We left NZ on 11 July, headed for Vancouver, B.C. Arriving in BC on the afternoon of the same date—though the next day, we wearily made our way to our hotel. We settled into the hotel, got cleaned up and went to dinner, before crashing for the night. Saturday morning, we awoke to an email containing news that our beloved dog, Sydney, was missing! Our first day in Vancouver didn’t start out so well. There was little we could do but hope she was found safe and was returned to the Pyatt’s, whom we had asked to look after her. The Friday evening that we departed, she was fed and walked according to our instructions. Once her belly was full, she decided she would go for a walk—in an effort to find us. When the Pyatt’s went outside to call her in, she was gone. They noticed that some bricks had been moved—bricks that they had put next to the fence where they saw her smelling near the fence. They set about driving around their neighborhood looking for her, to no avail. They phoned Animal Control to report Sydney missing. The animal control officer told Anni to go back to our neighborhood, speak to a neighbor and leave her number in the event the dog would show up at our house. The animal control officer knew that is what most dogs do…they try to find their owners. By Sunday afternoon, Anni got a call from our neighbor, who did, indeed, spot the dog. Our twelve year old dog (who can't smell what's right in front of her) walked nearly five miles across town to find her way back home, taking almost two days to get there. Needless to say, our holiday was more relaxed when we knew she was safely back with the Pyatts.
Sunday, we drove up to
Whistler, B.C. to give Micah an opportunity to go mountain biking, which he enjoyed immensely.
Monday, we caught an early morning train to
Seattle. Since our train was due to
leave at 6:20, we decided we’d better make sure we knew where the car rental
drop off was as well as the Amtrak station.
We found the car rental drop off and found a train station that was just
a block or two away. Perfect! Next morning, we went to the train station
where we proceeded to unload our baggage.
Since there wasn’t a sign which read “Amtrak”, Traci was a bit uncertain
that we were in the right place.
Fortunately there was a woman walking in to report for her duty. Traci stopped her to ask if we were at the
Amtrak station. Her answer, “This isn’t
the Amtrak station. It’s down on Main
St” was not what we wanted to hear! Yikes! Where in the world was Main St. As it was only something like 5:45 or 6 in
the morning, you can imagine that the streets were only populated with…um, well
a few homeless people and, well…a few others. We frantically drove one way in search of the
Amtrak station, then decided to turn around, thinking, ‘no, it’s not
here’. Back and forth we went, stopping
a couple of times to ask for help. Once
we found the Amtrak station, then, another problem presented itself. Greg had to drive back to the car rental drop
off, then walk back to the Amtrak station.
Once we found the right station, we knew there was no way he could walk
back to the train station in time to make the train. Fortunately, there were a couple of taxis
waiting at the Amtrak station.
Whew! Greg made it back just in
the nick of time! He was literally the
last passenger to board the train.
Monday afternoon, we
had a wonderful walk around Seattle with a former neighbor and her 12 year old
son. Micah and our friend’s boy enjoyed
going up the Space Needle. It was really
great to catch up with these friends.
Tuesday morning, we were able to meet up with Traci’s nephew, Robert, who she hadn’t seen in 17 years (Traci’s brother’s funeral in 1997, when Robert was 10 years old). Also, that day we were able to see Sean & Morgan Higgins and Morgan’s parents—Dave & Gale Light for lunch and the Cary Green family (14 children!) for dinner (wish we had a photo of them, but didn't get one). It was a real blessing to us to see these long-time friends. Wednesday we drove down to Portland, making a spontaneous stop at LeMay Car Museum in Tacoma.
 |
| Higgins and Lights |
We
were privileged to attend the Wednesday night prayer meeting at Trinity Bible
Church in Portland. This is the church
that Traci was a part of back when she was just out of college. Thursday we did a bit of shopping (ok, a lot of
shopping!). Oregon does not have a sales
tax so we bought a few ‘big ticket’ items—at least big ticket for us. Thursday night we had the rich blessing of
being part of a family birthday party for Lucille Custis. Lucille is the wife of the dear man who was
pastor when Traci was at Trinity. She
and her family were celebrating her 91st birthday. She
was also very instrumental in Traci’s life during those years. And Pastor Custis was instrumental in Traci moving to California and enrolling at The Master's College.
 |
| Talk about a precious saint! |
Sunday, Greg had the
privilege of preaching the morning service at Trinity Bible Church. After the Sunday evening service, we
did a power point presentation of our ministry in NZ. We were taken to dinner by some dear,
long-time friends, then to their home for dessert. It was a late night,
but so full of laughter and fun that we weren’t about to sacrifice that precious time with them in exchange for
a normal bedtime.
The next day, we were up early
to catch our flight to Los Angeles. We
were to spend the next several days at Greg’s mom’s house and had the
opportunity to see Greg’s brothers as well.
In addition, we had appointments at the DMV to renew our driver’s
licenses and needed to get new glasses ordered at Costco.
There wasn’t much time for rest and relaxation.
 |
| Greg, Jeff and Mike (notice the New Zealand t-shirt Jeff is wearing. He visited us a year ago). |
On Friday, we headed
up to Grace Community Church for a dinner for GMI missionaries. This was to be sort of the kick off to the
conference that was scheduled for the following week. What a treat that was to meet up with many different
missionary families that we only see every two years. It’s like a family reunion—only better! Then, Saturday, we filled the day with meeting
up with as many people as we could squeeze in.
Micah went to Magic Mountain with a couple of boys from our church in
West Covina. Saturday night we had
dinner with some of our favorite people on the planet (they know who they
are)! That was an overwhelming blessing
to be sure! And, Sunday was Missions
Sunday at Grace Community Church.
Missions Sunday, as the name indicates, was a Sunday devoted to missions. All--well, most, GMI missionaries were to be
on hand at the morning and evening services.
In between services, we were all to be at our assigned tables
interacting with people of the church. What
a privilege to interact with people about our ministry and to represent the
various facets of ministry. If you didn’t
receive our recent newsletter, you must contact us to get it. We share a story of how the Lord is using a
little boy so mightily in our lives.
 |
| Joshua, age 5 |
Monday
we headed to Oxnard for the GMI Missionary Conference. Our first conference (as missionaries) was
four years ago at this very location.
What sweet fellowship was ours as we worshiped with, ate meals with, prayed
with and shared ministry issues with some sixty other missionary families. Micah enjoyed time with the youth group,
consisting of about 50 other youth.
 |
| Anita B. who serves in Malawi |
 |
| Long time friends Tom & Dee Ellison |
 |
| Long time friends Ron & Karen Hendrickson |
 |
| Kiwi Table (plus Todd S.) |
There are many other photos we'd love to post but because some missionaries serve in sensitive areas, they cannot be posted online. Suffice it to say, the conference was a precious time of fellowship, encouragement and refreshment. It's Turkey in two years time!
Once the conference
had ended, we headed back to Greg’s mom’s house for about 2 ½ days. Traci always enjoys the challenge of packing
a pile of stuff (consisting of clothes, shoes, toiletries and much more) to
take back to New Zealand. We always
stock up on items that are extremely expensive here. In spite of having lots of extra stuff, all
of our bags were underweight.
