Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Meet Stebbin

Ba Stebbin is one of worlds best story tellers! He kept the back seat riders entertained while we travelled out to the field work. His latest story involves a man coming to deliver a letter to Stebbin's office. But when he found no one there, he brought it to the door of Julie's house. According to Sebbin this man was smitten! He found Stebbin and talked more about "the beautiful woman at that house" than he talked about the letter he was trying to deliver to Stebbin!



Stebbin is a pump mender. He goes out and helps people repair pumps in the villages. This particular pump has been in place for awhile and needed a new "apron." So Stebbin was the foreman for the afternoon.


At the job site he gave a few instructions regarding the ratio of stones to cement and river sand.


He surveyed the work several times (he is the one with the white ball cap)




But he mostly just monitored the work from that table in the background.


Here he is helping with the finishing touches.

p.s. Julie and Heather point out that Stebbin "never" tucks in his shirt!

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Are you important?

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito.
~African Proverb

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Livingstone Zambia

one of our first stops was Wonderbake.
and yes I'm eating an ice cream cone!

Julie and I at the falls.
The canyon behind me only had two streams...
note to self come back in rainy season

Julie and Heather

Julie and I at the great Zambezi

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Today I leave

Today me and my bags leave for Africa to find my long lost sister! 



Those of you who know how I like to pack will not be surprised at what I fit into these bags. But just for fun I'll list a few things.

  • waffle maker
  • bags of un-poped popcorn
  • blueberry jelly
  • miscellaneous medical supplies including bandages, urinary catheter kits, and wound care items
  • blouses and a light wind-break jacket for Julie
  • peppermint candies
  • Reese's pieces
  • M&Ms
  • USB flash drives
  • dish clothes
  • set of mystery movies
  • Bible dictionary
  • Johnson lavender lotion 
  • Sharpies
  • Snyder waffles pretzels
  • five balls of yarn (that is my plane project)
  • cleaning gloves
  • spoons and spatulas
  • chamomile, mint and fruit teas
  • sewing pins and seam rippers
  • balls for the kids and a pump with needle
  • hot chocolate mix
  • Hershey's mini-chocolate bars
  • plastic stackable drinking cups
  • pan-insert steamer
  • gum
  • ballons
  • Uno
  • bandaids
  • hand sanitizer
  • British to US power adapters (5 for $3.99 I'm guessing there quality is a little low)
  • pretty smelly candles
  • ibuprofen
  • some more candy and chocolate!
  • a Christmas gift and wrapping paper (first time I've ever folded wrapping paper)
  • a few clothes for myself

If you think of it, please pray that we get there together. Or at least that I get there safely and the bags make it there before Christmas! I don't know how often I'll be able to post while I'm gone, but I'll do what I can.

Monday, October 14, 2013

Down in the Valley

Sometimes life is too hard. I don't usually post anything like this, but I'm going to do it today. I know that God's grace is sufficient and I rely on Him with all my life. My goal is to live a life that brings glory and honor to Jesus Christ. But sometimes I just have a hard time. Here is a piece I wrote when I got home from visiting Dr Jensen (who monitors my internal injuries from the 2010 car accident.) 



Me in Julie's hospital bed



I don’t want to be hurt. I’m going through another one of those “Why me, God?” times. I don’t know why, I might not ever know why. It has been three and a half years and still I hurt every single day. I just got home from the Urologist. He is a doctor for people who are old, sick, diabetics and really look awful. I don’t like going to his office. I want to think of myself as a healthy 24 year old. Despite the fact that he always tries to be charming, and compliments me on how beautiful I am, I just don’t like going there.

Today was no exception. He looked at my chart and then said, “Your kidney has shrunk a lot.” Last year the damage was 10 percent. This year it is 25 percent loss. My left kidney is 11cm and the right one is 7cm. The only good thing that came out of the visit was that he says I should not be satisfied with my energy level still being low. He suggested a multi-vitamin with iron and then ordered some more tests. Perhaps my right adrenal gland (which happens to be nestled directly atop the kidney) suffered from the infarction and is no longer functioning. Anyway, he is going to run some more tests and see if we can find a solution. He told me “Don’t let the issue go.”

Last weekend when my friend Lydia was here we had one of those good talks. It was one of those talks that encourage you that you don’t have to know why things happen. I know theoretically and spiritually that that is true but right now I don’t feel it. I don’t want to hurt everyday. I don’t want to have to remind myself to slow down. I’m embarrassed to have to go take a nap when my Mom works all day long. Why? Why? Why?

It’s not that I’m angry. I’m just frustrated and tired. And I don’t have hope. This pain has been so real every day for three and a half years. My shoulder doesn’t work smoothly; my ribs aren’t lined up nicely, I wake up with pain. Sure the exercises help, but they don’t fix it. I’m broken. And that’s what bothers me.

Recently I was flipping through my Bible and found a note Amy wrote to me after my seizure in 2005. Here is part of what it said, “Betsy, remember that whatever happens, you have worth. You are precious to your family and to God. You are needed whether you can drive a car or load a hay wagon or knit a pair of socks or not. Your worth is not dependent on your ability. It comes because God created you in His image. No matter what, you have value because God made you.”

With that said, I will dry my tears and go eat dinner. I might not feel like it, but I no better than to function on my feelings.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Sixty Quarts

    This year our tomatoes have sort of been a flop. They were beautiful plants when we transplanted them to the garden, but... Some deer came along and ate some, then there was a lot of rain. And now it is starting to get cold. I've been scared that they would all get frosted and destroyed. All winter long we would have store bought spaghetti sauce and lousy tasting chili. That problem has been remedied.

   I went to market and bought 5 half bushels of whole tomatoes from the Corrions. As soon as I got   home Mom and I started processing.

beautiful tomatoes


preparing to be blanched

cooling off

sterilizing the jars

peeling

cold packing

oh yeah then there was lunch break. Naomi made those delicious rolls.

no more worries. 60 quarts ready for winter

and we made a one batch of spaghetti sauce

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Harvest Party

Yesterday was one of those days when I was really thankful for a big family. We all worked together all day getting ready for our annual harvest party. I have some pictures of the preparations. Unfortunately, I set down my camera and my extrovert personality took over. So I have absolutely NO pictures during the actual party. The highlight for the evening was seeing so many of my friends! We haven't counted how many guests we had, but it was over 100.

Mom getting coolers ready for apple cider

Logan (grounds keeper) getting the lawn mowed

Dad did a LOT of sweeping

Mom's banner. The boys hung it up in the shop.

It took a lot of cleaning to get the place food worthy

Brian and Uncle Paul. They moved all the stuff and swept.

Libby taking a break with Jack

Mom chopping apples for apple fritters.

Amy was the doughnut lady!

Libby organizing the serving tables

Drinks and the hot dog table

The first guests were some of Amy's international students.
Just so you have an idea of why we needed so many people working together. I'll list some of our responsibilities.

Dad-cleaning barns, setting up chairs and tables, setting up cider press, hauling apples
Mom-food prep, decor prep, gathering Bibles to give away, everything else too!
Amy-dougnut/fritter fryer, decor, international student organizer
Betsy-wash apples (aprox 20bushels), general setup
Brian-clean shop, help with table and chair prep
Libby-cleaning, organizing, keeping things in order
Logan-hot dog pit, hayrides, table/chair prep, hauling apples, cleaning
Naomi-wash apples (aprox 20 bushels), decor, hauling 

Jack and Charlie (the dogs) were there too, but I don't think they really helped.


Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Hosanna


Hosanna and I had some fun playing in the sandbox.

Hosanna practicing with her left hand