Alona's Birthday

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Happy New Year!

Make a postcard - it's easy!

Sushi

My friends Elizabeth and Angel came home with me at the beginning of Christmas vacation. Elizabeth left after one week, and Angel is staying for the rest of the break; but while Elizabeth was here, we three tried (successfully, I might add) to make one of Angel's favorites -- Sushi




Angel and Elizabeth hard at work:



the finished product:


With salmon or smoked herring, fresh ginger and cilantro, they tasted pretty good!

Update

Well, I see that it has been quite a while since I've updated my blog. Actually, this blog was created with the intent to share only the events of my summer (hence the name, "Alisa's '07 Summer"). However, I believe I shall keep the spot, 'cause I like it. And I'll change the name when I think of something appropriate. Howbeit, since I will be starting my last semester of college soon, updates will probably be scarce, at least until next summer.

For those of you who have been checking this spot, thank you for your interest. Please excuse the lenthly updateless period.

And here's a bit of news from my life for now: Like I've already mentioned, soon I will be starting the last (foreseeable) semester of my college education experience. Surely this will be a significant time in my life while I seek the Lord's direction for the near hereafter. He is altogether trustworthy, and I'm thankful to be serving Him. I'm also grateful for the opportunity I've had to study at God's Bible School for these last seven semesters, and look forward to this next semester. Also, currently I am enjoying Christmas break at home with my family :-)

Somewhere in the East

...(but probably not the East you were thinking of). At the moment I am vacationing with my family in a road trip along the East Coast. So far we've been to South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. More about our vacation coming later.

Jamaica!

As previously mentioned, during July 16-24 I was privileged to be in Jamaica with my parents and two younger siblings. We did a four-day VBS, and Dad preached in some evening services.


Amber teaches the Bible lesson

On our first day we had 64 kids. The crowd grew and on our last day we had almost 200! Anyone who has done children's services in inner-city Cincinnati may know a taste of what we experienced; though I've never had the opportunity to work with 200 Cincinnati kids!

One thing we discovered while we were there was how well kids will listen to another kid give a presentation. Amber (10) taught the Bible lesson one morning, and I was amazed at how immediately there came a genuine hush over the other children, and they really listened! Amber was somewhat soft-spoken and she didn't have a microphone, but that didn't matter because those kids' ears and attentions were glued. And she did a wonderful job delivering the lesson. This was the first time for either my younger brother or sister to be outside of the USA.



We lodged with a local family in the heart of the country, deep inland among beautiful, low, bamboo and banana tree-covered mountains. The trek to the church from where we stayed takes only five minutes, and the road overlooks what is known as Yankee Valley. At night as one looks out over the valley one can see the lights of dozens of Jamaican bush homes, as collectively they form lighted trails tracing around and through the foothills (too bad I couldn't capture that on our camara; it was gorgeous).

Staying with a local family also afforded us the opportunity to learn a little about some Jamaicans' everyday lives. Most village families grow produce: yams, bananas, plaintains, mangos, coconuts, ginger, and/or just about any other tropical fruit or vegetable you could think of. Four things I tried for the first time on this trip were: breadfruit (roasted and fried, served with sardines), sugarcane (freshly chopped pieces to chew on), sugarsop (which I fell in love with; I think now it's my favorite fruit as far as flavor goes), and soursop (more sour than sugarsop (duh :-) but still very good).


Getting some "real" cultural experience, transporting yams through the garden.

Perhaps we'll return to Jamaica. In fact, Mom and Dad are seriously considering returning as summer missionaries.

Home again - or not

This post is just to say that, after spending two days in Paris, trying to get on a plane, flying standby, I returned safely home yesterday. But now I'm leaving with my family to spend a week in Jamaica!...