Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween

I love you

Be blessed and be a blessing

Erin

The Pictures That Would Not Come Before

This is Tae and Melanie our 1st work couple to host, this is the A.C. team that came with the sea

container From L to R Mike Rassi, Wayne Steffen (for those EMS alumni thats Mrs. Steffen's husband) Chad Huber (Chad and his family will be moving down here soon) Ron Hodel, and Gene Huber (Chad's Dad).

One Week Down

Hi Everyone! we have made it through the one week mark and we are still going strong! PRAISE GOD! already this week besides settling in, helping unload the sea container, working around here, we have been working with/hosting a work couple Melanie and Tae, they are from NYC,and for 3 days hosting the our church evaluation team. It was great to see familiar faces. At them same time as they left today Keri and I both had the thought of this doesn't feel right. shouldn't we be leaving with them too. We have been here for the week and normally we would be going home, but this time we get to stay. I got the opportunity to interpret for the evaluation team for church today Damion was in Kingston preaching at their school so Calva preached and he is very intelligent and very well studied and goes very deep in his thoughts so about after an hour/hour and a half of being completely focused on him so I could voice for the others my eyes just wanted to close and take a nap. so for those brothers I apologize. I was trying to add the pictures of our work groups this week but my computer and I are not getting along right now so I will try again later. I love you. Be blessed and be a blessing! -Erin

3 BIG YEAH'S FOR THE DAY! and one yuck

Hi everyone! I pray that the Lord is blessing your day YEAH! its friday! It has been a big yeah day 1. I got hot water now running in my apartment and 2. Not only is my hot water running its RUNNING with pressure and not trickling! and 3. My fed ex box made it! I have been struggling with these fed ex people from the time I tried to ship it two weeks ago in Bloomington (a little word of advice. If you want to ship something fedex pack it yourself or they will try to charge you 5 times more then is nessisary. *sorry if any one reading this works for fedex!) Also if you are trying to send something to me down here fed ex don't put my name on it because I don't have my TRN number and it causes big problems. If you want to ship something let me know and I will inform you how to adress it! Any way my yuck of the day Ticks. they are here I was trying to get what I thought was dirt out from my toes when I discoverd it was a Tick (not cool) and then I found another one in my kitchen later. I think they guys who where working on putting my hot water line in must have brought them in when they came into my apt. to make sure everything was working correctly. Have a great weekend I love you all. be blessed and be a blessing.-Erin_

My new place

This is half of my place................the door is to the bathroom... the other half of my apt...the door is to out side. my cabinets are all made here at cccd and smell WONDERFULLY like pine! The top Left (or maybe right?) picture is my bedroom, (oops actually thats not my bedroom but it looks the same as mine. thats my roomates. i switched rooms 3 times already becuase i didn't like the bed in the back room so i moved to the front room but then i didn't like how you could see in so i moved the bed in the front room to the back room! and the other is of one of my housemates! The sea container comes in tomorrow so then i will actually have more in my apt then a 3 legged desk and a bed! I love you and wish for you a most WONDERFUL day!

be blessed and be a blessing-Erin

Hello From Sunny Jamaica

Hi everyone! I pray that you are all having a most wonderful weekend. I just wanted to let you know I got here safely last night around 8. I got into my apt, and was greeted by by two roomates for the night (lizards). My apt is new and so things are still being worked out, but as of now I have no hot water or water pressure (other then a constant trickle). Hopefully after monday that will change and for now there is the grandhouse (the work teams living quarters) for taking showers. So many blessing already. God is so good. I don't have the right cable to hook my computer up to the internet so I am using nicholases. As soon as I get that I will put on the pictures of my new place. Thanks for all your prayers they are truly felt and appriciated. The plattners and I went to JDV (jamacian deaf village) for church today and i was blessed with the opportunity to see friends and hear God's word. Have a great day. I love you.
be blessed and be a blessing -Erin-

My last week home

Hi Everyone! I hope that you are all having a good week. I am now up in Chicago, in for the night, and getting settled in so I can wake up at 3:00 tomorrow morning to catch the shuttle to the airport. I will fly from O'hare at 6, go to Charolette, N.C., and then land in MoBay about 1:30.This week has been a paradox for me I hated and loved every min. of it. This week has been filled with so many blessings and I was given so many opportunities to share all that God has been doing in my life. But on the other hand after every opportunity I was given to be with those I love I had to then say goodbye to them and break my heart continually through out the days. Thank you all who had to put up with me and my breakdowns this week! If I did not get the opportunity to see you before I left I will send through this blog a big hug and I love you. Take care of yourselves, and keep me updated on your lives. Tomorrow is the big day! EEK!
Be blessed and be a blessing -Erin

Meet My Group

Hi. Some of you know part of my team. Some of you know none of my team so i thought i would introduce you.

(starting L-R) Kirk holding Drew Keri holding Truitt Plattner, Me, Paul, Pam, Dylan (in front of Pam) Chad (Emma in front of Chad) Timmy, and Anna Huber.

Goodbye MTI

The ripping has started. And every time it happens I can hear it audibly like the ripping of plant roots when you transplant them. I was praying that in the last week of training that they would back down a step and yet if feel like they did the exact opposite and stepped up the training to a new intensity. On Monday we went over singleness issues and how singles fit into the work team. A lot of it was good for me and my team because what was talked about where things that just happen because... well... i don't know that's just the way it has always been and so i never thought much of it. But it made us really think of all the expectations and assumptions people have towards singles. ex: they have more time they don't have kids, they can handle more responsibility they only have to worry about themselves. etc...etc... when really they can get overloaded and burdened trying to take on everything they are dealing with and everything people are trying to dump on them because they have all this "extra" time and energy. On Tues. (i think) they put half of us (about 20) into a 5x5x4 box and we went through a simulation that we where missionaries hiding from people who where trying to kill us. So we sat/stood (whatever we could to get as comfortable as possible) for 5...10...min. then we where asked if we would accept strangers into our safe place not knowing who they where or if they worked for the enemy. if we did not accept them in they would be killed and if we did we could end up dead from a leak in the group. would we take them? Then 15...20min a plane was there to take 5 people to safely who would get to go (the mothers of young of course) then 25...30min we could only save 3 people who where we going to tell they had to now stay? (During all this time it was very hot we where in the boiler room so it was very HOT and the air was getting very stuffy) The enemy then found our safe place and where keeping us hostage. Then at about the 1 hour mark we got our final question. the negotiations have fallen through and they are executing 2 people who are we going to choose to execute? at that point we are all so tired and hot and miserable that we are very emotional so with this question my first thought was this is my family I am not going to send them out to be killed. When they came back they ended up grabbing 4 guys instead of 2 to execute and there was real gun shot (sounds) and it was all very emotional. This simulation could be a very real situation for some of those i was training with. And that there was a good possibility that there where missionaries in that position right now and to always remember to pray for them. For the first 2.5 weeks of this training I feel like I have been torn open and all the deep parts of my heart have been probed through making me deal with everything that i was trying to hide or push aside. I was feeling very exposed and vulnerable. Then on the last 2 days I don't know how they did it but they blessed us and prayed over us so many times and in such a way that leaving Friday morning i felt completely whole and refreshed. It was amazing. Thursday we prayed around the world and each family got up and explained where they where going. what they would be doing, and how we could pray for there host country and themselves personally then we got up and prayed over them. Its was an amazing time. Friday morning the ripping started as we had to say goodbye to our MTI family as they left for the airport or started there drive home. As of Sunday night i got my first email from Brent (the first one of us out) who landed inLebanon safely and will start his work there so please pray for him. I hope you all have a most Wonderful week. I love you. Be blessed and be a blessing.
-Erin-

God's Beauty

Good Wednesday Afternoon everyone! I pray that God is blessing your day in Amazing ways. I had the opportunity to wake up at 5 this morning to go and climb Mt. Herman to watch the sunrise with some of my new MTI family. God's creation is such an amazing thing. There are no words good enough to describe the beauty out here. From the summit of Mt. Herman you get a great view of pikes peak! Have a great day! be blessed and be a blessing -Erin-

Hello again, two weeks down one more to go! This was a big week. This entire training process has been exhausting mentally and spiritually and sometimes even physically. Thanks be to God for Beautiful CO where you can go out and hike and relax (pictures taken at garden of the gods) This week we focused on Stress how to manage it and who we are under it. And with learning how to deal with stress we learned 3 fundamentals we can always fall back on (as listed above) 1. God is God, 2. God is not safe God is faithful, and 3. God is good. Wednesday night the Plattner's and I booked our one way ticket to Jamaica (leaving at 6a.m. out of O'hare Sat. Oct. 20th) that was HUGE fore me. Its nice to finally have a departure date set, but its also now less then two weeks away and reality hit. I sat at my computer probably a good 15 min. before I was actually able to push the purchase ticket button! Even as I was going through the process of buying my ticket my mind was telling me it will be fine this training keeps you so busy you won't even be able to think about it. And then the next day came with the lesson consisting of silence and solitude! and thats what we worked on most of the day giving me AMPLE time to think that in 2 weeks I'm gone. God is God and He is good and He knew that I needed to stop and process this all and not shove it off to the side. So on my God walk during the after noon session We had a nice long chat about Trust and how He knows I'm scared and that thats ok. He has been there and will continue to be with me every step of the way. Praise God for His greatness. By the time Friday comes along we are all just worn out so its more of a fun day and we play games teaching us about transitions and trying to adapt into other cultures. As our homework for the weekend we where encouraged to find a church that would stretch us and get us out of our comfort zones since many of use would be joining other churches in our host cultures. The Plattner's and I attended a deaf church at it was a true blessing. The lesson was on strong faith and was just what I needed to hear and learn about today. Only 4.5 more days and training will be done. Time is flying as our hearts are being prepared. I wish for you all a most Amazing week in the Lord and encourage you all to find Joy in the small things. keep looking up and smiling HUGE because GOD is always in complete control and i love you. be blessed and be a blessing -Erin-