slave-free tomatoes :: IJM recipe for change

hopefully randy and I haven't become broken records yet...

IJM is just SO stellar! I feel like every time I turn around, they are on the cusp of whatever new issue I'm hearing about.

this time? it's tomatoes. my friend alison was just telling me about how often tomatoes are farmed using slave labor. from what she's learned, the best way to avoid purchasing such bad tomato slave products are to look for heirloom tomatoes (in general, these tend to come from farms that have labor practices more on the up and up, and are the best to eat.)

this morning, I stumbled upon this awesome campaign that IJM is up to to help end slavery in the tomato farming in the US. yep, you read that right -- tomato slavery exists right here in our first world USA. 

what's even cooler (if it COULD get better than it is already...) is that they are featuring tomato recipes from supporters of the campaign, such as sara groves and the barlow girls. clever, eh? I know, I know, it's obvious that I maybe have a girl-crush on sara. maybe you should, too ;)

[photo from here] 

europe :: the downsides

don't get me wrong. we had a fantastic time in europe! and we are well aware that we are privileged beyond measure to have had the chance to do all that we did the last few weeks. we are grateful... SO grateful. it's just that if you hear us say we can't afford to do certain things in the coming weeks, it's because of the list of unexpected expenses that we are trying to catch up from.

detroit, michigan, usa :: i found an amazing deal on cheapoair (take note) on a ticket from milan to prague for the later part of our trip. but when i went to purchase it, it didn't go through. i called in, spoke with a nice lady with a very thick accent. she offered me an alternative ticket price that was higher than i wanted but the best it was going to be. we spent a long time repeating and spelling things to each other to make sure we were on the same page. i booked this ticket for thursday, august 8th. in looking at the itinerary just before boarding our flight to amsterdam, i realized the flight was actually scheduled for tuesday, august 21st. how can this happen?! how is tuesday translated to thursday?! how is "eighth" translated into "twenty-first"?!? there is no way we'd still be on the continent to even think of flying that far into august anywhere in europe! we're still fighting this one... hoping we get a refund even though they say they don't do such things. oi vey.

amsterdam, netherlands :: plane got in a few minutes late. practically jogged the length of one terminal to the next to get to our gate just in the nick of time. in the middle of our jog, we had to go through security and they confiscated my knitting needles! (have no fear, i was able to thread yarn through my work so it wasn't lost).

 

dusseldorf, germany :: after flying basically all day and night (friday am -- to saturday am), we arrived in germany only to find out that our suitcase (which we had wanted to carry on but due to lack of space in the plane by the time we boarded, was force-checked all the way through)did not follow us all the way to our destination... later on a german student kindly helping us communicate with the airline reported that it was even possibly in barcelona :/

cologne, germany :: our reservation through airbnb for a place to sleep after touring the city with our friend heather wasn't quite as nice as it had been described. let's just say no one wanted to use the shower (even though we all definitely could have used one...)

brussels, belgium :: at an ungodly hour of the morning, we arrived at the ryanair ticket counter to check in for our $27 flight (per person) to italy. 120 euros later we had our printed boarding docs (it wasn't fine print, but using a tiny iPhone screen meant i didn't really read any details about this flight and the necessity of printing your own boarding pass at home. southwest, we love you EVEN more now!) thinking i had checked us in AND paid for our one checked bag, we were surprised to learn that checking our bag would cost another 105 euros. what the...?!?! so our $54 trip to italy turned into more like $300. :(

milan, italy :: i hate to say it because this was truly our favorite leg of our travels, but my how i learned not to rely on having internet on my phone at all times! reservations for hotel bristol for one night. killer deal. google mapped it and took pictures on my phone so when we didn't have internet later we'd be able to find it. only there are TWO hotel bristols in milan. guess which one we went to? and it just so happened that the wrong hotel bristol was on holiday (so a sign on their door told us) so we couldn't even talk to someone in person to find that we were at the wrong one. fail. just over $100 for a hotel close by that was clean, available and offered free breakfast (but not free wifi, therefore i didn't find out about the other hotel bristol until the next day)

oh yeah, and there are three airports in milan. we bought roundtrip tickets for the bus to/from the hotel area, only to realize too late that our flight out of milan was from a different airport than the one we flew into. another fail. thankfully this only cost us about 10 euros.

prague, czech republic :: all was going smoothly and we were saving money in unexpected places. (hooray! even though it wasn't coming close to helping us break even...) while laughing and joking as we walked out of the metro (train) in the city center of prague, we are stopped by a gruff czech officer. apparently, though we had purchased our train tickets, because we didn't validate (and didn't see signs telling us to) we now owed an 800 czk fine (or 35 euros). how's that for deflating our excitement for touring a city we thought would be the least expensive in our travels?!

we still loved all of these places, but feel like we had to learn a few too many lessons the hard way about traveling in them. maybe you can learn from our mistakes!

 

CONNECTing with Students in Europe

To all of you who prayed for and gave toward our trip to Europe for the Students for Christ CONNECT '12 conference, thank you!

We are back home, still somewhat jet-lagged, but thankful for our safe travels, the way God clearly moved in this conference and for the comfort of our beds. :)

Here are some of the main ways we were able to minister:

1) Randy taught two mini-sessions of the Biblical Global Justice course materials, exposing students to the basics of why and how the God of the Bible cares so deeply about issues of injustice. He delved in with these students by going deeper into the issues of Sex Trafficking and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, offering well-thought out research and relevant biblical studies. (More on this to come!)

2) Lindsay taught one class on "Engaging God in the Everyday" -- focusing on broadening views on prayer and how one can connect with God, based on knowledge of one's personality traits and understanding of the myriad types of prayer Christ followers have practiced from ancient times to now. 

(This was one of our favorite moments of the corporate meeting times -- where each country represented in the room brought a flag and prayer requests so that those present could walk, pray and worship as we lifted the people of Europe to the Father.)

3) Additionally, Lindsay and a missionary from France got to meet with several students and staff for "listening prayer" appointments. These were some of the sweetest moments of hearing (and seeing) where God has been at work in some deeper areas of these dear ones' lives and then together listening for what God might communicate to them further. (More on this to come also!)

4) Lastly, due to an unexpected cancellation of the childcare workers, Lindsay ended up working with the 3-6 year-old class almost every day, teaching the missionary children while their parents served in various roles throughout the conference.