Dustin, Sarah, and Abigail

Christmas 2010 Video/Letter

2010-12-18T00:48:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! Here is a link to a little video I put together... Thanks to our neighbor John for recording and editing the great audio.
Radfords Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-13T16:08:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends and Family,

Merry Christmas! We’ve been so blessed this year and hope you have, too.

Abby is growing fast. She turned four, started Preschool, and is learning to read. She tries to read everything! The other day she was watching me work on the computer and asked, “What does Google mean?”

I rebuilt my first VW engine over the summer, which, unfortunately seized up at 2,000 miles and is now back apart for my second rebuild. I got to do a lot of flying for work this summer and now exceed the minimum qualifications for most missionary aviation agencies.

Sarah stayed busy at home filling 3 freezers and all of our canning jars with tasty things, and being a mom and wife.

The most exciting news of the year is that we are expecting a sister for Abby at the end of April. Abby is looking forward to having a sister, but is a bit unsure about sharing her room. She is also worried that the baby will eat her toys!

Overall it’s been a year of growth for each of us personally and together as a family. We are thankful for so many blessings and especially for Jesus, our greatest blessing. May you be filled with wonder and thanksgiving for your many blessings as we celebrate His birth together.

Sincerely yours,

Dustin, Sarah, and Abby

PNG trip video!

2010-01-25T22:45:00.001-08:00

Hi all!

After a very long time, I have finally compiled a "highlights" video of our trip to PNG. We will be presenting it at church (Canby Alliance) on Feb 14th, then doing a longer presentation Wednesday, Feb 17th. Mark your calendars! ;-) Seriously though, I hope you enjoy the video.

-Dustin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLUTtOwanoE

PNG pics

2010-01-25T14:59:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-21T16:25:00.000-08:00

Christmas seems to have snuck up on us this year. I guess that's not surprising since we were on the other side of the world for 2 months, and didn't return until just a few weeks ago. We are doing things much simpler this year - fewer decorations, no lights outside, not going overboard with gifts. While those things are nice, it feels good to simplify (and also to know that there won't be near as much stuff to clean up!). It's so easy to get caught up in all the "stuff". Life was very simple when we were in Papua New Guinea. There were so few distractions that you couldn't help but get to know people better than you might in a different setting. That's something we want to try to continue here. It won't be as easy, but it will definitely be worthwhile. Anyway, back to Christmas......

We finally managed to get our tree decorated on Saturday.

On Sunday Abby was in her first Christmas program. The kids recited a poem and sang a song. She did very well, and we received several comments about her performance that morning. Having been placed directly under a microphone, and not being shy, it was no surprise everyone heard her loud and clear! You can see that the video starts shaking because Dustin is laughing.

We will have Christmas dinner with my family, and then my sister and her family will be staying with us for a few days. Abby is very excited to see her cousins again! It's been over a year since we visited them in North Dakota. We plan to take lots of pictures and try to post them here.

As far as pictures from our trip, we have LOTS, so it may be a while before we can get them organized and in a good format to post here.

Merry Christmas!!!

PNG... Wrapping up

2009-11-22T18:02:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends and Family,

I'm sorry it's been so long since we have been able to write to you. The short explanation is that our computer has finally, after two months of trouble, succumbed to hardware failure. We are glad that the hard-drive appears to be undamaged, so we haven't lost everything on it. In some ways the failure is a relief, as the intermittent problems caused a lot of stress, and now at least things are settled. As strange as it may seem, a computer seems to be even more necessary here than back home in the States. We are very thankful that we have been given another computer to use while we are here, although it is an older system. Please pray that we will have wisdom to know how to deal with this situation when we return home. Because of this, we haven't been able to complete a newsletter for some time, and now that our computer is completely out of commission, the work that had been done is inaccessible.

The last month has been eventful. I have stayed busy at the hangar with all sorts of projects. For the last two weeks another mechanic and I have been working on a rather involved repair to a Cessna 206 wing which was damaged several months ago. We replaced almost all of the parts in the outer half of the wing with new ones; riveting on new spars, skins, leading edge, rib, and stringers. By the time we leave the wing should be painted and back on the airplane, hopefully completely rigged and possibly even flying. When the airplane is serviceable it will be transferred to a missionary pastor and pilot who is beginning work in an otherwise inaccessible area.

Sarah has been staying busy as well. Along with the full-time work of a third-world wife and mommy, she has begun working in the linguistics department three mornings each week. Her job consists mostly of formatting and quality checking completed Bible translations for inclusion in a database-type website. While Sarah works, Abby enjoys going to the daycare here, where she gets a lot of good interaction with other kids.

Other than the routine of daily life and work, we have had some opportunities to get out and see Papua New Guinea outside of the center. I had the chance to go out to a nearby village with one of our friends and show the movie "The End of the Spear" in their church. Although the church building is visible from where we live, the twenty-minute drive was far from smooth, and electricity was provided by a portable generator. We went with prayers for protection from an infamous outlaw who was rumored to be in the area at that time. Due to these rumors, we decided to avoid driving at night, and instead stayed with one of the church leaders in a "bush house." For those of you who picture missionaries living in grass huts... that is an accurate picture in this case.

We also had an opportunity to visit the city of Lae, accurately self-proclaimed "pothole capital of the world." We enjoyed seeing what things are like down on the coast, and staying at the SIL guesthouse there. At these tropical latitudes the lower elevations are very hot and humid, so we really appreciated the swimming pool, especially Abby, who got to "swim" on her own with floatation "wings." On the way we also got to visit some translators in their "village house."

This weekend has been busy as well. Friday night we enjoyed a community production of the world-famous "Fiddler on the Roof" musical. When you live literally in the middle of nowhere, a bit of entertainment every once in a while is almost necessary to sanity, and everyone can be involved. Sarah and I actually spent an hour or two helping with the set construction. It differed from any other production I've been to, in that before they began the director came on-stage and prayed for the production and for the protection of our homes while we were there... there have been one or two break-ins and thefts each week recently it seems. Anyway, the talent and creativity that went into it paid off... it was an amazing evening.

Saturday morning I went on a new adventure, taking my first ride on a "PMV" (Public Motor Vehicle), which is the main form of transportation for Papua New Guineans. I went to the local center of Kainantu with a national friend from the hangar, Philip. Our ride there was in the back of a large flat-bed truck known as a "Dyno." As it was quite full (I counted 41) we rode sitting on the edge of the low railings. I was a bit worried about falling out, but arrived without incident. We spent the morning wandering through the various shops, most of which are owned and operated by asians and carry essentially identical inventories of food staples and cheaply produced electronics. One exception is the Christian book-store, where I bought a map of the country and large PNG flag. After a snack of heavily-breaded deep-fried sausage, we waited about two hours ("PNG time" I was told) for another PMV, this time a fully-loaded van, to take us back home.

Much more has happened in the last month, but most of those stories will have to wait until we get back. It's hard to believe that in only a little over a week we will be "moving out..." Two months have gone by so fast! Our time here has been everything we hoped it would be. We have learned so much and been able to serve in ways we had never expected. When we get back we will certainly have a lot to think about and pray about!

We will be flying out the morning of December 2nd to the PNG capital of Port Moresby, where we will wait most of the day for our evening flight out to Cairns. We are glad to have two nights in Cairns, at Treetops Lodge again, where we will be able to spend a little time with some friends who will be leaving here this weekend for pregnancy leave. Since before we even left the U.S. Sarah has been looking forward to holding a Koala, and so we will be planning to make a visit to an Australian zoo during our brief stay as well.

When we leave Cairns, it will be the beginning of the longest traveling time on the entire trip... We will go approximately 6 hours from Cairns to Auckland, where we will only have an hour before embarking on the 13-hour trip to San Francisco. After a three hour layover we are off to Portland, where we will almost certainly arrive completely exhausted. Twenty-four hours of travel with only brief stops, and against the time zones, is not something we are looking forward to.

Please pray for us as we pack up and say our goodbyes, and especially while we are traveling. Also, thank you for praying for Abby and her issues with obedience. It seems that prayer has been answered. Please pray for Abby as last night she came down with a croup sort of a cough and breathing trouble. Although this morning she seems to be feeling better, she still has the cough, and none of us got a lot of rest.

We are looking forward to seeing all of you soon! Thank you for your continued prayers. Please feel free to send e-mails... we would love to hear how all of you are.

May you be blessed as you work to bring glory to God,

-Dustin, Sarah, and Abby

Two Weeks In Ukarumpa...

2009-10-21T05:50:00.000-07:00

Dustin's Journal

2009-10-21T05:32:00.000-07:00

Dustin’s Journal, Full Text

Dustin's Journal, Full Text...

Wed, Oct 7th, 8:25PM

What a day! We finally got on the Kodiak and got rolling (after the pilot forgot to remove the chocks). There was no seat for Abby- she sat on my lap. Before we rotated she was asleep, and slept for about half the flight.

It was incredible... seeing trees that only grow in jungles, and villages of grass huts, and mountainsides of hand-tilled gardens. We landed on the dirt strip, and were finally "home."

Janine Lyninger and our fellowship family, Scott and Sarah Carey, were there to meet us at the airport and help get us moved in to Translator Lodge 3A. It is a duplex, with no one currently on the other side, and probably as large or even larger than our house in Canby.

Newcomers in Ukarumpa are assigned a “Fellowship Family” (in our case Scott and Sarah Carey) who take care of them and help them get oriented. Residents also signed up to have us over for lunches and dinners for the first three days, which was a very welcome rest!

We had Kristen Brewer (Jeff Brewer is in aviation) stop in with peanut-butter bread and say hi. Everyone is so nice!

We finally got settled, and then it was time for dinner with Dave and Melissa Raube and their 7 (!) kids. What a fun circus! We rattled over to their house in the Carey's Hilux over the steep and potholed dirt roads. This place is beautiful though, with tropical birds singing, everything green and growing, and a perfect breeze in the 70 degree weather.

At the Raube's Melissa was making tortilla chips... deep frying tortillas she cut in stacks with scissors. The tortillas had been made earlier by a "house mauri." We had a delicious meal of white-sauce enchiladas and chips and salsa to the accompaniment of stories about the outlaws and gun-fights that go on round-about, punctuated by half a dozen distant gunshots at irregular intervals. (just as I was brushing my teeth I heard three more on this side of the compound). Apparently no one is too much bothered by this.

While we waited for brownies there was a major brownout. Candles were lit, but unfortunately an accident with one of the kids landed the nearly-done brownies in the bottom of the oven... so we had just ice-cream (which was quite good anyway).

Abby had got a scare from something one of the boys told her while they were playing in the other room, but finally recovered after the lights came back on.

Abby has already started making friends, and I think we're all going to like it here.

Saturday, Oct 10, 2009 5:00 PM

What a delightful time we've had. I don't know how better to describe it.

So much has happened since Thursday that I can barely remember details. We had lunch with our fellowship family, Scott and Sarah Carey. She was in linguistics before they got married, and helps out one day each week with translators. He is head of the math department at the high school. They have two kids around Abby's age. They were kind enough to loan us some toys.

We took the computer in to CTS also. They had some trouble with it, as we had, and changed out the memory chips. They thought they had solved the problem... however, it seems that something else is amiss, as it is locking up when it gets hot... and it does get hot.

Thursday evening we had dinner with Julianne Spencer and her friends Benji and Esther. Julianne does survey work... very adventurous stuff. She's the one whose photos we used on our newsletter, and friends with Kristy from San Diego. He place was very clean and modern. It seems that whatever sort of home you would have back "home" you could also have here. We had a fun time.

Benji and his wife are newly married. He grew up in Ukarumpa, and she is also a MK... as are many of the people here. He is the "youth pastor" so to speak.

Friday morning we went to the market with Scott. It was interesting, and reminded me a lot of Africa... but bargaining is not a part of the culture here. We got a few veggies... the selection is incredible!

We stopped by housing, finance, and CTS on the way back, then went down to get some much-needed groceries at the store. It was the last opportunity, as they are closed for the weekend.

At lunchtime we had a very long walk over to the home of Christopher Clark and family. It's funny, we've had enchiladas for two dinners, and we had tacos for lunch at their house.

Christopher is a pilot, and after lunch I went with him up to the hangar, where I got a mini-orientation and actually got my hands dirty pretty quickly. I will be back there full time on Monday. There is certainly plenty that needs done there.

I left early, at 3, and picked up our computer. We had a little time to send a brief e-mail to parents before heading off to dinner at Michael and Sarah Johnson's house... just as long a walk as lunch if we hadn't hitched a ride halfway with Raubes.

We had a great time with them. They have two girls just a bit older than Abby, and an older boy. It was nice to be able to commiserate about parenting a bit. They also had James (pilot) and his wife Natalie over. We had a great time, and it was sad to have to walk home, but the girls were all getting tired.

Today was very exciting as well. I got up early and went on a "joyride" with MAF pilot Remi W. to Sangapi on a medical evacuation. They have a clinic there, the condition of which would horrify any westerner, but which is much better than nothing. A national lady was evacuated for an ectopic pregnancy to Madang. It’s an amazing feeling to think that what you’ve done has saved a life. Had Remi refused to work on Saturday, she most likely would have died.

Continued Monday, Oct 12, 2009, 8:30PM

I actually got to do a lot of the flying, and it was challenging stuff. The flight from Aiyura to Sangapi wasn’t gorgeous, flying around and over broken/scattered clouds over the sea of green mountains, through passes, and over incredibly high ridges. The cramped quarters of the runway would give any pilot either wonderful dreams or nightmares. I got to do all the flying until the last few hundred feet. The Robertson droop-aileron/flap mod brought the airplane down slow. As we came over the end of the runway I was very honestly momentarily afraid that we were going to catch the main wheels on the edge. We must have touched down no more than twenty feet onto it. The airplane was slowed and stopped before we had gone more than 300 feet.

We picked up the woman, her husband, and their young daughter, I would say three years old. She was hysterical about being on the airplane, but (as Remi predicted) as soon as the engine started she quieted. He let me do the takeoff and climb out, over a ridge that I would never have guessed we could have out-climbed. In fact, I did all of the flying, even to the landing in Madang, although he had his hands on the controls as well.

After the family went away in an ambulance, and the plane had been refueled as necessary from a 55-gallon (200 liter) drum, Remi took me on a tour of Madang. It is a favorite vacation spot for missionaries, and he showed me all of the favorite places to go. Although it is hot and humid, it is not nearly as bad as Port Moresby, and the coastline is beautiful. The water is crystal clear. I can see why it would be a nice change from Ukarumpa once in a while.

We took off about 11AM and headed back toward Ukarumpa. Thanks to Bergmans, I had a little idea of how the Garmin 430 works. It was absolutely necessary for our flights. We put the turbocharger to good use (absolutely necessary in this part of the world), climbing and climbing, trying to go over the clouds VFR. We ended up in a valley of clouds, several times having to pass through them briefly. As we climbed to 12,000 feet over the passes, the Garmin showed a terrain warning... mountains beside us that high!

Finally we found a hole, and squeaked through, down toward Aiyura Airport. We did a straight-in approach, not approved by SIL, dropping down full flaps and side-slip over the mountain at the end of the runway, and I landed, flaring high, and coming down in what would have been a poor 180 landing, but was salvaged by a bit of extra power and the tricycle landing gear. I’ll blame the landing on the visual oddity of the uphill runway. What a great time!

When I got back to the house, Sarah and Abby had been to a “neighborhood” yard sale at the top of the hill, and Abby had a “new” princess dress. Almost immediately the phone rang. It was Dave and Melissa Raube, offering to take us on a shopping trip to Kainantu. Kainantu is the “big city” for Papua New Guineans in this area. We went to a well-stocked supermarket where they were going to get bread and toilet paper, and then enjoyed shopping in some second-hand stores. The stores buy bales of clothing from Europe or Australia, divide them up, and sell them. Much of the clothing is high-quality good name-brand clothing with nothing wrong with it at all, although some is stained or damaged. I picked up another tee-shirt and long-sleeve button-down, and Sarah got a hat for Abby. The Raubes were looking for a “costume” for Dave, who is playing a Russian in the upcoming community production of “Fiddler on the Roof.”

Sarah cooked her first dinner here that night - tuna casserole.... mmmm.

Sunday morning we all got up bright and early to wait until church... It doesn’t start until 10:45. It was a pretty nice morning until about half-way through the service, when it began pouring rain in buckets. It’s been soggy ever since, and the laundry Sarah did Saturday afternoon is still not dry.

The service was interesting. Apparently people in the community rotate through a sort of council which picks leaders for worship and the message. Ever week it is different. This Sunday it was a Lutheran who led worship, and the songs were all hymns I love, and the prayer and scripture readings very scripted and liturgical. The speaker was an older Australian fellow. We sat in the back, where the families with children sit (there is no “children’s church”), so it was a bit noisy and hard to hear.

We slogged through the mud back home to take the dripping clothes off the line, and moped about all afternoon. The computer was most certainly on the fritz, but I was making a valiant attempt to get our newsletter finished, and finally did. It seemed that we had only a certain amount of time to use the computer before it would fail, then we had to wait until it cooled down before we could use it again.

In the afternoon I took a walk back to the meeting house through the mud to get my Bible, which I’d forgotten. Unfortunately, it was locked, but I took the opportunity to take a tour around the perimeter of the center. It was a long way! I had no idea how big this place was, and was also surprised by how winded I got, much due I think to the mile-high altitude.

After dark I slogged again through the rain, and caught the last part of the evening goings-on at the meeting-house. It was a report by a couple who recently finished a Bible translation. Very honest... goods and bads. Encouraging in that as well as in the good which came of it all.

Today was my first full day at the hangar. I caught a ride on a little motorcycle-driven cart thing that one of the mechanics, Dan, drives to work. The potholed road is insane. We started off the morning with a Monday devotions and prayer time. Next I was given most of the remaining orientation by the new shop foreman, a fellow who can’t be much older than me by the name of Paul. He seems a nice guy, and easy to get along with.

I got to go home for lunch, which I enjoyed briefly. Sarah hasn’t been feeling too well today. When I got back to the hangar I spent much of the afternoon reading ops manuals. They seem a lot like part 135 manuals back home, except they cover every possible aspect of what happens in the Aviation department. Fortunately, Paul came and rescued me by sending me to find out what was leaking on the 206 I’d helped look at Friday. It didn’t look to us like it had been leaking anymore at all, but there was another squawk to work on, which was a failed engine fire probe. I’ve never seen before, two OAT-type probes, one on the inside of each cowl-flap hole. Good idea, I guess. By the end of the day I was still working on repairing it, as apparently we didn’t have any new ones in stock, and the problem appeared to be insulation chaffed off the wires.

When I got back home I was just in time for the CTS technician, Loren, to show up, bringing back our computer with the report that although he’d removed a likely-faulty printer driver (I don’t doubt it), he couldn’t make it crash. We hooked it up, and in about an hour it crashed again. Sarah suggested that it could be the dial-up modem. I unplugged it and restarted the computer. So far, more or less glitch-free except for a pause from I-Tunes.

Well, it is getting late. Apparently we are beginning to finally adjust to the time. I slept all night last night, and now I’m up after 9 and still feeling all right.

Sunday, Oct 18th, 2009, 3:00PM

It’s been a busy week. As far as work goes,I spent the first couple days in orientation, reading operations manuals and learning what everyone does. I did a few odd jobs, and then got to help with the inspection of an M.A.F. 206. It was the same one that I had gone to Sangapi in.

The only notable exception was on Thursday. Thursday morning I was up by 5:30. The “P2” bus was outside the door at 6AM to take me and several others to the hangar. (Officially the Aviation bus, but called “P2” because all of the aircraft registration numbers in PNG start with “P2”). By 7:30 a group of mostly pilots had got the Kodiak and a 206 loaded and ready to go. By “loaded” I mean that I loaded about 1000 pounds of sandbags into the Kodiak.

We were going down into the Ramu valley, just 10 minutes away, to Gusap airstrip, a former WW2 base. The strip is used for training, and on this trip we were going to be testing the performance of the Kodiak. Using laser range-finders, radios, and survey and photography equipment, those of us on the ground recorded the distances and angles for takeoffs and landings with the Kodiak loaded to its maximum weight and then empty.

Gusap is at 1400’... Ukarumpa is at 5100’. What a difference! By noon the tropical sun was beating down on us, and even with a considerable breeze the heat was becoming almost unbearable. Humidity must have been about 100%. Although I enjoyed the trip and the chance to do something new, I was glad to climb back into the 206 for the trip to Ukarumpa. The cool breeze at Aiyura was delightful. I’m really happy that I can be involved in readying the first-ever Kodiak in use in missions work, in a small way helping to usher in a new era in missionary aviaiton.

At home, Sarah has been feeling sick since Monday. She hasn’t had trouble eating, but her tummy has been hurting, and she hasn’t felt up to going much of anywhere. As a result, I was up early one morning for a trip to the market, and then took two hours for lunch so I could make it to the grocery store and to pick up our computer (yet again) from CTS. Sarah started boiling all of our drinking water, but at this altitude it has to be boiled for 20 minutes before it is safe. Fortunately, one of the guys from the hangar loaned us a filter, which we started using Saturday morning. Today she thinks she may be feeling slightly better... I sure hope so. If she is sick for this entire trip, it may put a definite slant on the “test.”

Speaking of the computer... It seems that a “work-around” solution has been found. It is unclear why the computer heats up so badly, but overheating has definitely been found to be the problem. Apparently there is a firmware upgrade (hopefully we can get next week) that increases fan speeds. I have some doubts that even that will fix the problem. However, the computer guys installed a temperature monitor program and a program which allows the cooling fan speeds to be adjusted manually. With this combination we have been able to keep it cool enough to be usable, although it’s frustrating that it won’t “just work.”

Friday night was “hamburger night.” The teens on center put on “hamburger night” most Fridays to raise money, and it is the only opportunity for a family to get a chance have someone else do the cooking. Since Sarah was feeling ill anyway, we took advantage of it. Unfortunately, Burgerville beats the food hands-down... but the nearest Burgerville is half a world away, so we were thankful for what we got.

After Abby was in bed I walked up the hill to a new friend’s home and spent the evening with a helicopter pilot, a village translator, and an on-center translator administrator playing board games. We played two rounds of a complicated little game called “Puerto Rico.” It had hundreds of tiny parts, which I love. It was a lot of fun.

Saturday we went to the center library. It is only “regularly” open for a couple hours Saturday afternoons. It’s not big, the books are beat-up, and the card catalog isn’t very good, but we did borrow a few books. Many of the paperback books don’t even get “checked out,” but are simply labeled as belonging to the library, and expected to be returned when you finish with them. Since it gets dark about 7:00, and there’s no where to go anyway, the books will be a wonderful evening entertainment.

Tuesday, 20 Oct. 2009, 10:53 PM

Just a quick note... I’m glad to say Sarah seems to be feeling better. She’s not completely back to 100%, but certainly a lot better than she was. The computer, now that we’ve got ADSL hooked up, is quite fast enough to get things done on, although not nearly as fast as in Canby.

Yesterday we had dinner with Tom and Marilyn Kelley, and this evening we enjoyed the Wycliffe Associates weekly potluck.

I’ve got to ride to work and back with Steve Parker in his “buggy” the last couple days... what a blast! The P2 bus seems to average no more than 25mph, while the buggy feels like at least 50mph on the muddy/dirt road. On the way home today (in the rain) Steve let me drive, which was an absolute blast! The little motorcycle-powered two-seater is designed for racing, and the air shocks and grippy tires, along with the light design, make it the fastest thing around.

Working on the Islander today and yesterday.

Wednesday, 21 Oct. 2009, 7:25 PM

More work on the Islander today. It looks like Sarah is back to feeling like her normal self, and I feel like I’m successfully fighting off the remains of a sore throat.

The bulk jet fuel tank is almost empty up at the runway. They have been trying to get fuel for a week or so, without success. Today they finally got fuel, although it was in 55-gallon drums. They opened the back of the truck and backed it up to the storage building, then stacked two very large aircraft tires behind it, followed by two smaller tires, then a number of others in a single layer. They rolled the 28 drums to the back of the truck, then with a “plop” and “whoosh” out of the truck and onto the tires. It was quite a job, but now at least we have enough jet fuel for the next couple weeks.

The Journey to Ukarumpa...

2009-10-10T23:16:00.000-07:00

The Radfords
Papua New Guinea

WITH WYCLIFFE/JAARS
Newsletter #5 Oct. 10, 2009

Dear Friends and Family,

We've been in Ukarumpa just over 72 hours now, and our first three
days have been wonderful. Getting here was another story...
Abby grinned at us nervously as the engines came up to full power on
her first "big airplane" ride. Before Portland was out of sight she
was engrossed in a new coloring book, and by the time we got to Los
Angeles she had decided that flying was no more exciting than riding
in a car.
We watched our last sunset in the states through the orange haze of
the southern California sky, and tried to satisfy our growling
stomachs with overpriced airport hamburgers. We were very relieved to
board the well-appointed Air New Zealand 747 bound for Auckland.
As good as they were, the in-flight food and entertainment grew
tedious as the hours slowly dragged by. Cramped into the hard seats,
we tried in vain to get more than a few minutes of fitful sleep. What
a blessing it was to be able to check into our room early, finally
crawling into our beds after almost 22 hours on the move. Cramped and
seat-sore, we closed our burning eyes and let the ache in our heads
fade gratefully into sleep.
We slept the morning away, and made a brief foray out of the hotel in
the afternoon. With such limited time and money, the glimpses of
beautiful green hills we had seen from the airplane were as
informative about the country as our bus-ride to the local shopping
center.
The cold rain continued to fall from clouds hidden in the pre-dawn
darkness as we left our hotel the next morning for our flight to
northern Australia. The flight was more than five hours, long enough
that it began to blur into the memory of the previous flight. We
finally descended into Cairns over blue water and beautiful white-sand
beaches glaring in the hot morning sun, and took a taxi to the
missionary haven of Tree Tops Lodge.
The Hotel is joint-owned by Wycliffe (SIL) and Missionary Aviation
Fellowship. Once one of two top-rated hotels in Cairns, it had fallen
into disrepair before, through a series of providentially-guided
events, it was purchased by the missions agencies. The renovated
grounds are now a comfortable and affordable place where missionaries
can come when they need medical care, are expecting a baby, or are
traveling through on their way to a furlough.
We enjoyed our day there, although the facts that our ATM cards didn't
work and we were low on cash were stressful, especially since food is
so expensive. Add this to the fact that our computer began acting
strangely on the last flight, and we really needed the relaxation of a
splash in the saltwater swimming pool.
At 4:30 AM we were back in a taxi headed for the airport.
Fortunately, the flight from Cairns to Port Moresby was only two
hours, as the planes were getting smaller in stages, and it was
beginning to feel cramped. We got off the plane our first impression
of Papua New Guinea was 105 degree temperatures and unbelievable
humidity.
We spent our first half and hour waiting in a line at passport
control, not moving at all. Finally whatever problem they were having
was cleared up and we moved through. In the stifling heat we made our
way to the exit, where we waited for someone who would pick us up and
take us to the MAF hangar where we would board the last airplane. We
waited and waited, and finally the helpful local at the service desk
helped me place a phone call to contact our expected ride. By the
time he arrived, most of the New Guineans were quite concerned from
us. I can't help noting contrast, compared to the western way of
ultra-individualism.
As it turned out, there was no rush. Originally we were scheduled to
fly to Ukarumpa on a Beech King-Air, but were then re-scheduled for a
Cessna 206. At the last minute, plans were changed once again, and we
got to be part of the second or third load of passengers to fly in the
sparkling new Kodiak! What a thrill! Unfortunately, sweating for
another hour or so while we waited for the pilot to get some sort of
check-out in the new plane was less than thrilling.
Finally we were in the air for our last flight to Ukarumpa. The
blazing coastlands receded behind us to be replaced by the precipitous
heights of jungle-green mountains. We dodged tall white cumulous
clouds and after less than an hour and a half descended past villages
of grass huts onto the dirt runway of Aiyura Airport. We were "home"
at last...
Dear Friends and Family,

To contact us:
d-s.radford@sil.org.pg
011 675 737 4214

Please Pray!
The main reason you haven't heard from us before now is that we have
had a lot of trouble with our computer since we arrived. Not only
does this make it more difficult to communicate, but it adds
considerable stress to our lives. Please pray that the technical team
here will be able to find the problem, and that it will be something
which can be fixed easily and without much cost.

A lot more has happened since we arrived, and there just hasn't been
time to write about it yet. Contingent on having a functioning
computer, we're looking forward to writing about our most recent
happenings:

What our home is like
Meeting other missionaries
Going to market.
The med-evac flight Dustin participated in
Our trip to Kainantu.
...and other adventures!

Leaving today!

2009-10-03T11:55:00.001-07:00

Dear Friends and Family,

The last few items are being checked off of my list, and only a few
hours remain until we board the first plane to begin the next phase of
the adventure that will certainly change our lives for not only the
next two months, but forever.
We will be in flight for a total of almost 24 hours. With our
layovers, the trip will take three full days.

Please pray for our physical health

Pray that we will have safe flights

Pray that we will not become over-stressed during the trip

Pray that our home will be safe while we are gone

Pray that there are no problems with customs or flight connections

Pray that we will be able to sleep on the airplane

The Last Crazy Week
It seems like the last week has been unusually stressful and hectic.
Sunday evening we had a computer hardware glitch, requiring an
overnight shipment of a new hard-drive and complete re-installation of
everything on the computer (done Thursday night). On Monday I came
down with an odd rash accompanied by fatigue that lasted until
Thursday. Abby complained of a "hurting tummy" Monday evening. I had
meetings from after work until 9pm the first three nights of the
week. Thursday we found out that our house-sitters may not be able to
be here as planned. It almost seemed as if when something could go
wrong, it did.
Maybe the Enemy doesn't want us to go. Maybe God is giving our faith
a chance to grow. Whatever the reason for all of these things, we
found ourselves leaning on God for our strength, and feeling the power
of your prayers supporting us. We are all feeling healthy now, and a
blood test confirmed that I don't have something awful that will be
haunting us as we go. The computer appears to be working normally.
All of the packing is done, and the very long list is whittled down to
the last few things.
One thing we would like prayer for is our house-sitters. Their
brother was unexpectedly diagnosed with an aggressive form of
leukemia. Please pray for him, and for their family, as they go
through this difficult time.
As a result, they don't know when they will be able to stay here, and
have come up with some other options for themselves in case we find
someone else to do it. If you know someone who would be interested in
house-sitting, please e-mail us as soon as possible.
Please pray that our trip would be blessed in every way. We thank
all of you! Without you and the many ways you have been a blessing to
us, this trip wouldn't be possible.
Look for our next update when we get to Ukarumpa!

Quick Update 9-20-09

2009-09-20T18:19:00.001-07:00

September 20, 2009

Papua New Guinea

The Radfords
WITH WYCLIFFE/JAARS

Thank You!

Dear Friends and Family,
Just a quick note to let you know we have reached our financial
support goal. All of our trip expenses have now been covered! Thank
you to everyone who has supported us both financially and in prayer.
We now have less than two weeks before we leave, and while all the
major arrangements have been made, there are still quite a few last-
minute details. We will be keeping our blog up to date and sending
newsletters regularly.
We'll be departing the evening of Oct. 3rd, and should arrive in
Ukarumpa Oct. 6th. May our Lord bless and keep you.

What Will We Be Doing in PNG?
Dustin expects to spend most of his time working as a mechanic in the
hangar. However, he hopes to ride along when possible and perhaps do
field repairs if needed. He most likely won't be piloting because of
the unique training required.
Sarah will be available to help out wherever needed, but has been told
she will have her hands full caring for Abby and keeping house in
third-world conditions.

Our blog: http://dustinandsarah.blogspot.com

Papua New Guinea, Newsletter #2

2009-09-10T07:48:00.001-07:00

Dear Friends and Family,

Here is Newsletter #2 in .JPG format. If you prefer the plain text
version, it is at the bottom.

Papua New Guinea, Newsletter #2

2009-09-10T07:26:00.001-07:00

Monday, September 7th, 2009
Dear Friends and Family,
Four weeks from today we should be getting off the last airplane at
Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea. For the months of October and November
Ukarumpa will be home.
At times during the last month life has seemed overwhelming. Sarah
was ill for several weeks. The garden is producing more than there is
time to harvest - including weeds. Abby has been growing a very
determined mind of her own. Our computer hard-drive crashed. I've
been given new responsibilities at work, sometimes resulting in longer
hours. We got our immunization shots. Abby had her third birthday,
and Sarah her 30th. On top of all of this, planning the details and
preparations for a two-month trip to a third-world country has been
difficult, to say the least.
Through these things, God has been faithful. Perhaps He is preparing
us to learn ever more deeply that "with men this is impossible; but
with God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26.) His blessings are
so many. He's been blessing us through the teaching and fellowship of
our wonderful church here. He's blessed us with highly-recommended
prospective couple to house-sit our home. He's blessed us with a
loving family and good friends. He blessed me with a good job and
bosses who understand and have even encouraged this trip. He's given
us trials, but with them He's given us the grace to grow more like Him.
He's also blessed us financially. As you can see from the graph at
the top of the page, the gifts we have received amount to just over
$100 more than our expenditures so far.* Our airline tickets,
immunizations, and required insurance -the most significant parts of
our expenses- have been taken care of. "Cast your cares upon Him, for
He cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7.) Our Lord has provided just what we
need, and at just the right time.
About half of the expenses remaining on the graph are to cover the
cost of maintaining our home while we are gone and for living expenses
during the time between our return and the first paycheck. Although
they are necessary, we would not have these expenses if we were going
to stay overseas as career missionaries.
We are so thankful to those of you who have given to us, and to our
God who has blessed you with the will and ability to give. Although I
have believed that He would provide for us, I have always had in the
back of my mind a "backup plan." I feel like the man who said "Lord,
I believe... help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24.) Already He has
provided enough that my "backup plan" is unnecessary. As I think
about it, I realize I've subconsciously said to God, "I think if I try
really hard I've got this almost taken care of... could you chip in a
token amount so we can claim that this is Your will?" He is taking my
pride and crushing it under His grace. He is saying to me, "My grace
is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness!"
(2 Corinthians 12:9)
The most important thing we can ask for is prayer support. Your
prayers for us are what will keep us going when we are too exhausted
to pray for ourselves. We really would like any of you who are
willing to let us know that you will be praying for us daily while we
are gone. Just as we keep a list of financial supporters, we also
keep a list of those who support us in prayer. Please, pray for us!
Specifically, we would like prayer for peace about travelling. We
are in need of extra wisdom to parent Abby as she grows and develops
her own personality. We expect the flight to be stressful for Sarah
and I, but with Abby on board it could be even more difficult. Please
pray that the time would go by quickly and that we would have the
grace and patience to deal with any "bumps in the road" in a way that
would bring glory to God.
We will be meeting with our prospective house-sitters in person for
the first time on Monday, Sept. 14th. Please pray that they would be
just what we need, and that we can have peace about our home while we
are gone.
Please pray that we would be wise about our preparations and the
decisions that we make before we go, and that God would prepare the
way for us where we are going. Also, that we would have greater faith
in Him. Pray that we would not have "the spirit of fear; but of
power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7.)
Please pray that God will use us to bless those we are going to
serve, and that the good news about His Son will be spread to the most
remote regions of the jungles. Lastly, pray for us in whatever way He
leads you.

Thank you, and may you be blessed as you do the work you have been
given,
-Dustin, Sarah, and Abby

*The day after I wrote this, a check for $1500 arrived in our
mailbox! Praise our Lord! We are getting very close to meeting all
of our ministry-related expenses with gifts alone!

On the Job
I am glad to say that recently I have been able to begin dusting off
my flying skills and putting them to use! Although I had been flying
more at my current job than before (on average about 3-4 hours per
month), in the last few weeks I've been able to fly considerably
more. It was a blessing in disguise when our "second" of three pilots
moved on to a small commuter airline, and I was trained to take his
place. As a result, my current total flight hours are up over 500.
Although this meets the minimum requirements of some mission aviation
agencies, I hope to have around 1500 before considering our career
move overseas. Now that I'm flying more, that time will be shorter,
and we will be ready to make missions a "career" and not just a
"trip." I am still responsible for aircraft maintenance and repair
and all of the odd hangar jobs that I enjoy so much as well. Please
pray for my safety and efficiency as a pilot, and that I won't be worn
down by the extra work load.

Kodiak Update
The Wycliffe Quest Kodiak, #11, has finalized plans for its trip from
Waxhaw, North Carolina to Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea. This incredible
airplane will greatly increase the abilities of the aviation
department there to meet the needs of Bible translators and
missionaries in remote areas. Not only was is specifically designed
for missions work with back-country short-field capabilities and a
generous payload, but it also uses readily available jet fuel. This
means that missionaries will no longer have to rely completely on a
tenuous and expensive supply of aviation gasoline, and the aging and
heavily used Cessna 206 airplanes which use it.
I was recently able to see Kodiak #8, which belongs to Missionary
Aviation Fellowship, as it made a local stop while on tour before
going overseas (photo above). Interestingly, it will be based on the
other end of the island from where we will be, in Papua, Indonesia.
Kodiak #11, with Wycliffe, will be leaving Waxhaw on September 11th,
and if things go as planned, will arrive in Papua New Guinea September
21st. They will be flying by way of Alaska. Please pray for the
final inspections and approvals, for the pilots (one of whom I worked
with in Africa!), and for a successful journey. I am very excited to
see this special airplane being put into service for the first time
while we are there!

Preparations Continue

2009-08-01T22:56:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends and Family,

We have been busy this week with more preparations and are getting
more excited by the day. Nine weeks from now, to the day, we will be
getting on the airplane at PDX for our 3-day journey to the highlands
of PNG (Papua New Guinea)!

Today we began making reservations for places to stay in-transit to
PNG. We are planning to stay at a wonderful accommodation co-owned by
Wycliffe and Missionary Aviation Fellowship during our layovers in
Australia which is known as Tree Tops Lodge. They have an interesting
story about how they got started at their website. We are also
looking for a place to get some sleep in Auckland, New Zealand. If
any of you have some tips on a nice and affordable place close to the
airport, we are still looking. After the thirteen-hour flight there,
we will more than likely need nothing more than beds.

I also filled out all 18 pages of the Australian transit visa
applications today. Whew! And those are only good for 72 hours or
less! I'm glad we aren't planning a permanent move there! After
getting another round of passport photos, those will be in the mail.
We aren't expecting any trouble with them, but it always makes me
nervous to put our three passports in the mailbox.

We are also getting ready to share at our church about our trip. It
is exciting to let everyone know what we are doing, and how God is
working.

These preparations seem so mundane until we really think about what we
are doing. We receive regular newsletters from Wycliffe Associates,
the major support structure for Wycliffe. (Recently the water supply
to Ukarumpa was completely shut off for almost a week... that's where
we're going! Imagine what you would do if the water at your house
suddenly quit flowing for a week. No showering, no flushing
toilets... the compound which normally uses almost 60,000 gallons a
day was down to the small amount of water they are able to store on-
site. A local land-owner hired men to damage the supply pipes which
are on public land, and then these pipes were guarded by men with bows
and arrows until police intervened!

On the other side of the coin, serial number eight of the new Quest
Kodiak airplane is on its way to PNG, and expected to arrive in
September! I am very excited to be there as this plane is being
brought on line to begin replacing the Cessna 206 piston aircraft, for
which fuel is becoming unavailable. Check out their website for more
information on this wonderful aircraft, designed with missionary
aviation as its primary objective.

As you can see from these two stories the missionaries we are going to
support are living with hardships and using every resource available
to spread the Good News. They are on the front lines, literally. We
are really looking forward to joining them! Please continue to pray
as we continue preparing.

Thank you,
-Dustin, Sarah, and Abby

Note: If you check back on a regular basis, you can see daily updates
about the small things happening being posted to the right under
"Current Status:"

Related websites:

http://www.treetopslodgecairns.maf.org.au

http://www.wycliffeassociates.org/

http://questaircraft.com

Ukarumpa, Here We Come!

2009-07-26T22:43:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends and Family,

It is hard for us to believe that in nine weeks we will be on our way
to the other side of the planet! Last week we bought our airline
tickets. A month ago we got our medical clearances and a passport for
Abby. Almost a year ago I contacted Wycliffe about "volunteer
opportunities" while randomly browsing the internet. Fifteen years
ago I asked God what He wanted me to do with my life, and He showed me
missionary aviation.

Since I was in high school I have felt a calling to missionary
aviation. I've spent the intervening years in training and
preparation to go someday as a "career" missionary pilot. This
means providing critical support to missionaries in otherwise
inaccessible areas by the use of airplanes and helicopters. Our
family has a few more years before we will be ready to make that step,
but now is the time for a "test run." In the same way you don't launch
an airplane without a test run on the ground, you don't launch a
family into a third world country without knowing they are properly
prepared. We have prepared as well as possible for the "career" move,
but before we're committed, there might be a few adjustments to make.
The purpose of this trip is to find out what those adjustments should
be.

The island of New Guinea is the first large land mass north of
Australia, roughly the size of California. The eastern half of the
island, as well as many smaller islands in the area, make up the
country of Papua New Guinea. We will be serving there for two months
at the Wycliffe Bible Translators hub of Ukarumpa, where nearly a
thousand missionaries work in every field needed to support the work
of Bible translation. There are schools, a grocery store, printing
presses, housing, computer stations, a vehicle maintenance base, and
many other specialized facilities and workers. We will be there
working in the aviation department.

We will be leaving Portland, Oregon for Ukarumpa via Los Angeles,
Auckland, Cairns, and Port Moresby on October 3rd, and returning via a
similarly circuitous route December 4th. I estimate that we will be in
flight for about 24 hours both there and back, and that we will be in
transit three days each way!

Life there will be different in many ways. Although we are told
there will be many modern conveniences such as running water,
electricity, and even internet access, there are a lot of things we
won't have that we are used to. Routine activities like grocery
shopping, getting mail, and making a phone call may involve completely
foreign concepts which we will have to master. The most important
things to grasp will involve our interactions with nationals and other
missionaries. Language, culture, and subconscious habits will likely
provide many learning opportunities. However, facing these
difficulties now, and being able to spend some time processing and
readying ourselves to deal with them for not just months, but for a
lifetime, is the entire point of this trip.

Although we strongly feel that this is the next step in following the
plan God has laid out for us, we don't understand how He is planning
to fund it. The airline tickets alone cost $4,300! In addition, we
will need about $7,000 for other travel and living expenses while we
are there, to pay our bills here while we are gone, and to get us
through to the first pay check after we return. Realistically we need
to have $11,300 in our bank account before we leave. That's a lot of
money for you or me, but it's as easy for our God to provide $10,000
as it is for Him to provide $10. We've been saving money for a long
time; considering a down payment on a house, a retirement account, and
creating a safety net fund. We are willing to put all of the money we
have saved, down to the last cent, if need be, into this trip... but
we still won't have enough.

Our Boss is the Lord Jesus. If the Boss sends you on a business trip,
He pays for it, one way or another. We are looking forward to seeing
the ways that He will provide. It will be an amazing time of growth
for our faith in Him. This letter may be one of the things He uses to
do that. If you would like to donate money, there is a tax-deductible
account set up with Wycliffe. The specific information is at the
bottom of this letter. We thank you for following the leading of the
One we thank for all things. He will provide.

Last of all, I can't ask strongly enough, pray for us! There will
very likely be physical dangers, stresses within our family, illness,
financial struggles, spiritual attacks, personality conflicts, and
worse to deal with while we are there. More than anything else, we
need you to pray for us while we are gone. We are planning to send
regular e-mail updates to all who are interested in which we can share
specific requests for prayer, but overall, please pray that our trip
will be blessed. Pray that we will be able to see how we need to learn
and change to be effective servants, and that this trip will be a time
of growth in every way. Pray for protection from the dangers listed
above. Pray that we will be used to further the important work of
translating God's Word into new languages. Pray however our Lord leads
you to. If you are willing to commit to pray for us every day from
October 3th to December 4th, please let us know. It will be
encouraging just to know that someone is on their knees before the
Father for us.

If you would like to donate money feel free to give to us directly.
However, if you would like a receipt for tax purposes, we have an
account set up with Wycliffe which we will be using during our trip.

Our personal fund code is: 8773.

Contributions can be mailed to the address below. It's important to
add the fund code only to the memo line, and include a separate sheet
of paper with our name and the fund code in the envelope. If our name
is on the check, it will not be viewed as a charitable contribution by
the IRS.

Checks can be mailed to:
Wycliffe Associates
PO Box 2000
Orange CA 92859

Those wishing to make a contributions using a credit or debit card
should contact Judie Hess in the Orange, CA office - 800-843-9673.

Our current contact information is:
Dustin and Sarah Radford
661 NW 4th Ave.
Canby, OR 97013
503-266-6603

e-mail: djrmoose@gmail.com

We hope to send regular e-mails about our progress. If you have
received this letter via e-mail, you are on the list already. If you
would like to be removed, please let me know.

blog: http://dustinandsarah.blogspot.com/

The e-mails will also be duplicated on our blog, and hopefully we will
be able to include some photos and other information there as well.
If you are interested in more information about Wycliffe, JAARS,
Ukarumpa, or Papua New Guinea (PNG), please see the links on our
blog. We are also on Facebook, and welcome phone calls or letters.

While we are in Ukarumpa, you will be able to send mail to us at:

Dustin and Sarah Radford
PO Box 169
Ukarumpa, EHP 444
Papua New Guinea

Airmail letters from the US take 12-14 days to reach Ukarumpa.
We may have a phone while we are there, but we do not know what the
number will be, or if it will be practical to receive phone calls from
the U.S. We may also be using a different e-mail address. Although
we don't know all of the specifics, and don't have access to it yet,
it will most likely be: d-s.radford@ukanet.net

Thank you, and may you be blessed as you do the work that our Lord has
set before you.

-Dustin, Sarah, and Abby Radford

P.S. - Before we leave, we would like to find someone to take care of
our home while we are gone. If you are interested in house-sitting
for two months or know someone who may be, please let us know.

Happy Thanksgiving! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

2009-01-12T14:54:00.000-08:00

I guess it's been a while. Due to some serious uploading issues, I don't have any new pictures here. However, off to the left, at the top of our favorite links, you can see one called OUR PICTURE ALBUMS. That is a link to our Shutterfly site. It has pictures from the trip Abby and I took to North Dakota, and a bunch of Christmas pictures. It also has some older pictures.

December was pretty crazy around here. Dustin remodeled the bathroom the first weekend. It ended up taking much longer than one day (as he had planned). Luckily, we were only without a toilet for one day. He tore out the carpet and replaced it with tile. He also replaced the toilet, cabinets, and molding. What a huge job! It looks much better now.

Dustin and I celebrated our 5th anniversary on December 13th. We actually left Abby for 2 nights!! We didn't go very far (downtown Portland), but we had a lot of fun. By the time we headed home, the snow had started. There were cars all over the side of the road! It was a slow trip, but we made it home safely. We then celebrated Christmas with Dustin's parents, since they had been up here watching Abby.

There was more snow throughout the week, so Abby and I dug out a really old sled we found in the garage. Talk about fast! That thing can move! A few days later, all three of us spent the afternoon sledding. Abby had a blast! By Christmas Eve, we had 14 inches of snow. It was great fun, but hard getting around, even with chains on the car. We spent Christmas at my aunt's house in Brooks. The roads were fairly clear, but we almost couldn't get out of our parking space! We spent the afternoon eating and opening presents, and Abby got to take apart the gingerbread house they had made.

We rang in the new year at Dustin's aunt's house in Clackamas. She had a cheese party. We didn't plan to stay all evening, but we were still there when the new year began. Abby was still awake and having fun, but she fell asleep within minutes of getting in the car.

We've been taking life easy since then. Abby was sick last week and she still isn't sleeping well. I'm starting to feel a bit sick, myself. Today definitely felt like a Monday! I'm hoping to start updating this blog more often, but no guarantees. I know I've said that before, and it just hasn't worked out. Oh well, Happy Monday!

Catching Up

2008-10-31T14:54:00.000-07:00

It was a busy summer and I didn't manage to keep up with blogging, so here are some pictures of the highlights.

In June, Abby went to the zoo for the first time. We spent several hours there, and she loved it!

She also received her first major haircut (from me). It turned out a lot shorter than I expected.

In July, she started stacking everything she saw.

We also discovered a cool free water park in Wilsonville.

In August we went on a church camping trip. It would have been great, except for all the rain and the freezing cold nights!

This is Abby just before her first airplane ride (piloted by her dad). When we got in the air she wasn't so sure about the whole thing, but by the time we got back down she was giggling. When asked if she had fun she said yes, but when asked if she wanted to go again she quickly said no!

Abby's second birthday was August 20th. Instead of having several different parties with different sides of the family, we decided to have one big party at our house. Dustin and I spent several hours making the cake. It was supposed to be fairy wings, but it looked just like a butterfly!

Not much happened in September, and when it did we didn't have the camera. We spent one afternoon picking prunes. We picked 90 pounds, but had to throw out about 6 because a dog came and peed in our box! I also managed to fall out of a tree but no damage was done. All of our September pictures are of Dustin and Abby being their usual odd selves. Like father like daughter, right?

In between all of these happenings was a lot of gardening, canning, and dehydrating! I'll be doing a separate post for October because it was a big month for Abby and me.

Dustin Radford is changing his e-mail address!

2008-09-15T21:59:00.001-07:00

Hi all!
Please note that I've changed my e-mail address to djrmoose@gmail.com!
Thanks!
-Dustin

Faith Stimulus

2008-05-01T07:58:00.000-07:00

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." -Matthew 6:19-21

Most of us will soon receive a check in the mail from the U.S. government. A lot of people are already planning how they will spend it, and some have even already spent it! The great majority are using that money to buy something they’ve been wanting… a new TV, some home improvements, exercise equipment… the list is endless. Whatever they may buy, I confidently assume that 99% of people are spending that money on their own wants and desires, perhaps masked thinly as “needs.” Few of us actually need this unexpected windfall to meet regular expenses or necessary emergencies.

A few days ago the blog “Desiring God” inspired me with this idea. If you are a follower of Jesus, I challenge you to use the entire sum of money you will receive as “economic stimulus” for God’s glory. Donate it to an orphanage, buy meals for the homeless, send it to a missionary, or buy Bibles with it and hand them out door to door. “Store up treasures in heaven.” It’s an investment that can’t go wrong.

Above and beyond the praise our Lord will receive from the beneficiaries of your giving, you will most likely have a more personal chance to bring Him glory. Within the next few months the question, “What are you spending your check on?” will become a hot topic around water coolers and in break rooms across the country. This may be a chance for opening the door to share your faith with someone who would never listen otherwise.

This is an opportunity for you to show your freedom from the love of money and materialism. I have been thinking of the people who will read this, and how each one of you will react. If you have a platform, a pulpit, or a blog, (and I know some of you do) I ask you to encourage others as well. Give glory to God!

Time flies...

2008-04-24T12:39:00.000-07:00

We have gotten settled here in Canby, and really enjoy the town. There is a park down the street, and the library is a little further. There is even a grocery store within walking distance. Dustin enjoys the shorter commute. It only takes about 6 minutes for him to get to work.

Abby is now 20 months old and speaking in full sentences. Sometimes it almost seems as if you can carry on a real conversation with her. I can't believe our baby is now a toddler. The only quiet time around here is when she sleeps. We recently moved her into a toddler bed and she loves it; she has actually started napping again! She really enjoys playing outside in the dirt. Ladybugs and worms fascinate her, and one day I caught her stretching a worm like a rubber band. She asked about eating it, but luckily she didn't try. Abby also enjoys helping in the garden with the planting and weeding. However, she is going through a phase where she loves to sit on everything, so we have quite a few smashed flowers.

Our garden area is much larger this year. We also have some berries, grapes, and fruit trees. At the rate we're going, we may finish the first round of weeding by the end of summer!

We went to the tulip festival in Woodburn a few weeks ago. If you've never gone, I recommend it. Especially if you have kids. There is a huge area for kids to play, with slides and inflatable bouncing things. There is also a cow train you can ride on to see the tulips. It was an incredibly bumpy ride, but lots of fun. Abby had a great time. She went down the big slide several times, climbing up the ladder by herself. By the time we left, she was so exhausted that she dozed on Dustin's shoulders on the way to the car.

We are starting to think about camping. Abby is big enough that we won't be able to sleep in the bus like we did last year, so we'll have to try a tent. It should be an interesting experience. If we get enough practice, we should have it down by the time our church camp-out happens in August!

Happy New Year!

2007-12-31T19:16:00.000-08:00

We have been busily packing up our belongings. In a few short weeks we will be moving to Canby to be closer to Dustin's job. We found a cozy little house with a BIG garden. It should be perfect for the next 6-8 months or so until we (hopefully) buy a house. Since we will be gone next week, we basically have to have everything packed this week so we can move the weekend of the 12th. I have to say, I'm getting weary of all the moving. The good news is that we've gotten pretty good at it!
Christmas was both fun and busy. My parents, my Grandma, and Dustin's parents were all here for several days. We also hosted the family Christmas party for my side of the family the weekend before Christmas. Abby had a blast opening presents. The sound of paper ripping made her squeal. She also reveled in the constant attention from all the grandparents. To everyone's delight she began saying grandma and grandpa. It took a few days to get her back to the usual schedule after everyone left!
Tomorrow is 2008! Once upon a time, I would spend New Year's Eve coming up with resolutions. They were usually similar from year to year, and despite my best intentions, they would only last a few weeks. Since I have found that to be a waste of time, I decided that I will spend this New Year's Eve being thankful for all the blessings in the previous year.
We are all healthy. We have a wonderful place to live. Dustin has the perfect job with great employers. We've made some good friends through a church group and a play group. God has met all of our needs, even if we didn't realize it at the time. Abby is growing into a happy, independent little girl. I could go on, but I don't want to bore you. The point is that we've been blessed, and I'm thankful for it.
Happy New Year!

A New Job and a Sermon

2007-11-18T16:42:00.000-08:00

I got in the mood to write today, so I thought I'd fill you in on the recent big news here. While I'm at it, I might get in a short sermon on the end. Missionary pilots need to practice that, you know... ;-)

Today is Sunday. I love Sundays. They are a little taste of the rest we will have in heaven. There is plenty of work to do while we're still here, though. I have felt for a long time that a big part of the work I have to do here involves flying airplanes. I've been very happy with the job I've had for the last year here in Troutdale working on airplanes, and have spent a lot of time recently studying in hopes of becoming a flight instructor. That is the way most professional pilots move into work which requires more experience. One day at work several weeks ago, a pilot/mechanic who I have worked with in the past came in and told us about a new job he was taking. I mentioned that I was studying to become an instructor. He reminded me that he had told me several times in the past about the job which he had used to transition to being a professional pilot. They really need a mechanic right now, he said.

I didn't sleep very well that night. Although I'd known about the job for some time, it suddenly "clicked" with me that it might be exactly the right job for me. Maybe it just hadn't been the right time before... I didn't wait long to call. Yes, they needed a mechanic, and yes, as a pilot I could possibly do some flying as well. The company is called Bergman Photographic Services, and they use a fleet of five diverse airplanes for aerial photography. The next Saturday I went to their office in Sellwood and we spent several hours talking. I took home an employee handbook to peruse, and told my boss about the possibility on Monday. Last Wednesday I took the day off of work and drove to Sellwood again. From there I went with one of the brothers who own the business to Aurora, where they have a new hangar which houses that half of the operation. I went along on a maintenance flight which was also a kind of evaluation of my abilities. It went well. We shook hands that evening and the next day I officially "gave notice" at my current job.

I'm pretty excited. Both the maintenance and the flying will be excellent experience which will mesh almost perfectly with the goal of missionary aviation. I will begin working for them at the beginning of December, and will move right into the on-staff mechanic position which has been vacant for the last year. I will also begin training for the type of flying they do, beginning in their Cessna 180 and hopefully eventually working my way into flying nearly full-time in all of their airplanes. These include a J-3 Cub, Cessna 210, Cessna 310 (twin), and a turboprop Commander.

Since the job is in Aurora, we will need to move soon to avoid many hours of commuting. Although we all love the house we are in now, we are enthusiastically looking for a new place. Sarah is pleased with the developments, although no one really enjoys the idea of packing boxes!

Also, happy ThanksGiving! I am so thankful for so many things! May you realize the many things you have to thank God for also.

Once again I have to say I love Sundays. This morning we listened to a sermon on the subject of "Heaven." It wasn't the best sermon I've ever heard. In fact, it was a bit of an odd juxtaposition, as the sermon covered some of the possible "physical" aspects of heaven: "streets paved with gold," precious stones, "endless light," and "no more sea." I found my attention wandering. Although we're all a bit attached to this world, our culture of materialism seemed to have insinuated itself very incongruously into this sermon. It was not that the sermon was technically inaccurate so much as that the emphasis was misplaced diametrically from where it belonged. As we all know from so many celebrities' lives, one can live a tortured hell of an existence while living in a place with "streets paved with gold." In fact, if happiness has anything to do with wealth, our society should be literally "the happiest place on earth."

We were visiting a church we don't usually attend, so I don't know if the worship after the sermon is the normal order during their services, but it couldn't have been more appropriate. The songs were powerful... Not "I Have a Mansion" or some other foolishness continuing to compare heaven to the marred beauties of this earth, but true worship of God and his greatness, an expression of our love for Him, and a desire to see His glory. As the lethargy in the room lifted, I felt like those few minutes of worship were a far clearer foresight of heaven than the preaching had offered. I thought of the fact that for all of time and beyond there rises around the throne of God the refrain of "Holy... Holy... Holy..." and that I was, in my poor way, joining that song.

This is why I love Sundays. I felt a rest then... A rest in the exhilaration of giving praise with heart and mind which is accepted by a sovereign God, but which can never begin to be enough. I thought of heaven. I thought of being at rest... being truly at home. I've never felt quite at rest here. I've moved a lot. The Bible mentions that we are "strangers" and, in fact "aliens" in this world. We don't belong. No matter if we spend our lives building a home to live in, and root our feet firmly in the soil of this earth, we can NOT stay, and we can NOT take it with us when we go. NOTHING. Even if we still have memories of this world, they will be like the misty memories of a half-remembered dream, fading as quickly as morning fog before the heat of a blazing sun. Only once have I wanted to "go home" and had a picture of a place on this earth in my mind. After backpacking across Europe and being on the move almost constantly for six months, never having a place to rest for long, I longed to return to my family in Oregon. I was tired in a sense far beyond the physical. There was such a relief of rest when I finally walked through that doorway again and into "my room." I imagine this is only the slightest inkling of what it must be like to finally pass the threshold of "death" and really and truly go Home. It will be an endless rest from being a wandering stranger for the years of this terrestrial journey.

Until then... there is work to do. Give Thanks!

-Dustin

My Latest Project

2007-11-09T14:18:00.000-08:00

A shirt for Abby! And it actually fits!

Please help...

2007-10-16T20:05:00.000-07:00

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman.. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on 'donating a mammogram' for free (pink window in the middle). This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors /advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising. Here's the web site! Pass it along to people you know. http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/

Thank you!

Future pilot?

2007-10-15T11:58:00.000-07:00

Not even 14 months old and already showing an interest!

Up Before Light for Tofu and Bananas

2007-09-23T17:36:00.000-07:00

This morning at 5:30 AM our alarm went off. This is quite unusual, even on a weekday. It is even more unusual that I will roll over and let it go until Sarah turns it off. She hit snooze... twice. The advantage to living in a house over an apartment is that I can turn a CD all the way to top volume to help get us rolling, and the neighbors don't complain, even if the sun isn't up yet.

By 6:20 we were out the door. After a few bites of breakfast, a lot of mad scrambling, and cramming three layers of clothing onto Abigail, we pinned racing numbers on Sarah and Abigail and headed downtown to participate in the "Race for the Cure" fundraiser against breast cancer. After a bumpy ride on a schoolbus shuttle, we found ourselves in Waterfront park, next to the river; the first wave of what would be 46,000 runners and probably another 20,000 supporters. Booths were set up along the length of the park which housed corporate sponsors including radio stations, Yoplait yogurt, a jeweler, and an Irish dairy! The sponsors were bent on being sure no one went hungry or without a hat or keychain! As the pink-clad crowds thickened, we battled our way through to stand in lines for handbags, yogurt, bananas, pink underwear (from Macy's), energy bars, hats, bottles of water, cubes of tofu, boxes of soy milk, and cubes of (delicious!) cheese! We were handed stickers, keychains, and coupons for innumerable items. Had we wanted, we could have even had a free massage or manicure!

I should mention the pink. Probably one in every two-hundred people there was male. The place was literally swimming in estrogen! Pink is the official color of support for the fight against breast cancer, and almost everyone was wearing some pink, not leaving out the grandmas with hot-pink dyed hair. If you didn't come wearing pink, you could get pink stickers with which to decorate your face or pink foam bunny-ears from the Energizer bunny.

At 7:30 the first wave of runners, the 5k race, departed. The news helicopter hovering overhead filmed the sea of pink surging through the barricaded streets of downtown Portland. At 8:00 we rushed to the starting area, quickly loaded Abigail into her "backpack," and Sarah and Abigail started on their 1-mile walk. I had the heavier burden of cameras and the amazing pile of pink objects and food we had acquired.

It didn't take long for them to finish, although with the crowds, it was more of a "stroll for the Cure" than a race. Fortunately we had agreed where to meet afterwards, although since I was waiting there, I wasn't able to be at the finish line. After another half-hour waiting in line for a hat, during which another group of (running) runners departed, we elbowed our way through the still-thickening crowd back to our schoolbus. Sarah and Abigail accomplished something neither of them had ever done before, and we still made it to church (a little late).

The Flat Mailbox Morning

2007-09-23T17:13:00.000-07:00

Sun 8/26/07

I got up only slightly later than my normal time and came downstrairs to take a shower, let the cat out, and start breakfast. It was just after eight and I was sitting down to check my e-mail when I heard a sound which can only be made in one way, a crunching bang, from the direction of our driveway. I've never heard an accident before, but I knew immediately what it was, and jumped from my chair to look out the window. A cloud of dust was beginning to settle, and I could see the front of a green Ford Explorer where formerly the corner of our driveway, a chainlink fence, and a wall of twenty-foot tall arborvitae had stood.

I leapt up the stairs two at a time and jumped from my bathrobe into clothing, telling Sarah to dial the police and call our landlord as well. By the time I had run out to the wreck another car had stopped. The cabin of the vehicle was only slightly damaged, although the driver's window was completely gone. The driver, a middle aged man, was conscious, and appeared unhurt but for a few scratches from glass. He was shaking, though, and gripping the steering wheel and shifter spasmodically while repeating that he was, "just going to work." I asked him if he was hurt, or had hit his head, and finally discovered that he had diabetes. In shocking circumstances it can take several minutes to sort things out, but he got out a candy bar to eat, raising his blood sugar level, just about when the police arrived, and was feeling back to normal soon. In the meantime a tow-truck company pickup had stopped, and soon a firetruck and ambulance arrived.

His name was Owen, and he'd been westbound on his way to work when he must have temporarily blacked out, waking up to see an oncoming car. He swerved and somehow overcorrected into the opposite ditch, where he sideswiped a power pole, which totalled the front left end of his truck, and started it spinning counterclockwise until it completed a quarter turn and came to rest, nose in, about where our mailbox used to be. The Sunday newspaper was spread for twenty feet in either direction. Fortunately, nothing was damaged which money can not fix. Only a few scratches on Owen, and our power was out for half and hour until the power company sent a truck to reset the cutout and repair the minor damage to the pole. I am thankful that he woke up in time to avoid a head-on collision, that he slid passenger-side first, and that I hadn't decided to go out and pick up the paper just then. I'm also just a little thankful he wasn't fifty feet further down the street, where our garden is... The corn is just getting ripe...

As of today: our flattened mailbox has now been replaced with a new one, and the chainlink fence is up again, but we can now see when our mailman comes through a gap in the arborvitae...

She's Standing!

2007-08-29T11:20:00.000-07:00

The day after her birthday, Abby decided to stand. I was sitting on the couch and all of a sudden, she was standing right in front of me! Ever since then she has been pulling herself up on everything. A few days later she started cruising, going down the couch and around the coffee table. Now, in the mornings when Dustin brings her in the bedroom, she crawls over to the side of the bed, pulls herself to standing, and says "Hi!" Her newest words are hi, froggy, and puppy.

Oregon International Airshow

2007-08-15T16:16:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was the Oregon International Airshow. The Blue Angels were scheduled to be there, and Dustin had gotten free tickets through work. We had planned to go on Sunday afternoon because Abby's birthday party was Saturday. However, Abby and I got a cold partway through the week, and Dustin woke up not feeling well by the end of the week. Sunday afternoon we were sitting around trying to decide if we were up to going or not. We finally realized that a little cold wasn't worth missing an opportunity like this, so we got all the baby stuff packed and put on sunblock. Halfway there it started to rain... not the forecasted weather.

By the time we got parked it was raining steadily, but we decided to stick around for a while. It's a good thing we got there when we did because the Blue Angels performed within half an hour and then the show was over! We didn't even have time to walk around and look at anything. Nevertheless, I have to say that the show was awesome. The first highlight was seeing a Sherpa (if you don't know what it is, you won't care), and then several fly-bys of the F-117A "Stealth Fighter," the delta-shaped black mystery-plane which (we just learned) is being retired soon and will be replaced by the vectored-thrust F22 "Raptor." If you've never seen the Blue Angels perform, make a point of it, although not while trying to hold an umbrella and put your hands over a baby's ears at the same time. The first part of the show features "Fat Albert," the C-130 "Hercules" that the Blue Angels use as a transport. It has four turboprop engines, and can carry a load approximately the size of a boxcar at speeds up to 350 Knots (according to the announcer). The nickname is apt, as "fat" and "chubby" are words which come to mind when looking at one. With "JATO" rockets (Jet Assisted Take-Off) the C-130 can lift off the ground almost as soon as it starts moving, and nearly vertically. Once airborne, it has time to accelerate to normal flying speed at thirty feet above the ground before the rockets burn out. The short-field landing was incredible too. Approaching extremely slowly for such a large airplane, the pilot made a precise touchdown and brought the plane to a stop within about 350 feet!

The Blue Angels themselves, six F-A18 fighters, are amazing. They demonstrated the abilities of the aircraft with very short takeoffs followed by near-vertical climbs. They also demonstrated precision slow-flight side-by-side, standing almost on their tails... held up almost solely by engine thrust. One made a pass at over 1000 miles-per-hour (according to the announcer), battering our eardrums. There was almost not enough time to see it! I can't imagine what it would be like to be an enemy against a plane you don't hear coming until it is past, and one that moves so fast you couldn't lift a weapon in time, let alone aim or fire. Their precision maneuvers at high speed were great. They fly within feet of eachother, rolling all together, or splitting up in what was our favorite, the Blue Angel's "Fleur de Lis." They also come rushing head-on at what must be a combined speed of over 1000 mph if not more, then roll their wings vertical at the last moment to pass belly-to-belly. Abby enjoyed it, too, but didn't like all the noise.

It took a very long time to get out of the parking lot. To avoid traffic we took a break at the first Burgerville, our favorite fast food joint. The rain didn't stop until we were most of the way home.

We were too tired to wash off the sunblock.

Birthday Season Continued

2007-08-15T16:01:00.000-07:00

Abby had her second birthday party last weekend. The Smith family met at Pietro's Pizza where Abby enjoyed her first taste of pizza, opening presents, and birthday cake. Grandma Smith let her play with the cake a little before it was cut, and pretty soon she was digging away. After she had her own piece, I glanced over to see her stuff half of it in her mouth!

Birthday Season

2007-08-09T15:25:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that one birthday can involve so much stuff. Especially when the birthday girl won't even remember it! We celebrated Abby's birthday with the Radford side of the family last weekend, and will be celebrating with the Smith side this weekend. Then, of course, we will do something on her actual birthday. Her favorite part so far has been the paper and ribbons. She wasn't too sure about her cupcake, licking it tentatively and then only eating a few bites. We'll see if she goes for the cake this weekend.

Abby's First Camping Trip

2007-07-24T10:28:00.000-07:00

For weeks, through the hot and into the comfortable weather, I was really looking forward to our camping trip. It was to be the first one since before Abby arrived. We spent all week getting ready. I spent a lot of time on details on our 1977 Volkswagen bus like hanging the funky green curtains as Sarah finished them, installing another seat belt, and lubricating the squeaky windshield wiper mechanism.

Friday night we wore ourselves out packing the bus and cleaning up the house... and we still had a few things to do Saturday morning before we rolled out of our driveway around nine. The drive to the coast went very well. We headed north on I-5 to Longview, Washington, watching the cars whiz by at seventy while we cruised at a leisurely fifty-five. Although the bus would probably go seventy, it certainly isn't designed for it, and since we were on a leisure trip, I wallowed in the idea of being able to drive slowly, enjoy the scenery, and avoid the stress and heart-attack that the caffeine-slurping cell-phone junkie driving 85 raced past us to reach. At Longview we re-crossed the Columbia river and then floored the throttle to maintain that 55mph over the sometimes steep road to Astoria. The bridge from Astoria into Washington is narrow and looks easily tall enough for an aircraft carrier to drive under (especially when you're driving a wobbly VW over the top). After the tall arch it cruises along for half a mile just over the water... probably only a few feet deep. It was at this point that I first noticed that the weather was not what I had hoped. The occasional light showers were becoming less occasional and more regular. We drove straight through to our campground about twenty miles up the peninsula in Long Beach. Fortunately Abby was able to fall asleep when we pulled the curtains closed in the back of the bus, and got in a nap just before we arrived.

After checking in and looking around, we took the proprietor's advice and headed several miles back to Ilwaco to check out the trinkets for sale at the modest Saturday Market and get a bite to eat at Ole' Bob's Seafood. We have a backpack carrier that we put Abby in so she can ride up high and we can get around. As we walked, we overheard nearly everyone we passed comment on it, and got quite a number of compliments! This continued throughout the day, much to our surprise, since we thought they were quite common. After a fresh crab melt and some clam chowder we headed back to Long Beach. We parked some distance from the beach, due to traffic, and walked down the main street. If ever there was a "tourist trap" Long Beach is it! There are amusement arcades, theme restaurants, and knickknack shops packed solidly on both sides of the street; and you can buy a shirt that says "I Love Long Beach, WA" without walking more than ten steps from any spot on the whole street.

We walked down to the beach where the annual "Sandsations" sand-sculpture contest was just ending and grabbed free hot-dogs before inspecting the sculptures. Unfortunately the tide was coming in quickly, and since we hadn't brought our wading-shoes we only got to see the backs of some of them. We wouldn't have gotten a whole lot wetter in the surf, however, as the rain was quite steady by then, and the wind was gusting strongly. We saw several castles, penguins, a mermaid, and the Deathstar, but the highlight was King Kong, who's shoulders and head jutted up six or seven feet above the beach.

It was nice to get away from the soggy crowds and head up the peninsula to the "Jumpin' Good Goat Dairy." On the way Abby grabbed a nap, and we were all ready to go again in time for the daily tour. Abby is intrigued with all animals, and grinned hugely when the little "kid" goats nibbled her fingers. I tried my hand at milking the goats, since Sarah was too shy, and found it quite easy... most of the work consists of installing and removing the vacuum tubes that do the actual milking! After that we visited the billy-goats and sampled the dairy specialty cheeses... quite good really! Several were a bit too "goaty" for us, but some had very little unusual flavor, and we bought one to bring home.

By the time we headed back to the campground it was very windy and pouring rain. The inside of the bus was fogging up, so I used several strands of wire and a multi-tool to temporarily wire the heater fan... something I wasn't expecting to need when we planned this camping trip in the ninety-five degree weather! Unfortunately something else in the system is bad, and I had to settle for wiping off the windshield with a rag. The windshield wipers on the bus then began to squeak. As we neared our campground I saw three bear cubs run across the road and remembered that they had mentioned giving left-over goat milk to a bear that hung around the goat farm! I wondered if Abby smelled anything like left-over goat milk.

It was time for Abby to go to bed soon after we arrived, so we "reconfigured" the bus by folding down the back seat into a bed, and set up Abigail's portable tent-bed (inside). In the midst of the pouring rain and trying to get the cooler and stove and everything else we needed where we could reach it for dinner without waking Abby, I tried to slam the sliding bus door (which never does close quite right), and it fell off it's front rollers! I grabbed it and tried to maneuver them back into place, at which point the back roller fell off it's track, the back lower corner of the door bent against the ground, and I had the whole thing in my hands! The rain continued to pour down, although I couldn't get much wetter than I already was, as I dug into the far corners of the bus for screwdriver and flashlight (never go ANYWHERE in a VW without tools!). I finally determined that the back roller would go on with a bit of finesse, but for the installation of the front rollers nothing would suffice but a swift kick. After that it was "as good as new," but we were a bit more cautious with the door the rest of the trip!

I was glad for a short lull in the rain (if not the wind) during which I cooked dinner. At least I have a lot of experience using that type of camp stove... every once in a while living on a boat and in a (previous) VW bus comes in handy. I dumped the large box of firewood which we had brought all into the fire pit at once, box and all, and lit such a conflagration that the whole campground (or at least our neighbor's tent) would have become a raging inferno had it not been for the soaking weather. We didn't last too long before crawling into the back of the bus and into our already-damp sleeping bags. By this time everything was moist. The humidity inside the bus was only slightly less than that under a running shower-head. I whispered a chapter of "Through the Looking Glass" and turned the flashlight off. It was far from the end of the night, however. The rain drummed down on the roof of the bus wildly like a hailstorm on a kettle-drum, and the wind rocked us in a way which called to mind boats and oceans. I don't know how many times I awoke. Several times I heard the small jingling sound made by a toy we had left with Abigail. She must have been awake a lot too, but not once did she cry or make any other noise but that little jingle. Some time around 2 AM the storm let up and we got a little sleep.

Everyone was ready to go in the morning. Sarah wanted to go straight home, but I knew we needed to have breakfast first, and so cooked up bacon and pancakes with tea while at the same time packing up the bus for the road once again. It was once again raining steadily. After wiping the condensation from the inside of the front windows with paper towels (so we could at least see a little) we headed for home. Halfway there the squeaking from the windshield wipers became so intense that Sarah was afraid it would wake up Abby from her nap. I had considered bringing WD-40 along... but had to settle for a squirt of cooking-spray, which fixed the problem immediately (at which point it quit raining). We got home around two in the afternoon to find sweltering heat and sunny skies.

Although this camping trip had probably some of the worst conditions I have ever encountered, we got home in relatively good spirits. Tired? Yes! Abby went straight to sleep. Glad to be home? Yes! It was so nice to be out of the soggy bus. Successful? YES! Abigail's first camping trip... and we didn't pack up and drive home before breakfast... ;-)

Finally...an update!

2007-07-16T13:23:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while since we have updated this. Quite a bit has happened in the last few months, so I'll give a brief overview. In February we moved from our apartment into a rental house. It's probably twice the size of our apartment and has lots of open space for Abby to roll around. We also have a large fenced yard and a garden. Dustin has spent lots of time in the garden and recently put in an irrigation system. The plants have loved the hot weather and now it's looking a lot like a jungle! Unfortunately, the aphids took over the broccoli so none of it has been edible, but we've had lots of lettuce and strawberries and a few carrots so far.

We sold the Mercedes (it turned out to be very unreliable) and got a '77 VW bus. It needs some interior and exterior work, but it runs well and Dustin drives it to work. We hope to gradually turn it into a campmobile.

Abby is becoming less like a baby and more like a little girl every day. She'll be 11 months old on Friday! She rolls or scoots wherever she wants to go, and there is rarely a dull (or quiet) moment around here. She eats like crazy! Her favorite food groups are paper and shoes, but she'll eat anything we feed her :) We got a cat, and Abby loves her. The feeling isn't mutual, but the cat is tolerant and loves the attention.

Dustin still like his job. The last few weeks were a bit slow and he had some unexpected time off, but we enjoyed having him around. He is currently working toward getting his flight instructor rating, and recently finished a ground school class through PCC. He also bought a small (tiny!) sailboat (with holes in the bottom!!) and has been fixing it up.

I've been busy trying to keep up with Abby and the housework. The price for a bigger house is extra cleaning! Between Abby and the cat I have to vacuum everyday. I also decided to try canning. So far I've done raspberry sauce and mint jelly. I'm hoping to do a bunch more over the next few weeks.

We are going to camp with Abby for the first time this weekend. It should be an adventure! Especially since we'll be camping in the bus!

I hope to start updating this site every week or so, so make sure to bookmark it! I'm sure I said that last time, but this time I really mean it! :)

-Dustin, Sarah, and Abby

Updated Abby pics

2006-12-06T17:03:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone!

We have some new pictures posted on our blog site.
Feel free to take a look!

http://dustinandsarah.blogspot.com

--Dustin, Sarah, and Abby

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Happy Thanksgiving!

2006-11-29T14:58:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We had a very busy weekend full of family. It was difficult gettting back into the swing of things on Monday. Long weekends are so nice! Now we are gearing up for Christmas. Dustin put up the Christmas lights last night and we will get a tree this weekend. Since we were gone over Christmas last year (has it already been a year?!), we are twice as excited for this year. We hope to make Abby's first Christmas special, although I doubt she will remember it.

I can't believe how fast Abby is growing. Last month she weighed in at almost 10 pounds! She's more vocal every day. She is also full of smiles. We have gotten her to giggle a few timesand it's so cute that we can't help but laugh along.

Parenting is a huge adventure, and we have found that every time we think we know something, she changes! It's a constant game of catch-up! I appreciate my own parents more each day. I don't know how they did it with two kids!

I will be working on updating the photos in the album a bit more regularly. So you can watch Abby as she grows and changes.

--Sarah

Rolling Along...

2006-10-07T13:32:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends and Family,

There have certainly been a lot of big changes around
here recently! Abigail, of course, is the biggest of
them.... well, not literally. At seven weeks, she's
now up to about 9 pounds! However, that little
nine-pounder has done more to change our lives than
just about anything else... ever! She's getting cuter
by the day, and is now very alert and perceptive of
her surroundings. Her noises are taking on shape, and
she actually rolled from her tummy to her back
yesterday! She got so angry about being on her tummy,
I think she did it out of sheer frustration! She has
slept "through the night" (about 6 hours) several
times, but is certainly not making it a regular habit
yet! I didn't know I could still get by on this much
sleep... I thought after college days that was all
over, but I guess not!

We sold the little white 4-Runner and bought a 1988
Mercedes for $400 to be our new "backup car." It has
awful paint and a lot of other issues, but did pass
DEQ with flying colors and is now legally registered!
It is a joy to drive! With a lot of work, it could be
an absolutely beautiful vehicle!

The job we moved up here for, at Troutdale Aircraft
Service, is no longer. The boss there has a way he
wants every little thing done, and for me, it seemed
to change daily. After being chewed out several times
for things I still don't comprehend, it was time to
start looking. Although there was a lot about the
company that I liked, I finally turned in my two week
notice. Three days from what was to be my last, the
boss told me he didn't think I was working up to his
standards, and that I should go home and spend time
with my family before starting my new job. As much as
I would like that, I responded that I really couldn't
afford it, and would do my best in the next few days.
"Well, you'd better go home anyway," he said. That
kind of encapsulates the situation. When any employer
begins to care about the "bottom line" more than the
employees who make it possible, I lose respect for
them.

That afternoon I rolled my toolbox out the hangar
door, about three hundred feet east, and into the
hangar door of Advanced Aircraft Service. Whereas
most of my former co-workers expressed wishes that
they could leave as well, my new co-worker said he had
been working there for a year, and looked forward to
coming to work every day. I started working there the
next morning, making a better wage, and in a MUCH
better atmosphere. I already know, after only several
weeks, that this is a job I won't mind staying with.
I am so glad for the change.

Sarah is getting back into the swing of things. Her
Avon business is taking up the few minutes when she
isn't taking care of Abby. If any of you are
interested in ordering for the holiday season online,
please let us know, and we will be sure to make it
possible!

That about wraps up the "Big" news, and all of the
time I have right now. There is so much to be done,
and so much less time to do it than there used to be!

God bless you all!
--Dustin, Sarah, and Abby-P

Dustin and Sarah Radford
1500 Pleasant View Drive, Apt. #125
Gresham, Oregon 97080

Home (503) 665-2732
Mobile (please call only if you can't reach us at home first)
(503) 841-0770

"May you live all the days of your life"
-Johnathan Swift

__________________________________________________
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Easier viewing of Abby photos!

2006-09-02T18:50:00.000-07:00

Hi all!!

To those of you who were unable or unwilling to access
our pictures on myspace, I appologize. It just
happened to be the easiest place to upload them at the
time, and I didn't realize you couldn't view them if
you weren't a member! We have uploaded pictures of
baby Abby to our blog, which is fully public, at:

http://dustinandsarah.blogspot.com/

Feeling not quite as exhausted... tomorrow Abby will
be two weeks old! Thank you so much to all who sent
cards and gifts, they are much appreciated!

Off to change a diaper!
-Dustin

Dustin and Sarah Radford
1500 Pleasant View Drive, Apt. #125
Gresham, Oregon 97080

Home (503) 665-2732
Mobile (please call only if you can't reach us at home first)
(503) 841-0770

"May you live all the days of your life"
-Johnathan Swift

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Abigail Paige Radford

2006-08-22T14:32:00.000-07:00

Announcing the arrival of Abigail Paige Radford!
August 20th, 10:52 AM
7.0 Lbs. 19.5 inches long.
YAY!

See pics at: http://www.myspace.com/dustinandsarah

We're exhausted!

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Settling in...

2006-02-11T09:57:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends and Family,

It has been a very crazy month. Upon our return to
the States we drifted back and forth to parents'
homes, doing serious vehicle maintenance, visiting
friends, and all the while searching for a job and a
place to settle in. I am happy to say that we've
found both, and are nearly finished getting the
necessities out of boxes!

After sending resumes up and down the west coast and
from Alaska to as far as Hawaii, I finally found work
not so far from our families in Troutdale, Oregon (for
those of you from further away, we are on the
outskirts of Portland). The company I began working
for this last week is Troutdale Aircraft Service, and
although I can't really say a lot about the really
important things like how we all get along in the
shop, what I do know I like. Although the majority of
work will probably be on mid-size piston-powered
planes such as Cessna 180 series and larger and Beech
Bonanzas, the company is also a service center for
Cirrus (the largest builder of certified private
composite aircraft) and TBM Socata, a mid-sized
turboprop, and doesn't work on smaller planes and
trainers, which will be a nice break. I spent
yesterday working on a turbine-powered airplane, which
was before now a very rare event. The shop is nice,
new, and well-kept, and the company has been growing
rapidly. It is very comforting that during this time
of year, which is regularly a time when maintenance
shops are searching for work, we have more than we can
fit in the door! Another thing which really impressed
me is that every mechanic is issued a laptop computer
for their toolbox which is linked by wireless network
to all of the other computers in the shop. All of our
paperwork, and a large amount of our service
information is available instantly right there on my
toolbox!

Although Sarah and I are considering buying a home
within the next few years, for the immediate future we
will be living in an apartment. We spent two long
days driving around the area looking for a place to
live, and finally ended up in Gresham, which is a
20-minute drive to work. We found a fairly new
2-bed/2-bath apartment on the ground floor, much
larger and nicer than our previous one, and still in
the mid-range price bracket. The complex is very
large. Although we like the fact that there is a
patio, pool, spa, hot-tub, exercise room, and covered
parking area, I was definitely sold by the fact that
garages were available! I can now putter around with
my tools without leaving home! We have a
respectably-sized stip of lawn between us and the next
building which isn't bad, although I understand that
from the third-floor apartments Mounts Hood, Ranier,
and St. Helens are all visible.

Speaking of mountains, we are now only about an hour's
drive from great skiing at Mount Hood, a fact I hope
to take advantage of before the season is over. When
that's no longer an option, I hope to try my hand at
windsurfing! The Columbia Gorge, right in our
backyard, is known to be the best place in the world
to windsurf, and now that we've sold the little
sailboat we had, that's the closest I might get to
sailing! One thing is for sure, there is plenty of
wind! It seems blow about 90% of the time here at our
apartment, and is even more reliable and extremely
stong at the airport, which is quite near the river.

Sarah, on the other hand, is very busy around the
house. She is really making this formerly empty
apartment a home, and constantly planning for the
baby. She is hoping to put my time in the garage to
good use by encouraging me to build bookshelves,
tables, and of course a crib for the coming Radford.
I'm not sure how much I will get done, as my last
major woodworking project took over a year to complete
(!), but I will enjoy trying!

Now that we have two bedrooms and bathrooms, and even
a bit more space through the rest of the place, we
hope to have a bit more company. If you happen to be
passing through the Portland area, please give us a
call or send an e-mail. We are fairly near the
airport, and would love to see you! Although at the
moment the largest part of our furniture is a set of
bookshelves, we will be happy to sit around on the
floor with you and spread out sleeping bags and
camping mats if you want to brave a visit soon! We
are hoping that in the near future we will be better
equipped, and a visit might be a bit more comfortable
and stylish, but we want to extend a welcome any time
you can visit!

With all that in mind, I have included our new contact
information below. We had quite a time getting our
phone connected, and would have had to wait two weeks
for phone service if I hadn't been persistent and
explained Sarah's condition. In the meantime we got a
cell phone, which we plan to keep with us. If you
want to contact us, please try the home number first,
but if we are unavailable, don't hesitate to ring our
mobile. Although we don't have very many minutes of
talk-time (unless you call on a weekend), we can at
least "touch base" and plan to talk more later.

This certainly turned into much more of a tome than I
had planned, but the sun is shining and I have boxes
to pack into the garage and a Home Depot to locate...

We would love to hear from you!

In His Plans,
-Dustin and Sarah (and Baby) Radford

Dustin and Sarah Radford
1500 Pleasant View Drive, Apt. #125
Gresham, Oregon 97080

Home (503) 665-2732
Mobile (please call only if you can't reach us at home first)
(503) 841-0770

"May you live all the days of your life"
-Johnathan Swift

__________________________________________________
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New Adventures: A change of plan...

2006-01-26T11:04:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends and Family,

Last you heard from us, we were recovering from a very
odd Christmas in south-eastern Spain. Those of you
who don't already know it may be surprised to learn
that we are now back in Oregon, and very busy! We
didn't want to make a general announcement until we
had visited with our parents, and that's why I didn't
mention that the evening of our camping trip beneath
the airplanes in Casteldefels (which I mentioned in my
last letter) we were both rather shocked by a
"positive" indication on a home pregnancy test! Of
course, Sarah didn't sleep at all that night, and as
soon as it was light she shoved me out the tent door
to go get another one, which gave the same indication.

As you can imagine, that was the beginning of a big
shift in our plans. Not only did Sarah soon begin to
feel too "out of it" to enjoy travelling, but we
suddenly had a real need to get back home and "settle
in" somewhere!

We had been staying in a small town called Santiago de
la Ribera, or "La Ribera" for short, which is on the
south end of a strip of coastline dominated by English
vacation-homes and resorts. There we encountered an
English bookstore in our quest for books on the
subject of pregnancy. The proprietor connected us
with an Englishman who manages rental properties in
that area (see www.casacomforts.com if you're
interested), and we stayed in a nicely furnished
apartment on the cliffs above the Mediterranean for
the last two weeks of our stay.

Since Sarah was feeling worse than she had before or
has since, we didn't do a whole lot other than take it
easy. The highlights of our time there included a 360
degree view of New Year's fireworks from the roof of
the apartments, building a sandcastle, and wading in
the Mediterranean. I took a few short trips into the
neighboring city of Torrevieja as well, and was
impressed by the huge street market, the expansive
public nativity scene, and the intricate sandcastles
built by "professionals" on the beach there.

When it was time to leave, we boarded another
inexpensive Ryanair flight, and as the snow-capped
Pyrennes range slipped beneath our plane, the fact
that we were going home finally began to become real
for me. I was sad, because it may be some time before
we are able to travel again, and of course it will
never be the same. At the same time I began to feel
the slightest twinge of excitement which has grown
ever since with the reality of being a father.

We arrived in the London night quite tired, but were
getting very used to going through customs and the
routine of international air travel, and so it went
smoothly. Since we were now somewhat familiar with
London as well we had an uneventful trip to our friend
Heidi's apartment where we "crashed" on the futon.

The next day was our only full one in London this
time. In the morning Sarah and I did some souvenir
shopping for family and friends, and then had a lunch
of "Kebab," one of our new favorites. Sarah was too
tired for anything else that day, but I decided to
take the "tube" down to the Imperial War Museum. My
mechanic's brain was set to whirring by tanks,
rockets, airplanes, and a miniature submarine. I was
amazed by the sheer size of some naval guns mounted in
front of the museum. They must have been fifty feet
long, and with a bore big enough for a child to crawl
into. Finally I made my way through the Holocaust
exhibit, perhaps the most complete and graphic of its
kind. It was very sobering, and I had a thoughtful
ride back through the rush-hour madness of the London
Underground.

That evening we had dinner with Heidi at one of the
ubiquitous chicken restaurants of London. Although
ours was unusual for its spicy Portuguese flavor,
there is an amazing number of fried chicken
restaurants in that area. The amusing part about it
is that most of them have names such as Southern Fried
Chicken, Kentucky Fried Chicken, American Fried
Chicken, and sometimes Halal Fried Chicken...

In the morning we had a long metro ride all the way
across London to Heathrow airport, where we eventually
boarded our British Airways 747, which rolled out from
the gate promptly at the scheduled time. Heathrow is
a huge airport, and we probably taxied for 15 minutes
before rolling slowly to a stop where we sat, and sat,
and sat..... finally the pilot announced over the
intercom that a passenger whose baggage was on board
was not himself on board, and that we couldn't leave
with this situation and would go back to offload the
baggage. We then made the long taxi back to our
departure gate, where we waited for some time before
the pilot announced that instead of unloading the
baggage, they had located the missing passenger, who
would be aboard shortly! We eventually began moving
again, only to find that due to our delay we would
have to use a different, much more distant runway. We
must have lost our place in line as well, because it
was almost two hours after our scheduled departure
time that we actually left the ground. The pilot told
us that they had loaded on some extra fuel and that we
would use it to make up some of the delay, which we
apparently did, since we didn't arrive two hours late.
(I still wonder two things... did they actually fuel
the plane with all the passengers aboard? And...
does this mean that they don't fly as fast as
possible, even on a 10-hour flight? I wonder if
people would be willing to pay for the extra fuel if
they knew it would make the flight shorter?)

When we touched down in Seattle it was raining, and we
have been enjoying the wet Northwest weather ever
since. I have been looking for a job, and we have
been to our first doctor appointment. Sarah got to
see the baby "wave" to her on a sonogram! I was quite
jealous.

Well, that brings to an end our trip to Europe. We
learned a lot, saw a lot, and did a lot which will
stay in our memories forever. If we come to visit you
soon we may bore you with our pictures, which may also
seem to last forever. Perhaps it won't be too long
before we begin to feel the travelling "itch" again,
but for now our thoughts are on how to best prepare
for the new Radford which is scheduled to arrive
sometime around the end of August.

Please keep in contact! Now that we are back "home" I
should have more time for writing, and would really
enjoy more personal e-mails.

May God bless you and yours,
-Dustin, Sarah, and Baby Radford

"An ADVENTURE is trouble you got out of..." -Jim Stenberg, high-school English teacher.

We will have no address other than e-mail during our trip, but our mail is now going to the address below. The phone number will be current until we leave.

Dustin and Sarah Radford
2357 Rodney Ct.
Springfield, OR 97477
(541) 928-8647

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New Adventures: Headed for some heat...

2005-12-26T10:52:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends and Family,

If you read my last e-mail, you will know that we have
been heading steadily south since we arrived. We left
London via a flight to The Netherlands, and from there
went to Belgium, where I last wrote. Fortunately, we
are now in Spain, where the weather is much nicer, and
the keyboard has a recognizable layout!

We spent three nights in Brussels staying in youth
hostels. The weather was quite chilly, and in fact
there was frost on the ground one morning. While we
were there got some new shoes for Sarah, as the boots
(which were sent home) had been hurting her feet.
This was quite an improvement, as we can now be
comfortable walking!

In Brussels we encountered the first of many Christmas
fairs we´ve seen, and perhaps the most impressive.
They have three different cultures there, and all were
represented. It certainly felt like Christmas,
although from what we hear, the weather back home is
much colder! After a light-show on the wall of the
ornate guildhall in the middle of town (which included
a Santa flying through scenes from every European
Union nation... Santa looks a bit out of place
blasting along past Michaelangelo´s "David"), we
snacked on a Keilbasa and traditional hot mulled wine.

Our last full day in Belgium we took a day-trip to the
medieval city of Bruges, which is famous for hand-made
lace and chocolate. If you have ever seen a store
entirely devoted to hand-made lace, it is something
you wouldn´t forget. They can make anything from
elaborate shirts and parasols to tiny lace
butterflies. We also visited a chocolate museum
there, learning about chocolate from the beginning of
its history until the present, and enjoying an edible
presentation of filled chocolates being made right in
front of us. This was definitely a trip highlight for
Sarah!

The next morning dawned misty but not quite as cold.
We took the metro and busses as far south as possible,
then walked out to the Belgian equivalent of an
on-ramp to the equivalent of an American Interstate
freeway and stuck out our thumbs. We succeeded in
getting a ride after about 20 minutes of waiting. We
got out of town to a gas station on the freeway a few
miles down the road and had to wait again. I have to
note that European gas-stops along the freeway are a
bit different than ours. There can be nothing at all
there except the gas station and shop and little
restaurant. You can take a break from driving, get a
beer, and then get back on the freeway. I have
actually seen this happen...

Anyway, our next ride was with a truck-driver who took
us across the French border and into a tiny town just
on the other side. Unfortunately, I forgot my gloves
and hat in his truck. No one spoke English, but Sarah
successfuly bought us train tickets into Paris, and we
left about an hour later, having saved over $100 by
our short stint of, as they say "auto-stop."

We spent almost a week in Paris. Dragging in our
first night a bit late, we went to the¨"Woodstock"
Hostel, recommended in our guidebook. It was amusing,
with half of a Volkswagen "Beetle" with
bumper-stickers pasted all over it attached to the
wall in the lounge. We had a tiny room painted bright
yellow. It was inexpensive, but for the next day,
which was our two-year anniversary, we stayed at our
most expensive hotel to date, on the other side of
Paris. The day after we moved into our home for the
rest of our stay there, the Hotel Bonsejour. Our room
was probably the best in the place, with a tiny view
of the tip of a dome of the Sacre Couer Cathedral from
our window. Unfortunately, it was also on the 6th
floor (although here it would be called 5th, as they
count the bottom floor as zero), up a steep spiral
stairway 94 steps tall. Really interesting, but also
a LOT of work!

We made sure to see the "sights" in Paris, although we
also spent a good deal of time searching for crepes
(very yummy with chocolate/hazelnut "Nutella" in
them), finding a pair of jeans to replace some of
Sarah´s trousers, and looking for a hat to replace the
one I lost hitchhiking. The hat had to say "PARIS" on
it, but just happens to have earflaps and one of those
fuzzy bauble thingies on top.

Of the sights, we saw the "Arc de Triomphe"... what
a monster! Also on the list was the unmissable Eiffel
Tower, most spectacular from a distance at night, when
the entire thing is covered with lights and strobe
lights which make it sparkle on the hour. We spent
most of a day getting to and wandering around the
Louvre. It is so huge, we walked past innumerable
masterpieces, and missed entire wings full or
paintings and sculptures. Although we were ready to
pay the hefty entry price, the admission happened to
be free, most likely due to a noisy demonstration
going on in the lobby... very French??? Anyway, my
personal favorite was the "Winged Victory of
Samothrace," but of course we saw the (surprisingly
small) "Mona Lisa" and (surprisingly large) "Raft of
the Medusa." We also made a point of seeing
Michaelangelo´s "Dying Slave" and were dazzled by the
royal apartments of Napoleon III.

It was still quite chilly in Paris, so we hopped a
Ryanair flight to Barcelona, hoping to find warmer
temperatures. The flight was late at night, and both
airports were a very long way from the cities they
serve. This is, we have found, a hallmark of Ryanair.
We spent the remainder of the night in Barcelona,
where it was markedly warmer, if still not as warm as
we´d like, then headed south again, this time to a
small place south of Barcelona called Casteldefells.
Here Sarah got her first glimpse of the Mediterranean
(I couldn´t miss out on taking a quick dip), and we
camped for the first time on this trip. It also truly
rained that night for the first time...
coincidence??? Unfortunately, the campground, in a
nice area otherwise, happens to be beneath the takeoff
flightpath for Barcelona International Airport. From
early morning until midnight large jets fly almost
nose to tail directly overhead, making for a deafening
nonstop racket. There was no question of moving on
the next day.

We found our next stop, Tarragona, very nice. It is
built on top of and around the ruins of the Roman
capital of their Spanish province. The ruins are
impressive, and include parts of the largest Roman
circus in the world. We had a nice room there above a
restaurant for a good price, and stayed for almost a
week, basically relaxing. Travelling can be very hard
work. Sarah and I both got colds started there, and
needed the break.

We left Tarragona later than planned, headed for the
supposedly warm "Costa Calida." Our first day we
spent on trains, passing through Valencia to Alicanti.
It was an interesting place to stay, although we only
spent the night. Above the city is a fortress built
on the hill, probably (my guess) by the Muslim Moors
to defend against the Christians which were their
nearby neighbors. We also had at least three
belltowers which (out of sync) clanged out the
quarter-hours loudly. One played "Silent Night" every
fifteen minutes! Fortunately they quit at midnight.

We took a crazy bus through probably two hours of
stop-and-go roundabouts to overshoot our hoped-for
stop and end up in a resort town called Los Alcazares.
It is on the Mar Menor, a large saltwater lagoon with
water considerably warmer than that of the
Mediterranean.

Christmas Eve.... What a day! When we arrived, we
noticed that almost everything was closed. There were
bars over the doors and plastic shutters drawn down
over every window. It was like a ghost town! We
searched and searched for a place to stay, but not
only the supermarkets and shops were closed, but also
the hotels! Only one hotel was open, and above our
price range. We skipped it at the beginning of the
search, only to find ourselves too far away to return
later. To make a long story slightly less long, we
ended up staying in the guest bedroom of an old German
fellow who had tried to help us find a hotel! He
spoke almost no English, but chattered all night...
glad for the company I guess. He didn´t wake up by
the time we needed to leave Chrstmas morning, and we
had to climb over his gate to get out!!!!

What an unusual Christmas! We were starving when we
left there, and couldn´t find anyplace AT ALL open!
We finally happened upon an Italian restaurant which
opened two hours prior to their normal hour of 1pm so
we could have some breakfast! We feasted on a spicy
Italian meal... much needed! After an unsuccessful
wait at the bus stop (not many busses Christmas day!)
we decided to splurge and stay at the very hotel we´d
passed the night before. Topped off with a nice
dinner of Pizza (where are we anyway?) and phonecalls
to home, we had a decent, if very unexpected Christmas
day.

Today, with time to spare and relatively beautiful
weather, we´ve moved back a few miles to our original
destination, still on the Mar Menor, of Santiago de la
Ribera. We´ve found a nice hotel close to the beach,
and plan to stay a few days.

Sorry for such a long e-mail, but recently our time
has been very busy with the business of travel, and
internet has been difficult to come by. Hopefully
future e-mails will be shorter and more often.

Merry Christmas!!!

-Dustin and Sarah

"An ADVENTURE is trouble you got out of..." -Jim Stenberg, high-school English teacher.

We will have no address other than e-mail during our trip, but our mail is now going to the address below. The phone number will be current until we leave.

Dustin and Sarah Radford
2357 Rodney Ct.
Springfield, OR 97477
(541) 928-8647

__________________________________________
Yahoo! DSL Something to write home about.
Just $16.99/mo. or less.
dsl.yahoo.com

New Adventures: Arrived at least...

2005-12-09T09:04:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends and Family,
I am typing from an awful remapped keyboard in
Belgium, apparently someone here is trying to get back
at me for something... perhaps just speaking English.
Anyway, I will keep this short, as it is painfully
slow to type anything.
We arrived without unusual event in London,
exhausted even though we had been fortunate enough to
have three seats to stretch out on for the entire
10-hour plane ride. We spent about a week in London
seeing the sights such as Big Ben, The House of
Parliament, St. Pauls Cathedral, The Tower of London,
and pharaohs and Greek gods galore at the fabulous
British Museum. Of course we also had a generous
helping of fish and chips, or french-fries (which are
both supposed to be eaten with a fork).We stayed with
a friend at her apartment in north London, and the
real highlight of our time there was meeting friends
of hers and seeing "real London" the way few tourists
are priveleged to.
We never did fully recuperate from jet-lag, but
decided to hop a short Ryanair flight to Eindhoven,
The Netherlands, on Wednesday. We arrived late, and
without a clear idea of where we were going to stay.
It was a nasty windy night and somewhere near
freezing. After the bus ride from the airport (which
was free thanks to the driver, who couldnt take the
large denomination which was the only money we had),
we walked 30 minutes to a Guesthouse, similar to a Bed
and Breakfast in the States, but without the
breakfast... Only to find no one home! We stood
freezing on the doormat trying to decide what to do
next, and finally ended up walking all the way back to
the bus station in search of a phone. By then we were
both tired and more than a little grouchy, so we got
into a cab, hoping it could take us to the nearest
youth hostel. The driver had no idea where one was.
Neither did we.
After sitting in his comfortable cab for half an
hour, during which the cabbie made numerous calls to
try to locate a place for us to stay, he finally
called the number listed for the same guesthouse we
had walked to earlier. The owner answered his mobile
phonbe, and informed the cabbie that we could stay,
and that the key was under the very doormat we had
been standing on!
The next day we rented bikes and spent the day
seeing Eindhoven in true Dutch style. This morning we
left our friendly Dutch host with an unpronounceable
name and took the train to Brussels, where we have
just gotten comfortable. The weather is quite cold,
however, and it is likely that we will continue south
soon. I will write more later, but from a more
comfortable keyboard. We have posted some pictures to
our Flickr account (available through the blogsite),
if you are interested.

Until then,
-Dustin and Sarah

"An ADVENTURE is trouble you got out of..." -Jim Stenberg, high-school English teacher.

We will have no address other than e-mail during our trip, but our mail is now going to the address below. The phone number will be current until we leave.

Dustin and Sarah Radford
2357 Rodney Ct.
Springfield, OR 97477
(541) 928-8647

__________________________________________________
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We've gone High Tech!

2005-11-27T09:12:00.000-08:00

Hi there everyone!

If you are one of those gadget and gizmo people, or
just spend plenty of time with your computer, you will
be interested to know that you can now have our blog
delivered directly via your RSS feed to your homepage,
mobile phone, or toaster! (ok... that would be a
very expensive toaster). I'm not a techie, but it was
very simple for me to "Syndicate" our blog and allow
an RSS feed to anywhere. If you are interested (or
have the least idea what this is all about), the blog
is now available via:

http://dustinandsarah.blogspot.com/atom.xml

;-)

The days of technology.... wow.

-Dustin and Sarah

"An ADVENTURE is trouble you got out of..." -Jim Stenberg, high-school English teacher.

We will have no address other than e-mail during our trip, but our mail is now going to the address below. The phone number will be current until we leave.

Dustin and Sarah Radford
2357 Rodney Ct.
Springfield, OR 97477
(541) 928-8647

__________________________________
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New Adventures 2: Almost Ready...

2005-11-20T11:51:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends and Family,

In less than two weeks Sarah and I will find ourselves
in London. Even a casual observer to our lives would
be able to tell that we are in a great rush of
packing, repairing, sorting, selling, and giving away
Stuff. It's amazing how Stuff is what really ties you
down. Last week we filled up the 4Runner with Stuff
and took it to our parents' homes for storage. On
Thanksgiving we will be filling the 4Runner again and
pulling a trailer behind it as well... and I am
beginning to doubt that even then we will have moved
all of our Stuff... not to mention the 10 boxes of
books we took a few weeks ago! You may be able to
understand (quickly think about "Getting more Stuff"
for the "holiday season")how liberating it will be
when all of our belongings within ten-thousand miles
will fit into our backpacks. There is no other
experience which can lighten the load which material
posessions impose more than hoisting the entirety of
them upon your back and walking wherever your fancy
may take you. I, for one, am looking forward to it.

Aside from putting together my list of e-mails, we
have had only small adventures. I traded my bright
yellow 1981 Honda 900 motorcycle for the
above-mentioned 1988 4Runner, and have been trying to
get everything fixed on it ever since. For those of
you who remember my first car, my beautiful yellow
1978 Toyota hatchback, it has finally moved on... I
fear perhaps to its final rest. It was not, in fact,
yellow when I sold it. Last year I attempted to sell
it, and thought that I had when a (I know now) shady
character gave $100 of the asked-for $400 and promised
to return that night with the rest on condition that
he could drive it away. Of course I never saw the
rest of the money. I retained the title and extra
key, and one month later hunted down the vehicle,
which had been camoflauged with a grey paint job, and
returned it home. It worked out well for me, as I
have no idea what I would have driven last winter if I
had actually lost that car! He came by a few weeks
later and had the nerve to ask for his money back!
(He didn't get it.)

When the 4Runner appeared on the scene, I found a
buyer for the car via internet in Portland. He seemed
a reliable type, and so one rainy afternoon I drove up
to meet him. He was a young guy (I didn't realize
until later that he was still in high-school!) and
when I arrived he informed me that he was planning to
buy the car along with a friend. They asked if they
could go for a test drive, and I (not knowing any
better) agreed. With two fairly large guys sardined
in the tiny back-seat, and myself and the driver in
the front, the car was fairly packed, although I was
soon to be thankful for the added traction!

After a little excitement when the push-button starter
was inadvertently engaged with the car in gear, we got
it started. They were obviously unfamiliar with a
clutch from the beginning, as we nearly rolled
backward into Sarah's car before, with clutch smoking
and engine racing, the balding tires spun and caught
and we went swerving at amazing speed through the
narrow residential alleys that pass for Portland's
streets! At this point the driver was distracted by
the facts that the stereo was made by Ford and that he
didn't know how to operate it. As the music drowned
out the over-revving of the engine, we neared a corner
with the turn-signal on, only slowing slightly. I
clutched the edge of my seat and pressed my feet into
the floor where the brake pedal should have been. We
attempted the corner, and I felt the back of the car
loose traction as one of the back passengers,
obviously more in tune with the situation than the
driver, yelled "woah!" I still remember the color of
the car we came within an inch of totalling: Blue.
At the next block they switched drivers, but the
driving did not improve. I was more than relieved
when we finally came to rest, still in one piece and
even properly parked!

The rest of the sale was anticlimactic, but still
amusing. After filling out the paperwork, I was
informed that one of the partners had forgotten his
portion of the money, and that this was not a problem,
as long as I didn't mind being paid partially in
rolled change. I walked out a few minutes later with
a bread-bag full of rolled quarters, nickels, and
dimes, along with a large number of one- and
five-dollar bills, supplemented with a few twenties to
round out the total. I haven't heard from them since,
although I did recently receive notice of an overdue
parking ticket for the motorcycle!

Other than this our lives have been a hubbub of the
details of daily life. We have discovered that we may
have a chance to see the winter Olympics in Italy, and
have found a place to stay in London for our first
night. We've gotten a grand total of 6 immunizations
(we were both already pretty well immunized), a new
pair of mittens for Sarah, and a new insulated
undershirt for me. It's strange to think that we only
have four, maybe five, days of work left here in
Albany!

I will try to write before we leave, but it is
possible that next time you hear from me I will be
typing from a keyboard on that other continent...

Until then,
-Dustin and Sarah Radford

New Adventures

2005-10-20T11:47:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends and Family,

After my trip to Africa in 2002 most of my adventures
have been of a more personal and internal nature.
They wouldn't, I assume, make very interesting
reading, and so I haven't put them into writing. As
you probably know, I married my soulmate Sarah in
December of 2003, and have since been living a quiet
apartment-dwellers life in Albany, Oregon. It will
have to suffice to say that marriage has been the
biggest and most life-changing adventure of our lives,
but that there is no way it can be explained by any
amount of writing.

Thankfully, the introduction is over, and so now on to
the present! Now that we've had some time to get to
know eachother, Sarah and I have decided to go
travelling! At first we wanted to visit Nairobi on a
short-term mission trip, but our money didn't save as
quickly as hoped, and we decided that it wasn't meant
to be. Instead, we began planning for India, but once
again the cost (mostly of airline tickets) redirected
us. We've finally settled on a three-month trip to
Europe which we will embark on with or without the
funds we would like due to the fact that we have
already bought our tickets!

We are scheduled to fly out of Seattle on November
30th and return from London on March 1st. In the
meantime we are hoping to visit some friends at their
home in southern France, are considering a little time
at L'Abri, and have great hopes of staying warm
camping in the dead of winter in southern Italy and
the islands of Greece!

Aside from sharing our news, I am writing to find out
if you are interested in getting regular e-mail
updates of our adventures. If you are interested,
please reply! I am vaguely considering blogging, as
that is apparently the popular thing to do these days,
so if you have a leaning toward either e-mail or blog,
please let me know that as well. Hearing back from
you may very well inspire me to do a bit more personal
e-mailing, so please do write! I would be interested
to know what you are up to!

Yours always,
-Dustin Radford