Deer #8 of 8 in Cades Cove

Cades Cove - Flora and Fauna

As we drove around the 11 mile loop at Cades Cove today we spotted a group of wild turkeys, 8 deer, 2 squirrels (ha-ha) and one authentic set of tracks in some mud near the visitor center. I have been punched on all afternoon by Cameron who was chagrined to discover that the "set of tracks" were from a vehicle. I never said they were animal tracks! lol

Cades Cove - Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Up Close

I took this video yesterday from the side of the road in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

I would not recommend getting this close but I figured from the looks of the older and larger folks standing around, I had a pretty good chance of getting back to the car ahead of the others and avoid being the closest morsel for dessert. :-)

Another Dayton Quote

Dayton is just full of verbal wonders these days.

Tonight while he was settling into his bed he looked around and said, "Has anyone seen my Doggy-Doo?" (his decrepit stuffed dog that he likes to hug and sometimes uses as a pillow)

I found him on a chair and threw him over to Dayton. He hugged him and said,

"Oh Doggy-Doo...you're alive!"

ha-ha...yeah...that one was a bit over-dramatic but he at least got a laugh from me. That's tough to get in our traveling comedy troupe. So...he makes the blog once again!

Architecture by Creatures and The Creator

The New River Gorge Bridge (West Virginia)

The boys seem to take turns being "bored" about whatever it is we're doing that they don't like. As typical brothers they often take the opposite side and mood of whatever the other one is currently exhibiting. Cameron was rather bored with this incredible bridge. It is the largest single span bridge in the Western Hemisphere and at one time, the entire world.

Today during our brief drive through the Smokies, Dayton declared, "I'm as bored as molasses in January." That's a new one!

We watched this black bear in the Smokies as we took a quick drive from Townsend back to Kodak, TN via Gatlinburg today. It was surprising how the bear casually ignored about 20 or 30 people gathered around above him with cars whizzing by as he plucked some apparently tasty leaves to eat.

I was about 30 feet from him/her when I took this photo. It moved to about 20 feet away and I decided it was time to hit the road and leave the other camera toting folks as the dessert options.

Ohio Friends

We haven't been doing too well with remembering to snap some photos along the way on this trip. We've missed photo ops with most of our hosts and family and friends, but we have a few pics to at least prove we've been in the U.S.! Here's some from the past week or so while in Ohio.

Justin Turned 3

If you've been in any of our church visits this summer where we've given an update, you probably heard a little about how God has saved Jason and Kristin and is changing their lives. Their little boy, Justin, turned 3 in August and turning 3 in Mexico is a big deal. Unfortunately, with no money to provide Justin with the customary party (and a big one is customary), Beth's mom and our T2 teammates, Tim & Michelle O'Brien, and some believers from the Abundant Life Bible Church decided to encourage Jason and Kristin by hosting a huge bash at our home and neighborhood yard. It went great and Beth's mom posted a bunch of pictures on her blog. Head over to her blog and take a look!

http://icecreamgram.blogspot.com/

H.A.R.T.U. #14 - Overheard...

...tonight in our motel room:

"OK boys..it's almost 10 o'clock and we've got to get up early for church tomorrow...let's get to bed. Remember, Cameron's doing the children's church and Dayton will be with you this time. Dayton, no stand-up comedy at church tomorrow...that's not what this is about."

Yes...we are a weird missionary family. At least I admit it.

H.A.R.T.U. #13 - Take Me Home, Country Roads

...to the place, I belong...West Virginia....

We arrived yesterday afternoon in one of the more unique states on the planet but we still like it anyway! Parkersburg is the location of our commissioning church, Bethel Baptist Church, and we enjoyed a dinner with some who were able to join us at Tim's Root Beer and then shared for over an hour with the church body during their Wednesday evening service. It was a special time and we appreciated their hospitality, their interest in our ministry, and their encouraging comments.

We continue to be plagued by the same problem we suffer through back home in Mexico. Our book collection even here on the road is expanding like kudzu. I don't know where they come from but pretty soon we'll be riding on stacks of them. It might be about time to box up a few batches and ship them ahead of us back to Dallas. I am pretty sure that we are officially out of room for all the stuff we've already bought and stuff we've received along the way to get it all back to Mexico. We'll see what or who doesn't fit. :-)

One thing we could mention is that we've been finding classroom sets of literature books that we can use with our literature circles this year. We've found some very good deals on eBay. We'll be using ministry expense funds to pay for these books and if you'd like to contribute toward this project, let us know. We'd welcome your help! Thanks!

Discipleship Update

It's about impossible to disciple from further away than arm's reach but we're happy to report that Jason and Kristin are growing and the Holy Spirit is bearing fruit in their lives! How encourage we are to hear it. Today Kristin wrote us a few lines that I'd like to share with you:

we have been reading the book,his/hers. [His Needs, Her Needs] separately though cuz when i tried reading it to him he fell asleep!!! so anyways i do believe its helping some in our marriage......he brought us to McDonald's, said the book said he was suppose to take me out!!!! then the other week he surprised me with a Hershey's candy bar!! yum yum... so thanks Alan for the book,( i already thank God for the changes in him and in me)i miss you all,God bless you all Kristin

Isn't that great?!? It is neat to see God changing their lives and their marriage. Please continue praying for Jason and Kristin...and Justin too. He is about to turn 3 years old at the end of the month. Beth's mom and some others from the Bible church are planning a nice party for him since Jason and Kristin can't afford one and the third birthday is normally a huge one in Mexico. It is a blessing to show how the family of God is a tight bunch...like grapes! (I hope we're not Grape Nut Flakes! lol)

H.A.R.T.U. #12 Oh-Hi-Oh!

I'm writing this from a McDonald's near Mansfield, Ohio this morning. The past week has been wonderfully exhausting. Visiting Beth's sister and brother-in-law, Jeff and Kim, and their nine kiddos. Wow...what a great time. We left there Saturday morning tired and blessed at the same time.

Here in the Mansfield area we've had a whirlwind weekend with preaching the Sunday morning message at Mohicanville Community Church, followed by an hour-long adult SS class for a ministry update. The message will be aired on the radio next week! I'm not sure how good that one's going to go over. Maybe they'll re-run one from the pastor's past sermons! Ha-ha...well...it wasn't "professional" nor polished but it was a blessing to share from God's Word and to challenge the church family there in Mohicanville, Ohio.

I shared again Sunday night with our friends from Vermillion Baptist. Whew...I was wiped out Sunday night. We got back really late and got to bed by about midnight. Yesterday, we enjoyed a lunch with Pastor Jim and his wife, Linda. We ran into Pastor Mike from Little Flock Fellowship (another supporting church here) and then joined him and some other men for a Bible study breakfast here at McDonald's.

Now it's off to find an oil change and we need to repack the truck completely. We found some great deals yesterday on clothes for the boys and some for us too. Where to put all this stuff? We're going to have to start packing underneath the floor in the back with the spare tire. It's amazing how much space can be found in a vehicle if you need to use it all!

Thanks for your prayers. We're off to Parkersburg, WV tomorrow and we hope to pass by our 4th supporting church in this area on the way and then we have a dinner appointment at 5:30 p.m. with our home church, Bethel Baptist, and then I have an update to give at the evening service afterwards. Friday we travel on to Clarksburg, WV area and have a church fellowship with Linn Chapel on Saturday evening and then sharing Sunday morning with our other supporting church there, Hephzibeh Baptist.

We travel to TN, SC and FL beginning Monday! And the travel continues! We should be back in Dallas around September 11th and looks like we'll try and cross the border around the 23rd give or take a day. We'll see how our time in Dallas works out. We'll have some critical things to do there regarding eyeglasses and car maintenance that could extend our time there if they aren't resolved quickly.

Appreciate your prayers and it's so great to see our large circle of family and friends along the way.

H.A.R.T.U. #11 - IN, OH, PA

Wow...time is flying by and so is our trip. We're in the heart of the schedule now and there's a lot to mention from the past week since we left Michigan and NW Indiana as I wrote about in the most recent posts.

After leaving Mike and Kris's home in Chesterton, IN, we traveled to New Albany, IN (across the Ohio River from Louisville, KY) to visit briefly with my oldest brother, Steve. We stopped in at the Indianapolis Children's Museum on our drive down and just ducked into the museum before a strong thunderstorm blew through the area. When we resumed our drive, it was great to see that we basically missed the storm and only had some light rain to deal with rather than the 65 mph winds and heavy rains that had roared through the region while we were inside. The Louisville area had received about 6 inches of rain that morning in about an hour and the flooding was big news there, but we didn't really run into any of it for which we give thanks to God.

I shared a ministry update during the Wednesday night service of my brother's church and also received a call from our Sunday appointment letting me know that I should be prepared for an hour of SS for giving an update and also a 30-35 minute expository message. I was concerned about the latter instruction because I hadn't planned on much else besides giving more than a detailed ministry update at any of our schedules meetings, and learning of this extra request to speak left me with perhaps just an hour or two of time in our schedule before the Sunday morning service in order to prepare. However, God was gracious and by Sunday morning I had the message He wanted me to share and He touched a number of lives through His Word. Praise God for that!

It was very encouraging to hear some neat comments from some of the church members who told me that they really needed to hear the challenges concerning discipleship and in sharing our faith. One man told me with tears in his eyes that he was reminded that he needed to be patient in loving a lost relative and in not giving up on what God might do in this person's life. Another man told me that he had been too caught up in his work and that he went right over to a younger brother in the Lord in the church and set up a Tuesday morning breakfast date (for tomorrow!) so that they can begin a weekly time of discipleship and Bible study together. It was something he's been meaning to do for a long time and the Lord used the message to drive that need home to him. A woman told me several times that she really needed to hear the challenges of the messages I shared in that she shouldn't feel that the response or lack of response of some folks she's been witnessing to should lead her to feel guilty or that she is somehow not doing enough for the Lord when these people don't immediately want to receive the Gospel message. She said she had a renewed vision for continuing to plant spiritual seeds and let God do the work in their lives.

I can't tell you how awesome it was to hear these and other comments and to know that if anyone was touched by what I shared, it was definitely from God and not from me. Praise God for working in all our lives!

Since our New Albany visit, we spent a night with some special friends in Xenia, OH and then were hosted in Garrettsville, OH where I spoke on Sunday. In another late request that came on Saturday, Cameron was asked to share in the Sunday children's church in an interview format. We heard he did an excellent job of sharing about life in Mexico and what it's like from his perspective. We are very proud that he did this well and did it without any real preparation. He loves to talk so that wasn't really a huge challenge for him! Doing so in front of an audience of about 20-25 kids was a first for him. He's growing up as an early adolescent 11 year old and he is maturing in bigger ways as well. We thank God for that too.

Sunday afternoon and evening we drove to Carlisle, PA and we'll leave here in the morning (Tuesday). We're staying with supporters here and also sharing their home with our dear co-workers, Scott and Ruth Yingling and their five kids. It has been great to see some familiar faces and folks we know so well and feel so comfortable around. We certainly feel like family and as is the case with fellow CAM missionaries, they ARE family. We love them very much and appreciate them and our many other fellow CAMers.

Today we visited a Civil War museum in Gettysburg and also enjoyed a brief visit to the Hershey Chocolate Factory. I had some flashbacks to the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory book and movies while there, but don't worry, I didn't fall into the Chocolate River. (Beth held my belt loops)

The next few days we'll be visiting with Beth's sister, Kim and her husband, Jeff, and their 9 kids. That's 9 as in NINE, IX, "nueve," iiiiiiiii. I suspect we'll have a lot of fun there and be totally wasted by our departure on Saturday. I hope I can get caught up on some reading and studies but maybe that's an overly optimistic outlook!

BTW, tomorrow (officially today as I write this), Tuesday, August 11, 2009 is Dayton Isaiah McManus' 8th birthday! We're pleased that God has given Dayton to our family and has allowed him to live 8 years with us. We're also pleased that he hasn't managed to kill himself by running out in front of cars, falling off stuff he shouldn't be up on, doing unbelievably foolish and thoughtless things, or by succumbing to the sometimes strong urges of his parents to want to remove him from this world that we brought him into! (ha-ha...just kidding of course). We love our boys and our Dayton...actually, God's Dayton. May he grow up to be a godly young man and eventually into a godly old man someday.

A few days ago he was a bit restless from being in the car so much and he just sorta went a bit nutso for a few minutes when we got out of the car and walked through a restaurant. I didn't see it but Beth said he went right up to a table seated with strangers and was acting crazy in front of them. Beth grabbed him and began hauling him away apologizing profusely. The lady at the table said, "Oh no, that's OK. Is he autistic?"

Yup...that's our Dayton. I don't think he's autistic but I also don't think his mother should have let him read in the car his first Calvin and Hobbes book either. He loves to mimic just about anything he thinks is funny. He's already doing stand-up comedy just about every day whenever he thinks he has an audience...thanks to Tim Hawkins on You Tube and at least one too many viewings of Nacho Libre. At least he is funny sometimes. (BTW, I don't know where he gets this.)

We've already celebrated his birthday with one set of cousins back in Indiana, but maybe we'll celebrate one more time tomorrow with another set of cousins! It's not everyday that one can celebrate an 8th birthday...although I think we're well on our way to trying that!

We'll be back in Ohio by Saturday evening and into West Virginia a few days later. Stay tuned...

(and thanks for continuing to pray for our travels, visits and opportunities to share Christ and our ministry as well)

18, Eighteen, Dieciocho, XVIII, XOXOX

Oops...that last one wasn't supposed to be in the title.

Today, August 3rd, we celebrated our 18th Anniversary. The day is almost over and I nearly forgot to mention it in a post but we didn't forget.

Celebrating while living on the road is never an easy thing but thanks to Beth's sister, Kris, and her husband, we were given a few hours without the boys and booted out the door...actually, we BOLTED out the door and enjoyed some time together and a nice meal. We couldn't find the Mediterranean place so we decided on the NW Indiana branch of Giordanno's Pizza...only to discover that the new Portillo's Hot Dog place was sitting where the Giordanno's used to be. So...we had hot dogs! What a romantic dinner! Actually, Portillo's is one of our favorites and we were happy to enjoy one of our old Chicagoland favorite foods.

Thanks Mike and Kris...and happy anniversary to you guys on the 4th! Sorry we won't be here to baby sit for you and you know we'd be happy to do it...if you took the Del Monster with you. Ha-ha! Just kidding...we'd have done it if we had one more day to squeeze out here but we gotta get moving...because we have promises to keep and miles to go before we sleep, and miles to go before we sleep.

Aunt Pete

Today we were blessed by a visit from Aunt Pete. Edith Peters is our favorite missionary auntie in the whole wide world. We haven't seen her since we left Honduras in June 1999. So, today we had a ten year reunion. She was there when Cameron was born (and a LONG time before that...lol) and it was so good to see her. The Camboy has grown a lot since then...and so time goes by. We miss being with her in Honduras but Mexico is the place where we belong for now.

Birthday Cakes

Dayton wanted a Star Wars birthday. He missed on the piñata but this light saber cake that Bethie made is pretty cool.

Josie wanted a Barbie birthday so Krissy made a Barbie cake. She got a little too poofy in the middle...she looks pregnant to be honest. That is probably too realistic to be funny. I have to wonder when we'll see such a doll on the store shelves. I hope I didn't just give some toymaker an idea.

BTW...the piñata was painted gold. Had I come up with the idea earlier we'd have used pink and made it into a Death Star. That way we could have had a Barbie Star Wars piñata and made everyone happy.

Piñata Time!

Here's our shared piñata for Dayton and Josie...in the making still.

D is for Dayton.

J is for Josie.

Cousins

Dayton all decked out in armor and a jacket that says "Police" on the back. He has always loved costume play. Behind him is his littlest Livovich cousin, Del, a.k.a. Deli, Delito, Del Monster and my personal favorite, Delmar.

Dayton with three of four Livovich cousins...Del, Mikey and Josie. Elia is missing.

OK Del...what are you doing now?!? He's always in to something!