Football and Fall...Our Favorites!

The weather is turning slightly cooler here in Richmond and football season is in full swing. That means that from Saturday morning's ESPN College Game Day to Monday Night Football, the TV in our house is permanently set to football games! While some people only watch when their favorite team is on TV, we watch everything. Our games of choice are Notre Dame (too bad for us this year since they are 0-5), the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the St. Louis Rams. Last weekend we had the opportunity to go with some friends to see the University of Virginia Cavaliers play the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Our friends were Georgia Tech fans, but we were sitting squarely in the UVA section. Most people were good sports when we all stood up and cheered for the opposing team...it probably helped that our friends had their adorable 14 month old daughter with them! It certainly didn't feel like fall in Charlottesville on Saturday. It felt like it was about 100 degrees in the stadium without a breeze to be felt. UVA ultimately beat the Yellow Jackets and it was a sad trip back to Richmond. It is fun to sweat your pants off for a win, but just depressing to loose in such heat. We all had a great time, though, and Shawn and I are looking forward to seeing the Steelers play the Rams in St. Louis the Thursday before Christmas.

Amazon Adventure

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil. My work sent me to write a story about people who live in remote areas of the Amazon Basin. Many of them have no churches, Bibles or other believers among them. Through this story we hope people will pray that the Gospel will penetrate these hard to reach places. Here are a few photos from my journey. The picture above shows me in a village in Ecuador. This particular village has a Catholic church, but most of the people believe in spirits and visions that come from taking drugs and camping out near waterfalls. This may sound crazy to most of us, but this is a common belief among many remote people groups in the Amazon.

To the left you see the media team I went with (from left to right "Hollywood," "Billy Graham," Me and Guntherific). They were a great group of guys to travel with and did excellent work filming and documenting our adventure and the people of the Amazon Basin.

We did a lot of traveling on the river. There were some of the prettiest canyons and waterfalls I've ever seen. Locals told us the water we were in (to the right) had a depth the distance of a football field. I'll never forget how green the mountains were and the blackness of the water. It was an incredible week.

No we're not in the desert. We're on a sandbar off the Amazon River in Colombia. "Hollywood" took this shot to the left (and all but one of the photos I've posted from the trip.) This one has to be my favorite. I think it captures the challenge of getting to some of these hard to reach places. Our days were full of long hikes and hours on a boat. One day (after four hours of traveling up river) we had to turn back because the water was too low and the current nearly flipped our boat. It truly is a jungle out there.

When we did get to the villages, we met amazing people. But most of them still are without the hope of Jesus Christ. Most were friendly and enjoyed showing us around their village and telling us about their culture and what they believe in. One day a couple of them wanted to ask questions about American culture. They asked us what Americans believed about religion and God. They were shocked to hear that there are many who do not believe in anything. This is a foreign concept to most of the people of the Amazon who believe in many Spirits and gods.

And of course you can't visit the Amazon without running into a variety of wildlife. On this trip we saw monkeys, pink river dolphins, Mccaws (I think this is how you spell it. Think parrot with lots more color), crazy butterflies with all the colors of the rainbow and bugs with pinchers the size of Kansas. It was a great trip, and I'm blessed to be able to tell stories about what God is doing around the world. Hope you enjoyed the pics.

Wrightsville Beach Vacation

A few weeks ago, Shawn and I went to Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina for some much needed rest and relaxation. Shawn had mentioned several months ago that he would like to use his surf board on vacation this year, so I spent some time checking the Internet for good places on the East Coast to surf and to take lessons...and Wrighstville Beach seemed like the place to go! So, we strapped the surf board to the top of my little car and started south. It didn't take very long before we realized that a 9 foot surf board on top of a tiny car wasn't going to make for a pleasant drive. The board vibrated on the roof pretty much the whole way there, making a loud noise, and stifling conversation. Needless to say, we were both glad to arrive at the beach!

We morphed quickly into "beach mode." That included sleeping in, lounging on the beach, coming back to the hotel for lunch, taking a mid-afternoon nap or swim, and then heading to surf camp. Shawn's surf camp met every afternoon from around 3:00-5:00. I took the video camera and filmed him most days. He had a great time, even if he was one of only three adults. He and the other two adults were in a small group with the big kahuna teacher, Brendan.

Some days were better than others for surfing, but for the most part, Shawn did great. He got up on the board a few times each day and had a really good time. I guess we will have to drag the surf board the next time we go to Virginia Beach. Fortunately, it is a much shorter trip!

Each evening, after surf camp was over, we would go back to the hotel and get ready for dinner. Some nights we went fancy and some nights were just at the local mom-and-pop joints. The picture above was from our dinner at The Oceanic. It was a great way to spend our 3rd wedding anniversary...great food, great view, and terrific company!

We were sad to see the week end so quickly. We were better able to strap down the surf board for the ride home so we were able to talk to (and hear!) each other on the way home. Shortly after we got back to Richmond, Shawn left for a work trip to South America...the topic of our next post!

Our First Post!

Well, we are entering into the blogging world. We are hoping to use this as a way to keep in touch with family and friends... sharing some pictures, stories, and thoughts about life. Come back soon for pictures from our recent vacation and Shawn's trip to South America.