GPS & Wonders of the World

Go ahead... sing it with me:
"Yes, I love technology... but not as much as..."

Well, whatever, I do.  And this week in Petra I got to break out my Garmin eTrex for geocaching fun.  Geocaching is 21st century treasure hunting for the common man.  The good folks at geocaching.com log the location of small caches hidden all over the globe.  Some are just a film canister with paper and pen to record your visit.  Others are ammo boxes filled with trinkets and goodies to share: leave one &take one!  You find the "treasure" by entering the coordinates into a GPS and following the trail.  Some are cleverly hidden and others, such as the one I found at Petra, are just out in the open.

Our first caching trip was with Shannon & Melissa a few years ago.  It was a mad dash across Columbia on a dreary day, from roadside caches on Hwy 63 to a monster box of stuff in Cosmo park.  In all I think we found 4 or 5 caches within a 15 minute drive of our house.

When we came to Jordan, I knew there were caches in some of the parks, but this week was the first time I went searching.  I downloaded the coordinates for several caches into my eTrex and while we were marching around Petra, kept watch on where we were in relation to them.  Sure, enough.  We got up to the Monastery and I knew we were close.  The instructions mentioned a tent manned by Maria from the Canary Islands and her Bedouin boyfriend, Attallah.  I walked in and introduced myself.  After some small talk about his family (a newborn kept Maria back in the village) and my quest, he reached back in the tent and said, "You mean this?  I didn't know what it was!"  I exchanged my travel bug for a nice butterfly coin.  

My bug and the coin are coded to allow for tracking.  I assigned a "mission" to my bug to get back to Missouri.  The next geocacher who finds my bug will take it to another site and so on, until it reaches its destination.  The butterfly has to get back to its owner in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.  I'll take it with me to drop in another cache along the way.

GPS isn't just for finding the next Wendy's!  (Altho', I really like Wendy's and wouldn't mind a Baconator right about now...)

Easter, Petra & Child Bearing

Judging by the title, this post is gonna cover a lot of ground... let's see, we got your ancient cities (check!), your ancient religious customs (check!) and your ancient birthing processes (hoping we don't have to experience any of THAT!).

We celebrated Easter on the same weekend as the western world.  On this side of the globe we follow the Orthodox calendar for holy days and most of the time we're a bit different than our friends across the pond.  Our Easter service always includes a multi-national selection of songs, the kiddies come out and do their thing and everyone has a general good time.  We're really grateful to have Jonathon and Sherry Dewey on board thru the end of the summer.  They're good Canadian folk who can cook, sling a hammer and have a darling set of kids, Matthew & Shaylyn.  I mention them here because Sherry took the picture of me and Dammi preaching Friday afternoon.  You'll be seeing a lot more of them.  Sunday afternoon we had the absolute pleasure of a fine Easter lunch at the Ashkar home.  For those who know that 1st Circle haven, it was all you'd expect: a ham from Lebanon, green bean casserole, real mashed potatoes, 7 layer salad... you get the picture.

(insert droning, historical voice) Petra is the remains of an ancient civilization that capitalized on the trade routes across the desert sands.  They borrowed heavily from surrounding culture's architecture to create amazing tombs carved into sandstone.  Petra's one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, and a World Heritage Site. After 4 or 5 times of visiting this amazing place, I have to agree with the BBC, it's one of the "places you have to see before you die."  I've not been down there this early in the year before.  Seeing it so green (above) before the summer wipes it all away was refreshing. You can see all of my shots from our recent run south here.

And, for our final subject... we've got FIVE DAYS to go!  That's right, boys and girls, soon it'll be Family Picture Day!  In case you're wondering if the desert sun has finally done me in, I was scoping out some FB albums and realized, "We're going to be taking FAMILY pictures!"  I promptly got all cheesy and stuff.  Our visit last week to Dr. Azar was uneventful, but informative.  We've had a visit to the delivery area and met the nurses there.  Jordan Hospital is a respected name in medicine here and we feel confident we're in good hands.  If you haven't stopped by our Parenting Album on Facebook, here's Suzi at 39 weeks!

Quick Change Artist

Yep... sometimes you gotta just go with what gets given to you... like baby stuff!  This week, some of Suzi's English students unloaded a boatload (well, maybe a dinghy) worth of gear, clothes and furniture on us.  Of course, that called for a quick run back to the mall on the last day to return that Moses basket I waxed poetic about last week... but, hey, sometimes function trumps art... and on our budget, that's nearly every time!  We're grateful for their generosity.  Speaking of the Art Dept, Suz did a little surfing and taught herself to make origami cranes for a mobile over the McBaby's bed... never cease to be amazed by my girl!
In about two weeks, we're going to have a baby.  We don't hide the fact there's some apprehension, a few unanswered questions, but a whole lot of anticipation.  Tomorrow we go to see Dr. Azar to check out the hospital and run some tests on the Incubator.  The clock's running out over here and we're about as ready as we're gonna get.  I'm curious how our schedule will move around this new-found bundle of fun.  I know you "make it work" and have to "re-prioritize," but just what form that takes will prove interesting.  The specter of constant sleep deprivation looms a bit large in my mind.  Of course, it's 1AM and I'm sitting here, bleary-eyed, ironically commenting on loss of sleep... perhaps a nap is in order!

23 Days

So, how about some commentary on OUR baby?
Enough with this whole "Heidi, did this, did that, went here, went there!"  You'd think she was Jaime's first born or the first grandchild for Vernon & Glynnda or something.  WELL... if they think that Heidi's the ONLY baby in town... they've got 23 days left.

And then we'll have ours.  And there'll be TWO grandchildren.  Heidi's time in the spotlight is QUICKLY coming to an end!

Muwhaaahhaaa!! (insert Dr. Claw voice here)

(Suzi has just come in and asked, "What are you writing about?  You look like a suspicious Muppet."  I think I must have been unconsciously doing the "Muwhaaahhaaa."  It's hard to attempt cynical prose when you look like a Suspicious Muppet.)

Of course, all that blather above is simply that... blather.  Mainly we haven't said much about our impending parenthood because we've been living in the "pre-baby" reality that allows you blissful ignorance of the storm quickly approaching.  There'll be plenty of that soon enough.

And to all those who say the 9 months just flies by and you can't believe how fast the baby got there, please enjoy that parallel universe you're in.  It has absolutely nothing to do with our gestation period.  At our current rate, we're giving birth to an elephant.

("I don't know what's wrong, Babar, I've just been a little emotional for the PAST TWO YEARS!")

Yes, according to good Dr. Azar, McBaby is coming along nicely.  He's shown us pictures of femurs and measured skull growth.  We've heard the rat-tat-tat of the heart and watched its trance-inducing rhythmic pulsations.  But, I'm telling you, after Heidi needed a crowbar to come out, I'm more and more convinced this last month is gonna last FOREVER!

McBaby, come on, already!  Let's get this family thing on the road so I can show you how to properly set an EQ for JBLs.  There's this huge remote-controlled Hummer that's totally got your name on it... every time I wander through toy sections I try to figure out how to cram stuff in a suitcase for you.  I absolutely know you're gonna love your mom's scissor craft ability 'cause your dad can't cut a straight line with a ruler.  Did you know I've got a 6-foot kite with hand controls?  You can steer the thing!  And wait till you see the little parrot hanging off your Moses basket... It's got two fruit-lookin' things to munch on, safely just out of reach so we can be good parents. 

Are you going to be insatiably curious about what's behind that wall over there?  Or are you going to wait like your mom until I come report they've hidden snacks back there and I snagged cookies for all of us?  How am I going to wake you up in the morning for your first day of school?  Will you want french fries for breakfast, too, or will you be fiendin' for an apple and oatmeal like Mom?  McBaby, you've got so much to learn about... like how to print in blue when the black ink runs out or that those tears of gratitude are perfectly acceptable when you feel the tangible love of God in prayer.

Did I mention that a few days ago I had a dream about you for the first time?  Didn't see you up close, but I was just walking about with you cradled in my arm. When I woke up I thought,

"Dude, this is for real... I must be pretty excited about it."

These are the Days...

There are days, any pastor will tell you, that you want to hang up your blue suede shoes, unhook the Thompson Chain and simply walk away.  There are others when you're reminded of the reason, as my pastor always said, "We're in the People Business."

Last week, we finally got the chance to dedicate Natali Reid with Jeremy & Shandrika.  I've seen a few baby dedications in my time, but this one required direct participation!  I did my research, pulled together some resources, asked some protocol questions and hit the pulpit with the prayer I'd get it right by dismissal.

I'm not going into a run-down of my sermon notes or the awesome move of God that happened at the end of service, but I had a catch in my throat as I called those parents up front.  These guys left Sri Lanka to make a life for themselves and in the process have two darling creations.  While Jeremy never smiles in any picture I've taken with him, he has a soft heart and a fighter's spirit.  We love their family dearly... good people... and they're just four of the many reasons we get up every morning.  There IS a Cause... and I'm happy to be in the midst of it.

Jerusalem

I mentioned this on FB a few weeks ago, but wanted to post this amazing panoramic shot from the Sea of Galilee. All the other shots are here.

So, we went to Jerusalem for a few days.

Now, that, in it's self, is a very, very cool thing.  Some folks get to road trip to Boise.  We get to road trip to the most hotly contested city on earth.  Bar none. (Which, BTW, was a pretty good candy bar when I was in Jr. High.  The Bar None... not Contested Cities.)  The only difference 'tween the two is that Boise doesn't come with the pleasure of that King Hussein/ Allenby border crossing and several hours of boredom interspersed with individualized interviews with the pleasant staff there.

While in town we got some quality time in the Old City and pulled in a few nice moments on Ben Yahuda street.  There's a crepe place down there that's a must on any given day.

While it took the Lord a bit longer to make the journey in sandal leather, we jetted north up the highway overlooking the Jordan River valley one morning with some family friends.  Let's be frank: The Sea of Galilee is not a Sea.  It's a good-sized lake.  But when you round the bend and see Capernaum and realize the Biblical significance of where you are... well, it's just pretty cool.

I'm sure there's probably a tour leaving soon from a church parking lot near you, and at the risk of sounding patronizing, get on the bus.  Jerusalem is the most amazing city in the world.  Not because of its nightlife or fashion or food.  It's the walls built by Suleiman circa 1538 or the Zion Gate pock marks from 1948.  It's the jolting transfer of culture in a passageway between the Arabic Souq and the Jewish Quarter.  It's the Via Dolorosa and its sundry pilgrims.

For time immortal, Jerusalem has been a shrine city.  Today, for a large part of the world's believers of three differing stripes, it still is.

Fancy...

There are times when people say to us, "Wow... I wish I could live overseas.  It must be so exciting!"  (In other words: "Wow... you guys are glamorous world travelers and it's all exotic locales and sunbeams for you!")

Today... was not... exotic.

 Unless, of course, you take into account the bacterial content of a sewer backing up into your church bathroom.  Now, that, friends and neighbors, is pretty exotic.  See, there's been a smell that comes around periodically, from the back of the church.  There's been all kinds of ideas and theories batted around, but when the water was literally pouring across the floor, I figured we could rule out some of them.  Reality had struck.

And reality takes the form of an overloaded sewer system in the rainy season, combined with overeager neighbors cleaning out their 'fridges too frequently and, well, it's the desert and there's dirt everywhere.  So, when the manhole covers come off, you get this:

But, of course, that can only happen after you've camped out 'till 4AM waiting for the city to clear a path of least resistance... only to find out that their truck is too big for the alley and they'll have to come back a few hours later.  Once the pipes are clear to do their thing, this too can be you... being... exotic:

The short of it is that in those four hours, liquid that should have stayed outside got to go inside through the office, classroom, back hallway, and stage area up to the first row of seats.  Tasty.  Also a bit squishy.  I would like to give serious props to the GAM water guys for working a cold and wet night as well as our awesome landlord who worked magic to get the job done.  To finish the clean-up I made two phone calls and got an 8-member multi-national force from our congregation to clear out the chairs, pull up the remaining linoleum & carry off the stage for the carpet cleaner genies to come tomorrow.  Hopefully they've got a box of magic anti-bacterial goodness with them.