Last Days In California

After visiting the San Diego Zoo we flew up to Sacramento to visit our friends Sarah & Marci, who we met at camp in Romania last year. We always have fun hanging out with them so we figured since we would be in California already it would be great to see them again. Sunday we went to their church and met their pastors, and one prayed for us during church which was really nice. Many people from their church have gone to Romania with H2H so there was a get together that night for them to share their experiences. We really enjoyed meeting them and hearing their stories and it worked out great because we were able to share what we are doing with them. Talk about God's timing that there would be a Romania team get together right when we were there.

We toured around the Sacramento area and looked at a large cathedral there. It was huge and very beautiful.

The inside looks bigger than you would think from looking at the outside.

We went and saw the old part of Sacramento which is still in the style of the old west gold rush town. It was very neat and had a totally different feel from the rest of the city.

Lastly we went to see some really big trees at the Calaveras State Park. Seeing the giant sequoias has been one thing that we really wanted to do for a long time so it was great that we got the chance this time.

Sarah, Marci, and Rebecca liked the river running through the park, talk about pristine nature.

If the pine-cones are this big then how big must the trees be?!?

Yeah, that's big, these trees are so amazing!

This is the biggest tree in the park. It was worth the 5 mile round trip hike to see it. This tree may be around 2000 years old, is 250 feet tall and 25 feet in diameter! It is hard to even imagine but as you can see it is real and is very impressive.

Our trip to California was awesome, we learned a lot about what to expect in Romania and had a great time with friends. We are now looking forward to our commissioning at church tomorrow (Sunday August 30) and the get together we are having afterwards. Please come if you can, we'd love to see you there. Our commissioning will happen at the 9:00 and 10:45 services and the get together will be at 12:00 at FairHaven Ministries, 2900 Baldwin St, Hudsonville, MI.

San Diego Zoo

Continuing on from the last post about our orientation with Heart 2 Heart in San Diego, California... We met with Roe, one of H2H's advisors and board members. She is a great woman who asked us all sorts of deep, hard questions. She will be a great person to talk to if we're going through hard times because she is very insightful and has worked with all of the H2H missionaries to date. We enjoyed talking with her and will look forward to seeing her when she comes for the staff training in October.

We met by the beach and took a walk down one of the piers.

This pigeon must have been thirsty!

After orientation was finished we headed to the San Diego Zoo which was huge and had lots and lots of animals. We walked around there for nearly 6 hours to see everything and boy were our feet tired. It was worth it though, as the zoo was very nice and we really enjoyed seeing all of the animals there.

This elephant was demonstrating how to cool down on a hot day by throwing dust on itself.

This Macaw is one of Mark's favorite birds, it is so beautiful and full of color.

This Meerkat was on the lookout.

This bamboo forest was pretty neat too, there were lots of exotic plants at the zoo too.

We had a great time being in and around San Diego. The Sorrel's, the founders of H2H, are amazingly hospitable, they really made us feel at home. We had lots of fun sightseeing and trying new things, and as always the time with them went way too fast.

Final Stateside Update

Hi everyone! This past month has been a busy one and we know that will be the new norm for a while for us. We successfully closed on our house and became 100% debt free, what a great feeling and an amazing answer to prayer! We have been living in the basement of Rebecca's parents house which has been going great because it is like our own apartment. Our fundraising also picked up to the point that we are nearly fully funded with just a little left to raise. We lead a small group of second and third graders at VBS at church which was a really fun experience. The message was centered around the gospel so we were able to share much about Jesus with them.

Mark finished up a big project at work and then we left to visit family in Canada. Now we're in Ramona California going through our orientation with Heart 2 Heart. We have been learning more about what we will be experiencing once we get to Romania. We have been having a great time hanging out with the Sorrels family and have enjoyed kayaking on the ocean and touring around San Diego.

We will be commissioned at our church (Fair Haven Ministries | 2900 Baldwin Street | Hudsonville, MI 49426) on Sunday August 30, at the 9:00 and 10:45 am services. At 12:00 we will have a light lunch in the gym of the church. We would love it if you came to see us off and to share this time with us. We will leave for Romania the following Sunday, August 6 in the late afternoon.

As we go forward please pray for us and our mission in Romania. Here are some requests:

- for a smooth transition into Romanian culture

- for quick learning of the Romanian language

- for new friendships with kids and other missionaries in the country

- for our families as they adjust to our decision to serve overseas

- for the remainder of our support to come in

- for the orphans, that they will come to relationship with Christ

- for strength in all things and especially in our marriage

Thanks so much for your prayers and your support, it really does mean a lot to us and we couldn't do this without it.

In Christ,

Mark & Rebecca

Orientation At H2H

Monday we left Ottawa so that we could head over to California for our orientation with Heart 2 Heart. On the way to the Detroit airport we stopped and visited Rebecca's Oma, who also lives in Canada. She is 100 years old and is still very sharp. She is always a joy to visit because she often has very funny reactions to things people say. Rebecca's Aunt Jenny was also there from up north in Canada. It was great to visit them both. After our visit we drove to Detroit and stayed the night there. We flew out in the morning and arrived in San Diego California in the early afternoon.

We went up to the 40th floor of a hotel to take in some views of the city. The weather has been steady 70's and has been very nice.

We went to see the ocean and enjoyed the beauty of the area there.

Our crabby friend in one of the tidal pools that we went to. After we toured the oceanside and the city we went up to Ramona which is where the H2H office is. Jim and Jodi are the founders of H2H and they are such incredible hosts. It is a great joy to stay with them. Wednesday we started our orientation, which consists mainly of going over what to expect when we get to Romania. We are talking a lot about how to be effective in ministry and avoid some pitfalls that are common for first time missionaries. Wednesday night we went and talked with Anna (J&J's daughter) & Austin's small group about what we will be doing in Romania. We talked a lot about how God brought us to this point. It went great, the group was very friendly and asked lots of questions. We ate Caribbean food for dinner which was very good.

Thursday after our orientation sessions we ate Mexican food and then went out kayaking on the ocean with JT (J&J's son). It was hard work but the scenery was beautiful and we enjoyed ourselves a lot.

The cliffs were awesome, but the best part of kayaking was being able to see these sea lions up close. We also saw some bright orange fish which are the California state fish.

After kayaking the family met us on the beach and we had a cookout and played some games. Jodi and a Romanian friend had fun walking the dogs on the beach.

We are having a great time staying here and are also learning a lot about what things will be like when we move to Romania. The time we're spending here has been quite refreshing as it is very laid back, which is a nice change of pace from all the busyness that we've been experiencing in the last few weeks. We have a couple days left here and then we'll go up to Sacramento to spend some time with more friends. Then we'll come home for a week and a half before we leave for Romania!

Canada, Eh!

Friday morning at 8:00 Am we left to go visit Rebecca's sister Elizabeth in Ottawa Ontario. Traffic was fine until we got to the border, where we waited for about an hour. Not too bad for crossing the border into the states but usually it is quite a bit shorter going into Canada. There was some construction but nothing major. Then we got to the Toronto area and it took over an hour to make it through, and that was in the early afternoon. We figured it was so busy because everyone was leaving from work early on a Friday. By the time we were out of that traffic mess we were fed up already, but we were in for some more fun. It didn't seem like people knew how to drive, being rude and cutting us off. One guy tried to squeeze in between us and a semi, and then was so impatient that he passed the semi on the left shoulder. We figured it was good practice for driving in Romania though, and we made it to Elizabeth's at around 8:00 Pm. We enjoyed an Indian dinner and recuperated from the long day in the car.

Rebecca had fun driving after Toronto.

Man, wish we would have taken a picture of that move!

Saturday we had brunch of bread and some tasty pastries from a local bakery. Then we headed out for a tour of the city. Ottawa is a very beautiful place, filled with classical architecture and landmarks. Being the capital of Canada there are many nice government buildings too. There are tons of ethnic restaurants too, so if we lived here we'd be spending way to much money trying them all out. For dinner we had Sri Lankan food which was out of this world!

We toured the governor general's residence where we saw traditional guards just like you see in the movies. The guard changed every hour, accompanied by bagpipe music which we enjoyed quite a bit.

Today we drove over a bridge to Quebec to see a great view of Ottawa.

We attended and enjoyed our first Orthodox church service. We have so much to learn about the Orthodox faith and the way they do things. We'll have plenty of chances once we're in Romania though as it is mainly an Orthodox country. We got to meet some of Elizabeth's Romanian friends and we talked about what to expect in Romania as we enjoyed an Ethiopian meal.

We have had a great time visiting Elizabeth and touring this city. Please continue to pray for safety in travels as we will be on the move again tomorrow.

Let The Travels Begin!

So many things have been going on lately that we've been extremely busy. It has already been two weeks since we closed on our house, and it has been great living with Rebecca's parents. We can't even describe how nice it feels to have that whole deal behind us. Now we have no debt at all and we're still amazed by God's providence in our lives. Getting together with family and friends has kept us busy but it's been nice to see everybody. Last week we lead a small group of kids in VBS at our church, which was really fun. It was a great week of sharing the gospel with these kids and it was nice to be able to do one last thing with the children at our church.

Mark had been keeping busy at work trying to finish up a big project before we leave for all of our travels. Thankfully he got done a couple days early so he could relax a bit and recuperate from the long hours at work and being constantly on the go. The people at work were all great to work with and it was a little sad saying farewell to everyone, the've all been so supportive of what we're doing. We'll look forward to updating them on what we've been doing when we come back on furlough.

Tomorrow we leave for Ottawa Ontario, the capital of Canada. We will visit Rebecca's sister there since otherwise we wouldn't be able to see her before we leave for Romania. We will do some sight seeing there and will also eat out at some ethnic restaurants. Next Monday we will drive to Brampton Ontario, to visit Rebecca's Oma who is 100 years old. It is pretty much on the way back so we thought it would be nice to see Oma again. Then we'll drive to Detroit and stay at a hotel there for the night.

Tuesday morning we'll fly out to San Diego California. We'll spend some time with Jim & Jodi Sorrels at the Heart 2 Heart office in Ramona. We'll have some orientation and training and there will also be some fun stuff mixed in there too. When we're done there we will fly to Sacramento to visit some friends we met at summer camp and we'll see some sights around there too.

After we get back from California we'll have about a week and a half before we leave for Romania, which is on September 6 (note the date changed from previous posts). We will be commissioned at our church on August 30 and we'll give more info on this and our departure in a later post.

With all of this traveling going on please pray that everything goes smoothly and that we have strength to enjoy it. Please pray that all the details continue to fall into place as we prepare to leave the country for two years. Pray that God continues to work in our hearts and prepares us for the transitions we will be going through. Thanks so much for your prayers!

Fun At The Big Lake

With our departure to Romania coming up fast we have been trying to get in as much time with family and friends as possible. It has been really fun seeing everyone and spending good quality time together. The weather has been beautiful for the most part lately so we have headed out to Lake Michigan for some fun times. We'll miss the lake, the beaches, and the lighthouses, but they will be nice memories for us.

The lighthouse in Holland.

We walked the pier with Mark's sister and brother-in-law Sandi & Jay after eating out at a Thai restaurant.

Our friends John & Karen took us sailing out of Muskegon Lake into Lake Michigan, this was quite an enjoyable and relaxing ride. They also treated us to a BBQ before and ice-cream afterwards. This was a nice way to enjoy friends and God's beautiful creation.

We spent some time with Mark's Dad & Stepmom in Ludington. It rained quite a bit that weekend but it let up so we could have a nice campfire and bike around Ludington State Park.

As much as we lament the long winters, lots of snow, and often cloudy skies, this still is a very beautiful area to live. There are so many things that nature has to offer in our state, probably more than most people usually think of.

We have really enjoyed the time we've spent with our family and friends, we'll miss you all dearly when we're in Romania, please keep in touch with us.