A Man

First, they pull the grass. Daddy chops off long sideways roots of quack grass that reach into the garden. The children trail behind and gather armloads of clumpy sod, pile it in the wheelbarrow.

Jane pokes a fresh clump with her toe, "I think I need a MAN'S help." She looks around, and then gives the clod a little kick.

Daddy hacks another clean swipe at the garden's edge. He pauses, "Hey Jack, anytime someone says they need a MAN'S help, you should help them right away."

"Oh. Okay." He grabs Janie's clod and tosses it into the wheelbarrow. Jane grins.

Off to the left, another clump of grass, "I think I need a MAN," she looks around for Jack, "because I don't want to bend down and pick that up." She tries not to smile and raises her eyebrows. He slogs it into the wheelbarrow.






At the end of the garden they race back to Daddy. He saws open bags of coffee grounds and scatters long black stripes over the dirt. They wriggle their toes in it.

As daylight wanes we gather garden trowels and buckets, a pair of old blue gloves, and go inside. Jane pauses at the door, "Jack, I think I need a MAN. Will you close the door after Lulie comes in?"

"Yeah, I will." With a sideways grin he turns to wait for little sis, that same long-suffering streak of his father a badge of honor.

Daddy

Daddy makes everything all better.

10 Years, My Honey

Ten years ago today. That's when Craig started courting me. Cold and icy and December wind, it was a day like today. He said he'd have none of this dating business. Dating is for the birds. Could he please court me, he asked.






Court. It seems strange now, we spent that whole time, days, weeks, a couple of months, not so much as a kiss. Just miles and miles of words, jokes and questions, belly laughs and stolen glances. We ate at Perkins, had "our" table. We knew the servers names.





On his birthday he asked me to marry him, held my hand and lassoed the moon. Held my hand, a first. And asked my daddy.





It doesn't take so long to plan a wedding. Don't we just buy a dress and get a church, I asked? It was all so simple, like how we hiked up a waterfall one afternoon just for the fun of it. Our faces wet, the view stretching on and out a million miles, simple.





And all along, he held my hand. Here and there at first. Then lots. Encyclopedias of conversation, atlases of adventure, and he held my hand.

A kiss and a wedding. Three kids, four. Ten years. I couldn't be a richer woman.

Day Four

"GLORY to GOD. GLOOOORRRY to GOD. GLORY to GOD in the HIGHEST!" It's a shouting match in the sun-room. The piano thunders with small fists pounding out fits of enthusiasm. Jack's voice echos a half-second behind Jane's, and Lulu is screaming. Day four of Daddy's backpacking trip and the glory's getting quite stout around here. As it erupts down the hall and across my bed covers, I sigh. Morning light pools on the floor. It's one of those moments where staring far off into space never felt so good.

Barbarian husband is off fighting the whiles of mountain trails, rugged peaks, hiking on past the pit-bottom of exhaustion. Surviving on the land (and dehydrated food), a communion of man-ness happens. It's the antithesis of our safe life. The antidote. How is it that danger nourishes the heart of a man? And glory the heart of a child. Who knew I would tend such rare commodities .

Got Your Back

It was a scritchy-scratchy, thistle of a morning.

"Momma, you just said that you don't like Daddy's sense of humor." Her eyebrows are arched. I can hear it without even turning around. "Is that really what you want to say." The frame freezes. I see a smile tease at the corner of Daddy's mouth. "How would you like it if someone said that to you?"

I sigh.

The apology was spectacular. Daddy said he thought we'd entered a parallel universe. Don't ya wish you could grab on to that apology so fast every time!?

Huckleberry Finn

Children, meet your father, Huckleberry Finn.

























He cut the pole from a tree and dug the worms.


















So, I guess that make me, Mark Twain...?


















Hold on, let me thread this worm... don't pull yet.


























Wait for it... Wait for it...

























Wait for it... NOW!


















It a lunker.


















That was so easy I can do it too, Daddy... you just hold the pole.

























Let's give it a good YANK.

























I knew we could snag one!


















Guess the rest of the fish are safe for now.

:)

Anniversary

So today marks a nine year anniversary. Nine years ago I married this man (the one on the right). Here he is in Africa, handsome from half around the world.

Africa. The whole thing reminds me of an IQ test we took years ago. Craig beat my score. An unfortunate and decisive victory. {Sigh} It's laughable now, a couple of measly points and I did the only logical thing a smart girl does. I FREAKED. For those of you who know him, Craig wins at EVERYTHING. He's amazing. :) Think we're competitive? Let's just say we even have blood pressure competitions seeing who can score the lowest blood pressure at the grocery store pharmacy. (Try it, just thinking about it will raise your blood pressure.)

So anyway, I moped around for a few days until finally a very sweet sister-in-law asked, "Do you want your husband LESS intelligent than you?" Haha, touche'. No wonder it is a delight to banter with this guy still nine years later. He keeps me guessing. And who can put a score on irrepressible optimism. Pure gold.

Africa? That was an outrageous idea. Crazy. Out of the question. Worse than an IQ test, another worthy freak out topic. And still I hear my brother's voice, "Well, what kind of a man do you want Jack to be seeing?" And imitating. A fearless one. Honorable and fearless.

The kids still talk on Africa. Yesterday, driving in the heat their giggles weave into the roar of wind blowing through the windows. Through the white noise Jack's voice surfaces, "But, WHY did Daddy go to Africa?" His voice hangs in the air.

Janie takes the reigns, "Because GOD told him to go to Africa!"

What a gift. He went because God told him to. It's as normal as water. God TOLD him to. How inadequate I feel. Or blessed. Spoiled.

Janie's chest swells with a smile. "'Cause God told him to!"

HOME

So he stepped off the plane whole and handsome.

And HOME.































































































































































































More to come.

Love you ALL.

~Bethany

Almost HOME

Moments ago Craig boarded another plane headed back to Nairobi. Now just more planes, airports, layovers, little baggies of salted peanuts, packets of oyster crackers, luggage, funny shaped neck pillows, hopefully no more blown hatches, and the man I love will be ... HOME! It still feels sort of pretend -- like a well drilled in an African village far, far away where there they don't have running water and all the while my own children wage water-war in our green yard with water cannons and a bucket.

















Before I know it Craig will be here and I'll face a man gone half around the world and come home. Can't be the same one who left. So begins the next leg of our journey, "Hi, I'm Bethany, who have you become? Tell me everything the same and different so I can love you all the more." How frequently the best things in life are the impossible combination of letting go and hanging on. I don't know weather to laugh or hold my breath.

To all of you, thanks. Thanks for being a hand to hold down the path of this journey. A listening ear, fresh encouragement, fun, {Grin} you've been FABULOUS! Wish I could HUG you all. Please pray for traveling mercies as the team heads home. They sure could do without the 17 EXTRA hours of travel they ended up with on the way there. :)

WATER!

A note from Craig:


Water!

We pulled into the village today and witnessed the drill rig SPEWING forth WATER! As they drill, water is forced out in a GEYSER like process every 3-5 minutes. Less consistent than Old Faithful but much more moving. Some of the mommas from the village said it best, "Praise God, Hallelujah." They are limited in their English but captured the moment perfectly. The drill rig hit water at about 97 meters, and the original goal was 100.

They are cleaning out the hole and preparing to put in the pipe. The estimates on the water are around 8 gal/minute which may seem low for American standards but when the alternative is walking 30 minutes or more to get water from a murky pond, 8 is great! They will be running tests on the water and finishing the pump which could take as long as a month but maybe sooner. We visited with the people in the village and took some pictures of the water shooting out of the drill rig. Joe blessed the well and we loaded in the vans to go.

It really is interesting how little we understand about dirt roads any more, we made it about 10 meters down the trail before we were STUCK. This is after they had delivered a load of large rocks to help us. After getting unstuck and another attempt, we decided to take a different TRAIL. I say trail because they don't really have vehicles passing on through on any sort of consistent basis. We drove down the path, past the murky pond and the "health clinic" to the road. We made it!!! Once back on the road (still dirt but dry) we were fine making it to Kisumu for lunch and our flight to Nairobi.

The airport was an experience. They don't allow you into the airport until 2 hours prior to your flight. There is a nice park like setting just outside the security area that is equipped with chairs tables and shade. We had 3 hours until our flight so we read, wrote in our journals and some even took short naps. A couple of people in our group actually needed to use the bathroom (which is inside) and the heightened level of security/metal detector was unmanned so they just walked in and used the bathroom. We entered later and heard the metal detector go off and the security person just let them PASS on by. After we checked in with the ticket agent (which is past security) we proceeded to a waiting area which is between the "terminal" and the runway. Finally, when we boarded our plane I was lucky enough to procure the emergency exit row, window seat (extra leg room).

The stewardess came to our row and did the usual, "Are you able to man the exit in case it is needed?"

"Yes."

She looked directly at me, "Can you pull that down?" the EMERGENCY handle.

"This?" I reached out to touch the handle.

"Yes, can you pull that down?"

I took this as a question like, "Sir, can you put your tray in the upright and locked position?" SO I PULLED the handle. And BLEW the HATCH!

In retrospect I think she just wanted to know if I felt comfortable being the designated hatch-puller IF needed. I re-latched the handle. She double checked it, and we had a rather uneventful flight to Nairobi.

Today, May 26, we are heading to the Masai Mara, a national reserve, where we will be for the next three days. 6+ hours travel, then we will stay 2 nights and return on Thursday. Fly out Friday and arrive back on Saturday. The time has flown, pray for safety in travels the next few days.

Love you all,
Craig


*****


When I told Janie she prayed, "Dear Jesus, thank-you, thank-you, THANK-YOU that they were able to drill 100m and find water. And I just pray you would keep the water clean."

She later added, "Now at least they have a good idea of what they can do to bad guys."

"Oh, what's that?"

"Give THEM the BAD water."


Life is so SIMPLE when you are a little more than four-and-a-half but not quite five.

83 Meters To Go!

Sometimes I think prayer should be more like this.


"Okay, Momma," she's on tip-toe bobbing from foot to foot, "I'm gonna go for a run now. Get ready, I'm gonna run by again!" All polka-dots and swishing skirt, she half skips like a penny gliding over the water. Zing. Sploosh. A bucket of love runs over.

*****

Here's a note from Craig that you may know how to pray.

• Speaking went well; I talked about the need to be ready to bear witness. Then I walked through my testimony and then the Roman's road. It went well. Today was Colt speaking at the boy’s high school and he had a good message. There were about 700+ boys there. After a short tour, we went to an all girl’s school. Maybe one of the best parts of the trip. There were about 850 girls and they were singing when we came in. WOW! Singing praise songs and they were almost deafening. It was amazing and moving. They sang a total of 4-5 songs while we were there. We introduced ourselves and after we were introduced, they went wild cheering. When the next person would stand and they would go silent again... 850 girls singing in complete unison and stopping together instantly. It was amazing! We leave for the village at 7am tomorrow and then back to Kisumu to catch a flight at 6 back to Nairobi. The well drilling has started and on Saturday they reached 47 meters and we are shooting for 130 meters... it would be amazing if we could hit water tomorrow while we are there. PRAY!

*****

As I write Craig and the team are on a long and treacherous road back to Kasumu. It's crazy to picture him bumping down that road in a bus full of people for 10 hours. If there is another thunderstorm as there are most afternoons the road becomes a veritable landslide...

Love you all, and thank-you again for your prayers and support. I don't know what I would do without you!

Are We There Yet?

Daddy sure leaves a BIG hole.

Feels like forever until he comes home and then Jane says something like, "Momma, why does your face look all golden, all, all pretty?" A little manna from heaven, that girl is.

{Sigh.} How many more days?

H-U-G

"Janie, what about you?"

"My prayer request is to help this whole family be righteous and worship GOD." She is already folding hands and squinting shut blue eyes. The unmistakable tang of faith baptizes our prayer. I slide a little closer. She pauses, kisses my hand.

















"Amen."

"You got boogers in your nose," he tells me.

"Oh."

"Sometimes I see boogers in your nose," he wrinkles he forehead. "Maybe you can eat your boogers if you want to."

















"Hhhhuuuuugggg."

Over the Ocean

"That where Africa is," Jack points at this picture. "I know that where Africa is." The airport.

...


"They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up on wings like eagles;
they shall run and not grow weary;
they shall walk and not faint."

Isaiah 40:31



The thrill of the wait...

So Goes My Heart

{Sigh.}

No words.
A thrum-drum rhythm, strides
between us. Breath-sized miles
mark time.

Mother's Day

"You are da running girl," he says. Half smile, squint.

























Just like his father, an ocean of love.


















Tide rolls in.

10 Years

10 years. 520 Sunday lessons. Thousands of children. Hundreds of volunteers. A man devoted to his Savior. Breathtaking. Thanks, Craig. I'm proud to be called your wife. Happy 10 year anniversary as a Children's Pastor.

Bubbles

In protest of forty degrees and rain, one sunny afternoon.











































































































































Bubbles:

1/4 c. Joy dishsoap
1 c. warm water
1 sunny afternoon

Gently mix and enjoy.