Life on the Daniel Fast

Ok, I know you are not supposed to let people know you are fasting of any kind (so sayth the Bible), but this Daniel Fast is really rocking my world! Adam and I chose to do a Daniel Fast after our Greece trip for two reasons: 1. We are specifically praying for some important future decisions and 2. Because we ate like glutenous pigs on our vacation. In a nutshell, you are not allowed to eat meat, breads, sugar, caffeine, preservatives, anything that tastes good, etc. We are 8 days into (out of 21) and
I miss meat.
I miss bread.
I miss sugar.
I really miss caffeine.
I even think I miss preservatives:-0

I am the grouchiest, meanest person in the world. I'm so bitter about the things that I CAN'T have that I'm not even focusing on all the things I CAN have. I have decided that after a fantastic vacation, going on a fast is like torture. Adam is hanging in there as well. He's allowed to have coffee, black, so I think he's a little happier in the mornings, but we're still both a mess. As with most fasts, you spend the time you would be eating/drinking in prayer or a more focused quiet time. Instead, I feel like I am at the grocery store trying to buy something to eat. Not to mention the fact that all that fresh food is expensive! I know alot of people that have done this before and I am certainly open to any and all suggestions! I'm praying also that my attitude turns around...quickly. I know this will benefit us if we stick with it but I don't want to be a jerk for the whole three weeks either.

Content

"I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength." Phil 4:11-13

Today is just one of THOSE days. The good ones that is. The ones where you feel just so utterly content with God and your surroundings that you just feel c.o.n.t.e.n.t. There is really no other word to describe it. These days are definitely too rare and when they occur, I just feel so blessed. We returned from our amazing Grecian vacation (pictures to come) last night and due to the jet lag/time difference, we were both up at 4:30am. We are usually sleepers-til-the-very-last-moment when it comes to mornings but it felt good to get up early this morning. It allowed for a blogging/email check up, laundry, coffee, and a much needed lengthy quiet time. Rita Springer is playing throughout the house, rain is falling outside, and I am so content. Denali is still vacationing with his grandparents in Tennessee and the house is empty right now. This past vacation was really amazing and much-needed. We promised not to discuss the future, our jobs, or anything that required a calendar. My relationship with my husband feels like it is in the strongest phase ever. We are content. For the past 2-3 months, whenever I got stressed about the future, I would just say, "I'll take care of it after Greece" or "Let's think about that after Greece". Now that we are back, it's that time. But today, when I woke up, I didn't feel stressed at all. I just felt content that God is soo with us and everything is going to be good and we are called to be content.

Cornerstone Changes

The winds of change have definitely been blowing around Cornerstone lately. In mid-July, Pastor Wayne announced that he and Mrs. Diane would be moving to San Jose, California where he will be a missions pastor/church planter at one of his best friend's churches. At the time of the announcement, it felt like we still had a million years to spend with them before they left, and now, BLINK, it's their final week here at Cornerstone. You can't help but feel excited for this next chapter in their lives, but it is so bittersweet. Pastor Wayne is not only Adam's boss (and the best boss he will probably ever have:-)), but him and Diane, whether they wanted it or not, have become unbelievable mentors to us. They are our imaginary "Chester parents" and a large reason that Adam accepted the job up here in the first place. It's also a big loss to the Richmond community, as they have been very strong leaders here for over 22 years. That's considered a very long time to pastor ONE church. My heart also goes out to our friends, Timothy and Jessica, since they are their "real parents" :-). I can't imagine my parents moving across the country and I know that would be hard. These past couple of weeks have been filled with goodbye meals and tearful sermons. It's been meaningful opportunities to show the Mancaris just how much we love them.
But with change, always comes excitement of what's to come. It's very clear that the Lord's hand is upon our church. Last night our church unanimously voted for Pastor Shawn, our associate pastor, to take the job as head pastor. Adam's role won't change, but he'll probably gain some additional responsibilities. And with all this change, I've accepted the job as head lyrical dance pastor. HAHA yeah right! I only WISH there was that position :-)
We leave for our Mediterranean cruise on the Mancari's last Sunday. It'll be weird to come back in a few weeks and everything will be different. But in the famous words of P.Wayne, "How fun!" :-)


The "How Fun" gang at the Dauber Dash

The Greatest In-Laws

I just wanted to take a quick moment to wish a "Happy 30th Anniversary" to the greatest in-laws ever! I always knew growing up that I had wonderful parents/role models to look up to, but when I met Adam's parents, I really understood that God gave me a double blessing. From the moment I met the Reusses, they loved me and took me in. I consider myself so truly blessed to be able to have loving, Christian in-laws to share my life with. And of course they produced my amazing husband!

To Teri: Thank you for loving both Adam and I unconditionally. I love your enthusiasm for life and your Godly character. I admire your prayer life and I appreciate that you will travel to the ends of the earth for your family. I also thank you for loving me and accepting me wholeheartedly into your family:-)

To Brent: Thank you for being such a Godly example to Adam growing up. I can rest assured that he won't stray from the ways of his upbringing because of the example you gave him. I appreciate you for your organization:-) and also for your hard work. Because of working so hard, you are able to take us to all the cool places that we traveled to as a family.

I love you both so much and of course Adam does too:-) Can't wait to celebrate in Greece in less than 2 weeks!!!

What We've Been Up To

I've decided that summer time is the worst for trying to keep up with a blog. I just want to be outside all the time! I'll take 100 degree weather ANYDAY over winter. I also realized that I hadn't blogged in so long that my wallpaper had expired. How sad! Anyways, here's some pictures of what we've been up to lately along with a smancy background (just for you, mom!)

A trip to the Outer Banks with this wonderful family


You have no idea how hard this was to do for our family!


Day One at the beach=needed a little bit more of a tan before I hopped in a picture


Relaxing with my favorite sibling and cousins


Denali celebrated his first birthday! Too bad we forgot about it:-)


My latest project around the house: I hung pictures up our naked stairwell and I love it!


I even crashed the Brose family vacation for a little while at VA Beach


King Family Vineyards in Charlottesville with the Reusses


LOVE my in-laws!


A little rock-climbing for the boys


Running around Maymont Park


A visit from my FAVORITE little man, Rader


And of course his mom and dad-- Life long BFF's:-)


Today is consisting of a run (as soon as my husband wakes up), a trip to the river, and a wonderful dinner at Cous Cous. Ahh..life is good:-)

Guatemalan Recap

Well, I have been avoiding writing my Guatemalan recap for quite some time and the fact that I just finished it and then blogger deleted 2/3 of it does NOT make me a happy blogger:-) It's just always so hard to recap a trip that had so much stuff going on! Or one where every day of your 8-day trip held a different experience. So here is my best attempt (the 2nd time around) at a recap:

The Medicine: Every day we would wake up around 6 or 7 and drive about an hour to some remote city/village. We would set up our clinic in a church or community center and would usually see about 150-200 patients a day for basic primary care medicine. They were really long days, considering we had about 3-4 stations set up with a provider, a translator, and usually about 2 or 3 Lee students. We even had a station with Dr. Veenstra pulling teeth. We saw tons of upper respiratory infections, GI parasites, skin infections, and even some pregnancy checkups (my favorite!) just to name a few. On a sad note, we saw many, many things that we could not cure. There were people that traveled far to have us check out tumors and other life threatening diseases when sadly, the most we could usually do was to give them some ibuprofen and pray with them. I wish we could order bloodwork, imagine studies, and other tests, but we just didn't have the means. That was probably the most frustrating thing about the whole experience. The fact that we couldn't do more for these precious people. That just becasue they lived in a 3rd world country, they didn't have access to the healthcare that our country gives. But that leads me well into my next subject:-)

The Faith: The people of Guatemala had such great faith! I think most of them practiced Catholicism, but everytime we asked a person if he/she knew Christ or believed in Christ they would say yes. If you asked them if they drank alcohol or had sex before marriage, they would look at you like you were crazy! We would always pray with them after we finished giving them medicine and depending on the village that we were in, they would usually cry just at the idea of you wanting to pray with them. That was probably my most favorite part:-) We even had the opportunity to go to a Spanish-speaking church one night. It was so cool to experience Christ in another language!

The People (Lee): The group consisted of about 2 physicans (over the course of 2 weeks), 2 NP's, 2 RN's, a pharm tech, Dr. Veenstra (the Lee teacher/dentist), and about 20 students. Most of the students were pre-med or pre- medical profession. I loved answering all the questions they had about "real life" and NP school and all the stuff that I have done to get where I am now. These kids were so bright and I'm excited to see where they end up in the future. And of course that is possible, since we are all facebook friends now:-)

The Travel: This might have been potentially the worst part of my trip. I really love traveling but I was super scared about traveling to a 3rd world Spanish-speaking country. And rightfully so.... My plane landed Friday night around 9pm. The Lee group was supposed to have landed around 8pm and were to have been waiting for me at the airport. Well they kind of usher you straight out of the airport and into a gated area with about 300 people all waiting to pick up their loved ones from the airport. It was chaos. And there was no Lee group. And I waited and waited and waited. I even had someone come up to me and ask me who I was waiting for and then proceed to tell me that they SAW someone holding a Lee sign up but those people were gone. Then I freaked out. I called Adam from a stranger's cell phone and started crying. Thanks to Teri (who is a travel agent), they let me know that the group had NOT let me but their plane hadn't landed yet! I ended up meeting up with them around 11pm and breathed a HUGE sigh of relief. I traveled out of Guatemala with another lady and her daughter that had to come back early and we thankfully did not have any problems. Next time, I'm learning Spanish.

The Sickness: Of course everyone must get sick when they travel oversees. Hannah Baldwin begs to differ with me:-) Around Tuesday night, it began. The diarrhea/vomiting/grossness of everything. I was up a complete night partaking in all of these glorious things and when I woke up in the morning, I didn't feel much better. Thankfully, we had an off day from clinic so I was able to sleep alot on the bus and walk around doing a little bit of shopping. The worst part might have been the Phenergan shot that I received in the wrong location. I say "in the wrong location", because it hurt sooooo bad going in and here we are 3 weeks later and I still am having pain/numbness in my left hip. I think over the course of the trip, everyone I knew got sick just a little bit. It goes to show that you what kind of conditions these people are living in.

All my pictures are on uploaded on here, so if you want to take a look, check them out:-) When asked if I would go on the trip again, the answer would have to be yes (if I got to take my friends and husband along!) It was an awesome opportunity to get to serve these people with the skills/knowledge that I already had. I would encourage all my medical friends to do something like this at some point!

Huehuetango, WHAT?

So in 36 hours (ish), I am going to be boarding the plane headed for Guatemala!! Me and students/faculty from Lee University will be heading to Huehuetango, Guatemala for 2 weeks (I'll only be gone 8 days) for a medical mission trip. We'll be roughing it and spreading the love of Jesus through antibiotics:-) What could be better?? Obviously I am super excited. I have so many mixed emotions about this upcoming trip. I love traveling and I love going to new places. I also love the fact that we will be blessing people through the gift of medicine. I have been praying for an opportunity like this for a while and I really believe the Lord laid it right in my lap. I know He wants me going. Buuuuttttttt.... on the other hand, I'm EXTREMELY nervous. 1. I will be traveling by my self to a third world country to meet the rest of the group down there. 2. I don't really know anyone else going (sans the 2 teachers I know). 3.. I'm very nervous that I'm not going to be able to properly treat the people down there. My specialty at work is Women's Health and we're going to be doing alot of primary care. 4.. There is always the risk of volcanoes/hurricanes. And I think those are all pretty legitimate fears. But I know God is going to do some great things while we're down there. I'm praying and trusting that He is going to take care of us the entire time. I can't wait to come back and share!