In the News!

An article about One by One was recently published in the Tribune Times in Simpsonville, SC! Check out the One by One blog here to read it: http://blog.theinnocent.org/

Coffee shop loudmouth: a poem

Inspired by actual events as I try to find creative places to work. Every coffee shop seems to have one of these people.

In the coffee shop local I sit and I read

I think I will stay here as long as I need.

The outlet provides my laptop with power,

The free refills will def'nitely keep me for hours.

The manager glares—I the small-spending jerk

Who dares use his tables as somewhere to work.

But what can he do? I paid for this cup

And I see no reason why my time should be up.

Grateful

Despite the fact that I have almost no kidney function, I continue to find myself lavishly blessed. I wake up constantly aware of the mercies of the Lord and how they are new to me each morning. The ironic thing is that the thing I am most thankful for is that the Lord has given me a thankful heart. I realize that there are a lot of people out there in my shoes who are sad, lost, alone, discouraged, depressed, and I am truly broken for them. I don’t have to muster up an attitude of joy and thankfulness – the Lord has just given it to me out of his grace. I did nothing to deserve it. Again, it was all his grace. I sometimes receive compliments for how well I am handling this situation or how joyful I am in the midst of uncertainty. I really can’t take any credit for this. My response is simply – God, you are so good.

I also realize that it may not last forever. If it gets harder, if I have to start dialysis, if I’m not eligible for a transplant…will I have joy then? Will my eyes still focus on the good the Lord has given me instead of the bad that can so easily steal our joy? I can only pray to the God of grace that he will continue to give me a heart of thankfulness….even if.

JBU Missions Fair

This week, we have been in Siloam Springs, AR exhibiting at their annual missions fair for One by One Nicaragua. This is our first time to ever do anything like this, and we have definitely learned a lot! It has been good practice for Urbana12 this December, which will be very similar but on a much larger scale.

The Waiting Game

It’s been two months since we left Nicaragua. It seems like forever ago. Despite the fact that we miss our home, our friends, our ministry, our life in Nicaragua, God has blessed us abundantly since we’ve been back in the States. We have had so many opportunities to be involved in things we are passionate about here, and even though the reason we are here is not a fun one, we are thankful that this is where God has us. We have been getting involved with CollegeLife at Wildwood Community Church and are excited about the potential for relationships and ministry there. Wildwood is also beginning a new campaign called “Ready for Take Off” where they are leading the congregation to be more involved in partnering with other ministries, both locally and internationally, through prayer, giving, and serving. We love getting to be here to represent Nicaragua for the launch of this exciting challenge. We have also spent a lot of time preparing for Urbana12 and the JBU missions conference and are thankful for the resources available here to do this that we wouldn’t have had in Nica. 

absurdities of the kidney diet

As Julie's kidney function remains in decline and her diet gets stricter in order to compensate, many people have asked me an unwittingly vague and complicated question: "What can Julie eat?" I appreciate the question, but unfortunately the answer is somewhere between "almost everything" and "almost nothing." Here it is: she can eat a portion of anything that would not throw her strict daily regulation of sodium, protein, potassium, and phosphorus out of balance.

Not that helpful, right?

Unless you studied medicine (or chemistry?) or know someone with serious health issues, you probably know next to nothing about potassium and phosphorus. That's okay—we hardly knew anything either! They aren't required to show up on nutrition labels, but let me give you an idea of what this whole deal looks like. Julie has to be careful about (or even avoid altogether) the following:

anything from a can anything from a jar

Some observations on food names

I have decided that I'm a bit unsatisfied with the naming process of foods. Or more specifically, I have decided that I hate the word loaf when it doesn't apply to bread.

Loaf is a unique measure word. You can't say, "I bought one bread;" you have to say, "I bought one loaf of bread." It's just the way it works. Similarly, you can't say, "Pick me up a pound/jar/bottle of bread," because all bread begins its life as a loaf. A loaf is not made of bread; it is bread. All other forms are variations on or derivations from the loaf (e.g. crumbs, sticks, bowls). If it didn't come in a loaf, it's not bread, but it may be bready (e.g. biscotti, pie crusts, tortillas, cake).

This is why it's inappropriate to pretend that loaf is an acceptable word for any other food, because you're drawing attention to the fact that you took that food and squished it all around until it became a pulpy or gooey mass, and then you pressed it into a mold. The name meatloaf just screams, "Yeah, it's shaped like a lumpy box just like bread—but most of it is meat!" I like meatloaf and all, but every time I hear I'm having it, I expect to hate it.

the little we know

We have filled the last few days with travel, doctors, driving, and making a huge mess with all of our stuff we brought home, hoping to make some kind of convenient order out of it. We failed. But at least my (Chase's) parents' living room isn't full of our dirty laundry, loose change, and spare batteries anymore.

We got into Dallas Monday afternoon/evening and pretty much crashed. Tuesday morning, we drove to downtown Dallas for an unexpectedly long appointment with a nephrologist who agreed that Julie needs a transplant, and he illuminated the next tiny step in the process: applying to some government organization to confirm transplant eligibility.

Lacking directions (and the name) to our dentist's office, we raced back to the house to wolf down some lunch while getting directions. Julie brushed her teeth to be kind to the dentist. I figured, "Why clean them twice?" We rushed out the door several minutes late.

it’s official: we’re moving

Well, more blood tests for Julie have confirmed that we’re looking at our last two weeks in Nicaragua for awhile as we now need to move home from a kidney transplant. While this is somewhat discouraging, we are also relieved to finally have an answer, and, as we mentioned in our last post, this is a good time to step away since it will not be a major inconvenience for the ministry.

Below are the answers to some questions that we know a lot of you will have:

When will we move to the States? The plan is still for us to leave Nicaragua on August 13th, when we already have tickets.

What will you do with your stuff? We are storing a lot with friends here in Nicaragua, bringing some with us, and selling, giving away, or disposing of the rest.

Where will we live? At this point, we are planning to live and do the transplant in Norman, OK. There are many reasons for this. Since we've been away from Dallas for so many years, Norman feels much more like home to us. We have a doctor there that is already familiar with Julie’s medical history, and has been a great support to us so far. We still feel very much a part of the community at Wildwood, and many of our best friends are still in Norman. We have also had some friends graciously offer for us to live with them.

Health Update

For those who are interested, here is a quick update on how Julie’s health has been and how it affects our future plans. While regular blood tests and doctor appointments over the last year and a half had shown fairly steady kidney function, the last month has shown a rapid, unexpected decline. It is very possible that we may have to move back to the States soon for six months to a year for a transplant. The move would hopefully only be temporary–and nothing is definite yet–but we will have more information to make a final decision after she has more blood work done in a couple of weeks.

One good thing in this is that a lot of the work that we currently do can still be done in the States. For several months now, Chase has been training someone (Yeril Lozano) to take his place as children’s director so that he can begin writing Spanish curriculum and creating other resources to help train and equip Nicaraguans involved in ministry. Also, Julie will still be able to do almost all planning for short-term teams via email and phone calls, as she has already been doing. The fun and personal aspects of our ministry will be missing with our absence, but we will still be actively employed by One by One, and our desire is to be able to move back to Nicaragua after this is done.

Come what may, we already have tickets for our annual fall visit to the States (starting August 13^th), so the next couple of weeks will determine whether we cancel our return ticket or whether we come back to Nicaragua after three weeks.

We obviously don’t have all the details worked out yet, but we will update the blog when we know. We are a bit anxious and stressed, but trust in God, knowing that He is not surprised by this development even though we are! In the meantime, we would greatly appreciate your prayers as we potentially get ready for a big transition. Also, keep your eyes and ears open for inexpensive housing in Norman and a car to borrow or rent since we might be in need of both!

Russell Creamery

Well, we started our own little ice cream business. Last year, Chase bought me an ice cream maker for my birthday. We’ve experimented with different flavors in the last several months, and somewhere along the way, the idea hatched that we should start a business. This, in large part, is due to the fact that good ice cream is hard to find in Nicaragua. I can’t count the times the  Nica Russells have sat around talking about how much we miss Blue Bell. So we started with Vanilla, Peanut Butter, and Coffee flavored ice creams. This week we are going to add Strawberry in the mix and I have plans to make Mint Chocolate Chip as well. Maybe we’ll venture into the Sherbet or Sorbet realms eventually. Chase made the creative labels pictured above and so far, we are really enjoying our little business venture.

the cats strike back

When we first got our cats, our vet told us that healthy weight gain for kittens should be about a quarter pound per week. We own a Wii Fit Plus, and one of its features is the ability to weigh your pets, and it keeps track of their progress. This is fun for us, but Ralph and Remington kind of hate it.

After several months, we asked our vet when this process should stop. He said that a healthy cat should weigh no more than eight pounds. Anything over that, and our cats would one day be diabetic. Oops. Ours had faithfully gained their quarter pound until they weighed eleven pounds! From the way they always acted like they hadn’t eaten in days each time I fed them, I (Chase) had felt bad and continued to increase the amount of food I gave them. Turns out I was feeding them more than double what they needed. I quickly reduced their food amounts to the correct level.

5 years

A few weeks ago, on April 15th, Chase and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary. In our pre-marital counseling with Bill Brewer, one thing he recommended to us was taking a day or two to go away and celebrate our anniversary every year. In the States, we began this tradition by visiting a different Bed & Breakfast each year, but since moving here, we’ve changed it up a little bit. This year, we went to the Holiday Inn. I know in the States that the Holiday Inn is no big deal, but here, it’s actually a really big deal. Not only are the rooms air-conditioned, but they also have bath tubs, cable TV, and carpeting, all of which are luxuries to us these days. Anyway, we stayed for two nights and had a great time (except for that Chase was having intense back pain the whole time!) We went out for a Steak dinner one night at one of our favorite restaurants here and generally enjoyed celebrating our last 5 years of married life together.

the sweaty walk to fluency (and the non-arrival at said place)

For those of you who have never had the need to communicate well in another language, let me offer a friendly word of discouragement: it’s harder than you think.

When I first arrived in Nicaragua, I had more or less mastered what I considered “Level 1 Spanish.” In other words, on a scale of 1 to 10, with fluency being 10, I considered myself about a 3. Roughly 20,000 hours later (counting a few hundred of intensive language study, time spent sleeping, time spent in the States, time spent complaining about things, etc.), my Spanish is probably 50 times better than it was, yet I would consider myself about a 5. Turns out, when I arrived, I was more of a 0.1.

Fluency is like the time you had the bright idea to walk to a destination several miles away that you’ve driven to a hundred times. You begin your journey with three thoughts:

1. This is saving gas and giving me great exercise!
   
2. I could really see myself doing this all the time. Everyone should!
   
3. The drive takes about 15 minutes, so walking should take about an hour, right?

Niños de Vida

We just wanted to share some recent pictures from our kids services with you. Enjoy! Playing a game where one kid licks a marshmallow and sticks it on another kids face. The one with the most marshmallows still sticking after 30 seconds wins.

Some sweet girls who attend our services each week

Those cats…

They like to play and sometimes they still spoon. They break things, we get angry, but then they do something hilarious, like in the videos below, and they make us laugh (which is why Chase likes them). And the longer we have them, the cuddlier they get (which is why Julie likes them).

Reflecting on 2011

I read this quote in a devotional I was reading yesterday, and it reminded me a lot of what this past year has looked like for me.

“Deliverance is when God brings you out of a fiery trial that was meant to destroy you. Total deliverance is when, like the three Hebrew children [Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego], He brings you out without even the smell of smoke on you. You see, it’s possible to be delivered but still be damaged.”

Delivered, but damaged. I started the year sicker than I’ve ever been in my life. I could barely walk, I was in constant pain, and I was vomiting more times than I could remember to report to Chase at the end of the day. In the last year, God has delivered me from that place (that I hope to never return to!) I’m in a new place now, where most days look totally normal. I go about life, doing things people do, and probably feel as healthy as you do. BUT, my kidneys didn’t get on board with the whole “I want to be totally healed” plan (yet?). So, slowly but surely, they continue to get a little bit worse.