Thursday, September 30, 2010

The Loneliest Road in America

Last week I helped my college roommate move from Philly to San Diego.  In other words, I kept him company (and drove A LOT) for the cross-country road trip.  We had an awesome time.  We saw lots of stuff and here are some thoughts on some things I saw/experienced:

   1. Philly and San Diego are far apart.
   2. Detroit is underrated.
   3. Portable DVD players are great.
   4. So are easy point & click digital cameras.
   5. 10 days are too many to be away from my beautiful wife.
   6. I get goose bumps when the Penn State football team runs onto the field.
   7. I wish I saw my family more.  (especially the nieces and nephew)
   8. Iowa and Nebraska are very wide states - seriously, look at a map.
   9. Great Basin National Park is really cool.
   10. A windshield takes a lots of lives. (we hit a lof of bugs driving 3000+ miles)
   11. Colorado is a beautiful state. (not so much the eastern part that looks just like Iowa & Nebraska)
   12. Hiking in the Desolation Wilderness is awesome. 
  
Those are just some off-the-top-of-my-head thoughts.  What I really want to share is that we are made to be in community. 

Might be an odd thing to say after a road trip, but it is one major thing I am taking away from my last 2 weeks.  God is 3 persons and we are made in His image.  I think that shows clearly that we are made to be with others.  I found out I like to be with others while driving on US 50. 


 As you can see from the sign, US 50 has the name of the loneliest road in America.  Well, it lived up to its name.  It could be partially that we had been driving for 4 or 5 days, or that we were about to get to Lake Tahoe, whatever it was - the drive along this road was not fun.  We were on 50 for about 600 miles I think.  Some of it wasn't too bad.  Well - the part in Utah wasn't too bad anyway.  In Nevada, it was LONELY.  Over a 300 mile stretch, we drove through one town.  I use the word town, because I have a small vocabulary.  This "town" was tiny.  We passed a car every once in a while.

Anyway, all that to say I do not like being alone too much.  Like most people, I need some good alone-time, however I much prefer to be with people.  I was VERY glad I was not making that drive myself.  It was good I had my old roommate (and Arrested Development) to keep me company. 

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Where's Mike?

Here is what I will be doing for the next ten days or so.

Well, its the plan at this point anyway...

I am (mostly) ready to get on a plane tomorrow morning and head to the east coast.  My mom will be picking me up from the airport and I will get to stay with my parents tomorrow night and hang out with them all day Friday.  I will also get to spend some time with my brother Matt and his family.  My nieces are going to be a lot bigger than the last time I saw them back in April.

Friday evening, Brent Glova (my college roommate) will pick me up and we will head to State College: home of Penn State.  I will go to my first football game since graduating from Penn State in December of 2006.  We play Kent State and better win!  I will get to spend some time with another brother, Josh, and his family.  They live in State College.

Sunday morning I will share with the adult Sunday School class at Oakwood Presbyterian Church (see the note about the guest speaker!).  It is RUF Sunday and I get to share about how the Lord is calling Ashley and me to work in Honduras!

After church its ROAD TRIP time!

Sunday - State College, PA to Detroit, MI.
Monday - hang out in Detroit - Windsor, ON Canada maybe - attend KC Royals vs. Detroit Tigers in evening
Tuesday - Detroit, MI to Lincoln, NE
Wednesday - Lincoln, NE to Denver, CO
Thursday - Denver, CO to Baker, NV (click here for a laugh)
Friday - tour Great Basin National Park then Baker, NV to South Lake Tahoe, CA
Saturday - hike/hang out/enjoy nature in Lake Tahoe area
Sunday - South Lake Tahoe to San Diego, CA

San Diego is where I will meet up with Ashley and we will stay there Sunday night and head home (Phoenix, AZ) sometime Monday.

I am excited to see a lot of the US that I have never seen.  It will be a great time for me to catch up with my college roommate and enjoy the road.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Road Trip

Ashley and I have been spending a lot of our time doing support raising things.  As I have written about before, this consists of lots of phone calls, emails, get togethers, and stuffing envelopes.  We have not seen a big increase in actual support, but we are getting the chance to share with lots of people.

Just in the past week or so I talked with church leaders, met with 2 potential supporters, set up meetings with 2 different churches, and got a verbal commitment of $50/ month from someone I just met the first time!

In other news...

This Thursday I will be flying to Philadelphia to help my roommate from college move from Philly to San Diego.  In other words - I will be road tripping it with him all of next week!  In the process, I will get to see family (including 3 nieces), attend a PSU game (fist as an alum), spend time with an old friend, and see lots of places across the country I never had before.  I will also get to share about going to Honduras with the church I attended in college.  

Thursday, September 2, 2010

September

We are now into the 9th month of 2010.  This year is moving along quickly.  It has been an awesome year so far and we are so excited for the next few months as we finish raising support and head out on the field.

Here is our monthly support letter:
http://www.weebly.com/uploads/3/6/9/0/3690607/prayer_letter_september_2010.pdf

If you do not receive these via email each month and would like to, please send me an email: michael.a.troxell@gmail.com