Ocean, Indiantown, Star Fruit, and Tree Frogs

These posts are basically in backwards order of how everything happened in Florida, starting with our time with my aunts, then in Hobe Sound, and now this post is about our time in Indiantown, FL. But first one afternoon we visited the ocean shore. 

This is what the boys (and girls) had fun doing after dashing through the breakers a good long while.

 Hannah had fun despite her sling. 

 Crystal and I took turns holding Hannah's hand so she could safely jump over the breakers as they crashed on the shore.

 And this photo reminded me of the poem, "Footprints in the Sand."

"Did you not know that when there was only one set of footprints," the Lord asked,

"I was carrying you."

Have we held His hand recently, or do we need to remember that when we don't seem to feel that strong hand,

He is carrying us?

 This photo is out of order. I had meant to put it in with the ones when we were at my Aunt Rhonwen.

Here she is playing a game with Carrie and Rose while waiting for Jonathan to bring back the motor home.

 At last we arrive at Indiantown, the first Spanish church we worked at. The job was tearing out the very dilapidated restrooms and remodeling them. Here Jonathan is starting to cut out a new doorway, to move the old one to a better location around the corner.

 Elon gotta pretend he is helping Jonathan with the trim work on that new doorway!! 

Elon's sense of humor is a real asset--and occasionally a little corny. 

But then, what do you expect from a little brother???

 Timmy begged to help. So Jonathan let him. It was great to have an opportunity to let the children pitch in.

 Larry Seigel, who had come with Forrest Wheeler, sands the drywall.

 A "before" picture of the boarded-over windows in the ladies' restroom.

 It was a big job getting those boards off, which had been screwed into the concrete, and then cut the metal frames out with angle grinder. Then Jonathan laid in the glass blocks.

 Ezra helps with grooving and cleaning the windows.

 A lunch break. Forrest Wheeler is in center. He has helped on several Mission Helps trips. He is part of Helping Hands organization.

 Carrie makes sure she helps, too! :)

 We ladies kept busy making meals for 15 to 17 people in our motor home, with exactly one skillet, one pot, and one electric skillet.

 As a result of our limitations in cooking, this was all the girls had to offer the boys one time. :) :)

 For all their hard work, the guys really did deserve better! Here Elon is grooving between the glass, or cleaning the window.

 Sam helped, too.

 In the distance, a pillar of smoke ascended from apparently a field of sugar cane being burnt off.

 The little children loved gathering star fruit that had fallen in the storm...

 or picking it from the tree, as the pastor's wife said we could have it.

 Danny loved slicing the star fruit. Anita told us you could eat it skin and all, and we did.

 We ladies helped in whatever way we could. Rose is washing off drywall tools.

 Carrie washes dishes in the travel trailer Elon's family stayed in (much gratitude to Lester Bump).

 Jobs for us ladies included:

doing laundry at the laundromat--or by hand in a 5-gallon bucket, as I did this day, hanging it out on the line behind the parsonage. It was so beautiful there.

 Making sure the little ones took a nap occasionally as it was hard for them to go to sleep on time with all the novelties and extra people stuffed into small places.

Admiring tree frogs our sons proudly showed us,

 and admiring the photography projects Ezra does to bring in a little income (including cards, bookmarks they give away as a small witnessing tool, stickers and postcards.

 being thankful our little ones had other little ones to play with. Very little boredom there!

 ...and cheering our men as they not only remodel the church restrooms but scrub and try to repair a leaky roof...

 because if our boys didn't have moms to be proud of them, and if our men didn't have ladies cheering them on in their less-than-exciting jobs, 

how much joy would there be in life?

  

Danny and his new little friend, Esdras, looking at a favorite book together in our motor home.

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 The pastor and his wife and family

 Valentine's evening we spent in the church with our two families enjoying surprising Pearl on her birthday with these origami flower and butterfly made from paper money, 

and singing song after song about God's love in four-part harmony.

Very Florida!

It is good to be home again after 2 1/2 weeks away on a Mission Helps trip to Florida. Jonathan had collected enough free airline miles that our whole family was able to fly down (on two separate flights) to Tampa, where Jonathan was planning to pick up a used motor home that he had purchased at an Ebay auction. I could write a whole story about that day--including how Hannah's collarbone issue gave her a real time on the flight, resulting in countless jabs of pain which left her screaming in the middle of first-class business men and women! Jonathan had used extra free miles to get three girls and me first-class tickets so that we could take two suitcases apiece for free instead of spending $25 apiece for them. 

The bad news was when Hannah started experiencing jabs of pain, perhaps due to the high altitude pressure.

Here she is reaching up to her Great Aunt's grapefruit with her good arm.

 I spent both legs of the flight trying to help her manage the pain and keep from bothering other passengers. It was a very rough flight, but just before we left, in the Denver Airport, two little sparrows had come fluttering down by us, pecking about for tiny bits of popcorn, and I was reminded that God was watching over us. Little did I know what lay ahead for that day!

Meanwhile, Jonathan and Crystal and the boys were having their own set of problems. Their airplane was having mechanical difficulties, resulting in their being so late leaving Denver that they missed the next flight to Tampa! It was five hours before Jonathan's half of our family could be put on another flight. That left me arriving in Tampa hours ahead of him, with no one to pick me up or help with the heavy bags of luggage--and Hannah screaming out in pain at intervals. 

Much to our relief, Jonathan made some emergency phone calls and my two aunts (my mom's sisters) came to our aid! Here are my Aunt Rhonwen and Uncle Jack, Aunt Kay and Uncle Pete. 

They both drove the 45 minutes to the Tampa airport to pick the girls and me up, and stuffed us and all our luggage into their two cars to go home and spend the night! Then Uncle Jack kindly took Hannah and me to an After-Hours Pediatric clinic to get Hannah's pain issue checked out. Sure enough, she had a partially fractured collarbone--from jumping around in the living room two days before, and landing wrong. Nothing could be done except give her a sling. The nurse would not even recommend anything for pain, though I did give Hannah some pain medicine of my own. I was so thankful for Uncle Jack's patience and kindness through the ordeal. Poor Hannah could not move her arm or lie down flat for over a week. She could not go to sleep at night because of the pain until she was too exhausted to stay awake. It was a very rough week for her--and her mother! But she was so brave!

Meanwhile, Jonathan was entertaining our bored boys by going to an almost vacant part of the airport and letting them ride and ride escalators! 

Later that first night in Florida, Uncle Jack again went to the airport to pick up Jonathan's crew so we could all stay the night in their beautiful Florida home. They had almost enough beds for everyone!!

The next morning, while Uncle Jack took Jonathan and boys to go for our motor home, Aunt Rhonwen and the girls and I enjoyed their Florida back yard.

 What a bit of Florida paradise! We really didn't have any other chance to be in such a bit of Florida as this in our own aunt and uncle's acre of land which my uncle especially has worked so hard to make beautiful. If we hadn't had all the breakdowns and messed up plans, we would never have gotten to see my aunts and uncles or enjoy this lovely time.

Below is a grapefruit picker gismo my aunt got to help pick some grapefruit for us from their loaded tree.

"You must twist the fruit to pick it," Aunt Rhonwen instructed. 

Do we sometimes feel twisted by circumstances? Nevertheless the Master Gardener knows what He is doing. Without the pain, the tug, the pressure, the twist, the fruit would rot on the tree, or the little branch it is growing on would be yanked down, too, or the stem would be left on the fruit. But give it a quick twist, and there lies a luscious piece of juicy fruit in your hand.

 Carrie stands near the orange tree and the tiny lemon tree to the right.

More of my aunt and uncle's back yard paradise.

 The pretty, peaceful fountain in the corner of their veranda near the swimming pool.

 My aunt didn't stop picking grapefruit till she had a whole basketful! Then I got the privilege of scrubbing the dirt and mold off them so they would be clean and ready to eat.

 "This is so very Florida!"

 Meanwhile, Jonathan and the boys with Uncle Jack found the dealer who sold us this motor home, got through the paperwork, and brought it home. We have been so pleased with it--the arrangement inside was delightful with the big window in the front of the over-the-cab bed for the children to watch out of. We got the 1999 motor home for a steel of a deal at the last minute of auction, for about half or so of what similar or older and worse motor homes were going for here locally. We felt God had made a way at a price we could manage.

 From there, we headed to Hobe Sound for the weekend. Below, the children are taking a walk to an inlet of the ocean at the Hobe Sound Bible College and Camp grounds.

 To their delight, they spotted this manatee in the water.

 I was delighted to meet an old friend, Violet (Hall), with whose family I stayed three days in Honduras when I was on my home from my school year down there before I got married. Violet was perhaps 16 or 18 at that time, a very sweet girl. Now she is grown up, like me, I guess! :), having graduated from Penn View, is married with six children, and is pastor's wife of a Spanish church in South Carolina. Below her husband and son in the middle and another man are sharing a song in a Sunday service. 

 A scene from the Hobe Sound tabernacle after the Tuesday morning missionary service. (Monday evening, my brother Elon's family had arrived. Jonathan's old friend, Lester Bump, graciously offered his pop-out travel trailer for however we needed it, and so Elon's family had a place to lay their heads the week we were working near Hobe Sound.)  Below,  Elon's family is visiting with Phil Ledger and his new wife, Cindy. Elon's family worked with Phil many years in Mongolia. It was a delight to meet Phil's sweet, new wife.

 How exciting to be stopped on the road on our way out of Hobe Sound to Indiantown, by a drawbridge going up ahead to let a sailboat through!

Elon's and our children and other people (tourists probably!) piled out to watch the proceeding.

 Those interruptions in our day or plans can be annoying--

or they can be a chance to be awed, to practice patience, to enjoy the novelty, to just let someone else's boat go by first.

Caving In or Just Spelunking?

About once a month we've been making the long trip to Denver to fellowship with the Albertson clan. After service, we share a carry-in dinner together in the parsonage. Hannah is enjoying little baby Jonathan.

We really appreciate their outreach there--bringing in community children and people who tend to be discarded by others, including the homeless and blind. Last time we were there, two blind men were in service, and we got the idea to buy little gifts for those blind men for Christmas time. We ended up not being able to go around Christmas time, but took the gifts up two Sundays ago--to find out that one of the blind men was celebrating his birthday that day! So it seemed providential that the Christmas gift had been postponed--and ended up on his birthday! He seemed tickled to receive something he could "feel" (a soft throw) and "taste," (honey roasted peanuts) since he could not see. It is such a joy to reach out to people who struggle in society and who are touched when you (literally) reach out and touch them--because you have to touch them first for them to know when to reach out and shake your hand.

Even people who have seeing eyes often need the first touch. 

Below, Quill, Micah and our boys look at picture books together--and are we thankful for our eyes?

On the way home, we stopped at the Castle Rock trail to pull over and give ourselves a wake-up break! I leaned back in the warm van and enjoyed the quiet while the others walked up the trail. 

"I will lift up my eyes..." even while sitting in sand,

even while seeing only potholes above me,

and below me.

"Unto Thee O Lord, do I lift up my soul."

"If I can just hang on a little longer, Lord!"

These photos are from Castlewood Canyon at another time. It was such a perfect day to walk that trail--cool enough for coats but warm enough to be comfortable.

"Hold thou me up, that my footsteps not slide."

There are moments when you'd like to just run and hide in a cave--

like this one.

Like Elijah. 

Only to hear, "What doest thou here, Elijah?"

And you put your name in there, and you know you have a choice. 

You can huddle inside in the dark, listening to the wind and the earthquake and the fire,

or you can step outside of the dark into the sunshine of His face.

It is a gentle face. It is a face of authority.

It's gentleness says, "I understand where you are and why."

And it's authority says, "Step out of your cave and get busy doing the job I have for you to do!

You are valuable to me. You are precious in My sight. I am watching over you."

The path may be rugged and steep. There will be plenty of rocks in it, and slippery places.

But the sunshine of My love will light the way. 

Just keep holding onto My hand tightly...

Especially when everything has turned upside down--

and you don't know which end is up!!"

Literally, those pictures are right side up, the ceiling of the cave that Danny discovered when he went exploring up the hillside to find where the little waterfall of melting snow was coming from. It literally looked like the bed of a stream had been upended and turned upside down here. Another evidence of the chaos that happened at the time of the Flood. 

We just loved this little spot, drinking in the sunshine, the amazing scenery, the water splashing from melting snow.

Another day there wouldn't have been snow. Another day it would have been too cold and everything frozen. It was the perfect day to bask in God's goodness and grace--sensing Him bringing healing to our hearts and peace to our nerves. 

And to close out this post--my sister Iva forwarded me this touching selection from last night's post by Ann Voskamp: A Prayer for God to Bless Our Enemies. (And do I have the courage to join her in this prayer?)
She wrote,

"... Can I grab your hand tonight and pray with you for all the hard people in our lives?
"Bless our enemies, O Lord. We bless them and do not curse them. Enemies have driven us into your embrace more than friends have. Enemies have loosed us from earth more than friends have…Enemies have made us a hunted animal, finding safer shelter than an unhunted animal does.
We found safest sanctuary in You…may too our enemies-made-grace.
We found greatest grace in You… may our enemies-made-grace find Your generous grace alive and radical in us.
We found fullest forgiveness in You… may our enemies-made-grace find faith and freedom in You and Your forgiveness working surprising ways in us.

 The longer we walk with you, Lord, we find we have no enemies: only Your gift of chisels etching us deep.
Bless my enemies, O Lord. We bless them and do not curse them.
In the name of Jesus who loved His enemies to death...
Amen."