P-Town

My second week in the states was in Portland. (P-Town) Why do we always try to shorten names?

If I did not get to see you, I am sorry. It was a busy week! I am so blessed to have multitudes of wonderful people in my life and there is no way that one week could contain you all! :-)

Here are some highlights of that week.

Going to Cannon Beach with the girls...well those who could get off work or leave kids for the day. The ocean meets my soul. I love the vastness. I love the mystery. I love the power of the sea as it tosses small and larger items amongst its waves. Ah... yes. I have missed the Pacific ocean this past year!
Here are some of the beautiful women who are my friends:


The Festa Italiana with my dear friend Tori... 2 years in a row... it is a tradition now! :-) I LOVED dancing in the middle of Pioneer Square to the sounds of good Italian music. It did not matter that those Italians live in Columbus Ohio. Nor did it matter that I have been treated to great food and music and wine in Italy this past year. here we are with Erika in front. Erika is from Lithuania. It was a special night to be in downtown P-Town on a warm and clear night with good food, excellant wine, fun music, good friends... sigh...

It was great to be able to surprise my friend Andy for his little birthday celebration. And good for my soul to be in town when dear Sara was also in town. And being able to sit down with Bekah again... the last time was in Kandern. And yeah... I could go on and on... the people who work at church who I still LOVE. The people at MBCS who are dear to my heart.

Seeing most of my extended family. That was really special... even though I was really jet-lagged. I am so blessed to have a family who loves and supports me. On a more sad note... I was not able to see my dear adopted dad... he is this week going in for Chemo to battle the cancer that was recently discovered. It is not life threatening, but it is still difficult to fathom.

Being Stateside

So, I was in the States for about 2 weeks. One week in Colorado...here are some highlights of the time. :-) I did not take many photos but I had an afternoon to be up at Vail... that was amazing!

Colorado was the STINT briefing. I was blessed to see dear friends and make new friends too.

The four men I met

So Saturday I left Kandern at 4am and took a 3 hour train ride to Frankfurt Airport.. stood in 3 hours of extended security lines, took a 6 hour plane ride to Newark, New Jersey, waited 4 hours and then took a 6 hour flight to Portland. And along the way I met 4 men that I want to tell you about. :-) are you intrigued????

#1 Seth. I met Seth in line as we were in the 3rd security line in Frankfurt. We chatted the whole time and it was really great to meet him. He has a girlfriend that he was driving 3 hours to see after we landed in Newark.

After we got through security.. it is kind of strange to go through security measures like that with a man you just met... Anyway.. we made it through and sat in the waiting area... once you enter the waiting area you cannot leave.. no bathroom trips.. you had better make sure that you don't need to go before entering the waiting area. Anyway we are sitting there and chatting when guy #2 enters the scene

#2 I did not get his name.. cause I really did not want to encourage this.. but it is a good story... He is a friendly sort and starts the banter of "are we there yet?" "Suzie is in my space",... yeah well all know that scenario. So I told him we are not there yet.. etc... Then they start announcing pre boarding and he starts mumbling.. getting louder and louder.. "military first, military first..." I asked if he was military.. Yes. he is. Then he asks me if I am 21 years old. I tell him no... I am 31.. he threw a fit.. literally... I asked if he wanted to see my license.. he said no. Then he asked me how old I thought he was.. I paniced.. he looked anywhere from 25 to 45.. yikes.... so I guess mid to late 30s... yeah.. he was not happy.. he is 26... he whipped out his license to prove it and then sulked for a while. Then he says..."well I was going to flirt with you but now I won't."

Whew.. what a relief for me. :-) In between swearing and telling me that I was fired.. he thought he was being funny... yeah.. glad that one did not last too long.

The flight was uneventful. Seth handed me his business card so we could keep in touch. Nice guy.

#3 So we landed in Newark and had to go through customs. I walked up to the customs guy.. he asked me what I do.. I told him I am a missionary.. he very seriously asked me what a missionary does. He gets missions groups going to build houses in 3rd world countries and missionaries going to preach on the street corners and he could not fathom how they are all the same. So I got to tell him that we are all movitivated by our relationship with the Lord and we want to share that love with others by whatever method. He thanked me profusely and wished me a good day.

#4 I was about to board the flight to Portland when the gate attendant informed me that my window seat had been changed to a middle seat and he did not know why but enjoy the flight.. I was irritated... maybe due to my lack of sleep.. but yeah.. bad attitude. So I get on.. cramped in between two people. The man on my right, Mike is #4. We spent the last two hours talking about how God wants to have a personal relationship with him. I shared the gospel. he knows God is pursuing him. I was so tired and I kept asking God to give clarity of thought and words. towards the end of the conversation Mike told me that he has never heard so much clear conviction and sharing about Jesus. Praise the Lord! I was pumped.. no longer exhausted. God is amazing. I challenged Mike to talk to God on his 1 hour drive to Salem that night. He kept saying. "this is a big decision.. I know I need to make this decision." I shared with him how God moved me to that seat and that now I knew why.

So yep. the 4 men I met on my trip. and as a bonus...

#5 I was in the Denver airport on Monday afternoon and I went to Taco Bell to order some lunch... been awhile since I had taco bell... but I walked up to the counter and the man said, "good Morning sunshine" We talked for a while and he just kept telling me how nice I was and friendly and cheery (I know that was the Lord. I was TIRED) and he gave me a free drink and told me he needs more people like me to come through the line. That was nice. And no.. he was not trying to pick me up. :-)

How is that for a different type of post from me?

So, I was in Nottingham this past week for a conference. This conference had about 1200 people...of every language you could look for in Western Europe and some others too. I loved walking through the groups of people and hearing Lithuanian, then German, then Greek, then French, then Dutch, then Spanish, then Portuguese, then British.. :-) and a bit of Northern Irish.

I salsa'd, disco'd, had a newcastle...well more than one.. you can't get that in Germany, I took a lot of notes-I think I type faster now than ever before, got told by a Greek that there must be something really wrong with me-because apparently I am very attractive so there is no reason that i am still single other than something being wrong with me...good grief! -What about God having perfect timing??? I walked up and down"THE DOWNS" multiple times-that is a really large area of grass that separates one side of the University of Nottingham from the other side, listened to a variety of speakers, got little sleep, met lots of new people-some fun, some frustrating, got better acquainted with some people I met earlier this year, ate a LOT of jacket potatoes, met with the Lord... It was eventful.

a day to sightsee

So yesterday I had the pleasure of taking a day to sightsee. Grace, who has been on STINT in Rome this past year, was up to visit me this weekend. She and Brad and I went on a train ride on Saturday so she could see Freiburg and Titisee and we could all see Schluchsee. Here are some photos of the day. :-)
this is what happens when you hand a man a camera... he takes photos when you are not expecting it! and Brad has the longer arm so we could all get a self portrait with the beautiful Schluchsee behind us. and here we have Titisee... I have posted photos of this place from the winter... it is amazing in the summer too! I went in the water up to my ankles and it was actually warm water! Beautiful!!!