Oh, How I Hate To DEET!

It’s 22 days before we leave for our mission trip, so I have began getting things that we will need while we are there. 

Of course, one the must haves for the trip, is bug repellent.  We were told to take something with over 50% DEET to protect ourselves from bug bites.  Last year I used Repel 100% Deet, well because I am so sweet that bugs just can not resist themselves against my over so scrumptious blood!  Yea! 

Anyhoo, last year I did not take any chances and wanted the max in bug deterrent so that’s why I choose 100% DEET and others that have gone years before me, said that was what I needed.    If you  have never experienced the wonderful world of 100% DEET, be very thankful, because it stings and burns so very badly.  Did I still get bug bites, yes, I still have scars on my legs to prove it.  The DEET burned so badly so I thought I would try putting it on my clothes one day to see if it would work as well as applying it directly to my skin, it didn’t!

I was also told last year to try Bath & Body Works, Eucalyptus & Spearmint body wash and lotion.  (Trust me, those who market anything out there, tell me to use it, because I usually will!) 

               

To my surprise it worked very well.  I would use this at night after my shower so I did not have to endure the long night of hard sleep burning to death from the DEET.  Even though we had mosquito nets, those pesky little bugs were good!  It does not protect completely on it own without the use of DEET, but it held its own.

So yesterday during my little shopping adventure, I picked up some more, ready to conquer some bugs!! 

My theory is if I start using this one week before I leave, I can build up some kind of barrier for these bugs, did I tell you last year I was bit by something stepping off the plane…pleasant way to start the trip!  I am so hoping that I will have to use minimal DEET by applying loads of this lotion.  We will see!

Any advice on what y’all use to keep bugs at bay?

Pure Happiness & DR Raffle

Sometimes it’s the little things that bring me pure happiness!

This morning, Bradley calls me and says, you are not going to believe where I found your Chi-we-we at. Yes we call the ever MAN-tastic Handsome Higgins a Chi-we-we! He e-mails me this picture….

I tell ya, this dog is taking over my side of the bed, HA! If you didn't see yesterday's post scroll down....(Sorry BFF, 2 days in a row of Higgins pictures, I promise to do better next time!!)

Then after work, I had to run by Krogers. As I was walking in, there was this lady wearing the same exact outfit as I was….I went up to her and said “hey, you have great taste in clothing!” She got a big kick out me asking if I could take her picture for my blog!! It was such a blog worthy moment!!

I have been doing the Biggest Loser at church with a group of 11 ladies and at last week’s weigh-in I was 5th place on the leader board with losing 2.8% of body weight for the week! Of course, that made me smile! Anyhoo, let me show you two things I have found that are absolutely yummy!

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Trust me, I never thought I would like any kind of hamburger that was “meat free”, but these are quite the yummy treat!

These are just a few of the things that made me smile today!! Sometimes, it’s the little things in life!

Tomorrow begins my Dominican Republic Raffle, please come back and check out all the exciting things that will be up for grabs! See you then!

Dominican Republic Mission Trip 2009

Today after morning worship we had a meeting to discuss the 2009 Dominican Republic Mission Trip. The dates are set and this year we will be there on July 11th through 18th.

This year will be a little different from last year. Last year we stayed at a dorm style facility. There was a generator that ran lights for a few hours each day. We had cold water showers, and a bathroom. It was a little bit rough but most anyone could handle it for a week. There were two mini buses, that took us to La Represa, the village that we worked in each day. All in all, if you could get past the cold showers it was not bad at all.

This year we will be working in a village named San Cristabel (I hope that I am spelling that correctly). It was described today as almost like a State with seven smaller community built around it. It is much more improvised than the village that we worked in this year. We will not have beds, running water, and I am assuming bathrooms like this year. We were told that we could bathe in the river that runs through the village, but for obvious reasons and diseases that our bodies may not be accustom to, we will make due with other means.

The travel will be different this year also. Last year we had mini buses that took us to the village each day. This year, after leaving the airport, a mini bus will talk us as far as it can get us. Then we will have to transfer to pick-up trucks that will take us the rest of the way. Where we will be staying, is a 30 minute walk through the jungle to get where we will be working each day.

Of course I think this will be very cool, because this time it really gives me time to prepare for each day mentally and then on the way back, time to wind down from the emotions that build up while there.

Needless to say we will not have the posh accommodations like we had this year, and this year was a stretch for most of us.

There are a few bumps in the road this upcoming trip, so I was wanting to ask for prayers from y'all. A few things that might make it difficult for us are:

• The airlines are not wanting or willing to accommodate a large group as they have in the past. Our group may have to split and travel two separate days.
• We need 25 to go. With the economy the way it is, some people that went last year, may not be able to go because of funds this year, us included.

This year my oldest son, DJ and I went and both are really wanting to go back this year. We also have a few hurdles to jump, so please be in prayer for these:

• Money.....it was very difficult last year for us both to go. The trip is $1800.00 each, so please be in prayer as we start mailing out support letters and start fundraisers at the beginning of the year. It may be we both can not go, but only one of us.
• DJ has applied for a governor school, that may interfere with him going. There were three that he applied for, one will overlap into the mission trip. Please pray for one, that he gets accepted in this school, because it is a wonderful opportunity and 8 college credit hours, and secondary that if he gets accepted into one that the one he accepts will not overlap into the mission trip.
• It may not be meant for DJ (or myself) to travel this year to the DR for this mission trip and if that be the case, please pray for peace and wisdom to accept that.
• Most importantly please be in prayer for the group that is going to minister, and for those that will be ministered to.

This year was a life change experience for me. Some can not believe that I went and there are others that can not believe that I want to go back, especially now that this year will be a rougher accommodations than last. All I can say, is you just do not know how my heart breaks and aches to be back there.

We go to build relationships, build churches, communities and to minister. But what most do not realize is how much these people minister to us. I can not explain it but as to say, no matter how rough the accommodations are, I would go in a heart beat. I have no fears (well maybe the flying still freaks me out) and I am ready to go again.

All I can think of is when we got this this year, those who have been praying for years for someone, anyone to come, we came. The gratitude, the love, the up most hospitality they showed us. I could not help but to think, I have done nothing for you as you have done for me. Wow, a life changing event. I could go on and on, and my words just do not express my feelings.

Thanks in advance for the prayers!!

Dominican Republic Trip

Wow, what a trip! It took me a day to unwind and be able to talk about everything. My mind is running a million miles a minute, and I can not seem to concentrate my thoughts on any one particular thought! I wanted to share a few of my favorite pictures with you that I took last week. I took about a 1000 pictures in all so it was really hard to narrow down!

Here is the community that we worked in. It was called La Represa, but they had stickers on the sign for the up-coming election.

On Monday, I worked the kids club in the morning. I had the awesome opportunity to be behind the group. This is a lady that was sweeping the dirt to the tent that we would be working with the kids in. She was so excited that we were there and when eveyone (beside me) were in there, she pulled the tent back to peek in. To me this is such a touching picture, one which would reveal much to me later on that day.

Here is one of me after kids club.

A child resting in a hammock in the village that we were working in.

This village has been praying for 12-13 years for someone to come and help them build their church. Some of the elders were beginning to think that they would not see it happen. This older lady was so proud of the block being laid that she wanted to help carry them to where we were putting them. How precious! We could not get her to stop, so we got her some gloves so her hands were not get messed up.

He are two that I snapped of a child. I was standing at the front of the house and he was at the back door. So, so precious to me. Really touching.

Here is one that I snapped of a village on the side of the road.

I started a journal the week before the trip and I think later on today I am going to post some of my journal enteries. I would love to share everything that I was going through and where my thoughts were. Thank you again for all the prayers, I could really feel them and they so lifted me up!

Also, the spell check is not working so...sorry for some of the mispelled words that you might find!!

We're Home

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are home! It was a fantastic trip and I will tell everyone and update ya'll on all the wonderful details tomorrow! We are worn out, both physically and emotionally, but all in a good way!

Thanks for all your prayers!

Packed & Ready

Just wanted to let everyone know that it has been an exhausting day of packing but I am finally done.

Packing for a mission trip is so different than packing for a vacation. First thing, there is not a local Wal-mart that you can run and get something it your forget it. Everything that we took had to be in gallon zip lock bags, which was more work than I anticipated. Then of course, if you have never flown before.....like myself, it makes packing a whole new challenge....at least in my eyes.

So how an I feeling about the trip today? To be honest, a little nervous. I thought I was going to have a panic attack when I was packing. I survived! I think I was just a little anxious!

We will meet at the church tonight...or in the morning at 2:30am and our flight takes off at 6:10am. Please be in prayer for our group and for me. I just am not looking forward to the flight. Once we get there I am sure I'll be fine. Hubby will be up-dating my blog...hopefully to let everyone know that we arrived safely and how the trip is going. I will call him each evening, to keep him informed. I will be back home on the 27th, so I will have tons to talk about!

Thanks again for all your prayers!

Sleepless Night

I have so much to do before we leave early Saturday morning, and I find myself unable to sleep and really not in the mood to do anything else. I would start going through our stuff and actually start packing, but that would wake up hubby, so I guess I will blog instead!!

Tonight, everyone in my key group at church, was so supportive and excited about what God has in store for me on this mission trip to the Dominican. I love all the faith they have in me and the encouragement that they poured out was so great. I just am feeling so unworthy and so asking God "Why me? Why send me on this mission trip when there are so many others that are more qualified than me to go."

I have this HUGE fear of flying. I do not like roughing it at all, and my idea of camping is sleeping with the ceiling fan off! (I kid you not!!) I am scared of the dark and any bug that crawls upon this earth makes me run in a different direction. And here I am going to another country to share the gospel of Jesus, our Lord and Savior and sharing God's love by helping those in need, and I still sleep with a night light on. My goodness, what is God thinking???

I know that I need to have faith and tell satan to back off and flee, and get my focus on the wonderful opportunities that lie ahead, but I am struggling. I am trying hard to get past the unknown and the fear, and there are days that I do great, but tonight is one of those where I can not get the thoughts to rest long enough for me to fall asleep.

Trust me, I feel this overwhelming peace to know that so many are praying for me and really wrapping me up in prayer, and that feels good. Really good!!

4 Days Left

Yep, four days to go before our mission trip!! Oh my goodness!! Did you read my post about procrastination?? Big time, I am there. You would not believe what I have put off and what I need to do before Friday!

First off, my in-laws will be leaving Florida tomorrow afternoon to bring back DJ & Joey and they will also be staying here while DJ and I are in the Dominican. They will be home on Thursday, and I have yet to finish cleaning Joey's room. This is a very important task that will need to be completed before Joey gets home. He wanted all his little boy toys gone and just older man-ly things left in his room! That was total magic to my ears, so I started working to get that all cleared out before he changed his mind, but I have yet to finish that. Task #1 for tomorrow morning!

Also, I have not packed yet, or purchased anything for the trip. I have a list, but nothing checked off!! Task #2 for tomorrow afternoon. Of course there is church tomorrow evening so I will have to get my butt in gear to get everything done before church starts at 6pm.

I know me, I will only get Joey's room done and will have to head out Thursday to get everything and will have to pack on Friday, which I did not want to do at the last minute, but, oh well!

So why am I not cleaning Joey's room tonight, you ask?? Well I went to Annette's (my cousin) house tonight for dinner, bar-b-que chicken and all the fixin's, and I am to tired (full) to clean!!! But of course in true procrastination fashion, it would not be like me!! Truth be told!

So am I over my fear of flying yet? Am I ready for the big day? No on both accounts. Am I getting better about the flight? I would like to say yes, but........more to follow on that later!