Tales From The Field: Getting There Is Half The Fun! Right?

Well I finally got my pics uploaded to my computer, and had a little extra time at work, so here's a little installment of the stories from our trip!

Thursday July 27

We leave! The start of a long journey...one that takes us on 4 airplanes, one mini-bus, 5 cities, in *only* 40 hours.

Along the way, we napped on the river bank in Frankfurt, had coffee in the airport cafe in Zagreb, and saw the sparkling lights on the Adriatic coast.

Hanging out in Frankfurt for 8-10 hours...

Coffee in Frankfurt!

The Main ("mine") River

Frankfurt

Then came the harrowing mini-bus ride from Dubrovnik to Niksic. The drive was only supposed to take about 2 hours. It took almost 4. In the middle of the night. With drivers who *claim* they don't speak English. In a former Communist country with no cell phone signal.

By this time it is late Friday night, almost Saturday morning, local time. Although our bodies have NO idea what time they think it is!

We load up at the Dubrovnik airport, after finally figuring out we lost one suitcase along the way. We rumble through Dubrovnik and other picturesque sea-side towns, full of condos, houses and boats. Finally, we leave the coast-side and begin climbing up into the mountains. Have no idea what country we are in at this point. Of course, it's pitch-black out, since it's the middle of the night AND the middle of nowhere.

The driver speeds up and is whipping us around hair-pin curves on the side of mountains where there's a 1,000 foot cliff. Great. I close my eyes, trying to doze off while tuning out the Euro-pop dance beat. Not an easy task, in case you were wondering.

Then, the road ends. Yes, ENDS. As in, some ruts in the grass is what we drive along now. I think at this point, we all start getting a little nervous. We go along the grassy-rutted-"road" for a while, then it turns to gravelly rock. All the better for those van tires to slide around on! Meanwhile, the driver occupies himself by texting and looking at his Facebook account on his phone. Safety first, you know!

This went on for a while, although probably not as long as it felt. And I have to admit: I really thought for a while that we were getting kidnapped and/or trafficked. Seriously, don't laugh. It was the middle of NOWHERE and we have no idea who these guys are or where we are going. We knew the name of the town in Montenegro we were headed to, but it took us all week to learn to say it! (Niksic=neek seek) Plus I was majorly sleep deprived. My brain does not exactly think rationally in that condition.

FINALLY, we pop out onto a real road, come around the bend on the side of the mountain, and see city lights below us. The driver points and says "Niksic", and decides to step on it again. After a few more near-misses with other cars and guardrails, we start coming into Niksic.

Looking back, we only went through 2 border checkpoints...but travelled through 3 countries! (Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro) Hmmmm.... We are not sure what the deal was, because the "shortcut" took waaaayyy longer than the route we took back to Dubrovnik.

Something fishy was afoot, and I don't think we really want to know what! Thankfully, we all made it, the lost suitcase caught up to us, and Montenegro was better than we expected!

Back Home!

We are back from our missions trip, so post n' pics will be forthcoming....however, right now we are having to deal with Scott's shoulder injury, my car that has died, and mountains of laundry. And I had to go back to work today! :-/

Just be in prayer for Scott's shoulder. He was playing basketball last Thursday on the trip and popped his shoulder out of joint. It was bad enough for a visit to the local ER (yikes). He is going to doctors today and I believe is having an MRI done right now to determine the extent of the damage. They are saying it might even be a shoulder separation and surgery is more than likely in his near future.

Oh, and my car battery has died so I'm borrowing Rachel's car, but it will be Wednesday night before I can see about getting a new one. Just pray that the battery is the only thing wrong!
But, God is faithful and His name was proclaimed in a little town in a little country that has been really dark for a long time!

Missions Trip Coming Up...

We leave this Thursday for our first-ever foreign missions trip with "our" college /young adult group! We are so excited, maybe a little nervous, and definately dreading the long flights!

We leave Birmingham at 1200 PM on Thursday, and 4 airports, one bus ride, and about 36 hours later, we will arrive in Niksic, Montenegro...some time in the wee hours of Saturday morning. (Local time. It'll feel like about 6PM Saturday for us. Yikes.)

I have made endless lists of the stuff to pack, supplies, and made more trips to Wal-Mart than I usually make in a month this week! And, unfortunately, I think I have to go back tonight!

Please pray for us over the next 11 days or so! I am really worried that all our bags won't make it all the way through!

If we get internet access at all, we will try to post updates on Facebook and Twitter!

Thoughts on Cancer and Missionary Dresses

So I thought I'd give a little week-in-review update...I'm trying to be better at this blogging thing, instead of posting a random thought every-once-in-a-while. Ha! We'll see....

Let me start with work: Dr Perry is doing better, from reports we have gotten. He decided to take a course of treatments, on the advice of the researching MD at IU on Germ Cell Cancer. We were all thrilled at the office that he decided to do this! Gives us all more hope...anyway, Dr Perry MUST be feeling himself, cause he managed to have himself moved from the regular hosp. floor to 3 Women's to receive his chemo treatments...mind you, 3 WOMENS...pretty sure he is the only male patient to take up residence in the Womens wing. It made us in the office laugh!

Otherwise, work is slightly chaotic, since there is NO WHERE to work patients in....

It is amazing to me how selfish people can be...even people who profess Christ! Most patients are being very understanding with our office's current predicament, but there are a handful that seem to not care if Dr Perry is dying or not...they just want to be seen! (I think most of them care about pain meds actually) Anyway, it makes us mad and upsets us more about Dr Perry.

Enough ranting about work.

It's been Missions Conference at SMIC this week, and I have grown to love Missions Conference! Here's a brief history on Ree's thoughts on missions: I was terrified when I was younger that God would call me to the mission field. Literally scared. I didn't want to be away from my B'ham comfort zone, away from familiarity. I didn't want to go to a hot jungle with no electricity. And I was REALLY scared of the "Missionary Dresses". You laugh...I know...I'm laughing right now too. But really, I didn't want to dress in the sack-y, jumper-dresses that all missionary moms seem to wear when they are home on furlough. (Not anymore...at least not alot of them. Just back in the early '90s) So, obviously, I was self-absorbed as teenagers are, and didn't care about people's hearts that need the Light of God's Glorious Name shared with them. God has changed my heart, thankfully, and I desire to share His Name with people. Not neccessarily in the deepest darkest jungle mind you....but at least I'm (more) willing.

ANYWAY, I love hearing from the Field and the different things that missionaries are doing around the globe for the Glory of His Name. One of my favs, actually from last years conference, is Ede Clarke who ministers in China. Check her ministry out here: http://www.gottago.cc/

She is pretty much amazing. Maybe I'll blog about Ede soon. She was on my heart this week...