Gas

That's the gas station at the corner of the Smith Rd & Guide. One of the great mysteries to me (besides why do men have nipples?) is why Whatcom County pays more for gas than just about anywhere in the US. With 2 major oil refineries in our County and two just south of us, you'd think we'd get a break. But due to the esoteric "zone" pricing we get to pay more than our neighbors. I guess when you are bordered by Canada, the cascade mountains and the Puget Sound on three sides they have you right where they want you. It's almost enough to make a laissez-faire capitalist support gov't intervention.

SIM

So Jamie and I spent the past 4+ days in Charlotte at SIM USA's headquarters.  I posted a link yesterday that has some pictures of some of the buildings (and people, although I seemed to just catch people with their eyes closed or food in their mouth).  SIM USA has about 800 missionaries, which is about half of the missionaries with SIM International (there are 8 other sending offices throughout the world). 

It was a great weekend to learn more about SIM's core values and more about missions in general.  We met a number of great people, both SIM staff and other missionary "candidates" attending the orientation with us.  So to make a long story short, we will be heading back in July for 2 more weeks of training, then heading out in the first quarter of 2009 for Liberia!  Everyone there was very excited that we were interested in helping out with the construction needs in Liberia.  It has been an area of need for some time.  The SIM/ELWA compound was severely damaged and looted twice during the civil war.  They have been slowly rebuilding the past 4 years but have many more projects they'd like to complete.

The training in July will also include a full program for MK's (Missionary Kids).  SIM has a new facility on the campus that the kids take classes and are able to meet other MK's.  We met a number of other families that will be back in July with kids around our boys' ages.  The boys are excited for the trip, and hopefully SIM will be able to keep up with them.

Another highlight of the weekend was to be able to talk to a number of SIM staff that have spent significant time in Liberia.  It was great to be able to talk about the SIM compound, past and present.  We're also excited that another family decided to pick Liberia as their mission field.  They'll be focusing on administration and hope to leave next spring after the husband finishes seminary.  They also have 5 teenage kids that will be going, 3 adopted from Ethiopia and 2 from Bolivia. 

So we're excited that we're one step closer!  Only 6 books and more medical to do in the next 7 weeks to prep for the training!  

Charlotte

Jamie and I have been in Charlotte, NC the since Wednesday attending an introductory session with SIM.  There are about 40 other people here getting to know SIM and deciding if missions are right for them and their families.  We leave this afternoon and I'll post more in the next couple days about the past 4 days, but I wanted to give a couple pictures and one story.

We are staying on a residence building on their campus with about 30 of the people.  One of the families we met adopted a boy from Ethiopia last year.  They said they had a neighbor who came up to them and asked them about the adoption and where they were adopting from.  It went something like this:

Neighbor: So where are you adopting from?

T&L: We're adopting from Ethiopia.

Neighbor:  Where's that at?

T&L:  It is in East Africa.

Neighbor: ...Did you know...that the baby might be black???

One other quick comment on Ethiopians.  SIM has done a wonderful job of reaching the Nation of Ethiopia the past few years.  Ethiopians are starting to travel throughout Africa and witness to other Africans.  Right now there are a couple in Sudan working with SIM.  When they first arrived, the Sudanese didn't want to talk to them because "they didn't associate with arabs".  It took awhile for SIM to convince the Sudanese that they were really African due to their lighter skin.

So here are some random pictures from yesterday.  Not a real good set, but it gives you an idea for the campus and people we've been meeting with. http://picasaweb.google.com/Lairdpictures/SIM

Recent Article

I saw this article this morning and had to comment. I can't imagine spending $20,000 on a dog, but I've never been much of a pet person. I can certainly think of a better use for 20K.

We had some friends who poured over $5,000 into their dog. It was really a pretty pathetic dog, blind and almost bald. They were going to take it to the vet to have another costly procedure done and the wife backed out of the garage and ran it over on accident. You're a horrible person if you're laughing right now.

Now if you had a dog that needed a bone marrow transplant, you could go to the dog pound and get a new one for $100 and send $19,900 to Myanmar. Although most likely the money would just end up in the hands of the Junta. You could give it to Al Gore to help combat global warming, but it looks like we might have to shift and help combat global cooling. You could donate it to the Huskies athletic department to help them come up with the $400 million+ they need for a new football stadium, but would $19,900 really make much of a difference? Your best bet is to check out some options Brandi has. She's started about 45 campaigns in the past couple days to help raise money for different projects in Africa (and those are just a couple of them). Check out some of her projects, I think your pets would approve.

Random Weekend Stories

I was out mowing the lawn Saturday when a neighbor walked over. Jamie was on the back porch. The neighbor asked if the rumors were true. I gave her a brief summary of our plans. She said "I have a couple friends who went to Africa for a year...BIGGEST MISTAKE OF THEIR LIVES!". She said they were just out of college and thought they were going to change the world, and perhaps their expectations were set a little high.

Then we had Kobe's birthday party yesterday afternoon. I'm not sure how, but my Grandpa wasn't aware of our plans (although after reading further maybe you'll understand how I forgot to tell him). I thought I had told him, or thought that my dad did... Anyway he found out and was not happy. He followed me around for 5 minutes while I was barbecuing trying to "talk some sense into me". He said he's available Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday nights. I need to come by for an hour each night and he'll explain how the world works to me, either that or I need to go see a "shrink". I think it is partly out of concern for my family, and partly out of his opinion that there's nothing we can do to help Africa. He did say he prayed for the first time yesterday, and God told him I should stay. I told him to keep praying. I learned a long time ago there is no point arguing with him and to never take offense at anything he says.

One kinda funny story. We were at the farm store in town getting some flowers and Colton had this conversation with the cashier:
Cashier: Are these flowers for your mother?
Colton: uh, not really.
Cashier: they're not for mother's day?
Colton: No, they're to make our house look pretty so we can sell it.
Cashier: Sell it? Why are you selling it?
Colton: because we're going to move.
Cashier: Why would you want to leave Everson? Where are you moving to?
Colton: Africa
Cashier: (light laughter).....are you serious?
Colton: Yeah, we're going to be missionaries in Liberia
Cashier: (looking at me) are you really?
I guess she didn't trust hearing it from an 8 year old.

And one really funny story. My brother in law told us this Saturday night and everyone was just about rolling on the floor laughing. About 9 years ago he was driving with his wife and young son through the bank drive thru. When they pulled up to the teller window his wife was bent over getting something out of her purse. The teller asked "would you like a sucker for your child and a dog treat for your dog?". My sister in law sat up in her seat and was wondering how the teller knew they had a dog, when she saw the look of horror on the teller's face. The teller started to apologize profusely, saying she'd never seen someone with such long beautiful hair. My brother in law had to pull over into the parking lot after their transaction was done because he was laughing to hard to drive.

Youth Group

So we had about 10 minutes to kill in youth group last night so I decided we'd play hangman while we were waiting. In the middle of the game all the kids started snickering and laughing. I looked up at the board and in the group of letters I had writing to track which ones were picked were-AOESHIT. The girl that picked the T was an 8th grade visitor so I don't think she meant too.

Before church a 4 year old girl gave me a mint from a little tin that had Countrywide written on it. I asked her about the tin and she said her dad got it from his work. So I asked her what her dad did at work. She said "They had a commercial on TV! and they said they do what nobody else can do. So my dad does what nobody else can do!"