Our 3 month journey to Alaska and back...

Chapeter 1...ha ha

We made it to MI last night and Stephanie had dinner waiting for us. I love being on her wireless high speed. What a huge blessing. Our drive was good, we made great time. We did get to drive through a snow blizzard. That was fun.

Scott was at Costco before it opened this morning. He called and was so excited that within 10 minutes he was there and had a coffee from Panera. He said he felt like he was back among the living. LOL

We are having anyone who can stop by today here at Stephanie's to see us. We are spending today with her and tomorrow with Tom (Scott's dad). She has so many birds at her bird feeder right now, they are so fun to watch.

Well, I keep the other blog more updated because it is hard to do two every time I sit down. But, I will post our prayer concerns on this one. :-)

Please pray that we will stay healthy. Pray that we all will keep a good attitude while undergoing different kinds of stress while traveling, dealing with luggage and all.

Thank you guys for everything....

love ya,
Lela

God is so giving...

God has blessed us with such great friends. Today we had to help some of those friends load their home into a u-haul and say good-bye. They have finished their time here at MMS and are moving on. This is really hard. They are the first family who invited us over and continued to welcome us into their lives. They have children the same ages as Shaughn and Matthew and there was an instant connection with our two families. They have looked out for us over the past year with taping different TV shows for us as a special treat and hosting a game night to just hang out together. They are going to be missed very much. We know coming into this that there will be good-byes, but it doesn't make it any easier.

I have updated our other blog too, you may want to check that out. I hate repeating things and find it hard to keep both up with the common stuff. I will keep this up with more prayer request type of stuff.

Please pray for our older boys as they are feeling this loss of their friends here pretty hard. These kids were the only ones who have reached out to them. I pray that they find a connection to the kids in Alaska like they did to the Ketcham boys before we even moved here.

My ankle is taking its time to heal. I had a supporter send me a walking boot that helps alot. What a blessing but it is still a little swollen.

Scott is working on the suburban. Possibly replacing the head gasket this week. He has received permission to work on it in the hangar. What a blessing to have a warm place.

Scott and Paul have planned to fly Scott's cross-country tomorrow. They are going to some town south of Columbus. Scott is excited about it.

Hard to believe we have less than 2 months until we leave for AK. Scott only has 2 weeks until he leaves for his class in Canada. Nathaniel has 1 1/2 weeks until his birthday. He will be 11. Wow!!

That is about it for now. Brian and Kate are still willing to coordinate our prayer times each month. The meetings will be at Ed and Stephanie's house and they will not be on Sunday's so be watching your emails for more details. With so many who have went different ways, we want to make it as convenient as possible for everyone to make it who still would like to. Please contact Kate if you have any questions. God bless you Kate and Steph for continuing our prayer support in this way. There is such power in prayer especially when we come together and pray in unity.

We love you all and need you all! What a great team you all make!! God bless you!!
Lela and boyz~

New Family Photo

Pray for Scott's dad

We would like to ask you to join us in prayer for Scott's dad. We found out yesterday that he had some moles removed and received the results yesterday from his doctor. They found one is cancerous. He has to go in and have a surgeon dig deeper to make sure they removed all of it. Please pray for him and our family. Thank you.

Burb update...

Hey all,

Below is an email that Scott wrote a couple of days ago and I thought it would be a great thing to post on here. He already said that he added last night about our little "break down". Well, the update is...it is the transfer case in the transmission and will cost about $2000.00. Cindy, Scott's sister, lives about 2 hours away and is on her way to pick us up. We will stay with her until it is fixed. They said the part should be here about Tuesday. We called MMS and told them and they said no problem. We are suppose to speak at Cindy's church this Sunday to give them an update. They are one of our supporting churches. What a journey this has turned out to be. The hotel we are staying at has been so gracious. They are letting us stay in this nice room and not making us check out at the normal time. They felt we would be more comfortable waiting for Cindy in here. I have my foot propt up and am still in much pain.

Update on that...last Saturday night we were at Paul's house for his house swarming party. (He is the guy who led worship for us during our prayer retreat) and as I was walking out to the driveway from his home, my foot twisted and down I went. I tore my jeans and my knee and hand got the brunt of the fall, so I thought. Of course this happened in front of everyone from MMS. Yes, I was the show stopper. They ran and got Scott as I could not get up on my own and had to quickly sit down or I thought I was going to faint or be sick. They brought the burb up for me to get in and home we went. I have had it on ice since and wrapped with an ace wrap. I have been using crutches and gimpping around. It is still swollen and has turned many shades of purple. As of today, there are new bruises on the inside of the anke/foot. Great! No, I have not went in since we have no insurance and don't want to waste money if there is nothing wrong. I am trying to wait it out to see if it will get better on it's own.

Another praise to God...we have not had heat in our truck since this past winter...as it is getting colder out, we felt we had to get it fixed soon. In looking it over, my wonderful husband found that the problem is and has been the knob. It is broke. So, when we thought we were turning the heat up, actually it was staying in the same spot. He switched knobs and wah-lah....HEAT. :-) YEAH.
I just wish the burb had of been that easy. :-)


Well, on to Scott's great news. Some of you may have read it but for some, you may not have. Enjoy....God is so good.
******************************************************************

Life is moving forward. I received a call from Len Wikstom, director of M.A.R.C. last night, (Oct. 27th...Tuesday night). He is ready for us to come as a family and serve with them for an internship from Jan. 15th – April 1st.

He has offered us flyer points with Northwest Airlines, and another family has done the same. We may almost have enough points to cover the entire trip.

We will be “house, animal sitting” for a family that will be in the lower 48 for furlough. They are very excited to have us at their home. We will use their vehicles, and do some maintenance on their home as well.

Due to the cost of luggage these days, we are going to try to purchase coats, gloves, boots, etc. and have them waiting at REI in Anchorage . We will leave these things in Alaska when we leave in storage. REI has a very good return policy for members, (which I am a card carrying member since 1995).

Wow!!!!!! Things seem to be working out.

They also have said that they will schedule a flight to Anchorage to pick us up, or plan on picking us up by vehicle. (3.5 hr drive or 20 min flight)

Once again, we are very excited about being able to be used by God in even the tiniest tasks. Thank you for being so supportive and encouraging! The body of Christ is a beautiful thing!

We are hoping to have opportunity to serve the natives in the bush while we are there. PRAY for those opportunities.

Thank you all again!!
Blessings,

Alaska....here we come...

Hey all,



Life is moving forward. I received a call from Len Wikstom, director of M.A.R.C. last night. He is ready for us to come as a family and serve with them for an internship from Jan. 15th – April 1st.



He has offered us flyer points with Northwest Airlines, and another family has done the same. We may almost have enough points to cover the entire trip.



We will be “house, animal sitting” for a family that will be in the lower 48 for furlough. They are very excited to have us at their home. We will use their vehicles, and do some maintenance on their home as well.



Due to the cost of luggage these days, we are going to try to purchase coats, gloves, boots, etc. and have them waiting at REI in Anchorage. We will leave these things in Alaska when we leave in storage. REI has a very good return policy for members, (which I am a card carrying member since 1995).



Wow!!!!!! Things seem to be working out.



They also have said that they will schedule a flight to Anchorage to pick us up, or plan on picking us up by vehicle. (3.5 hr drive or 20 min flight)



Once again, we are very excited about being able to be used by God in even the tiniest tasks. Thank you for being so supportive and encouraging! The body of Christ is a beautiful thing!



We are hoping to have opportunity to serve the natives in the bush while we are there. PRAY for those opportunities.



Thank you all again!!



Blessings,

Stuck in Maryland

Hey all, this is Scott. We would appreciate your prayers!!!! We were on our way to Bowie Maryland and at 12:00AM I got off in Cumberland, Maryland to get gas and the transmission started making loud noises. We got a hotel room and will try to find a place to hopefully fix it tomorrow. You know me....I don't like anyone to fix anything of mine. And I know it will be expensive.

Thank you for praying. I am going to sleep!

Good night

A Fall Day...

Good morning. What a “cool” morning it is. As I look outside, I see he frost on the ground and vehicles. I even heard the furnace kick on this morning for the first time. We have it set for pretty low still so it had to be pretty cold to turn on.

Scott left for Alabama on Sunday and is there for the week in an engine overhaul class. He is pretty excited about it. He said the instructor is compacting a lot into their time. He said he hopes to be able to retain most of it. 

The boyz and I have a pretty full week this week while daddy is gone. I was hoping it was going to be a relaxing week but instead it is going to be fun and full. My mother-in-law and father-in-law are coming down to help with it and I am so happy. They are a lot of fun and we are excited to see them. They are always such a huge help…what a God send. Please remember them in your prayers as they are having many health issues that come with a lot of pain. They are such troopers that they want to come anyways. I just hope they can enjoy their grandsons.

Last week Scott was able to SOLO again in his flying. He was so nervous and excited. Now he has to be planning for his cross country solo’s that is next on the “to-do” list. He also has to study, study, study and study some more for his written test. With the weather changing and all, he is trying to get as much done before the yucky stuff as he can. He really wants to get to the point where he can have his license and take his family up. We really want that too. 

We are in the planning stages of our up coming trip to Alaska. We are leaving in the middle of January (around the 15th) and returning the first of April. There is a family there that is going on furlough to the lower 48 and would like for us to come and watch their home and animals while they are gone. This will give us a chance as a family to see what winter is like there and the “all day night time” thing. We are very excited about it. God seems to be working out the details and that is the best part. We are praying about the tickets and the “gear” that we will need while we are there such as the parka’s and boots, mittens and snow pants for all of us. Everything that we have is not rated for such cold weather as they have there. We are excited because we know that God will provide.

The boyz are doing good. They are really missing their friends from MI as we all are. It seemed to hit us all hard around the 6 month mark of being here and now again at the 1 year mark. We know we are doing what the Lord wants us to do but it is still painful at times when you are uprooting your life. You miss the friends who know you so well and accept you no matter what, the ones who hold you accountable, encourage growth and love you unconditionally. It is hard to find friends like that and it takes time to build those kinds of friendships. It is hard when you know that you are leaving within a year to try and do that here. We have made friends and we feel many of those friendships with last a long time to come but they are still young and haven’t had the time to grow deep like those from home. Please pray for us in this area. We know that we are all a part of God’s big family and we are excited to meet more “family” members.

Shaughn and Matthew will be traveling this Friday morning to Virginia to a Christian Camp who has invited the youth from our church here to be their worship leaders and drama team for the campers. Shaughn is playing bass for the worship team and Matthew is on the traveling drama team. Scott and I took Matthew to his last practice and stayed to watch it. It was very powerful and they did a great job. We are very proud of him. Scott looked at me during Matthew’s performance and said, “we have some great kids don’t we?” I agreed. God has truly blessed us with great kids. It is all His doing. I pray that they find connection while we are in Alaska with some kids there as they did when we were getting ready to move here to Ohio. It really helped them to feel more connected having had the opportunity to meet and start friendships with some of the MMS kids here. Having the opportunity to be in Alaska for 2-3 months will give them some time to meet and get to know some folks there.

Yesterday at MMS, they planted a tree and some of Chris’s ashes to mark his 2 year anniversary with Jesus. It was a very moving time. Everyone who desired too was able to drop some of his ashes into the tree roots and then gave Dana a hug. It was very moving. Then we went around and shared memories of Chris and had a song of worship, a prayer time and then finished it with eating together. We ladies all brought a pot luck dish to share and at dinner at the hangar. It is hard to believe that it has been 2 years since Chris went to be with Jesus. My boys had not seen ashes before and didn’t get the whole cremation thing and keeping them in your house for 2 years thing. It was a learning experience for them. They found it not cool to do. They didn’t understand why someone would want to keep ashes from a person in their house. They kept asking why they didn’t put them in the ground like everyone else.

Can't sleep...

Good morning all,

I can't sleep so I thought I would write you and let you know the latest. As of last night, I felt led to call Michelle from Alaska to see how she was. She was so excited and told me that I had been on her heart and mind but that she didn't have long distance to be able to call me. She was so glad that I called. Her husband, Mark, who is a pilot at MARC has been on vacation for the past month and so they are out of the loop so to speak from the news at MARC regarding us mailing in our application and desiring to come this January. She squealed. She said, "how perfect, your timing couldn't be better. We are on furlough during Jan-March and need someone to watch our house and pets. Would you guys??" Their house is so beautiful and they have 4 children so it is all ready for a family of 6. They leave on Jan. 22nd and return March 31st. She would like for us to come a few days before they leave and stay with them so the kids can meet and get to know each other plus she said she wanted to see us too and didn't want to miss us all together. Scott went flying last night so I could hardly wait to tell him the news. He got home about 8 p.m. and when I told him, he called Travis, the head mechanic at MARC, and told him. Travis already knew because Mark had told him. Travis had already told Len, the director of MARC, that we were staying at Mark's house. Travis said he could really use Scott while we were there and that he already had lined us tools for Scott to use. All of this occurred and I hadn't even told Scott the news yet. Too funny. So, we are struggling with do we drive there or fly. We have been told that it would be much safer to fly during that time due to roads and the condition of the Al-can can be rough on a summer day, not to chance it during the winter. We are also thinking about the avalanches that occur frequently on the roads between Anchorage and Soldotna. Travis said that it had snowed yesterday and that the nights are in the 20's and in the day they are getting high 30's.
We have been looking at airfare and so far the lowest is about $657 each person round trip. Paul, an MMSer here, is trying to help us find buddy passes and stuff to ease the cost. He was a pilot before coming here for 12 years and has lots of friends.
Most of you met Paul at the retreat.

Scott goes in this Wednesday for his flight physical and then next week he is flying 3 times and doing his solo. Pray for his nerves as he is nervous.

Shaughn has had a pretty bad cold for the past few days but seems to be on the upward swing of getting better. Matthew and I felt we might be coming down with it now. Very sore throat and icky feeling, loss of appetite and sleepy. You know, yucky cold /flu feelings. :-)

Jeremiah lost 2 teeth over the weekend. One on Friday night and the other on Saturday. We call him the toothless wonderboy now. He proudly shows it off. His new tooth is coming through very nicely and just pushed those two little teeth out of the way.

Bless you all and hope to hear from you soon. Love you!!
Lela and boyz~