It’s always Autumn in England

I headed to work today a little after 8am. A little bit later than usual, but I was slow to get moving this morning, plus by waiting until then, it is starting to get light. I got to within 15 minutes from work, and I felt the steering start pulling to the left. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I slowed down to about 40mph and turned the music off. I was just getting onto I-865 from I-65 in Indy, and as I went over the bridge, there is a very un-smooth connection on the bridge. At that point, the car really took a bump, and I knew something was wrong. As soon as I got to a safe point, I pulled onto the hard shoulder and got out. Back of car - fine. Front tire on drivers side - completely blown apart. I’m not even sure all of the tire was still there.

In the -16 weather, I hopped back in the car, and called Evan. Then I called AAA - for 20 minutes. Then I called Evan back, saying all I was getting was a busy signal. So I tried again…when AAA finally answered the lady said, "It should be less than 120 minutes and we are making people actually on the roadside a priority." WHAT???

I called work, explained what was going on, and then turned the heat and the music up. I sent a few emails from my phone, called Evan a couple of times and waited. 2 hours later, a AAA guy turns up, changes my tire and within 10 minutes I am on the road again. For real, if the tire would have been on the other side, I think I would have braved the cold and done it myself. However, the AAA man was head to toe in Carharts and thick gloves. I don’t think he felt the cold.

In the 10.5 years I have been driving, I think I called AAA twice. Once for a dead battery after a 2 week vacation and once when my car died and I had them tow it to the garage that took my car for free.

Since moving here in July, here is what I have faced with my car:

2nd August - buy car
end August - hit a deer and totoal the car
1st Sept - buy a new car
5th Sept - spend $700 on a new battery, brake pads & disks & other stuff
10th Sept - ball joint breaks - call AAA
1st Dec - slide off the road in an ice storm & hit guard rail
Car spends 2 weeks in the shop
23rd Dec - spend 6 hours sitting on I-465 in an ice storm
14th Jan - miss work because of snow & cold temps
16th Jan - blow out a tire

No one warned me that in this kind of weather the slightest thing can blow out a tire. So, my question is this. How do I make a reasonable decision about whether or not I should go to work. All the local schools closed, but my office was not. Was it safe to go to work? Should I have stayed home, even though the roads were safe, but it was approximately -16 Farenheight? How do you decide? After the fact, people said, well maybe you should have stayed home, but how do you actually make a decision? I’ve not really spent any winters in Indiana, so I really don’t know. I made the best decision I could based on the fact that the roads were safe. I think I would always choose going to work, over not going, so how do I decide when my responsibility rather than my sense is taking over?

My conclusion is that I need to move somwhere where it never gets colder than 60F or 16C!

When I woke up this morning, there was 2-3 inches of snow on the ground and Lafayette schools were on a 2 hour delay. By the time I was ready for work, it was snowing pretty heavily again. I woke Evan up and asked his advice. He said that a two hour delay was a pretty good indication of the roads. I emailed Gary, my boss, and told him I was waiting another 30minutes to make a decision, but I was definitely going to be late. He called me and said stay put. He said the roads in Indy were bad, and if I came, I would likely end up getting stuck over night in Indy.

So, I stayed put. I did what work I could from home had some lunch and ventured out with Evan to Brady Lane, only 5 minutes from home. The roads are not too icy, but I am glad I did not try to drive the hour trip to Indy. It would certainly have taken far longer than an hour. Plus, by 2pm, E91 had decided to shut at 5pm for the day and cancelled all Wednesday evening programming. I am fairly sure I would have either had to spend the night in Indy, or it would have taken me so long to get to work that by the time I got there, it would have been time to turn around and come home.

I took several pictures of the snow around noon today, but it has not stopped snowing all day. I am guessing we have accumulated a couple more inches since this morning. Anyone want to move with me to somewhere with better weather? Somewhere it does not get to less than 60 degrees F? That would be my dream!!

I made it back to America last night. It was FREEZING! The weather in Costa Rica had been around 70-75F (18-22C) all week. It is about 5F yesterday, which is -16C. What a shock.

Anyway, just wanted to thank you all for your prayers and emails while I was gone. I will try to send out an email update this week. There is just so much that happened, it was a great week! I will add more pictures to Facebook too. Feel free to read the blog we wrote while we were gone: http://loveatworkincostarica.blogspot.com

I have emailed many of you, so I won’t repeat exactly what I wrote, but our team arrived safely in Costa Rica with few hiccups. Only 1 person missed a flight, but he was able to get on a later flight and made it safe and sound. Today we spent several hours building houses. I spent the majority of my time hauling stuff from the church building to the house where they needed material. I am tired. The houses are on a hill, and there isn’t a road like we imagine. It is dirt, but with deep ditches, holes, large stones, etc. Hard to walk on and immposible to get a car up. I didn’t take any pictures today, but I will try to get my camera out tomorrow and get some taken. I am exhausted, so I plan on taking a shower and heading to bed! If you want to receive the emails I am trying to send out daily, leave a comment and give me your email address. One of the reasons you may not be getting an email from me, is that I am using my work laptop and so I don’t have my home email addresses.

Friends,

Many of you already know that I will be heading to Costa Rica in December! Here are some details of this trip and some ideas of how you can find out what I am doing. Unfortunately, because of a change in circumstances, Evan will no longer be able to go with me.
East 91st Street Christian Church has partnered with CCA, in Alajuelita, Costa Rica. CCA is a church which has developed an integrated ministry for reaching their community with the love of Jesus. This is your opportunity to partner with us to help reach one of the poorest communities in Costa Rica.

There is a group of around 50 people going to Alajuelita to work with CCA. The plan is to build 12 houses in 12 days. We will be there from the 13th to the 21st December.

I am writing to as ask that you prayerfully considering embarking on this journey with me. Most of my expenses will be covered by E91, because this is considered a work trip for me. However, I would like to have a team of people who will pray for me during this trip. I would like to have at least 1 person or couple praying for me each day that I am traveling. Please also pray for Evan and I while we are apart.

As well as your prayers I am hoping to raise around $500 for expenses that E91 will not cover. For example, I would like to buy a few tools, painting equipment and work gloves. Once I am done with these, I will leave them with CCA for future teams that come to build houses. Anything extra that I raise will be given directly to CCA. CCA buys all of the building materials in advance, so that they are waiting for the team when we arrive in Costa Rica. Once the team is gone, CCA continues to minister to the families who are living in the new houses. CCA runs a school, medical facility and a children’s feeding centre. Each participant on these trips is asked to donate $500. Any donation you give to me, will go towards this donation and your donation will help continue this important ministry.

All checks can be made out to me and sent to me at my home address. If you don’t know it, leave me a comment and I will email you!

I will be updating this blog as plans come together and while I am there. I am hoping to get lots of good pictures and add them too!

I/We would like to support your time in Costa Rica through

Praying on:
Saturday 13^th       Sunday 14^th       Monday 15^th     Tuesday 16^th      Wednesday 17^th    

Thursday 18^th     Friday 19th       Saturday 20^th    Sunday 21^st          

Donating:

$20      $50       $100     $150     Other $                         

Receiving email updates:
Email address                                       @                                            

I have added some pictures of Costa Rica to Facebook. These can be seen here

These are pictures that I have been given since starting to work at E91. There is a picture of one of the houses we will be building, as well as some of the houses we will be replacing.

I will certainly be taking more while I am in Costa Rica and I plan to take my laptop and update as the week goes along. Here is where to look for updates: http://theoverbaysincostarica.blogspot.com/

I have decided to keep a seperate blog for Costa Rica. So please head there for updates!

I am going to Costa Rica. December 13th to 21st. I am still at work tonight, waiting for a meeting to start regarding this trip.

I have also convinced Evan to come with me! I am really glad. Even though I will be "working" during the trip. It will be good to have Evan there and be able to relax in the evenings with him, rather than try to figure out if I can email/call/text him. However, it does mean we now need to raise around $2,000 for him to be able to go. All of my expenses are covered. If we get any extra, it will go into a pot that goes towards the cost of the building materials for the houses we will build. I believe the goal is 12 houses by Christmas!

Please be praying for Evan and I. I know I mentioned it a couple posts ago, but I do believe this is a time when the enemy will strike hard, because we are doing something for God. I am still excited!

Now, I need to get a new camera! Anyone want to donate about $150 for that cause?? lol Just kidding. It will be an early Christmas present to myself for this trip I think!