Less than a year ago, I lost my dad, and I’m still coping with that loss…

I’m in New Orleans, Rachel and I drove here on Saturday after hearing that her grandmother was very ill. we arrived Saturday evening, and went directly to the hospital. We spent a little time with The family members that were there, and then went and checked into the hotel. Rachel’s sister was at the hotel already, and helped us get checked in… 4 people, 4 hotel rooms. but apparently there was a surplus of rooms open in the hotel, so it was no bother.

Sunday I couldn’t handle going back to the hospital, as it brought up too much memory of my dad’s passing. I spent the day in quiet reflection, as I was trying to just be at peace. The girls had  good day spending time with Gan, and I ended up grabbing some coffee, and a little food.

Monday morning came the knock at my door that seemed inevitable… Gan had passed away. Rachel’s dad was on his way to town a few ours later, but since he had a 13-14 hour drive, we knew it would be the next morning before he arrived.

Tuesday was Rachel’s birthday, it was also Gan’s. Rachel and I went and had a quiet lunch in the quarter, and then we all went to dinner with 2 uncles, and their wives/ girlfriends. It was surreal. Rachel’s Grandmother would have been 79 that day. We had dinner at a restaurant that you could see from Gan’s bedroom window. No-one knew how to act, that to say, or what to do. We celebrated life the best way we knew how, in the midst of death.

The funeral is tomorrow, and I better get some sleep between now and then…

Rachel’s Grandmother Gan is in the hospital in New Orleans, and the prognosis isn’t good. We’re getting ready to hit the road to go see her.

Gas prices are scary right now, with a rise from $3.65 a gallon to as high as $5.49 a gallon on my trip from Quincy to Tallahassee. I hope we can find gas along the way. The unknown is kinda scary.

The hurricane, Ivan I think his name is, is bearing down on the refineries in Texas, and they’ve shut some down. The panic is the only reason for the sudden jump in prices.

I saw a sign today that said “Hurricane season is only 2 days away, are You ready?” I thought that was funny.

You can find the letter here

I turned another year older over the weekend, and oddly enough, I’m now the same age as my grandmother’s been for years.

Yup, I’m 29.

Got some Bad news from Rachel’s family on my birthday, and if you could be praying for them that would be much appreciated.

Until then, the update:

Since the Monroe’s have been in the states, it seemed foolish to go down to Guatemala when the people I’d be working with weren’t there, so my August date has been pushed back to sometime in October-ish with the long term move date unchanged at sometime in January.

My support letter is about done now, and should be making it out within a few days, send me your snail mail address if you want a hard copy, I’m planning to send most out by Email to simplify the process and save on mailing costs.

I’ve had the chance to talk more with the Monroe’s to get a better idea where they see me fitting in with the ministry, and feel good about all the conversations we’ve had so far. I was supposed to meet with them over the weekend, but what was left of a hurricane dropped a whole lot of rain, and a blew some decent wind, and made the 45 minute drive out seem a little too treacherous, so we’ll have to reschedule for sometime soon.

3 trees down across the driveway, 20+ inches of rain, and all kinds of delays on things.

I made it through unscathed, but I need to fix my mom’s roof some!

Hola Amigo’s, Yo quero Taco Bell!

Yeah, that’s roughly the extent of my current Spanish vocabulary, thus my need for a Spanish language school. (Okay, it’s slightly better than that, but I’d be in real trouble if I got dropped in the middle of little Havana and needed to find anything other than a library or a bathroom right now!)

Most of the Spanish Language Schools that come well recommended, seem to be about $200 per week (including room and board with a local family) Which seems reasonable to me, but it’s yet another expense I need to raise funds for before this trip!

More on the complications with the date later in the week!

I’ve put a tentative date on leaving, but there are complications with the date… More about that soon, but for now:

The plan is to leave For Guate’ about the first week of August, but there’s a lot to do in the mean time!

I’ve been working on figuring out my support raising, but I haven’t had the time to get it all organized.

I should be back to posting more regularly now, see you soon!

My pinkie is swelled up from the base of my pinkie finger to my wrist, and honestly, typing is pretty painful, so my posts might be slightly fewer and further between.

I’ve had several minor setbacks recently, from needing to get a lot of things done that I hadn’t planned to, (like helping my Girlfriend replace her radiator, radiator hoses, fan wiring harness etc. and eventually her whole car when everything else hasn’t worked.) To having very unfavorable reports on the value of one of my investments.

I’m getting my investments re-evaluated, and hopefully I’m about done with all of the other little things, and then I can start making more concrete plans!

So far, it’s looking like I can’t leave much before the middle of July, which is a little dissapointing, but I’m trusting that the Lord will let all this happen in His perfect timing…

I’ve been using a software add-on with firefox (my web browser of choice) that allows me to Blog to this site more easily, about 2 weeks ago, firefox downloaded an automatic update for the software that didn’t fit very well with the way I wrote content, and sure enough, when my user interface went out the window, I started blogging a lot less.

I wonder how often we find ourselves in a situation that teh way that God wishes for us to grow, and maybe communicate with Him changes a little bit as we mature, and suddenly we find ourselves feeling passed over when truly, God is just trying to grow us as people?