FIRST IMPRESSIONS

What are our first impressions of Portland, Oregon, after being here for the weekend:

• Very green. It looks like a jungle here! All this cool weather and lots of rain make it look like a tropical paradise.
• Huge roses and hydrangeas. The flowers are absolutely beautiful.
• Few visible churches. We come from the Bible belt with churches on every block. Here the churches must be hidden behind all that greenery.
• Reminds us of the hills of south India, especially Ootacamund, the town where Hebron School is located and where our children (and Frank!) went to school----except that it's much cleaner! The weekend was cool and rainy, just like Ooty weather.
• People wearing sweaters and jackets in July.
• Lots of people riding bicycles, with special lanes in the roads for them. Almost like Europe.

More to come later.

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL

Our trip was just over 2000 miles from our home in Yukon, Oklahoma, to Portland. After celebrating Anika's birthday we left Dalhart on Wednesday morning and headed west. From the time we sighted Raton Pass in northern New Mexico until we got to Portland we were in sight of mountains or foothills of the mountains. Some of the mountains were snow-covered, such as at Monarch Pass in Colorado. Others were not so high, but were rugged and beautiful in their own way.






















On the western edge of Colorado we stopped at Colorado National Monument, a ruggedly fascinating landscape of mountains eroded into fantastic shapes with deep canyons. In the Visitor's Center we saw a presentation that stated with absolute certainty that these formations began to evolve 2 billion years ago. When I get to heaven I want to ask God how all these scientific statements (truth?? theories??) fit into our Biblical account of creation. The geological formation is extremely interesting to study with numerous layers of sediment from inland seas that developed and receded several times over the 2 billion years.



After leaving the Monument we soon crossed the stateline into Utah. The landscape became a barren moonscape. It was desolate and empty, at least that's the way it seemed to us as we sat in the car on I-70 going westward. No towns or villages, no trees, no people except those traveling east or west on the interstate highway. The foothills of the northern mountains were barren and uninviting. But we eventually turned north and headed to Salt Lake City where Frank let me stop and visit a great quilt shop. I loved the shop and bought Laura's birthday present there. I might have to try it out before I give it to her!



The next day we continued northwest and drove through southern Idaho toward Oregon. In the afternoon we reached the Columbia River and traveled on I-84 westward along the river. It is an awesome work of nature. On the opposite shore is the state of Washington. On both banks of the river are many huge windmills generating electricity, more than we've seen anywhere else including Oklahoma. As we got further west we could see Mt. Hood in the distance and we entered a forest of evergreens. It really is a beautiful part of the country. In the coming week I will write more about Portland and the surrounding area.



Tomorrow we begin our ministry at the Clark County Holiness Camp in Vancouver, Washington. We need to get back into missionary mode as we prepare to share the needs of Ukraine. We appreciate your prayers as we try to help folks find what God wants them to do with regard to the needs of the world around them as well as around the rest of the world.

ANIKA'S FIRST BIRTHDAY

We are in Portland, Oregon, after a long week in the car. We left home on Monday morning, the 6th, and drove to Dalhart, Texas, to see our son and his family. The 7th was our little granddaughter Anika's 1st birthday. We are so glad that we were able to be there for it. Ain't she sweet? Of course, we had fun with Kirsten and Riley too. They are live-wires and keep us hopping all the time we're there. After all, aren't all grandparents just supposed to play games all the time?

We had birthday cupcakes and Anika really enjoyed hers, if you know what I mean. The rich chocolate frosting was delicious and she enjoyed every moment of it!

It took Anika a little while to warm up to us because we don't see her very often. But pretty soon she was letting us hold her and love her up. She is a sweetie-pie.

Fourth of July, 2009

Well, our July 4th is pretty tame. We're staying home, getting things organized to leave here on Monday. We will be going first to Dalhart, Texas, where our little granddaughter, Anika, will be having her first birthday on Tuesday, July 7th. We have an invitation to her birthday party, and we wouldn't miss it for the world.



On Wednesday morning we will get in the van and head for the northwest. We will probably be gone from home for six-seven weeks. We will be in Portland, Oregon, for about ten days, visit old friends and participate in a campmeeting, and then head for southeast Montana for another camp. After that we will have meetings here and there along the way. Usually I hate being away from home for six weeks, and I'm sure that by middle August I will be ready to come home. But I'm looking forward to this trip. I love the American west, and I'm looking forward to the great scenery and the whole western atmosphere.




This past week we were able to be with our niece, Dacia Brown, and her husband Ken. Ken served three tours of duty in Iraq, came home with neurological issues from having so many concussions as he led his unit in house searches and convoy protection, and is now at Camp Benning, Georgia, training and doing other work with the Army. He looked great. He was trim and fit, and happy. We had a wonderful time with them and their eight-year-old daughter, Arissa. We went to Toby Keith's restaurant here in Oklahoma City. They really wanted to go there because a country/rock band called Gloriana was performing there that night. It was fun. We sat on the patio for our meal, then went inside to watch the band for a while. The noise volume was pretty loud, but maybe we were the only ones who noticed that :). Dacia is worship leader at a large Baptist church in Columbus, Georgia, and has piano students during the week. We don't get to see them very often, so it was good to make connections again.



I'll write more next week after Anika's birthday party, and probably put some pictures on too.

ADVENTURES IN JULY AND AUGUST

World Gospel Mission has really been trying to help us get to the field. There are six other couples like us who are struggling to get their support, and WGM has been coaching us and giving us new ideas to follow and new methods to approach people. We were encouraged to start a page on Facebook.com, so we have done that and it is marvelous to see old friends we haven't heard from for ages and ages suddenly popping up and visiting with us. I have posted links to our video and to this blog on Facebook, so they can see and learn more about us. At the bottom of this page also there are links you can follow for Facebook and our video, as well as the field website for Ukraine.

We will probably be heading out from home to the Northwest right after July 4th. We are scheduled to be in two campmeetings, one near Vancouver, Washington, and the other way out in the boonies in southeast Montana. Frank got the directions to the Ridge, Montana, camp today and it sounds as if we are really going to be very rustic for the week we are there. I should note that I (Chris) am not a rustic type of person. I love the beautiful outdoors and the scenery, which will probably be wonderful, but I don't particularly like roughing it. However, I can handle it for a week, and I'll even try to keep smiling all the time as long as it doesn't rain too much or be too cold or require lots of physical endurance. I can do this.

Actually, I'm looking forward to this trip. Memories of vacations with my family when I was a child keep coming to my mind as I think about Montana and Wyoming. My folks took us to Yellowstone, to Glacier National Park, to the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore, among other places. Frank hasn't been to any of those places, and we probably won't be able to see them all, but I'm hoping we will have a chance to see some of the beautiful mountains and forests of the north-central and northwest U.S. The last time I was in the Northwest was in 1975. Evan was only three months old and Laura was being potty-trained all the way across the northern states from Iowa to Oregon. Frank has been back there a couple of times since, but not me. This could be a great adventure for us.

MEDICAL UPDATE

Well, Frank and I are in pretty good health for the most part. Frank did have to have a colonoscopy in early May. He had been having some internal issues that just didn't seem to get better, so the doctor sent him to a specialist to be checked out. The colonoscopy wasn't too bad (getting prepared for it the previous day is the worst part!), and the doctor didn't see anything that was abnormal, for which we are thankful. The doctor thinks it's probably related to irritable bowel syndrome or colitis. Frank is taking medication for a while which is supposed to help it.

I'm scheduled to have a colonscopy also in late August. My mother had colon cancer, although after surgery it was gone and, to my knowledge, did not recur. I believe the Lord has been putting it in my mind for the last three or four months that I need to have this done since there is a history of it in the family. I would have it done sooner, but we are heading out on the road in a week and I don't want to use my last week at home for a while getting ready for, having, and recovering from a colonoscopy! My irritable bowel/post-gall bladder problems have really improved during the past eight months. I went from November till early February with no pain attacks at all, then had a rough March which eased into April. Right now it's been two months again since I had any trouble. I am hoping that the Lord is healing me a bit at a time and that eventually it will go away for good. However, for now I still carry my medication along with me everywhere I go. I am walking more than 3 miles everyday on the treadmill, trying to burn off calories to lose my winter weight gain. Slowly, slowly it is coming down. More to follow.

ONE HUNDRED TWO AND STILL GOING!

Frank's mom, Edna Dewey, had her 102nd birthday on Feb. 8. She is incredible. Her mind is still fairly good, but her body is weakening. She is frustrated because she wants to walk fast and steady like she did even thirty years ago, but her knees have osteoarthritis and she is bent over and moves very slowly with the help of a walker. About four months ago the assisted living center insisted that she get a motorized chair because it was taking her so long to get from her room to the dining room. She really didn't want it because she felt that it was taking away from her exercise, and she was a little afraid of it. But she has learned to use it and gets around the center much faster and better now. She has been having some physical therapy on her knees twice a week, but basically there's not a lot that can be done to help except surgery, and she's too old to be able to handle that now. She is getting more forgetful and gets some things mixed up once in a while, but I (Chris) do that too sometimes! Frank is wonderful about going to her apartment and fixing things and doing her shopping. I think she doesn't want to ask the people at the center to do things for her, so she calls Frank often and he always goes without hesitation.

Since we had a big celebration for her 100th birthday we haven't had big birthday parties since. But she came to our house, and Laura and her family came, and we had a nice meal and a birthday cake and some presents for her.

Is this why God is keeping us in the U.S. longer that we expected? So Frank can continue to help his mother? If so, what will happen when we finally do get to Ukraine? Lots of questions that need some answers.

Whatever the answers, we are thankful for Mom Dewey and that the Lord has let us have her for so long.

STARTING OVER

Okay, I admit it----I haven't written anything on the blog since November 12, 2008. (I have to admit it, it's right there in front of my face!) I'm going to get it started again. This past winter was a very slow time for us. It seemed that there wasn't anything new and interesting to write about. We didn't have many meetings to talk about Ukraine, and actually we were wondering if we would make it there. Our new support has trickled to a standstill, we were a long way from what we needed financially to get to Ukraine. We were really down a lot. But we kept asking God, that if it wasn't His will for us to go to Ukraine, then He would have to show us what He had in store for us instead. And He did not show us anything different.

However, we did keep up our preparations to go. We started Russian lessons in November and continued with them. In fact, although our tutor, Olga, has gone back to Russia now for her summer vacation, Frank in particular is continuing to study and study and study Russian. He is getting a good grasp of the vocabulary and grammar and works on pronounciation now (without Olga) with the help of two computer programs that we have to help us. I haven't done as much----I can always find lots of things to fill my time and I don't have the drive to study any language, it's just a big struggle for me. I tell myself that when we get there, I'll have to learn it, immerse myself in it. We'll see.

Another thing we did was to continue attending our small group sessions with in a church near to us. This is training for becoming facilitators of Living Free, an organization which has developed materials to use with people who have life-controlling issues that keep them from being all that God wants them to be. Issues such as addictions, relationship problems, acceptance of self, and so on. The wonderful thing about this program is that all the materials are already translated into Russian and are available free online to qualified facilitators. Our field leader in Ukraine is very anxious for us to get there so we can get the program started in the churches that have been planted by World Gospel Mission. I have written a little about this in some of my last entries that I made in November. Well, we haven't given up on it. In fact, we're in a group now called The 12 Step Recovery Program which is really good. The material is excellent. We have learned so much from the prisoners in the groups. Some are stumbling along, but some have made definite decisions to change their lives and with Christ's help to be released from their life-controlling issue even if they aren't released from prison. One of the women in our group now, Jean Ann, spent 10 years in prison for dealing drugs; it took two more arrests for her to finally face the fact that she needed the Lord and needed His help to change her life. Her problems aren't all gone, but she is serving the Lord and trusting Him for each day's needs.

Finally, I have gotten a little involved in the work in Ukraine in another way. The Bible school was closed and the library was moved to Berydansk (where we will be) to begin pastors' training and lay development. It is being organized and set up on the computer there, and I have having the opportunity to give suggestions as to how to do it correctly. I have even bought some library materials that every library needs, and am working through that to send information and help to Bill and Betsy Tarr as they direct the setting-up of the library. WE NEED TO GET THERE!!!!

Okay, that's all I'll write on this posting. Tomorrow I will write more about how things are slowly coming together for us, and we are encouraged, feeling that we will finally reach Ukraine in the fall.

Grandkids again!

Kirsten and Riley, our Denver Bronco cheerleaders!

Sweet Anika, four months old.

Brock and Lance for the church Fall Festival

Laura and Garrett, who is working toward being an Eagle Scout.

Three Interesting Groups

I've got to tell all of you about the three interesting groups we were a part of last week. Well, actually Frank was in only two of them, but I was in all three. However, one was interesting and challenging because of the spiritual warfare going on; the second was interesting because it was fun and with some people we hadn't seen for years; and the third was interesting because Laura and I did it together and it was fun and different!

Ist Group
The first group of the week was our Insight Group on Wednesday night. If you don't know what an Insight Group is, you can go back to early October and read my posting about it. This week we had a different leader, a woman named Susan, who worked to keep the group on the subject of how we build internal defenses and isolation to avoid facing the life-controlling issues that are in our lives. Dean, one of the prisoners, is really growing spiritually and has looked at himself somewhat clearly about the issues in his life. He shared about his feelings and how he depended on the blood of Christ to give him the grace and strength he needed each day in prison; also how he was overwhelmed by the thought that Jesus had shed His blood for him and his sins.

A few minutes later a young woman whose name I won't mention spoke up and said that she was uncomfortable with all this talk about "blood" and "death." She didn't like it and requested that we not talk about it any more. Now she had admitted in an earlier session that she had dabbled in Satanic practices and worship, so this comment about blood and death sent chills down my spine, so to speak. Satan hates for us to talk about Christ's sacrifice which involved blood and death. This young woman is still open to Satanic attack and he wants her to focus on the "hypocrites" in the church rather than her own needs and how Christ can free her from Satan's bondage. She has built her internal defenses so strongly that they are deeply ingrained in her being. She needs our prayers. I wish I could give you her name, but I just feel that I should not do that. One of the important aspects of an Insight Group is that the members must not reveal in detail issues that are brought up in the group. But this young woman needs our prayers and she needs counseling from an experienced, mature counselor. Let's pray that the leaders of the group will be able to help her through some of the issues in her life.

Group 2
On Friday we were in a totally different kind of group. Last weekend was homecoming at Southern Nazarene University, our alma mater. On Friday noon there was a luncheon for the various missionaries in the area, both retired and furloughing like us. The food was okay, but the fellowship was great. We met several folks who were in school with us and we caught up on forty years of life events! One had some news that sobered us. She and her first husband had been good friends of ours and he had been Frank's best man at our wedding. Now they are divorced and he is away from the Lord, doing nothing. She has remarried and is very happy with her second husband. She looks almost the same as she did forty years ago, same kind of glasses, same hairstyle, a few more pounds, but not many.

Another friend Frank was happy to see was another of his classmates, Stephen Heap, a missionary to Brazil. Stephen is one of those guys who is faithful, steady, and deeply spiritual. It was fun to see him. And there are several others I could mention as well, but won't take the time now. Of course, we enjoyed meeting all the dear old folks who served so faithfully through the years and have now been retired for some time. What missionary pioneers they were! Going to unevangelized areas of the world and spending their lives for Christ. It was great to meet them.

Group 3
Now the third group was totally, totally different. On Saturday Laura and I took a class at the local quilt shop here in Oklahoma City. It wasn't traditional quilting. It was a class that taught us how to make bowls and baskets using cotton clothesline cord and fabric. There were five other ladies in the group as well as the teacher and we all had a good time together. My bowl was in bright aqua blue and purple. Laura did a Christmas bowl in bright red and green. It was fun at the end for all seven of us to show what we had done and how different each bowl was depending on the fabric that had been used. I should have taken a picture or two and posted them here so you could see our work. Maybe I will do that in the coming week. Ladies who take quilt classes are fun to be with. We all want to help each other and get ideas from each other. I wish I could take more classes, especially with Laura. No kids around, just us. It was a great bonding time.