MicahJohn

Last night at Manor was the last scheduled Fickett Family concert. All in all it has been a great month. We had a lot of fun times and a lot of memorable times as a family (those two not always being synonymous (i.e. mosquitoes in the Everglades)).

The best part of last night for me was getting to see Jere and Hager who I haven’t seen since school ended. Together the three of us decided the Ficketts should do an on campus concert so our Messiah friends can see us. We’ll see what progress we are able to make on that. We might even be able to turn it into an alternate chapel hosted by some group we have connections with (like Messiah Cross Country).

I have two weeks until I start work. I have only 4.5 days left at home before work starts (because Friday starts Roxbury!). The approaching reality of a real job kind of creeps me out.

So, I surprised myself. Not only did I accept an Engineering position, I accepted an Engineering position in Waynesboro. Lest you all think I have lost my sense of adventure, or have caved to other pressures, this decision was made that I might more fully embrace adventures when they come in the future. After about nine months (depending on how carefully I guard my money) I will be debt free. I plan not to own a car, I plan to walk to work and live at home. Without the responsibility of debt I will be able to skip off and do whatever, I could even live without house or job on the streets of some city for a time. (Yes, though perhaps irresponsible, this is rather appealing.)

Further, I am not altogether sacrificing adventure in the here and now. The other day, walking to the post office, I was impressed with the increasing number of Spanish speaking establishments in town. I think right here in Waynesboro I will be able to practice Spanish and engage in cross cultural communication.

My parents have a lot of cool friends. After Pittsburgh we went to Ohio to the church of Duffy Roberts. Duffy knew my dad from 8th grade on through college and then on through seminary. It was fun to hear them exchanging stories. Playing in their church was incredibly encouraging. God really touched people through us. I think it was largely because they were expecting God to do so. Duffy introduced us in a way that pointed to God, God in us. He told the story about coming to understand the cross in my dad’s home. He talked about getting baptized by dad in college under God-type circumstances.

The next stop, I think (it all blurs together), was Canoe Creek BIC. There were fun people there, but mainly friends of my little brothers and of my parents. I watched the end of Sky High.

Then came Millersburg. I love great hosts. Everywhere we go we have been stuffed full of great food. The great hosting of the Keefers stood out.

At Fairland BIC we got to go swimming in the pastor’s pool. Swimming in PA is different than swimming in Florida. Nathanael and I got to stay with Tessa (college friend) Gabe, Judah, and Seth stayed with Oliver (a quizzing friend). Friends are good. At Tessa’s house we watched a Fred Astaire movie. Hooray for tap dancing on the ceiling!

Faith OP was the church of another old friend of Dad. They have eight kids, but the older boys were away. Though disappointing, this meant the four oldest Fickett boys got their beds. I had a Thailand/Everglades mosquito refresher. Crazy buggers!

Now, almost to the present, our last stop was Clear River Community Church. We ate dinner with the Lings (college friends of Mom and Dad). They were a lot of fun. I’m a fan of neat people. (I’m also a fan of good food). Gabe, Judah, and I stayed the night with a family from their church. We got their twelve year old’s bedroom: king size bed, and its own bathroom. Nice! Again the responsiveness of the audience was really encouraging. Again I think it was largely because God moved, and God moved largely because people expected it. Again there was a great introduction that said, “these people are probably good musicians, but that doesn’t matter so much as their willingness to let God use them.”

Post-service we had great pizza and then went to the air and space museum at the Dullus airport. Space shuttles are big.

It is good to be home. Though I’m not a huge fan of having to do things like mow lawns.

Peace

Sorry to have laxed in the ol’ writing department. We did leave Miami, but not before eating some GREAT Cuban food. Post Miami we stopped in the Tampa Bay area. We stayed with friends we met when we lived in Albequerque. I love grandparent-like people. They made it their mission to spoil us. They pretty much succeeded.

Day one they took us to their neighbor’s pool. It was an outdoor pool, but bugless because it was screened in. They also opened up their very nice pool table, they brought out darts, a pet bird, everything.

The whole time food was amazing and abundant. We went to a beach on the Gulf. It is different. There aren’t any waves, but it’s a whole lot more than a lake. We also went to Tarpon Springs. There we watched a video about natural sponge harvesting. It was pretty cool.

Moving right along because I have a lot of ground to cover and I don’t feel like sitting here too long. The drive up from Florida was overly eventful. Our radiator decided to get rather clogged. This meant we couldn’t drive over 60mph and we had to stop and add coolant periodically. The trailer didn’t help anything.

We decided to drive through the night and stop over at our house to see if our mechanic could do anything for it. Not much luck (in part due to the short time frame we were working with).

The time spent working on the car was time not at our next performance location. We arrived with only about an hour and a half till concert time, with dinner to eat, instruments to unload (conveniently packed behind all our luggage), and sound check to run.

Nonetheless things went pretty well. A more thorough sound check would have been great.

In the evening after the concert we (Nathanael, Asher, and I, and Erin and Artie Black) (Parents were asleep and Gabe, Judah, Seth, and Baruch were at a different house) watched the old 12 angry men with Henry Fonda. Impressively entertaining for a movie that is basically a bunch of guys arguing in a single room.

This morning we got our radiator replaced. A necessary measure, good to have done, but rather entertaining considering that the two side doors are totally caved in leaving the car in a totaled state.

We are now in Pittsburgh staying with a family that has nine kids. It’s a big house, a big crowd. There are scooters racing around on the first floors hard wood floors. They have a large kitchen with two dining tables and a large dining room with another two tables. It is pretty sweet.

So one reason I have not sent out more emails and one reason I’m cruising through this one is because I’ve been spending my computer time working on a website I’m building. So far there isn’t much to see, so don’t try.
Peace

Micah

Greetings

A number of readers have seemed sad to see me home because it means an end to the Thailand emails. I thought I might try to redeem my homecoming by sending out some updates from stateside. (Note: I have not really felt as though anyone who lamented the end of Thailand emails, really wanted not to see me). (Second note: If you really don’t want your inbox filled with emails from someone who isn’t in Thailand, that is fine, just let me know)

After a few hectic days at home, my family left for Miami the midnight between Wednesday and Thursday. As we drove off into the Thursday morning night we towed a trailer filled with our luggage and instruments. We had the back seat of our fifteen passenger white van, Moby Dick, taken out and a futon in its place on the floor. And we had the two side doors sealed shut (by the impact of another car’s bumper into the side of our van). This meant that any traffic in or out of the van had to go through the front doors or the tail doors.

In good Fickett style, we drove the 21 hours to Miami straight, stopping only for gas, food, and restrooms. Of the drive itself, there is not too much to report. We didn’t do as much reading out loud as usual because for most of the drive someone was sleeping on the futon in the back. (Third note: the AC in our van doesn’t work when the engine has to output the extra power to pull a trailer).

The trip to Miami was several things. It was a trip to the Brethren in Christ General Conference. It was a trip to the denominational finals for Bible quizzing. And it was the start of the Fickett Family July music tour.

Conference (which ended Monday night) was amazing! ¡Me encanta Español! (I love Spanish, or, more literally, Spanish enchants me). All the evening services were in both Spanish and English. The worship team was Hispanic. The speakers the first two nights spoke in Spanish. Also very fun was the guy who translated the first two nights. He was a big African American man who got just as in to the delivery of the message as the pastor himself.

Quizzing (which ended Sunday night) was amazing! For those of you who haven’t experienced it, comprehension is hopeless. The energy and camaraderie always surprises those who witness it for the first time. I have now been too old to quiz for two years. I was able to come back this year for finals as an assistant coach. After the first day of round robins my team was seeded first. My church’s other team (we were the only team that was able to have two teams qualify for the final tournament) was near the bottom.

Day two our second team came alive. They went undefeated all the way through the brackets (necessarily delivering us a loss). Fortunately finals is double elimination. Our team managed to avoid any losses other than the loss to our own B Team. So we, Fairview Ave. A and B, faced each other in the final. Because the A Team had come through the losers bracket we had to win two quizzes to take first. The B team only had to win once.

The first of the final quizzes went well (for my team). We won. The second quiz was close. It came down to the very last question. The other team, the B team, got it. So we got second. Not bad. It was a lot of fun.

The (sort of) opener of our tour (two songs for special music Sunday morning) was a mixed bag. I got to introduce our music in Spanish : ) The first song wasn’t together, largely due to a lack of a sound check : ( The second song went very well. We received a standing ovation : )

The real opener (Wednesday at Vida Abundante) went very well. We had a few issues with remembering words in a few songs and other minor bumps, but on the whole things went well. People were ministered to. There was a really cute kid who after the service told us about all kinds of things in his life. He is five turning six in a few days. Last year he had a Spiderman party. This year he is going to have a batman party. The coolest thing about talking to him was the occasional Spanish word when he ran out of English. Especially when talking about time spent with his grandfather, he used a lot of Spanish.

One more adventure, to close: I rode the hotel shuttle at 6:00 Tuesday morning with friends to see friends off at the airport, and then rode back on the shuttle. Having just typed it, it sounds a little dull and ridiculous, but you will just have to trust me that having stayed up most of the night, and doing it in the moment, on impulse, and getting kicked off the shuttle at the airport (contrary to plan), and having to catch the next shuttle to get back, it all seemed like a grand adventure.

Well, due to a lack of internet access, more adventures have accumulated. So I’ll tack on another adventure before closing. Yesterday we went to the Everglades. It was pretty sweet . . . at first. The first trail we walked was out in the open. Pretty hot thanks to the direct sun, but bearable thanks to a breeze. We saw several alligators of all different sizes. Early on Baruch had jokingly volunteered to wrestle an alligator. So, the whole time Gabe worked to hold him to his “promise.” Several times picking him up and preparing to toss him at an alligator.

The second trail was when things got less sweet and we, apparently, got more sweet. The second trail wound through some trees. The lack of sunshine was nice, but in there with the stiller air and the stiller water the mosquitoes where in full force. By full force, I mean the fullest force I’ve ever seen them in in my life. There were mosquitoes doing gnat impersonations and flying in swarms. We all were loaded up with DEET, but the further in we went, the less the buggers cared. I eventually just took off running to escape. When the rest of my family came out, they had been devoured. Baruch had even gotten bitten on his lip.

May the mosquitoes leave you in peace

Peace

Micah