Nouvelle Caledonie

Bonjour!

We have been in Noumea for about a week and a half and are now starting to get a full grasp of this very different culture and of these incredibly generous people.

When we are at work, we plan and prepare for different events that we are in charge of. On Wednesday afternoons we run an after school program for local children, we teach Sunday school, give our testimonies at the morning services, plan family fun nights, prepare for a wedding coming up this weekend, are running a women's appreciation night, and we get the opportunity to travel around meeting incredibly families who are overly generous with their food and time. They are patient with our French, and we listen to their life stories which is a wonderful trade off for us.

During our free time we spend a lot of time in the city of Noumea. Everything is super expensive here, so we do the things that are free: go to parks, churches, the beach, and window shop. We love to get baguette sandwiches and eat them in the square and talk to the people who walk by. We also have been going to this beautiful cathedral called St. Joseph's almost every day to meditate and pray and sometimes we attend evening mass. Also in our spare time we are reading Le Petit Prince and Fables from Jean de la Fontaine together to improve our french and to laugh at how witty the stories are. Island life has been treating us well, and while bouts of homesickness come every now and then, we are learning so much and enjoying our time here immensely. The people are so loving and generous we are constantly astounded by the beauty in this place.

Au Revoir,
Brittany and Angela

independence, mo.

Well, I know you’ve all been dying to hear an update from the culturally and geographically exotic country of the United States of America…ha...I figured I might as well.

First of all, I’ve loved reading about all of your adventures! Keep updating…I live vicariously through you.

Things are going really well here! Twice a week, I go to the Outreach International office and help the interns there. Last week, we recorded a film that will show at Spec. It should be REALLY cool J

Things at Hawthorne are awesome. I’m in charge of Thursday night Bible Study for the kids and it’s always an experience. The kids at the Boys and Girls Club are so much fun and, while they keep me busy, they make me laugh like crazy.

I planned a worship service for the Sunday night Hawthorne church and some friends stopped by to help with music…;-) I helped at East 39^th Streets VBS a few weeks ago and this week I’m doing music at New Walnut Park’s.

Here are some pictures of the kids from all these different places…

Hawai'i and New Caledonia

We have so much to fill you all in about! Our time in Hawaii was busy but splendid. We spent the week of reunion teaching a class full of adorable and charismatic 4-5 year olds, with some toddlers sneaking in every now and then. Our time with our kids: Kalanikapu, Akoni, David, Arrihau, and Hoakea was memorable to say the very least. Through crafts, stories, games, snack times, and potty breaks we came to love each of these boys. At reunion we also had the opportunity to lead recreation games each day (trainwreck and water balloon fights woohoo!) and helped out in other various aspects of worship and activities. We did not get much sleep, but we met incredible people and experienced incredible things.

Immediately falling reunion we flew to Hilo (which is on the Big Island of Hawai'i). There we led a vacation bible school for kids 7-13 years old that grew with each day as the kids kept inviting their friends. We studied Gifts of Grace, Joy, Faith, Hope, Love, and Peace. Since we had prepared a lot of our classes during Reunion, we had some free time during the day to experience more of the Hilo church and the Island. We climbed a volcano, learned about island cutlure, swam with a sea turtle, visited Kona (as in coffee), saw the different landscapes of the island, went to the planaterium, hiked through the rainforest, washed 300 window panes, visited water falls, and talked to some interesting characters in the farmer's market. We felt really blessed to have met so many compassionate people who were so eager to show us the beauties of their island. We spent a few more hours in Oahu with friends, and had to regrettably say Aloha to Hawai'i.

After a long flight, and multiple layovers we safely arrived in the beautiful country of New Caledonia (Nouvelle Caledonie). Customs, other than some strenuous swine flu testing, was easy. Our host family: Freddie, Patricia, Nana, and Vi have been wonderful and generous. We met withe Coreva, the full time minister here, today (our first day) and she explained to us some of our activities that we will be busy with for our three week stay in New Caledonia. We are preparing the church for a wedding (which Brittany has been asked to sing in!), running sunday school, leading an after school activity for the youth, visiting members in their homes, and helping out at the two congregations on the island. There is a rumor that a Karaoke night is also in store for us... The language barrier has been somewhat difficult, but Angela has been amazing with speaking french to the locals. We were able to visit with a church member today over lunch and had some wonderful discussion about philosophy, politics, and faith. We feel truly blessed to be surrounded by such amazing people, and we will post more as our adventures continue!

A Plus Tard (Until later)
Au Revoir.

Angela and Brittany

Zambia

We've made it to Chingola! We're now at Catherine's (our host) house and settled. Jac and Sherri left this morning, so we're on our own now. We've been having a great time, and this week we'll start working with the local congregations to find a project to work on, and we'll also be working on surveys of different communities for Jac and Sherri's orphan program. We've been taken as sisters multiple times (twins a couple times). We've been traveling so much this past couple weeks it will be nice to slow down a bit, and have a home base for a while, but we're learning! Not much else to say at this point, we're having picture difficulties, but we'll try to put some up eventually. Hope everyone else is doing well!

England

I have had my first experience with visiting another congregation in which Sally Norton and I organized an hour long service to some very lovely people. I have really started to like drinking proper tea, and when it is time for tea.....everything stops. lol. Gotta love it. I have spent a majority of my time getting to know the staff and learning the stories behind everyone who is here. I wanted to post a quick one and let everyone enjoy this picture I am going to post. There is a house cat named Gloria who is 14 and acts like she is 5. Quite the sacavanger! She decided that a good welcoming home gift was a headless/half eaten baby bunny on my luggage. ENjoy

South India!!

We met each other for the first time in the Chennai airport at passport control. We were in Chennai for a day before flying to Madurai where we stayed for our first week. There, we visited a village and participated in the service on Sunday Morning. Mostly, we hung out with our host family and visited sites around the city such as the Gandhi Memorial Museum (where they had the clothes he died in... blood stained) and a 1,000 year old Hindu temple where we were both blessed by an elephant for 10 rupees. :)

Yesterday, we traveled by taxi 2 1/2 hours to Uthamapalayam (try pronouncing that)... and went over our schedule for the next three weeks with our hosts (Prince and Ruby). It looks like we are going to be doing a lot of things, visiting a lot of villages both close by and some distance away, and will have many opportunities to share with people. We are adjusting to the weather and food (with some difficulty!), but overall are doing pretty well. We are excited to be somewhere more permament for a little while, but are also excited to travel around many places and see new things. From the roof of the house we are at now, we have a beautiful view of the mountains. Indian culture has been interesting... a clash of village and city almost everywhere we have been. Goats and cows wandering around in the streets... obeying traffic laws (well the few that they have anyway!!) We have almost died each time we have gotten in a vehicle. That might be a little dramatic, but I am sure some of you can relate to how different traffic is in other places. It takes some getting used to (and covering our eyes a lot).

We are going to go exploring! It has been so good to hear about everyone! Stay safe and feel our love with you!

Love and Peace,
Kory and Katie

South Africa

Hello everyone! We made it alive last Tuesday, Jac and Sherri Kirkpatrick met us at the airport and took us to our wondeful charming hotel! We spent the night there and took off the next morning. We are currently in South Africa, heading to Zambia tomorrow. Things have been going so well so far, we have met so many amazing people and have found so much inspiration in the projects we have seen. We have spent the past few days in Botswana to learn from other NGO's about how to start our own NGO in Zambia, we met with four different groups, everyone of them blew our minds. One of the organizations was for preschoolers and we have never had little kids steal our hearts quicker. They mobbed us, hugging us, giving us high fives-immediately, no hesitation. They were just amazing! There was a point where we weren't sure we would ever stand up again they had such tight grips on us.
We've also met quite a few Americans, they keep coming out of the woodwork at these organizations, but they've all helped us quite and bit and we've ended up eating dinner the past two nights with Americans which was completely unplanned. We've seen quite a few hilarious signs, including "Tresspassers will be shot, survivors will be shot again" (downtown Johannesburg) "Blacklisted? Call *** *** *** to clear your name!" (pole) "No Bribe No Power!" -and there are so many more but I can't even remember them all-they are constantly cracking us up. We have also been taken as twins a few times already, and we're in the part of Africa where white people are common...so I can't imagine what it will be soon...
We loved reading the other posts, and look forward to hearing from others, we hope everyone is doing well, and we'll post again soon!
-Ashely and Rachael

CANADA

hey everyone!!!
Heidi and I are in Canada all safe and sound!
We have to wear our bunny hugs (hoodies) everyday because it's so cold!
So far we've.. had a BBQ put on for us and met a bunch of the people from the congregation, gone to Tim Horton's, gone to a Western Development Museum (which sounds kind of lame but was super cool), eaten SO much, and eaten Saskatoon berries in more ways than should be allowed (perogies, iced tea, lemonade, on top or waffles and cheesecake, jam.. I'm sure there are more ways that we haven't even gotten to).
Just to name a few! None the less it's been awesome and super busy and we've had so much fun!
We hope everyone made it as safe as possible and are enjoying themselves as much as we are!

Britt and Angela in Hawaii

Aloha!

Our first plane ride on Monday was canceled (it lost an engine--eek!)but we arrived in Oahu a day later and were greeted by Ralph Aona and two bright magenta leis.

We have had one really relaxing day and one really busy working day so far, so it all balances out.

Yesterday we had the day off so after eating a papaya with a spoon for breakfast, we caught the bus into the city (Honolulu) and got off at Ala Moana shopping center/national reserve beach. I (Brittany) talked to everyone on the bus and made about a dozen friends the first day. Mostly local Hawaiians would talk to me as I incessantly asked them questions about their lives/cultures. I met a fellow trekkie named Dave, and Angela got hit on by a pot-bellied plumber named Pete on the beach.

We shopped a little bit, and gathered up souveniers for our family and friends and walked across the street to the beautiful Hawaiian Pacific Ocean. We avoided sharks and coral and managed to escape only with mild sunburn and our fix of sand, sun, and water.

Angela and I returned to the house of our host family, Millie and Steve, two incredibly beautiful and generous people, and ate rice and spicy sausuages for dinner before feeling jet lag kick in and going to bed early.

Today was a little more Service oriented. We woke up early to spam and eggs cooked for us by Uncle Steve. We met a few other people from the mission center and put up 11 tents during the first couple morning hours for the upcoming reunion. Already exhausted, we continued to clean out the kitchen fridge, unloaded CostCo trucks full of food, organized the food into the kitchen, cleaned out rancid containers, crawled into rubbish bins with spiders to wash the bottoms out, and worked out in the garden. All this before 5 p.m. so we are sweaty, red, and wiped. But our host family works just as hard as us if not harder every day doing the same things. We are lucky to have them, and they feel lucky to have us to help. :)

In the upcoming week we will continue preparing the campgrounds, live in a tent, be teaching the class for 4-5 year olds at reunion, planning recreation for the afternoons, helping plan services at night, cooking and cleaning in the kitchens during reunion, and planning a Vacation Bible School that we will be leading in a week or so on the island of Hilo.

Mahalo (thank you) for reading this now novel length blog and Aloha until next time.

England!

Well i hope all of you have made it ok, I just woke up this morning and finally slept. I was going on 28 hours of no sleep.............not fun! Had some interesting flights with some pretty cool people. One guy works in Swizterland, and the other is on his way to Kenya to do some church type work. Good conversations though. Everything is well here, beautiful weather, amazing people. Had proper fish and chips already!!! Chat with you all soon.

Matt