Eric and Lisa

Wow, it's been forever since we've updated this thing, and over a month and a half since I've contributed. I got super busy during the last teaching session since I ended up teaching a full load of four classes due to a shortage of teachers. I had two weeks off afterwards, but we spent those going camping at Lake Monroe with our good friends Cary and David, and then taking a trip down to Kentucky and Tennessee to see some family and good friends.

While we were camping, we had the awesome experience of viewing a meteor shower at midnight. Cary asked Eric a bunch of space questions that I had never thought of before, and I ended up being reminded how smart and cool my husband is. It's amazing to even try to fathom how vast our universe really is and very humbling to realize that our lives really are just a "blip" in time.

During our Kentucky trip, we had the pleasure of spending some time at Eric's brother's family's house. Rob and Anne have two kids who are just the cutest and coolest niece and nephew I can imagine. Ian had a lot of fun playing with them, and us adults had a lot of fun watching them all.

From there, we went to Tennessee to meet up with some of our best friends who now live very far away. We stayed in a cabin in the Smoky Mountains and pretty much just played a lot of games and ate a lot of homemade food. On our way back, we stopped again in Kentucky to see my uncle's family and spend the night at the Long's, some very good friends of ours who used to be at Bethel College, but now are located at Asbury Seminary. We always go away from their house encouraged and challenged to be good parents. The Long's certainly are a good example to us.

I guess the biggest thing I'm feeling right now is supreme thankfulness for the wonderful friends and family we have. The past two weeks, while busy, were incredibly relaxing and rejuvenating simply because we were always in such good company. How fortunate we are to know so many quality people and to be able to spend time with them.

--Lisa

Well, thanks to all of you who were praying for me while I was in Honduras with my father-in-law! God's blessings were rich upon me, and I really felt the love and support of those of you who were at home. It was an amazing week of encouragement -- something I never expected. I guess I kind of expected it to be a "testing" experience, or at least an "eye-opening" experience, and in some ways it was. But the feeling I'll always have of last week is one of support and comfort. I was blown away by the overwhelming amount of love I received from my teammates and even from the Honduran people. I expected to be the one doling out the love, and instead I was the receiver for the most part. Believe me, that was not my plan! But God had other things to teach me: things like how to receive love and how to rely on the help of other people. My personality doesn't lend itself well to these things, and I think I needed a little bit of a wake-up call. Praise God for it.

Now, for you less touchy-feely people, I'll try to give a brief summary of the week's events.

Nate and I arrived in Tegucigalpa (a.k.a., Teguc) on Saturday afternoon, where we met most of the rest of our group. The group was comprised of two main parts: one part from Illinois and one from Michigan. Nate and I were just along for the ride in our own little group. However, by the end of the week, the geographical lines between the groups blurred, and everyone seemed to have always known each other. I guess that's how it is on these types of trips. Anyway, Saturday was spent in orientation and getting to know one another. We were able to enjoy for the first time the splendor and beauty of the view from the mission house's balcony, which is located on a mountain to the north of the city.

On Sunday, we attended a Spanish-speaking mega-church in Teguc, after which we took a drive over the northeast mountains to an area called Valley of the Angels, where we ate a lovely meal and did a little bit of sovenier shopping. There was a TV at the restaurant, so I was able to catch some pre-game Super Bowl highlights. (Yay COLTS!)

On Monday and Tuesday, we had our first medical brigade at a church in the west part of the city. It went fairly well. I think we were able to help some people who really needed it. The brigades were organized into sections: general medical, dental, optometry, physical therapy, pharmacy, children's, and evangelism. Everything seemed to flow quite nicely. World Gospel Outreach (WGO), the ministry we were down there to support, does a really good job of organizing everything.

On Wednesday, we had a "break" and were able to tour the other parts of WGO's ministry. We went first to the top of a mountain on the east side of the city, Rancho Ebenezer, their alternative to an orphanage, where they house abandoned children with married couples, usually 4-6 children per household. In this kind of setup, the children are able to receive real love and care from a real family setting, while also getting a first-rate education through the school at the ranch. It's WGO's way of enhancing the Honduran culture from the bottom up -- by teaching people real values, integrity, and what it means to be part of a family. Once children become 18 and are no longer under the legal guardianship of the ministry, they have the option to become part of the Bridge house, which is the second place we visited. The Bridge house is located in the middle of Teguc, and is run by one set of house parents who help the young adults adjust to living on their own. I was very impressed with the skills that were being practiced at the Bridge house: cooking, cleaning, managing a budget, maintaining good grades, and showing spiritual and emotional improvement. It seemed like a good "bridge" from the ranch to the real world, and I think the ministry has the chance to produce some of the country's future leaders. Before returning home to the mission house, we went up the mountain a little higher to the future mission house site, where WGO hopes to begin building sometime in the next year or so. The view from that site is almost as breathtaking as the current mission house's view, and in some ways, more. It looks like a good place to put down roots and establish the ministry even more strongly.

On Thursday and Friday, we continued our medical brigade, this time at a different church on the east side of the city. Everything went well, and once again, I think we helped many people who needed it. The joy of giving someone some glasses and helping them to see better than they had in a long time (or in some cases, ever), was wonderful, indeed. We had about 350 people go through our optometry station, and about 1600 came through the whole brigade! I really enjoyed that part of the trip.

On Saturday, we packed up our things, said goodbye to the friends we made, and boarded the plane back to the US. It was sad to leave the people we'd grown so close to, but it was also nice to know that we were returning to our homes and families where we belong. I praise God for the many blessings He bestowed upon us while we were away. I had the pleasure of receiving the "Honduran welcome," as it is affectionately known, which is really just a nasty bug that upsets your stomach in a variety of ways. However, it only lasted two days, and during those two days, I was able to experience the love and care from many people in ways that I did not expect. Praise God for His loving family of believers!

--Lisa

Whew! We made it back in one piece from Hawaii, where we went for a conference and to visit some family. We spent nine days enjoying the warm weather -- sans Ian. It was a long time to be away from our little guy, but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless. He seemed to have a great time bonding with his grandparents while we were away, too.

The first part of the trip was spent in Waikiki in Honolulu, where the conference was held by a joint meeting between the Accoustical Society of America and the Accoustical Society of Japan. Eric presented two papers there in two different poster sessions, and he received a lot of encouraging feedback. His second presentation was especially well-received, which is a good thing, since it will tie right into his thesis for his PhD. He feels ready to tackle the next phase of his program now.

During the second part of the trip, we stayed with my dad's cousin Steve and his wife Lynn, who live outside of Honolulu in Nanaculi. They're pastoring a Missionary Church there in Nanaculi, and we had a great time with them. They were so hospitable and really made us feel at home. Since we didn't have any more conference responsibilities, we were able to travel around the island and see some cool things: various beaches, a vacation resort, the Dole pineapple plantation, a really windy lookout point called Pali Pass, the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, and a couple really yummy places to eat. On our last day there, we were able to connect with a group of Bethel students on their way home from a semester abroad in China. They were taking a "detour" through Oahu, and we got to spend a good part of Tuesday with them and their administrator, Rob, whom we also met while we were in Beijing two years ago. One of the students, Jake, is a younger brother of one of Eric's college roommates, and it was nice to catch up with him. We really enjoyed those last few days of the trip; it felt like a real vacation, which is something we haven't had in a long, long time.

We're glad to be back home, though, even though we went from 80's and sunny to 20's and windy! It's nice to have our family all back in one place again. It seems like Ian grew five inches and gained ten pounds in the short while we were gone, as well as learned a few new tricks! We're tired from the traveling, but feel more refreshed and rejuvenated than we have in a long time.

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Check out some of our photos from the trip in our photo album labled "Hawaii 2006"!