The One About Colorado

I said that I'd tell about our Colorado trip, and never did, so here it is!  :P
We spent a week with Walt and DiAne in Colorado Springs.  Two families hosted us in their homes while we were there, and they were extremely hospitable and nice to us.  Walt and DiAne took us to the USA Olympic Training Center, Compassion International, Focus on the Family, the Garden of the gods, and other fun places around Colorado Springs.
Then we had an intensive three day "business as ministry" training. We plan to use this program in our ministry in Queretaro.   It was an excellent training, the leader took lots of time personally with JP and I to go over questions we had. 
It was a really great week!

 

"Blobsledding" at the Olympic Training Center!

 

Us with Walt and DiAne at the Garden of the gods!

 

Navigating an "Olde West" ghost town!

Lessons from My Ear

If you didn't see about our time at International Teams, scroll down to the next post, or click HERE to see some pictures!

The last few days at I.T. were a little rough, due to an ear infection I had coming on.  I'd never had one before, but ended up going to two urgent care clinics, getting a shot for pain (I NEV.ER. request a shot, but the pain won out this time!), and missing out on some of the fun that could have been had during our stay with Justin and Lluvia.  God blessed me with a few hours of good time to spend with them though - we hadn't seen them in over a year, so it was great to catch up and talk about good times!

Word to the wise - NEVER get on an airplane with a perforated ear drum.  Seriously.  Dude.  But that's what we did.  And I think God taught me a lot from that experience.  This may sound exaggerated, but I have never experienced as much pain for such an extended period of time as I did with this infection.  And on the plane from Chicago to Portland, I couldn't think straight.  All I could do was cry out to God that He would make it stop.  I remember that one of my college professors said one time that during a particularly painful child birth she decided to use that time to praise God that she was having a baby, and praise Him for who He is.  And that scenario came to my mind.  And I started to sing (in my head, not out loud!) praises to God.  Sometimes the pain was unbearable, and I cried, and I think JP was close to tears a few times, and the kid sitting in front of us definitely thought I was off my rocker!  But the phrase that kept running through my head was "The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord."  I can't find that exact phrase in the Bible, although I'm sure something similar is there.  But I just knew that God was in control - He has the power to heal and the power to not.  It's His to decide, and if He decides not to heal when I want, I will still praise Him. 

Then I kind of hoped that after that revelation God would instantly heal my ear, but He didn't.  The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord.  A lesson - or TRUTH - that I will never forget.

We spent uncomfortable two weeks in Salem (I kept telling myself my ear was on the mend even though all signs said it was not) before getting BACK on an airplane to go to Colorado (will post more about that soon!).  I thought I was healed enough to go to Colorado, but apparently not.  The plane ride was a killer again, and our friends Walt and DiAne who hosted us in Colorado Springs changed our plans to go to Breckenridge to take me to the doctor, which ended in a minor surgery to get the *fungus* out of my ear.  The doctor was afraid that it had penetrated into the bones in my ear (I freaked out when I heard that!), so he put me under and cleaned it up, and it wasn't near as bad as he'd thought.  Then the rest of the time in Colorado was quite pleasant, since my ear quit hurting three weeks after it started!

Here's me and the nurse post-op in the hospital.  They gave me a Coke to wake me up!  :)

I T July!

So, considering that it's been like, a LONG time since we've written, and we've had a TON of stuff happen in that vast stretch of time (which is only 3 months, but seems like we had a year's worth of stuff going on), I'll do some pictures of what went on during JULY.

 

We spent the month at International Teams in Elgin Illinois (about 30 minutes north-ish of Chicago).  JP did 3 weeks of training - his "official I.T. training" for being officially a missionary!  And I did kind of a refresher one week course - it's what they offer for new missionaries before coming to the longer training - JP took this in April.

 

So here's our time in pictures!

 

JP and I in downtown Chicago.  You can't spend a month in Elgin and not make the trek to downtown Chi-Town.  hehe

 

 

I was SUPER  happy that Franklin (one of my brothers from Honduras) and his wife Kendra were able to come visit!  Fran had never been to the US before, and Kendra is from Michigan, so they spent a few weeks with her family, and were able to meet me in Chicago for a day (JP had classes and couldn't come).

 

I took a lot of the classes with JP, so I was able to get to know all the other missionaries in training, like Michelle and Chris (with us below) going to Uganda!  We had lots of fun times getting to know the other missionaries and hanging out.

 

We went to "La Villita," which is pretty much Northern Mexico transplanted to Chicago, with Jay, Julianne, and their kids.  They are going to an undecided location in Latin America, and wanted to experience as close to Mexico as possible with some real live mexicans - us.  :)  It was a great day - the busses were problematic, as none of us had any idea how to use them, but we ate at a place that *almost* tasted like home, and found "elotes" (el-OH-tays) (mentioned about 100 times in previous blog posts, and pictured below!)  JP and I were thrilled, and Jay and Julianne and kids have a new favorite food!

 

 

JP with Suzie and Scott at I.T., getting his diploma.  As you can tell, everyone is very serious around I.T. heehee!

 

It was an amazing month!  We topped it off by getting to visit Justin and Lluvia and their baby who served with us in QRO for 6 years (they were there a lot before I came too!).