Arizona Ups

Mesa, AZ: Fiesta Park---Fiesta!!

Tortilla Flats, AZ--Population 6

Florence, AZ: Greek Orthodox Monastary--Fiesta Nunja!!

Hawnyawks and Job Shadowing

Hello friends...it is a blog without a photo this time. I figured I needed to just get the grits out on the table so yous all can eats up. I usually wait until it is barely remembered to send out a list of a great faithful things God has done....I'm sick of that. I like it raw and wriggling.

So I sit here in Kansas City, KS---not MO...sorry all my Missouri folk---I'm on the edge of the border. I am visiting my friend Angela (Vande Brake) Pechacek and her soon 6 month husband Brandon. My dad is at a music seminar all day ----my ride here, and I can have the apartment while they are busy with thier out of the house tasks.

February is a month of folly---of play and hawnyawks. I have just realized the definition of this word from Encycolpedia.com

HAWNYAWK
is a prejorative (implies contempt or dispproval) for a person who comes from a meager or country descent, who is usually uneducated. The stereotype of a hawnyawk usually includes an unusual appearance, lack of cleanliness, and speaking nonsense.

Well February is not filled with rednecks...but it has been filled with meeting people...of unique disposition in unique places that are so different than mine.

The travels started in Arizona!

Sitting in the 67 degree sun and enjoying the time with my sister Christa and my best friend Tracy O. We were visiting my mentor Diane De Haan and her husband who winter in Mesa for the months of January to March. We scooted in just in time to catch some rays and before they came home. It was the first time that Tracy and Christa and I had flown together. Most other times the girls had come to visit me....in random places around the world. They both first came to visit me in Abbotsford British Columbia two springs ago when I taught there....and then at seperate times they both flew to Norway to visit me there at my YWAM school in Skien. These girls are the cream of the travelling crop. They go! Where I go. I guess. Our adventures took on similarities to a weekend Job Shadowing...so I will tell of it now!

Job Shadow #2

Retirement Living in Arizona

Upon request, I have been asked to report my time in Arizona...and my response in a personal reflection. My response is positive...and it makes me think a couple things.

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1. I am ready to use my energies in full.

2. I am not ready for retirement- for red hat ladies and playing cards all day

3. I can not keep up with the water aerobics that happen at 6:50 each morning.

4. I know I do not want to keep a retired diet....too sweet, too filling, too blessed

5. I have experienced the ins and outs of a monastary---and do not dispprove

6. My body craves Vitamin D found in sunshine

7. Following the Holy Spirit's leading is so much more fun when its a total suprise to all

8. Dressing up in Greek Orthodox outfits is good--when you can jump around being ninjas

9. Gospel music is the theme song for retired. I'm not ready for that

10. Swimming whenever you want is nice, but shaving is not.

11. I love to say the word "saguaro" without the g-----in a Mexcan Accent (cactus)

12. Erika has never lost so big in cards unless it is a game called Canadian Salad....ironic? no.

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The best experience of the weekend was seeing Roger and Diane in thier relationship as a married couple. My eyes have been watching as married couples interact and as they work through thier everyday things. Since she is my mentor I have been watching her closely. I learned so much that I can live by...and take home with me. The love they have for each other is amazing! I hope I can reproduce that in my relationship with my husband someday. Bold and beautifully God's