Who flew you home?

Dear family and friends,

I need for this to be quick as sleep should be coming soon. I'm not quite over the jetlag, yet jetlag will be coming our way again next week.

After we spent three nights in California and realized the military's ride home would come very slowly I took my sweet sister up on her offer. Ken works for American Airlines, although he is on a military furlough. YEA KEN...I will forever be grateful for my brother in law getting us home. No complaints about our military travel, it was wonderful. With the move so close, it was time to get back to the island so we could prepare for what was ahead.

We quickly rearranged belongings, rental cars, and hotels and were on our way to Los angeles. It was a six hour drive and we didn't leave until five in the evening. The first hour I was really tired, but the rest flew. Nothing like a little drive across California in the dark.

After dinner Caroline announced we needed to go back through our trip, oldest to youngest, and talk about our favorite things. Two hours later we stopped and thanked the Lord for it all. To God be the glory!

It was such a wonderful opportunity, I can hardly believe we really did it. The best part of the trip for me was seeing God's plan unfold and just being alone with our children. I can clearly see that God just wanted me to be with these children without all the wonderful interruptions of life. What a gift...

I'm really having to trust Jesus with my time. Many things to be done and only so many hours in the day. School to be accomplished, people to spend time with, songs to prepare, list to made, phone calls to be made...I'll just stop there as I think you get the picture. A week full of life.

Selling the car and securing a flat are at the top of our list this week. Again, God knows and His plans are best. May we walk the process in a way that honors Him.

Love in Christ,
Dinah for The Troops

Does His creation call you to worship?

The Thomas/Smith children are eight amazing children. I can't wait to see what God does in each and everyone of their lives. They've been friends for five and a half years which is like forever for a miltary child.

Our four bags weight 199 lbs...okay, fair enough. Then in Yokota they said they needed to weight all carry ons including our coats...they weighed 200...opps.

Wyatt was in his element today serving people. He carried many a car seat, stroller, and maman's diaper bags. The game boy is for trips and weekends. They never have time on the weekend. Wyatt and Will were quite entertained.

Melanee Kate was so in her element today loving on this baby. A sweet Christian mother was very grateful for God's provision of our daughter.

Debbie and Marcus Vincent were our nieghbors at McGuire AFB in our very first house. They came out tonight and took care of all five of us! WHAT A TREAT to be together...

Dear family and friends,

So we are on our fifth flight and enjoying the ride, our second C-17. We left Alaska around 2:30 and are on our way to Travis Air Force Base in California. Yes, I realize it’s very east of Hawaii, but Travis is the gateway to the Pacific and at this point the best way home. Quite appropriate to go to the gateway of the Pacific on our little swing, don’t you think?

Alaska was beautiful! I was amazed at how different it looks than Colorado, equally breathtaking, but in a whole different way. We stayed with our dear friends Doug and Sharla Smith, it was the first place that was hard to leave. Hard because we don’t know when we’ll see the Smith family again. We heard about them in Colorado, met them in Alabama, spent time together in Montana, and started walking life together in Hawaii. The Smith family has loved us through good, bad, and ugly. They love us despite, not because, and we are very grateful.

This last spring we had a wonderful opportunity to spend a great amount of time together. First we had the infamous TDY while both of the guys were gone where we ate dinner five out of six nights. The children whined on the night we missed. We also had the privilege of helping them move, moving is a GREAT way to take any friendship to a new depth. Serving with one another does that though now doesn’t it! The week that seven of the eight children went to Awana’s camp together the four of us had a meaningful week (Dinah, Sharla, Doug, and Jefferson…Ed was TDY as normal) as Doug and Sharla agreed to be roomies with Jefferson and I. When they left, we were all so hopeful to be together in Alaska before we moved to London, so this was really an answer to prayer. God delighting His children!

Sharla had not been home for even 12 hours from being with her parents in Montana when she got the 5:30 wake up call. I didn’t step out of their house for over 28 hours and it was AWESOME. The Smith home always seems to be a haven for those who enter. Sharla’s gift of hospitality always blesses and amazes me. Doug had been TDY the week before Sharla went to Montana and they would have had every reason to say it wasn’t a good time but instead they welcomed us with open arms and hearts! God’s timing is perfect, although one could look from the outside and think it was a horrible time, He was right on time. He always is you know!

We also had the opportunity to spend Thursday morning with most of the Rosendahl family. We met Tami and Martin and their four children in Italy where we went to church together. Christian fellowship never ceases to amaze me…how you can pick right back up like it was yesterday. Caroline and Hannah, the only and darling daughter of their family, have become friends on facebook this summer. Hannah is such a neat girl who loves Jesus and has been a bright spot to our Caroline. Caroline was funny when she realized what a neat girl Hannah was, but it didn’t surprise me in the least knowing what a neat lady her mother is. Tami was very kind to me in Italy and her friendship has always been very appreciated!

So Alaska was really about people with a beautiful back drop from our creator. His creation, the people and the sights, they call me to worship.

Last stop…almost there. The most exciting part of this last stop is seeing Debbie and Marcus Vincent. I’ve had several wonderful neighbors over the years, Debbie being my first. She set the bar high! I haven’t seen her since the day we drove out of New Jersey 15 ½ years ago, but we’ve kept up all these years. I can hardly believe that my children are going to get to meet Mr. and Mrs. Vincent!

The day after Caroline was born Debbie came to visit me with gift in hand. One of the sweetest gifts I’ve ever received. Debbie’s mother passed away when she was a child. She brought me a little tin box that her mother always kept her ribbons in. I was decorating my nursery in “Cow Jumped Over the Moon” and this little tin box had the most precious “Cow Jumped Over the Moon” scene you’ve ever laid your eyes on. It was a gift of sacrifice and celebration. I will treasure it always. I can hardly wait to hug Debbie’s neck!

Love to all…I will “see” you on the way home. Ed said last night that it might take a week to get back, I have to admit that my first reaction was not with my eyes on the Father but on myself. We are moving in two weeks as my husband has reminded me. The past day or so have begun to feel the pressure of all that needs to be accomplished. It’s amazing how quickly you can feel stressed when you take your eyes off of God’s plan for each day. God’s timing is perfect so we’ll just see what He does. I’ll keep you posted…

Love in Christ,
Dinah for The Troops

Are His plans better?

Dear family and friends,

God continues to confirm in my life that HIS plans are better! I know this is no knew news, certainly not to me, yet He’s teaching me trust Him further, deeper, longer, and bolder in new and exciting ways.

Last January when Caroline and I went to Thailand we were supposed to spend the day in Tokyo. If you remember she ended up being very ill the last part of the trip and we spent the day in the airport. If it were today we would have never been able to travel home due to stringent precautions that the Japanese take with healthy travelers. I told her during that whole ordeal, that be it in my power, before we left Hawaii, I would take her to Tokyo. I started praying the Lord would let this happen.

Praying, dreaming, and my sweet man letting me try to move forward with some sort of plan, I made reservations at the New Sanno. The military has a few hotels around the world that give military families the opportunity for rest, vacation, a little R&R at a reasonable price. One of our perks. These hotels are in Hawaii, Germany, Korea, and Japan. Reservations at the New Sanno are coveted and people make plans early. When I tried to make plans in February I requested three dates to only receive one, and not really on the dates I’d requested. Ed needed to go to Japan again before we left so the goal was to get our trips to coincide.

When the children and I weren’t able to get there on time and had to cancel the reservations it was a moment that I had to choose to be grateful for all He HAD done and to know His plan was better. It is you know…

I started praying, researching, and asking around to try to find a place to stay that we could afford. It would be nothing for our family to pay $500 a night in Tokyo. When we arrived in Yokota Saturday night I decided we would stay there Sunday just to rest and make plans. In a guide book I found a positive recommendation for a youth hostel and called to find out they would be more than happy to accommodate a family. We had two options, rooms with traditional bunk beds, or a Japanese style room. I’d priced these and they were way out of our price range at other ryokan in Tokyo. When I called I found out to have the Japanese room you had to buy breakfast and dinner to go with it so I choose the traditional for the first night and Japanese the second.

We had a wonderful time in Tokyo and did many new and exciting things, but the blessing was at the youth hostel.

Caroline and I had done a little research last January so we knew we wanted to go up in the Tokyo Tower, visit the Hama Rikyu Gardens, ride the boat up the river, and see two museums. We always love to visit the museums!

I wanted the children to have a unique dining experience from the Japanese culture which is another blog in and of itself. I also wanted to take the children to the Kabukizi theater to see a Kabuki production.

So off we went checking off our list, enjoying the surprises along the way, and soaking in the culture. Yesterday the boys enjoyed all the restrooms as much as they delighted in the museum. There was even one sink that you washed and dried your hands in.

Yesterday we went early to get tickets at the theatre to run into several obstacles which precluded us from seeing it at all. I was so disappointed but the children quickly rallied and had such sweet spirits about the whole thing. “We can save money this way Mother,” one even said. We agreed to go back to the youth hostel early and enjoy our Japanese room, bathing (which is a big deal in the Japanese culture and quite delightful I might add), and we were going to snuggle down to read Les Miserable.

So here’s where God’s timing comes in. I met a woman last night that I wouldn’t have met if we went to the theatre and I wouldn’t have met if we’d stayed with Ed at the New Sanno as originally planned. She was the highlight of Tokyo. Masako lives on the big island in Hawaii, which I still find pretty funny. We’ve never been to the big island so Jesus made arrangements for us to meet in Japan. Less than 1% of Japanese people are Christians and Masoko helps make up the miniscule group of people.

Last night we spent the evening with her and she was more than willing to share what God has been teaching her. She’s written a book about her journey and it comes out on the 4th of December. We are praying for it, that God will use it greatly. It’s in Japanese but I think I’ll still order a copy. She’s done much research and studying and is continuing her studies. She is studying Japanese and Chinese congees along with God’s Word. Masako spent a long time last night going over congees and showing us what she has discovered. She believes that the original congees were written by believers before Buddhism took over the their nation.

The congee for the human soul are two congees put together, evil and speak. So in her book she has the congees in bold bright colors and then around them she has scriptures that back up what is true. Are our souls not speaking evil until we know Christ?

Salvation has is made of several congee’s including one that means tree, what our Saviour died on.

If I’d had paper I would have taken tedious notes. I’m not beginning to do this justice. We all were absorbing and delighting in all that she had to say. It was a holy moment and we knew it. There she sat in our Japanese style room with my little ones surrounding her in their jammies. At the end we all prayed together and were so grateful for the fellowship and worship. The evening compelled my heart to worship. Masako is very excited to give her book to her daughter for Christmas as she so dearly wants her daughter to know her Jesus. We are praying for this book and for Hannah. I can’t wait to see what God does…

Lord, thank you for the privilege of knowing this woman. Thank you for letting all of our plans fall through because your plans are better. Thank you for letting my children sit at this Godly woman’s feet to hear her speak of you and how she loves and believes in you. Thank you for the salvation that you brought on a tree. Thank you for being the rock of which water flows. Please use this book in ways that will honor you and bring you glory.

We are up in the friendly skies again, heading to Alaska. We can hardly wait to see the Smith’s. They are a believing military family that God has graciously planted firmly in our lives, again, and again. There is a hop on Friday to Travis AFB and then to Hickam, Hawaii. Praying for wisdom and how God wants us to play this one out. Ed is doing a last minute TDY to D.C. so he won’t be back to Hickam until Wednesday. My sweet neighbor from New Jersey lives outside of Travis and I would LOVE to see her, we’ll see about God’s plans. They are better you know!

Love in Christ,
Dinah for The Troops