Pages

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Culture shock and other things...

We drove over 2,000 miles in 3 days and made it safely to Ganado, Arizona.  We drove our little blue Subaru which now has over 315,000 miles on it.  Like my husband says this is not a Subura advertisement, it's a God advertisement.  To which God reminded us when we were 30 miles from Ganado our car overheated.  We were able to purchase some water and get the car to our new home.

We are settling into our new home.  This is a temporary move until our visas for Australia are approved.  The Lord has provided us with a nice 2 bedroom house.  (It belongs to the church and they are graciously letting us live here for awhile.)  It's a little bigger than our home back in Pennsylvania, so the kids have a little more room to run around.  Outside it's all dirt, which Cody is loving.  There are lots of little girls for Autumn to play with, and next week she'll be attending her first away camp.  She'll be gone for an entire week.  Pray for this mommy!

So, what will we be doing out here?  My husband will be working on building projects, automotive jobs, visiting families with the pastor, and whatever else he is needed to do.  My job?  Just hang out and keep the kids from getting bored.  I want to use this summer as a time to really work with the kids on some things I've been lazy about.  One things is daily devotions with them and Bible memorization.  I bought a neat Bible curriculum from Lamp and Quill.  Each of us has a workbook and we are all memorizing at least one verse a week.   I also brought about 20 books along to read.  You may think that is a lot but I've already read 3.  I love books.

The weather here has been so gorgeous.  Probably high 70s if I had to guess.  The wind has been so strong though.  You may have heard of the wildfire in Arizona, we're about 2 hours north of it, hopefully they'll get it contained before it gets any closer.  But I know these winds are not helping them. 

The elevation here is almost 7,000 feet.  The elevation in our home town is about 700 feet.  So, believe it or not we are all suffering from different degrees of altitude sickness.  Autumn has mentioned she has a hard time taking a deep breath and that her chest sometimes hurts, she's also had 2 nosebleeds.  Patrick has had a headache since we arrived and has also had several nosebleeds.  I've had a headache all day.   Although this is a small thing, it is something we're not quite used to.  I figure after 2 months or so of living here when we got back home we'll have incredible energy!

Another difference here is that besides people there is nothing out here.  There is a small gas station and Burger King in Ganado.  (I don't like Burger King!)   The next town is about 30 minutes away.  They have a McDonalds and KFC and a small grocery store.  So, in order to get to civilization we have to drive over an hour away to Gallup, New Mexico.  It's a fairly large town with a Wal-Mart and many other restaurants. 

Some of you may have heard that we've haven't stepped foot into a Wal-Mart since December of last year.  Just a personal preference, nothing major.  But it looks like in order to get groceries and other things at a reasonable price we'll be going to Wal-Mart.

So that's our life right now.  Living on the reservation is going to exciting.  I am anxious to see what the Lord is going to do in our lives.  I'm praying we'll be a blessing to the churches out here. 

If you're still here, thanks for reading!

2 comments:

Amy said...

Thank you for this update! I've been thinking of you guys often. I had no idea how close you were to Gallup, NM. I was there one summer for a missions trip--- my group helped out at Broken Arrow Bible Ranch (a camp for Indian children). We also spent some time at a nearby reservation church (although I'm blanking on the name). The reservations were a huge eye opener for me, God really used that trip to grow me. Praying for you guys!!!

Chris and Carole said...

What an exciting life you guys lead!!! I think missionary kids are so blessed in that they get to see America and the world!