Sunrise Service

Unfortuneatly, this is not a picture from today's sunrise service.  The sky was cloady so I couldn't get any real good sunrise pictures.  This is from last year.  The service was really good though.  Dispite the fact that I was freezing and had made the mistake of wearing sandals.  There is something so clean and crisp about the ocean.  And no matter what Danny V. says, I did feel sorry that he and Joseph only got about an hour of sleep each.  They both got there at three in the morning!  Why they even bothered to go to sleep is beyond me.  Attendance at the regular service time was rather low and most of the kids were dozing on the couches and even sleeping on the floor.  I was actually wearing make up and high heels.  Yeah, you missed it.  Sorry.  Maybe some other time.  I also performed for the kid's church with my newly made bunny puppet that Pastor Greg says looks just like his old bunny puppet Harvey, so we christened him Harvey II.  I performed the "Bunny Song" (not the veggie tales version, though, that is a thought for next year,) with my new puppet and was assisted by Malichi who gladly throw plastic eggs filled with candy from behind stage to the eager audience at certain parts of the song.  I did the same performance later for the Easter egg hunt except we had Malachi throw candy instead of the eggs to prevent damages.  He almost hit me with a lollipop that bounced off the stage and toward my head.  Other than that, it was a rather uneventful Easter.  Not at all like the Easter I had a couple years ago when I got stranded on a deserted island.  No, really, I did.  Only for the day though.  I got so sunburned I looked like a lobster.  I almost got mad at Jennifer because she hardly got red at all and the next day it had turned into a tan.  Bleh.  Oh, yeah, Happy Easter!  The SON has risen!

The Reason I Watch Movies with Jennifer

Jennifer is my best friend for many reasons, but the main reason is this: we both find each other funny.  Other of our friends don't like to watch movies with us becuase both Jennifer and I like to comment during the movie.  We make jokes, receite lines, and even offer suggestions to the characters on the screen.  "Hey, don't go down in the basement, you idiot!"  "Call him, HE WANTS YOU TO CALL HIM!"  "You know, if you spent more time..."  And on and on and on.  Or for example, "Hey, red shirt man, you better get back on the ship before you're killed.  Whoops, too late."  Dispite this tendency of ours to poke fun at movies, we both do get very emotionally involved in them as well.  We both cried almost the entire movie of "The Notebook."  We made fun of it as well, but we both still cried.  The guy who was watching the movie with us kept turning his head and asking us "why are you guys crying?"  And then we would just sob, "it's so SAD!"  Cry, cry, sniffle.  Because we get so emotionally involved, Jennifer and I both hate movies that end badly.  And by, end badly, I mean the guy doesn't get the girl because of an arguement, the girl or guy dies, and of course, the worst case, the guy "lets the girl go" becuase of duty.  Like in Spiderman.  Jennifer and I both stared at the screen and shouted at the same time, "WHAT!  YOU FOOL!  YOU MORON!  WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!  ARE YOU COMEPLETELY OUT OF YOUR MIND?!"  Nope, Jennifer and I don't really care about the whole, he gave her up so she wouldn't get hurt.  Oh please, give me a break.  By giving her up, you ARE hurting her, and it is a worse kind of hurt, because she doesn't understand why.  Just thinking about it now, I am still mad at spiderman.  And yes, I did see Spiderman II, and I am a bit appeased.  So he came to his senses.  Anyway, I have drifted off topic.  The point is, if you watch a movie with Jennifer or me, expect to hear our voices as well as the movie lyrics.

-Bobbie Jean

I love...

I love baby pictures.  I love baby pictures of me, my family, my friends, and complete strangers.  I like taking baby pictures, I like looking at baby pictures, and I like showing baby pictures.  I am the freak known as female.  New mothers love Jennifer and I because we will stop them in the aisle and fuss over their babies.  "Oh, he's so cute!  How old?"  Then the mother proudly responds with the number of months that their child has lived in the world and allows us to try and make her pride and joy laugh.

To be honest, I like babysitting.  I look forward to working in the nursery at my church.  I love how babies look at everything as if it was so brand new and wonderful.  And it is, to them.  Everything is new, everything is great, everything is strange, everything is possible, and everything is eatable.  They will put anything and everything in their mouths.  They like to pull on earrings and necklaces.  They like to laugh at you.  They like to shake their little fists and kick their little feet.  They like to live.

I am very proud of the fact that I was an adorable baby.  Though, I think it is almost impossible to have an ugly baby.  I have seen only a few in my lifetime.  And, even they, I thought looked beautiful after holding them for an hour or so.  It is hard to be mad at a baby.  Even when they make a complete mess and then laugh, you end up laughing too.  I still haven't got Joe or Danny V. to give me their baby pictures, yet.

Guatemala Trip

Well, this should be a long post.  Yes, I am finally getting around to posting a blog about my trip to Guatemala.  It was great, it was frightening, and I hated and loved it.  I hated that the traffic was so bad we almost got run over by an overcrowded bus the first day even before I saw Casaverde.  I loved the way the kids were so open to you and so eager to ask questions.  I hated the fact that I couldn't seem to find hot water.  (Special thanks to Mandy for graciously finding it for my showers each night.)  I loved to play with the kids and watch them chatter.  I hat... okay, disliked, that every kid and some adults were always fingering my hair.  I loved the view the first night when we could see the red lava bubbling out of one of the volcanos in the distance.  I didn't like how my stomache fought me for control after my first meal there.  I liked most of the food that was served there, but I still don't like beans.

It amazed me how such filth and beauty could coexcist all over.  First you have the natural beauty of the land and the created beauty that was created by the inhabitants of the small houses.  However, right next to a well kept house is a dump of a house where trash is just tossed outside.  Barbed wire and broken glasses line the tops of walls and houses as an extra protection.  Before we had even travelled from the airport to the mission house, we saw about three seperate guys with shot guns just walking along the streets.  Down the street from the nice and well mantained mission house we stayed at were other nice homes and then right next to one was a lot with a tin shack about six feet on each side.  Dogs run wild and are bone skinny.  I was told rather constintly "don't pet the dogs."  Other more important instructions came later, "don't drink the water," "don't flush the toilet paper," and "don't go anywhere alone."

According to everyone else on the team, this particular trip was much more laid back than normal.  I told Pastor Greg that it was my fault and that God knew if He blasted me with too much experience the first time I would fight Him about going back.  Of course, to my mind, it was still busy.  For three days we painted until around 3 and then went back to the mission house to get cleaned up and then we went back to Casaverde for dinner and the children's program.  One thing I remember about my skit was how I was suppose to hang my head and walk off stage and through the kids to the back and they would always bend the head to see my face and would usually grab at my props, (long extention cord), and my hair.  Matt and Micah would help them wash their hands after the service was over and Mandy and I handed out food and drink.  Some bread with mayo and some ham and then a rice/milk drink is what we served them.  One night we ran out of food for the last couple of kids.

On Friday, our tourist day, we went to the zoo and we were all pleasently surprised on how big the zoo was.  One thing that surprised me was that the had raccoons.  It makes sense, but it just surprised me.  Here in the States we view raccoons as a nuisance and pests.  There they are just as different as camels from the desert are to us.  After the zoo we also went to a market place were there were many many little tiny shops stuffed from the floor to the ceiling with items from woven rugs and carved wooden cups to modern soccar balls.  I managed to get a present for every family member but ran out of money in the process.  In the shop I ran out of money, I had seen a necklace I liked, but the woman in the shop had given me a big discount because I just didn't have the money and so I basically gave her the rest of it for my last two gifts and so I couldn't just borrow money and buy the necklace.  So, being the good friend and sport that he is, Danny took the money I was borrowing from Pastor Greg and acted the part of my boyfriend and bought the necklace for me.  I wish I could have gotten a picture of the smile the shop woman gave me.  Afterwards, Pastor Greg refused to let me pay him back on the basis I needed something to remember the trip by.  So, it was a good day.

Saturday was a completely new experience for me.  We went to a prison.  We travelled there, brought in our equipment that was checked, Mandy and I got padded down, (by female guard), and then we walked down a long hill to wait a few minutes in a room and then go to the gate to the prisoner's quarters were our equipment was checked again.  We set up and sang and danced to songs like the Chicken Dance and the Electric Slide to draw attention from the prisoners who were still asleep.  Then we did our program and broke off into small groups to go through the Spanish pamphlet with them.  I don't speak Spanish and no one in my group spoke English.  They all kinda broke away after taking turns reading through the pamphlet except for two girls who were earnestly trying to talk to me in Spanish.  They showed me some kind of Christmas end table cloth and continued to repeat something in Spanish.  The one phrase in Spanish I have down real well is "no comprenda."  I must have said that around a million times that week.  Anyway, they dragged me over to Chris for a translater and he found out what they wanted.  They wanted my jacket.  Sigh... I should have known not to wear that in.  Other inmates were trying to sell us stuff as well.  Pastor Greg and Chris both stuck to the same story, they didn't let us bring money in.  Kinda disappointing, but most of the other groups went well.

Well, I still am not 100% sure why God wanted me to go on this particular mission trip.  But I was certianly blessed.  I realized how blessed I was here in the United States with my air conditioning and fresh water.  I am less sensitive to being touched, (being padded down can do that to you), especially about my hair.  I am now more than ever sure that God wants me to work in a children's ministry later in life.  I got over some of my personal issues and even managed to get a stamp in my passport to boot.  That and I seemed to have gained about five fathers on this trip all of which have insisted that I pass all potential guys by them and one of them even had two sons he was more than willing to pass MY way.  He was gravely saddened that I wasn't just a tad older since the younger of the two sons is 25.  Hey, I think I could deal with that.  ;P  One other thing that I am very proud about was that on Sunday I managed to do something really cool.  Danny was messing around with Papa Joe's smaller whips trying to crack one.  I walked up and asked to try, and Danny made some comment about how I would hit him since I am a girl and therefore a bad aim.  Well, I picked up the other whip and on the first time, the FIRST time, I cracked it, and then handed it back to a staring Danny with his mouth hanging open.  That was possibly one of the neatest things I have managed to pull off.  Papa Joe laughed and said that it took him about three weeks to do that.  ;)\

~Bobbie Jean

PS.  Hey Dan, I counted and I only saw about three other blondes and they were all tourists.  So there.

The simple life

Any time the weather changed the slightest bit cold or windy, my mind wanders to think of winter.  Every winter, my family and I go up to Virginia to visit with my relatives.  It is probably my favorite part of the year.  I don't really pay that much attention to Halloween or even Thanksgiving, I am always looking forward to Christmas.  Already, I have about half of my shopping done.  Christmas is a very special time for me.  It is a real bonding opportunity for a family of seven to travel 13-14 hours in a crowded van that has a tendency to break down every year.  That and the air condition doesn't really work.  You can learn the most about a person if you spend that much time crowded against them.  The whole day you are talking with your family, listening to the radio, playing car games (which always seem like a better idea before you actually play them), or just staring out the window.  That is mainly what I spend my time doing.  Staring out the window, watching the world go past.  Daydreaming or just staring, while my brother's play their game boys and my older sister reads and my younger sister listens to her mp3 player, I usually don't get actually bored.  You start the day at an early hour to beat the traffic and usually manage to pull out of the driveway about an hour after you planned.  You say a prayer, turn on the radio, and begin your trip.  My dad is always trying to get us to go to musuems along the way if we actually get an early start, but for us kids, (and my mother usually too), we just want to get to Grandma's house.  Seems kinda silly, but we usually yell out, "welcome to Georgia" or North Carolina or whatever state we are going into.  We eagerly look for any sign of snow but have never gotten anything more than an inch.  Yes, it is sad, my Grandmother lives in Virginia and the most snow I have seen is an inch.  That Christmas I scraped all the snow off of all the cars and as much as I could off the ground and made a foot tall snowman.  That is like building a house instead of a skyscraper.  One of these years, I will see real snow.  I remember (sorta, I was around five), the first time I saw snow was when my aunts brought some down here to Flordia in a small cooler.  There was just enough for me and my two older siblings to make one snowball each.  We have pictures of us in shorts throwing snow around.  So, some day, I will see a real snow fall and make a real snowman.  I might even manage to find some coal for the eyes and mouth!

~Bobbie Jean