The Update

We've had a great summer in the Skipper house. We had summer trips with the youth group and a vacation in Destin as well as just the pure joy of watching Curry grow up. We've had great times in swimming pools, at the creek, in the front yard and everywhere in between this summer. Here's a brief overview of the last few months.

May
We had a great rafting trip with the college students from our church. Followed by a long awaited hiking trip on the AT. I hiked with some students from church for 70 miles through the Great Smokey Mountain National Park on the Appalachian Trail. What a wonderful Trip! You should see the DVD. Classic documentary - even though Stroo doesn't care about it.

June
Curry's first VBS (he skipped last year on doctors orders. Turns out that 2 week olds souldn't be at VBS. Whatever).

July
Super Summer, Basecamp, Children's Camp - a big old church trip blur - with a birthday! And Kelly Wheat moved back to Mississippi with his beautiful family. Go Chocs!

August
Big Seven (middle school kids are the best). Beleivers Bash was the hottest night ever! And of course the fantastic family vacation that ended with a stomach virus.

Lot's to catch up on, but that's a start. Sorry it's been so long since the last post.

Peace

Curry's Birthday & Other Fun Stuff...

Sorry it's been so long since we last updated everyone. There is really no excuse because I've been home the last month with Curry just playing! I love having the summer's off with him, but by about 5 o'clock each day we are both ready for Ben to come home!

Curry celebrated his first birthday on May 27th. We had a great time with our families and had lots of friends to help us celebrate! If you came...thanks so much!

Curry is really growing fast and getting around so good these days! He loves to play outside - helping mom in the garden, swimming in his pool, chasing Skip and Sandie. Most days he wears just his diaper and a smile!

Curry has had a few "first experiences" in the last month or so, including his first Vacation Bible School and his first campout. Check out the pictures!

Free Day Missionaries on Tour

Today was our free day. We went to the market in Masaya. Its definately a cultural experience. Its an open air market...although the air is smelly in places and all the booths are covered, so its really not that open. Anyway, imagine hundreds of booths with shelves of trinkets, clothes, shoes, machetes, hammocks, wood working and every tourist baiting souvenier imaginable. Everyone wants to sell you their goods. You could really get lost in there. In fact, I dont remember if Kyle came out. Hey I hope hes not still there. Anyway, they sell produce, meat and souvienrs all in the same noisy market. It is no place for the clostrophobic. But we survived.

















After the market, we went to eat at a local restaurant that has been deemed safe by the local missionaries. The food was great, but it was greater when Adam found out that he could buy a pizza there. Youve never seen a Papa Johns that was more appreciated. Everyone else ate a Nicaraguan steak.. not what you are thinking..smaller..thiner...but very good.




We wound up at Crater Lake. Its an old volcano that has become a lake and a tourist attraction...much like our own Crater Lake in the US. There are shops and people who want to shine your shoes, sing you a song, give you a neclace, take your picture or anything else for a little cash. Someone had a local duo sing a little anniversary tribute for Adam and Amelia. Touching. I know.



As usual, Preacher led a great trip and of course today DR was her normal super tour guide. But now we are all tired and ready to get back home. Cant wait to see everyone in church Sunday morning.

Back at the Mission Home

We finished our work in the village of La Libertad. The week in La Libertad was fabulous. The setting was amazing. We were in the mountains with beautiful backdrops of mountain peaks and tropical vegetation. The climate was actually mild ... thats a first for our group. We had a little rain everyday, but it was never a problem.

We saw plenty of people during the week and our clinics were able to offer a lot of assistance to people who lived in the area. People traveled as many as four hours on horseback to visit our clinic. Everyone did great. I cant wait for Sunday night when we can all see the pictures together as a church family and hear the final report. We miss you guys so much.





Today was a little tough. We packed up and left the village around lunch. The hardest part of the trip is leaving. The village was our home for a week, and leaving the children was heart wrenching. They got attached and so did we. They were crying and some of us were. It is amazing to feel loved this way. The goodbyes were hard, but they reassured us of our place in the village and in a way, our place in the world. It is good to love God and to love His children. Today it seems like all Gods children really are one big family. We are truly all brothers and sisters.

The village sent us off with a celebration. Local children dressed in festive clothes and danced local dancxes for us. The mayor presented a plaque to bro. Hogan and the local pastor expressed his appreciation for ou work. It is great to feel so appreciated.

The five hour bus ride back to the mission home however was not so great. And, to top it all off in true mission trip style, one of the buses broke down. Fortunately for us it was on the street just outside the driveway of the mission home. The bus stopped to back into the driveway, and with a loud clank, the driveshaft hit the ground. We figure that things like that are to be expected.



Tomorrow we will spend some time sightseeing and shopping. Tonight we will celebrage together in a banquet at the mission home. All is well as we wrap up a good week.

In La Libertad

Big thanks to the mayor of La Libertad. She is allowing us to make this post in her office on the city computer. I couldn´t find an internet cafe in the village, so this is a huge gift. Here´s the update from Wednesday.

We´ve been here since Sunday. We were off to a slow start after traveling a long and bumby road to the village. Rain slowed us down as we tried to get our clinic set up for our first chapel. That was Sunday. On Monday all was well.

Chapel services have been great. Anthony is doing a great job preaching. He has been a huge new addition to our team. We´ve seen about 1,800 people so far and over 200 decisions for Christ. God willing that will continue or increase today and tomorrow morning.

John and Linda joined us yesterday. It is great to have them back. They know the ropes so well, and it just feels more normal with them around. We had a very sick team member from Florida last night, but the doctors did great. Meredith Wilson did an exceptional job. We prayed a lot and she is back at work this morning. It was a late night for a lot of people on our team.

The Pharmacy is doing well. The dentists have pulled more teeth than you want to know about, and Dr. Mauldin is leaving today for a commitment at home, so they will be without her after today. She has done a great job.

Preacher is doing a great job leading the team. He and I got a personal tour yesterday from the mayor. I was just tagging along with the dignitary. It pays to have important friends. She drove us to the gold mines and to an local ranch. It was very impressive.

The children are beautiful and we feel blessed to be here. Thank you to everyone who cooked, brought food, packed pills, gave money and prayed for us. It is good to be a part of our church family.

The village is beautiful. We are loving this trip. I´ll update you more when we get back to the mission home on Thursday evening. We miss you guys and hope you have a wonderful night at CBC.

T

Day 2

Everyone is in the kitchen standing in line to bleach their hands and have breakfast. CBC folks are picking out ties and trying to find bibles for church. We miss all of you, but its great to know that we are connected as a church family whether we are in the same country or not.

Pray for John P. He has been sick since last night. We hoped that he would wake up feeling better, but that wasnt the case. He looks better now, but to be on the safe side, he will stay in the mission home this morning. He and Linda will join the team in La Libretad as soon as he feels better.

The mission home is beautiful this morning. Its peaceful and the plants are so healthy. We have lots of church members who would absolutley love to see the plants here. Some of the things that we grow at home are here too, but they are really thriving in the Nicaraguan climate. Its really something.

One interesting note about typing here. I couldnt find the @ symbol. At home you type shift then 2 and youre all set. Not here. You have to press alt and 6 and 4 at the same time. Try figuring that one out. I still cant find the apostrophe, so bear with the poor contractions. Pray for us today. Well have our clinic set up after lunch and we will see our first group shortly after that. Today will be a busy day for us.

We hope that worship goes well for you guys at CBC. May God bless you as you gather today. I hope that He will speak and move and show us more of what he wants.

God Bless You, and somebody give Curry a hug from Daddy please. ...Ben

We Made It

We finally made it to Managua and all are safe...most are sound. Its a late night for us and since Nicaragua doesnt observe daylight savings time, its later for us that it is for them, but who can complain.

We have one sick missionary and a lot of lost luggage. Fortunately for the CBC crew all the MIA luggage belongs to our Floridian friends. We were cutting it pretty close on the flight from Houston. They held the plane and offered passengers 600 dollars in travel vouchers to wait for tomorrows flight because they overbooked. Of course Bro. Hogan wouldnt let any of us take them up on that deal, but 8 others did, and that made enough room for all of Spikes folks.

The mission home had a great supper waiting for us. Pollo on skewers with a few sides and sweet bread. All is well. It is good to see our friends from Jacksonville and to sit on the porch of the mission home enjoying the breeze off the lake. May God bless our trip. Please be praying for us, and forgive the lack of appropriate punctuation. The keyboard is a little different.

Good night.

Nicaragua Mission Trip

I hope to be able to update you on the progress or the church's mission trip to Nicaragua. Of course that depends on the availability of Internet access to the mission team in La Libretad. Please spend time praying for the team members and the people who will come to the clinics, and check the blog every couple of days for updates.

The Ranger

Tough Monday. We live right by the new parkway in Petal, which is very convenient but also apparently dangerous. The intersection closest to our house has acquired a terrible reputation for being a hazardous spot on the road. Our local news ran a story on the intersection just after it opened and we've heard plenty of crashes since then from our font yard. Well, yesterday I became a statistic - one more accident at the infamous intersection. Bad day for the Skippers in Petal, but everyone is ok.

Word to the wise...if you come to visit us, be careful crossing the road.

One small step for man....

Blue skies on the afternoon of Easter Sunday gave witness to the mile stone. Curry James was exploring the sandbar at the farm when he stretched his right foot 6 inches forward and successfully completed his first step! Way to go big man! Congrats to Curry James!

Tough Week

Lins, Curry and I have had a tough week. I want to tell everyone thanks for your prayers and support. It honestly has meant a lot to us. Everyone has been great to us, so thanks. Here's a few verses that I shared at the YMCA prayer breakfast this mornning.

"the people living in darkness have aseen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of deat a light has dawned." Matthew 4:16 - its a quote about Jesus' ministry that refers to a passage in Isaiah 9. It speaks to me today.

I hope that Easter is appropriately honored in your heart this year. I think it will be in ours. Thanks.

Mom's Getting Wiser

We had a big party to celebrate mom's birthday, and we're still celebrating! We love our mom, and now she's a big girl. So if you missed the big day, you should send her and e-mail or a phone call.

Turkey Count: 0 but still trying (for those interested in that sort of thing)

- Ben

Pullin' Up

Curry has two new tricks.
First, he has perfected the crab crawl. It's a mix between crawling and sitting. You can tell that he wants to be walking, but he gets stuck with one foot on the ground to wald and one foot back to crawl. He puts his hands out front to balance and scoots on his rear end across the floor. It's great.

Second, Curry James can officially pull up. He stands up all the time. On the couch, on the bakers rack, on our chairs, on the tub, on your pants leg, on anything that isn't moving (good for Skip and Sandie). What a guy. Can't wait for that first step with out any training wheels.

The Good the Bad and the Frozen

Last weekend was really a big deal for the Petal Skippers. For the most part it all revolved around our student ministry's disciple now weekend. What a great two days. We get to be around a bunch of our students all at once. We have a lot of our friends in ministry come to help out. Shout out to Emily Wilson who stayed at our house and to Grant Stegall who is officially too old to stay in a host home (but not too old to have a very handsome baby boy).

So the weekend went great. Everything was just right...Until 11:05pm. The students left the church around 9. The leaders stayed a while longer. Everybody left at 11:00, which is when someone accidentally ran over our gas meter as they left the house. We're talking 911, two firetrucks, evacuate the house, until 1:00am when the gas man showed up to plug the line. Skip had it the worst. He got separated from us when we left the house, and anyone who knows Skip can guess how we was handling the firetrucks all by himself.

Jessica B., Emily, Lins, Curry and I toughed out a night in the polar ice cap of Petal as it got really cold (30). We survived. Mom and Dad came to Petal unaware of our chilly situation to support me because I was preaching in "big church." After the sermon we ate in the fellowship hall with the boy scouts and then retreated for our igloo. Lins and I left the older Skippers with the cute Skipper for about an hour. When we got home, no one had moved. All three were still huddled around the open oven - bake at 350 for one hour and add sprinkles.

So, our hometown hero today is the gas man and the three guys with the backhoe. Because of those fellas we'll be warm tonight. Somebody get them a medal.

PS - Dad took some good pictures of Curry. They are on the blog.

Curry's in the Army Now

Curry is official "scooting". This is very comparable to crawling, but without the tummy lifted up off the floor. It's very similar to the army crawl, where you mostly use your arms and elbows and drag your feet behind you. It's really pretty cute to watch and he can get around really well. In fact, Ben put him in the floor in the den yesterday morning, and he scooted right over to where I was in the kitchen. He told me he wanted to help make breakfast. He can also go from scooting to sitting, and its not a surprise anymore to find him in his crib sitting up playing or just looking around. Needless to say, our lives are becoming quite a bit more exciting!

How Many of Me?

My good friend Dana Reed sent me a website to check out. It tells you how many other people there are in the US with your same name. Surprisingly, there are only 3 other people named Lindsay Skipper. I always knew I was special! There are only 4 other people named Ben Skipper. The best part - there's only 1 Curry Skipper in the US and we've got him! Oh goodness, he is so cute!

If you want to see how many of you there is, go to www.howmanyofme.com and let us know what you find out!

Passion Conference 2007

A handfull of the CBC college crew (and Charley) have been in Atlanta for the Passion Conference. We have heard some really challeging sermons from Louie Giglio, Beth Moore, Fancis Chan and John Piper. We've bumped into some really good old friends and we have been led in worship by just about everybody who has a cd out (exaggeration). We've had a ball and every baby I've seen makes me miss mine (both the big one and the little one). See you all in Petal.