Category Archives: TRAVEL

FOOD, JOURNAL, PETS, TRAVEL

FUN WEEKEND IN CH-TOWN

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This past weekend, we took a little road trip to Chicago for Campus Catalyst, a training conference for public campus ministry sponsored by the NAD and hosted by North Shore Seventh-day Adventist Church.  It was great to spend time with old friends and to make new ones too.  It is such a blessing to be involved in ministry.

IMG_5320During most of the meetings, I hung out with the kids and Bentley.  It was Bentley’s first time in Chicago.  He loved the squirrels the best.  We walked to a park nearby to help the kids release some energy. IMG_5319IMG_5308IMG_5317On Saturday, we wanted to do something special for the kids so we ordered Chicago pizza from Pequods while they swam in the hotel pool.  No joke people – it was the most disgusting pizza I’ve ever had in my life.  The crust was thick, dry, crumbly, and stale.  There was hardly any cheese.  The tomato sauce was watery and bland.  And the edges of the crust were burned black.  It made Pizza Hut taste like a Michelin 3 starred restaurant.  Worse yet, each pie cost over $20!  We each managed to scrap off the top layer of one piece, but we couldn’t do much more than that.  We called to get our money back.  We’re going to have to give Chicago pizza another go next time…definitely at a different pizza place.  Pequods, you let us down!

IMG_5304We were able to spend time with Jukes & Aileen and the kids while we were there.  It was nice that they were only a few miles away from the conference!  We enjoyed talking and catching up.  On Sunday, we ate at Native Foods, an amazing vegan restaurant.  Here, Chicago redeemed itself after our Pequods incident.  I had the best vegan sandwich I’ve ever eaten.  It was the crispy chicken, bacon and avocado sandwich.  Amazing!  Then we spent our final hours there at the Shedd Aquarium.

IMG_5321IMG_4794Making fishy faces with cousins in front of the fishes!

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We had a great weekend and hope we can come back again soon!

FOOD, JOURNAL, PETS, SPIRITUALITY, TRAVEL, TRIATHLON

Manu & Micah’s First Mission Race

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On July 14, 2013 in Muncie, Indiana, Manu and Micah ran their first Team Revolution Mission Race of the season.  A Mission Race is one that is specifically designated to raising funds for team members to go to the Amazon mission trip by our Mission Sponsor: Amazon Lifesavers.

More than 75 kids participated in Manu and Micah’s age division of the Muncie ToughKids Triathlon. Mom and Dad drove the athletes three hours from Lansing to Muncie accompanied by Auntie Sikhu and Bentley! We arrived to the hotel on Saturday night and work up early the nextmorning to register for the event.  After being misdirected by the GPS, we finally found the event’s location.

Micah was assigned lucky #7 and Manu was given #102.  After picking up their packets, getting their body markings, and setting up transitions, the boys got a brief rundown of agood race strategy: Micah was going to do it all by himself even though his age category allowed for parental assistance, and Manu was going to push hard on the difficult swim, recover on the bike’s second of three laps (the bike is his strongest element), and go all out on the run.

Micah was first.  Even though most of the kids were assisted in some capacity by the parents, Micah completed the whole race by himself.  He was as happy as ever.  At the end of therace, he caught up to the girl in front of him, but refused to pass her – I was a proud parent!  In the end, Micah completed the 25-meter swim (2:06), ½ Mile bike ride (3:02), and 100yd run(0:50) with a 2:04 Transition 1 and a 0:27 Transition 2.  His total race time was  8:27.

By far, Manu’s greatest accomplishment was his ability to swim 100 meters – that’s like swimming back and forth on a pool at the Olympics!  After finishing the swim, Manu rode his bike averaging nearly 10 mph, finishing his race by running well under a 10-minute mile pace.  Unfortunately,the race directors misjudged the running portion of his race and led him to finish the run before completing the necessary distance.  After discovering that the race directors had made a mistake, Manu ran the course again, but without the timing chip.  We were thus unable to get an accurate finish time, but suspect that he finished in about 19:25.  His split times were as follow:

  • Swim: 4:1
  • T1: 1:28
  • Bike: 9:54
  • T2: 0:36
  • Run: Finished, time unknown

The boys showed true sportsmanship and bravery.  Although Manu was fairly nervous about swimming such a long distance, he pressed through with mental toughness and determination.  He also ran more than the necessary distance due to someone else’s error. Micah was able to do the entire race all by himself with Dad encouraging him as he raced.

We could not be prouder of our boys!  They sported the best kits in the race and proudly represented Team Revolution – racing for a cause greater than themselves.  We especially want to give a big “thank you” to all the sponsors who supported these boys.  You are making their dreams come true and we could not be more excited to know that our sons desire to be missionaries.  Thank you for your love and support!

If you would like to learn more about their mission and how you can support, here is a LINK to their TR website.

Here is a VIDEO that we made of race day!  Enjoy.