I'M HOME!!!

Well, it's only 7:30 am, I've been up for about an hour and a half, and I'm on my second cup of coffee. It's so good to be home!!! I got in yesterday around 5:00. My luggage didn't make it, and that's kind of a long story. The short version is :yesterday when I checked in in Bangkok, they said my flight home from Chicago to Allentown was cancelled, and they booked me on a later flight. When I got to Chicago, I found out it wasn't cancelled, so I changed my flight back. But there wasn't much time before my flight left. I made it through security, called home, and boarded the plane, so my luggage ended up coming on the evening flight. Otherwise it was a pretty uneventful trip home. When I'm a little more alert I'll post some more about my trip, but just wanted to say I'm home.
Carla

Hey Stranger's

Does anyone ever check this anymore? I chcek it a few times a week, but I've been pretty busy this past month (as I'm sure you all have been) so I haven't written anything in awhile. Plus we've been having problems with our internet. It will all of a sudden shut down in the middle of something. We were on amazon buying John's school books and it just shut down. That was annoying because you have to start all over!!
Anyways, I haven't heard from Hannah or SaraAnn in forever and I just wanted to say hi to everyone and see if anyone even checks this thing anymore.
So I'll talk to you later
Love,
Charissa

addresses

Carla and Heidi,
I have a christmas card for you but I do not have addresses for either of you ~ so let me know as soon as you can where I can to!!

Thanks

I hope you are all ok!! SaraAnn, haven't heard from you in awhile. Oh, Carla, I use MSN for instant messanger, that's all I have (Hannah does too).

Talk to you later
Love ya,
Charissa

Hello from Japan!

Hey guys!
Sorry that it has been forever since I've posted or anything. We moved last month (well actually this month) but our internet has been down since the beginning of October. I thought that I would die! But we got back online on Sunday!!!! We are still living in the same town, Karuizawa. But we have moved into our own house. My parents bought land here about 5 or so years ago and Dad has been slowly fixing it up. I'll have to post pictures of the house soon!
Last week I went to Guam to visit Megan for Thanksgiving. I had so much fun:) Harvest really is an extraordinary ministry. Dr. Herron and the staff are doing a wonderful job. And Guam is so beautiful! I went snorkeling for the first time and I saw a baby shark:)
SaraAnn I am so excited about your family. I was shocked and thrilled when I found out that they are Christians and that your parents married each other and everything! God is so good! I can't believe how much you and your sister resemble each other:)
And Heidi congratulations on getting engaged!!!! How exciting! I can't wait to hear more about him and see a picture:)
And Charissa it is awesome the way God worked things out for John to join the reserves. I think that you should come visit me when he is in training:) I love the picture of John with his football, he looks so thrilled!!
And Carla I have been praying for you as you are back in Myanmar. It is really special that you are able to work there.
I love and miss you all so much! And even though I don't write very often I pray for you guys all the time.
Hannah

Myanmar Update

Wow! I can't believe I've been gone for a month already. Sorry I haven't posted anything sooner. I'm going to try and put some pictures on, but I don't know how many I'll get to do. I was going to put on a slideshow, but the internet here is so slow that I don't think it's gonna work. Anyway, what have I been up to?? Well, this has been a really stretching trip for me so far. We spent two weeks working with the Falam people to establish some of their writing system and to begin creating a writer's handbook. It was a great two weeks, but by the end my brain was totally overloaded. I still haven't really processed all that we did, and today we started another language conference, so now I'm trying to do it all over again in another language.
Last we we had a teacher training. About 10 teachers came and we worked with them to teach them activities and ways to plan a lesson. We taught through an OT story book that BI has created for literacy purposes to be used before a translation has been completed. It was a great week, and I learned a lot of new things as well.
As a group we have been working through the Bible study called Experiencing God. It has been really good!!! We are only in the third week, but I have been challenged in so many ways. A lot of the ways I looked at life have been challenged. A big one is that my purpose on earth is to have a relationship with God above all. That thought branches out into so many other ways then that affect my time with Him, the way I look at activities during the day, and well I guess pretty much every part of life. So many times I get caught in the mindset of how much am I doing for Him? He wants me to know Him, and when I do that, the things that I do for Him will fall into place. If any of you have the chance to do it, or are looking for a small group study to do, please seriously consider using it.
Well, I am trying to upload my pictures for the second time, so that isn't going so well. Hopefully you'll see some on here in the next day or two. I know we all aren't very good at this blogging thing, but I expect to hear at least a hello from all of you :) Please remember our group. It's been a great month, but we are all getting worn out, and we have several months left. Love you guys
Carla

Circle of Friends

Hey everyone, I figured I would try and update everyone a little bit since in about 2 weeks I'm not sure how much I'll be able to access this for a while. Well, first I guess I should start out with my big news......I'M ENGAGED!!!!!!! Now I know that you are all probably a little shocked with this one, and Carla, I know you were a little skeptic with this before, but I am sure that this is what I want and I'm also sure that this is what he wants. And I don't think that we are really rushing into things at all, cause we aren't getting married until next december, and I know that it is a long engagement and I never really wanted a long one, but right now that doesn't really matter to me as much as I thought it would. So anyway, it wasn't really anything fancy how he asked me or anything, and actually, he had kind of given me the ring a couple of months ago, because he got a really good deal on one, but we couldn't really say anything to anyone because he hadn't asked my dad yet, but then when I got in my accident, I had the ring in my purse cause I had been playing basketball and somehow it flew out of my purse(cause it was in the front pocket) and I lost it. trust me I was so upset, and I felt so bad cause i really liked that ring. Fortunately he hadn't spent alot alot of money on it, (he got a bunch of discounts on it) so it wasn't like hundreds of dollars down the drain, but anyway, now we don't have any money cause we are moving, so I don't have a ring right now, but he did get me a necklace so I have something. but anyway, when he asked me it wasn't really anything fancy just cause I work so much, most weeks before this week I worked about 12 a day 4 days a week, so I would leave around 9 and not get home until about 11, so we didn't really have a lot of time to do much, but he just asked me one night after I got home from work and we were talking about stuff. (he emailed my dad too and got my dad's blessing, which was one thing that we weren't sure how it would go, but my dad is okay with it!)
anyway, the other big news is that we are leaving November 20th to go out to arizona, we are going to spend Thanksgiving with my aunt and uncle, and my grandparents will be out here for that too, and then we are driving out to arizona, charissa i don't think that we will be able to visit this time around cause it would be a little far out of our way. but anyway, if you guys could, i know that you probably have already sent me this stuff, but if you could send me your addresses cause we are going to mail out christmas cards and officially announce our engagement when we get out there, so I'm not sure what I did with your addresses, so if you could mail me them again, I would appreciate it! I'll try and post a picture of us, but it probably won't be till we get out to arizona. oh, speaking of, we are going to be living with my grandparents for the first couple of months, and then he is going to get an apartment, and i'll stay with my grandparents then until we get married next december! I hope you all are happy for me (and Charissa I was just remembering that I caught the boquet at your wedding and look at this!--I still have it by the way!) anyway, I'm very excited, and his parents are okay with us moving out, oh yeah, he's going to finish school out there!
anyway, I think this is has gotten long enough. can't wait to hear from ya'll!!!!
I love you all very much and miss you! and can't wait to get together again. I hope you guys can all make it to my wedding.
Take care
Heidi

I found this!!

I found this picture and since Hannah doesn't write anymore, I thought I'd put it on here for her. CKM