Introduction

Editors note: I started this newsletter back in April of 2000, right after we moved from Victoria, Texas to Phoenix, Arizona.  But Internet and computer problems, and the start of classes kept me from finishing it. It is amazing how the amount of time you have in a day seems to grow shorter and shorter as technology gets faster and faster. Well that was over a year ago and I am just now getting to the point where I can finish it, or at least get what I have uploaded to the web.

It is hard to believe that this newsletter started out as Bard and Mollie's Monthly On-line Newsletter. We published our sonogram pictures of Braiden on the site for all the see and made Geocities monthly newsletter driving over 13,000 people to our web page in a matter of few weeks. As Braiden started getting older the newsletter became a bi-monthly, then a quarterly, then a Fall/Winter Spring/Summer and now with school and a two year old it looks like this might have to become a yearly, or even a whenever I can get to it.

For those who don’t know

In March of 2000 we moved out to Phoenix Arizona so I could attend Phoenix Seminary. And yes it is HOT!! But mostly the middle of May to the Middle of September, the rest of the year is great. Besides, if it gets too hot Mollies parents have a place in Durango, Colorado we can go to and take a break from the summer heat.

Once again we would like to say THANK YOU to Duane Payne and Dave Magana for volunteering to help us drive the U-hall and Tahoe from Texas to Phoenix Arizona. Take the three zany guys, add a drugged dog, a psycho cat, a U-hall with more problems than a room full of Prime Time Sitcom Writers could come up with, my old pick up in tow, and a pair of those Motorola hand radios with a two mile range and you have the makings for a bad movie, a Fox Family Channel Mini Series, or one wild real life road trip. There are to many stories to tell in just one newsletter, from sneaking the dog and cat into the hotel (we checked in, spent 20 minutes trying to find the best spot to park the U-hall....and wound up parking it in the same spot we temporally parked it while checking in, then thought "wonder if they take pets...don't ask, just go in the back door") to Duane becoming the mayor of El Paso and it's 1.5 million residence (long story, not enough time to tell it). I will just hit the highlights.

The U-hall

When I picked up the truck I heard Harsion Ford a.k.a. Han Solo's voice saying "I got a bad feeling about this" echo in my mind, what an understatement. Now I know U-hall trucks are not meant to be run in the Indy 500, but it should be able to make 50 mph in under 3 minute......on flat land........when it is completely empty!!! I also noticed the steering wheel was in the wrong position, you know how the wheel is suppose to look when the vehicle is going straight, well when this truck was going strait the steering wheel was positioned for a right turn. Then there was the front end, saying it was a little loose was like saying a door that fallen off it's hinges is a little loose.

30 miles into the trip the break light came on, but to me the breaks seamed to be working fine, and the driving breaks were. However, when we stopped in Kerville to have lunch and take our first break we discovered the parking break was out, and so was most of the transmission. Even in Park the truck continued to roll backwards. Dave shut the door of the Tahoe a split second before the U-hall would have crashed into it. I had to start the U-hall and apply the driving breaks until Duane and Dave could find some big rocks to stick under the tires to keep it from rolling away. After lunch Duane started the U-hall and we put the rocks in the cab and used them as "anchors" every  time we had to stop.

Well it only got worse from there, but I am saving the rest of the stories for sermon illustrations. When we turned in the U-hall the guy ask "Were there any problems with the vehicle?" The same way the cashier at a restaurant ask "How was everything today?" My response was "If this vehicle was a horse they would have already made glue out of it." I then rattled off all the problems I could remember. He quit writing when he ran out of paper.

But that was a year ago. We are in the middle of our second summer of Arizona heat. For those of you who keep telling me it is a "dry heat", let me remind you so is your kitchen oven. If you want to know what summer is like in Arizona turn your oven to 120 and crawl in. If you want to know what it is like getting into your car after work turn it up to about 170. And yet, people keep moving here because the winters are wonderful. Local bumpers stickers read "If you can’t take the Summer you don’t deserve the Winter."
 

The past year

Our truck was stolen right out of our driveway in October of 2000 and since it has been 9 months without a trace we have started looking at replacing it. I was hoping that after 12 years of loyal ownership that it would fight it’s way free from the mean people who stole in and find it’s way back to us. You know like in those tear jerker Disney animal movies where the dog gets stolen and then travels thousands of miles to reunite with their owner. Has not happened, truck is still gone.

Now I want a motorcycle, specifically a cruiser. Because of great weather in Southern Arizona you can bike year round. It's almost impossible take a short trip to the store without passing several cycles. They are everywhere. I especially love Harley-Davidsons. Motorcycles are so popular here that we have five Harley dealerships in Phoenix. It will be years before I can afford a Harley, so I have been looking the Yamaha V-Stars and Kawasaki Vulcans. Great bikes for 1/4 the price. Of course the sensible side of me (her name is Mollie) knows we need a new-to-us auto first. But after that….who knows.

Seminary & Church

School is going good. There are two new Profs coming in this fall and everyone is waiting to see what their course requirements are going to be like. After the summer of 2001 I will have completed about 26 credit hours, only about 68 hours more to go. I hate it that I had to leave Texas and Parkway Church to get my masters but it is great to be at a school where all the Profs. have pastored churches and books like Rick Warren’s "The Purpose Driven Church" are required reading.  And, in each class I am sitting next to men, and a few women, from all different denominations. It is so cool to pick each others brains and learn from one another’s different experiences.

There are some drawbacks. It has been difficult to find a church to call home. We have not found one we "click" with yet, but have been attending one regularly for the past few months. Part of the problem is that we are looking for deep relationships, which we have found are difficult to establish in a large city. People we have clicked with either live 45 minutes away, or have moved soon after we made the connection. Small groups have not worked out due to either my class schedule, or geography (I.E. the group we would like to attend is too far away to drive.) Another problem is none of the churches provide any type of child care on small group nights, and we can't afford a baby sitter on a weekly basis.(oh how I miss Parkway!!) We are also finding most of the men attending Phoenix Seminary are from Phoenix and already have longtime established relationships, so it is a pretty closed group. Mollie and I noticed that there is not much at the seminary for couples so we are going to try to start a Phoenix Seminary Couples Small Group targeting couples who have moved to Arizona specifically to attend seminary. Our goal is to connect with others and build relationships (I.E. NO STUDY, I have enough required reading to do as it is). We will try it this fall and see how it goes.

Job’s

Mollie is still a stay at home mom with the best (and toughest) job in the world, taking care of Braiden. I am still at Food for the Hungry doing media relations and radio strategy. This past May I took K-Love Program Director Mike Novak and his wife Ann to Kenya, Africa for a radio contest we did on his station. Kenya was so cool. Scroll down and check out our pictures from the trip. When we landed in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, we saw one of the Predential 737's sitting on the runway. On our way into Nairobi we passed Colen Powell's motorcade heading for the airport. It was kind of strange, and at the same time reminded us of what a small world it is. The streets of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, are what we came to call "controlled chaos". For one thing everyone drove on the wrong side of the road (American thinking) and there were no traffic signals. Our driver explained that when the students riot after an election the first thing they do is destroy all the traffic signals, so the government just quit replacing them. Basically the person on the right has the right-of-way if they are aggressive enough to take it, and all of them are. The stories from this trip could fill an entire newsletter, but since I have other school work to do and need to finish this newsletter I will save them for another time.

After we arrived back in the states I had the privilege of joining Mike Novak on the air to talk about our trip. I was use to being on the air at KXBJ in Victoria, but this was coast to coast. It was so much fun to be back in radio. I have been put in charge of the Radio Strategy team at Food for the Hungry and right now it is probably my favorite part of the job. If all goes well I will be taking another trip with another radio personality this fall, but I can’t say where I am going because some of you might live in the area where the contest will be taking place.
 

The Animals

Our bookends Domino (the dog) and Munchkin (the cat) are doing great.  Domino just turned 4 and Munchkin is 5 ½. Domino quickly adjusted the having a doggie door, which is great for us because now we have two animals that if we go out of town we only require someone to come over once a day and feed them. Braiden loves them both, but is yet to actually touch the cat. She still gives him a wide birth. Maybe it is because every time he sees her he yells "MUNCHKIN" and starts running at her.

I also started the aquarium back up. I wanted an Oscar but they are like dogs and take a lot of time and maintenance, so I settled for guppies. Guppy is the fish word for "rabbit". We went from 9 guppies, to 7 guppies, to 17 guppies, to 27 guppies, to 56 guppies, to boy there are a lot of fish in that aquarium.  Nice to know there is still a pet you can get a bunch of for under $10, and unless you spill paint into the tank they will last a life time.
 

Braiden

This is Braiden at the airport waiting for dad to leave on his trip to Africa. You can’t tell from this picture but the he is growing like a weed. As he likes to say Braiden is "2 Cool" and "Daddies Boy". We have a blast together. I have noticed it freaks some people out when you sit at a McDonalds (or as Braiden says "Old McDonalds") and have a real conversation with a two year old. We talk about what he has been doing, if there was anything interesting on Sesame Street, what Domino and Munchkin have been up to, why Braiden likes this French fry but not that one, you know important stuff. You can tell a lot about mom and dad by the things a two year old knows. For instances he can read (recognizes) the words Coca-Cola, Blimpie (a sandwich shop where PaRoo and him eat Cheetos), McDonalds, Blue Burrito, and Starbucks (oooooh Mocha Frapachino, oh sorry did I type that). You know your marketing works if a two year old can identify it. He also know the difference between a regular motorcycle and a Harley-Davidson from the sound of their pipes.

I am amazed at how the mind of a two year old works. As per norm we do something as a family on Friday nights. Last month we loaded up the car, got everyone strapped in, and….nothing, the car  would not start. I naturally did what every guy does, I got out to take a look under the hood. Now guys always look under the hood, it is the manly thing to do, even though we do not have a clue as to what we are looking at. This time, however, I had an idea what the problem was. The Arizona heat is tough on batteries and I could tell from the way it looked it was the culprit. As I was grabbing for my tools Mollie ask "Can you tell what the problem is?"

"It’s the battery" I replied, "The heat got to it.."

Braiden ask Mollie what dad was doing. "The battery is dead" she told him. Well that seamed to satisfy him so off he went back into the house.

A few minutes later I heard him come back into the garage saying "Here you go daddy, here you go." I looked from under the hood to see Braiden standing there trying to hand me a little AA battery he had taken out of one of his toys. Before I could say anything Braiden replied "now the car will be all better," and turned around and went back into the house.

Mollie and I laughed for days.
 
 
 

Here is Mollie, Braiden, Me, along with Ann and Mike Novak, praying together before our Africa trip. A whole group from Food for the Hungry came out to pray for us and see us off.

Here is me and Mike poising for one of the publicity pic for the contest. Mike is the Program Director at K-Love Radio. K-Love is a Contemporary Christian Music Network that has stations in 35 states. The format and music is similar to my old station KSBJ/KXBJ.
 
 
 

Even though it was technically winter in Kenya there were still plenty of animal at the Massia Mara Wildlife preserve. Kenya is on the Equator so the temperature stayed around 80 degrees. At the Massia Mara we stayed at the Kichwa Tembo Camp which in Swahili means Elephant Head. We left out in the morning in this Range Rover. They were the only 4x4 vehicles we saw in Africa and I have new found respect for them.
 
 
 

Probably one of Braiden’s favorite animals is the giraffe. Seeing them in the zoo is one thing, but rounding a corner of brush and seeing one standing right in front of you is another. You might notice that the spots on this one look splotchy, that is because this is an Kenyan giraffe.
 
 
 

If I remember correctly these are Thompson gazelle. The one with the horns is the male. The rest is his harem (That is what the guide told us). The whole time we were watching them the male was trying to keep his harem rounded up. For some reason those females just did not want to go where he thought they need to go.
 
 
 

This is me and Mike standing next to the Massa River. It was the only time during the safari that we got out of the vehicle. You can’t really tell, but some of the dark specks in the water behind us are hippos.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

This is one of the two Black Rinos we saw. Like most of the big animals they are endangered species. It was cool being only about 20 yards from him, until our guide started telling us how one charged him and the truck the week before. We all suddenly wanted to move on to see what else we could see.
 
 
 
 
 

One of the highlights of any safari is getting to see the big cats. Toward the end of our time we spotted a pride of lions. There were no males but we did see three females and about ten cubs. Again it was so cool seeing them just yards away from the vehicle.
 
 
 

This is me and Thomas, a real Massi Warrior. The Massi are one of the nomadic tribes that live in Kenya. They measure their wealth in cattle, or as they say "kettle". The Massi have a belief that when the world began God gave them ownership of all the worlds cattle, but over time some were stolen from them. This gives the Massi the right to steal the cattle back from the other tribes, but they never steal from each other. To become a Massi Warrior you have to steal back some cattle from another tribe, or fight and kill a lion. Both are frowned upon because the Kenyan government does not want tribal wars to start over a few stolen cows, and the Massi don’t want to kill the lions because live lions bring much needed tourist dollars, (like the ones we were spending). Thomas has actually graduated from high school and is a pretty sharp young man. He was fascinated by the fact that I was from Texas. He ask me if I had any of his cattle, and I told him I did. Thomas also ask if the cattle we had in Texas were bigger than his, I told him they were. "So, cross breading my cattle again, eh." He replied.
 

Toward the end of our time in Kenya we visited the Giraffe Preserve in Nairobi. A place like this would never operate in the United States because the liability insurance would be too costly. Basically they had a large building next to the giraffe pen and you could hand feed them. If you did not give them enough they would nudge you with their heads. The gentleman standing next to me was our driver who escorted us around Nairobi.
 
 
 

The Internet

Lately I have been receiving a lot of forwarded e-mail. Chain letters, Virus warnings, Promotions promising everything from a trip to Disney World to a free dinner at Outback for if I FW an e-mail to 15 people, a petition to keep a studio from releasing a movie portraying Jesus and His disciples as being gay, and an alert to keep my eyes open for a child who was reported missing in 1999.

Well all of these are Internet hoaxes. Some are based on fact, for example there was a little girl reported missing from her yard in Minnesota in 1999, but she was found two hours later. Some of these e-mail sound convincing, so how do you know which ones are authentic and which ones are cyber clutter? I have the answer. I found a web site about Urban Legends and Folklore. Book mark this site and the next time you get an e-mail asking you to FW it on to everyone on your list check it out with this site first.
 
 

Final Thought

When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command - and very often, that individual is nuts.
 
 

Closing

Sorry this was so short. By the way, let us hear from you, PLEASE!!! We need as much contact from back home as possible.

Until Next Time, Y'all Take Care
Bard, Mollie & Braiden