Back Home.......Finally!

Alberto "Miller" de los Santos

     On Oct 15th Karen took Marcy and me to the airport in Santiago for a trip back to the states that was multi-purposeful. We begin in California for 2 days visiting a few supporters, a school, a prospective new agency to partner with that deals in used playgrounds, and then to LAX to pick up Alberto (a national on our staff that was joining me for two weeks of our trip). After picking up Alberto we spent another 4 days in the Fresno/Visalia area for the annual SI fall banquet and then off to Indiana for two weeks visiting more churches, National staff supporters, some of this last year's summer short term staff, some of our personal supporters and several days at Bethel College in Mishawaka promoting our Semester Program. We were even able to get a photo of Alberto in Amish clothes and a buggy ride. We spent one day in Chicago visiting past SI staff members and having a great afternoon/evening reminiscing about the times in Jarabacoa.

Alberto trying to unload corn and text at the same time.

       It was great to spend time with Alberto showing him our home town area and church. He had never been out of the Dominican Republic so this was a whole new experience for him. One that I am sure he will remember for a long time. After spending time visiting SI supporters and taking Alberto to different places, we put him on a plane back to the DR on October 2nd. After a couple more days of meetings with donors and potential "special project" donors, I was able to spend 3-4 days with family and  help my dad harvest his corn crop from the summer.While I was doing that Marcy got to spend time with both Grandparents and other family members also. Sleeping over night with Rachel and Fred both one night each. She really misses her brothers and sisters. We were able to also see the homes of all three of our children in Indiana. They all three had moved into different homes since we left so that was an added bonus to see that.

Marcy helping Grams U make cinnamon rolls

    

 Then on Oct 10th Marcy and I headed to St Louis to meet up with our 4 "Bigs" and their spouses for a weekend together meeting Jeff and Abby (from Oklahoma). The males of the group participated in a 10 mile run with 15 different obstacles (Tough Mudder). I won't say much about that but if you want to know more ask me or one of the boys. I will just say it was for sure a bonding experience for all 5 of us. Marcy and the other 3 girls went shopping or something while we were gone.
       

Bruce and Barb Draggoo. Great friends of our family.

    From St Louis, Marcy and I headed to Miami for another 3 days of visiting current supporters of National Staff and Sites in the Jarabacoa area. We had been gone for 4 weeks+ and it was plenty long to be gone from home. We arrived back home on October 16th. It was great to be back in the heat, humidity and crazy driving. It was good to be back with Karen and the girls and then back to work at SI. Thanks to all of you for your support and prayers. I hope to get back to posting every two weeks. Thanks for the patience.

Nice and clean before the Tough Mudder started

Not so much clean or warmth at this point in the event :(

Why I hate to fly

        I just now found this post that I had written about three weeks ago and never posted so even though it is a bit late........

     So I am sitting waiting to board in Santiago and they come over the PA system and page me. Generally I would be very privileged to have someone call my name out in a huge crowded building and it would make me feel important and all. Not this time. My first thought was, what did I pack that I was not supposed to pack? I go down to the gate area and they have my luggage and are going through it. In my luggage I have 12 small boxes of a natural treatment medicine that had been donated to SI but was not used and I (in a weaker moment) volunteered to bring it back to the donor. There are 16 small glass vials in each box and it is all written in English and they can’t read it. Just as I almost have them convinced that it is not an illegal substance, I am at my wits end and say. “Look, why don’t I just take it all out of the bag and leave it here?” Wrong thing to say at an airport where they are still not sure what this “substance” is and I am now wanting to take it out, put in in a corner and get on a plane and fly away. Not the best option I could have come up with at the time. Now they are really wondering what it is since I was so anxious to just leave it there. After about an hour of litigation, they put my stuff back in my bag and send me on my way.  The last time I tried to help out someone by taking something back to the states for them, it was a case of about 30 books for another missionary. That time they called me down and went through each book, page by page, to make sure I didn't have drugs that I had supposedly stashed between the pages.

      So I am now I sit in the Miami International airport watching people hurrying to catch a flight or those that are not in a hurry, walk down the middle of the aisle blocking those that are trying to hurry. There are also those that are glued to their phones texting away to some unknown place. I am reminded why I hate flying. It’s not the actual flying that I hate. Ok, well I hate that too, the sitting for hours on a plane with nowhere to go and no room to stretch out. But I am talking more about the parts in between the actual flying. Like the checking in, the waiting between connections, the standing in line in customs, the PA systems saying  #$$&^^@*99aljhh........... BOARDING NOW! Why is it that the only part of the announcement that you can understand is the “boarding now”?

      So that gives you a small taste of why I hate flying. Problem is that when you live where we do, your options are pretty limited as to ways to get back and forth to visit your family.

     Hopefully many of you that are reading this I will get a chance to visit with face to face within the next few weeks. Spending the first week in California doing some fundraising and meeting donors of SI then off the Indiana for another week and a half of meetings and visiting more SI donors and then a week of just hanging out with family and then back to where I am right now, Miami, visiting more SI donors and supporters. It is a pretty full time but I get to spend it with our daughter Marcy so that is an added benefit I guess.