Ontario, . . . California

Here I await the bus that will take me to the train that will take me to Fresno where someone from camp Wawona waits to take me to camp! Downside is it's only 12 noon and my bus won't be here till 2pm. Set to arrive in Fresno at 8pm!
Sheesh, I've never traveled by bus in the states before! Yet another memory trigger to traveling in Honduras and in Africa. Cool. It can't be the same. . . can it? Chickens in seats, people crammed in, dust coming through the windows? Although I remember one trip in Honduras that was in a really nice bus, good comfy seats, big closed clean windows.
I had a blast yesterday. WE had lots of people over for lunch. What started off as just a few people coming over ended up as 15-20 people eating with us :o) The really funny part was they were all mainly 3rd year med students, who knew each other already. Liz and I (although it was mainly Liz) whipped up some tasty food
. The fellowship was fun. Since Joe and Christine had been in Tchad too we chatted a bit about our time there. Always a captive med school audience when the stories are of crazy medical situations and diagnosis. I found it fun to be around good people my age again.We all laughed a lot and told fun stories. Oh and Kelvin Lim came! I hadn't seen him since he left Southern in '03! That's a long time. So anyway, then we all went hiking to some falls up in the mountains. We wanted to find snow so we headed off the beaten path to find some. I doubted a bit but Liz said she knew where there was some. . . at points we were barely hanging on to the mountain. I almost fell down it but was saved by a dead tree and Dan (the guy behind me). The hike up was rough. I didn't think it was going to be worth it or maybe I hoped it would be.
We found it though! Snow in SoCal in the middle of June--cool! We all had fun playing in the snow. My fingers got really cold. We played a bit then headed back out. What a fun adventurous, exhausting Sabbath. Making new friends, visiting with old friends and enjoying God's nature. Ahhh.

The love of Kaleb

Kaleb

I was heart broken yesterday when I found out that 4 year old Kaleb died yesterday from Malaria. How does someone cope with that? What do you do with that kind of information? I wanted to do so many things at one time. I wanted to weep a deep heart wrenching cry, I wanted to scream at God, “Why did you let something like this happen to such a hard working family, whose on YOUR SIDE?”, I wanted to drop everything and get on a plane and fly back to Tchad and sit with Wendy and Gary. I want to do whatever it takes to relive them of this horrible burden of sadness. But as the news slowly sank in and my tears stopped flowing I knew that God is still in control, that God is weeping with me and with Gary and Wendy.

I talked to Esther about it and we both relived some memories of Kaleb. He was a great little guy. He would always ask about his dad, Gary, when he was coming back on the plane, when he could go up in the plane. He was great at making friends with the local kids. They would play on the giant cement slab outside, he would stand there and take the curious looks and touches from the local people as they saw their first white child. He never got angry at them or upset. Wendy told me that last time they where here on furlough Kaleb would wave at the African-Americans assuming that they were Africans from Tchad and shout, “Lapia, lapia”, the local greeting.

I’m now staying with Liz for the rest of this week and we also have talked a lot about him and his family. We’ve talked about things that we wish we could do and how we feel about it the whole tradgedy. Life is short and God is working hard and in Tchad there is much good happening with the work of Gary, Wendy Dr James and the rest of the missionaries there. Because of this the devil has fought back. He is attacking at the core of people’s heart, children. We can’t let this work for God stop. I can’t stop trusting God with my life and with my future.

I will pray for my friends as they are hurting greatly. I will remember precious Kaleb and I will tresure my memories of him. This I can also say, I will not let the devil get me down. I will trust in God because he is the One I trust with everything.

Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. . . For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. . . Therefore encourage each other with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4:13,16,18

You are in my thoughts and prayers Gary and Wendy.

Chad Tragedy

Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Living God,

A lot of you might have already have heard about the tragic death of four year old Kaleb Roberts in Bere, Tchad on Wednesday do to Malaria. He is the son of Gary and Wendy, the pilot/nurse from the states. This is the family that would let us SM’s go and visit them when we were feeling low, or they would let us bake at their house and I watched Cherise and Kaleb several times so both Wendy and Gary could help at the hospital. Wendy is a true kindred spirit and they both were a great support to us. We would not have made it through the year without that family’s love, support and spiritual encouragement.

It’s at times like this when we want to do something but don’t always know how. Right now Gary, Wendy and Cherise want and need to come back to the states for 3 months to be with close family and friends. A support system is what they need. Because of the sudden nature of this they will have to find $10,000, $3,500 per round trip ticket. If you can help in any way please do. You can either contact Cherise White or Gary’s mom, Jan directly or .

We are also sending them a box of prayers. We want to gather prayers from people all over the states and world to let them know that they are being prayed for and thought of. It’s the prayers of fellow Christians that will help them make it through.

Below is an adapted letter from one of their friends at Southern and also Gary's mom asking for our help to bring their family home after Malaria took the life of their son Kaleb 2 days ago.

Dear Family and Friends,

This is a hard letter to write but as Gary's mom said there is no easy way but to just say it.

As some of you may have heard, Gary and Wendy Roberts lost their 4yo son, Kaleb, to Malaria yesterday morning. His liver gave up and he had pulmonary edema from the Malaria and there wasn't anything they could do about it. They worked a code for over an hour on him before they called it. It was fairly sudden and that has made the loss that much harder. I have talked with them and they seem to be holding up ok but there is no way to comprehend what they are going through. They buried him yesterday afternoon next to the airstrip where he used to watch his daddy fly and he loved flying as well. Cherise (their almost 3yo) is doing ok but started having a hard time when they were burying him. As I would!!!!!!!!!

Now, they would like to come here and on to the States for some time with family and friends. As you know, they have been working without a salary and totally dependent on God for the necessary funds for their operation in Tchad, as they were in Guyana and the Cameroons. God has provided and will continue to do so through friends and loyal supporters. They need to get home to their family and support system. It is basically going to cost about $10,000 in just plane tickets.

We've been doing some checking for tickets. We have quite a few Northwest Airlines frequent flier miles that we can use towards the tickets but it won't come near to paying for everything for the three of them. We are willing to make up the difference financially and I know that many of you will want to help them in this time of grief as well. If you would like to help out with these ticket purchases, please contact us and we'll tell you where to send the donation of love. So far it looks like the tickets will cost about $3500 each but that is not including using air mileage credit. Still working on that. So with perhaps $10,000 that makes for a big chunk of money but with everyone making a contribution it can be done. They want to come here next week and spend three weeks.

There will also be a memorial fund set up in Kaleb's name at Gospel Ministries Incorporated. This will be to help Gary and Wendy continue on with their ministry there in Tchad. They want to return sometime in September but they need time for rest and recuperation for all of them. The weather has been terribly hot with temperatures over 100 for this past month. Cherise has been sick but okay now. Kaleb was obviously very sick and Wendy is also feeling poorly. Gary is exhausted as he's been working so hard on their house to get it done before the rains fall which have been delayed...

Please continue to pray for all of us, especially Gary and Wendy and dear little Cherise who has lost her brother, best friend and playmate. "Weeping endures for the night but joy comes in the morning." How we look forward to that morning. The day when Jesus will come and end all of this misery on this earth and take us to His home in heaven!

Please forward this letter on to whoever and let them know as we want to get them home. They have been doing an incredible work and live off of only donations and they need now need our help. God bless each of you and keep praying for the Roberts...the next few days are going to be HARD.

Much Love
Cherise (Rustad) White gmwhite@southern.edu
and 
Jan Roberts - flyaai@gmail.com

California Dream'n

I've been 'living' in Cali for a few days now. I think my body has gotten used to the three hour time difference. Although it's hard to tell when I've been staying up late talking and giggling.

I was born here in California, but remember nothing of the state. So it's as if this is my first time here. Rachel and I have been having our share of adventures and excitement. For me it was yesterday when we went to try for my first time Boba tea. For those of you that have never been to the west coast and don't know what that is let me explain. Boba tea is a drink containing little tapioca balls, they are in the bottom of the drink. They are drunken through the large straw. The drink is a tea or milk base. You can get most any flavor from mango to coffee. They can be slushy, ice creamy or like a tea. It was created in the 80's in Taiwan. I loved it! It was cold, fruity, sweet, quenching and fun to drink. (be careful when drinking sometimes the boba balls can get sucked up the straw unaware to the drinker!) I hope to drink more again before I move on past the state of my birth.

Here are some cool pictures that we took with my phone to document the great treat of Boba Tea!

Dallas

The joys of traveling through Dallas.
Here I am again on the next leg of my summer journeys. I find myself comfortably surrounded by "my people". To quote a common Texas phrase, "I wasn't born in Texas but I got here as soon as I could". I arrived, according to my folks, at 11 months to the great state of Texas.

When going through security here at Dallas Love Field, the woman in front of me was a Texas business woman and dressed as such, a silver theme consisting of heels (but not the stiletto, a nice solid Texas look) silver bangles, necklace, earrings jacket and skirt with a white lacy tank-top/blouse. Her hair was big but not over the top crazy Texas big. And then the businessman behind me handed me a tub for security and said, "Here sugar." Once on the other side of security I was putting my cowboy boots back on and I felt at home and a part of "my people" because he also had to put his boots back on.
While sitting here in the terminal I've seen a fair share of cowboy hats, boots, belt-buckles. Tall women and rough men.

Yehaw, and God Bless Texas.

our dog's on the roof.

As with all families mine is no different. We all have our inside jokes our inside stories. We re-tell stories and re-tell jokes. As outsiders look at our family they might not understand what on earth we are doing, but we get it. We know what's going on. This week while I'm at home one has come to pass through the winds of time yet again. It's a story that goes like this:

A family goes on vacation leaving Grandma and the cat at home. The family gets a family friend to watch the house, Grandma and the cat. While on their vacation Mom calls home to check up on things. Each time she calls home things are going okay. Until one day close to the end of vacation, Mom calls home and asks. "How's the cat?" The friend says, "oh, things aren't going well. The cat got out of the house and was hit by a car." Mom was very shocked and surprised! "Why did you tell me the cat died, you should have just told me that she had climbed up on the roof and wouldn't come down! I could have found out when vacation was over." "Oh, sorry" said the friend. The mother then preceded to ask about Grandma. "How's Grandma doing today?" she says. The friend responds "Oh, well Grandma, she's, uh. . . she's. . . on the roof."

So long Lou Lou. I hope the view is better from the roof.

Home Fries

I'm on my middle leg of my journey to California. I'm currently at my mom's house. But this last weekend I was chill'n like a villain with my best friend from high school. It was great to see her. I think it's amazing how she and I can have not seen each other in two years, only talked on the phone a handful of times and yet when we get together there is not barriers. We can giggle, talk and share as if we were still 16 and sitting on her bed in Keene, Texas. I love it! We played with my computer a bit and I'm pretty sure they summarize our friendship :o)
Some friendships are just blessed with the ability to love long term and long distance. We know that we care and if ANYTHING were to ever happen to one or the other we would drop what we were doing and run to their aid. God blessed us with a friendship that will last!