Grandbaby #7 Arrives on the day after we return from Nepal!

Our 5th granddaughter was born to Clayton and Amanda less than 24 hours after we arrived home from Nepal.  We felt so lucky to be here to welcome our beautiful little Baya Maree Brown.

Dusk by the bay in Kota Kinabalu, East Malaysia

Malaysia and Nepal

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Malaysia and Nepal

The Top of the World

A political rally today has caused the city of Kathmandu (3 million+) to virtually shut down, so it gives me a chance to stay in our hotel room and catch up on our activities of the past couple of weeks.  Nepal is unusual and interesting.  We've had a once in a lifetime experience as we were invited to attend a ceremony at the Presidential Palace where the international artist, Ranan Lurie, handed over 3 paintings to a Nepali sherpa who will take them to the top of Mt. Everest in May as a symbol of world unity and the Nepal Tourism Year.

The man in the center is the Sherpa.

MALAYSIA!

We were in West Malaysia for a day and met this most wonderful woman at Cheshire Homes, Katihjah, who we will work with later in the year to do a training session for clinicians in Kuala Lumpur.  Then we traveled to East Malaysia (on the island of Borneo) and are working with two other Cheshire homes in the north (Kota Kinabalu) and south (Kuching)  along with some Rotary clubs and other NGO's as well as government organizations.  All are excited about serving wheelchair users better and improving the level of service to better meet the needs of the disabled here in Malaysia.  It's a blessing to work with so many good-hearted and dedicated people.

AMAZING MONGOLIA

Mongolia is so cold and desolate but the people are warm and wonderful. We have loved working with the Lasson's (Humanitarian Couple) who have done such a fantastic job of juggling such a variety of humanitarian projects and have taught us so much.

We look forward to returning in a few months to do a wheelchair training with the National Rehab. Center here in Ulaanbataar.

Our Final Day in the Philippines

After three busy weeks of Wheelchair Training in four different cities, we got to spend the morning at the beautiful temple in Manila.  It was a little slice of heaven!  We love the Philippines and ESPECIALLY the wonderful people we've met.

Loving the Philippines

We are doing 4 Wheelchair trainings on four different islands of the Philippines.  We love these beautiful people and are finding much success with the quality of participants that are coming to the training sessions.

BACK FROM GUYANA

We've just returned from a Wheelchair Training project in Georgetown, Guyana, South America.  Guyana happens to be the only country in South America with English as their primary language so we were blessed to be able to conduct the training without the use of interpreters!  We had 18 wonderful local participants who did an excellent job of learning the fitting skills and then demonstrated their knowledge by actually fitting 18 disabled recipients and sending them off to lead a more productive and comfortable life in their new wheelchairs.

We had the privilege of working with some incredible team members:  The Angus' who are the full-time Humanitarian couple in Guyana, the Cullimore's who are a wonderful and experienced Development Couple for the Wheelchair Initiative and Steve Spencer, a Physical Therapist from Eden, Utah.  The class participants came from 5 different health clinics from around Georgetown and were eager learners that we believe will be a great asset in helping disabled Guyanese to get appropriate, well-fitted chairs in the future.

OH HOW WE ENJOYED THE HOLIDAYS

What a wonderful holidays season we've just had and are so grateful to friends and family who helped make it that way.  The year ended a little on the tense side when our Annie totaled her car on her 32nd birthday, December 30th, but she was just shaken up and not seriously hurt.  WE ARE SO GRATEFUL FOR HER SAFETY.  Then we spent New Year's day with my sweet dad in the Emergency Room as he had a bloody nose that just wouldn't stop!  Anyway, everything turned out OK and we're anxiously preparing for 4 big mission assignments that we'll do over the next four months.  Highlight of our holiday season was our visit via SKPYE with our "Mitchionary" in Edmonton, Canada.  Each family member got time to talk to Mitch and we even got to watch him open his Christmas presents.  It's wonderful to live in this day of technology!
                                                                                                                                                               My 88 years old parents at our Ottley Family Christmas party.

All our grandkids in their Christmas pj's. 

                                      My cute preschoolers on our visit to Santa

Mitch, looking like a tough guy, and his companion Elder Blake in sub-zero Edmonton!

First Assignment COMPLETE and now preparing for the next!

We are grateful for our first opportunity to serve with the LDS Charities Wheelchair Initiative in west Africa and have just returned from three wonderful and EXHAUSTING weeks of training and evaluating in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ghana.

We worked with many wonderful clinicians and technicians and also met many incredible wheelchair users who are doing amazing things with their lives in spite of their disabilities.  We were certainly lifted and inspired by their courage and determination to move their lives forward in positive ways.

The struggles of these good African people are a stark reminder of how blessed we really are and how much we take these blessings for granted on a daily basis.  The beauty of the people and their unwavering faithfulness are graphic reminders of God's love and concern for ALL His children throughout the world.

Sierra Leone, west Africa

Our first missionary experience "in the field" is turning out to be harder AND better than we could have imagined.  We spent today assisting another team member with his training of local interviewers who can interview former recipients of the LDS Charities chairs.  Tomorrow we'll start our real work as Kim begins to evaluate Clinicians on how well they are using the skills of Assessment and Fitting that they were trained to do 6 months ago and I will be evaluating the wheelchair assembly and adjusting skills of the Technicians.  Internet access is poor and the weather hot and rainy even though the Rainy Season is over, but the PEOPLE are beautiful and wonderful.  We feel blessed to serve them.

Assignment Agenda

Looks like Kim and I will be seeing lots of the world during our missionary assignment with the Wheelchair Initiative.  More specifically we'll be seeing a lot of the insides of airplanes, airports, medical clinics, and classrooms!  We'll never be in one place long enough to really see the country, but we are grateful that our assignment includes working with natives of each country as well as wonderful Church Humanitarian couples.

So far our assignments for the next six months include:
Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana (west Africa)
Guyana (South America)
Philipines
Cambodia

Hope our energy and brainpower hold up OK!
Keep us in your prayers.

My Wonderful Preschoolers

Noah Gardner (son of Aaron and Ann) and Gwenyth Brown (daughter of Kirk and Brynne) are now in their 2nd year at GramGoo Preschool.  Now that Mitch is serving his mission in Canada, his old bedroom has been redesigned as our official Preschool classroom complete with puppet theatre, library, work station, homework corner, etc.    We meet Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings from 9-noon.  Grampy drives the "school bus" on Monday mornings and picks the kids up for breakfast at McDonald's before delivering them to class.  Once a month, we have "Mini-preschool Day" and our little two-year-olds, Bonnie Brown and Lincoln Gardner, join their older siblings for preschool fun.

What a blessing for this old Grandma to have my darling grandkids so close that I can watch them grow and help them learn on a regular basis!

We're on BRAIN OVERLOAD!

Kim and I have had the opportunity to make trips to the Church Office Building several times and are currently on brain overload trying to understand all the responsibilities that go along with this Church Service calling.  We have our first trip out of the country scheduled for October and will do evaluations in 3 west Africa nations.  We go for additional training to Salt Lake tomorrow and then have a meeting with the other four Development Couples next week.

We welcome your prayers in our behalf so that we can understand our duties and have the faith, energy, and mental capacity to carry them out!

Humanitarian Service Mission

Kim and I have been officially called to be Humanitarian Service Missionaries for the LDS Church for the next 2 1/2 years.  Our mission began on July 12, 2010 and we will serve as a Development Couple as well as a Trainer/Technician team for the Church Wheelchair Initiative.  This "journey" began almost 3 years ago when we were asked if we would be a Trainer/Technician team.  After saying "yes" to this opportunity, Kim was called shortly thereafter to serve in a Bishopric in a Weber State University Young Adult ward.  We called the Wheelchair office and said we would need to be put "on hold" so that Kim could serve in the Bishopric and still work his full-time job.  Little did we know that a year and a half later, he would retire from his Physical Therapy practice AND be released from his Bishopric call.  We were immediately called again to serve as a Trainer/Technician team and received additional training during a 3 day seminar this past March.  In June, we received a call from the Wheelchair office and were asked if we would submit our official mission papers to accept a call as a Development Couple!  We are thrilled with this opportunity to serve a mission especially because we are serving at the same time as Mitch is serving his mission in Canada!

Our mission is unique in that we travel for 2-4 weeks at a time to third-world countries and then we come home, travel again, then come home, and on it goes!  Our first assignment will be to travel to Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Ghana in West Africa in October to learn how to evaluate previous wheelchair projects that have been done by LDS Charities.  Our second assingment, in December, will be to go to Guyana on the northern border of South America to do a Training session.  The Phillipines is on the docket for 2011 and who knows what else?!  We are grateful for this wonderful opportunity to use Kim's professional skills and talents, as well as my past travel experience and work with Reach The Children and other NGO's.

Happy Independence Day!

Last minute good-byes and he's off!