Sunday, August 15, 2010

The Diapy Days of Summer











Greetings To All:
Happy August to you! Is yours as hot as ours? It may be. Isn't it funny how we can be acclimated to wherever we live? So far this summer has had some real scorcher days here. Yesterday I was out on the course all day with a group, and it was over 95 degrees. Thankfully our home is shaded for most of the afternoon, but it can still warm up (and we don't have AC.) The nights have been a welcomed cool down to end the days. So, what have you been up to? The Ropes Course has been keeping me busy, and Kathy has been finding ways to keep one high-energy girl and one baby entertained. One of our neighbors, and a ropes teammate, has two girls the age of ours, so Kathy has been watching the three yr. old a couple of mornings a week. Dakota loves to play with her. The other night the baby was in the hospital because of an unexplained high fever, so Sarah, the big sister, was over here for a sleep over. The next day I asked the dad if Sarah had fun. He said, "Sarah had fun. But she said that while she was trying to sleep Dakota kept talking to her." Why does that not surprise me? It's nice when Dakota has other people her age to play with. In September the Kid's Classroom on base will begin again, which means more regular contact with other children for Dakota. The base is still a buzz of students, but the most populous time of the year has passed.
Of the groups that I've worked with on the course have been short-term missions teams that come here for a week of training, and then they go to Haiti to help with the earthquake clean up/rebuilding for a week. Also we took some games up to McMinville to teach a national medical software company during their annual meeting. The team has been brainstorming new ideas for elements for the course that are new ways to bring the Message to the people that come here. Do you have any ideas? Oh, I'll post a picture or two of a small part of our course (as promised back in June.)
During the past couple of weeks on the course, one recurring thought for me has been: back to the basics. What does that look like for our spiritual lives? How important are the basics of anything? Is it possible to grow, mature, or reach goals while ignoring, forgetting, or disregarding fundamentals? When we are faced with a problem, however complicated it may be, we need to keep the basics in front of us. On the course whenever participants begin to wobble or shake while walking on cable or rope, if they concentrate on what is wobbling or shaking, then they usually fall. If they freak out at how high they can possibly climb, then they usually freeze wherever they are. They forget the basics. They forget that all they need to do is take one step at a time, and that the next one will be like the one before, only in an ever-so-slightly different location. If they can physically climb two feet into a tree, then they can go the other 89 ft. if they don't forget the basics (step and reach.) And then I get to wondering what the basic things in our lives look like. My best description so far is: truth. We can work our way through struggles if we keep truth in front of us. Is God good? YES. Does He love us? YES. Did He place pieces of Him inside of us when He created us? YES. Are we alone in this world? NO. When we lean on those (among others) truths, we can be more effective in bringing His Kingdom here to earth. If we ignore truth, at some point in life we will be confounded, frustrated, and ready to give up. As humans we quite often make problems worse be forgetting the basics.
Thank you for your prayers regarding Kathy's trip back to IN. She had smooth travel both ways. We now know the key to receiving unsolicited help during flights: a very cute baby. Kathy and Desi were welcomed back by two family members that missed them greatly. Since being back Desi has been starting to eat baby food; only peas and carrots so far. She is working on the whole eating without gulping thing. Dakota was introduce to the game of Duck, Duck, Goose recently. She loves to be the "ducker". We also made some new friends that were helping out on base for two month with Mission Adventures. They have a little girl named Holland (sp?) that is Dakota's age, and the two of them loved to play together. Aimee, the mother, had to be watched constantly due to threats of spending hours "just biting Desi's cheeks." Vanderveens, you will be missed until you come back.
Thank you for taking the time to keep up with us. Please email us and let us know how you are doing.
God Bless You Today,
Carson, Kathleen, Dakota, Desislava