Headed to the DR/Haiti

Friends and Family,

My former mission team, Manna Global Ministries, has opened a supply chain from Santo Domingo to Port-Au Prince, supplying materials, and food to 200 or so church members now fed and sheltered out of Sonlight Children’s Home. They are also supplying medical triage units that they have set up in the area of PaP under the direction of Brad Gautney.

They have supplies right now, but not enough reliable, trustworthy personnel to drive them over the border into Haiti, since the trucks/cargo are priceless right now. It is a fourteen hour trip from Santo Domingo and back. The borders are open, and are easily crossable right now, which is not always the case, and won’t be for long, so they want to take full advantage of the opportunity to get as many supplies as possible into Haiti.

Because of this time-sensitive situation, they have asked me and my former teammate Cory Lamb to fly in tomorrow and make supply trips, relieving the few people they have right now who can drive the truck, speak Spanish and basic Kreyol, and negotiate the culture/graft/craziness that getting this stuff across the Border could represent.

I plan to leave at 6:30 am tomorrow, Jan. 20th and meet Cory in Puerto Plata, where we will join the Manna team and head to Santo Domingo to begin making three or four trips to Haiti and back. I plan on returning Thursday, Jan. 28th.

Please pray for safety for myself and the rest of the Manna Team as we rush to try and get these crucial supplies to the people who need them most.

For information and updates, check my blog, www.tjandholly.blogspot.com, or follow @tjmccloud on Twitter. I’m not sure how accessible cell coverage will be, but will try to keep everyone in the loop.

If you would like to help financially with my travel expenses, contact hollymccloud@gmail.com.


Thank you all for your support for me and for the people of Hispaniola,



TJ McCloud

cell: (615)479-1772

tjmccloud@gmail.com



"The World can't stand what It can't own, and It can't own you 'cause you did not have a home" - Rich Mullins

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

Egypt, Jerusalem, Cyprus, Turkey

Sooo... Its tough to even try telling about how amazing the last three days have been. Still no way to upload pics, but we're trying to figure something out.

We arrived in Cairo a few days ago, hopped on a bus and headed to the National Museum, where the majority of the Tutankamen artifacts are on display. We were really suprised by Cairo- it was dirty and poor in ways that we have never seen before. It truly looked like a war zone, while at the same time the tour guide is telling us that it is a relatively new and upscale area...wow. The national museum has amazing items to display, but looks as though it has not been updated in fifty years or so. No airconditioning, no descriptions of the items, no lighting... the artifacts are not being protected very well against the tourists or the elements, and while it was amazing to see all of the items, it was astounding to see that they had not invested more into updating a museum with so much potential.
The Pyramids and the Sphinx are unbelievable in their scope and durability. It's amazing how they were built, and to think of a culture that would put that kind of effort into them is mind-boggling as well. Holly and I topped off the trip with a camel ride around the pyramids area, and were so glad to see this amazing site.

In Jerusalem, we were able to visit the old city, Garden of Gethsemane, Mt of Olives, the wailing wall, the Dome of the Rock, the Via Dolorosa (christ's walk to the Cross), the supposed site of the crucifixion and burial (and resurrection!), and ended the day by going into Palestinian territory to see the church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. We couldnt help but feel closer to who the physical person of Jesus and his early followers were, just being in the City of David and imagining Jesus praying among the olive groves. The wailing wall was also moving- to think of the collective sorrow that these people have known, and what we feel is such misguided devotion to a place. The Christian churches were no different, with ritual and gold covering every inch of the supposed holy sites. While it was wonderful, we couldnt help but feel like it is for the Catholic, Orthodox, and Armenian faithful, an expensive excercize in missing the point.
In contrast to Egypt, Jerusalem is oneof the most beautiful, cleanest, and well laid out cities we have ever seen. Everything is easily accesible in english and we never felt unsafe, until we went to the Palestinian area of Bethlehem, which is walled off and enclosed, not unlike the Berlin wall. No Palestinian can go out, and no Israeli can go in. It was definitely an amazing experience going through checkpoints and seeing the level of security the Israelis take. We are inspired to pray for peace in a new way, seeing how divided these cultures have determined they need to be, just for basic safety.

Next we headed to Cyprus, where Holly and I enjoyed some Greek culture and byzantine ruins, as the island was conquered time and time again by the crusaders and the turks. It was beautiful and picturesque, sitting in a sidewalk taverna, splitting a gyro.

Today, we went to Antalya Turkey and caught a bus to ancient Pergamum. It is some of the most preserved ruins in the roman/greek world, and we had fun envisioning the people in thier stone town with colonnaded streets and mid-size stadium. Turkey is beautiful- the people are really warm and friendly, and we had little problem with travelling or figuring out the turkish money (lira). We cant wait to see more of turkey next week with Istanbul and Ephesus.

So... thats all for now... we head to the famous little volcanic island of Santorini tomorrow and we just can't wait!

TJ

What to write, what to write...???

First of all, did you know Aussies have NEVER heard of the Outback Steakhouse? Pretty incredible, huh? Our dinner partners are Aussies, and we were telling them all about it. They got a big kick out of the Bloomin' Onion (didn't know what onion rings were) and Alice Springs Chicken. (As there would never be chickens in Alice Springs, apparently.)

In other news:

We've visited the pyramids in Cairo and walked the streets of Jerusalem and Bethelehem since we last wrote. It was awesome and humbling. Cairo was dirty and Israel was clean. We're glad we had just one day in Egypt, and we could spend months in Israel. Mankind has great capacity for wisdom and folly. God is good, and He encourages and sustains us daily, which we are even more aware of as we travel.

at sea and on to egypt

We made our boat after a few frustrating encounters with Greek taxidrivers, checked in, lost our luggage, found our luggage, and are now headed to Egypt! The water is beautiful, the staff is great, and we're meeting lots of people from different places. We're learning lots of Greek, and eating lots of Greek food, all of which is delicious. Holly loves feta cheese, so she really cant go wrong here- and I cant help but think of my Mom as I eat my weight in the best olives Ive ever had! (she used to eat olives by the jar-and then drink the juice when she was pregnant with me)
We've been at sea all day, and while we dont love the cruise atmosphere ( 3 euro for a bottle of water? carpet darts- who plays that?) we do enjoy being on the water and reading the books we brought for the trip. We've got a book on Biblical sites in Turkey and Greece, Greek travel book, a few fiction titles, and I'm reading the Odyssey- figure you can't help but get the spirit of it while youre on the Mediteranean!
Tomorrow we get up early and head to the pyramids, the national museum of Cairo, and a papyrus museum. Here's hoping we dont bring back any mummy's curse with us...

Grecia

After some sad goodbyes and several frantic weeks of wrapping up everything in the Dominican... we finally left for our trip!

We drove out from Bobita at 8am on Tuesday, in the middle of Hurricane Gustav. No problem flying out- and we headed to NYC, where we got lost in an airport weve been through ten thousand times. We hang out for a while, get on a flight to London overnight, which arrives at Heathrow a bit late... so late that we missed our flight to Greece!

Sooo... we waited and took another overnight flight, getting us into Greece at 3am on Thursday. This morning, we slept at the airport until the trains started running, took a two hour bus to the plain of Marathon (an extremely important battlesite - ask TJ about it), realized that the battlesite was basically a big field with not much more information, took the bus back to Athens, took a cab to two different bus stations (one wrong, one right), hopped a three hour bus to Delfi (a famous ancient oracle and hillside ruins complex) and checked into a cute little hotel for cheapiecheapie (which in Euros... is not that cheap.)

We hustled over to the ruins site, but were too late to see them before they closed, BUT we were able to look through the museum which was wonderful. We had dinner at a great Greek restaurant (roasted lamb, souvlaki, moussaka...mmm...) and are now typing on the blog before we crash into bed. This will be our first shower, change of clothes & rest in a bed in 3 or 4 days. Or something like that. We've lost track. We'll wake up early enough to see the ruins site, hop a bus back to Athens, where we will (hopefully) board a boat for two weeks in the Great Green (the Mediterreanean- again, ask TJ).

Thanks for all your prayers and well-wishes! TJ says its the best (and longest-and shortest) birthday he's ever had. Figure that out!

Booked it.

Our 5th anniversary trip to Europe... Which sort of turned into our 5th anniversary trip to Europe/Asia/Africa. We've been saving and dreaming and talking since our first year of marriage.

5 years... haven't they gone by in a blink?!

Here's where we headed - we would love any suggestions, favorite places to eat, etc.

Two weeks around the Mediterranean
(Greece, Turkey, Egypt & Israel):

• Athens
  
• Cairo
  
• Giza
  
• Jerusalem
• Bethlehem
• Cyprus
• Santorini
• Delos
• Crete
• Rhodes
• Patmos
• Istanbul
• Ephesus
• Mykonos
• Meteora
  

10 Days eating our way across Italy:

• Naples
• Capri
• Pompeii
• Venice
• Cinque Terre
• Florence
• Siena
• San Gimignano
• Rome

We fly back to the US via Rome - London (12 hour layover, sweet!) - NYC. Our tickets end in NYC - after that, who knows?! Maybe we'll become Manhattanites... Or get lost in Venice...

The Grahams: They're GREAT.

You might even say... Golden.

Kyle and Vicki Graham will move to Rio San Juan in January to serve as the new directors of the Outreach Center.

That's right, when we leave in September, Kyle and Vicki will already be in language school, preparing for their work here.

We have come to know and love the Grahams dearly. They are highly skilled in working with youth (Kyle was a youth minister at Park Plaza and Vicki teaches at-risk teens), full of fun and a faithful spirit.

They are in the process of raising half of their monthly support and one-time set-up costs. If you or your church would like to continue helping these kids, let us know, and we'll get you the details.

Our Local BLOCKBUSTER

Would you believe you can't buy or rent an actual DVD in this country?

Only bootleg, all the time.

Movies usually appear in Rio San Juan before they even hit the theaters in the US. Of course, the quality is atrocious and it's highly illegal. At this little podunk stand, I could purchase Batman: The Dark Night, Made of Honor, or any of the summer theater releases.

How do you begin to fight an underground industry that is so widespread and accepted? Most people in Latin America (and I'm assuming, Africa and Asia) have no idea that there's a difference between the "real" and bootleg versions.

We've been...

At a wedding. In Winfield. (That's in Kansas, folks.)

Holly's baby cousin, Kyle, and his beautiful bride, Lauren.





Impossible to say what we enjoyed most about the weekend... Fabulous company, fantastic food, fun with family.

But we will say, we couldn't get enough of this little guy:

Homage & Bon Voyage

Mickey's leaving tomorrow. We're too bummed to even tell you how bummed we are. We could NEVER convey how amazing it's been to have her here.

She is friend, confidante, helper, fun-lover, minister, Spanish-speaker/listener & sister extraordinaire. God has worked through Mickey Page in mighty ways, in countless moments. We praise him for sending us a great gift in her; both for this summer in RioSanJuan, and all of our years after.

Surely not.

Does life get any better than this?!

¿Como se dice "Otter Creek" en español?

Pics from the camp OCYG is doing for our kiddos:

Naomi about to put the hurt on Will Netterville.

Girls group "Las Explosivas" in the OC/RSJ Photo Scavenger Hunt!

"Los Guerreros de Cristo" looking ready to win...

Making pillows with Club Chiquito. (Tori Brown is the hand model.)

OCYG remembered us saying at Christmas that most of our kids sleep on the floor. They realized these kids probably didn't have pillows, and wanted them to have one to sleep on. We are humbled at their thoughtfulness, and know that it is our God that allows them to provide just what these kids need.

OCYG + RSJ

OCYG is here!!! 5 hours in, this week is turning out to be one of our best.

We might have a quasi-paparazzi situation on our hands, as our RSJ kids have heard the group has finally arrived. They are flooding our gates, wanting to meet the group and make sure they haven't missed the beginning of camp!