I've been down in Dallas for a couple of weeks now. I can't believe how quickly my time here is going!! I've not had ready access to the Internet, so sorry for not blogging more frequently.

Last week I participated in a training session "Learning that LASTS." Basically we learned about, and practiced, "learner-centered" training. It was a challenging week for me. I had a really hard time engaging with the material and with the class in general. I think I was mostly having a hard time dealing with having to switch gears yet again from one training course to another... adjusting from one set of people to another set of people.

The principles that were taught really are useful AND I feel like I'll be challenged to apply the principles in the different opportunities I'll have now and in the future in training others. I'm glad I went. We had to pair up with other participants and actually apply the principles in practice teaching sessions. I was able to work with two women who work in "Communications" here in Dallas. It was good to work with them -- and to see that it was possible and helpful to use the principles, tips and tools in planning training sessions.

The training was only one week long so now I'm "free" to take care of other things while I'm in Dallas... like...

1- spending time with folks who do communications work here in Dallas on an international level
2 - spending time with family (I have a lot of cousins, aunts and uncles in the area)
3 - visiting with churches in this area (I got to share with the youth Sunday school last week and will have the chance to teach Sunday school for 2 weeks in October. I will also get to share about Bible translation with the whole church at my aunts and uncles' church here in Dallas the 2nd weekend in October.)
4 - meeting up with friends who live in Texas (friends who I attended training with last year, friends from college... )

My drive to the office usually takes about 40-45 minutes. Today, it took 2 hours. There were 3 BAD accidents that I saw today. If you're ever wondering what you can be praying about for me... pray for God's grace and patience as I travel around Dallas.

More later...

SIGH.
It's been a while since my last blog :)

I'm now in Dallas... arrived here on early Wednesday morning (a little bit past midnight).

A lot has happened since my last blog and today. I'll take some time over the next week or so to catch up with some "post"blogging. :)

Right now I'm in the hospital with my aunt who is recovering from her heart surgery on Monday. She'll go home tomorrow which I'm sure she's excited about.

I'm glad to be here in Dallas. I have a lot of family here in town and it will be nice to spend time with them.

Why am I in Dallas?
Wycliffe International has their office here in Dallas and I'll be spending time with some of the Communications folks here to pick their brains before I head overseas. I'm also going to go through some formal training. The training I'm going to be taking next week is called "Learning that LASTS". Basically training on how to train others effectively. I'll learn principles of adult learning and how to apply those principles in developing effective training. This will be helpful to me when I'm working in Asia as a Communications Consultant.

Spending time in Dallas will also hopefully give me the opportunity to spend good, quality time with my family in this area (I have a lot of aunts, uncles and cousins here!). I'm also hoping to really work on continuing to develop my ministry team over the two months I'm here in Texas.

Ok... more later...
:)

North Carolina.
Really.
I know, I was complaining when I first got here, but it's really grown on me.

I love the way it's quiet out here.
I love that it gets dark and you can actually see the stars.
I love that there's real grass on the ground (you Floridians know what I mean...).
I love that there are hills and mountains.
I love the butterflies that fly around all over the place.
I love this little town and the cute little coffeeshop where all the locals hang out.
I love the friendly community feeling here.
I love that people have houses that look different from the other ones on their street.
I love that people actually have yards - room to run and play.

Tonight Heather, Jeff and I went over to a co-worker's house and sat out on the back patio. It was BEAUTIFUL out there. We saw deer come out of the wood to feed by the pond. I heard a hummingbird for the first time as it flew by the screened porch. I watched dove, cardinals and other pretty birds fly through the yard and eat from the feeder. I saw a spider make a web over the fire pit. I saw the stars come out as the night got darker. And I saw a lightning bug.

Wow... I sound like I've been nature deprived :)

Ok, yes. There was ICC class today. Day number... who knows??!! There are only 3 days left (including Friday which is our "graduation" day).

But, today was all about water...
WHITEWATER.
Wooooooooooooooooooo-hooooooooooooooooo!!!!

A group of us left for Charlotte right after marriage seminar class (yes, I stuck with it all four weeks!!). We were off for our whitewater rafting adventure at the U.S. National Whitewater Center. It was AWESOME!!!! It was sooo much fun!

I didn't really come to ICC prepared to go whitewater rafting so all I had were my cheap Wal-Mart flip-flops. I tried to MacGyver my way to be able to use them on the raft, but decided it was worth the rental fee to have my feet covered. For some reason, the shoe laces tied around the flip flop and up my ankle didn't seem as good an idea when water booties were right there to rent.

After a very entertaining orientation session given to us by a guy who reminded me of "Crush" from Finding Nemo...Heather, Jeff, Brian, Karen and I got all suited up with our helmets, PFD (Personal Flotation Device -- NOTE: they're not LIFEJACKETS) and our paddles and got into Kiwi's raft. Our rafting guide was Kiwi - a dairy farmer from New Zealand. I could barely hear him, but it sounded like he's a pretty young (22) guy whose pretty accomplished in the whole whitewater sporting world and an experienced guide. Which he did do a great job at making sure we had a good time during our 2 hour rafting experience.

This whitewater course is a man-made course that has Class II-IV rapids so we'd go through a section of it, paddle up to this conveyor belt and go back through attacking the rapids in a different way.

It was such a fun time!! As much as I didn't want to, I did end up in the water and actually went under the raft for a second. So thankful I paid attention to "Crush" when he said what to do when that happens. I actually remembered and did just what he said. I was never soo happy to see Heather or hear her voice as I was when my head popped up out of the water. She said I looked panicked. No doubt! It was scary for the second that I was under the raft, but once I came out from under there it wasn't that bad. I got pulled into the raft and just started laughing. Oh my :)

Kiwi brought us through the course for 9 trips and gave us lots of fun stuff to do each time.
Anyway, I loved it. If you're ever in this area, I would definitely recommend checking out this place. In addition to the Whitewater Rafting they also have climbing walls and Zip Cord Courses (I REALLY want to do that!!) ... and Kiwi was a good guide. At the very least it was fun listening to him talk :)

I didn't bring my camera so I'm hoping to get some photos from our trip off their site. Once I get it I'll post them up.

Afterwards we were of course STARVING, so we stopped at Carolina's Wings where I had ribs and wings. Yummy...

Oh... it was a GREAT night!!!

And... I still have homework to do, so that's all for now!

Something that continues to come up as a key "ingredient" in all the topics we're talking about in ICC is Spiritual Maturity / Vitality. As part of our lesson on Spiritual Vitality they want to equip us with various tools to be able to continue to grow in our relationships with the Lord. So, one of our assignments for ICC is to go on a personal retreat for at least 3 hours.

Often when I spend my "half-days" with the Lord I like to go away... be outside. In Orlando that was most often at Leu Gardens. (sigh). So, I really wanted to be able to find a place to go for this assignment. I was looking at state park sites online and read this description... "quiet woods, trickling streams, melodious birds." So, I decided to go ahead and take the hour or so drive up to Crowder's Mountain State Park and Heather was nice enough to come with me.

We took a look at the map of hiking trails and decided we wanted to basically just go a little bit ... find a spot ... spend our time with the Lord. We pretty much decided that we wouldn't survive the hike up to the top. While it's probably not that big a deal of a hike for most people...I mean really... I get tired walking to class!

So... we took the "Turnback Trail" marked "MODERATE" and made it to our destination -- the point where it intersects with the "STRENUOUS" "Pinnacle Trail."

I found a great spot right near the intersection along the "Pinnacle Trail." It was one of those spots where the huge rocks create great sitting areas surrounded by huge, beautiful trees. A nice cool breeze kept coming through, the sun was peeking out just a bit though the cloudy sky... it was the perfect place. It was a sweet time of just being surrounded by His creation, processing stuff, praising Him and being reminded of some hard truths. I loved it. I love spending time out in nature with the Lord. It really does help me to "tune in" to Him better. It was so quiet -- peaceful, calming... I loved it.

As I sat there people would pass through -- all ages! So, when it was time to move on, the question came... did we want to try to go on the "Pinnacle Trail" and make it to "the top?" I thought -- if the little kid I saw with the Bob the Builder backpack can make it up there... certainly we can!!! So, we decided to go for it.

Boy, I've never felt so out of shape! We had to stop every few minutes for "catch my breath," "stretch my legs," breaks. It was a good time. I enjoyed Heather's company and we had some good talks. And it really was beautiful -- even saw some colorful leaves!!! (I miss fall!!!) At one point we thought... can we really make it? So we asked some people headed back down... "Is it much further?" They replied, "It's not much further. You can make it. It's worth it." Ah.... encouragement. What a difference it makes. And as we kept climbing on we met others who said the same to us.

So we made it to the top. And it was worth it. It was beautiful up there.

We would have missed it if we just gave up and turned around. We would have missed it if we gave in to the thoughts that we were too tired... that we couldn't do it... that it was too far -- unattainable. We would have missed it if we didn't have the encouragement of each other and those we met along the way.

My time with the Lord was precious. And I loved the things He pointed out to me in His Word. He showed me truths in that time that I will continue to wrestle with and ask for true understanding. It was so wonderful to spend that time with Him. And as a bonus... in terms of gaining tools for Spiritual Vitality... thinking about it now, based on what I've been experiencing during ICC and this last week, I think some observations from our hike up was the greatest Spiritual Vitality "tool" I got from today and the thing God wants me to really know and experience.

Recognize need for not going the road alone. Recognize the value of perseverance. Recognize the importance of keeping the goal before me --- because I don't want to miss it. It's worth it.

OH!!! and this was funny... on the way back we would meet people who were asking us, "Is it much further." So, one couple sitting on a bench much like we were -- tired, resting, unsure if they wanted to keep going. So when they asked us, we replied in our cheery way... "It's not much further at all. You can make it. If we can make it you can. It's worth it." And the guy replies... "Yeah... we've already gone down the other trail and hiked up the other mountain." HA!! Didn't I feel like a slacker :) But I'm learning not to compare myself with others... so it didn't rob me of the joy of our hike!!! :)

And by the way... there were "quiet woods and melodious birds," but I couldn't find the "trickling streams."I guess they were victim to the drought here.