Adventures in camping

We're going camping - Yeah!!!!

Hopefully we'll have better luck than this guy...

Confessions of a Paper Delivery Guy - "All good things must come to an end"

For the past three months my morning routine has been pretty consistent. The alarm goes off at 3:30, gets snoozed a couple of times, I finally wake up, down some quick coffee and head off to deliver a hundred papers (give or take a few). It usually takes a couple of hours - it's really not too bad...until you realize you have to do it day after day after day.

So needless to say I am really looking forward to this Monday. Not only are we going on a much-needed vacation, but I'll have no more papers to deliver & it will be my first opportunity to sleep-in in 3 months!

There have definitely been some high points to the delivery: the best has to be getting to watch the eclipse last week through the various stages (the timing was perfect). But also a few low points and definitely some lessons learned (see here, here, and here). Overall it's been good, but I'm glad to see this chapter end.

It's quiet, too quiet...

It's been a bit quiet the past few days here at mike & tina. It's not that we don't have anything going on - quite the opposite. Just not much time to blog.

Here's a little teaser (the blogs will follow soon):

• Confessions of a Paper Delivery Guy - "All good things must come to an end"
  
• It's amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do
• The (re)start of classes (a.k.a. "What I hope to be learning...")
• Adventures in camping (we'll see how that goes after this weekend)
• Once upon a hurricane in Haiti (guest blogging by Michael's mom)

Stay tuned...

Mom and Dad, Update 5

Quick update:

I talked to my mom last night from Miami. It was great hearing hear voice! They were originally supposed to fly back to Atlanta last night, but apparently there were weather complications. I had to laugh: my mom said, "hey, what's the problem? The hurricane was like 3 days ago!?!" I guess Miami was having it's own issues.

Remember Virginia Tech

On Monday morning, school started back up on the campus of Virginia Tech. But for many of the students things will never be the same. That all changed on April 16 when 32 individuals lost their lives.

Among those was a close friend of one of my brothers growing up. Yesterday morning, Good Morning America had a brief tribute to Jamie and the life he lived. Click here to watch it. I love the part where they say that Jamie was indeed at the right place at the right time. He was doing what he loved doing - making a difference in the lives of those students. Thank you, Jamie. We will miss you.

Remember Virginia Tech.

Mom and Dad, Update 4

Thanks, everyone, for all the prayers and concern! My brother was able to talk to my parents and they indeed made it through the storm. They should be on their way back to the states sometime later today. Personally, I'm looking forward to hearing their voice and knowing they made it back safely.

Hopefully I'll be able to post some of their pictures and maybe a few stories from their experience (maybe I can even have a guest blogger?!?).

Thanks again for all those who asked how things are going. I appreciate all the prayers and support!

Mom and Dad, Update 3

We haven't heard anything from my parents since yesterday morning (they were still in the midst of the storm at that point), but we feel pretty good that they made it through the storm okay.

Some of the preliminary damage reports are beginning to trickle in from the area. I found this article on the Miami Herald:

• Haiti: Two people died and 16 suffered storm-related injuries, according to local officials.

Authorities said a 34-year-old man died in the western tip of the country when a tree fell on his house. A woman died in the southwestern seaside town of Les Irois, but details of her death were not immediately available.

About 260 houses were destroyed and another 200 were damaged, mostly in the southern and western parts of the impoverished country.

As of Sunday night, 6,832 people had evacuated their homes and were staying in emergency shelters.

It is still difficult to tell the total extent of the damage, but it looks like Haiti was spared for the most part with only a glancing blow from Hurricane Dean. We'll keep you updated as we find out more info. Thanks again for the prayers.

Mom and Dad, Update 2

Quick update:

My sister was able to talk to my Mom this morning and so far they are doing okay (I think someone in their group may have a satellite phone). They are taking cover in the basement of a large church building.

While they still have a little more to go before they are clear of the storm, it appears they have made it through the worst.

There's no telling what the conditions outside are (its very possible the roads will be washed out making it difficult to make it out of the country). Their plan is to stay where they are until Tuesday, and then try to make it back to Port au Prince to fly out on Wednesday.

I'll keep you updated. Thanks for the prayers!

Mom and Dad, update 1

As of this morning my parents were doing okay but were beginning to get a little worried. Hurricane Dean is a strong Category 4 hurricane (current sustained wind speeds are 150 mph with higher gusts) and it could be on its way to a Category 5. It's really not looking pretty.

At this point they are likely beginning to experience the tropical storm force winds and later tonight will begin to feel the hurricane force winds. Tomorrow morning they will face the brunt of the storm. This thing is huge.

As the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti is lacking many of the basics we take for granted here in the US. Infrastructure (water, electricty, transportation) will be spoty at best (if available at all). In all likelihood, we probably won't hear from them for several days after the storm hits. The last major storm to hit Haiti saw huge amounts of rain with widespread mudslides and massive numbers of casualties. We're praying my parents will make it through this one okay.

We'll keep you updated. Thanks for checking in!

Mom and Dad

I've been extremely proud of my parents. Over the past 9 years, they have been on a journey of stepping out in faith - seeking to follow God where he leads. This has involved the leaving of jobs, selling of their house, and general uncertainty of what exactly the future holds.

They work with an organization called Project Light who's primary purpose is teaching people how to read English (a very valuable skill in most of the world). As they build relationships with the students, there have also been many opportunities to share their faith. They have done a great deal of traveling all over the world (including Russia, South Africa, Ecuador, and many more).

Most of the time, I am not terribly concerned for their well-being. (After all, they have survived an Ecuadorian coup & nearby volcanic eruptions, as well as many more adventures). However, their latest travel seems to pose a fairly high risk. On Wednesday they caught a plane down to Haiti where they are in the process of setting up an English-learning center. They are scheduled to stay in Haiti until next Wednesday.

The only problem is that it looks like a rather large hurricane is making it's way towards the island. Current forecasts call for the hurricane to brush by the southern part of Haiti making a direct pass over Jamaica. But forecasts are still early and can change pretty quickly. You can check out the latest forecast at the National Hurricane Center.

We'll keep you posted on how things are looking. We'd appreciate your thoughts and prayers as things progress.

You gotta love Tacoma

In reading the paper this morning, I had to laugh. There was an article addressing parking concerns and issues in the downtown Tacoma area & basically speaking to future plans for transportation throughout the city. But my favorite part of the article is when the city manager is quoted as saying, "Nobody wants to become Seattle." This coming from the city that lives in the perpetual shadow of its 'big' brother just to the north. I love it! Click here to read it yourself.

DCB did it again!!!

Those crazy guys at the David Crowder Band never cease to amaze me. Not only does their music rock but they have a great heart which comes through in so many of their songs. Recently I discovered something that had me confused for quite some time. (disclaimer: I'm not always the quickest of guys, so if you already had figured this out cut me some slack).

For those who are familiar with the CD "Can You Hear Us?" will know that the final track has almost 3 minutes of silence in the middle of it followed by a version of "You Alone" - only this version comes in over half-way through the song. Odd, isn't it? At least I've always thought so.

When their latest full-length CD ("A Collision or 3+4=7") was released, I discovered another peculiarity. In the CD liner was this note: "The wait has been long and the pace quite slow - part 1 is located at www.davidcrowderband.com/youalonenumberone." Really? What does that mean? So I headed over to my computer, entered the address and discovered a rather scaled back version of "You Alone". The interesting part is that the vocals end shortly into the song - as if something were missing. Missing? Indeed.

Now this is where I sat stumped for quite some time (a period of months I must confess). During this time I heard rumors of a new version of "You Alone" that was quite secret (I assumed it was the scaled back version I had found - interesting, but nothing to get terribly excited about).

Then I got to thinking, and did a little experimenting and discovered something quite profound. If you go to www.davidcrowderband.com/youalone2, you get an interesting surprise. There for my enjoyment was another segment of the aforementioned song. Apparently, if you play this version of the song simultaneously with the one on the "Can You Hear Us?" CD, they form one piece (instructions are given but the timing is a bit challenging).

Now add in the third version of the song and (are you ready?!) you get an entirely new version of the song (I know, I know - I get excited about the simplest of things sometimes). Needless to say I was quite beside myself when I discovered this (this is, after all, one of my favorite songs). Go ahead, give it a shot at combining the different elements. Or, to save you the trouble, you can click here to listen to the full new version of the song.

Enjoy!