We’re baaaack!

 

 

Hey, how did they know???

 

 

 

Ok, it’s been awhile since we got back from the States but…has it really been over 4 months???  Time flies!!!  And it flew during our summer 5-week visit back to the States, too!  This post is dedicated to the trip back home in the summer and everyone we had a chance to see.  After being in Ecuador for a year, we had really come to miss some things in the States…and there were some things we realized we didn’t miss at all!  A couple things we had sorely missed:

• seeing our parents and family.  Sam’s nephews have grown so much and are serious clowns – it was fun to spend some time with them and the family.  Plus, our parents were their usual overly helpful selves and helped us out in more ways than we can count!  Family dinners were awesome…Tom still knows how to throw down on rib-eye’s and jumbo shrimp!!!

  

• seeing folks from our old congregation!
  • Thanks for the awesome Bellevue dinner at our fav Italian place Mike & Sandy!

  

  • Teresa Murray and the Nichol’s family somehow endured putting up with us in their homes in Redmond – thanks guys!  Yes, I purposely left out Howard because he ran off to Europe while we there…supposedly for work but I have my doubts… :)
• eating favorite foods at our old favorite restaurants (I can still taste the sushi and Thai!)
• TENNIS!!!!!!!!!!!  Although I found you just don’t play as well as you used to after a year off
• driving on SMOOTH roads…although it’s really such a shame that there are speed limits!!  Yes, there is a story behind this which we will not be expounding upon in this venue… :-D
• seeing movies on the BIG-screen (haven’t seen anything on more than a 17” TV here) 
• the beauty of the NorthWest…the weather was GORGEOUS most of the time we were there…we couldn’t have asked for better!

We enjoyed seeing and visiting ALL OF YOU and we really appreciated the hospitality shown to us (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE)!  We took tons of pics, but alas, they wouldn’t all fit in here.  The following is just a glimpse of our time in the US: 

 

Leaving our beloved Ecuadorian mountains…

 

 

 

 

 

Home sweet I-5…

 

 

 

 

Another beloved mountain we had been missing

 

 

 

 

 

Teresa & gang helped us very quickly fall back into the daily Starbucks routine…

 

 

First up…family weekend in Birch Bay for the Schleicher’s 35th!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Uh-oh, all 3 sisters together, this could be some trouble…

 

 

 

 

Catching some warm Pac NW sunshine!

 

 

 

 

This is the ‘good looking couple’ of the fam…

 

 

 

 

Fam get togethers always mean LOTS OF FOOD!  Fresh crab legs and salmon baby!!  Oh salmon how I missed thee…

 

 

 

Step aside, step aside…this man knows what he’s doing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

In deeeeep concentration…yeah, those are checkers - its the simple pleasures

 

 

 

Got to see and visit w/ so many familiar faces!

 

 

Uh-oh, here’s trouble…wait for it…

 

 

 

 

…and the evidence…told ya.

 

 

 

 

Coincidence! Lorna Smith happened to be visiting from Prague, Czech Republic at the same time!!  Was great to see her again.

 

 

 

Old pals from Seattle Central cong!!  Wish there was space for all the pics, sorry!  Thanks Simeon for inviting us to your grad paaarrrteee!  Congrats again!

 

 

Girl time…

 

 

 

 

 

Hearing talks from Bro Lett of the GB at the DC…wow…

 

 

 

 

Great evening with some Olympia folks…

 

 

 

 

Blaine & Chandler doin’ a little jam session at Tom & Jane’s house…

 

 

 

 

  …and the rest of us ‘singing’. The expression on Dad’s face tells you how ‘good’ we were…

 

 

 

At Kevin Conners’ place…a couple of our favorite ppl

 

 

 

 

The rowdy table

 

 

 

 

 

Nah, I don’t believe him either…

 

 

 

 

 

One of my favorite little people

(miss you guys already Sun’s!)

 

 

 

Ok, another one…

 

 

 

 

 

FS in Seattle Central with dear friends

 

 

 

 

 

It was perfect weather for classic cars

 

 

 

 

 

Alki beach in the evening

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MC Ride w/ Kevin & Keith

 

 

 

 

Dinner on the water at Steilacoom with my ping pong nemesis’ family… :)

 

 

 

 

Now this is something I really miss…a beautiful summer night on the Kirkland waterfront!  Great shot, Sam!

 

 

Well, during all those good times and enjoying what we had missed, we did find a few things we DIDN’T miss about the US:

• the ridiculous cost of living/being there.  I just couldn’t help not choking every time I paid more than $10 for a meal (ridiculous!!).  I loved the old fav restaurants but were they always that expensive??  Then I went seriously bug-eyed when I saw the Visa bill shortly after returning.  For what we spent there in a month, we could easily live 3-4 months here, probly longer
• everyone is always running running running all the time. We definitely don’t miss the fast pace of life back home…that leads to the next one:
• not having time for field service!  I worked quite a bit back there and didn’t get much chance to get out in service - felt really weird!  I missed it!

Speaking of field service, I am happy to report that in August, when we got back here from the US, I finally took the plunge and applied to join my wife in the regular pioneer work.  I started Sep 1 without having the official approval yet, but that eventually arrived in Oct (yeah, I was as shocked as you are right now).  I must admit that I never realized just how good it would feel to spend this much time in the ministry.  I had been auxiliary pioneering most of the first year we were here but its interesting what a difference it makes to go from 50 to 70 hours and be part of this special ‘team’ of full time volunteers that is spearheading the preaching work throughout the world.  My love and enjoyment for the ministry has deepened over the last year+ in general but especially so in just these first 3+ months of pioneering.  Often over the years, I admit that I was out in service more because I knew it was the right thing to do than for the ‘joy of the ministry’.  Now I find that I actually prefer to be out in service particularly when I’m stressed or worried about something because I find so much joy in it.  Then again, no doubt it helps that pretty much every day here (or at least week) you have some kind of amazing experience out in service.  In fact, it has almost gotten to be routine.  The scene from the other day was: Sam: hey how did service go this morning?  Clint: Not bad, I placed a couple of books, oh, and started a study with a really sincere woman who asked some really deep questions.  Sam: Mm nice, so anyway, did you pick up that stuff at the store like I asked?  Clint: Yeah its right here, so what’s for lunch, anyway?   !?!?!?!  Seriously?!  If that had happened to me a year and a half ago, I would have been bouncing off the walls excited and calling all of my friends to tell them about it.  Now I just feel a nice peaceful glow inside like a good morning’s work has been done and looking forward to the next…yep, getting accustomed to it!

Well this post is probably long enough so we’ll end it here.  Next post definitely won’t take so long to put up.  Love and miss you all and we’ve appreciated your words of support and encouragement.  Until next post…

Coming home to visit soon!!!

Hey everyone!  Sorry it has been so long since we’ve posted.  We sort of settled into a busy routine of field service and meeting parts and time has really flown.  It is hard to believe that it has been 11 months since we arrived!  We were warned that lots of people get really homesick around the 6th or 7th month mark but so far we haven’t felt that way.  While we miss our friends & family, familiar foods, and lots of conveniences back home, we treasure on a daily basis the privilege and blessing we have of being down here.

Our field service day yesterday underscores why we are enjoying it so much here.  We went up to another remote territory about 1.5 hours from town where there are several small pueblos/towns.  We had been there a couple times before when our group had the territory and had found a lot of interest and started numerous bible studies.  However, since then another congregation had been assigned to that area and we were asked to leave the interest in their hands…so the last trip out there was last February (when Chelsa was here!).  Well, it ends up that the other cong has never made it out there for one reason or another.  And so a couple weeks ago Sam receives a couple of calls from her studies there and they are asking why she hasn’t returned to see them!  That in itself is a big deal.  The people there normally have very little financial means and rarely call out on their cell phones because of the cost (outgoing=expensive, incoming=free).  So, we decided to take a few people along and went up there yesterday, and ended up having an absolutely amazing day.  Most of our studies and calls were there and we had great conversations with them.  Sam was able to place about 20-30 bible story & YPA books with the school kids, and the teachers asked her to bring back another 30-40 more books for the other kids who weren’t there.  I had the opportunity to show one man that I had given a bible to on the last visit how to look up scriptures.  When he admitted that he had read the bible very little since my last visit in Feb, I showed him the scriptures in Juan 17:3 and then Mat 5:3.  I was amazed to see how those scriptures affected him.  He practically promised me that he was going to sit down with his family and kids and study with them regularly because he realized how important it was.  He was thrilled to see how easy it was to use the bible and look up scriptures once he understood how he could find the bible book in the index and then understood how the chapters and verses worked.  We did several ‘practice examples’ until he had it down pat.

Well, we are excited to say that we are coming home NEXT WEEK to visit!!!  We can’t wait to see everyone.  If you have any specific time we could hang out with you, send me an email and let’s make a date!  We will be back for about a month and then returning here for another year.  We will also be heading down to California for about a week just to do a road trip, do some wine tasting, and visit friends.  I seriously cannot wait to taste a real rib-eye steak and some sushi!!!  Oh yeah, and Thai food!!  And Indian food, and…pretty sad how much I miss familiar food…

Anyway, for those who have told me that they want more pics and less dialogue here, here are a bunch of pics that Sam put together.  She already emailed them to a few people but for the rest of you all, here you go:

Clint and group on the bikes-not all made it home!!  They have a habit of breaking down at the high altitude especially when one of the brothers doesn’t seem to think his needs a carb filter. (lots of dust)

 

Luis and a little brother (Robin) who incidentally is about 8 or 10 and gave one of the best talk #3’s I’ve heard down here. He gives amazing talks and he is just a little guy. He does a really good job with his reasoning points and he speaks up and has awesome sense stress. He is way out in the boonies I guess you can see that by the pic. Just an amazing kid.

 

Me and a Bible study and her daughter from Ibarra-they went with us to the meeting in Pablo Arenas-Check out the views!! It’s awesome way up there.

 

Hmm, they have a different type of road kill here. Giant spiders that can really jump. Clint almost ran this one over-he’s been running them over a lot lately I think it has something to do with the rain we decided to let this one live and take a pic. Clint had to jump back in the car before it jumped on him. This thing is about 6 inches wide.

Burro in tow. This is something you don’t see everyday-and I really don’t think they are doing it for extra horse power. I had to attach it-not quite sure why they didn’t just give the thing a ride. Half the time you see giant pigs in the back of peoples cars –yes cars-not trucks! Just hangin out in the back seat but apparently this guy must have run away from home and they are teaching him a lesson.

 

This is why you don’t usually see many gymnasiums around. You get your vehicle stuck in the mud so often everyone gets a workout before service just to make sure you are good and ready. When it rains here the dirt turns into a sponge. Sometimes it rains several inches in one night so the next day service is always entertaining.

 

Plant life…

 

 

 

 

 

12,000 ft and going over the pass-AMAZING VIEWS the camera just can’t do it justice. It’s really cold up here.

 

 

Not too many w/ us this time only 5 in the back and 5 in the cab. The others took the little blue truck that was stuck in the mud because it was supposed to rain (it did more pics later) and the roads were supposed to be washed out. So they took the long way around and poor things didn’t get home till 800pm!!

 

 

Coming down the other side. A little foggy. Clint w his hat out the window.

 

 

 

To get to this one town, we have to cross a river.  Last week it was the highest we’ve ever seen it:

 

Clever –‘this water really makes me have to pea, are you sure you want me to walk all the way to the middle?’

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alcetes-‘Clever, I don’t believe you I’m checking for myself and yes, I know I look like Moses’

 

 

 

 

Alcetes –‘it’s really cold but I’m sure we can pass’

 

 

 

 

 

Jarassic Park…almost there.

 

 

Yep pretty sure there is no way we are getting through here, just passed a river, drove over the top of a water fall and now a giant landslide-hmm. Think we are turning around cause it’s at least another ½ hr walk and can’t leave the car here-the cows might steal it.

 

 

Top of waterfall in background. Couldn’t get down to get a pic of the waterfall from below.

 

 

Really you left your lunch in the blue truck…

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe we can move it???

 

 

 

 

 

What are we wasting our time for-we could be walkin!

 

 

 

At least they’ll be able to get past it. Hey and we can get out time going again!

 

 

 

The truck is getting washed. Hey and look we’re doing advertising for the local town. Rain –they had to have some sort of protection.

 

 

It’s a long way home!

 

 

 

 

 

 

What you lookin at?

 

 

 

Sharon-(back in town) This is Sharon my buddy. She is studying –had her first talk with me (poor thing). Her husband is an English professor at the University and their son Isreal who thank goodness is near the end of his TERRIBLE TWOS!! She’s going to be getting baptized at the next convention.

Sam’s blurb:

That's about it for pics as always we enjoy field service here. We are constantly finding new interest. Last week a woman who lives up in the mountains sat down next to me in a tienda where i was having my bible study with a young girl -Katherine. Katherine's mom asked her if she could help her and she said 'no i just want to listen to what she has to say'. We were studying out of the Bible Story Book. Turns out she lives in Pugaran, a town about another hour and a half from where we were. After speaking to her for a while turns out that we already study with her sister. (the family that has 10 kids 5 deaf and 5 hearing-have a sister from the sign language group working on teaching them sign language right now.) They live at the very very top of the town-or so we thought, turns out the woman -Inez who was listening said she lives about another 1/2 hr walk up the hill from them and she has never had the chance to speak to us. She only sees the literature and videos we leave with her family. I asked her if she'd seen the Bible Teach Book and if she was interested in having a study. Since we are coming back to the states in a few we made arrangements for someone with a motorcycle to call on her (much easier that way). She was happy as she left the tienda with the book on her 3 1/2 hour walk home. (She left around 430 so ya-she was walking home in the dark).

Amazing experiences, views and friends. See you all in a few weeks.