Kelly and Connie’s Place

Kelly & I have joined the office “Biggest Loser Contest.” We have 35 participating – with 22 women and 13 men. We each paid $10.00 so the cash reward for the women will be $220 and the men, $130. The results for Kelly and me after the first week were incredible…read on.

It wasn’t difficult to decide to do this diet. Kelly had slipped back into the same symptoms that brought us off the field. That was scary! The Atkins diet made a difference then, and it looks like it is working again.

Kelly Has Reason To Celebrate! After just one week his blood sugar level fell below 100 for the first time in years! Hallelujah! And all because he corrected his carb intake. In One Week! And, he feels soooo much better!

Since then his blood sugar has been as low as 86. As for me, I won the first week of “Who lost the most weight percentage wise”. I lost 6.5 lbs. that week. As for the rest of our office group – 84.5 pounds total, were lost the 1^st week.

Coffee Head Is Gone! The worst part was going off of caffeine cold turkey. I know, we should have done it gradually, but we didn’t.  We paid for it too. The 2^nd & 3^rd days brought on horrible headaches and body aches. Wow, this was an addiction! The 4^th day was a break through; our heads cleared and we started to feel human again. The best part though was that by the 4^th day, the hunger pains and cravings between meals was completely gone. Do you know how freeing that is?

OK, we will keep you informed of how well we do. I believe the contest ends around March 9th. But since it’s not about the contest or money, but eating right and feeling good, we plan to work toward making this a “life-style” of being healthy.

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Hurray! Kelly did pass his test and was able to renew his old Amateur Radio license. He has new “call letters” now, “K4UPG,” as you saw in the title. If you understand the kind of missions work we do, you would agree K4UPG is very apropos for him. Possibly there will be opportunities to share about the Lord to other “hams” when they ask him about his call letters.

As Kelly reacquaints himself with his old hobby of 30 some years ago, he has had to reacquire various items, parts and tools of the trade. EBay has been a great resource and it is easy on the pocketbook.

This last weekend we had our first Amateur Radio outing so Kelly could test his radio. Our housing community has a 30 acre lake just a couple of blocks from us with a small and simple park area overlooking the lake. (Simple means: 3 weather worn park benches & 2 small picnic tables.) It is a very “open” area without electrical wires or tall buildings that would interfere with his reception, ideal for what he needed.

It was extremely windy so we had to set up in an area a little more protected by trees. “Set up” meant, stringing his antenna coax between two trees about 60 feet apart. And, the higher up the antenna, the better the reception. With the wind, this was a challenge!

Since last weekend, he has been researching different ways to get his antenna strung between the trees without throwing his arm out of joint. He has come up with some ingenious ways, so the next post about his radio adventures will probably introduce you to one of these.

For this outing, he was testing his transceiver and mostly just listening. (He’s still working on the “tuna can” transmitter, waiting on parts. NOT- kelly it is done!) With the receiver he was able to “listen” to the chatter over the airwaves. He actually heard other amateur operators transmitting from the Falkland Islands, Costa Rica and from different states all over the US. The day was a success.

While Kelly was having fun I was doing one of my favorite things, sitting on one of those weather worn park benches reading a good book and trying to keep warm. The book was “The Lotus and the Cross” by Ravi Zacharias, which I highly recommend.

It was a great weekend and we both enjoyed that day. We look forward to many more.

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God’s call to fulfill His promise to see a people from every tribe, nation and tongue brought into his Kingdom has not gone unheeded (Rev. 7:9). Forty-five new missionary candidates attended our January Candidate Orientation Program this past week (Jan. 4-9). It happens five times a year so this is just the beginning. What a great way to start the new year of 2009!

I never tire of seeing these “called out ones” of all ages, from all over the country, stream into our training center. Each one has their own story of how God has touched their lives and brought them to this point. We feel privileged to hear these stories first hand and be a part of seeing their dream start to come to fruition.

Take for example, Nazir (not his real name), a 67 year old US citizen from Pakistan. He came to the US over 30 years ago with his family as a teacher. Now this guy has a story! He proves it is never too late to answer God’s call.

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Christa says: “WOW! Last night was amazing! I never felt that close to God. It was the ideal way to start off the New Year! I loved Story ’08! It was great to hear from all these different missionaries and to meet new people.”

Those are quotes or “reviews” from a couple of attendees at Story ’08 which I have copied from our  Story 08 Facebook page.

The main sessions were held in the sanctuary where a world globe helped us all focus on the needs of the world. Worship was sweet and the speakers were great.

The crowd was great, some 300+ in attendance with the majority coming from out of state. Just take a look at the young people in these photos:

Kelly and I were in charge of book sales and they were brisk. It looks like we sold over $8000 in mission’s books and resources.

We finished the event off by bringing in the New Year with a “Concert of Worship and Prayer.” It started at 9 PM and closed at 12:30 AM on Jan 1^st.

We took the globe off its stand and everyone gathered around to pray for the world.

Then, just before midnight we started passing the air-filled globe from one side to the other. It was a blast. It was also “heavier” than I thought it would be.

Here are a few more quotes:

Lesley: What an amazing week! Thank you, Pioneers, and all the people who worked to pull it off! What a great way to ring in the New Year…thanks for the experience. I hope there is a Story 09!

Irma from NY: STORY ’08 was awesome. I’ve been so blessed this week and am glad I came to the conference. Thank you Pioneers!!! God bless~

Emily (student at TCU): Thank you so much, Story’08 Crew!!! I know it was a ton of work, and it was such a blessing for me to learn from y’all and watch your example lived out in front of us. Thank you so much for the incredible amount of yourselves you poured out for us!! It was such a privilege to be around you, and I’m challenged to pray and seek hard to follow your examples in Christ. THANK YOU.

Ted (Valencia Com. College) Story 09…… Story 09….. Story 09…..

I don’t know if there will be a “Story 09″, only time will tell.  Kelly and I were exhausted when it was all over, but it was worth it!

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