What's love got to do with it?

Everything!!!!! Without it we would be nothing.

On June 14th, Troy and I celebrated our 9th year of marriage. We spent the weekend at Disney World and had a very special meal to celebrate the actual night of. We have begun our tenth year of marriage by subsequently giving away everything we still owned (we sold the house last year) and leaving the country.

To some of our friends our nine years are a drop in the bucket, and to others we are further along. We have had a wondeful marriage thus far, and are sure the future is looking bright. We have had no children of our own, but we have a strong feeling God isn't done with us yet.

I am gratefull to God for a husband like mine, and I know not every woman would be willing to follow her husband into the heart of darkness. Instead of making plans to add to my wedding ring set going into this our tenth year of marriage, I have retired the diamond and replaced it with a simple gold band. I am blessed with the opportunity to be a diamond instead of wearing mine. I see the people of the world as worth it. I know you do as well.

We will be all over the map in the near future. We are on the path to the place that God has called us to be. Along the way we are being blessed and being a blessing. Thanks to all of you who have been and will continue to support us in our efforts to spread the gospel and show the love of Jesus to all who come in our path. We would not be who we were without you all in our lives.

Here we are outside of the restaurant. We really had an amazing meal. Our waiter was really great and they treated us like royalty. The menu was printed out with a Happy Ninth Anniversay Message to us and then it was given to us as a souviner. Here is a picture of the dessert that we were given.

I promise I have thought about this meal while eating some very questionable fare here in Haiti. We have been well directed by our host and nothing has made us really ill. Troy and I alone will be another story, you know how he is about strange foods. The more the better! I have actually witnessed poor and starving people turn their nose up at what Troy was eating. There is no one like him and I would not have it any other way!

Here he is the other day surveying the yard. He is beneath the bannana trees. He likes it there for some reason. I had to sneak up on him and get a picture. He goes out there every morning with his cup of coffee, if we have it. He looks around, moves the tarantulas to safety if he runs into them. Is that a contented face or what?

He has a good time wherever he is. How's that for the perfect traveling companion, even if he does eat gross stuff. I'll follow him all over the globe. It's going to be an interesting life. That's for sure.

Don't blame where you are...

OK. I said I would start to tell about Haiti. I had every intention of doing it starting Wednesday morning. I got up, went to the computer and could not get online. We tried all day and this failue to connect went on until Friday afternoon. I automatically blamed Haiti for being Haiti. I vented my frustration by assuming our inabilty to get on line was due to a lack of some unknown something that was being blocked because "Hey, this is Haiti!"

Things don't always go your way in a place this remote. Technology is wonderful, but entirely dependant on things like electricity. Electricity is not something that can be depended upon in this world because it comes and goes like a breeze. You may be able to make coffee, you may not. You may have a fan to cool you off, you may not. You may be able to see in the dark, you may not. When you can't depend on the basics, how can you take something like technology for granted.

Every day for three days I tried to get online. I plugged it in and unplugged it. I ran diagnostics. I spoke to it. I yelled at it. I told it unkind things. Finally, Friday, I went outside and moved the antenna to the most unlikely position, down instead of up literally. It worked perfectly.

Here is the lesson boys and girls...

Don't sit there and blame where you are for being where you are. It is up to you to do something about your circumstances. Perhaps things aren't working for you because your perspective is wrong and you just haven't realized it yet. Maybe what you think is the correct position is altogether wrong. Maybe you are going to have to get desperate enough to consider doing something completely against what makes sense to you. Maybe that one thing turned upside down is what it is going to take for things to change for the better. It's up to you. If you don't consider your ways you will spend forever blameing where you are for where you've been and you'll go nowhere.

Just something to think about. I have to go because I have work to do. I have to introduce you all to my dear friend Haiti. She's a little ruff around the edges, but she does the best she can. She doesn't mean you any harm, but it will help if your flexible.

The Players...

I gave an overview of Panama and what it was about, but I failed to mention the powers that be. That is a huge oversite. None of the experience could have come together without Travis Stewart or Dennis and Jeanne Cook. Travis is the minister at Meadowbrook Church (formerly OWFC) who planned the trip and Dennis and Jeanne Cook are the Missionaries to Panama.

Here's a shot of Travis in full gear.















As far as we are concerned, Travis is at his best, wherever he happens to be at the moment. By that I mean, the man is amazing. He's in charge of the outreach ministry at Meadowbrook Church called On The Go, and he is also the one responsible for the trip to Panama. Troy had already taken a working trip with Travis before this one so he knew how awesome they could be. Travis is "the man." We are grateful to know him.

Travis has a great sense of humor and loves to tease. I am going to spare you some of the pictures that Troy took of Travis in light of his teasing nature, but it would be prudent to warn him that we still have them. I will show you this one so you can get an idea of what working with them can be like. No matter where in the world they are.

This is a shot of Troy even though you can't see his face in the picture. They caught a ride on the back of a truck that is used to haul cows. The entire floor was covered in manure, and this is a shot of Troy scooping it up to throw at Travis. Gary Repko was a witness to this and probably suffered as well.


Dennis and Jeanne Cook are the Missionaries who graciously hosted this team in their Jungle. They have been on the mission field for almost twenty five years and they have probably seen it all or close to it.

Here is a shot of Dennis. Troy seemed to be popping into windows all over the place on this trip, and regrefully I do not have a good shot of Mr. and Mrs. Cook. I do however have a bunch of pictures of peoples faces as they sat in the truck so there you have it. All of these shots are before Troy got himself the Mother of all Cameras, so bare with me they will get better as we go on.


Here is another shot of Dennis. I wanted you to see how much fun they had. Work should be fun, and they had a blast. Even if the truck got stuck and they couldn't get supplies. Working for the Kingdom of God is as good as it can get. You can't sweat the small stuff.

Dennis Cook is not alone down there. His wife Jeanne and their son Chad were on hand with the rest of the group. I really wish I had some pictures that would help me fill you in, but I'll do the best I can. Here is a shot of Jeanne Cook. She is speaking to the group on a day that supplies were not to be had.

I know this is a lousy shot, but it is the only one I have because Troy actually videoed this. She is sharing an amazing testimony about a witch doctor that got saved on a medical team they did in the jungle. You should take a trip down there just to hear the things they have seen and done.

The Cooks are amazing people and we are working out the details about getting down there sometime early next year. We have stayed in touch with them through e-mails and they are truly a wonderful couple. They are full of wisdom and generous with it. I can't wait to meet them in person. Troy is never wrong when it comes to judging a person's character, and he thinks the world of them.

I know the whole team had a great time. Here is a shot of the whole crew. They are posing in front of the sign for the Vida Ministries radio station. The Cooks are pumping praise and worship and the Word of God into the jungle as far as Columbia.

Welcome to the jungle...

June of 2006. Troy boards a plane and heads to the jungle. Smiling ear to ear, naturally. A picture says a thousand words and that is great for Troy because he loves to take pictures, but talking... not so much. We will let his images pave the way, and I will do my best to give you words. Behold the Panamerican Highway. Actually, I'm not sure if it is, but it shows the conditions of the road.

Here you can see how daunting a task it was to load the truck up and actually get out to the sight with supplies so that construction could begin. Of course, getting the supplies was no easy task either. Here's how it works in a nut shell. You will usually have to do work to get to the point where you can do work. These guys had to repair the road after every load they hauled in. The rainy season takes no prisoners! Don't let the natives standing around in this picture fool you. They worked hard. Very Hard. Troy rarely meets anyone who can out work him, but in Panama the rules are different. They know how to get it done.

The pictures of the construction are awesome. I had to share this one of Jaime Escobar. It's not Troy, even though this is our blog we are equal opportunity when it comes to showing you the love of God in action. Here it is:

The team was there to build a church. That is much easier than you would think it would be because it isn't nearly as complicated as what we build in the states. The outcome is the same though. People have a place to come together to worship God and learn of Him. What a rewarding project to be part of. Here is a shot of the structure of the building that they were building. I do not have a completed picture, since they did not get the roof on before they left. This shows what the gist of it all was.

The building and repairing the road is not what captured Troy's heart though. The people were all he could talk about. The Choco Indians that he met were wonderful industrious people. He really enjoyed getting to experince their world. The children were bright and happy and so very alive. The Panamanian Pastor was a pleasure to work with and this is going to be an awesome church, but the kids are what it is all about.

That's a start boys and girls. More to come later. This is what happened in June. There is a lot of things to fill in since then. Keep on the lookout for more posts.

And so it begins....

Welcome one and all to the chronicals of our lives. We have taken the giant step of believing that anyone actually cares.

I know that you do. That is why you are here. This is going to be the best way to update all of our loved ones on how we are doing and what is happening now. As we travel around this globe it becomes increasingly more exciting to touch base with home. This is our way of letting you know what is happening with us, and giving you all a way to let us know what is going on with you. I would call that a "win, win."

Love to all. We welcome your feedback. Those of you who have been hounding me to do this can save me the "Finally." I already know what you think and I am glad your there to help me set my course!