purty days

We've been loving the weather these past few days! I can't believe that our countdown to go back to El Salvador is now under 2 weeks. And in that time we will go to Virginia this weekend, go to Charleston next weekend, we've got to get all packed up, get my schoolwork done, and get ourselves (and Nana and Granddaddy) mentally prepared for our departure. Tough stuff! Yesterday Suzy had to get 5 shots which was no fun either. Oh but she left a little piece of pay-back floating in the tub for me last night for that one. Hard to believe that this time, with all its joys and blessings and challenges, is coming to an end.

The duck pond park

So obviously the best part of being in Myrtle Beach this past week was ELVIS and getting to be together as a family. The second best part was having a free hotel (pictured above), even for Valentine's Day! Which, by the way, we celebrated by going out to a lovely Brazilian steakhouse, you know one of those places where they come around with huge swords holding chunks of every kind of meat imaginable. (Sorry Rafa and Sarah...I'll stop with the meat imagery here....) We only eat red meat about once a month maybe, so this was a big deal. Suzy went with us too which may not be everyone's idea of a romantic evening, but she is such a symbol of our love all wrapped up into one little lump o' lovin'...how could we not take her with us to celebrate the day of love??

Oh, I was talking about my favorite parts of this week and I must say that our third favorite was the park just about a mile away from our hotel that had these huge duck ponds. You see, Suzy is really into ducks right now. Really all animals, and she likes to make all the animal sounds on command. And we really like making her perform this trick in public. Actually, Sunday she started quacking at her stuffed duck right during the prayer at church. That's what we get for trying to get her to perform I guess. Anyways, she loved going to the park and chasing (or being chased by) the ducks. We would take snacks and throw some to the ducks then blow bubbles at the seagulls who would swarm in like a scene from Hitchcock's "The Birds". Plus this park had such great walking trails and cool playground thingies.

And I love that you never know exactly what you will see there. Like the people exercising around the walking loop....except they weren't exercising at all:

Or the "Elvis" port-a-john:

Or the cool recliner swing:

The weather was great all week, even reaching 70 degrees yesterday. However the wind was still pretty cool. Today a random lady was commenting on the weather and said, "Well lucky for you that you have luxuriant hair to keep you warm. I have to wear a scarf around my head...." Now, I really didn't believe that luxuriant was a word, so I came home and looked it up: "yielding abundantly; characterized by abundant growth..." you get the picture. Gigantic. Outta control. Huge. Thanks. But I do appreciate the new word and would gladly see that on my shampoo bottle instead of words like "frizzy, untamed".

Ok, gotta stop procrastinating and get some work done. Hope yall have a week of luxuriant blessings.......

a week with my 2 favorite valentines....

For the past 3 1/2 months, Suzy and I have just been seeing Elvis on the weekends since he is in training in Myrtle Beach (and sometimes a mid-week rendezvous half-way for dinner!) And then for the past 5 weeks, we had not seen him at all b/c he was in El Salvador. So, he came back Monday night, and we were here waiting for him at his hotel and have spent all week with him here. It is a little harder to live out of a suitcase in a hotel rather than having the comforts of my parents house, but it has been worth it!! We get to have lunch with him everyday (a luxury we don't even have in el salvador during the week) and when 5:00 hits, we are ready for an evening of fun with Elvis.

We have never been the kind of couple to take a single day of being together for granted since we spent our first 4 months of dating living in different countries and could only communicate by internet and phone. So all along we have loved just being able to go to the grocery store together, walk in a park together, just sit at home together. But now being apart has renewed that appreciation for the little things even more. Suzy and I will celebrate Valentine's Day here in Myrtle Beach with our all-time favorite valentine, and will be heading back to Wallace tomorrow to get some good grandparent time. Hope you enjoy the pictures from this past week:

some thoughts on poverty and diversity....

Like I said earlier, the class I'm taking this quarter is called "Globalization, the Poor, and Christian Mission." I was reading today and came across some thought-provoking passages about the prevalence of poverty in the world, about diversity and the importance of recognizing that everyone is made in God's image, even when our human nature makes it hard for us to see that because of racial, religious, or cultural differences.

Daniel Groody, from his book Globalization, Spirituality, and Justice (keep in mind these are facts from 2006):


"If the world as we know it today was proportionally reduced to a village of 100 people, 51 would be male, 49 would be female, 60 would be Asian, 14 African, 11 European, 14 American (North, South, Central, and Caribbean), and 1 Australian or New Zealander. Drawing people together from many different cultures, languages, and religions, 14 in this village would speak, as their first language, Mandarin, 5 English, 5 Spanish, 3 Hindi, 3 Portugese, 3 Bengali, 2 Russian, 2 Japanese, 1 Arabic, and 1 German. The other 61 would speak Indonesian, French, Italian, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, and many other languages. From a faith perspective, 33 would be
Christan, 20 Muslim, 14 atheist, agnostic, or nonreligious, 13 Hindu, 13 from other religions, 6 Buddhist, and 1 Jewish."

He continues, "In our global village of 100 people, the resources are unevenly distributed. The richest person in the village has as much as the poorest 57 taken together. Fifty do not have a reliable source of food and are hungry some or all of the time, and 30 suffer malnutrition. Forty do not have access to adequate sanitation; 31 people live in substandard housing; 31 do not have electricity; 18 are unable to read; 15 do not have access to safe drinking water. Only 16 people have access to the Internet. Only 12 own an automobile. Three are migrating. And only 2 have a
college education. Overall, 19 struggle to survive on one dollar per day or less; 48 struggle to live on 2 dollars a day or less. In brief, as the World Bank describes it, 2/3 of the planet lives in poverty."

And the thing is that we're not just talking about people on the other side of the world that we will never actually meet, although they are definitely included in this. "One out of every eight Americans live in poverty and one out of every three Americans live in poverty at least two months out of the year. Overall, in the richest country in the world, more than 37 million people live in poverty, which is more than the entire population of Canada."


What are we, as individuals and as the Church, doing to reach out to the 2/3 of the world that is living in poverty?

I also was really challenged by this quote from Jonathan Sacks in his article "The Dignity of Differency: Avoiding the clash of civilizations":


"The religious challenge is to find God's image in someone who is not in our image, in someone whose color is different, whose culture is different, who speaks a different language, tells a
different story, and worships God in a different way."


He also says, "Those who are confident in their faith are not threatened but enlarged by the faiths of others."

Let's be on the lookout for God's image in a person you might not readily expect to find it. Let me know what you see!



.....p.s. elvis is back! Suzy and I are in Myrtle Beach with him right now. So excited! And, he shaved his Mr. T beard =)

the light at the end of the tunnel....

Elvis is coming on Monday!!!! These 5 weeks apart have felt long, but if we had to go through this time, I think it's been the best situation possible because I've been with my family and he has been able to visit with his mom as well. Plus, I've had the opportunity to visit with Brooke and Tyler again, and Suzy and I have enjoyed playing outside (in the yard and at the beach) in the nice weather this past week.

A good friend in El Salvador reminded me yesterday that even though it was a sacrifice being away from Elvis, this means I got an extra month to stay home with Suzy because when we go back to El Salvador on March 7th, I have to go back to work. I consider it a priceless gift to have had this time with her and still be able to work and study from home. Plus, we will be here in the states for some pretty special holidays, including Valentine's Day, sweet niece Anna's 1st b-day, and we will be able to celebrate our 5 year anniversary the weekend before we leave! We are planning on going to Charleston to celebrate, so let us know if you have any recommendations of where to stay! Of course I knew this was all going to work out in the end, it always does. So why do I doubt and whine so much in the meantime???

here are some pictures from the last week or so.....