Three letter word: J O B S !!!!

While we obviously haven't been working hard on our blogs lately, we are working hard; as we are now both officialy gainfully employed! (cue cheering and applause)

With just a few weeks of being stateside under our belts, we have both landed jobs that we are really excited about.

Holly is working at Catholic Charities, and is a Care Coordinator for the Bridges to Care program. Basically, she helps uninsured patients get connected with clinics and doctors who will bill on a sliding scale. It's a great program and Catholic Charities has an amazing track record for service to underserved communities. She is working in a mostly hispanic area of town, where she gets to use her Spanish all the time. Perfect, huh?

I (TJ) have been hired as the Young Adult and Spiritual Development Minister at the Otter Creek Church. Basically, I'll be working with our College, Singles, and Young Married's groups.I am really passionate about getting people connected to a church body during these three key transitional times. We are also really excited to be working for OtterCreek, where we were members before we left,and one of the churches that supported us so well while we were in the Dominican.

Life is still pretty topsy-turvy, as we get used to being in the flow of American style worklife, and look for a place to live (rent? buy? pitch a tent?). We miss our friends (the little and the big ones) in the Dominican, and we haven't gotten used to the cold weather, but we love being near our Nashville friends, and are already looking forward to our first Thanksgiving with family in two years!

Nashville

I guess the first thing we can say in our first Stateside blog is...
Where do you people in America find time to blog?!!

We have been in the States now for almost two weeks, and while it has been wonderful to see everyone, we are feeling a little dizzy from all the newness and hustle. We flew into DFW and met with Missions Rescource Network to do some exit counseling and re-entry training. It was great, and will surely pay off in the coming months to have a better understanding of the things we can expect. Another added bonus to being in DFW was seeing some great friends. We got the chance to catch up with the Cookes (Holly's college roommate),the Pinsons and the soon-to-be Cox's (TJs college roomates), as well as our Guatemala friend Blair (who is not Guatemalan... long story).

Next stop was Tulsa, where we had the chance to see both sets of parents and say thank you to one of our supporting churches, Park Plaza, for their amazing care and encouragement of us over the last two years.

Now, we are in Nashville, and making baby steps at settling back into life here. It already feels like Fall, and we realized the other day that we haven't seen a Fall in two years! We raided our friends' houses to find all of our warmer clothing and are now unpacked (mostly) and staying with the Srygleys (an elder and his wife at Otter Creek) for a month or two.

We are also hitting the job front hard, with both of us interviewing this week for positions. Hopefully we will know more about the outcomes this week!

We are starting to feel a little funny- Saturday we didnt have much to do and it really hit us that we actually are planning to LIVE here... not just visit for a few weeks. We find ourselves missing friends and little brown faces from the DR, but are also so glad to be surrounded by our Otter Creek family and friends. I think we are getting used to driving again in the States, but Kroger was a little intimidating... buying groceries in the States again for the first time in two years.The sheer volume of choice leaves us a little dazzled(How many kinds of salad dressing does one person need?!). Surely this bewilderment will wear off (which is sad to realize, as well) but hopefully we have forever been changed in some deep ways by our Dominican experience- ways that will pay spiritual dividends in the years to come.

Thanks for your continued care and prayer-
TJ and Holly

ciao, italia!!!

So Rome was amazing in all of the ways that we expected it to be, and also in some smaller ways. There is the monumental ruins of a still impressive Roman civilization, the pomp and granduer of the historic Papacy, and the picturesque peace of the fountains and piazzas where artists still sit and sell paintings ( as they paint them) as they have done for hundreds of years. We loved the streets and buildings of Rome, and were humbled by the tour of the Christian catacombs, just outside of Rome. Its hard not to be awed by Rome, old and new, and we count ourselves lucky to be one of the millions who have experienced it. Also, our whole trp could be considered a tour of Rome, since at no time in our travels from Cairo, to Jerusalem, to Istandul, to Athens, to London (we will stop there for a 12 hour layover and pop over to Big Ben), were we ever outside the reaches of historic Rome. It makes it all the more amazing to think of a group of dedicated men from a small jewish area that took on the power of Rome and eventually won by losing thier lives for a message worth living and dying for.

We are excited about heading home: First stop: DFW, where we have some exit counseling with Mission Resource Network and some visits with friends, then Tulsa to visit family and say hello to our Park Plaza family, and then Nashville, where we are moving back to.

Thanks for your prayers and love-

TJ and Holly

Roaming around in Roma

Venice was beautiful, but cold. Somehow, living in the Dominican for two years has left us without warm clothes or any real appreciation for being chilled to the bone. We left Venice (reluctantly) and headed to Chinque Terre, a string of five coastal villages famous for thier severe and beautiful cliffs, terraced vineyards, olive groves, and the 12K hiking trail between them. We took a train all night to get there, and froze to death trying to catch a few winks in the tiny station of Parma, but in the morning we were stretching our legs, ready to do some hiking. It was beautiful and while we were tired, the lure of italian gelato at the next village kept us going on.

From there, we headed to Firenze, known to us as Florence, home of Michelangelo and the birthplace of the Renaissance. The Pontevecchio bridge, il Duomo, and the Uffizi museum were all on our list, as well as a trip to the Academy gallery , where Michelangelo's David looms large and impressive. The town is beautiful and still holds much of its 15th century character, as well as wonderful food. We stopped at Ciro & Sons (thanks for the recommendation, Michael!- Pepe says to kiss your boys for him) for some amazing pasta and the famous Bisstecca Florintina- a T-bone steak about as big as your head and three fingers thick- cooked crispy on the outside and bleeding on the inside. Needless to say, Holly didnt help much with finishing it off, but outside of Abilene TX, it was the best steak I have ever had.

We just made it to Rome, and ate dinner before a walk past the famous Trevi Fountain. Tomorrow starts the full-on greatest hits of Rome tour, as we try to fit it all in before we fly back to the States on Sunday evening.

Were having a eye opening, romantic, and educational time (how rare for those two adjectives to go together...) but we will be just as excited to get back to our home countr (deflated dollar aside) and see friends and family that we have missed and look forward to being closer to. See yall soon!

TJ (and Holly)

2 words...

We got to Athens, dashed to Corinth, missed our bus, almost missed our next train, ate the last spinach flaky pastry thing of our trip (I love those things), headed to Patra, Greece to board an overnight ferry to Brindisi, Italy. We spent all night sleeping (can we really call it?) on the deck of the ship, got into Italy two hours late, missed our train to Napoli, caught a later one, got into Napoli late at night and realized that Napoli (famous for crime and gangsters) really does look like NewYork, pre-Guiliani- dirty, trashy, seedy, but likeable in that Tony Soprano sort of way. After scarfing a pizza at du Michelle (famous? Id rather have a chicago style any day) we hit our first bed in 48 hours and woke up early to catch a train to Pompeii. We were really running late, since we had hoped to be in Venice by then, but we had a great hour and a half in the astounding, amazing, ghostly ruins of Pompeii. We almost missed our train back to Napoli, got there in time to eat at McDonalds (funny)and board the next train to Venice. So... here we are, and we have to say that it was worth it. Two words:

Venice Magic

Thereàs just nothing like this place- truly a floating city. I didnt expect to love it, but at the first sight of a bridge and a water taxi and those nearly crumbling building façades, I was hooked. We are here for a day and then head to Florence, Chinque Terre, then Rome, then home ( where is that,again?).

love yall,
TJ

Revelation

When we were last able to update, we were in Rhodes, the ancient base of the Christian crusaders. From there, we headed to the tiny little island of Patmos, where it is believed that John (whether the apostle or another John) wrote the book of Revelation. We climbed the footpath headed to the famous monastery of the apocalypse, where the Orthodox christians have set up a shrine and a little chapel in a hillside cave thought to be the very place of John's inspiration. There are three cracks in the top of the cave, thought to be the representation of the Trinity, made by the voice of God during the revelation. There was a Mass going on, so it was interesting to watch all these people crowded into this little cave. The island is tiny- you can see both sides from nearly any hill, and beautiful- it looks more like parts of Colorado than Greece, with pinetrees covering the hillsides.

From there we headed to Kusadasi, Turkey, right outside of the ancient site of Ephesus. It was absolutely stunning to see these ruins, which are some of the best preserved in antiquity. You can literally see every part of the town, and imagine it filled to the brim with worshippers of the World-wonder Temple of Artemis (which Paul ran in to trouble with...) The ancient theatre where Paul and his buddies were hauled off and made to stand for thier "blasphemies" is completely intact, and still used for concerts (Sting was there a few weeks ago). Being there made the ancient world more tangible than any other spot we visited.

From there we headed to Istanbul, sailing up through the Bosphorus with Asia on our right and Europe on our left. It was a truly modern city, that felt more like NewYork than Cairo- which suprised us. The people there are mostly secular, and even now, during the holy month of Ramadan, we rarely saw anyone with headscarves or taking time out during the call to prayer. Everyone seemed really excited that we were from America, and wanted to know about where we lived. Again, we were really impressed with Turkey and would definitely come back for a longer stay. We saw the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, and the famous Grand Bazaar (anyone want a fake rolex or a Prada bag?). The Hagia Sophia was awestriking- when it was built, it was the biggest buildings in the world, and is ornately decorated with mosaics and paintings from both the Muslim and Christian eras(It has changed faiths several times- up until the 30s it was still a working mosque, but now a world-heritage museum.

Today we head back to little Mykonos, an island made famous by Aristotle Onassis and his jetset friends, and then we go back to Athens, where we will catch a train to Corinth, hop off for a little biblical sightseeing, and then catch an overnight ferry to Italy.

Wish us luck- no real setback so far, except Holly fell, chasing a bus in Antalya, Turkey, and skinned up her knee, and I got a wallet stolen on the ship. Both were less dramatic than they could have been and we feel grateful that everything has gone as smoothly as it has! Thanks and Love, TJ and Holly

Colossal

So here we are in Rhodes, a greek island off the coast of Turkey, with an amazing history of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine rule. The Colossos of Rhodes was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and even though it is no longer standing, the place where it stood, and where ships could pass under it into the harbor, is Rhodes' largest tourist attraction.

We were in Crete and Santorini yesterday, soaking up some sun and history of the Pre-Greek Minoan civilizations that flourished there. Historians believe these people were forced off of thier islands and onto the coast of Palestine... where they became the biblically famous "Phillistines".

The day before that we were in Athens, walking the same marbled steps that Socrates, Plato, and St. Paul's feet helped polish. It was amazing to see the size and power of the Acropolis- its no wonder that people chose that rock to worship the gods they knew. Also amazing is the restoration work that has gone into Athens... its a great city- huge, but friendly, and has tons of interesting sights at every turn.

Tomorrow we head to Ephesus and Patmos, to walk some biblical history and get a sense of St. Paul and St. John's stomping grounds. After that- Istanbul!

Thanks for all your notes and responses- we're having a great time!

TJ and Holly