Hello! It seems like forever ago that we created this blog and I can't even believe that it has been 2 months since our DR trip. The past two months have been a whirlwind of craziness and this week has been one of the first that we both have simultaneously had off since CHRISTMAS (and the DR trip was not time off...it was amazing, but still work)!!! I thought I would fill everyone in on what's been happening the past few months and on our new beginnings in NASHVEGAS (yeah, I'm pretty sure NO one else calls it that here).
J finished his Master's in Teaching English a few weeks ago with a final GPA of 3.8! I'm so proud of all the work he has accomplished and also happy to have him home more :) This last year was quite challenging trying to juggle marriage, school, work, graduate applications, and the like, but we made it...scratch that God pulled us through BIG time. Props to God. We couldn't have asked for a better year though (sorry we have been measuring years on school time since our whole relationship has revolved around school from the beginning...therefore the "New" year begins in August and ends in May-June and July are free months-just trying to be like the Chinese). It's true what they say "what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger."
Packing and boxing up our life in Atlanta went semi-smoothly. I had my last day at work after two years on July 17th. It was pretty rough. I had been trying to set myself up for the change, but you just can't prepare for these type of life-events. Jill(my boss) and John Brady (the little boy I nanny for) attended our Softball Bash/Going away party that our AWESOME friends threw for us. I was so glad that everyone came out to send us off because it meant the world to us. Thursday before the move was pretty emotional (I'm a crier people...don't you know this already?!?). I created this slideshow of pictures that I have been taking of JB since he was about 10 months old and another little girl (his neighbor) that I have watched this summer. We all watched it together and it was pretty hard. I'm really going to miss that little guy:( Jill was so sweet and we hugged and cried and hugged and cried some more. I mean they have been a 2nd family to me and it is hard to leave people you love working for, but we will keep in touch.
We were both exicted to get all the boxes OUT of our living room and into the truck (finally). We had a lot of great help from our families. My Dad and little sis Emily even came up here to help us get settled. There is just no way around moving being stressful, but for the most part it went well. The first day we got here two young neighborhood couples came up to the house and introduced themselves. I was shocked! Usually people are so evasive these days. We are so happy to already know some people in the Hood. The older gentlemen who lives to the right of us has lived in this hood for 54 years! He lived he during the Civil Rights movement...how freakin' cool is that?
We live in East Nashville, which is right across the bridge from downtown and the Titans football stadium. East Nashville is a very unique little place and so far we love it. It reminds us of a Little Five Points mixed with VA Highlands. Many parts are Historic and even the house we are renting was built in 1899 (don't worry the owners spent the last year renovating it - no more wood-burning stove yippee). Other areas, including our street, are not the nicest houses, but this area is growing so fast and quickly changing. Although some of the houses are older, our street is very quiet/safe, and our neighbors are super friendly. Across the street we have the Five Points area which is really neat. I have a new favorite breakfast spot "Marche" and a ton of other indie places like: Z's Deli, Pied Piper Creamery, Bongo Java, Alley Cat Tex Mex food, and lots of bars: )
J has been planning the upcoming school year with his colleagues and he is looking forward to this school year. He will be teaching 9th grade Language Arts at a high school 3 miles away. It is a pretty rough school, but he is going to make such an impact there. The principal is much much much better than his last school and he has this amazing classroom. We have been working on getting it ready this week and I think the kids are really going to dig it. The room is on the 2nd floor with TONS of windows and bookshelves (I forced him to bring most of his books to his classroom because honestly the amount he has is getting out of control). I don't begin classes until Aug. 25th and my RA positionn doesn't begin until Sept. so for now I'm chiling at home. I couldn't be happier. I'm trying to work on decorating, but I think I overwhelm myself with starting too many projects at once. We have been doing a lot of yard work and it's beginning to look fabulous....well semi-fabulous anyway:)
Beau and Ernie are adjusting well. They LOVE having a backyard and being able to bark at people who walk by!
Anyway, I think this is enough for one entry! We miss everyone, so start scheduling your visits ASAP. 5 movies for $5 isn't going to last forever at Blockbuster and then we will need some real human interaction... My older sis Crystal is coming to visit this weekend and I cannot wait.
****Nashville Pics. coming SOON******
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Thanks to Biz!
Biz (our team mascot) created these for us at the picture party:
Thanks Ben...these are awesome!
Thanks Ben...these are awesome!
Monday, June 16, 2008
Blessings!
Hey Everyone!
We are going to post more entries from the trip soon, but this past week has been SUPER busy. We visited Nashville last Friday and finally found a house to rent. It is awesome and we can't wait to have people come visit us. We are planning on moving towards the end of July, after Jeremy graduates from his M.Ed. program. We also both found jobs this week (woohoo)! God has been amazing in blessing us with our move to TN and it reinforces even more that this is where he wants us to be.
Also we are working on putting up a slideshow of pictures on here and some video links!
We will update soon,
J & Ash
We are going to post more entries from the trip soon, but this past week has been SUPER busy. We visited Nashville last Friday and finally found a house to rent. It is awesome and we can't wait to have people come visit us. We are planning on moving towards the end of July, after Jeremy graduates from his M.Ed. program. We also both found jobs this week (woohoo)! God has been amazing in blessing us with our move to TN and it reinforces even more that this is where he wants us to be.
Also we are working on putting up a slideshow of pictures on here and some video links!
We will update soon,
J & Ash
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Stay tuned...more to come...
We will add the other entries in a couple days so that everyone can get through the first couple of days! : )
BTW here are a few of our teammates blogs who probably do a better job at explaining the trip and have pictures:
http://www.briantrishhutcherson.blogspot.com/
http://www.bensphotoblog.com
BTW here are a few of our teammates blogs who probably do a better job at explaining the trip and have pictures:
http://www.briantrishhutcherson.blogspot.com/
http://www.bensphotoblog.com
6/3 Tuesday DR Trip
(I journaled each day on the trip and then decided to post the entries upon our return to the US)
Tuesday 6/3/08
We were Definitely SORE this morning...but we just took some tylenol and pushed on!
We began devotional at 7:30am today and Stephanie shared her testimony with the group which was again encouraging to hear about her journey in her relationship with Christ. After our usual breakfast we headed over to the church to continue working on clearing the ground so we could start digging the trenches for the cement. Today we spent a lot of down time playing with the kids and helping to create a baseball/recreational field in the empty lot next to the church. We officially named the field “Toma Tomalo” after a song that we sang at church on Sunday. We have all been going around saying Toma Tomala all week being funny. The field was pretty gross and had tons of trash, glass bottles, bones, bugs, manure, and weeds we had to clear out. Andrew H. was a former pitcher for the Giants and took the field under his wing as his mission to create a field that would bring children closer to playing near the church. It was amazing to see how much trash we cleared out of the field in less than an hour. The lot already looked 10 times better and we still have a ways to go until the kids can play on it.
During lunch today some of the people on our team stayed behind to practice Hillsong’s “From the Inside Out” in Spanish to perform at the service on Thurs. J stayed behind to play back-up guitar to Carl so I stayed just to watch them practice. Ana ended up teaching Mandi and I the song in Spanish (She is one of our fluent Spanish speakers on the trip) and by the end of lunch I was singing up on stage as well. This is pretty funny seeing as 1. I’m the worst Spanish speaker and 2. I can’t sing…haha. Anyway, Ben, Ana, and Mandi all have wonderful voices so they drowned me out anyway. Plus the Dominicans love them some LOUD music. Their worship team that helped us with the song were incredible! It was cool getting to know a few guys in their band. Aldolfo, their bass guitarist, actually records and produces music for a living. Their lead worship pastor is an art teacher part-time along with working at the church. Hearing someone worship God in another language is amazing and makes you realize even more how Huge God is and how small we are. I was just there for moral support and to give God praise! I love that song now. I will add the lyrics in Spanish later. We also practiced “Mighty to Save” in English, which we will perform the same night along with the rest of our team! How fun!
After working for a few more hours (Did I mention it is sweltering hot here and we are all applying sunscreen like crazy), we got back to the hotel and ate dinner (Rice and beans are getting pretty old at this point!). Then we had our devotional where Ben shared his testimony and was so open with us that it inspired me to add a few more things to my testimony. We went to bed early Tues. because by the end of the day we are just so exhausted we can barely do anything else.
Tuesday 6/3/08
We were Definitely SORE this morning...but we just took some tylenol and pushed on!
We began devotional at 7:30am today and Stephanie shared her testimony with the group which was again encouraging to hear about her journey in her relationship with Christ. After our usual breakfast we headed over to the church to continue working on clearing the ground so we could start digging the trenches for the cement. Today we spent a lot of down time playing with the kids and helping to create a baseball/recreational field in the empty lot next to the church. We officially named the field “Toma Tomalo” after a song that we sang at church on Sunday. We have all been going around saying Toma Tomala all week being funny. The field was pretty gross and had tons of trash, glass bottles, bones, bugs, manure, and weeds we had to clear out. Andrew H. was a former pitcher for the Giants and took the field under his wing as his mission to create a field that would bring children closer to playing near the church. It was amazing to see how much trash we cleared out of the field in less than an hour. The lot already looked 10 times better and we still have a ways to go until the kids can play on it.
During lunch today some of the people on our team stayed behind to practice Hillsong’s “From the Inside Out” in Spanish to perform at the service on Thurs. J stayed behind to play back-up guitar to Carl so I stayed just to watch them practice. Ana ended up teaching Mandi and I the song in Spanish (She is one of our fluent Spanish speakers on the trip) and by the end of lunch I was singing up on stage as well. This is pretty funny seeing as 1. I’m the worst Spanish speaker and 2. I can’t sing…haha. Anyway, Ben, Ana, and Mandi all have wonderful voices so they drowned me out anyway. Plus the Dominicans love them some LOUD music. Their worship team that helped us with the song were incredible! It was cool getting to know a few guys in their band. Aldolfo, their bass guitarist, actually records and produces music for a living. Their lead worship pastor is an art teacher part-time along with working at the church. Hearing someone worship God in another language is amazing and makes you realize even more how Huge God is and how small we are. I was just there for moral support and to give God praise! I love that song now. I will add the lyrics in Spanish later. We also practiced “Mighty to Save” in English, which we will perform the same night along with the rest of our team! How fun!
After working for a few more hours (Did I mention it is sweltering hot here and we are all applying sunscreen like crazy), we got back to the hotel and ate dinner (Rice and beans are getting pretty old at this point!). Then we had our devotional where Ben shared his testimony and was so open with us that it inspired me to add a few more things to my testimony. We went to bed early Tues. because by the end of the day we are just so exhausted we can barely do anything else.
6/2 Monday DR Trip
(I journaled each day about the trip and then decided to post all of the entries upon our return!)
Today we began work on clearing the area behind the church where classrooms were to be built. We woke up and had devotional around 7:30 am. Mandy, Carl, and Andrew were our leaders of the day and they began the devotional and then we ended it with Alice’s testimony. Carl has been leading us in worship songs each day and he is doing an awesome job. Their is a feeling you get from singing praise to God with a room full of other believers that can’t really be matched by anything else. This has been one of my favorite parts of the trip. We ate breakfast, which is the same everyday eggs with ham and cheese, toast, various fruit, juice, and PLENTY o’ café con leche (coffee with milk). We got to the worksite around 9am and went right into working. We pretty much had to move a bunch of rocks with our hands from the place of the original foundation to the roadside in order for them to come and pick it up. Let me tell you it was hard work and everyone on our team had such good attitudes and upbeat moods through it all. We finally were able to score some buckets and shovels after a couple hours which helped the process to go by much faster! It was difficult to not get frustrated at the circumstances of having no construction equipment, but hey we aren’t here to question everything we are here to serve!
After working for a few hours we took a lunch break back at the hotel and ate PB&J with chips. Then it was back to work hauling rocks. This little boy Juaquin followed us to the worksite and we dropped him off at lunch time. He was a pretty funny kid and helped us out at the church. When we got back to working it felt even hotter than before and was a little harder to get moving after a nice filling lunch. We left the worksite around 4:30 and headed back to the hotel for showers. One of my favorite things about the day was just talking with everyone and getting to know my teammates better. While we were moving buckets down line Ana was helping me learn some Spanish phrases such as “Tu eres mui fuerte” or “You are really strong!” and “Yo tango hambre” I am hungry! I’m really inspired to learn Spanish fluently and see how frustrating it is to not be able to communicate with people! These are all of our teammates on our trip:
Mark-our trip leader
Alice and Michael
Lisa
Alice
Andrew T.
Andrew H.
Trish and Brian
Stephanie and Joe
Ben
Will
Mandi and Carl
Ana
Jenna
Lorena
Chad
Ashley and Jeremy (US!)
After showering we all packed in our huge Hyundai vans and headed to Pala Pizza which tasted like regular American pizza, but better after eating beans and rice for a couple of days: ) They surprised Brian with and early birthday cheesecake so that topped off the night perfectly. The cheesecake was made by the Cheescake Factory…how cool is that? It was yuuuummy. Dinner was fun getting to hangout and chat with Brian and Trish, Joe and Stephanie, and Lorena who were all sitting at our end of the table. We even saw a dog on top of a roof across the street.
After dinner we had our devotional where Jeremy, Carl, and Lorena shared their testimonies which were awesome. It was fun getting to hear Jeremy’s testimony because even though I pretty much knew everything about him accepting Christ into his life I still find out new things each time I hear him talk about it. Sharing your testimony is such a deeply personal thing and it has been so amazing hearing each person’s story. Each time I listen to them I feel a little closer in a way to that person. It’s also really neat how I always seem to relate to one aspect of each person’s story. The trip is awesome so far and I feel as though God is softening our hearts through being here, in order to prepare us for the next few months in moving to Nashville.
Today we began work on clearing the area behind the church where classrooms were to be built. We woke up and had devotional around 7:30 am. Mandy, Carl, and Andrew were our leaders of the day and they began the devotional and then we ended it with Alice’s testimony. Carl has been leading us in worship songs each day and he is doing an awesome job. Their is a feeling you get from singing praise to God with a room full of other believers that can’t really be matched by anything else. This has been one of my favorite parts of the trip. We ate breakfast, which is the same everyday eggs with ham and cheese, toast, various fruit, juice, and PLENTY o’ café con leche (coffee with milk). We got to the worksite around 9am and went right into working. We pretty much had to move a bunch of rocks with our hands from the place of the original foundation to the roadside in order for them to come and pick it up. Let me tell you it was hard work and everyone on our team had such good attitudes and upbeat moods through it all. We finally were able to score some buckets and shovels after a couple hours which helped the process to go by much faster! It was difficult to not get frustrated at the circumstances of having no construction equipment, but hey we aren’t here to question everything we are here to serve!
After working for a few hours we took a lunch break back at the hotel and ate PB&J with chips. Then it was back to work hauling rocks. This little boy Juaquin followed us to the worksite and we dropped him off at lunch time. He was a pretty funny kid and helped us out at the church. When we got back to working it felt even hotter than before and was a little harder to get moving after a nice filling lunch. We left the worksite around 4:30 and headed back to the hotel for showers. One of my favorite things about the day was just talking with everyone and getting to know my teammates better. While we were moving buckets down line Ana was helping me learn some Spanish phrases such as “Tu eres mui fuerte” or “You are really strong!” and “Yo tango hambre” I am hungry! I’m really inspired to learn Spanish fluently and see how frustrating it is to not be able to communicate with people! These are all of our teammates on our trip:
Mark-our trip leader
Alice and Michael
Lisa
Alice
Andrew T.
Andrew H.
Trish and Brian
Stephanie and Joe
Ben
Will
Mandi and Carl
Ana
Jenna
Lorena
Chad
Ashley and Jeremy (US!)
After showering we all packed in our huge Hyundai vans and headed to Pala Pizza which tasted like regular American pizza, but better after eating beans and rice for a couple of days: ) They surprised Brian with and early birthday cheesecake so that topped off the night perfectly. The cheesecake was made by the Cheescake Factory…how cool is that? It was yuuuummy. Dinner was fun getting to hangout and chat with Brian and Trish, Joe and Stephanie, and Lorena who were all sitting at our end of the table. We even saw a dog on top of a roof across the street.
After dinner we had our devotional where Jeremy, Carl, and Lorena shared their testimonies which were awesome. It was fun getting to hear Jeremy’s testimony because even though I pretty much knew everything about him accepting Christ into his life I still find out new things each time I hear him talk about it. Sharing your testimony is such a deeply personal thing and it has been so amazing hearing each person’s story. Each time I listen to them I feel a little closer in a way to that person. It’s also really neat how I always seem to relate to one aspect of each person’s story. The trip is awesome so far and I feel as though God is softening our hearts through being here, in order to prepare us for the next few months in moving to Nashville.
6/1 Sunday DR Trip
( We journaled all of these entries each day and just decided to upload them all when we got back home: ))
Sunday morning we woke up around 8am and had our morning devotional where Will shared his testimony and Carl led us in worship. Then we headed to our breakfast of eggs with ham, fruit, and toast…oh and lest I forget café con leche! Yummy!
After breakfast, it was beach time and we all piled in the van for the hour ride to the locals’ beach. Pastor Rafael’s brother and his family hung out with us all day. Ana and I built sandcastles with their three girls who were so adorable. We bought a few souvenirs today and some of the guys got their Cuban…umm I mean Dominican cigars. For lunch we had pb and J and chips a la American style. At the beach this younger girl approached Trish, who has blond hair, and asked her if she could see her eyes. She told her that her sister who lives in Alaska has blue eyes just like Trish. She hasn’t been able to see her for two years and really missed her. I thought this was so sweet.
Also, the guys played football with a lot of the local boys in the water which was fun to watch. Everyone was in such a good mood. Lots of local people were there playing in the water and just relaxing. Carl stepped on a sea urchin and got the spikes in his foot. It looked pretty painful and they weren’t sure how to remove them. He was a trooper though and made it through! Later we attended church and met the people we will be building the classrooms for. The worship was awesome and they even sang a few songs in Spanish that we sing back in Atlanta (i.e. “Forever God is faithful, Forever God is strong….forever forever”). Afterwards some of the members approached us and kissed and hugged us which was encouraging. This one little boy, Juan, was hilarious and kept trying to show us his muscles. The only English he knew was “Hello baby” and Trish and I thought that was hilarious. He was so excited for us to get a picture of his muscles. Until tm.!
Sunday morning we woke up around 8am and had our morning devotional where Will shared his testimony and Carl led us in worship. Then we headed to our breakfast of eggs with ham, fruit, and toast…oh and lest I forget café con leche! Yummy!
After breakfast, it was beach time and we all piled in the van for the hour ride to the locals’ beach. Pastor Rafael’s brother and his family hung out with us all day. Ana and I built sandcastles with their three girls who were so adorable. We bought a few souvenirs today and some of the guys got their Cuban…umm I mean Dominican cigars. For lunch we had pb and J and chips a la American style. At the beach this younger girl approached Trish, who has blond hair, and asked her if she could see her eyes. She told her that her sister who lives in Alaska has blue eyes just like Trish. She hasn’t been able to see her for two years and really missed her. I thought this was so sweet.
Also, the guys played football with a lot of the local boys in the water which was fun to watch. Everyone was in such a good mood. Lots of local people were there playing in the water and just relaxing. Carl stepped on a sea urchin and got the spikes in his foot. It looked pretty painful and they weren’t sure how to remove them. He was a trooper though and made it through! Later we attended church and met the people we will be building the classrooms for. The worship was awesome and they even sang a few songs in Spanish that we sing back in Atlanta (i.e. “Forever God is faithful, Forever God is strong….forever forever”). Afterwards some of the members approached us and kissed and hugged us which was encouraging. This one little boy, Juan, was hilarious and kept trying to show us his muscles. The only English he knew was “Hello baby” and Trish and I thought that was hilarious. He was so excited for us to get a picture of his muscles. Until tm.!
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