OLD!

I feel old today. Tired too!

We just got back yesterday afternoon from Anderson, Indiana where we celebrated the graduation of Jacquie, our first born. It was great, she was great, all was great except that she's just too young to be doing things like graduating from college. She's just 21! Why didn't she work hard and cram four years of college life into five like her old man? And her grades! She was the first in line to graduate with the Bachelor's degree. She was first not due to anything other then her last name starting with 'A'. So you see I did give her something of quality in life, her first place in line. But when the Dean of the School announced "Jacqueline Esther Ling Ackerman, magna cum laud, with honors in Political Science" I figured he was talking about some Nestles ice cream bar. I am proud but I am also smart enough to know that she didn't get her brains from her father.

Now to add to that there was Jessica's birthday that we told you about last week. She was 15 but really should be only 12 or so. Then today I woke up to find myself another year older. It's like they never told you when you were a teenager that tomorrow you would wake up and be 59 years old

Well, I guess it has happened though. Life goes on as it is supposed to do. We'll ignore all this and get back to the clinics tomorrow. I'll ignore it until they wake me up again singing "Happy Birthday to You" next year then I can really get depressed again.


And So It Goes! Life.


John

Our Jacquie

Time-out for a Birthday

This young lady is my lovely daughter Jessica who, on April 30th celebrated her 15th birthday. She is a special person both in looks and all those other things that make kids great. She's really great to live with and you can plan on a daily trip down "Fun" street. She bakes everything she can get her hands on and hopes (at the present time) to become a famous pastry chef. Thus, for her birthday we got her a cookie and cake carrier and a "Spring Form" pan. I'm not sure if that is spelled correctly but it a pan that one uses to make cheese cakes. I look forward to her trying them out so I can try out the results. Anyway here she is! Isn't she beautiful? Just like her dad.

And so it Goes!

John

Day 2: The Canopy Tour

Let's just call this one the second world “Super” playground in a jungle setting. Actually we rode on the bus about two hours this morning to get to the tour area. The setting is a mountainous area (not Pike’s Peak, more like the Appalachians) with a lush covering of Canopy trees.

Arranged at various places in this forest are towers that remind one of the fire towers you would sometimes see if driving through areas of the mountains of West Virginia or Georgia. These towers are connected with other towers by 1/2” metal cable.

Now, that is the setting. Here is what happens. Humans just like you and me get themselves in a harness, climb these towers, hook our three safety cables and roller wheel to the cable and launch ourselves, suspended only by a harness, down this cable at high speeds and often high elevations until we reach another tower or platform high up in one of the trees. From there the same thing is repeated again and again to other trees and towers.

Why do we do it? I guess because we were in Costa Rica and that is what you do in Costa Rica. Some people say it’s because of the ability to be out in the open to see the beautiful jungle (flying past at 90mph?). No. I believe we do it because we’re human and there’s something that is God given inside us that calls this little bit of abandon “FUN.” It was a fun day.

I wish I could show you some great pictures to give you an idea of what it was like but I don’t know how to put videos on this blog yet so you’ll have to put up with my still pictures. If you really would like to check out some videos of what actually happens simply direct your browser to www.youtube.com and search for “Costa Rica Canopy Tour” and you will be shown about 150 different videos you can see first hand.

Tomorrow I’ll try to give you a little idea of the wildlife on a river tour that we took in the city of Limon.

And So It Goes! John

This is where the Crazy people go off!

Jodie in her fashion Hat

Jessica now wants to be a sky diver!

Poor, scared people knew we were going to die!

The Whole Gang

Costa Rica

It seems like forever since I’ve updated the blog. So here you go, a week long update.

Anyway, Jodie, Jessica, and I left on April 11^th to attend the Church of God Latin American missionary retreat and conference in the country of Costa Rica. About all I can tell you is that it is geographically somewhere bordering Panama on the south and Guatemala on the north. I actually spent the whole week and a half there having no idea where I was and to be honest have only looked at the map for its location once, three minutes ago.

How did we get included as a Latin Missionary? (You thought they spoke French and Creole in Haiti didn’t you?) Ask me that sometime when your humor index is high and we have some time to waste and I’ll let you in on the secret. Back to the subject.

Our group consisted of 12 missionaries from Belize, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Haiti J, 7 MKs (missionary kids) and one person from the United States. Actually the one from the U.S. was Sharon who came from Anderson, Indiana and is an executive of Chog Global Missions, our boss. We had to invite her. No! Really they paid for almost everything we did there, she had all the scoop on the “inside stuff” that we had to work on during our conferences there, and besides that Sharon was great fun. She even went on the high zip lines. I didn’t have the guts. More about those tomorrow.

We flew with our friends Phil, Lonnie, and David Murphy from Port-au-Prince to Panama City, changed planes then flew to San Jose. If you ever get the chance to fly out of Panama city at night don’t pass it up. The lights of the city are stunning. Actually, when you live in Port-au-Prince a lot of lights coming from any city would probably seem rather exciting.

So tomorrow, barring a tidal wave on our mountain we’ll get to the Canopy Tour, which consists of lots of hills, trees, and many zip lines. I’ll even try to find some pictures.

And So It Goes! John

And you think you have it bad?

I saw on the news last week about a person in Cleveland, Ohio who build themself a 90,000 squair foot home on a small street. The neighbors were already complaining because people were stopping on the small street in front of it just to gawk at it. This is before the home was already finished.

I guess that's what I was doing when I took this picture. But realze I wasn't blocking any traffic nor gawking at one home. I was gawking at a bunch of them. Also realize that this picture is taken with a 420mm lense from quite a distance away so what you are seeing is a minisquel part of the whole picture. I guess what I'm trying to do here though is show you what life is like for those human beings who just want to have a place to lay their head and call a little something "their place." I don't want this to make you feel guilty (unless that's the way you get your kicks) but I do want you to realize how blessed you and I are especially when it comes to places for lying our heads.

And so it goes!

John