Category: John

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E-Mail from the Edge of Emily (Jamaica Missions Trip Update)

We’ve started to get e-mail from John with information about how the missions trip is going. He agreed it was fine to post the e-mails on the BLOG. I’ve included my own comments [in brackets and italicized]. I will add e-mail as it comes in. Below, with some minor edits (mostly for spelling), is what we have received:

Saturday, July 16, 2005:

Dear Slackers,

I landed in Jamaica around 5 in the afternoon on Wednesday. Our flight to Jamaica was delayed an hour and 45 minutes. (Good thing I brought those books, huh? :))

[For the first time, John took my advice about bringing a couple of books with him to read, because you never know when you’re going to be stuck somewhere waiting, with nothing to do.]

When we had landed we all waited for our luggage. To our dissatisfaction, only 3 of us had gotten our luggage back. Lori, me, and Rachel, but I had to wait for my big black suitcase for 20-25 minutes. And so I was like, “Well, I don’t think I’m going to live much longer when I return home.”

[We threatened John with death if anything happened to our huge, virtually indestructible, Samsonite suitcase.]

Then came the immigration forms we had to fill out when we landed. It was pretty wierd filling those out because I felt important. When we had to load the luggage I saw Mrs. Hinxman get into what I had thought all my life was the driver’s side of the vehicle. But to my surprise, the steering wheel was on the right side and I thought that was really cool. Well when, we had started to drive I felt like I was in the passengers side of a vehicle that was being driven by the Terminator. Right then I prayed to God and thanked him for seatbelts. To my surprise, our driver was driving 60-65 mph the whole time (1 hour), but we did make frequent stops. And I thought Massachusetts driving was bad!

I was dead tired; I had only had 2 hrs sleep the whole trip because of the girls and their non-stop talking (no offense, Mom). When we arrived at the Reese’s house, I was like, “Wow this is a beautiful house.” We were told to make ourselves at home, and, well, I did. To me it’s like a mansion. I thanked God for His taking care for us and where we were to stay.

Currently, myself, along with Ken, Mr. Small, and Tim, are staying at another missionary’s house that the Reeses work with (the Harmons). You may have heard of the name, but they are not the same missionaries. His brother [Jerry Harmon] is a missionary that our church supports.

I’ve been doing devotions every day, and it is a beautiful country, but the people that we see every day as we drive on the streets. I mean, I feel like giving them money and helping them out. And I know that I wouldn’t feel this way if I didn’t pray to God about the Jamaican family situation.

[John was in an really bad foster home (long since disbanded) which was run by a family of Jamaican descent. He had to overcome the all-too-human tendency to transfer blame to all citizens of a country based on the actions of one or more of its citizens. We’re very proud he was able to do this.]

You may have heard that there was a hurricane that was headed for us. I had gotten scared and I prayed, and when I had woken up I saw the news and God answered my prayer. It had totally missed us. But the day before that, we (the men) had done some work to prepare for the hurricane.

Right now I’m just having fun and enjoying the kids. Tomorrow comes the real work: Vacation Bible School. There will be a little bit more than 300 kids, and the environment around the church is rough. Yesterday their was a gun shot across the street from the church, and so I ran into the church. I pray to God every day for the safety of our trip. So please continue to pray for our trip and I love you all and hope to see you guys on the 25th.

Monday, July 18, 2005:

[We informed John that we’d commandeered his X-Box while he was away, and borrowed Star Wars: Battlegrounds from the Dunn family.]

Oh, so you borrowed my most loved thing in my room. lol. Well, ok, just make sure when they get mad they don’t throw my controller. lol. Yeah, you can write that on the BLOG if you’d like.

The kids get their luggage back today, so they are all happy.

[The luggage also contained many items they needed for the VBS, but I can imagine that not having to wear the same clothes every day was quite appealing.]

Tuesday, July 18, 2005:

Well, I thank you for your prayers for my safety in the hurricane. And I thanked God for His safety yesterday, because there was man that was chased down the street that the church was on and was stabbed to death. I thanked God that He protected me. But I can see what you are saying with the questions. It is a very good conversation to have.

[I’ll be posting an entry about God’s sovereignty and luggage; I had outlined it for John, trying to frame my thoughts a bit. That’s the conversation to which he was referring.]

Yes, I do think that this would be a life changing trip, because I am already starting to pray to God and asking him to forgive me for my hatred in the past towards my biological parents and the Jamaican foster home. Even though they did something terrible and wicked to me doesn’t mean I should not love them and not care for them. But you know I am doing devotions much longer and having more prayer time and praying for people who I would never have even think to pray about.

I gotta go now, and I hope to see you soon. Oh, by the way, how’s the weather up there? lol. Well, catch ya later, and thanks for being my Dad, and I love you a lot; and tell Mom that I love her, and thank her for being my the best Mom that any teenager could ever have. But I gotta go, and I love you guys.

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John Is Off–On A Missions Trip to Jamaica

Early Wednesday morning—at 2:30, actually—John will be leaving with a group of teens from Tabernacle Baptist Church for a ten-day missions trip to work with missionaries Quentin and Sally Reese in Jamaica. During their trip, they will be running a week-long Vacation Bible School, working with the Manna Care Ministry (which brings food and medicine to poor and homeless children), and taking part in two different Sunday services at God’s Way Baptist Church. They will also be passing out gospel tracts, and doing other work to help the missionaries in whatever way they can.

This will be John’s first missions trip. In fact, it will be his first trip out of the country. He is, admittedly, a little nervous. Tonight after dinner we read a short devotional by Corrie Ten Boom about worry. A few days ago I encouraged him not to be afraid, as the worst that could happen is he’d get to go to Heaven soon, and I’d get his X-Box.

This is a great opportunity for John. I know from my own experience that such trips can be profoundly life-changing. Seeing how much of the world lives–or struggles to live–is eye opening. Meeting and spending time in fellowshipping with those who share the common bond of brotherhood in Jesus Christ is enriching.

I’ll update this post throughout the week, as news comes in. Most likely most of the details will need to wait until John returns.

Update–Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Well, the group made it safely to Jamaica, albeit after some delays and sans about half of their luggage. I hope the latter arrives soon for them. On one trip to the Dominican Republic, Nichelle and I were warned to bring at least three days’ worth of clothing and essentials as carry-on. It took exactly that long for us to get our bags.

Update–Saturday, July 16, 2005: Luggage and Hurricanes

We heard that the group’s luggage had been flown to an airport near Kingston, Jamaica, and was supposed to be delivered to them by yesterday or today, if I have the details right.

Hurricane Emily (I still think all hurricanes should be named after women) didn’t hit Jamaica directly, but judging from the satellite photos today, they’re getting some serious wind and rain. That should keep the teens’ lives interesting. Here’s the word from The Weather Channel:

Emily: the Atlantic Basin’s strongest July hurricane
2:55 p.m. ET Sat., Jul.16, 2005

M. Ressler, Meteorologist, The Weather Channel

With winds of 155 mph, Emily has beaten out Dennis for the honor of strongest July hurricane on record in the Atlantic Basin. Emily remains a small but very strong and very dangerous major Category 4 hurricane. If the sustained wind were to increase 1 more mph, Emily would become a Category 5 hurricane. Emily continues to zip to the west-northwest at 18 mph heading into the western Caribbean. The torrential outer rain bands may dump from 6 to locally 10 inches of rain over the mountains of Jamaica and 4 to 7 inches over the Cayman Islands. Flooding and mud slides are possible. The rain bands may possibly produce a few wind gusts to near hurricane strength in the mountains and along the south coast of Jamaica today and then over Grand Cayman Island later tonight into Sunday. A tropical storm warning has been dropped for the southwestern peninsula of Haiti. A hurricane warning is in effect for Jamaica and for the Cayman Islands. A hurricane watch is in effect for the Caribbean side of the Yucatan. A tropical storm watch is in effect for the northern half of coastal Belize.

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Well, I bet he won’t do that again!

John had a geography project that went with a report, preparing food from the country he chose. He picked Nigeria, and for the food he selected to make a pepper soup.

Well, he did very well with the whole thing until he got to the peppers. He was instructed to wash his hands well, because he was dealing with habeneros and another chili pepper. After he was done cutting them up, he rinsed his hands off, but did not wash them off, for Doug and I began to hear the sound of repeated screams coming from the bathroom.

At some point during the cooking process, he touched his face somewhere around his eyes, which left an extreme burning sensation first in his eyes, and then his forehead, and most of his face.

We advised him to begin rinsing his eyes out with running water, while we called the Aetna Nurse Answer line. While we were finding the number, the screaming subsided somewhat, but still continued.

The nurse on call explained that this happens all the time, and that the rinsing John was doing would work, even though it might take half an hour to complete.

She also informed me that many times, men have a similar problem with not washing their hands thorough or wearing gloves, and then “using the bathroom.” I’m sure you get the picture.

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“That was totally wicked!!!!!!!!” (Batman Begins Surprise)

John has been looking forward to seeing Batman Begins for a very long time, and planning on seeing it for his 17th birthday, which is today.

Doug and I first scared John into thinking he was in some serious trouble by calling him upstairs just before 11:00 p.m. last night. He was standing in front of Doug and I was off to the side. We made it seem that he’d done something wrong (but only for a minute, if it was that long).

What John did not know was that Doug had purchased the tickets for the midnight showing online and had the printout behind his back.

John looked very concerned, and after some dialog between us, Doug pulled the tickets out and John couldn’t believe that we were kidding.

Batman Begins was awesome! John and I went to see it together and I will have to say that it outdid the first two Batman movies. I can’t wait to go and see it again. I was planning on staying home with our kids so Doug could take a group of John’s friends to see it on Friday. Well, now I’m hoping to be there to see it with them. It’s too cool to pass up.

Ah, Batman Begins … another opening night showing. I can’t wait to see it again.

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Early Memories of Our Children

Isaac:

I found this note in our cellar, originally from May 13, 1993:

Today Isaac was talking about Andrew (my newphew/his cousin) and asking, “Is he three?” while holding out three fingers. I said, “No, he’s thirteen.” Isaac immediately asked, “Where’s the thirteen finger?”

Isaac has a host of interesting things we could write about. He surprised us at 18 months by identifying and naming the letters “O” and “A” on his alphabet blocks. Before he was 2, he could name every letter of the alphabet, and recite them in rapid fashion if one pointed to a word. (He was at least 4 before he mastered the alphabet song.)

We tried to raise Isaac to be “weapons-free.” (We were naive parents.) At age 2, he ate his toast into the shape of a gun, and said, “Look, a toast gun. Bang!” After that we realized that there were just things, like playing army, that are normal for a boy’s development. David now has a huge arsenal of toy guns and swords. Naomi enjoys playing with them as well.

July 2, 2005 (in reference to sometime in 1995): This was what life was like with a newborn.

  • This morning I knocked a book off my nighttable—Nichelle thought I dropped Isaac.
  • A couple of days ago I brought some work home to do on my computer—I fell asleep at the computer, and didn’t wake up until midnight. Then I had to work until 2:00 a.m.!
  • One night I fell asleep when I was feeding Isaac.
  • Nichelle always wakes up, and can’t remember that she put Isaac to bed. She panics momentarily because she can’t find him.

David:

When David was somewhere around 4, he believe the opposite of incorrect was outcorrect.

John:

We adopted John when he was 10 years old. One of the things we really miss is that early childhood history. His sister has given us a few old photos, but there’s nothing to substitute for a decade of missing information. (Even his medical records were woefully incomplete.)

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I Told You I Had Other Children, Too!

Below are school pictures, taken a month or so ago, of David, Isaac, and John. The picture company, LifeTouch, has been to school twice this year. Given how nicely the photos came out, that was great, but we bought the smallest possible packages both times.

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Online [PC/Video] Gaming: An Industry Name Finally “Gets” It

From this article at Reuters:

The new platforms are expected to offset what Florin [Gerhard Florin, Electronic Arts’ head of European publishing] sees as a disappointing early start for online gaming. The prospect of amassing a core of gamers who pay a monthly subscription to battle other global combatants on the Internet has yet to take off.

Florin attributed the slow take-up to a nagging fear that a gamer could be humiliated in challenging an unknown foe.

“We expected millions of people wanting to play the online games and we have found that, no, they don’t. There is a pretty easy reason. If you play tennis and you don’t know your opponent you are careful whether you should play against him. The same is true with online. If you go online you could be slaughtered or cheated,” he said.

Overcoming the social aspect of online gaming, he added, will hold back the market in the short term.

I think this is probably the most frustrating thing in online gaming. It is almost impossible to win (other than when I am playing with a known group of friends), because those who do game online tend to be those who spend far too much time gaming online. So it isn’t that one might be humiliated, it’s that one will be humiliated. Of course, years ago I was beaten at Command and Conquer by an eight-year-old. When one throws in “unsportsmanlike behavior”—everything from player-killers to abusive language—as well as lag time and trouble keeping a connection to many servers, the appeal of single-player games is obvious.

I do like to play against human opponents. My son John is very challenging, especially at WarCraft III, but our skills are near enough that I can beat him when I really work at it. When I play with Isaac and David we either team up against computer-AI-driven opponents or give them one or more computer partners to help balance things out (except in the Jedi Knight series, where David needs no help). Overall, though, it is rare that online gaming is very fulfilling to the average gamer.

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John Makes the Soccer Team

Congratulations to John, who has been officially awarded a starting fullback position on Tabernacle Christian School’s soccer team.

John starts ninth grade on August 30. His good friend Jay Mavrogeorge did the appropriate arm-twisting, and succeeded indoing what we could not, getting John to try out for the team.

(I’d add w00t! but John would consider that too geeky.)

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Nichelle’s Notes from May

Naomi will be 7 mos. old on 5/13…the time goes so fast. She is now mobile. At 5 mos. she started to creep, but realized rolling where she wanted to go was much faster until a week and a half ago. One day last month she was on my bed w/ me playing with some toys and a doll that was mine when I was either 4 or 5. Things were great until David came in with his sword and shield and she left the doll and played with the shield. LOL. So now on occasion she'll have a sword in hand, or mouth (check out the picture—it’s quite cute).

Isaac and David play w/ her and she grabs their hair. Now mind you, they do scream or say “ouch,” but they keep giving their hair back to her to pull, it's pretty funny. John too, does the hair thing, but doesn't scream, which is good.

Nearly 6 mos. of residency here in Nashua, amazing. We love it here! As Doug is home so much earlier now, a huge blessing. We do miss our friends in Ma., we'll be down again, really, but many times over we see why God brought us here—Particularly for the 24-hour Wal*Mart in Amherst (just outside of Nashua) or the one in Hudson (a few minutes away) that’s open to midnight everyday ;-)!! :: drool, drool :: Alright, maybe not just for those, but it's a perk. I will have to admit shopping after midnight can get a bit wacky, as my sister-in-law, Joyce, came to see. We said, we'd never do that again.

Two weeks ago now, I joined the choir and work in the nursery once a month. Doug has been going out on visitation weekly now and John too has gone a couple of times. As for other ministries we're still praying for God's leading on that. It's wonderful seeing the kids excited about Sunday school and junior church and also their classes on Wednesday night. One of David's friends in his class is named David and was born two days before him. They'll be in K5 together in September.

Isaac turned 9 a couple of weeks ago,and we had a party for him at the house. He had a great time w/ his new friends and even Nda came up for the event. Nda has been up here a few times and we've so enjoyed his visits and the visits of our other friends and family as well. Hope we'll see more of you, too.

A couple of months ago, I started watching a little girl named Mikayla (4 days/wk). She's a sweetie. She and David get along very well. Mikayla will be starting K4 in September.

For the month of July our church offers a day camp for grades 1 to 10. I'm really looking forward to that. The program sounds awesome!

Today (5/6), I was asked to watch a little boy of about 15 mos. old named Ethan. I'll only be doing this two days a week-which is great. I start tomorrow.

Wow, it's already the 31 of May … Yesterday my cap on the radiator went once I arrived at church for choir practice. The car is now in the shop. We were planning to visit Cindy, but obviously that had to change. It's alright for it gives us an extra day to get things cleaned out downstairs.

Naomi had a full bath in the tub today…which she loved. She's been creeping for several weeks now,and two days ago started pulling her legs under her to get ready to crawl. Naomi also was able to pull herself up on the stairs in the family room.

John wanted to visit his friends in Mass. and Doug took him and the kids to Lowell and road the train w/ him part way (to North Station) and then sent him on the way. John made it to Brockton, with only a minor problem due to someone giving him the wrong information about what track the Middleboro/Lakeville train was on. Well, he made it back to Lowell Sunday afternoon so we could leave for Cindy's after church. With that trip being cancelled due to the car problem, John hopped back on the train to head to his friend Ryan's party. Can't believe his 16th birthday is a few weeks away…need to get planning. Actually, he needs to get planning!