Love your Journey: 2008

emergeJUSTICE

Meet Josh and Sarah! Josh and Nat were room mates in YWAM back in the day. (hahaha, they are so-o old now!) This lovely couple, with two kids in tow, are leading a team of 14 people, which is made up of all ages, on a two month tour called emergeJUSTICE.

awe Honey! The baby thing looks so good on you!

This is little Judah, Josh and Sarah's youngest sweetheart. I wish I had a good photo of Ezabella, Juhah's two year old sister. We had the honor of having these two angels at our house for four days while the team was speaking in the Lancaster area.

I don't know who liked the train tracks more..... me or Judah!

I want to send out a special thanks to the "emergeJUSTICE" team for leaving everything at home and devoting the next two months to living on the road and speaking at various functions, all to raise awareness of the injustices that go on in most countries around the world.

27 million people world wide are victims of modern day slavery forced into prostitution or back breaking labour. Many of these are innocent children who become inslaved to trafficking, debt bondage and other forms of forced labour, forced recruitment for armed conflict, prostitution, pornography and other illicit activities. This underground injustice is a 32 billion dollar industry which also happens to be the fastest growing crime on the planet.

17 million Africans have died since the AIDS epidemic began in the 1970s. 12 million children have been orphaned by AIDS and every 15 seconds another child is added to that number.

There are over 30,000 child solders across the glob. In Colombia, South America the FARC, ELN and AUC force more than 14,000 children to carry weapons or to participate in acts of violence according to Human Rights Watch and the United nations. Many of the rescued children tell stories of being tortured, raped or used as human shields by the illegal armed groups.

The injustices that go on in this world are staggering, yet we can do something to change this world; even if only by a small amount..... it's still worth the effort. Please click here to view the emergeJUSTICE video and also check out Call+Response to find out easy ways to fight for the rights of hurting children across the world. It can be as simple as letting our clothing industry know that we don't approve of child labour and we wont buy their products if they were made through the exploitation of a child's innocents.

The Zooks have visitors!

My MOM!!!!! She come to visit me for her 50th birthday. I'll tell ya what.... it felt like it was MY birthday. Having been best friends with this amazing woman for all my life it was extremely difficult when it came time to move the the US with Nat. She cared for me as a mother, inspired me when I was a teenager, and she has been my comfort and spiritual helper as an adult. So you can imagine that I was THRILLED when mom told me that she was coming to PA the day after her birthday! And to top it off we were meeting in NEW YORK!!! hello!!!! how could ask for anything more?

We had a great time seeing the sights, watching the broadway Grease, and shopping for purses. Honestly purse shopping was our favorite part and it wasn't about getting a new hand bag. It was the process of it all. There was one guy selling bags for $10. To get everyones attention to this amazing bargain he enthusiastically yelled "LOOK, LOOK, LOOK ...$10.. I can hardly believe it myself!"

Along on the trip were my two aunts. This was the nice man who convinced us to by a ticket for a tour bus. It sounded like a great deal since we could us it for 48 hours and there were five different tours we could go on. Plus you can get off at any stop to see the sights and then get back on when you were done. He said the busses come around every ten minutes but what he failed to mention was that if they are full they don't pick you up. After an hour and a half in the cold rain, when our feet were getting cold, and we were running out of stories to keep us entertained, we finally got smart and walked to a different bus stop; along the way passing five other city bus tour workers trying to sell us tickets we already had! At this bus stop most the people were at the end of their tour so there was LOTS of room!

We got free ponchos to keep us dry from the rain on the top level of the bus. It reminded me of the days Nat and I would catch the shoppa into town in Mozambique. Cold and wet! and the open air breeze didn't help much. Luckily the sun came out and we were happy to have the best seats in the house for photos!

Mom and I got caught up in the New York moment! Look aunty Helen! there is the olive garden! When the four of us couldn't agree on what direction a store was that we were at the day before I would try to remember where it was in connection to the olive garden. For some reason we were always passing it and I thought I could remember but my tactic never worked.... all it got me were jokes from the girls every time we pasted it. I may be hearing "hey look Salena, there's the Olive Garden!" for the next few years.

Now isn't that the cutest thing you have ever seen!!!! Now back in PA, I was taking mom around to show her the sights of Lancaster County. Usually you see a normal sized horse carrying a gray buggy. (see four photo's down) but on our way home from the beautiful town of Intercourse (ya, I said that right) we saw four large working horses pulling some large machinery. We passed it too fast so I told mom this was worth chasing down since you don't see these horses as often due to their effectiveness in the fields rather than the easier job of transporting people. So that's what we did. We passed him and took photo's. The horses were so beautiful. It was an amazing sight to see. I know I am teasing you with the image and not showing a photo but that is because I regrettably lost that photo. I have no idea how!! Anyway, we were satisfied with our day when all the sudden I noticed these two young lads with a pony!!! This was my first time spotting anyone traveling in this fashion. So, there we went, chasing down photo's again!

You can't come to the Zook house and not play a game of Settlers, which is kind of like Monopoly but way cooler! Mom won the first game.... beginners luck....

I think mom is hooked cause she was asking me if they had an on line game when she got home. Hopefully we will be playing it around the Parkhouse table in the next few months!!!!

I also had my dear sweet grandma come to visit..... and we made BUNS!!!!! hahaha.... most the cousins wrote me on facebook and were just a little jealous. I think I may need a little practice; my hands were way stickier than grandmas and we had the same recipe in our hands. Must just be a grandma's touch!

Grandma Jean, my grandma's sister, was also along on the trip. We had lunch aboard the train that ran from Strasburg.

I think Grandma's favorite part of the trip was getting to ride in a buggy! Nat's has some family from his mothers side who are Amish and she was trilled to have us over for some scrumptious spaghetti soup she had just made and canned! It may sound strange but it was some great tasting soup! Before lunch we watched as aunt Malinda saddled up the horse. Next thing you know Grandma Jean is getting her hand in there and even showing Malinda that she did something backwards!! ( this is hilarious to those who know Grandma Jean) Malinda laughed and said " I think we could use you around here!" Then both grandma's helped hook up the buggy :) ....... hhhmmm, I wonder if they have done this before?

I just LOVE how young these two sisters are; they crammed themselves into the back seat and each took a child in their laps! (Nat's sister Karen was along with her four year old son and three foster children) I hope I am still kick'n it as energetically as these two hip ladies when I reach their glorious age!

So Malinda and I each took a kid as well and we were off. Our short trip around the block which happened to be about four miles wasn't as quick as I am used to. But much more peaceful.

Not too old for air-soft...... yet!

Last month we celebrated Nat's 30th birthday with some food, cake, and great fellowship! not to mention a highly intense, blood pumping, sweat drenching game of air-soft in the wooded back yard of Ken and Karen's. unfortunately for the better part of the afternoon i was in the house preparing the last of the food arrangements but i did join in the fun for the last game.... hehe, just in time to creep through the woods and pelt my husband in the back! but its quite all right since he got me back this weekend in Ohio when we began a night time war on the field of mom and big sis's front yard! that shot to the knee hurt pretty bad, babe, but not as bad as the bruise i got from slipping on the wet grass trying to escape fire from the enemy! Air-soft seems to have become a favorite sport in the Zook family........ some how we tend to bond over causing each other to wile and bleed!

thanks to Nora's help it took only one hour or so to decorate Nat's cake instead the three it probably would have taken me to do it by myself. while Nat was distracted with guns Nora and i assembled Nat's cake in the form of an airplane. in case you haven't noticed yet, Nat has acquired a love for remote controlled airplanes. and it has also always been one of his dreams to get his pilots license.

after over an hours worth of work i am finally putting on the final touches. that is not the look of concentration on my face, it is me trying to figure out why i thought this was a good idea :P

Nora and i watched with sadness as Nat cut out what was, in his words, "the best part of the plane".... the cockpit! it took two seconds to destroy what took hours to create. i guess its all o.k when it's done in the name of love!!!

top: Sincere (age one)

left: Geo (age three)

left: Angel (age two)

are this not the cutest trio you have ever seen!! Nat's sister, Karen and her husband Ken, just became foster parents to these three darlings and since they have a son of their own their quiet little family turned into four uncontrollably rambunctious BOYS all under the age of 4!! you can imagine with one child just learning to walk and wanting to touch everything he is not supposed to touch, two children still in dippers, an independent older brother learning new house rules and a four year old suddenly having to lear to share his time with mom and dad, that this household can sometimes feel more like a mini war zone. with my spare time i have committed to helping Karen twice times a week and i love every minute of it. who wouldn't want to hang out with these sweethearts!

Nat has been working with Mark on an addition for a guy who wanted to build a pool house for his grandchildren. (must be nice!) with the scorching heat temperature out here i wish i had a pool to lounge in. luckily we have a few generous friends who have offered the use of their pools. tomorrow i am taking Donovan ( Karen and Ken's son in above photo) to Larry and Nora's house to swim. Larry and Nora's daughter is married to Nat's younger brother Nadon...... are you still with me? Larry and Nora are close to the Zook family and we have spent some great times with them. Also Marks parent have a pool and have so kindly aloud us to use it.

so i'm sure most of you heard that we found a place to rent. it took about a month and a half of searching high and low to find the right place and boy do we feel like we hit the jackpot! it doesn't have the nicest appliances or the newest cabintry but we love it just the same. with two spacious bedrooms, one car garage, a large kitchen and living room, walk-in-closet and air conditioning!!! who could ask for more? o.k maybe we could ask for just a few things since this is literally all we owned at the time of our move in date!

But with some with the help of generous friends, some good sales, and plenty of yard sales we had this place furnished in less than a month!

i think Andrea is happy with me now!!

Home sweet home

we returned to Leola, PA to find that our kind friends had added a few accessories to our home! as well as a few hidden traps. lets see...... there was the cup of confetti that covered our bathroom sink when we opened the medicine cabinet, the toy mouse that shot out the microwave when the door was opened (my new nephew confessed this little trick while we were chatting on the phone.... i reassembled the contraption for my husband to discover!), more confetti was found in my oven mitts one morning while i was baking cookies, and lets not forget our new found friend who took over our bed. move over balloon lady.... there's a new Queen Bee in this hive! actually, she can keep the bed nat, i don't think we are going to fit.

nat and mark putting in new widows at the Fisher's new home. mark and marry have ripped this old house from post to post and are transferring it into a modern humble abode!

i couldn't help join in on the remodeling fun! i worked hard with absolutely no goofing off.(right marry?) gotta meet marks professional expectations...... he may offer me a job some day! imagine..... a girl working in construction in the little town of Leola, Pennsylvania!

i can honestly say that my husband knows the way to my heart! for a weekend get-a-way, nat took me to Hershey, PA to visit the chocolate factory where they make the famous...... you guessed it! HERSHEY CHOCOLATE!! it was a sweet, sweet weekend!

we road in a cart that led us through the warehouse to see the production line of how hershey's products are made. it didn't take long for us to conclude that the machines and the chocolatie goodness they were producing were all simply models to show how the REAL factory looks. they even had the smarts to pump chocolate scents into the air! almost had me fooled.

after the tour we headed into the purchasing department! look at all the choices....... how is a girl to decide?

couldn't go to Chocolate world without see the 3D show on the history of Milton Hershey..... or rather the history show that was really a bunch of singing candy bars that threw chocolate kiss's right in front of your nose. i just had to join the other kids grabbing at the air in front of them just to see if maybe.... just maybe the hershey kiss's in front of me were real. no such luck. very cool effects but i wasn't so crazy about the wind shooting chair in front of me that made it feel like there were mice running past my legs. especially since my 3D glasses were giving me the visual to go along with it!

well i guess i will sign off now. hope you are all doing well, and please don't think i have forgotten about the wedding and all of you who came. thank you cards ARE on there way! we should be getting our printer in the next few days.

we are still looking for a place to live but are confidant that the search is nearing to an end. then it will start to feel like home!