Yesterday's Details

Well after a long, hot shower, some of Nonna and Tia Corina's AWESOME lasagna and cannoli, a good night of rest and a lot of therapeutic stretching, we're up to a little more communicating :-)

So yeah, around 4:30 yesterday morning we had everything loaded and hooked up but I wanted to test drive the van/trailer combo because I had some concerns about weight balance and all. When we first tested it slowly coming out of the driveway (after some long, major scraping of the hitch on the driveway which I'm sure will be present for future generations to see (see * below for a funny related story involving BayLynn)), Connor noticed a very faint sound coming from the back tires. After a few drives around the block and a few times up and down the street (some with Connor driving so I could hear the sounds), I was very uncomfortable starting a 3500 mile trip like this.

To make a long story just a little bit shorter (heehee), at around 5:30am we decided to wait until I could go to Sam's Club and get the tires rotated because the front tires were rated for more weight and higher pressure. When we did that, the major parts of my concern were alleviated as the tires looked better, there was no noise (which seemed to be just the lower rated tires being squished down on the road under all the pressure) and I had a stronger tire supporting all the back weight. I was still a little concerned about the "low riding" (which I'll get a close up picture on here sometime so you can see how funny it is) but I was much more satisfied and certainly willing to make the short 3 hour trip to Santa Maria. The major part of the trailer tongue load is the ingenius (thank you Loren!) addition of that Rubbermaid yard box. Everything in it is really quite light but as Susan said, "It's all about leverage." So I figured if the trip yesterday was not tolerable for tongue weight, than I could just leave the yard box as a gift with Mom and Dad Ferro. It appears that we will not have to do that.

Today we've been getting ready for the trek tomorrow AND playing the Wii with Nonno, Nonna and Tia Corina (from Argentina) and we hope to go get a few holes of Frisbee golf in at a very cool course here in Santa Maria before we leave.

Early tomorrow morning we head north to the Sacramento area to El Dorado Hills (to see Susan's sister Annette and her family) and Grass Valley for the wedding of Andrea and David (Susan's brother). We're looking forward to this time with Susan's family. We will likely be in that area until Tuesday morning at which point we head east. Each day's destination is not completely known but we'll keep you posted as much as we can. Should be a fun time. Gotta love the adventure.

* - BayLynn was sleeping in the van all night because we didn't have any beds and all the floors were vacuumed, etc. So she was in the van during that first pullout of the driveway. When I pulled out, the hitch scraped pretty hard. This stirred BayLynn halfway out of her sleep and she let out a scream as she thought she was rolling away in the van all by herself. In her half-awake stupor I assured her that everything was fine. Her Garfield-style half-open eyes seemed to communicate that she was fine or that she didn't even know what had just happened. It was funny :-)

Here is the time/date shot just before we pulled away from the house:
One of our favorite scenes as we drive up to Santa Maria (somewhere between Ventura and Santa Barbara I think):

We have liftoff!

Hello Everybody! I am writing to you now safe and sound in Santa Maria, CA (Susan's parents house). At 11:52 this morning, we drove away from 1221 Reeder Ave - about a day and half later than planned. BUT, we did it right and all is well. I will try to document all the things we ran into in a later post (the picture of our modern, low-ridin'- Beverly HillbillyMobile will explain some of it), but, despite the fact that we were up until 5:30 this morning and we're really tired now, we just wanted to let you know that all is well.

AND, we HAVE to fill you in on the "Cassie and Ginger Saga." We were so excited that about an hour after some very intentional prayers :-) last Friday, our neighbor Chad called and said that he had found homes for the dogs. We were thrilled. So Monday was taken up largely with getting the dogs ready to go (vet, bath, etc) but it was worth it to know that they had a good home and that as much as we would have loved to have them with us in PA, it was really best that they stay. Thank you God and thank you Chad and Kathy for helping this be a reality.

And thank you to Laura who graciously took our rabbits. That's right, we're travelling without any extra living beings. We did however bring rabbit cages with us so...... :-)

So, like I said, we have much to share and will be communicating with you in the days to come. Thank you for your continued prayers - especially for our van as it has quite a job on it's hands.

Love you all!

Help with our dogs (Cassie and Ginger)

This is somewhat of an urgent and desperate request. We have one last significant obstacle, at least in the emotional sense. Geoff and Connor were not really successful in locating a suitable place for our dogs in the time they had in PA. We've also checked with a number of you here in CA to see if you either have an interest or know someone who would be interested in a pair of good dogs and so far, nothing has surfaced short of taking them to the Baldwin Park Animal Shelter (something we're not really eager to do). This has been a VERY difficult thing for all of us. For those of you who aren't animal lovers, just stop reading now and pray for us (smile). For the rest of you, we'd sure love for you to think about people you may know who would like some good loyal dogs in their life. We are VERY sad that it looks like we can't take them, but it seems to be the right thing to do. If you are in PA and know of someone who wouldn't mind keeping our dogs until we find the right place to live, we'd love to know about that too. But it just seems that these dogs were not meant to join us in PA. Of course, if you have any other thoughts or ideas, please send us an email at ellsworthg@gmail.com

Thanks for your thoughts, efforts and prayers.

Return trip & update

Well, Connor and I fly out early tomorrow and will be back in CA around 10:30am (PST). I've had a LOT of meetings with various leaders and ministries and my excitement continues to grow. We also looked at a lot of housing options. Nothing solid on that yet but that's OK. We are so grateful to all of you in your partnership with us through your prayers. It's been a very good and productive couple of weeks and we can see the future a lot more clearly. More on that in a future post. But for now....
I promised you all a picture of a male Cardinal. Well, here it is:


Pretty cool, huh? From right out the back door. The picture was taken through a screen door which is why it's a bit blurry, but you get the (very cool) idea that God had when he made these.

Next we have one of the many chipmunks that populate the area:

And finally, pictures from Connor's time out in the country woods with new friend Daniel Tarr. Big thanks to the Tarr family for their hospitality to Connor and me this week. Captain Tarr gave his approval for us to light some fireworks Tuesday night and we had a great time, and we only went through about half of what we had!

We just want to thank everyone here in NE PA who made Connor and I feel so welcome and EXCITED TO RETURN!!! We look forward to coming back as a complete family next month. Which reminds me, many of you know the conflict we're experiencing with our dogs and whether or not to bring them out. We want to be responsible in this matter but, for us at least, it's a little complicated; mainly in the area of an appropriate place for them here in PA. And because an ideal housing situation didn't present itself yet, we're just not exactly sure what to do. So, for those of you who are animal lovers, you understand the conflict and if you feel so led, we'd appreciate your prayers on this matter as well as the sale of our CA home. 'Til next time!

Sunday's Events

We had a great time in the morning service of Grace Bible Church. We were received extraordinarily well and God really seemed to bless the people through us. Afterwards we were treated to a delicious steak dinner at Pastor Terry's house, although we had to eat and run because......

...we met the "Lower Pocono Project Jerusalem Team" back at the seminary to travel just over an hour to a location just past Stroudsburg. "Mountain Stream Church" is scheduled to be planted in this area this fall. For now though, they're "working the soil" to develop a core group of people and believers in preparation for the fall launch. They're currently meeting in the hall of the Bushkill Fire Department - complete with Bingo equipment :-) We met team leader/pastor James Richards and his wife, Candace, both native Jamaicans. We both helped with room and equipment setup and Connor helped with the kids.

More pictures of these two events can be found by clicking here. Big thanks to genius Powerpoint Tech-Op Daniel Walton for the great pictures from Grace Bible.

After the Lower Poconos we headed back another hour to the seminary (where our car was) and called the family from Grace Bible who was hosting the youth group at their house. It was 8pm and they lived 30 minutes away but they said to come on over and boy are we glad they did. We drove up to this beautiful house in the country woods and the place was CRAWLING with kids. I think they said 60-70. Anyway, they some great food going and many of the kids got right down to greeting Connor and getting to know him. I didn't see him for a long time but when I did he was having a great time with a bunch of the kids. We were there til 11:30 so we got home at midnight with full and grateful hearts for a really outstanding day. And oh yeah, the heavy rain, steamy roads and lightning didn't hurt either :-)

Today, we're looking at 6 or 7 more houses, and the college just called. I have 3 meetings scheduled out there tomorrow. Onward always, for God's glory and fame!

Good On'ya Mate

Connor and I just got back from a party next door put on by our Australian neighbor's (yep, complete with Foster's, but no, we didn't have any). One of the Aussie visitors was "Jeff with a G" so we had to take a picture. That's the two Geoff's in the middle with Connor and Sid (the man of the house) on the ends. They had a game where we each took a name of a horse in a race (Sunshine Coast Brewery Handicap) that was happening live in Australia (tomorrow afternoon). These guys had some connection to the commentators and those same commentators sent out "cheery-ohs" (sp?) to "the party in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania," all live on the radio as we listened. My horse, UPI Bay (chosen in honor of BayLynn) was favored but didn't win. After a brief summer swim in their pool we headed out, but not before "Jeff with a G" gave me this cool Australian hat (picture number 2).




The house hunting went well today. Nothing's jumping out yet, but we're sure getting an education. We'll be doing more on Monday. Tomorrow morning we're at Grace Bible Church in Dunmore co-leading the music (Geoff) and drumming (Connor). Then off to the lower Pocono region for a gathering at a church plant site in the afternoon.


Click here for a few cool animal shots outside my parents front window.


God's good on'ya mates!

Headed North

Thought some of you might like to see some of the Canadian Geese that make a stop at the college lake on their way home for the summer.

I (Geoff) had some good meetings today and Connor and I will be looking at houses tomorrow. Susan has a yard sale in Covina tomorrow as well. Thank you for your continued prayers. Your trust in God is an encouragement to us.

Biker's Night

So we were driving home tonight past Damon's Grill and noticed all these motorcycles. We learned that every Thursday night "during the riding season" (that's summertime for you CA folks) in "Biker Night at Damon's." These stunt rider guys were there and put on pretty good show. Here a few video clips preceded by a couple of pictures of groundhogs (we assume) from just outside the college driveway.

Rehearsal!

I (Geoff) was privileged to be asked to co-lead a rehearsal (and subsequent service on Sunday) tonight with a great group of people at Grace Bible Church in Dunmore, PA.( http://www.gracebiblepa.com/). GBC is one of the church's we've been interacting with about worship/music ministry and it just so happened that this was a good week to connect and work with them. Funny thing, about an hour before rehearsal, Josh (the intern worship leader) called me and said their drummer couldn't make it. Well, there was Connor just looking for something to do. So yep, Connor did the drumming as part of a very full band which included acoustic and electric guitars, piano, keyboard, organ, bass, trumpet and 5 singers (including me). I neglected to get a picture to include here but I'll try to get one for you all Sunday. We have some other important things planned for tomorrow. We'll keep you posted. Thank you for praying and acknowledging God with us - especially in the sale of our home.

Trip Pix

Hello Everyone,

I just uploaded a bunch of pictures from the big trip Connor and I just finished. You can view them by clicking here.

Brief explanations for the ones that need them (in order that they appear):

- in front of the Deal's house in Glendale/Phoenix, AZ

- post OK sign - We were able to stop by the bombing site/memorial in Oklahoma City. A unique and ponderable experience. The reflecting pool is where the original street was. The two dark walls at each end of the pool represent the times of 9:01 (the last minute of innocence, because the bomb went off at 9:02) and 9:03 when everything changed forever. These times are engraved in large type on the top of the walls. The green grass with the chairs on it is the footprint of the original building. The chairs represent those who died. The smaller chairs represent the children who died. The one picture with Connor by a jagged wall is of the one remaining piece of the original building. The "dog area" picture is at a rest area in OK. The "City Dogs" has a fire hydrant and the "Country Dogs" have a stump. Thought it was funny.

- post Arkansas sign - Geoff sitting in a rocker at the Russellville, AR "Cracker Barrell." We never got to eat at one but we went inside this one. Love that atmosphere :-)

- post Mississippi River - fireworks tent where we bought $30 worth for 20. We have yet to set them off ;-)

- post "crosses at Bellevue" - Rocketown in downtown Nashville. And hangout spot for Nashville's inner cith youth founded by Michael W. Smith (and wife Debbie) along with Alan and Denise Jackson (among others).

- post Kentucky pics - Abraham Lincoln's birthplace and boyhood home

3040 miles of God's grace and provision!

We Made It!!!

Greetings from beautiful GREEN Northeast Pennsylvania,

As Susan said, we tried to drive the rest of the way yesterday but it wasn't going to happen. Heavy rain and fog and hills the equivalent of 5 Grapevines slowed us down and tired us out. So we stayed in Hagerstown, Maryland. Got some rest and got up this morning and drove the remaining 200 miles into Clarks Summit/Scranton. I hadn't made any calls to secure a storage unit (although our research team (my parents) did get us some information the last couple of weeks) but when I called today to a place that was ideal but we couldn't get through prior to today, they had ONE unit left in just the size we needed. When we got there, the guy said that 10 minutes after I called one of their regular customers called and needed it. But because I had called when I did, it was already reserved for us. Pretty cool timing the Lord has for us isn't it?!

So, we were met at the storage place by Maicol, Rod and Douglas (all great brothers from Brazil). At the end of it all, was I so focused so as to remember to take a picture? Nope. And boy was I bummed. But I will get these guys picture so you can see the big-hearts of these guys. Thanks guys!!!

So, yes we have some pictures of the last several days but we will put them up later as we are quite tired now. Connor is actually already in bed. But here are some pictures to prove we made it. That's us and the truck in front of my parents house at the end of this momentous day.

Onward, with thanks to God and all of you....

Road Trip Update!

Sorry there's no pictures this time! Geoff asked me to add some updates because the last couple of nights, he's wanted to, and the WiFi in the "fancy" motels they've been staying in, has been broken (Motel 6). So, Wed., they got to walk around the Oklahoma City Memorial/bombing site, drove, bought some fireworks along the way, and stayed the night in W. Memphis, AR (right outside of Memphis, TN).


Today (Thurs.), they drove by Graceland (saw the house, a couple of jets, lots of people, but no king...), stopped at Bellview Baptist Church and walked around (the late Adrian Rogers was Pastor there), drove through downtown Nashville, saw some cool-looking buildings with neon lights and guitars, stopped by Rocketown (founded by Michael W. Smith), then, drove to Elizabethtown, KY (the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln). Tomorrow (the 4th of July), they will visit his birthplace, and be on their way.


758 miles to go! Friday, they are going to attempt to drive the rest of the way (through KY, WVirginia, Maryland, PA) which would make this their longest driving day, 12+ hours!!! Thanks for praying with us! They've been doing well and having fun, but are just about ready to be done. : ) Happy 4th everyone! We still love ya!

World's Largest Cross

Somewhere in the Texas panhandle on I-40.

Connor keeps it in the green

Yeah, it's nice to have a backup driver for when I get tired ;-)
We're in the middle of the road because of the uneven road and how it affects the truck. Just so you know.

Moving Day has come and gone!

BayLynn Here! Sorry we are a couple days late with this post. We had to figure out how to add them! We all want to say "Thank You" to the friends who helped us pack and load our truck. We wouldn't have been able to do it without you!!! Dad and Connor got on the road Sunday afternoon and headed out to Phoenix, Arizona. Then on Monday, they went to Albuquerque, NM. Read about their fun adventure below. Thank You for praying for us and please continue as Dad and Connor keep driving towards their destination. Bye!







Susan's turn! Yes, I echo the thanks to the Celeyas, Akiyamas and Wingerds who saw us through to the end!!! Lenny, Hedeki and Loren are quite the puzzle-masters, making everything we wanted to take, including motorcycles and bicycles, fit in this truck! Thanks also, to Augie, Ray, Rick and Viken who all came to lend a hand. What servants! Thank you, thank you!

On the way out of town, we all stopped by Sam's Club, so Geoff could fill up the truck with $200 worth of gas! Yikes. While there, we ran into our brother Ivan. That was fun, and a nice sendoff. BayLynn and I filmed one last goodbye as we turned to come home, and Geoff and Connor turned toward the freeway (video attatched at the end).

By now (Wed.), they're on their 4th day of driving and headed for Memphis, TN! We've talked briefly several times, and they're doing great, basically driving and stopping to sleep. Please keep them in your prayers as they will be driving at least 3 more days. Then, all four of us get to do it in a month! (on a different route for them, at least) Fun, fun! : )

Bad Boyz, Watcha Gonna Do When They Come For You...

So we arrived safely in Albuquerque around 10:30 tonight. We get settled into the Motel 6 and we needed some ice. So, I think, "Connor can go get it. It's close and things are well lit and he's a big boy now. Everything'll be fine." So I send him on his way and fix myself a bowl of cereal. Then I hear what sounds like shouting outside. I go to the door and Connor is moving quite quickly to get in. The attached video below explains why (taken from our room on the second floor). We don't know what this guy got in trouble for but the Albuquerque PD Gang Unit was VERY serious. Numbers 32:23 Fun times on the Barbarian Adventure!!!! (for all of you who helped us pack, in the picture above, notice our truck in the background (and the bad guy getting searched in the lower left). This is just too fun!!!) Tomorrow night - Oklahoma City. Our longest day. Thanks for your prayers.

"Filmed on location with the men and women of law enforcement....."