Gumbo

Last Friday night the Sandozes made gumbo for the entire CIT group! So many people had never even heard of gumbo so it was fun to be the ones to expose them to the cajun way.

They started cooking it the night before in their jumbo gumbo pot. People kept walking by their camper just to look at it- it really is the biggest pot you have ever seen :)

Phil stayed the front of the line to help serve and give tips- how much rice? do you want your potato salad in the gumbo or on the side? (such decisions!).


Here is the Mackey family. Bob is our advisor and leader of our Heart of the Missionary group. We have enjoyed getting to know their family. They were in Moscow for about 10 years and have great insight and lots of stories!


The evening ended with a surprise cake in the Student Center. I love these people. I think we shall be friends for a long long time :)

More prayer!

We just received this email from our friend Rhonda, the one who has the children's home on Honduras that we have visited. Please pray!!

Please everyone, pray for Destino del Reino. We are here in the USA and we just found out that the men who robbed the school before have been back Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights and they have guns and there are a lot of them. The police came last night 30 minutes after they left but could not catch anyone. They burned a cross in the floor and stole a lot of things but we are mostly afraid they will move on to the children's home. PLEASE PRAY -- for safety for our kids and for peace for us in this because we cannot return until Monday morning. They usually are worse on the weekends and we are on Halloween weekend of all things. Thanks for praying and we will stand against the demonic attacks of these men with the ALL POWERFUL SPIRIT OF GOD. Thanks for your prayers.
In His grace,
Rhonda

Please pray

My heart is aching for the people of Goma in the D.R. Congo. Please be in prayer for these people who have been displaced due to rebel violence, and also for the rebels themselves. Jesus is the only answer.

Birthdays are Grand!

Have I mentioned how much I love my birthday? It seems almost shameful, being 25 and all, but I secretly am obsessed with my special day. Saturday started out great. Mom sent a bday box filled with goodies. Notice the backwards words? Clay took this with my computer and he said we could reverse the words, but I like it this way :)

Mom wrapped my presents in leftover wallpaper from our house- it made me so happy!! Some of that wallpaper is not even on the walls anymore. Ah, nostalgia...

Then we headed over to the Sandozes campsite and had birthday breakfast burritos a la Phil Sandoz. Here is Clay playing with the magnet hair face guy his mom got him. It is funny to me that there is still so much to learn about Clay. It makes me happy- who would have thought he had a deep love for this hairy little toy? I am glad to know it!

We headed to Asheville for the day, and we had a great time! Clay even posed with me for some fun shots, I think just because it was my birthday :) Here is my favorite.

The birthday crew!

An end to a perfect day!

Sigh, I love my birthday. If only it would come again sooner!! :)

Something exciting to me

I have always had a hard time memorizing Scripture. It just doesn't work well for me. Small group time at Awanas was usually a dreaded time because I had the hardest time remembering my verses, and the homeschool kids always owned me anyways. We'd go to the share table and they were able to buy dolls when all I could afford was a tootsie pop. Bitterness I need to deal with...

Anyways, FINALLY I have found a way that I can do it!! When I put verses to music they stick like glue in my head. I am serious. It is the most amazing and awesome thing and I am so glad the Lord clued me in. For some reason my brain can remember song lyrics really well but the spoken word is a challenge. Clay and I are now memorizing Romans 8 and it is working!! Do not be fooled, the songs are pretty dorky. The words are all God's word, but the melodies I make up are not 20 Countdown Magazine nominees by an stretch. But who cares! The Bible can stick in me now!

I am just so excited and wanted to share! If any of you struggle with Scripture memory, give this a try! All you need is a door you can close so know one can hear you sing :)

Love to you all!
Megan

Last weekend

We had the best weekend! The Sandozes came in for the week and we met them in Cherokee on Saturday afternoon. The drive up there proved that fall is indeed upon us ( I am stifling the urge to write "It's fall ya'll." You understand...). Check out these beautiful colors.

Soon after arriving at their campsite, we headed out for a short hike. The leaves are just amazing. When we were looking for their camper at the campsite, there were leaves everywhere! Some campers even had tarps covering them so keep the falling leaves off. It was so funny because the organized gene inside of me was kicking in big time wondering if there was a broom strong and long enough to whip that campsite in to shape. I guess maybe a rake would have been more appropriate :) Point is, it was a sight for this pine tree Texas girl to see knee high piles of leaves. Beautiful leaves at that.

This waterfall was the destination of our hike.

That night Phil did one of the things I love him for- grilled pork chops and sausage (as only he knows how) on his tee-niney grill. They were the best. One of my favorite meals ever.

The next day, we drove on up to the Smokies to check out some lookout over the mountains. I can't remember the name. It was labeled as a "Moderate" hike, but the lady at the campsite told Tracy it was indeed more than just moderate. So we were all geared up and ready to climb a mountain. We got there and.... get this... the trail was PAVED. As in, it was a road. With all kinds of people walking up it. Clay even pointed out the motorized wheel chair guy flying up it. So, moral is, advice from the campsite lady often requires a 2nd opinion.

The view all day was just incredible. We had such a good time! This sign we found for the Appalachian Trail made Clay's mouth water. In my head I was considering telling him that I would do the entire Trail with him sometime. You know, a "Hey, Baby, we can totally do that Trail sometime," and just completely make his day (perhaps his lifetime), and THEN I heard them say that it takes anywhere from 4-6 months!!! So, more of a "Hey, Baby, I will drive from nice hotel to nice hotel while you hike that trail. I'll toss some food out to you every once in awhile." Why do I think I like being outside? I digress... Here is Clay on the Appalachian Trail.

Some pretty views of the Smokies.


And here you see a very happy man. Clay Sandoz was born for this kind of view :)


So there was our weekend. It was a very fun time with Clay's folks- we miss home people. Exciting news- tomorrow is my birthday and I am so excited (I really love my birthday :)!! We are going to Asheville to spend the day with Clay's parents. Also, tonight they are cooking gumbo for the whole group!! I cannot wait to see everyone eating gumbo- so many of them have never even heard of it before- is that not funny? It should be a fun night- I can't wait!!

Good Afternoon

Any time it's 63 degrees at 4:15pm, it's hard not to be outside. Absolutely perfect. I took advantage of the ideal weather by going for a nice run.

About a third of the way into my run, I saw a big black dog running up beside me. The dogs around here have been less than hospitable, so I assumed this would be another one I'd have to yell at and scare off. Instead, Sirus (which I later learned was his name) ran all around, jumping up and down like a puppy wanting to play.

I assumed he would stay near his house, but Sirus ended up following me for the next 6 miles! This is the first time I've run with a dog, and it was great. He would run up ahead, sniff around and chase deer and squirrels , and when he got too far he'd stop and wait for me to catch up. At one point his ears perked up as if he heard something, then he plopped down in the ditch. A few seconds later a car came around the corner. When it had passed, he hopped up and kept running. This happened almost every time a car passed, and each time he did, I couldn't help but laugh. The run turned out to be a lot more fun than I'd anticipated. At one point I was running down this beautiful winding road under a canopy of orange, yellow, and red leaves, temperature perfect, dog at my side, and, no lie, horses galloping in the pasture to my left. Unbelievable.

Sirus ended up following me back to CIT, which was fun, but then we had to figure out what to do with him. It took forever to catch him, and when I did, the number listed on his tag was no longer in service. Great. Our only option now was to take him back. We fought to get him in the back of the 4Runner and before we were 2 minutes down the road, he had climbed into the back seat. I rolled the window down so he could hang his head out, but he soon lost interest in that. He moved to the middle to stand with his head between the front seats, then the next thing we knew the only thing in the back were his two back legs. Everything else was in the front with us, mostly on Megan's lap. This 50 lb. dog was sitting on Megan's lab, legs crossed, looking out the window as if this was completely normal.

When we got to the house where he joined me, he jumped out of the car to one of his owners who was outside. The guy was really happy to see him and so thankful we'd brought him back. We were glad to see he lived with nice folks who seemed to take good care of him.

I don't know that I've ever laughed so much while running. It was a blast.

Destino Video

Back in July, Megan and I got to spend a few weeks in Honduras with Rhonda Jackson at Destino del Reino (check out our previous posts to read all about it). While we were there, Rhonda asked me to make a video to help share about the ministry that’s going on there. Check out the video and see all the great stuff God is doing there in Honduras:

I got sleep and am better today.

One of the best things about going to Candidate Orientation is that we finally got to meet Daniel Liberek, our Regional Director and team leader while in Belgium!! It was so great to get to talk to him face to face. His story is really neat. He was born in England to his English father and Belgian mother. He moved to Belgium when he was 5 as a missionary kid, went to college in the U.S., and then returned to Belgium as a missionary in 1980. He is the pastor of the church we will be a part of, and we are so looking forward to being a part of his church and getting to know his family. 

It was really exciting to hear some of his ideas for us in Belgium. He is pumped about Clay's video abilities, and already has some projects in mind. Clay would also love to get enough French under his belt to be able to train some church members in video. For me, Daniel is hoping a Spanish ministry can emerge to reach the somewhat large Spanish-speaking population in Huy. There is a group of Spanish-speakers in the church that are ready to start reaching out into the community, and I would LOVE to get to know them and join them in that. Does that get you fired up?! It does me. And even more than the excitement of being a part of something so cool is the hand of God that is all over this. I was a Spanish major, ya'll, and I signed on for a French speaking country. I figured I had hung up my espanol cleats, you know? And then, "oh and by the way, there are a whole lot of Spanish speakers in Huy..." What?! How could this be any more perfect? Now I just need to brush up on my Spanish, it's been awhile. 

On the subject of language, we just ordered Rosetta Stone for French so we should be chomping away at French soon. And language acquisition starts tomorrow so we should be all set. I am really excited. 

Today a group from Candidate Orientation came in from Charlotte to get a look at CIT. It is so exciting to see God working in so many lives. How does he manage all of us?! He is huge.

Enjoy your Columbus Day tomorrow!

Megan

Well Cripes.

No, not crepes, cripes. We got robbed, people! Our little rent house in Tomball was violated last night! Can you believe it?! Rob (my brother) called us today in Charlotte with the news. So far the only thing we can see that was stolen was my guitar. That's not too bad. They left Clay's monitor and some other computer stuff, which we are thankful for. I am just so thankful no one was hurt! I don't like the thought of creepy people on our property where my entire family is. Sick.

Anyways, the funny part is that the crooks totally chose the WRONG house to pilfer from. Ok, we have absolutely nothing. Nothing. And the stuff we did have we already sold in a garage sale. We are told they looked under our mattress, I guess to see if we had any cash stashes. (maybe looking for a diary or two as well? I mean, please, who keeps money under their mattress anymore?*) They also overturned the air mattress in the guest room. This makes me laugh really hard as I am picturing the thief hurriedly assessing the situation and realizing his mistake in choosing this dud of a house- "They have blow up furniture, for pete's sake" he might say. Also, imagine their surprise when they saw our TV! Have you seen it? Here is a picture from a slumber party in Austin with my girls, and you can see our TV in the background. There is no easy escape after you steal something like that. It weighs about 100lbs, though it does have wheels which could speed things along. Maybe they didn't notice...


So, other than that news, the weekend in Charlotte was great. We joined Keith and Rachel for the Lyle Lovett concert on Thursday night, and then hung out until Candidate Orientation started. We enjoyed meeting some new folks that God has cool stuff in store for. I also dragged Clay to Anthropologie TWICE, which shows what an incredibly patient man he is.

Time for bed, it has been a busy day. I am thankful that all that is missing from my life at the end of this day is a guitar. Thank you Lord!

Love, Megan

*Please accept my apologies if you do indeed keep money under your mattress. It is a brilliant idea.**

**Please accept my apologies for the sarcasm. I got robbed today.