Contacting the Norquists

Ok, altogether, Ben and I have 4 cell phones. How many did we bring with us for these hours of driving and weeks' long trips out of town? None. Ugh. So call our parents to find us. Or email us. We are truly sorry. I mean, truly. All I can say is this is something we would do. You can say that, too, I bet.

Nunna daul Tsuny (The Trail Where They Cried)

Last night our neighbor, Dave, came over for a visit and brought a gift of two arrow heads that he found recently here in the cove where we all live. He pointed out the differing colors of the arrowheads and explained that the darker flint is made from a local stone, and the lighter tan colored flint is from farther north, so it was probably traded for.

Dave says that the Trail of Tears came through this area on a path just behind our property, as in, you can see it from the back of our house! I knew that the Trail came through Dayton, but did not know its specific route. I am so motivated to find out more of this... And a little humbled. I confess that I have harbored a little bit of attitude against the invisible "powers that be" of Dayton who have not done much to acknowledge or remember the forced relocation of the Cherokee through our area. Couldn't they have put up some sort of display or memorial plaque or something, somewhere in town? Now I feel a little pang of guilt over my judgement of whoever they are that didn't made a big enough deal of this, and a genuine desire to know more about this history that literally walked through our back yard...

Honestly, Native American history was not that interesting to me until last spring, when Ben and I read a history of Minnesota. I don't recall the title.. something about a tour of Minnesota historical sites or something? The author spent a lot of time on the history of relations between the pioneer settlers and the Native peoples. Learning those specific stories really piqued my interest in the vast (in some ways merely unknown, in some ways unknowable) history of the Native American peoples. This furthers one of the lessons I learn over and over again in life-- that if I just take the time to get to know a person (or in this case, about people groups), I will truly care for them.

Maybe we should put together a little local history to accompany our artifacts... And seek out others' stories-- the Lord will teach us much about Himself if listen to the story of His works and love those whom He loves.

Check back for Cherokee history...

Thanksgiving

We are in Hudson, enjoying time with family after our Norquist Thanksgiving dinner. Niece Sophia is indeed adorable, and very content and happy. We love her.

Yesterday we spent time with the Harms side, hearing stories from Grandma Harms about the family rabblerousers-- my dad (who once stole a pumpkin?) and grandma's uncle Fred, who owned a nightclub in Hollywood during prohibition, and wrote one letter home to the farm in Illinois which read, "They're after me." A new story to us. Grandma definitely surprises us sometimes.

Tomorrow we head back to Tennessee, certainly full of good family time. Being away from family these past few months really helps one to savor even a short visit like this!

Northward Ho!

This afternoon we will begin our Thanksgiving journey.
We have hummus, pita chips, cupcakes, oranges, apples and almonds to sustain us, and a AAA triptik to guide us (FYI you can get your own, even non-members at AAA.com. Major upgrade from mapquest. Actually, too much of an upgrade if you're just trying to find the opthamologist. Unless you are planning to camp nearby.)
We have Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War as our quite-relevant audio book companion and a backlog of about 2 months worth of periodicals which we've not had time to read.
Our schedule is as follows:
Tuesday 3pm depart Dayton, TN
Tuesday 11 pm arrive Paducah, KY?
Wednesday 3pm arrive Pecatonica, IL to pick up Grandma Harms
Wednesday 5 pm arrive Sun Prairie, WI
Friday, 7 am depart Sun Prairie, WI
Thursday, 11 am arrive Hudson, WI
Saturday, 2pm depart Hudson, WI
Sunday, 7pm arrive Dayton, TN

Yippee! We'll see some of you soon!

Way More than Twice the Stars...

I can't figure out how to add this site to the favorite sites list, so here it is:

http://hubblesite.org/

I relate to those who don't really believe that the space program exists, or that man has never really been to the moon. I mean, I believe it, but perhaps just barely? Take a look at some of these photos taken by the Hubble. Aren't they incredible? It is pretty neat to think that all of these things are out there, and God has always enjoyed them as part of his creation, and now we can see little glimpses, too! And to think that these wonders are out there almost without limit, and that the microscopic world is just as amazing as the telescopic universe! And all of this is meant to point us to the reality of God! And these are just a shadow of His real glory! I think that the many exclamation points in this post are indeed called for.

Twice the Stars

Tired! We're tired. I'm tired. I came home at 12:00 last night after a late meeting with students--the meeting started at 10:00 PM because college students are so busy that there was no other time to meet. So we met at 10:00...and I tripped into my house just in time to pass out next to my already slumbering Ariel. One thing has become painfully clear since my rebirth into life at college: I'm not a college student anymore. It used to be that the night only got started at 11:00 PM. 12:00 was a nice time to brew another pot of coffee and start a movie. Bed time wasn't until 1:30 or 2:00. When I hear myself recite this schedule in my head I can only respond What was I thinking!

Last night the Rwanda team came together again for the first time since our return, a nice brief evening to chat about how we'll tell our stories and report on the good work of the Lord when we stand before the student body in chapel in a few weeks. The main thing is going to be conveying to students who haven't personally been there what we saw the Lord do in our midst, and then inviting them to be impacted in their own spirits by what they've heard us report. If that can happen, then the chapel presentation will have been quite significant.

Well, we're close to completeing the move--we've got just a few boxes and a few loads of laundry left at our old (I say old...we've only been there a few months) Bryan Village appartment. I must say, the benefits of our new place are already presenting themselves. Let me count some of them:

• It's quieter in the cove
• It's darker at night in the cove
• It's got wood floors
• It's got a killer front porch with a killer view
• It's got a guest bedroom so we can properly host you when you visit
• In the morning, before sunrise, I can see twice as many stars, and they're brighter!

Home Owners

Yesterday Ariel and I purchased a house. It took about twenty minutes to sign about fifty pieces of paper. Now we're homeowners! It's a three bed/two bath with a large front porch toward the mountain. The view is going to be breathtaking when the leaves get out of the way. The house burned last year, and it's been stripped down and rebuilt from the studs up, so everything is new from the appliances to the wood floors. The house is nestled into Upper Cove, not five minutes drive from Dayton. I would just like to inform ya'll that our first project is to set up the guest bedroom. That way when you come to visit, you'll have a place to sleep. And we will let you sleep in (until you smell the delectable aromas of coffee and breakfast wafting from the kitchen).

In other news, we've arrived home from our two weeks in Rwanda with a Bryan team of student interns. The trip was a success in several ways. Students were stretched and grew spiritually, which is really the most important outcome. I think several of the students will go back to Rwanda to continue the kingdom work there, and I think that all of the students will live new lives with modified lifestyles from now on (lives seem to change when the Lord brings them into close contact with Christian brothers and sisters who have suffered through the brutality of genocide). The other success of this trip is the relationships established with organizations that will now begin regularly accepting Bryan interns. We are aiming at five/six interns in Rwanda for two months during summer, 2008. The trip was richly multifaceted containing the following elements:

• Internships - students placed into work/ministry contexts according to their skill set/major/career interests.
  
• Home stays - students lived in twos with families, directly experiencing typical daily life in Rwanda.
  
• Church fellowship - students worshiped in indigenous churches. Several students preached the main sermons at their respective services.
  
• Cultural learning - students visited museums, genocide memorials, university lectures on Rwandan history, etc. in an effort to better understand Rwandan culture.

Ariel and I enjoyed our time in Rwanda. We shared most of my duties: visiting the organizations hosting our interns, arranging the complicated logistics, and discipling our nineteen students.