Miami

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