Mom

I am a very, very, very proud daughter. My mom is an incredible, beautiful woman, and I love her very much. This weekend she has taken her awesomeness to a whole new level...

MY MOM HAS A BLOG!

You can check her out on my list of links on the right.

She is traveling to Japan for 3 weeks in October. She was chosen from hundreds of teachers all over America to be a part of a special exchange program, and she's blogging to keep everybody updated. She actually participated in a similar program before I was born (and I think before Dad was in the picture) where she traveled to Ghana with a group of teachers to learn about the culture and ways to integrate that into education here in America.

My mom is so brave! And talented! (I could go on and on and on and on...)

Love you, Mom! And welcome to the blogging world!

I Love Athens

We took a quick day trip to Paradise, aka Athens, Georgia, Saturday. It was a wonderful day. Our friends Bryan and Meredith got married. I met them through Young Life, where I was one of their leaders at Oconee County High School. I remember helping Meredith get ready for the prom, and watching Bryan come and pick her up at Bart and Victoria's house. I remember her sharing her precious heart with me at Frontier Ranch. As I saw her walk down the aisle, a beautiful bride, tears streamed down my cheeks. I love these folks, and am SO honored to be in their life. And I am FIRED UP because they are coming to COLUMBUS! Bryan is on staff with Young Life here in Columbus, so Meredith will be coming as soon as they get home from honeymooning! YES!
I love Young Life weddings... it is so good to catch up with old friends. It is neat because I got to be a part of several "generations" of YL leaders since I was in Athens for such a long time. YL was my community, my best friends in Athens... I love being with them.
Also for lunch Springer took me to my all-time-favorite restaurant on the planet, DePalma's. It is an Italian place downtown. I had the special, Vegeterian Lasagna, and it was AMAZING! Three cheeses, mushrooms, artichokes, onions, green, yellow, and red peppers, and fried eggplant... booyah!
It was cool being in Athens on a non-Game Day weekend. We go to Athens most often for games, and I'd almost forgotten how a regular weekend felt. Now I remember... we love this town!

Sick Nasty

It's great to be a Georgia Bulldog!

Get up, little girl!

You can find my favorite Bible story in Mark 5:21-43. When I was a little girl, Mom would read this story to me from my "Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes". I loved it when she said "Get up, little girl!"

Brad preached today from this text, and I heard it in a whole new way.

Talitha cumi

He said that Talitha translated from the original language is more like how a parent says "Honey" or "Sweet girl" to a daughter.

Cumi, meaning "Wake up", reminded me of how I woke up when I was little. If Mom or Dad woke me up, they would say "Suz, it's a wonderful day!" So I grew up thinking that meant "Get up!" I remember spending the night with my friend Natalie and telling her and her mom "It's a wonderful day!" and they were like "OK... go back to sleep", and I was like "I said... it's a wonderful day!"

Sweet words from Jesus... sweet girl, arise... He's said it to me so many times.

I'm also reminded of an old David Wilcox song

Beloved, it is time for you to rise, time for you to rise.

Interested?

Hi friends!

I am thinking of making our blog "private"... aka you have to log in to view it. So, if you'd like to continue joining the Cain adventure, just email me laurasusancain@gmail.com or leave your email address in the comments below.

Thanks!

Belize 2008

"Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith,

I am glad and rejoice with you all." Philippians 2:17

As promised... the blog about Belize! A group of 30 folks from Crosspointe spent 8 days in the beautiful country of Belize. We flew into Belize City and then drove about an hour north to the town of Orange Walk. We had 2 teams working at Josue Christian Church, a medical team and a construction team. Laura Susan was the pharmacist for the medical team, and Springer was on the paint crew for the construction team. We worked for 5 1/2 great days... hard work, but so worth it.

This is where we stayed in Orange Walk.

Springer and our friend Brandon enjoying a drink outside the D'Victoria.

This lady's chicken smelled unbelizeable... but we were warned NOT to eat anything sold on the streets. Oh the temptation...
Pretty sunset after a church service on Sunday night
Inside of the church
Someone brought a pet parrot that Springer thought was pretty cool...
Ok, so I was a little nervous about holding our feathered friend... this may be the most famous picture of the trip... thanks a lot, Brad, for sharing it on Sunday!
See, I really enjoyed it after the first moments of extreme anxiety!
Iguana... I did NOT hold him!
While setting up the pharmacy, these little guys showed up with lots of questions... mostly "Where are the bubbles?!?!"
Coke is so much better out of a bottle!
This is the pastor's daughter, telling me a joke about a duck.

Springer and our friend Jarvis taking a break from the workday for a picture
Here I'm teaching a family how to take their medications These big beautiful eyes filled with tears when I pulled out an oral syringe to show his mama how far to pull up one dose... he thought he was getting a shot!

Springer working on chairs for the children's rooms at the church
Springer and the paint crew did a great job painting the church inside and out!
Jason and Springer trying out the spearmint
Taking a break for some dodgeball... these little guys loved Brandon, Springer, Jason, and Jeremy Pharmacy Friends! Claire, Michelle, and Melanie jumped in and did a great job working in the pharmacy. I was so, so, so impressed with them! Together we filled prescriptions for over 700 patients seen in the medical clinic.

The guys lifting a beam to reenforce the ceiling and get it ready for a second story
One of the chairs we built... Marvin the pastor is an amazing artist, and he painted this one!
Springer and some of his buddies at the "Thank You" service the church gave us on Thursday
Me and my friend Letty, who is Pastor Marvin's wife... we share a birthday! I enjoyed getting to know Letty during the week.
Our team! We love these folks!
The medical bus... two of our physicians saw patients in the bus. A precious lady named Dita graciously let us have her home for the week to house the pharmacy and another physician exam room.
The paint crew, Jason, Samantha, and Springer... job well done!
On the last work day
Here we are taking in the sights at Altun Ha, some of the Mayan ruins in Belize... also supposedly a good birding spot (i.e. the binoculars), but it was raining while we were there, so no Toucans in sight.
Our friends Jamie and Claire at the top of one of the ruins
For fun on Saturday we traveled up to Ambergris Caye from Belize City for a day of snorkeling.
You can still see the imprint of our lovely snorkeling goggles... what you can't see YET is my severe sunburn... our sunblock, though claiming to be waterproof was not so... ouch
On the way back home

Overall we had a great week serving our God. We were grateful for this opportunity to follow His call to go and serve. We look forward to Him using us more and more to glorify His name in all the world!

Slow as a...

We are back from Belize! It is taking me awhile to get my thoughts together about the trip. It was really good. In the near future, there will be a blog with more details.

But for today, I wanted to share a picture that Springer snapped. A turtle on a leash! Isn't this disturbing? But somehow quite funny at the same time?

Unbelizeable stories and pictures to follow...