A Missionary’s Life :: Thai Visas, Word Art, and Goodbyes

Welcome visitors! Sorry I missed last week, but I spent all afternoon with a friend who was visiting! Kelsey
and I worked together at AIM – she was an intern for The Sound of Hope
and the Development Department first, then she came on staff for a while
and did quite a few different jobs (including leading mission trips).
She moved back to Michigan a few months ago, so last Friday she drove to
Port Huron for a visit. We had a great time together – walking around
town, drinking apple cider, and sitting under the Blue Water Bridge
catching up! I especially enjoyed it since we hardly ever have visitors
(and I love to play the hostess!) She also brought us some goodies –
organic beef from the farm she works on, and decorative gourds. How cute
are they?! Thanks so much for coming Kelsey! I can’t wait until next
time! 🙂

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
No, I’m not one of those people who jump the gun and decorate for
Christmas in September (though I do LOVE Christmas decorations! Lights
and candles and glitter, oh my! 😉 This week we had a Christmas and New
Years photo shoot for iStock. We had a lot of fun, and I can’t wait to
share some of the pictures with you! We’re also doing a fall shoot later
today…. and, wow…. I just realized that I’m way behind at posting these pictures. Sorry! I’ll try to get on that soon…..maybe I’ll do a whole post of some of our faves from each shoot
to catch you up 😉

Time to say goodbye. In case you haven’t heard, Michael and Kathy Hindes are moving to Georgia. Yes, the same Michael & Kathy that we moved up here to be mentored by (they’re leaving us! >insert abandonment issues here<
….kidding, kidding! 😉 God has called them to Gainesville for their
next season of life, so they are the last of the AIM/World Race Crew to
leave here (well, except for us). Monday, they took us out for a goodbye
dinner at a wonderful waterfront restaurant. We had delicious food,
caught up, laughed a lot (while Michael & Rusty sang the “Bed
Intruder” song) and enjoyed each other’s company one last time in Port
Huron. We ended the night with a “Bed Intruder” sing-along in the car on
the way home… laughing and goofing off. Once that song gets stuck in
your head, there’s no getting it out!

It’s easy to say, there is
NO ONE like those two! We are going to miss having them just down the
road from us….they have truly been our family up here and our home
away from home. We refuse to say goodbye though, because we know they’ll
always be a part of our life. So we’ll just say, “Good luck in Georgia!
We love you!”

*note – they are driving down today and tomorrow with the moving truck – please say a prayer for them!

Word Art.
I’m not sure if you’ve ever seen “Word Art” before, so let me explain.
Word Art (also called “Alphabet Photography”) is a collection of
photographs that spell out a word. Each photograph is an object from the
world around you – a flower, a park bench, a window, a column, etc –
that looks like a letter. You put these letters together to spell a name
or other word. (you can see some examples here.)
I saw it a few years ago and thought it was beautiful, but didn’t plan
on trying it myself. That is, until Michael and Kathy told us they were
moving.

You see, Michael and Kathy are 50, and they’ve lived
their whole life in this area. Fifty years is a long time to call a
place home, and I can only imagine how difficult it is to leave it
behind. So, Rusty and I took a trip to downtown Port Huron to work on
some Word Art for the Hindes!

What you see below is the finished
project. (the letters anyway….I forgot to take a picture once it was
framed because we were so excited to take it to them! So, imagine it in a
really nice black frame.) Each letter is a little piece of Port Huron
they can take with them to their new home. It was incredible to hear
Michael pick out what they all were, and to hear him share his memories
of growing up in the area!

“H”
is the front of the old courthouse, which Michael told us was the first
college in the area! It’s over 100 years old, and now houses our
attorney’s office. (This is the spot where we incorporated The Sound of
Hope!)

“I” is a
raised bridge that goes over the Black River, where it joins the St.
Clair River. (Apparently, Michael used to climb 20 feet up this thing
and jump off into the water!)

“N” is a lamp post from downtown.

“D” is a window at Beacon Home Care (run by some of Michael and Kathy’s good friends).

“E” is the railing from the bridge downtown on Huron Avenue.

“S” is part of an old light fixture at The General Store.

If
you’re interested in a Word Art piece of your own let me know…. they
aren’t something I’m planning on doing again, but I would consider
selling them on a case by case basis, especially if you’re in Michigan!
(I’m afraid they would be expensive to ship!)