We’ve had a nice day today!We worshiped at the Mayfair Church of Christ. This is the church (village) that helped raise Kedra. It’s a rather large village; about 1500 worship there each week. The building is huge and expensive, which bothers me a bit, but they reach/work with an upper middle to upper class people. That is their ministry context. They also do a tremendous amount work in the inner city and overseas. It’s all OK; just not my comfort level or culture. They are a wonderful group of people. Years ago I had an opportunity to work there but opted to stay in Indiana. No regrets.
After church we drove the (very hilly) Cotton Run Row course before settling in at Red Lobster. Did you know they have a bacon wrapped shrimp? Wow, it was as good as it was unhealthy! This should really help me run well tomorrow. Bacon shrimp power!
We picked up our packets at the Von Braun Civic Center. As I was going in there were two ducks–a mama and a baby–waddling across the road stopping traffic.
At the expo we met Janet Cherobon. Who is she? She is the 4 time winner of the Indy Mini, including this year. She is also a graduate of Harding University. As we spoke to her we learned that she married a man from Huntsville. As he and Kedra talked they learned that they had many things, including people, in common. It was a nice chat. She’ll probably win the women’s race easily tomorrow. Did I mention that she is originally from Kenya?
Well, the situation in Guatemala is not good. The ash from the volcano dropped inches of ash in Guatemala City where Luke is supposed to fly from on Tuesday. The president announced yesterday that the airport would be closed until Thursday to clean up the ash. Now the tropical storm is dumping 10-20 inches of rain. So things are not looking too good for Luke to get home on Tuesday. I just hope he makes it home in time to go to Crane on Monday.
We did hear from him briefly today, via a short email. He was in Coban, which is a couple of hours from the remote village where he has been working for the last 3 weeks. He said he is fine and hopes to communicate more fully later.
4 comments:
Here are some pictures of the ash and rain in Central America.
We heard some more from Luke overnight.
From an email:
Well, we made it to Antigua just fine. We have good internet at the hotel. It didn't even rain at all today. The storm pushed off east, I guess. There were a lot of rock/mudslides on the road but nothing that hurt us. We have been looking around a lot for info about the airport and haven't received any set word. The hotel guy said Thursday. Delta says tomorrow. No news that we could find online said anything. We've got all day tomorrow to figure something out. Our main guy here said that they have been taking people to fly out of El Salvador, apparently only a 2 1/2 hour drive away. I find that a little hard to believe. I think we'll be fine. I'm not too worried.
Im really ready to be home. Ive lost a decent amount of weight. I have been running on fumes the last few days. I was pretty glad to finally get on the bus out of there but I'll miss the place. I've nearly filled up that memory card. I'm sure I will tomorrow with Antigua pictures. If I can request food it would be beef and barbecue sauce. I've missed both pretty bad.
From a "tweet":
One natural disaster, sure. Two natural disasters, that's more like it.Safe in Antigua. Really, really, really hope to fly out Tuesday.
From the team leader, Kris Hatchell:
I know that many of you have been concerned about the safety of our team and I want to let you know that we are all ok and safe in Antigua. On Saturday morning, we made the decision to pull the team out of the valley today. (A day earlier than expected). We were in no danger of the volcano, but had worries about the amount of rain due to the Tropical Strom. God really blessed us today as we had 8 hours of travel and experienced no rain or delays. It has been a difficult week of work during the rain over the past week, but much good has been accomplished. We had a large party with our family in Benitzul today before we left sharning in a meal together! All in all, it has been a great week working in the valley.
As of right now, the airport status is unknown. We believe that everything will be worked out by the time of our departure on Tuesday. After reviewing the status of the airport and comments on the Delta website, it looks as though the only days of travel effect have been May 28th to May 30th.
I know most of you have heard from your family member by now, but we will do our best to keep you posted as we now have access to e-mail and phones.
Blessings!!
I'll let you know as soon as I find out anything. There is a credit card phone here I can use if anything real big happens.
Will be praying for Luke and the rest to get home safely,
Pat
Praying for a safe return.
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