VOM Departure from Los Angeles

We ended the VOM tour on July 17th as we dropped off the students at LAX, returned the U-Haul and headed up to Northern California a few hours later. I am sure that, as I have more time to reflect on what God has done to us and through us on this tour, I will have to do a couple more posts about the trip, but for now this is the last post to report on the trip. What we thought last September was somewhat just a dream, became a reality and we thank God for that.

Here are the statistics on the trip....

1. Dates: May 12th to July 17
2. Costs: Estimate- $50,000
3. Total Performance Venues: 35
4. Total Performances: 65
5. Distance: Over 6000 miles traveled in the USA by van and truck (between halves of a 6400 mile flight)
6. Personnel: 15 students and 6 staff members

The statistics cannot show how many lives were touched by the performances and interaction with our students. We met so many great people on the way and we feel so encouraged by them.  I am hoping we can do it again next year with a new group.

Most of the night before departure was spent packing. 

We did get to spend the last evening in LA with our friends the Dy's. Lisa did most of the choreography for the VOM team performances. 

Joyce coordinated the packing and logistics for our departure

Kita couldn't get everything in her allotted two suitcases and had to mail some of her stuff back home.

The VOM at Disneyland

I just dropped Joyce off at the San Francisco airport to fly back to Guam. Our new grand-daughter Serenity Owen was born to Michael and Samantha on Sunday evening, so Joyce changed her ticket (ouch $250 change fee - that is why I didn't change mine! :) to get back earlier than we planned originally. As soon as Joyce takes some pictures of the new baby I will make a full post about it. Until then you can see the pictures and story about the birth on Michael and Samantha's blog. They moved to Guam about three weeks ago to work with us at PIU and we are excited to have them and the 3 grandchildren with  us on Guam.

I do have a couple more posts to go on the VOM trip and will get them done today. Here are some pictures from the trip to Disneyland on July 15th. It was the very first trip to the Magic Kingdom for all of our VOM students.

We arrived about 10 AM. The park was already pretty full. Joyce, Meyou and I arrived in the U-Haul Truck.

Jayleen and Jake spent most of the day touring the park with us and ... with Pluto

We all enjoyed zapping aliens on the Buzz Lightyear ride. I would prefer not to tell anyone how many more points Joyce scored than all of us. Her alien shooting skills are amazing.

However, her driving skills were not so great.

Jayleen was a bit confused about which way to go next. 

Of course we went on the "Small World" ride. I still can't get that song out of my head. 

It was important that everyone got to meet Mickey

and his wife? girlfriend? I am not sure. 

I thought Meluat looked very "attractive" in that hat

We pretty much stayed until closing time. The Buzz Lightyear parking lot was empty when we got back to the truck. A fun day was had by all.

Driving with the VOM

This summer we spent a lot of time in vans. Once the VOM team landed at LAX we did the all the rest of our traveling in two vans. One van was rented to us at a very low price by Karyn Sorenson's parents. The other was donated by the Grace Baptist Church of Salado Texas. They drove it out to LA to meet us and we left in Salado. We rented a U-Haul truck to haul our stuff back from Texas to LA - Joyce and I drove back in the U-Haul with one student while the rest of the group rode in the Sorenson's blue van. By my calculations we drove, this just counts driving from city to city, not the driving we did within each place we went, a total of over 5720 miles. That is a lot of time to be crammed together in two vehicles. One of the most amazing things about this trip was that we really had very few personal issues between the students or the leaders. I don't think I was ever on an extended trip like this that had so few personal problems. Here a few pictures from the road from the VOM tour. 

Joyce took this picture of the blue van from the U-Haul while I was driving down Interstate 5 in LA. I like it because you can see the reflection of the U-Haul in the window of the van and the traffic in the truck's side mirror

Joyce thought these rocks looked like "God just randomly dropped his Legos"

We had to get our pictures taken with the saguaro cacti in the cactus forests of New Mexico and Arizona

We got stopped by the border patrol 4 times with the longest one being the 2 1/2 hour delay when the students couldn't find their passports. They also looked in our truck a couple times

Daisy got us a great deal on a one-way rental of a U-Haul from Salado to Los Angeles. We were able to get a lot of stuff into that truck

This is our friend Melody from Carlsbad, California. She was a great host to take in almost all of our students for a night when one of our concert dates fell through at the last minute. All over the Southwest US we ran into great people like Melody who were willing to open their homes up to us. Our students were blessed and I know Melody and all our other great hosts were blessed too.

At the end of the long drive it was nice to get back to California but we were a little sad because our tour was almost over

Joyce and I always enjoyed staying with our little grandson, Milo, in San Diego.

VOM Ministry at Hope Covenant Church in Chandler Arizona

After a drive from Alamogordo NM to Phoenix the VOM did their last concert of the tour at Hope Covenant Church in Chandler, Arizona. We are thankful to our former PIU administrators (Brad is still on our faculty teaching distance education courses) Brad and Cheryl Boydston for setting up the opportunity for us to sing in Chandler.We were also encouraged to see so many from the Micronesian community in the Phoenix area come out to see us. It was especially great to have Herman and Lois Buehler there. Herman was one of the founders on Micronesian Institute of Biblical Studies which became PIU. The VOM team gave a spirited performance - one of the best of the tour. You can see the highlights of the performance on the attached Youtube video.

We were happy to arrive in Arizona after the long drive, but it was still a long drive to Phoenix from the border. We were very thankful for good air conditioning in the U-Haul

 

 

 

May May and Kita were ready to sing

Joyce took care of the PIU table

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a lot of interest in PIU gear

I was so encouraged by Herman's presence at the concert. He was the one who greeted us when we first got off the plane in Micronesia in 1984. It was great to be able to see how thrilled he was over how the school has developed and see children of his former students

It was great to spend a little time with Herman and Lois getting caught up on each others' families and what the kids are doing.

Of course Herman knew all the families of our Chuukese students. 

Brad and Cheryl hosted us for breakfast on Wednesday morning before we left.

That turned out to be a big group, but we had a great time. We really didn't want to leave

VOM Ministry at Trinity Lutheran Church in Alamogordo New Mexico, July 12

After our week in Texas we headed back up to Alamogordo, New Mexico on Monday morning. It was actually a very nice drive, especially driving through the mountains of New Mexico. I especially enjoyed driving through the meadows near Cloudcroft, New Mexico at over 8500 feet in elevation. I am pretty sure that was the high point (in terms of elevation) of the VOM trip! Joyce and I had a great time staying with Lisa Collins' (our PIU librarian) parents. We were very encouraged by the enthusiastic hospitality and support for PIU and for the VOM team. We especially appreciated the willingness of the people at Trinity to wait for us to arrive late at night and get us back to the church for early departure on the next day. I wish I had taken pictures but here is what I was able to take from the students' Facebook pages...

Alamogordo is a beautiful mountain community. I am guessing it is cold in the winter but it was very pleasant in July.

We preformed in the church on Monday night. We also enjoyed a nice dinner (lots of casseroles - Yes!) with the people there.

We appreciated the great patience, hospitality and good conversation as they waited for all of us to arrive and to get ready to leave.

Missy's Engagement Pictures

One of the great benefits for us of being in Texas with the VOM team was that we got to see our daughter Missy. Missy met us in Salado and then Joyce left with her to take a few days for wedding planning. Missy and Cliff got engaged this last May and will be married on October 29. Joyce joined up with Cliff's mom Suzanne (pictured) and Joyce's sister Janet to pick out dresses, the venue and other essential wedding items.  I then rejoined them when we drove up to Dallas on Saturday. Missy and Cliff spent the day with us at Redeemer Bible Church and then we spent the evening with them before we left for New Mexico on Monday. Here are a few of their engagement pictures and some other pics Joyce took while staying with them.

I like this picture a lot. I think it really captured their personalities. We like Cliff a lot and think that he and Missy go together very well.

Cliff's mom picked the flowers Missy is holding right before the picture was taken

Missy sure looks like a beautiful bride to me.

The planning committee is getting the invitations ready.