad and brothers get excited for March Madness because of college basketball. But for Davey and me, the month of March brings a different kind of madness full of moving, packing, garage sales, driving across country, bake sale fundraisers, and lots of changes. Today we started packing and making piles of stuff to sell at our garage sale on Saturday! Check out the video of our mess:

Ya know, it’s weird putting cheap “garage sale” prices on all your belongings… selling things that have sentimental value for mere pennies. And as we were doing this, I realized I place way too high a value on our “stuff”. It was a good lesson for both of us to start storing our treasures in heaven instead of adding to our piles here on earth. Talk about spring cleaning!

So, if you’re in the neighborhood, come buy our stuff at our garage sale on Saturday! And then stop by our church on Sunday for a sweet treat at our Bake Sale Fundraiser!

stay tuned for more March Madness 🙂