This is the Beast of a chimney we tore down in West Palm Beach, FL. It had several pieces of rebar. We broke two sledge hammers and two shovels.
But it came down 

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  Well, Anna and I have made it back from Bolivia in one piece. We had an amazing time and want to thank you for your support. The trip was named under the title of Extreme Missions. Let me tell you how that names was a perfect fit.
  
  
  We left on Friday, traveling to Miami from Charlotte via Atlanta. Our flight from Atlanta to Miami was delayed for over an hour with mechanical problems. Little did we know that this was the first and best flight of the trip. We were schedules to leave out the next day for Bolivia. However, our flight was cancelled with mechanical failures, with no firm date for leaving. We spent an extra night in Miami. That night, Anna and I tried to attend a movie but the film broke. Ok, now I was starting to wonder what other curve balls were coming our way.
  
  
  On Sunday, a local church in Little Havana picked us up in their church buses and took us to a bilingual church service followed by a authenticate Cuban lunch. What a blessing!! We proceeded to head to the headquarters of Children’s International Network (http://www.childrensinternationalnetwork.com), in West Palm Beach. On the way, one of the borrowed church buses broke down. Wow!! In West Palm, we proceed to clean up the outside, pulling weeds , laying sod, and the men tore down a outdoor chimney with more rebar than my old house (that thing was nasty). Did I mention that was South Florida in the middle of July. And we had packed for winter time in Bolivia. That night, Anna and I, along with 17 others spent the night in a wonderful house in West Palm.
  
  
  Monday dawned with news that our plane was one the way, now we just had to get on. We spent the morning working in West Palm. We managed to tear down the outdoor chimney and put the debris away. Did I mention that it was South Florida in July? Man was it hot. I took a shower outside with dish washing solution. Yeah, I smelled great. But, we did some great work in Florida at the CIN headquarters. And managed to break a shovel, a rake, the riding lawnmower (we did fix that) and two sledge hammers.
  
  
  We managed to catch the flight Monday night, leaving Miami at 10:30. We arrived in Cochabamba about 8:30 the next morning. But our bags never arrived. Anna and I had the clothes on our back, a pillow and a sweatshirt each. Time to serve God in a unique way.
  The rest of our week was full of construction, playing with the boys in the orphanage, going out into the community, while wearing clothes borrowed from the “Stack” at the orphanage. I spent the better part of two days wearing someone else’s shoes, socks, shorts, shirt and underwear. It was a rare opportunity to glimpse into a life with very little.
  
  We were scheduled to leave on Friday, on the buses ready to go when one of the interns at the orphanage announced that our flight was cancelled. Oh, we just received our bags that morning. After some anxious moments, we were able to leave the next morning, making back to Miami Saturday night. Unfortunately, we missed our connecting flights and climbed on a bus for a 13 hour ride home to Huntersville, arriving 31 hours after we started. New family record
  In midst of some amazing changes and logistical nightmares, God was at work through:
  
  v Amazing spirit in our team to weather the curveballs of the trip and stay focused. We collectively often felt like this trip was a test, and each time we met the test before us, God up the ante. It was truly a great bunch of folks to serve with.
  
  v Before I left, I had sever people speak some truth into my life and this freed me up to serve. I am not called to the mission field, as such I went for serve the team and open my daugther’s eyes to serving
  
  v Whenever you actively put your faith to the test through acts of service of the poor, God meets you in amazing ways. I had several, very specific prayers answered throughout the week. As a team, we knew we were actively putting feet to our faith.
  
  
  Anna was really amazing all week. The week was very challenging, with amazing travel. She never complained and work very hard. I was and remain very proud of her. We spent two nights in a hotel, one night in a house (me on a couch), one night on a plane, four nights in Bolivia (one more than we thought ) and one night on a bus traveling through Florida. It was tough for me and my ten year od daughter hung right in there.
  Thanks for supporting us. I am enclosing a small token of our appreciation, a friendship bracelet from Bolivia. We most likely we will not be heading back next year, bur Ruth’s turn is coming up very soon.
  
  

 

Why I am smiling

This mug shot is for a brochure for a Technology conference that I will keynote in Sydney, Australia at the end of Febuary of 2007. It is a great chance to travel and speak. So, They needed a head shot and this is what they got.