Sheraton Overland Park Hotel At The Convention Center

Our next stop is to Kansas City, Kansas where we will be visiting Daniel (brother) and Ricky (brother) and the rest of their family. The drive from Wichita was very quick since we had a tail wind to the car. Daniel lives in Shawnee, which is a suburb just outside of Kansas City. We will be hanging out with his family the most, his wife Renee and sons Tai and ...

When Brett sets his mind, it is impossible to get him off track. Such is the case to the end of this trip. The trip was over in his mind when we left Moab. It was time to go home. Go home is what we did for the next 20 hours. The kids, grandma, and I ate dinner and slept as Brett ...

So the Journey begins! The day of travle is here and we awake to Jackson tapping us on the shoulder....."Guess what today is...it's NEW ZEALAND day" Couldn't be more excited!

SB was her usual stressed self on the day of travel, and other than ME leaving my laptop in the terminal in KC (I did rememer it half way down the jetway...) we figured it was better than leaving a child behind!

Packed pretty light, all ...

... Saturday and then on to Chulu...Once I'm settled I'll start updating this blog.

We did find out that Chulucanas is honoring GHM's 20 years of service on Sunday morning with a big church service with the Bishop, flag raising, parade etc. Should have some great pictures and stories from this! We'll have to take a break from all of the unpacking and set up but I'm sure it will be worth it.

Keep our team in your thoughts and prayers!

I guess I should practice this blog stuff so here's an update...our team of 45 has collected almost all of our supplies, with the help of family and friends I was able to gather literally thousands of apsirin, ibuprofen, children's tylenol, vitamins,tums, and many other items to send in advance on our container that shipped back in August. The container has been in Lima for a several days now and is going through customs ...

... to share with her!

I can't say enough how excited I am to be able to participate in something like this, my family and friends have been so supportive and I couldn't begin to think of doing something like this without that! Especially my husband John who has been so supportive and appropriately concerned throughout all of the preparations- I hope he doesn't give my side of the bed to the dog permanently!

... father!

For those of you who are “on tour” with us by virtue of these articles, you may be interested to know a little “backstage” talk about one of our orchestra members. If you have our latest CD, Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing, you have no doubt listened to the fantastic arrangement of “Amazing Grace” and wondered how we could perform that piece on tour without the bagpipes.

Here’s how it’s done ...

... most melodious and beautiful sounding language in the world. I would like to be able to say that I have been brushing up on French, listening to tapes and looking through books but the truth is...not at all. These last few weeks have been spent preparing in the more practical ways, packing, tying up loose ends for my business, and most importantly spending time with and soaking up my friends and family. I don't regret one minute of it...even if I am cursing my ...

... or an idiot, but injected with some positive thinking and confidence can shine in the end. I'm talking about a faith that borders on the fiction: the idea that a Jimmy Stewart in "It's a Wonderful Life" can make a huge difference on a small town despite his own imperfections and personal misfortunes and because of his moral agency. It's a belief that a penniless preacher from Nazareth can, at the very least, be a role model of personal sacrifice ...