Alyssa's border town

Piedras Negras is a Mexican border town, across the Rio Grande from Eagles Pass, Texas. This is Alyssa's 2nd home, she loves the people there. Her first mission trip was between her freshman and sophomore year of high school. Our church took a mission trip, and she has been going back to Mexico every chance she gets.


Alyssa began studying spanish in kindergarten, and she had a gift for linguistics...we saw that immediately. She was fortunate to have spanish throughout most of elementary school and then continued through high school. Her minor in college is spanish. She spent 7 weeks last summer in Costa Rica, teaching english in an elementary school. God has gifted her for not only a love for the spanish language but for the people that speak the language.

I cannot count the number of times Alyssa has gone to Mexico, but it is typically every summer and sometimes at Christmas. The organization she works with is Hands and Feet Ministries, it is based in Adairsville Georgia. The first few times she took the 2 day road trip to Mexico. Christmas of her senior year we put her in a van on Christmas night with people we did not know and they drove all night. The picture below is from this summer, but the two on the left are Zac & Katherine Roland...two of the ones she rode with that Christmas. Their two boys are Shepherd & Avery. The others in the picture are Chris (right), a summer intern with Hands & Feet and Julio, a local that Alyssa hangs out with, and skypes with when she is in Rome.

Zac & Katherine left Calhoun Georgia to work with the school in Nava (pictured here). This is a private school that Hands & Feet helps support. Alyssa was able to spend one of her three weeks teaching in Nava. She lived with the Roland family, Chris, & several dogs.

Praying before lunch at the Nava School. This is often the only meal the children get, and according to Alyssa it isn't much, but they are grateful.

Alyssa typically flies into San Antonio and someone will pick her up at the airport. One year we put her on a plane on Christmas night and a pastor in San Antonio took her to his home where she spent the night until someone from Piedras could pick her up the next day. We always trust God will take care of her no matter how she travels!

Alyssa is considered an intern when she works in Piedras. She helps coordinate mission groups that come to minister. They do VBS in the summer and have birthday parties for Jesus at Christmas. They also work on construction projects, such as drywall, tiling floors and painting. Here are some children helping paint.

Alyssa pays her own way when she goes to Mexio, though we usually pick up the tab for the flight. She did raise support when she went over spring break of this year, and the response was amazing!

Throughout Alyssa's life she has had great examples of mission work. She was in Girls in Action in elementary school and attended Camp Pinnacle where she learned more about missions. As college students graced our home, they were often talking about mission trips they had taken. She saw faith in action. She saw young people who influenced her to go to the nations.

People ask me how I feel about Alyssa going to live & work in a border town. I tell them that eventually I will get a passport so I can visit her. I know that if she is doing what God called her to do, then she will be safe and God will provide. She is God's child, we just get to guide her and love her.

Surprises!

I'm not big on surprises, because I like to know what's going to happen BUT we had a wonderful surprise this week. On Tuesday I was finishing dinner when I heard a knock at the door. I saw a cute little girl on my front porch, she was obviously looking at our cat. I thought "that little girl looks like Kearston". When I went to the front door there stood Christy & TJ Dixon and 4 kids.

Let me give you the background. Christy was my student worker in Kindermusik, she babysat for me before Kate was born (and after), my older girls were in her wedding, and she is just a wonderful Christian friend. TJ dated Christy, and was a favorite at my house. All the kids loved TJ. and he was great with the kids. TJ did his student teaching with Randy. To hear him tell it, "it was soccer season, Randy gave me the grade book and I didn't see him for 16 weeks." Maybe some of you can relate!!!

TJ & Christy (her maiden name was Swafford) graduated from Berry in 2000. TJ teaches in the Atlanta area (Fulton County I think) and coaches several sports. Christy is a mom and runs her own Kindermusik program. They have 4 children, the youngest was born with some health issues and will have surgery in August. Through all their trials of raising 4 children they are faithful to the Lord and serving Him. Despite difficulties with Christy's health over the past several years they continue to praise God for all He has done. They have been an encouragement to me as I have witnessed their reliance on a sovereign God.

TJ, Christy, Trey, Kearston and our cat Charlie.

There were 2 other kids with them when they stopped...friends that had gone to Huntsville with them. They left their younger two girls with grandma. Why did they make an unannounced stop at the Nobles? The kids had to go to the bathroom!!!

We would love for Christy & TJ to return to Rome, and maybe God has that in their future. Of course we would love for all our college kids to come home to Rome!! But please stop by if you are in the area...even it's only because you need to make a pit stop.

California, the bottom line

It's been almost a month since we returned from our California adventure. Since then Alyssa has been to Mexico on missions, Randy & Carrie to New Orleans with Mission Lab and Randy & Aaron leave for Mexico missions tomorrow. It's been a busy summer. I still haven't printed pictures from our trip, but I will. The bills for our trip have come in, so I thought it was appropriate to give you the details. Along the way I've included a few more pictures that Alyssa took.

This is Lombard Street, known as the "crookedest street" (is that a word?). My girls were so excited to go to San Francisco and see Lombard street, ride a street car and see the Full House street (not sure we saw that, they all look the same). People are always curious how much a trip like this cost. Randy & I are not exactly rolling in the money, and yet we have done 5 of these National Parks trips.

We started saving in 2008 for this trip. We began planning and making arrangements in the fall of 2009. When you stay in a National Park you often need to book your lodging early or you won't get a room. Our trip was 10 nights and 11 days. We needed lodging that would accomodate 5 people, because Aaron chose not to go. Our total for lodging was $1283.


Mirror Lake, Yosemite National Park

We flew into San Francisco from Atlanta, it was not non-stop. We had a connecting flight in Phoenix on the way out and Charlotte on the way back (yes, Charlotte...that is the hub for US Airways). We watched the airfares for several months and eventually booked with United. 5 round trip tickets cost $1346.

Once we arrived in San Francisco we rented a 12 passenger van from Budget. Since we were travelling with another family we could split the cost of the van rental and gas. We paid $744 for the van & gas.

We like to take scenic day hikes, but this sign gives you some other options in Yosemite.

Though we never hiked much more than 3 miles at a time, we drove over 1700 miles on the trip. We bought 94 gallons of gas. The average price per gallon was $3.14.


This is the top of Lassen Volcanic Peak. Alyssa used the zoom on the video camera to get this shot!

We enjoy the scenery in the parks but we also like to visit the gift shops. We buy postcards, t-shirts, magnets, books, puzzles, and other souvenirs. According to my calculations we spent $203 on souvenirs. This does not include what the kids may have spent of their own money, but they were always happy for mom to do the buying!

During our 11 days on the road we had numerous picnics. This eagle was spotted after a windy lunch at Manzanita lake. We typically like accomodations that include continental breakfast, as it cuts down on the food bill. This trip included only one such hotel. In two locations (Redwoods & Lassen) we were in houses so we were able to cook and pack picnics. When we were in San Francisco and Yosemite we at the mercy of the establishments there. The food bottom line was $625.

Here are the bears we saw in Yosemite...these were in Curry Village where some residents did not follow the rules about keeping food in the bear locker!

The miscellaneous of the trip totaled $477. If you are totalling the trip from the numbers above you should get $4678. Per person the cost was $935.60 (10 nights, 11 days) or $85 per day.

Since we saved for two years, I averaged saving $194 a month for this trip. The bottom line is, we went on this great trip and it is all paid for....or will be as soon as I pay the credit card bill.

The trip, the memories, the National Parks...PRICELESS!!!