Tea Time with Alycia DeLong

Return of the DeLongs

2009-05-12T23:06:00.008+01:00

Well, they said it wouldn't happen,
They said it'd never be,
They locked the door behind us
And threw away the key.

But little did they know
Our connections in high places
So what we want to say to them is,
"HA! We're coming back! In your faces!"

(Okay, so it's not exactly a psalm, but it is from the heart.)

WE WON THE APPEAL AND WE'RE GOING BACK TO THE UK! We just received our passports back from the British High Commission in Ottawa and in them are lovely little Visa stickers that say we're allowed back into England to carry on for another two years! Now, they aren't exactly the visas we had originally applied for (we'd gone for five year visas but they axed that category last November), but you know what they say, 'don't look the immigration authorities in the mouth'. Or is it 'missionaries can't be choosers'? We are now full speed ahead as we are preparing to leave this weekend. What the...THIS WEEKEND?!?!? I need to pack! I need to say goodbye to everyone! I need to eat as much Kraft Dinner as possible!

Yes, it is a roller coaster of emotions as we prepare to move back to England (a roller coaster we've been standing in line to ride for the past 10 months - but I'm not bitter). It's hard not to feel torn between two homes, here in Canada and there in England, but we know that only God could open the doors for us again to go back to the UK. We're excited to see what He has in store for us!

On that note I think I'll have to call it a night. This week is packed full of breakfasts, lunches, coffees and dinners with friends and family as we try and say our final goodbyes before we leave. Hmmm, that's a lot of food to be consuming right before hopping that emotional roller coaster. That may get messy...

Please pray for us as we prepare to go back! Not only us, but our friends and family that we're leaving for this time. Taylor has a lot of fans here in the new country!

So until next time, when we're settled back in England, thank you for all your prayers and encouragement during this time, and if you're ever in England, look us up!

God bless and take care,

~ Alycia DeLong (& Co.)

Guess Who's Coming to Tea

2009-02-19T18:21:00.051Z

...so then he says, "Because I'm a police officer, that's why..."

Oh, hi! Nice of you to stop by! I haven't been here in a while and the blog is a mess! Just look at that huge gap - the last update was in October! I've had lots of emails from many of you asking what is going on now, are we still in Canada and, of course, how is Taylor. Well, stick around and hopefully I'll get some of this mess cleaned up!

We are still in Canada - Regina to be exact. We've been staying with Danny's parents since our return (insert comments about living in parents' basement here) and I have to say, honestly, it's been pretty good. Danny's parents are wonderful people and they've really enjoyed having their new granddaughter around 24-7. Who can blame them though, she's pretty much the cutest and smartest baby ever! Even when she's going through all her teething troubles she's adorable! See for yourself!

Yes, she's pretty cute. I can't believe Taylor will be a year old next month! It has gone so fast...sigh...She's learning new things everyday, like how to play peek-a-boo:

And she's even eating her peas all by herself...

Okay, maybe she has to work some more on that one. In any case, Taylor is a joy to us all and certainly makes life a lot more exciting and enjoyable!

On that note, let's move on to what's happening currently with our passport visas for England. This area of discussion can be quite a source of frustration and anger, unlike the topic of Taylor which produces mainly warm, fuzzy feelings (and sometimes warm, slimey feelings, but I won't get into that). Thankfully, in a brilliant stroke of genius by yours truly (a.k.a. Humble Alycia, the Ridiculously Good-Looking One) I have come up with a way to keep the evil beaurocratic villians from crushing our happy Taylor feelings! (Insert cheers here) I have merged the two together, thus creating a roller coaster of emotion and information that will leave you up to date without feeling down in the dumps. Feel free to cheer some more...(Insert sound of cricket here). Uh, maybe I'll just get on with it.

As you may or may not recall, back in August 2008 we had applied for new visas to go back to the UK and continue our work with LifeFORCE UK, Project Gambia, and manyother local churches and schools. We had applied for a five year religious worker visa, but were denied! We were told, in a nutshell, we weren't "religious" enough by their standards because we didn't run our own church. What we were doing could be described as children's work, youth work, social work, and community work. With England having a very high unemployment rate and their economic system overwhelmed by immigrants, they felt that what we were doing was not pertinent to their society and that our positions should be made available to British people first.

And now here's a cute video of Taylor laughing!

Isn't she great? She was laughing at my aunt's cat.

Now were we? Right, the initial rejection. As you can imagine, we were pretty shocked. After making many calls and getting many answering machines but no real people to talk to, we realized all we could do was fill out the appeal form and try to change their minds. In the meantime, we had to figure out how to get some of our things from England. More calls were made and we were eventuaaly informed that under no circumstances would we be allowed back into the UK for any amount of time until we had proper entry clearance!

Cue the clip!

Whew! I needed that! About a month later we received a letter from the British immigration people. It said that they had our appeal and that they would give us a hearing date on February 19, 2009. Now, just to clarify, the hearing for our appeal was NOT on February 19, 2009, but the date we would be given a date for the appeal hearing was February 19, 2009. (Who's on first? What's on second? I don't know's on third.)

Hang in their folks!

And now we're up to what's new! Well, surprize of all surprizes, in January we received word from UK Immigration that they had a hearing date for us! March 9, 2009, is the day we are to meet with the Immigration and Assylum Seekers Tribunal. Unfortunatlely, the hearing is in England, so we can't go ourselves. Nice how they worked that one out. But phooey back on them because we have (trumpets: da da da daaaaaa) REPRESENTATIVES! Yes, the pastor of our church in England and one of the elders are going on our behalf to state our case. There is, however, a new small glitch in our impending victory. In November 2008, British Immigration eliminated the five year religious worker visa category.

(Taylor isn't laughing at the cat anymore at this point, but at the cat's toy. Apparantly, I can save myself the trouble of shopping at Toys R' Us and just go to Petland for Christmas and Birthday gifts.)

There is a two year religious and missionary worker category that we're hoping they will default our application to. All we can really do now is wait and pray that God's will would be done and we'd be ready for whatever path he has for us next.

In the meantime, Danny's been working as an electrician for a company here in Regina. It's good work and he has many Christian co-workers. It's been a big change of pace for us and not an easy one either. It's like our lives have come to a halt and we've really missed all that we were doing in England and all our friends there. On the other hand, there has been many a bright silver lining to this cloud and we've enjoyed being with our family and friends here in Canada. We've had the opportunity to get involved with a few youth camps and retreats and are even leading a cell group in our church. So, although our lives have been put on hold, we are still getting by pretty good and have little to complain about...

Oh yeah, did I mention the part about our landlord in England giving us until the end of February to move out? He wants his house back so we're trying to find a storage place to pack all our stuff in until we are allowed back to sort it out.

Well, now you are up to date! Ahhhhh, it looks better in here, doesn't it? I think I'm ready for another cup of tea. Hopefully I can sneak one more in before Taylor wakes up from her nap!

Thanks for all the encouragment and feedback from all of you! We really appreciate it!

Until next time, take care and God bless!

Sincerely,
~ H.A.R.G.L.O. (a.k.a. Humble Alycia, the Ridiculously Good Looking One)

P.S. - If you want to see more Taylor videos, check out these links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ7ScVjzx3E&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2z6IdxMcxE&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W84eN3lb1k0&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPv0RfQQ6b4&feature=channel

And here's one from the second Project Gambia Trip we did in February 2008.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeUIslUhtLo&feature=channel

"DeLong" and Winding Road

2008-10-20T13:06:00.029+01:00

Greetings from Canada...still!

Yes, we are here in our homeland...still. If you are in a good mood right now, I'd recommend you stop reading this and skip to Section B. However, if you are looking to become confused and frustrated with a mind-boggling beaucratic labyrinth in which there seems no escape, then tie up your shoe laces and take a walk with me.
We were denied visas back into the UK. No, I'm not joking. We had applied for a five year religious worker's visa and they denied us because, and quote...

"I am not satisfired that you will be carrying out the duties oas defined for the purposes of the Immigration Rules as a religious functionary whose main regular duties comprise the leading of a congregation in performning the rites and rituals of the faith and in preaching the essentials of the creed."

...and furthermore...

"I am not satisfied that there will be sufficient funds to maintain you and your
family."

Okay, they may have us on that last point, but I think the term 'sufficient funds' is relative (especially in the ministry). As for their first point, apparantly being a youth and childrens pastor, an ordained minister, a teacher of religious education in public schools, and a director of a Christian missions organization isn't 'religious' enough for them.

Now before we get worked up about that, here where things get even more insane. They've said they've rejected us because Danny doesn't preach (which he does in many different places around England) or doesn't preach enough. You know, there's a two-year religious workers visa in which you're NOT ALLOWED to preach? How is that supposed to work?

We decided to appeal the decision. A few more forms later, we faxed off our appeal to them and waited to hear back. Nothing. So Danny called them to see if they received the appeal. They hadn't. So he faxed them again. And then called them again. They still had no record of it. Then we emailed them. There is a 28 day limit in which you can appeal so we were a bit anxious to know that they'd received our forms. They emailed us back and told us that they were backed up from August with appeals and that we should contact them in a month to see if they had our appeal or, better yet, don't call us we'll call you.

The next thing we did was try and find out if we could get back into the UK to get some of our things. After many frustrating and pointless ph0ne calls, we called the immigration officers at the airport in London to see if we flew over with return tickets if they'd let us back in for a couple of weeks to sort things out with our place and our belongings. They said, and quote,

"There's absolutely no way we'll let you back into the UK without entry clearance."

...And furthermore...

"We've recorded this phone call of you enquiry for security purposes."

And a jolly good day to you!

After many more phone calls trying to find out if we could get even a one month visa, we hit more dead ends in the maze of immigration madness. We were forwarded to many recorded messages informing us to check out websites (that didn't even work or were currently under construction). There was one thing we could be sure of: There was no one to talk to and nothing we could do.

Last week we received a letter from the Visa Immigration people informing us that they have our appeal application and will let us know of a hearing date in February 2009. No, our hearing date is not in February 2009, that's just when they'll tell us what the date of our hearing is.

And that's just the Reader's Digest version! So here we are in Canada, the majority of our stuff (including winter clothes) is in England, in our house - which we still have to pay rent on. Most of our programs we were running in schools have come to a screeching halt. Only two schools will be going to The Gambia this year. Thankfully, a couple of youth leaders are going to be leading those groups for us. Otherwise, we've had to cancel with the new schools and cancel the classes we were supposed to be leading. Also there are many great people who are running the youth group and kids club at our church. It's frustrating for all of us who are scrambling a bit trying to compensate for this little 'hiccup.' At the same time, we've all really been seeking God for his direction. For now, however, all we can do is wait and see what happens.

Section B - The 'B' is for 'Brightside'

The group that we brought with us from England to do Street Invaders had a great time and it has been a never ending source of encouragement and entertainment to hear about their experiences! There were many 'firsts' for the group, like taking part in a white water rafting tour in Banff, seeing the Rocky Mountains, and having a weiner roast and even making smores! All of them had an amazing time on Street Invaders, making many lasting friendships and stories they will tell for the rest of their lives!

As for our little DeLong family, we are camped out at Danny's parents' place in Regina. It's been a bit of a shock to the system dealing with the sudden hault of our usual routine, but I have to say, if you're going to get stuck - this is the way to do it! It's been wonderful for us, Taylor and her new grandparents (not to mention all the other family and friends) to have so much time together. She's changed so much since we left England. She's sitting up, has a whole new vocabulary of goo-goos and gaa-gaas, and she's cut two bottom teeth! Danny's working at an electric motor business that is owned by a man in our church, so there's another thing we are thankful for. It's not quite as fulfilling as what we were doing before, but our bank account disagrees and it is something to do while we wait (and wait and wait). We have enjoyed being back in Canada, having the wide open spaces, the beautiful sunsets, and the Tim Hortons! We were even able to get away, just the three of us, on our first family holiday! We stayed in a cabin for a couple of days out at Last Mountain Lake and it was gorgeous! There have been lots of first experiences for Taylor during our time in Canada and I have well documented our time here. And what better way to show you than with...

A VIDEO!!!! (That was a pretty smooth segway, eh?)

There now, are we all smiling? I told you she was the cutest little girl ever! I thought it would be good to put a happy video on since the first part of this blog was such a bummer and since I've already rambled on quite a bit (as I have been known to do on occassion).

With that then, I'm going to go to bed! All this blogging has worn me out!

God bless and take care,

~ Alycia DeLong (& Co.)

Chicken Soup for the Blogger's Soul

2008-06-15T17:42:00.019+01:00

Hello Everyone!

I've just got Taylor to sleep (so please read this quietly) so I've only got a precious few minutes in which to fill you in on what's happening in the most informative and cleverly witted way I can come up with on the spot. With that said, I will give you this disclaimer: This blog entry may not be up to par with past entries. I have recently been diagnosed NMS, New Mom Syndrome. It affects the body (aches and fatigue mostly) but it also affects the brain (memory loss, confusion, clumsyness, etc.). So from this point forward, I am not responsible for what I say and forget to say.

Now, what was I going to say...

I love being a mom! Taylor is the best, most adorable, smartest little angel of a girl ever and I am so proud to have her! I know you're thinking, "Every new mom says that." That's true, but they were wrong. And I've got pictures to prove it. Allow me to present the following evidence to the jury:

Exhibit A - Cute

Exhibit B - Very Cute

Exhibit C - Extreme Close Up Cute

I rest my case.

Now, I must resist the temptation of filling this blog with nothing but pictures of Taylor and stories of how her smiles light up the room and her giggles are like the bells in Heaven and the vast range of consistency her poops take on, I will attempt to update you on the non-Taylor things that are happening.

Well, I guess the biggest story around here is that we're coming back to Canada soon! We fly back into Calgary on July 22nd. From there Taylor and I will be going straight back to Regina (gotta show her off to the family right away) but Danny will be hanging around the Alberta area for a while. A very exciting thing for us is that we're bringing a group of young people with us from our youth group in England and they're going to be taking part in Street Invaders. What's Street Invaders, you ask? It's a three-week mission program for teenagers 12-18 years of age. Training is for one week and then the teams split up and do a mission for two weeks. They prepare dramas, dances, music, kids programs, sports events and help churches run things like kid's clubs and vacation Bible camps across Canada. It's like a mini-LifeFORCE in a way. It has been so exciting preparing for this trip! We've got about a dozen kids around the ages of 15 years and three of our youth leaders coming. For the majority of the kids, they've never been on a plane before, so that will be fun!

When we arrive in Canada, there is a week before Street Invaders starts so Danny's going to be taking them around to places like Banff, the West Edmonton Mall, and a few other touristy places before dropping them off in Eston for Street Invaders. After that, he's going to be at Keddleston Camp for the week, but then we'll both be back in Regina. We have to apply for new visas to the UK this year as our two year visas are up at the end of July. This time though we're applying for five-year visas. Our church in Walsall has officially hired Danny on as part-time youth and childrens pastor and as a representative to schools, which has been really exciting for us. Project Gambia has been an overwhelming success and not only are more schools wanting to be a part of it but the schools that are already involved are opening their doors even wider to us! One school has asked Danny to do a mentorship group with some younger boys who are, shall we say, a bit unruly. Another school has started a class called 'Enrichment' and have given it to us entirely! We're even allowed to completely make up the curriculum! It has been absolutely unbelievable how God has given us such incredible favour and freedom in the high schools in the West Midlands. Here we are, a couple of Canadians with no university or teaching degree, and the Lord has put us into British schools where we can openly share Christian experiences and testimonies with students and teachers! This has been bigger than anything we could have ever dreamed!

Oops, speaking of dreams, it sounds like my little angel has stopped dreaming. I hope I've been informative enough for you all. If not, blame the NMS!

Until next time, God bless and take care!

~ Alycia DeLong (& Co.)

IT'S A GIRL!!!!

2008-05-09T16:23:00.016+01:00

Hello everyone!

Now I don’t want to give the wrong impression here because I’m not back from my maternity leave (When does that end exactly? When your child turns 20 years old and moves out?) but I did feel the need to write something on this old blog. After all, it has been an eventful year!
On March 12th, 2008, we welcomed our wonderful little girl in this crazy world. She weighed 6 lbs 13 oz. and was 49 cm long. We named her Taylor Wendy DeLong...and so our lives were changed forever!

I’ve now been a mom for just over two months. Every moment of everyday is filled with new adventures of sights and sounds, expressions and emotions. Everything Taylor does is magical and only enhances to Danny and myself the fact that we have the cutest, smartest, prettiest, most adorable – let’s just say we have the perfect baby! Now I know that every new mother may say that, but I really mean it!!!

Life with Taylor is filled with so many special moments. New parents are often caught in the wonderment of all the ‘firsts’ but there is always one first that stands out as extra special. It may be the first cry, the first smile, the first sound, first word, or even first step. Well, the other day I had a ‘first’ that will always hold an extra special place in my heart. But before I get to that, let me just walk you down the path of the past few months to show you just what’s been happening along the way to where we are today.

I loved pregnancy. I was spared the violent battles with morning sickness and was able to enjoy eating a ridiculous amount of food, gain 20-some pounds and still have people tell me I looked great, even glowing! I loved feeling this little person grow and move inside me. Even more, I loved getting to see my baby when I went for ultrasounds. It was all magical to me!

As the time approached for Taylor’s arrival, I came down with a very strong case of ‘nesting’ syndrome. This is where moms-to-be are overcome with the intense need to prepare their homes for their new arrival. Depending on the seriousness, ‘nesting’ can vary from some light house cleaning to a complete interior overhaul. I was somewhere in the middle leaning as much towards the more intense side of the scale as our budget would allow.

First I cleaned. Then I dusted, I vacuumed, I scrubbed, I washed, I scrapped, and I bleached. I watched unhealthy amounts of TLC shows regarding home decor and interior design, after which I then went and examined every room and deducted what that particular place needed to perfect it. I scanned the Ikea catalogue religiously and pointed out to Danny the things we “needed” to complete our happy home before the baby’s arrival. There were bookshelves, end tables, lamps, storage baskets, picture frames, etc., etc. Each one was quickly scratched off the list. So I decided the quickest and cheapest way to brighten up our home was with some new sheets and towels. It was a simple way to change the look of things. Sadly, they did not make the budget cut. The closest I ended up getting to fully satisfying my nesting needs was a new can of Glade Air Freshener for the bathroom. The scent: Clean Linen. I figured if I couldn’t get new sheets, at least my house would smell like it. Unfortunately, whenever someone does something in the bathroom that requires the use of the new air freshener it doesn’t make our home smell at all like we have fresh, new clean linens. It smells like someone has pooped the bed.

And so ended my nesting stage.

Finally the day came for the baby’s arrival! There were no surprises with the event itself as I had been scheduled for a c-section a couple of weeks before (because of the past brain tumor thing). The only real surprise of the day was when we heard the first cries of our baby and the doctor announced, “It’s a girl!” Minutes later Danny and I were holding our beautiful little angel, admiring her round, rosy cheeks and full head of hair through our misty eyes. After the surgery, I was wheeled into the recovery room and promptly offered a cup of tea (I love England). It took a while to sink in that we had a baby! We had a baby! It was so surreal. Actually, everything was surreal thanks to the epidural and pain killers I was on. Especially the curtains in my hospital room (I swear that floral pattern was growing).

Taylor and I spent four days in the hospital under the care of a wonderful team of midwives and nurses. I had my own room with my own bathroom, a TV, and a cup of English tea every two hours. Nevertheless, when the time came, we were happy to go home!

As soon as we got home there were no end to phone calls and visits from our excited friends! It would have been really overwhelming if I hadn’t had my wonderful mother-in-law, Ruth, around! She came just before the day of the delivery and was able to stay for over a month. Danny’s dad came as well just after Taylor was born. It was wonderful having them around! It was like having home come to us when we couldn’t get home!

One of the biggest tasks we had to undertake was going through all the cards! We had so many our house was quickly turning into a fire hazard! My favourite ones though came from the kids at our church kids club. They range from ages six to ten. Here are my top picks:

To Danny and Elisha (that’s me),
I hope your baby is nice and doesn’t cry all the time. My baby brother does.

Danny and Alisha (that’s me, too),
Good luck. You’ll need it.

To Taylor,
Congratulations on your new parents. I hope you like them.

Hallmark Cards have nothing on these kids.

Getting used to having a new baby is an adventure in itself, but I have to say that most things went pretty smoothly. I know this is only my first baby (of at least five, according to Danny) but I have to say it’s been a lot easier than people implied. I don’t know why, but it seems that as soon as we announced I was pregnant I got everyone’s horror story of their pregnancy. The morning sickness that lasted all day, the heartburn that rivalled lava, the constipation, the migraines, the ingrown toenails – oh wait, that was a different story. Then when the time came to have the baby I heard everyone’s horror stories about birth. The 27-hour long labour, the intern nurse who still couldn’t get the epidural needle in after five tries, the surgeon who lost their watch during the c-section. Then after I had Taylor I got all the new baby horror stories. The colic that never ends, the diapers that don’t work, the breast feeding that is more painful than being tortured in a P.O.W. camp. After all the stories though, I have to say that it sounds like I’ve really gotten off the hook – big time! I had a healthy, happy pregnancy, a quick delivery, and it all led to a healthy, happy baby! In fact, I almost wondered if something was wrong because she barely cried at all. She’s quite content and laid back (a good Canadian baby). In fact, the loudest noise she has really made so far does not come out of her mouth at all, but from the ‘southern hemisphere’ (yep, she definitely takes after her father on that one). The hardest things to get used to are those stupid, frustrating snaps on her one-piece sleep suits. Honestly, who designed those things? The makers of Rubixcube? It’s like some Mensa puzzle. It still takes me a couple of tries to get the snaps together in the right order where the leg intersects with the rest of the body!

It’s funny all the things you do around a new baby in an effort not to disturb them when they sleep. We tip-toed around, whispered in barely audible tones, made mad dives for the phone whenever it rang and scowled at anyone who dared to knock at the door whilst our little angel was asleep. Over the weeks, though, we slowly became more daring. We started microwaving stuff without trying to rip scolding hot food out before the timer beeped. We let the phone ring a couple of times before answering. When people came to the door, we would make small talk. I even got so bold as to vacuum during one of her naps. Eventually I discovered that Taylor, like most babies, will sleep through almost anything. And, like most babies, there is only one sound that will really wake her from her deep slumber – and that is the sound of my head hitting the pillow to sleep. Honestly, that sound to a baby’s ears must be like a sonic boom because it never fails!

When I was finally strong and confident enough, it came time for me to take the next step in motherhood: going out with the baby. We’d been out before but I figured the doctor’s office didn’t really count. It was a very exciting even when I went out for coffee with my friend Rachel and brought Taylor with me. I was quite proud of myself. I packed Taylor up in her car seat, secured it in Rachel’s car, packed the stroller in the boot (aka trunk) and off we went to Ikea (for free tea and coffee refills). When we arrived I unhooked the car seat, clipped it into the stroller, and proudly walked into Ikea with my baby and my friend. I was pretty good at this mom thing! When we got in we went to the lift (aka elevator) and couldn’t help but gaze into the stroller where little Taylor lay peacefully asleep. She was so adorable! So irresistible! Both Rachel and I ‘oohed’ and ‘aaahed’ as we waited for the lift. Just look at those cheeks, we cooed. And all that hair! What a cute little outfit she was wearing today. Yes, she was quite the vision. Unfortunately, so were we. I don’t know how long we’d been standing there before we realized that in order to get on the lift you have to push the button.

All these special firsts that make motherhood such a wonderful thing, it is no wonder that there are countless books that try to capture these moments. Well, I have my own special first, as I did mention at the beginning (hopefully, you’re still with me).

The other morning I was enjoying playing with Taylor in our bed, which has become a bit of a ritual after she eats around 7 or 8 in the morning. As usual, she was happy as can be – smiling and gurgling, arms waving around clumsily and legs kicking excitedly. It is also not uncommon for her to sneeze two or three times in a row first thing in the morning. And like most babies, it is not uncommon for her to spit up a bit after eating. Well, this particular morning was not unlike any others – at first. Taylor’s smiling and gurgling was interrupted as a sneeze began to creep up on her. Head tilting back and with short gasps of air she prepared for the sneeze, however at the exact same moment her stomach decided to empty the overflow of her breakfast. The sneeze was rudely interrupted by a watery belch, but nothing came out – at first. Then a small trickle of milk appeared from her tiny nostril. Eyes wide, Taylor and I had only a split second to realize what was about to happen. And then it did...she sneezed. Milk came shooting out her nose at such a velocity that her clothes remained untouched (I took the brunt of the blast)! Unfortunately, the volume of this regurgitation was a bit more that the norm and, well, the stream was impressive to say the least. After the event, we just looked at each other in shock. When she realize what had just happened, Taylor was pretty upset. I don’t blame her. Shooting 15ml of milk out of a new pair of nostrils with that kind of force had to hurt. I quickly wiped up the mess as best as I could and picked her up to console her. Rushing down stairs I grabbed the phone, called Danny’s mobile phone and through my hysterical laughter said, “Danny, you won’t believe what Taylor just did!”

Yes, it was a first that I will always remember!

With that I must go. There are diapers to change, laundry to be done, and new memories to be made! And besides, I need to add an extra line to Taylor’s baby book. Right under ‘First Time I Smiled’ I’m going to insert: First Time Milk Squirted Out My Nose.

Until next time (whenever that may be), God bless and take care!

~Alycia DeLong & Co.

For more pictures and news, check out my dad's blog at

www.liam-james.blogspot.com

The End of Life As I've Known It

2008-02-19T15:27:00.020Z

Greetings Everyone!

Well, this is it. The countdown is on until we hear the pitter-patter of little feet running around. Actually, it will probably be the rushing of a men's size 11 feet running around as I yell to Danny for another diaper. We are in the last days of our peaceful, quiet, marital bliss and then WHAM! Our family increases by one!

Now for those of you who have already gone through the labour experience, you're probably saying to yourselves, "Wham? Is that what she thinks labour is going to be like? Boy, is she in for a surprize! It's more like an 8 to 16 hour WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!"

Which brings me to the first item on the update list: My labour day. For me, it's going to be a lot sooner than September this year. In fact it's going to be a lot sooner than the original due date the doctors gave me of March 23rd. I'm now scheduled to have a C-section on March 11th. Now, there's no need to panic, everything is fine. The baby's perfectly healthy, a good size and in the right direction for a natural labour. And I'm perfectly health, a pretty big size, and in the right direction of the fridge most of the time. The doctors (bless their little chicken-souled, yellow-bellied, lily-livered hearts) are just a bit nervous about past tumor and radiation issues. I have had a few problems with my eyes over the past couple of months, a bit blurry here and there, and they think that some blood vessels in my brain are having a hard time keeping up with extra blood and fluids that are coursing through my pregnant body. I like to think what their really afraid of is my head exploding and my eyes popping out during the labour process. In any case, we're all getting off the hook here. I'm actually quite fine with the whole thing, even excited! I know the day the baby's coming and it will only be about a 30 minutes! Okay, there are a few yucky things about the procedure and I will have to stay in the hospital for a few days, but let's stay on the sunny side of the road on this one. That's what I say. Of course with me, the line between optimism and delusion is a thin one.

Second item on the update list is Danny. He started having some dizzy spells a few months back that lead to him having a number of tests on his heart. One of these tests is called "the table tilt test." Basically what happens is that the doctors strap you to a table and then tilt it 60 degrees. Through this procedure the doctors watch to see how your heart operates by itself without the help of the rest of your muscles in the body. Well, Danny's heart stopped! Don't worry, it didn't stop for long and it started up again by itself, but still, not the best of results. At the follow-up appointment with the doctor, he told us about the test results and recommended that Danny be a candidate for a PACE MAKER! Well, that should have been another test because both our hearts stopped at that one! However, that doctor sent us to another doctor to get another opinion. The second doctor said that he didn't want to rush into any pace maker deals until they really knew what was going on. After all, up until the tilt test, Danny's symptoms had been very minor. And exactly what is this "table tilt test" jazz about anyhoo? All it really proved was that Danny shouldn't be strapped to a table, tilted to 60 degrees and left there for 25 minutes. So doctor number two recommended that Danny have a tiny device he called a "revealer" put in so they can get more specific data on what is going on. Basically, a revealer is a small little device that is implanted just under the skin in the chest. It's not even major surgery, they do localized freezing (gross). Then this little thing records your heart's contractions much like a mini-electrocardiograph machine (big word of the day). Then, if Danny starts to have one of his little dizzy episodes, he can pull out the little black box thing that is included in the set and it will record all the data the revealer has been taking for the last 5-10 minutes. The bonusses are that it's a temperary thing, it will give the doctor's a better idea of what the problem is (if any), it's wireless (as all cool things are nowadays), and we can still use the microwave around him! He might be left with a small scar on his chest, but as Danny put it, "Chicks dig scars." Always an optimist.

Now for items 3 through 6 on the update list. Three: We've moved into a house now in preparation for the baby's arrival. It's been very exciting to have a place with 3 bedrooms, carpet, and heat. It's a nice quite neighbourhood and we live close to a number of our good friends from church. Four: The LifeFORCE team that's touring the UK is doing well. We had three missions in a row back out on us (bless their little schedule-cancelling, dream-disappointing, promise-breaking hearts) but we've been able to fill their time with other stuff (ie. vacuuming of my carpet ministry). Five: Danny took a group of 21 students and staff from a local secondary school to the Gambia for another round of Project Gambia. They were a younger group of students, aged 15 and 16, but it was just as fabulous as an experience. We've already had cards, letters, and emails from students, teachers, and parents expressing their amazement and excitment seeing the changes it has made in this group of students. I wasn't able to go because I'm too fat to travel. Not bitter. Six: Danny's parents are coming over to stay with us and help with the baby when it gets here! Danny's mom will be coming earlier as I will really need her around after the surgery! I'm so excited they are coming and I have to say, it is a lot of fun watching people's reaction to my sincere excitment about my inlaws visit. But they'll all understand how a girl can be so genuinely happy about her mother and father-inlaw once they meet them for themselves! (Everyone in unison: "Awwwwww! What a Hallmark card thing to say!" Brownie points for the daughter-inlaw: At least 100.))

And now for item seven: My dad has published his own blog that he will be updating regularly (a lot more regularly than I update my blog) and it's basically about Danny and I but through the perspective of a parent. I call him a couple of times a week to unload on, uh, I mean, update him. So who better to give out an update while I'm on maternity leave (at least I have a valid excuse now) than the man who gets the information straight from the horse's mouth (I'm certainly the size of a horse)! So add his website to your favourite links and check it out for the latest news from our not-on-location-but-has-a-trustworthy-source reporter!

The link is: http://www.liam-james.blogspot.com/

With that then, I shall bid you all farewell for now, but not forever! I cannot say exactly when the next update from me will be published, but the headline will be one of two possibilities:

"It's a Boy!" or "It's a Girl!"

God bless you all and thank you for your continued prayer, encouragement, and support!

Until next time,

~Alycia DeLong (& Co.)

The Neglected Blog

2007-10-22T15:55:00.000+01:00

Hello there one and all! Okay, it has been months since I've updated the blog, but I have a great excuse: I'm a procrastinator. Hmmm, that wasn't nearly as impressive of an excuse as I hoped it would be. I guess I shouldn't have procrastinated about my excuse either. Alright, let's just move on from this. It is now water under the bridge, in the past, bygones are bygones, you forgive me and I forgive you...

And now for a cool video about what we've been up to these past couple of months!

[Video Unavailable.]

Okay, okay - I procrastinated about making a video as well. It's this whole pregnancy thing. If it doesn't involve food or napping, I'm not very motivated. It's a great excuse, almost as good as the tumor, but not as depressing. I'm four and a half months along now and I got myself a little bit of a belly going on, which is pretty exciting. The baby hand-me-downs are already starting to roll in! Some of the stuff I had no idea even existed let alone what they are supposed to be for. The other day I received a device called an "electric sterilizer starter kit." At first I thought it was for if you decided you didn't want any more children, but when I opened the box I discovered it was for sterilizing bottles. Boy, was that a relief!

It's been a lot of fun being pregnant. First off, I haven't had any morning sickness. Second is all the physical labour I get out of now. It cracks me up all the things that people advise me not to do. "Don't walk up the stairs too quickly," "Don't stand too long," "Don't sit too long," "Don't eat sandwiches with mayo on them," "Don't lift the dish soap, it's too heavy for you," and so on and so forth. I don't know where people come up with these things, I don't know if they know either. But at the end of the day, I get out of a lot of chores.

Another fun thing has been the kid's club we work with on Saturday mornings. Each week I get great questions and great advice! Kid's always want to know whether the baby is a boy or girl. I tell them I don't know. Then they ask how will I know to which I say that the doctor will tell me when the baby gets big enough. Then they ask how the doctor will know. Then there is a moment of silence after which I offer them some gum. Problem solved.

A 6-year-old boy at the kid's club excitedly informed me of a great trick his mother could do while she was expecting his little brother. She would put a Malteser, a small round chocolate candy, on her belly and the baby would kick it off. The boy described in wonderment how they would watch the chocolate ball fly across the room. I have a few more months before I will be able to try that out for myself, but I'll let you know how it goes.

Another 6-year-old asked me how I was able to keep my stomach from eating the baby. Now there was a terrifying thought! She was pretty concerned about the welfare of the baby and myself. I was able to calm her down explaining that the baby has a separate room from my digestive system, but has access to get food from it whenever it wants and also dispose of its own wastes as well.

In other news, LifeFORCE has started up again! HOORAY! We have two teams training here in the UK this year. One we'll be sending to Eastern Canada and one will be going to Malta and Spain. Plus a team from our Canadian training base will be coming here from January to May. This is the first week of training and we've got a great group of people (excuse my boasting).

As for Project Gambia, that's still on the go as well. We have three schools registered for the program. We'll be starting the training with them in December and the first group will be going to The Gambia in early February. It looks as though Danny will be going with the first group, but the other two groups go in March and April, right around the time I'm due - so he is GROUNDED! Yeah, I'm always spoiling his fun! I'm a little sad I won't be able to go myself, last year was so incredible! But I have new adventures to look forward to (like poopy diapers. Joy.)!

There's lot's of more things I could write about, but I can't remember them right now. I made a list but that giant procrastination monster must have eaten it. Pesky thing.

Here's a random thought though that I'll leave you with in closing: With the Christmas season quickly approaching many children have the new video game console by Nintendo at the top of their Christmas wish lists. This lovely little device is called the Wii, which is pronounced 'wee.' So heads up to all you folks working as Santa Claus in the malls this year: When a child sits on your knee and tells you in all earnesty that they desparately want a 'wee,' don't panic. Chances are you won't have to use the spare pair of Santa trousers that day.

Until next time, take care and God bless!
~Alycia DeLong

SURPRISE!

2007-08-10T22:02:00.000+01:00

Well, well, well. Do I have some pretty big news. And what a surprise, I've made a video about it!

Yes, 'tis true - I peed on a stick. Uh, wait, that's not what you want to hear. Okay, I am pregnant! Danny and I are going to be parents. We will bring up a child, a child that could some day be Prime Minister, or Govenor General, or Manager of some fine eating establishment!

Now, as word has spread around I have had quite a few emails of the usual 'congrats,' 'well done,' and 'that poor child doesn't know what they're in for,' along with questions. Questions you may be thinking right now. So to help with some of your inquiries (and keep my email from getting over-run with the same questions) I've made an FAQ board that will hopefully help!

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. How far along are you?
- About 9 weeks so far. The baby will be about 2.5 cm, according to the book "What to Expect When You're Expecting."

2. When are you due?
- Should be around March 13, 2008. If I play my cards right though, I could maybe make it happen on March 9 which just happens to be our 7th anniversary and Danny's dad's birthday. How convenient would that be! And we know that pregnancy, labour, children and convenience are four words that go together like peas in a pod - like ferrets and oversized trousers.

3. Where will you have the baby?
- Most likely in a hospital. I've heard of other people having ones in cars and Walmarts, but what can I say? I'm a stickler for tradition.

4. I meant, are you going to stay in England to have the baby or come back to Canada you idiot?
- Oh, well if that's what you meant, that's what you should have said.

5. Are you going to anwer question four?
- Okay, okay. Well, at the moment we are kind of leaning towards staying here, though honestly we would rather be home. We have a lot of commitments here such as the Project Gambia thing and there are 2 LifeFORCE teams training at our UK base this year. There are some nice perks to staying here though. I'm actually covered by the British health system now so I get all the benefits that any other pregnant lady would. I get free prescriptions, dental work, and anything else a doctor prescribes for up to a YEAR after the baby is born! Yeah, that's a pretty sweet deal! I'm totally going to try and get some doctors orders for a massage! Okay, that might be pushing it. Another thing is that the hospital that is within walking distance of us has a beautiful maternity clinic that is just over 5 years old. Mind you, I'd still like to come home. I've had this craving for perogies and they don't sell them here. I had to make my own batch. They were okay. I do miss those Cheemos though...

6. What are Cheemos?
- Cheemo is a company that makes quality frozen perogies in two popular flavours: potato and cheese and onion and potato. They are available at Safeway and IGA.

7. How do you know so much about Cheemo perogies? Nevermind. What's happening with Project Gambia now?
- We have 3 schools signed on for this coming 2007/2008 school year. We had more, but we actually put some on hold until next year. It was hard, but we really can't do it all. In fact, we're not even planning on doing all of these three (me especially). Mind you, it hasn't been hard to find people to step and lead these groups through the program. Everyone we talk to about it wants a piece of the action! So we've set it up with three schools and three local churches that can partner up to do it together with a bit of guidance from us. We already have the curriculum and the contacts, they just have to put it into action. Plus, we always wanted it to be about the churches and the schools connecting, not just Danny and me connecting with the schools. We hoping to do a week-long pre-visit with the different church leaders before they take their groups so they can be more prepared for the journey when the time comes. Did I say 'we?' I meant Danny. I'll be sitting at home unable to lift myself off of the couch due to the substantial girth that will be anchoring me down at that point. The saddest part about that picture is that I'm still excited! (Those of you who are veterans of the whole pregnancy thing feel free to laugh out loud at my delusions. You're right - I have no idea what I am in store for).

Danny met with the British board members of the New Life Schools (those are the schools we worked with in The Gambia) in Newark yesterday and we found out some very shocking, and even upsetting, information. We thought that the school probably had around 700 students, well it's more like 1100! About 300 of the students are able to afford the costs of schooling and about 300 who are sponsored. The school is educating the rest out of the kindness of their heart hoping and praying that they can find sponsors for the remaining 500! Well, let me tell you - we are going to push the sponsorship of students a heck of a lot more! We had no idea it was that intense! Plus there are teachers that need sponsoring as well. Another thing I guess they said was what a boost our group's visit was to the schools! They are still over the moon about it! Danny said they just went on and on about how much they appreciated the group! I can hardly wait until next year when...uh...I wave goodbye to all the students from the airport as my slobbering baby fills another diaper. Yeah, really excited.

8. How are you feeling now? Have you had any 'morning sickness?'
- I feel great actually. I get to eat all the time! Luckily for me I haven't had any sickness whatsoever. It's also lucky for you as you all know how descriptive of a writer I can be.

9. How is Danny doing?
- The NFL season has started, so I'm not really convinced that all his excitement has been solely due to the news of the baby. I'm trying to convince him that the names of his sports heroes are not options for our baby's name (ie. Ladamien Tomlinson, Priest Holmes, #99, etc.)

10. Have you thought about names yet?
- We sure have! But we have a while before we have to commit to anything. We asked the kids at our kid's club for their input. Many of them came up with names that would be okay for a baby, but better for a pet dog. One kid actually prayed, "Dear Lord, thank you for Danny and Alycia and I pray that their baby isn't a stupid one." Amen.

11. Are you hoping for a boy or a girl?
- Well, as any parent-to-be would say, I just want a healthy baby. However bearing in mind that present babies become future teenagers, I WANT A BOY!!!!!

12. How can I send you and Danny a financial gift in light of this great news?
- Well, since you asked, there is a convenient way. You can send a donation, check or cash, with an attached note that states it is to be passed on to us, to:

LifeFORCE Teams International
#8 - 3530 11A Street NE
Calgary, AB
T2E 6M7

(checks can be made out to LifeFORCE and all donations over $20 are tax deductable.)

13. Has anyone really asked you that question?
- No, actually. I made it up. Sorry. To be totally honest though, I would like to get a filing cabinet so that we can get more organized around here before things get really chaotic! Plus I have had a few comments from people hinting that I should start putting money away now to pay for the therapy my children will probably need later.

14. Is this update almost done? I'm tired and hungry and CSI is on in 4 minutes.
- Alright I can take a hint. I guess I'll end things here for now. I do have an appointment on August 30 and they'll be doing an ultrasound. It will be our first picture of the little gaffer! Mind you, I guess I could just copy one off the internet because, let's face it, who could tell any of them apart?

So until next time, wherever you are, whatever you do, take care and buy Cheemo perogies. You'll thank me later.

God Bless,
~Alycia DeLong (& Co.)

Blog Creature No Longer a Threat, Experts Claim

2007-07-07T07:54:00.000+01:00

Lesson One: Never listen to the experts.

Hello there, it's me - the Creature from the Blob! I mean blog. (Mental note: cut down on deep fried cheese.) This is a very special blog, however, for this is the blog I've been eluding too for weeks now! This is the blog that you have been waiting for! The blog that you have been obsessing about, checking the site night and day, day and night, without sleep, without food, without even BLINKING!!! But now, ye weary reader, with your blood-shot eyes and weakened limbs, behold! I bring forth BLOG!!!!!

You know, that still doesn't convey the feeling of drama I was going for. Maybe if I had a symphony playing in the background. With a choir of opera singers. And some timpani. Yeah, lot's of timpani! (Bom bom bom bom bom bom bom bom bommmmmm.)

Project Gambia - Wednesday - Visit to Kitosilo Village
(Choir: "Ooooooooo Ooooooooo Ooooooooo..." Bom bom bom bom bommmm)

Our group had seen a lot that week. On Saturday, they'd seen how people lived when we visited Adam's home. They were shocked to find families living in houses made of corrugated metal, not much bigger than than the sheds in their own back yards. Open sewage ran on either side of the roads paved only with sand.

Then at the schools there was further heartbreak to see the condition students were faced with: no school supplies, broken desks and chairs, dull and dirty classrooms. Already their minds were filled with pictures they would not soon forget - but there was one more thing they had to see.

I'm not sure where to begin in describing Kitosilo village. Danny and I haven't seen anything like it since we visited the garbage dumps in the Philippines years ago. That's basically what Kitosilo is, a village around a garbage dump. The shelters that people live in are made from what scraps and materials they can find in the waste. There is no electricity, no running water, however there is a well in the village. Actually, to be honest, I don't think it is quite as bad as what we saw at the dump in the Philippines, not that it makes it any better really. I might as well say that one patch of sky is a bit bluer than another patch of sky. In the end, they are still both sky blue.

When we arrived our group was instantly greeted by scattered, sandy huts and the smell of burning garbage. A group of small children quickly ran up to us to shake everyone's hand. They were all under the age of six, and all dressed in pieces of ragged clothing. As we were led through the maze of houses, garbage, pigs and trees, more and more children began to chant, "Tobob nundid!" which means, "The white people are back!" Danny and I had visited them in November when we first came with British friends who built five schools in the Bakau area. They are basically the only white people who ever visit Kitosilo. The group had brought bags of linens, clothes, first aid kits, and other treats to hand out to people and it didn't take long to spread it out around the area. As soon as our arms were emptied of our donations, they were full of tiny hands of children wanting to be our friends. Every person on the team, whether they liked children or not, now had 4 or 5 kids latched on to them. Nobody cared. The children were so gentle, not grabbing, but kind. They all had huge smiles on their faces and proudly paraded us around their village, wanting to give us a grand tour. Our group were so amazed and even amused that these children would come up to strangers and act as if they'd known them their whole lives. Then we told them, they did know them. Many of these children were students at the schools they had just visited that week, only without their school uniforms on. This is where they lived.

There was no time to let emotions overwhelm, however, for we now had over a hundred children following us. Workers from the New Life Children's Centre were about to start their activities* and we were to take part in all the games. Everyone was split up and soon everyone was involved in races, songs, dances, skipping, and lots of laughing.

Then it was time for everyone to settle down and gather a story. Everyone quickly rushed to sit in the shade, they had a special guest speaker today - Mr. Danny DeLong. They listened attentively as Danny acted out the story of him skydiving, an illustration he uses to portray the concept of faith. They laughed histarically as he flailed his arms around and screamed pretending to have just jumped out of an airplane. At the end, one of the school workers came forward, they all bowed their heads and he prayed for the children that they would remain safe and healthy, and know that God loved them.

Many of the members in our group, students and staff, were in tears by now, and the children couldn't understand why. They asked the school worker why was our group so sad. Danny graciously replied, "They're not sad, they just are very touched because you are all so beautiful and you have been so kind to all of us. Thank you very, very much!"

It had taken three vehicles to transport all of our group to Kitosilo village that afternoon. On the way back to the hotel, all of them were silent.

The following day we had off and had signed up to take a tour of a historical site where the beginnings of slavery had rooted. In fact, the book "Roots" takes place there. We had a tour of St. James Island and went through all the museums.

Friday morning we boarded the plane and flew home. It had been an absolutely phenominal week that no one would forget.

And that, my dear reader, was Project Gambia.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog, and write your many encouraging words to us. Don't worry though, this is not the end! We have at least five schools who want to take part in the program next year - so there is many more adventures to come!

Until then, take care and take a moment to be thankful for all the riches you have that others don't.

God bless,
~Alycia DeLong

*New Life Children's Centre run activities for children in Kitosilo village every Wednesday afternoon. Through this program they also try to find children who can't afford to go to school and enroll them in the New Life Christian Sponsorship program. There are over 500 children now being sponsored. They receive support for their school fees, supplies, uniforms and lunch everyday.

Project Gambia - Kitosilo Village

Honey, I Shrunk the Creature from the Blog

2007-06-25T21:38:00.000+01:00

Heh, heh...okay I am running a bit dry on "Creature of the Blog" saga titles. However, this title does give the impression that this update is going to be shorter than the others. Sorry to get your hopes up.

Actually, this one is going to be shorter in words because I've got two - yes two - new videos! Since I'm spending all my time putting together a big presentation of the entire Project Gambia week for the school, therefore constantly neglecting my blogging duties to the public. So I said to myself, "Alycia, you good-looking fool, you could kill two birds with one stone!" Boy was I wrong! I killed no birds and broke two windows with one stone!

Then I said to myself, "Alycia, you stupid good-looking fool, put the videos on the blog!"

Aaaaaaahhhhhh...

This first video is a compilation of our visits to three schools. During the training time, our group had split into three divisions: Teaching, Music/Art/Drama, and Sports. Throughout the day we ran all kinds of activities for the students who ranged from age 4 to 24. In The Gambia, most kids cannot start school until they can afford it, so in one first grade class you can have students who are six years old to students who are ten.

In the clips of the last school we visited on Wednesday, Half Dye, you can see that the classrooms are quite colourful and the desks are relatively new. It was really exciting for Danny and I to see this because when we first went back in November, the work had only begun. Half Dye is a school with four classrooms, at least 30 kids per class, and two teachers, sometimes three. We had just started to paint this place in 2006. Then a school in England moved to a new building and donated everything old to the ministry in the UK that built the schools in The Gambia. And boy, those people - Christians after my own heart!!! They didn't even let a paper clip go to waste! Let's see a quick before and after picture: (Note - If you're not seeing the full picture click on it to view it, then click "back" to return here.)

Before

This was just after we'd painted, but you can still see the state of the desks and chairs. Most of them were broken with sharp pieces of metal sticking out.

After

This is what the classrooms look like now. Yes, that is me. I'm in the middle of doing something deeply educational and enriching for the children.

Now, without further adu...ROLL THE CLIP!!!!

Project Gambia - School Visits

This next video is of the team on Tuesday afternoon where they took on their a painting project of their own. Even though school had ended, many of the students stuck around wanting to play. This is not uncommon here as there isn't much to go home to, as you will see (an ominous hint of what is to come in future blogs, perhaps?). I'll just shut up now and let you watch the show.

Project Gambia - Painting Day

I hope you have enjoyed these videos. I do have a lot of fun making them (hair-pulling-sweat-staining-swear-wording fun). I just can't wait until the next blog, it is going to be sooooo good! I just can't hold it in, I have to let a little bit slip:

On Wednesday afternoon after school we took the group to Kotisilo village. It is a place where many of the young students from the New Life Schools in Kanefing and Half Dye live. All of the children were ecstatic when they saw the huge group of white visiters walking through their village to visit. And we had many donations of linen, clothes and first aid kits to give out. The entire village couldn't believe their eyes, and our entire group couldn't believe theirs. Of all the things they saw this week, that day was the most incredible...and you, too, will see why...

Well, I have to run. I have lot's of work to do with this still. Feel free to watch them again and again and again!

God bless and take care,
~Alycia DeLong

P.S.- I am so EEEEEEEEEEEEEVIL! Muu wah haa haa haa haaaaaaa!

Spawn of the Creature from the Blog

2007-06-04T13:50:00.000+01:00

We now return to our previously scheduled program already in progress.

"Rhett, if you go, where shall I go? What shall I do?"

"Frankly my dear, I don't give a..."

OOPS! Wrong channel! Hey there, hi. Wow, that was close. Sorry about that. Is my face red! One might say its 'Scarlett'! Ha ha hoooo! Yeah, that was good.

Let's pick up where we left off in The Gambia - Sunday morning...
It was a beautiful morning. As the sun rose over the horizon, so did the temperature. Nevertheless, by 10am we were packed into the vans and off to our first destination of the day - church.

Now, let me just explain something about church in Africa. Right this moment, anyone who has been to a church service in Africa has stopped reading this and gone to make themselves a sandwich because they know this is going to be a long story and they better pack some sustenance before I take you all on this journey. You may want to grab something as well. I'll wait until you're back.

Welcome back. Church services in Africa are long. They are so long they will make a class on the history of Greece seem like a jog across the street. As well, African church services are very loud. They are so loud they make a crowd of Liverpool fans seem like distant bleating sheep. And lively! African church services are so lively, they make squirrels on an electric fence seem like...actually, that isn't a very pleasant analogy, is it? Maybe I'll just stick with the basics. It was pretty lively in there with a lot of singing and clapping and dancing and drums and more singing and clapping and dancing and drums and you get the point. Moving on.

Our entire group decided to come to the church service, even though we had made it optional. Since most of them weren't church-goers as it were, we didn't want to force them into it. But they were all eager to have as many experiences as possible! Well, we were all blown away by the singing and clapping and dancing and drums at the beginning of the morning's service. It was very exciting, and very moving. After spending the previous day with a local Gambian family, our group saw many families, who lived in the same conditions as Adam's family, but they were singing and dancing as if they had just won a lottery! Even the children were so excited and so sincere when they sang songs about Jesus' love and the hope they shared. The entire church opened their arms to our group. They had prepared special presentations of songs and dances. Our pastor gave a sermon, which was only about 30 minutes but it had to be translated so it doubled the time.

Overall, the service was only about two hours, which I think is a record in African church services. I've heard stories about services averaging at about four hours and peaking at seven hours! When we told the group that, they were pretty grateful for their two hour experience!

Now I know I've gone on and on about church services in Africa being long, but they have something the majority of our churches in the "civilized" world are missing out on - community. Coming together on Sunday morning is a huge event to these areas in the week. People get up and share testimonies about the things God has done for them that week. They share their struggles and ask for prayer. They'll lead everyone in a song about God's faithfulness and promises to encourage each other. Every single one is struggling for survival, but every single one of them is thankful for the things God has given them in this life and the promise of the next. It goes so much deeper than just a weekly meeting and greeting. Sunday morning is a huge celebration: God has brought them through another week together.

That afternoon our group went to a quiet little place called Lamin Lodge for lunch and a time just to relax. We reflected on the morning, talked about the upcoming week, enjoyed a short boat trip and tour of the area, and tried to keep the monkeys from stealing our Cokes. They sure were cheeky monkeys! (Sorry, I couldn't resist.) By sunset we were back at the hotel, our skin various shades of brown and red. It would be an early night tonight. After all, it was our first day of school tomorrow!

And now...

HERE IS A NEW VIDEO!!!!

This is of Saturday when we went to Adam's house. I was going to put pictures up, but I don't want to give away the rest of the story! Muwaaa haaaa haaa haaaa! I am sooo eeeeevillllll!

Take care and God bless,
~Alycia DeLong

Return of The Creature from the Blog

2007-06-03T20:46:00.000+01:00

I'm baaaaaaaack!

Miss me? Have you all been sitting on the edge of your seats, checking ever few minutes to see if I have written this update yet? Well, I haven't. I just wanted to see if you cared.

Sincerely,
~Alycia DeLong

(Tee hee hee! Danny, come look at this! Everyone thinks I'm gone but really I'm still here. I'm just typing really really quietly! Good one, eh? Danny? Where are you going?)

Okay, I'm still here. And I am writing the update, or have written it. See, to me I am writing it because this is now for me but for you I already have written it because for you it is the future to me. It's now for you but to me, the past me who is writing this, it is the future.

Great Scots, I think I've disturbed the space time continuum. I'd better just get on with the update or else I might give the past me and the future you headaches.

Let's see, where was I? Oh, yes - the misty morning of April 20th. The 28 of us flew from Manchestor airport and about five hours later were greeted by the sweltering heat of The Gambia. We settled into our hotel and had our very first meeting that evening to brief everyone about the week. We had hit our first glitch in the schedule. Originally we had planned to go to the SOS Orphanage for infants, children and teens but our contact there had quit and neglected to tell anyone about our visit. With one quick visit though we had put a new plan together. We would spend the day with a local family only a few minutes from the hotel. It was going to be so exciting! In the morning we would take a few of them to the market to help buy groceries with our hostess, Adam (yes, Adam is a woman with a man's name. Incedently, one of our taxi drivers was a man named Sarah.) and then the rest of the team would meet us at her family's home for a meal that we would all prepare together. Everyone was excited about the new plan.

Saturday morning a few of the students and teachers came with me to Adam's and together we all went to the market. Soon after entering the market, I guided our group back to the road to wait outside. The combination of raw fish, sun-baked goat meat, and flies was aiming to turn their stomachs off from food for the week. (Oh well, cheaper week.) Unfortunately they didn't find much sanctuary even outside the market as open sewage trenches line both sides of the roads. I went back in to continue on with Adam. What a soldier I am, I know. I rescue my fellow troops and head back in to the battle. On a totally unrelated note, I wasn't hungry very much that day either. Must have been the heat...

The rest of the group joined up with us at Adam's and very quickly mingled with her family and many children who had also invited themselves into the party. Adam's family shares a small compound of one to two-room shelters made of concrete and coregated steel. Besides her own children and grandchildren, both her brothers-in-law and their families also live on the compound. Together they make various crafts and carvings that they sell to tourist's to support the family.

That day we all experience what life is like for a Gambian family. Repeatedly the students and staff made comments about how shocking the poor quality of living was. There was no running, limited electricity, they didn't even have the proper tools to use when they made their wood carvings. They were using kitchen knives! When we tried to help peel potatos for the meal there was only one knife. Eventually, some one was able to borrow a peeler from another neighbour. That was how it worked here. The community all helped each other. Being some one's neighbour meant a lot more than just sharing a postal code.

Everyone at Adam's and in the entire community welcomed our group with open arms, as if we were some long lost relatives! At first our team weren't sure what to make of all the attention and affection. By the end of the day they all saw that these people were sincere and in fact, very grateful to us that we would come and visit them.

We took a little detour on the way back to the hotel and stopped off at a place called 'The Crocodile Pool' and guess what we saw there? That's right! A pool! But we sure couldn't go swimming in it! Whatever film was left in cameras was completely used up on the many photo opportunities there.

That evening we met as a group again. We were all pretty exhausted from all the sights and smells we'd taken in that day. Everyone had had a fantastic day and already many of them were moved after seeing the poverty that Adam and her family lived in. It had been a shock to all of them. However, they were more shocked when we told them that actually, according to the norm around there, Adam and her family would be considered middle class. They'd been able to send many of their children to school.

The worst was yet to come...

And that is where I leave you for now! Muuu waaah haaa haaa haaaaaa!

I just love cliffhangers, don't you?

Until next time, take care, smile, and thank God for the many blessings He has given you! I know 28 people who are doing that right now (including me)!

God Bless,
~Alycia DeLong

P.S.- Get out the Popcorn! It's movie time! Does tea and popcorn mix?

The Creature from the Blog

2007-05-29T11:27:00.000+01:00

Hello? Hello...hello...hello...hello...

Is anyone here? here?...here?...here?...here?...

Wow, it is pretty dusty around here. This poor blog hasn't been kept up very well at all. It looks abandonded - it's like a ghost blog. Spooky.

Alright then, let me just sweep up around over here and here and a bit more and there. That's better. Okay, to business now.

Let's see, my last blog was February 8th and it is now, YIKES! MAY 29th! Well, thanks for all you emails of concern, the phone calls and letters begging me to come back and light up your day with my clever and witty anecdotes. Yes, thank you - Dad.

I have missed you all, too.

So let us go back to February and try and fill in this gap...

Well, the biggest thing that has been happening for us is a fun little thing called PROJECT GAMBIA. As you may or may not recall, a while back Danny and I had this hairbrain scheme to take a bunch of high school students on a trip to Africa, on a "mission" if you will. We had it all laid out: 8 sessions of preparation, 1 week of "mission" (if you will), and 3 sessions of local follow-up. It was a grand idea, full of potential...

Well, it happened. Boy oh boy, did it happen!

On February 2nd we had our first Project Gambia Session with 19 students and 5 staff from Manor Foundation Business, Enterprize, and Sports College (yes, that is the school's name. You should see there letter head, it's like 2 pages long). Over the course of the next 12 weeks we ran classes about poverty, prepared the group for the week in The Gambia, fundraised, filled out risk assesment forms (which I purposely neglected to ask for Danny's input there), met with parents and staff, fundraised, collected a wide assortment of school and sports supplies to donate, more meetings with local council bigshots, newspapers, schools, and churches, fundraised, applied for grants, was rejected for grants, fundraised, booked flights, arranged for extra luggage, booked lodging and meals in The Gambia, made many other calls to The Gambia, plus the other LifeFORCE stuff (ie. the team's trailer burning to the ground with the set, props, sound and media equipment, and all their luggage was an issue that required immediate attention).

Oh yeah, we did a bit of fundraising as well.

It was a crazy couple of months getting ready for just one week in The Gambia! Let me just say though that the school, (deep breath) Manor Foundation Business, Enterprize and Sports College (gasp), was absolutely incredible with all the work that they did! They blew everyone away with the funds they were able to raise, including themselves! Usually in a YEAR they raise about £2000 ($4000 CA approx.) for charity. But when all the numbers were added up from all the pledges, donations, carwashes, bake sales, dances and raffle tickets they had raised an impressive £11,000!!!! And in only 12 weeks!!! Even they couldn't believe it! It was as if somehow the money was magically being handed to the project, like some higher power was guiding it the entire way...

The blessing of the LORD brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it.
Proverbs 10:22

Yep, it is a mystery. Anyway, soon it was time for the big trip to The Gambia itself. It was a dard, cold, and misty morning at 5am as we left for the airport on April 20th. There were 28 of us all together, 24 from (big inhale) Manor Foundation Business, Enterprize and Sports College (what exactly does one study there), our pastor and youth pastor from our church here in Walsall, Danny (what a hunk he is, if I do say), and yours truly (what a babe if I do say).

Look at how long this update is already and I am just getting to the good part - our week in THE GAMBIA!!!

It's kinda weird how it's not "GAMBIA" but it's "THE GAMBIA," eh?

Well, I don't know about you but I finished my cup of tea about a paragraph ago. So how about we all just take a break for now from this little adventure? Leave some surprises for next time?

I'll leave you with this sneak preview:

Amazement. Joy. Tears. Change of hearts. Change of lives. Crocodiles.

Yes, crocodiles.

Until our next cup of tea, take care and God bless!

Sincerely,
~Alycia DeLong

I Haven't Thought of a Clever Title for This One

2007-02-08T18:16:00.000Z

Hello and happy February to you all!

Danny and I are back in England now. We've been back for almost 2 weeks and it has been full speed ahead with all our programs. On Monday we start with our new program, Project Gambia, in which we are educating and equipping a group of teenagers from a local high school for a one-week trip to The Gambia (that's a tiny little country in West Africa). We have 8 weeks to get ready for it. In fact, I don't really want to talk about it at the moment because I've just spent the whole day filling out grant applications and proposals in monotonous detail. It took the fun right out of Project Gambia. Tomorrow I'll be excited about it again, though.

Hey, it snowed like crazy today! Outside is a winter wonderland, the trees are blanketed with a coating of marshmallow, the temperature is a mild minus 2 degrees, perfect for all kinds of outdoor winter fun! Oh wait, I've been inside filling out forms, writing letters and making up projected budgets. Life is so unfair.

Speaking of life being unfair, here's a funny story. I actually wanted to tell you this right from the beginning but, well, I've always had a problem with procrastinating (in a related story - note the last blog entry was like a month ago).

So right now there is a LifeFORCE team travelling the UK. They trained in Canada and now they are doing their mission here. We set up the schedule for them, but we aren't leading the team ourselves (woo hoo). They track around the West Midlands in an eight passenger van with all their luggage, props, media and sound equipment, set and curtains all packed up in an amusing little camper from the late 70's hitched to the back. Anyway, after a week of programs in the lovely little town of Kidderminster, the team packed up the set, the sound and media equipment, the props, and all their belongings except for an overnight bag into the camper last Sunday evening as they were going to be leaving for their next destination early the next morn. They precariously arranged everything into the camper, parked it behind the church, and then proceeded to the pastor's house for tea and crumpets (because that is what you always have here in England, as we all know). A few hours passed and the team decided to return to the church to meet together before the next morning's departure. Upon their arrival to the church they were greeted with a number of firetrucks and police cars lined up and down the street. Smoke billowed from behind the church. They got out of the van. They walked down the sidewalk, around the corner of the church and found...

THE CAMPER WAS ON FIRE!!!!!!

Yeah, the whole thing and all their stuff torched! Apparently, some one (or ones) had broken into the camper, stole all the sound and media equipement and then, to add insult to injury, lit the thing up! The back windows of the church were cracked because of the heat and the firemen said that 10 more minutes and the church would have been gone too! So far, the story has made a couple of papers and the news on the radio!

Take a look at this!

What's Left:

The worst part about it is that nobody had any marshmallows on them at the time of the fire.

Donations of money, clothes, shoes, jackets, and suitcases have already started coming in and the team has handled the whole thing really, really well. In the meantime, though, there are a lot of things to sort out. Most of the teams passports did not survive the fire. They've all been cancelled now but we have had to start the process of replacing them. We also have to get a new set, new props, and new sound and media equipment. Not to mention new means of transporting it around!

On that note, I think I'll go back to filling out grant applications for Project Gambia again.

Until next time - God bless, take care, and remember: Never leave home without a bag of marshmallows.

Sincerely,
~Alycia DeLong

Happy New Year

2007-01-13T06:18:00.000Z

"Let old acquaintance be forgot..."

What does that mean? I always figured it meant you no longer associate with anyone over the age of 55... Are those even the right words to the song?...

Okay, I went off track pretty early this round, but no matter. I really have nothing to talk about right now. I am on holiday. Yes, a big H-to-the-O-to-the-L-to-the-IDAY.

Dream Scene...
It's the final round in Wheel of Fortune. Pat Sajak turns to me and says, "The category is event. You have R S T L N E. What letters would you like?"

I examine the puzzle: _ _ L _ _ _ _

I say to Pat, "I'll have an H, a D and a Y. And I'll skip the vowel. I don't need it (I am that good)."

H O L I D A Y

Actually, I happen to be in Canada at the moment, treasuring precious moments with loved ones. Like Dairy Queen and Tim Hortons. Aaaaah, it's good to be back.

You're probably thinking, 'I wonder when they go back to
England?'

Gee, thanks. My Christmas was fine, and yours? Oh wait - that wasn't the question. The question was when do we go back. Or as I like to interpret it: 'I can't stand that nerdy Alycia DeLong and her lame sense of humour. I hope they leave the country again soon.' Well, EXCUUUUUUUSE ME!!!!

Do you know what I love about Canada? The sarcastic wit. There's really nothing like it anywhere else in the world. That and poutine.

Oooohoooo, here's something important. As you may or may not have heard, Danny's dad, Dave, underwent major surgery for a cancerous tumor in his stomach. The doctors actually removed his stomach completely on December 11 and he has been recovering steadily ever since. He is now out of the hospital and doing miraculously well, and I'm not just saying that! To look at the guy you'd never know that he has no stomach (unless you look at him whilst he is connected to his feeding tube). He is pretty thin at the moment but other than that he looks great!

Now I know you're asking, "How can a person survive without a stomach? How do they even remove a stomach?" Well, I don't know. I don't want to know. If you, however, really want to know, I'd recommend googling it. That's what it's there for.

Okay then, well I'm off to hit the hay now. I have a busy day tomorrow of sleeping in and catching up with my old friend Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.

God Bless you all this new year and may it be filled with many familiar comforts and new surprizes!

Sincerely,

~Alycia DeLong

P.S.- We fly back to England on the 24 of January. (Thought I forgot, didn'tcha?)

A Long Time Ago, In A Galaxy Far Far Away

2006-12-14T21:10:00.000Z

For the past several weeks there has been a dark cloud, an ominous black fog if you will, hanging over me. It's there when I wake up, it's with me when I go to bed, it follows me down the street, and even into the bathroom. What is this black fog? Well, when you put the two together it is just what it is: The BLOG.

Yeah, yeah, yeah I know. I haven't written in FOREVER, but I have a good excuse: Okay, I have a lame excuse. What I do not have is internet. Or time. But don't worry, because right now I have both plus an extra special ingredient - stories. Man, have I got stories for you!

So a couple of weeks ago Danny and I went to the Gambia. It's a small country in West Africa right by Senegal. Yeah, we hopped on a plane one day and went to Africa. You know us, throwing all caution to the wind, rolling with the waves of life, following the stars and all that yabber.

We went to set up a one-week mission for our new project that we're doing with high schools here in Walsall. We're going to be doing a 12-week program with 6th form students (the equivalent of 12th graders in Canada) where we educate about third world poverty for 8 weeks, experience it for 1 week, and expand on what we've learnt for 3 weeks. The trip went brilliantly and we were able to set up our entire schedule for when we take our group over next April.

And now for The Story of the Week:

Danny and I met a very nice Gambian lady and her son who invited us to their home to meet the rest of the family and see their shop of carvings, crafts and other knick-knacks. Danny and I both wanted to see how all of these things were made and so we arranged to meet up the next day and visit their home.

We had a wonderful afternoon meeting the brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins, and new born cousins. Then they showed us how they carefully crafted each carving with old chisles and rusty sets of kitchen knives. It was remarkable. As I perused the shop, I was struck by the detail of each creation: birds of every kind - captivating and colourful; thinking men sitting in many positions - abstract and awkward; monkeys of all sizes - a bit creepy but impressive; topless women with proportions to make Barbie blush; crocodiles detailed from tip to tail; and every animal Noah took on the ark.

The mother of the family walked up and stood beside me as I admired all the carvings.

"My sons work very hard," she said, her words laced with pride.

"These are all amazing," I complimented, "Your family is very talented."

"Thank you," she replied. "You know, the tits are the hardest to make."

Pause.

"Uh, pardon?" I whispered.

"The tits," she repeated, "they are the most difficult to carve."

Pause.

Then one of her sons came and joined us.

"Yes, the tits are the hardest to carve because you have to do each one individually," He stated in agreement.

Pause. I stood motionless, making eye contact with only a statue of a crocodile.

"Uh, huh." I said.

Then the son reached over and picked up the crocodile that I was staring at.

"You see," he said as he pointed to the reptile's mouth, "the tits are small and it is very difficult to carve each one exactly the same."

Flashback One: A Gambian girl named 'Elizabeth' introduces herself as 'Elizabet.'

Flashback Two: A Gambian student writes 'Thursday' and pronounces it 'Tursday.'

Flashback Three: A Gambian man in the market is selling souvenirs for a thousand delasi (about $10 Canadian) and quotes us the price of 'a tousand.'

'Th' sound = 'T'sound ...'Th' = 'T' ... so 'tits' would be 'tiths' would be 'teeth' would be ... oh, I see now.

"Yes," I finally fully joined the conversation, "The teeth do look hard to carve."

And my record is perfect still. Alycia 4, Ears 0.

Ring ring!

2006-10-30T17:15:00.000Z

Hello there, it's me. Just thought I should verify that first so you know who it is. Don't you hate it when some one hands you the phone and you have no idea who it is, but they're like, "Hi! It's me! I'm so glad I caught you..." And you're like, "Yeah, it's good to talk to you too" but in your head you're like, 'who the heck is this? Is is Jean? Or maybe Barb? I should know. Why don't I know? I can't let them know that I don't know!' You know what I mean? And then you think to yourself, 'It's Jean. I know it's Jean.' So you say, "Hey, I say your mom the other day!" and they say, "Really?" and you say, "Oh yeah! She was looking really well!" and they say, "Looking well? She's been gone for 12 years." And then you think, 'Oops. It's Barb.'

Well, that has nothing to do with anything. But here's a funny story...

On Wednesdays I occassionally stop in to one of the local Walsall churches to enjoy an afternoon of soup, tea, and talk with about 30 senior citizens. It's a great time and I love to hang out with my peeps there. Last time, the ladies at the table were asking me where I was from (which I get asked every week). They were delighted to hear I was from Canada and began to share with me all the names and places of loved ones who had moved to Canada. Yes, there was "so and so's niece". Then there was "my neighbour's son." And we musn't forget "my cousin's daughter's best friend's third grade teacher's dentist." It was a wonderful time of sharing and reminissing of the great white north.

At one point in the conversation, the elderly woman at the end of the table looked up at me and said, "Ah nee tah toilah." (I've tried to write it out phonetically so you can catch the accent.) I replied, "Oh, uh, it's just through those doors and down the hall. "No, ah nee tah toilah." I nodded, and gave her the directions again, "Just through the doors and down the hall. It's on the right hand side." The other ladies were giggling. I was obviously not in on their little joke. "No. Ah nee tah toilah!" The lady repeated slower and louder. Then I understood. I began to stand up. "I can help you down the hall if you like."

The table burst out into laughter and the woman next to me took me by the arm. "No love, she's saying 'Anita Taylor.'"

"That's the name of my friend in Canada," the lady at the end of the table said through her laughter.

I haven't been back in two weeks.

Alright, one business memo. Things are going great with our new program. We've met with schools again and we have penciled ourselves in to start in February. There's still so much to be done, but I'll write more on that next time. I wanted to break things up with a funny story for now.

That doesn't mean thought that my next email will be boring so you can just skim over it!

Alrighty then, I'll end it here then until next time. God bless and take care!

Sincerely,
~Alycia DeLong

The Winds of Change...

2006-10-02T13:44:00.000+01:00

Oooh, I've just realized that this title might give the wrong idea considering my last blog was titled, "Beans, Beans, the Musical Fruit." Well, let me assure you, the two are not linked.

The Winds of Change have blown, though, and they are directing our LifeForce UK sails in another direction. And now I will say it for the record: There will be no LifeForce UK training base this year. A team will still be coming to us from Canada during the mission period of January to May, but we will not be leading it. Danny and I will not be leading at all this year. No, we will not be hearing the pitter-patter of little LifeForce students as they rehearse dramas, or wipe their runny noses when they are homesick, or hold their little hands in a circle of prayer. No, it won't be Danny and I watching their eyes light up as we pick them up in our 1981 minibus, moving every week, waking up early to visit schools and staying up late running youth groups. Ahhhh, memories.

So, what are we going to do? Glad you asked!

We are starting a new program (under LifeFORCE, of course) where we will take high school students (age 16 and up) on a 'mission trip.' Our plan is to do a 12-week program in schools: 8 sessions of class work, 1 week of a mission trip to a third world country, and then 3 sessions of debriefing and follow-up. Pretty simple, eh?

Actually, it has come together more easily than we thought. We are already allowed in schools to run programs simply because of the experience and relationship that have already been established over the years. We also already have the connections in a number of countries in Western Africa (mainly Gambia and Ghana) to organize the one week mission schedule. We've already had people calling us asking for more information. We meet with our first school tomorrow morning!

As for everyday life, we have very exciting news! WE HAVE AN APARTMENT! We've only had two nights in the place, but it is fantastic! Now let me tell you, God is our provider! The place was a Â£150 out of our price range and totally unfurnished. Well, the property agent came down a Â£150 after hearing about our work in schools, then a friend from another charity said to come to their warehouse and see if there was anything we could use in our place. We got a double bed, a single bed, 2 sets of drawers, a wardrobe (the non-Narnia kind though, too bad), a coffee table, and a number of other shelves and little tables. All of it was practically new! In fact, I was going through an Ikea catalogue and calculating what it would of cost us to buy everything we were given and it would have been around Â£1000 (about $2000 Canadian). Oh, we're not even done. Other people have given us a 3-piece leather suite, a TV, a microwave, a fridge, a toaster, a tea kettle, cutlery, tea towels, I can't even remember it all! It all came together in just 4 days! We never even really put out a notice or anything that we were looking for stuff! I swear, we haven't raked in this much since our wedding! I didn't even have to use the tumor story once! Now I know I must be because I am ridiculously good looking.

On a sadder note though, our mini-bus has finally called it quits and gone to the big garage in the sky. Well, to be more accurate, it's gone to the big scrap yard in Cannock. But the way things are going for us, I'm sure it won't be long before the Lord provides something better!

Seriously, you would not even believe our place! It looks so, so, not like us! Everything matches! It's kind of scary. I'll have to get used to it actually being OUR place! We haven't had a place that's actually just for the two of us since January. We've been living out of our suitcases since then. Last week we figured out that in our 5 and a half years of marriage we've moved over 30 times (we didn't count the week to week moves. Then it would be over a hundred)!

A couple of other things going on are:

1. We're teaching drama in a local Christian school and running an after school program.

2. We're organizing the schedule for the LifeForce team from Canada that will come and tour from January to May.

3. We're involved in the youth group of our church here (Walsall Christian Centre. You can google it.)

4. I've got a couple of video projects on the go for some local church programs.

5. We have people coming to dinner tonight and I have to get groceries.

Right, on that note I'll end this entry. I'll keep you updated on our progress!

Until next time then, God bless and take care!

~Alycia DeLong

Beans, Beans, the Musical Fruit...

2006-09-04T18:07:00.000+01:00

Hello and welcome to the newest update! The past couple of weeks have been filled with rain, scraped knees, and a lot of baked beans. We've been at camp in Wales. Week one was kids' camp, but only Danny went as I was still not quite 100% due to my new medication. I did get to go and visit for a day. The camp had all kinds of games and activities that were just incredible! There was fencing, rock climbing, cave exploring, fort building, abseiling (that's where you repel yourself down the side of a wall), a ropes course, zip wire rides, and more! The most incredible one was the driving lesson. Yep, for £3 a 10-year-old kid could get behind the wheel of a real car and learn to drive! When I saw this, the adult in me was like, "What?!?!? Are they crazy?!?!?" and the kid in me was like, "Wow! That is the coolest thing ever!!!!"

The next week was teen week, which I did go to. They basically had all the same activities except the driving lesson (gee, wonder why). There were around 400 youth at this camp (cry). We had just a fantastic time though and we saw so many wonderful things happen in our own youth group that we had gone with. They really bonded and encouraged one another throughout the week. The majority of our youth don't actually come to church, but they are all great kids once you get to know them. They are a tough bunch though. By the end of the week our group was responsible for 2 broken windows, 2 broken beds, a dislocated knee, an iron burn on the floor, a near concussion, a few broken hearts (wink wink), and many warnings to keep quiet after curfew. Ahhh, what a team effort it was.

And now for my cool camp story:

There was a group there that ran all the big activities like the rock climbing, fencing, cave crawling, etc. Each member is trained to manage the activitie, is equipped with first aid and emergency training, and has many other certificates in physical education. The group is not a Christian organization, but they are in the process of taking over the camp and upgrading it into some sort of super-extreme-sport camp for young people. Each staff member was very professional and very friendly and it wasn't long before we'd gotten to know a few of them. One girl in particular, Deborah, was always smiling and soon made friends with many of the youth and leaders at the camp.

On the Thursday evening there was a talent show and Deborah and I sat together to help each other through, uh, I mean, enjoy the performances. I had spoken with her a few times before, but being a member of staff with the activities company, she wasn't really allowed to visit with campers (or the customers) during the day. We were giggling and having fun when almost out of the blue she turned to me and asked, "Why did you decide to become a Christian?" So I told her and then pulled out 'old faithful' - the tale of the brain tumor. She had such a shocked look on her face that I had to use my best tumor jokes all in one shot just to help her relax a bit. [Her question: "How did you tell your family?" My Answer: "Ah, you just gotta glide it in casually with a smooth segway, like they use on the news...'My, these cookies are delicious. I think I'll have two more. Speaking of two more'...see cause two more sounds like tumor when you say it with the right emphasis...ah forget it.]

Friday night I started to get nauseous after taking my medication (which is what sometimes happens). I didn't want to, well, you know, in the evening worship service so I went up to my dorm to hide out for a bit. Danny soon came up to check on me. Not long after he left I fell asleep for over an hour. Usually, I am out cold until the next day, but this time something woke me up. That something was my stomach, or so I thought. It was about to, well, you know. I clutched my quilt tightly and prayed that God wouldn't make me get out of bed. Then the weirdest thing happened. I felt like I was supposed to get out of bed and go down to the service. My stomach gave it's rebuttal with a few ominous sounding gurgles, and I closed my eyes to sleep again. It was only a couple of minutes later when I woke up with the same feeling as before - I needed to go to the service. I clung to the quilt again and prayed that God wouldn't make me get out of bed. I though for sure if I moved I would, well, you know. But I couldn't get rid of that feeling that I was supposed to go. Fine, I decided, I'll go down to the service and probably hurl in front of everyone, but that's fine (I was kinda perturbed at this point so there were no more 'well, you know's'). I put on my jacket and started down to the meeting. Then the weirdest thing happened again. I started to feel better. In fact by the time I got to the doors of the tent where the service was being held, I felt totally fine!

I had just entered the tent when I saw Deborah. She was just on her way out and I could see that she was crying.

"Hey Deborah, are you alright?" I asked her.

"Yeah, I'm just...well, I've never seen anything like this. Where you can just come and talk to God. That anyone can." She looked around at the crowd again. "This is so real. I've never thought about it before. This really makes me question my religion."

"What religion are you?" I'd forgotten that she wasn't a Christian and so that all this church stuff would be quite foreign to her.

Deborah wiped her face. "I'm Jewish," she answered, "I went to Jewish primary school and Jewish camp and I was always taught that this wasn't true, but I don't know. Tonight, I feel like I'm missing something. That my life is missing something."

We talked for a long time after that. She told me about how she wanted to know more about Jesus, but it wouldn't be easy because she was Jewish. I told her the story of Nicodemus in the Bible. He was an important and recognized Jewish man in his time. When Jesus came along, Nicodemus wanted to know more about him, but because of who he was, it wouldn't be easy. So he snuck out to meet him in the middle of the night. There, under the covering of darkness, Jesus shared one of the most profound statements of all time with one man: "For God so loved the world He gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him, will not die but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

Deborah made a decision that night. Not to become a Christian, but to find out more about Jesus. Even though she knows it will be hard, and that she may have to do it in a bit of secrecy herself, she knows there is a treasure waiting there for her. And, I believe she can count on that.

One last short, funny story, just to wrap things up. After we had dropped everyone back off at the church when camp was over, I began the ugly process of cleaning our van after the journey. I was sweeping up the inside when I was joined by the 6-year-old sister of one of our teen campers. She stood in awe of the massive inside of our minibus. The rusting roof and chipped paint was as captivating to her as one would find the inside of an ancient cathedral in Rome. Finally, her heart's desire found it's words and she spoke with great wonder, "When you die, can I have this minibus?"

It's a deal, little lady. It's a deal.

May you find all your treasures this week!

God Bless,
~Alycia DeLong

Welcome to Loserville

2006-08-20T23:05:00.000+01:00

Do you know how angels greet one another?

They wave and say, "Halo!"

Now you know why this entry is titled, "Welcome to Loserville." Lame jokes are a sad side effect of being a loser (yes, I did make that one up) that unfortunately do not only overshadow the sufferer of losernitis (medical word) but the people around them. Just ask Danny. He has suffered.

Anyway, by now you're probably like, "Where are you going with this? Why am I still reading this? Although, her pathetic one liners do make me look like Seinfeld."

This is where I'm taking you today. First Corinthians 1:26-27..."Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong." (NIV New International Version)

Now let's read it in the AWBTEV (Alycia's Warped but had a Brain Tumor Excuse Version)... "Think of what you were when you were called. Loser. Big letter 'L' on the forehead. Klutzy, insurance nightmare. Bad jokes are invented by you and blonde jokes invented for you. A bit of an embarrassment to be around, even by your loved ones. You wear sweater vests to prom. Big L - little oser. Loser. And you're just what God wants and loves in a person."

You know, I often ask myself why I am a Christian. I mean, I've always felt like kind of a loser. In fact today, as I was listening to a song about a young woman reflecting on her tumultuous teen years, my mind drifted back as well to evens in the history of my own loserness...

(Insert sound of chimes here to signify dream sequence)

When I started high school, every girl had a crush on the school council president. His name was, let's say George Finkleman (of course it wasn't that. That is a loser name. But I don't want to say his real name because with my email subscription being at an all time high, with my luck his Aunt in Toronto or something will get this call him right away and I will be totally mortified. George, if you're reading this, sorry about the loser name comment). Anyway, George was a real dreamboat. Charming, funny, kind, sincere, and as for looks - well! Let's just say he put the 'body' in 'student body.' No! I got a better one! He put the 'stud' in 'student!' Ha ha ha ha...

Loser Fact #17- Loser's always laugh at their own lame jokes for a ridiculously long time.

...ha ha ha ha! Yeah, that was a good one. Okay, so of course I was not spared from the ga-ga's whenever he walked past me in the hallway. Alas, he was in a distant senior land while I was but a lowly freshman.

One time we happened to be at the very same party at the same time. Was it fate? Or was it just a school dance? Anyway, a big group of us were line dancing to some country songs (a shame I do not speak of often) and out of the music and the mist (fog machine) came Ke--I mean George Finkleman. And he was heading straight for ME! He smiled and leaned close and told me that I was a really good dancer! GASP! I couldn't believe it! What if he asked me to dance? What would I do? What would I say? He leaned in again to speak. Was he going to ask me to dance???

Well, he sort of did ask me to dance, but with his girlfriend (she was from another school. Whatever. He apparently was too good to date someone from the very school he was the president of. Typical politician.) She really wanted to learn how to line dance. I spent the majority of the night teaching her moves to "My Achy Breaky Heart."

Loser.

(Back to me sitting in the kitchen listening to music.)

As I continued to listen to the young lady's voice and reminisce days gone passed, some of the song's lyrics were really speaking to me:

"You heard my complaints about my curfew at 10..."
- That sums up my teen years

"You saw when my room was a mess again..."
- And again and again

"You heard me when I swore..."
- I occasionally did have a bit of a potty mouth

"...that I'd never love again..."
-Oh, you weren't finished that line yet. I thought you meant, you know. You see I never
really had that "high school sweetheart" experience so I thought you were talking about...well, I mean I did have a couple of crushes. I guy asked me to dance once...almost... well, sort of...

Loser. Yep, this has shed a whole lotta light on the term "pre-destination."

To wrap this up, this is what I'm trying to say: I feel very privileged to be a loser. It's why God picked me.

And if you're feeling like a loser today, remember: You are. And God loves you for it.

Which makes you cool.

It's Show Time!

2006-08-09T11:56:00.000+01:00

Announcer's Voice: Hey Kids! Do you know what time it is?

Children Scream: It's DeLong Email Time!

Cue the Intro Music: "It's DeLong Email time! It's DeLong Email time!..." and so forth.

Fade to update in 5...4...3...2...

Hello there and welcome to my new blog! What is a blog anyway, you ask? Well, think of it as a spin off of my other websites. You know when the show "Friends" ended and then they started a spin off series called "Joey?" Yeah, like that. Except hopefully my blog won't be cancelled after the first couple of episodes.

On this blog you will find all my previous episodes including hard-to-find pilot email updates from the early years! Consider this your online box set of the DeLong Reports!

[Applause sign flashes]

Yes, we are sparing no expense now.

Now to the update part: You already know that we are back in England. If you didn't get that email, you can just scroll down and read it now ['ooooh' and 'ahhhhh' sound effect]. We'll cut to commercial while you do that.

[Fade to commercial in 3...2...1...]

In UK theatres this week the movie "Snakes on a Plane" starring Samuel Jackson is attracting many patrons looking for a good scare. Posters for this production are all over the place and yesterday I finally saw a preview for it. Not that I really needed to, I think that it is a pretty safe guess that the movie is going to be about snakes on a plane. Who came up with that title anyway? That question itself sounds like one of those bad lightbulb jokes - How many creative executives does it take to come up with the movie title, "Snakes on a Plane"? My guess is that that meeting happened right before or right after a long weekend.

Anyway, the nutshell of the preview was this: It started with some snakes on a plane (surprize) and it ended with Samuel Jackson wildly firing his machine gun inside of coach. Now, I am by no means educated or experienced in the mysteries of aerodynamical engineering (heck, I don't even know what to call it), but I've been on a lot of air planes and I think that I can state with confidence that unloading a machine gun inside of a plane is a really bad. Dare I say, possibly worse than snakes on a plane. How did he even get a machine gun on a plane nowadays anyway?

[Return from commercial]

I wonder if the person who came up with this movie had ever flown Air Canada? Come to think of it, wasn't there another movie about snakes on a plane? I think it was called, "Air Force One."

[CUT TO COMMERCIAL! CUT TO COMMERCIAL!]

Sorry about that. I did cross the line there. Of course, I didn't mean it, I just couldn't resist the joke!

I should really move on to actual events. I had an appointment yesterday with an endocrinologist. This was the third enstallment of a series of visits with them regarding my resent health problems. The doctors are concluding that I am having pituitary problems as a result of the radiation therapy I had 5 years ago. Anyway, the doctor gave me a prescription to try and help get me back to normal again. Poor guy, he has no idea what he is getting himself into...

Here's a funny thing about yesterday though: One of the doctor's names at the clinic was Toogood! So now when people ask me, "How was your appointment with the doctor?" I can say, "Oh, it wasn't too good." I saw some other doctor! HA HA! Get it? Of course you do.

No, I haven't started the medication yet. Why do you ask?

Alright then, I guess that's all the time we have for this episode. Thanks for joining us and we'll see you next time!

God bless,
~Alycia DeLong

SEQUEL IDEAS FOR "SNAKES ON A PLANE"

- "Hippos on a Bus"

-"Mad Cows on a Boat"

-"Lions on a Bike"

- "Peanuts in a Cab" (which would be terrifying to people who are allergic to nuts, when you think about it)

Back in The Ole' Country Again

2006-07-30T19:11:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone!

I've given you a couple of weeks off but the break is over and it's time you wasted precious minutes reading my witty and charming anecdotes! Okay, maybe those aren't the exact words used to describe my updates, but close. Right to business then: Here we are in England. Back in sunny Walsall (and by 'sunny' I mean 'British sunny' which is not sun at all but a forecast of haze and grays). But it is nice to be back and see all our friends. I've particularly missed my dearest friend, Mr. Cadbury Galaxy Chocolate and his lovely wife, Hazel (although she's a little nutty if you ask me).

As you are probably noticing by now, I'm not completely over the jet lag. I have to admit it hit me pretty hard this time. Yesterday Danny and I woke up at about 4am. My stomach was really growling, but Danny said we shouldn't eat until a reasonable breakfast hour. Party pooper. Anyway, we played card games until about 6:30 and then I made omelets. Then we went to bed at about 10:30 am yesterday morning, woke up at 3pm, I went back to bed around midnight, woke up at 7am, returned to bed just before noon and woke up at 5:30pm. I haven't exactly been very aggressive in kicking this jet lag thing.

Boy was it great to be home for summer! After 4 long months of moving from house to house, city to city, living out of a suitcase, it was sooooo nice to come back to Canada for 2 months, moving from house to house, city to city, living out of a suitcase. Yeah, we traveled right across from Vancouver to Toronto and everywhere in between. A week here a week there. The only place we didn't really see very much of was our place. We spent 5 nights in our own home, and for me, 3 of them were on the couch. Danny was really sick and being the caring, nurturing wife I am, I thought it best if I gave him privacy and space to recover (Translation: projectile vomit plus innocent bystander equals wife spewed on in sleep. Not thanks I'll pass). Anyway, my sensitivity and wisdom was just the right prescription. Danny's all better now!

In a nutshell, here's what we did over the past few months:
- Visited family in Vancouver
- Visited family and went to ACOP conference in Kelowna
- Visited family in Edmonton
- Went to camp
- Went to camp
- Visited family in Regina
- Went to a wedding in Hamilton (saw Niagara Falls, too. Super cool!)
- Visited family in Regina again
- Went to camp again
- Re-shingled our roof in Calgary (fun fun fun)
- Visited family in Edmonton again
- Got on airplane and flew to England And that was our holiday.

So, how has your summer been?

Okay, well I think that's all I really have for now, so I'll let you all go and get back to whatever it was that you were doing, or about to do, or should do but you don't want to do, which is making me a tool of laziness. Maybe I should go have a nap for a few hours. It is about that time.

I look forward to invading your inbox for another year!

God Bless, ~Alycia

P.S. - Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Health Update

2006-06-01T18:55:00.000+01:00

Hello there everyone! Here's the latest on my health situation. I guess I have good news and, well, no news.

The good news is that the old brain tumor is still shrinking. In fact is has shrunk another 4mm since my last MRI 2 years ago! Hooray! So that was very exciting!

The no news is that they have no idea what's causing the hyperprolactinaemia. I will have to go see an endocrinologist and have more tests. They're a bit stumped by what's happening in my brain. The MRI didn't reveal any new growths, and the old tumor isn't on the pituitary gland, it's fairly soon for me to be having side effects from the radiation, and my symptoms don't reflect that it is because of the radiation anyway. So we're back to the drawing board. We know there's something wrong, we just don't know why or how to fix this.

My next appointment with the endocrinology department is August 8 and hopefully they'll be able to find some answers, or find that I've been healed and am back to normal! (Was I ever really normal though?)

That is that, then, for now. I'm sorry I didn't have more answers, but so were the doctors. Thank you for all your prayers though - thank you very very very much! I have been strengthened daily by them and by God's gracious Spirit!

May God bless you all this summer!

Love,
~Alycia DeLong

It Is Finished

2006-05-17T12:46:00.000+01:00

Hello my faithful subscribers! Okay, maybe you never signed up for this but due to powers beyond your control you have been getting my lengthy updates in your inbox and you're not sure why they aren't just being deposited in your junk mail right off the bat but for some reason you've been opening them and reading them every time. Something like that, right?

Okay, so guess what today is? We'll do multiple choice that's fun:

What is significant about May 17th?

A. First merry-go-round seen at a fair (1620)
B. Enya's Birthday (1961)
C. Last day of LifeFORCE UK (2006)
D. All of the Above

If you guessed D. All of the Above - you win! Please send us you name, address, and credit card number (don't forget the expiration date) and your prize will arrive in the mail soon. Ha ha! Just kidding! That's a good one, Alycia!

Yep, it is time to pack it up and move on from this, our very first year of LifeFORCE UK!

Overall everyone here agrees that we've had an incredible, exciting, challenging, and fun year for all of us! We've just officially wrapped everything up today with team debriefing, individual debriefing, and videoing all our new dramas that we wrote this year. Now we're packing up our bags and heading our separate ways. Some are going on to Bible college, others to university, some to jobs. Danny and I are coming back to Canada for a couple of months. I really have a hankering for Tim Horton's. We leave England next Monday and in the meantime we are swamped with all those last minute meetings and things that HAVE TO be done before we go. Ooooooh fun!

The most important thing I really have to say in this update is THANK YOU! Thank you for your emails, support, prayers, love, and encouragement! My constant prayer is that God would bless you as much and more as He has used you to bless us! You are such a huge part of what we are doing and we don't ever take that for granted! You have blessed us sooooo much! THANK YOU!!!!!!!

I think I'm going to end this email here and attach a couple of pictures of us instead.

With that, God bless you all, thank you for another great year, and may God give you all the desires of your heart!

Sincerely,
~Alycia DeLong

Mystery Solved

2006-05-06T14:02:00.000+01:00

Hey everyone! I just got this email from the mother of a Maltese friend of mine! My sleepless nights are over!

~Alycia DeLong

Subject: Maltese

Date: Thu, 04 May 2006 15:18:36 +0000

Dear Alycia,

I'm Leah's mum. You don"t know me but Leah passed me your email about the Maltese that was talking to you about.

Believe me when I read the email I couldn't stop laughing. I know what she wanted to say. Probably this woman comes from a village because they don't use that saying in the city. My uncle used to use that phrase all the time.

We have a saying here that says that if you don't eat you won't stand. She wanted to tell you that if a sack is empty it will fall, but if it is full it will stand. She was describing the sack as the stomach and the food as a filler. So now you understand? She meant no and probably if you mention the word to her you would have embarrassed her.

Well thanks for a good laugh and if you have any difficulty about maltese please let me know.

Margaret

Well, Margie. I'm glad I could brighten your day. And I'm glad that now I can sleep at night!

You Know What They Say

2006-05-03T16:19:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone! Yeesh, I'm emailing you more than those abnoxious spammers! But I have a funny story. One that is fresh off the presses, as they say!

So we've all chuckled at my consistency to misunderstand people, especially those with accents foreign to my own. There was the salesman in Walsall whom I thought was asking about my 'accident' when really he was saying 'accent.' Then there was the very embarassing incident of the gentleman in Kidderminster who was inquiring about my profession. (I thought he asked, 'Are you a prostitute,' but he was really saying, 'Are you a pastor, too.') Well, today I found myself in another one of those classic 'it-only-happens-to-me' situations.

Today we were at one of my favourite schools in Malta. It is a Catholic school and the priest there, Brother Kieren, is a wonderful man who is extremely welcoming and encouraging to our teams. In fact, all the staff and students are. We've been going to that school all the years we've had teams in Malta and we always have a lot of fun there.

One of the best things about visiting the school is that they always cook us a big, delicious lunch. There is always a home made soup, fresh baked Maltese bread, and an amazing pasta dish. Yes, they really know how to treat us right!

After lunch, we went back to the hall to pack up our set and all our props then say goodbye to our friends at the school. Brother Kieren shook our hands and blessed us all before he had to run back to his class, leaving one of the lady teachers behind to escort us out. As the team went ahead, I walked with the teacher just to tell her how much we appreciated everything they had done for us that day.

"We love coming to your school," I gushed, "especially since you always feed us so well!"

"Well, we like that you come here and the students like it very much," she responded in her thick Maltese accent. It was clear that English wasn't her first language and she was struggling to put her sentences together. "We have a saying here in Malta, you probably know it and have it in your country, too. We say, 'If you have empty sex, the body will fall over.'"

A moment of awkward silence.

"Uh, pardon me?" I had definitely heard that wrong.

"We say this because you know, if the sex is empty the body will fall down." She then repeated it for me in Maltese, which didn't clear things up at all.

So I lied. "Oh, right. I see." What the heck was she talking about?

I waved good bye and quickly walked down the street stiffling my laughter. Had I heard her correctly? I wanted to ask her again to repeat herself. In fact, I almost said to her, "Look, that may be a popular phrase where you come from, but I've only been married 5 years and I don't know that one yet!"

As it turns out, I still have no idea what she was saying. I ran it pass the team and we are all totally clueless on this one. I'm writing this to you so that maybe some one out there can decipher this cryptic message for me.

Hopefully some one can tell me the meaning of this saying. I'm sure it's simple, like the writing's on the wall but I'm running around like a chicken with it's head cut off so I don't have time to stop to smell the roses. Maybe I got up on the wrong side of the bed and I'm not the sharpest knife in the Swiss Army today. Who can tell with all this mumbo jumbo. Maybe she was just mad as a hatter, not playing with a full deck, you know? I'm sure if I put on my thinking cap though, I can solve this idium.

God bless you all and be sure to let me know if you have any ideas about this! Thanks!

Straight from the horses mouth,
~Alycia DeLong

Still Trying to Get Caught Up

2006-05-01T16:02:00.000+01:00

Hey everyone! It's me again (insert your sarcastic remarks here. Ha ha, very cute. Good one. Ha ha big fake ha.)

Okay, now that's out of the way, here's a funny story from a couple of weeks ago. We were in West Bromich doing a week with at an event called Revolution. Basically its a mission week for teens while they're off for Easter break. About 50 of them come from different youth groups and churches and we spend the week doing evandelism. Uh, I mean, evangelism. Hee hee, a fraudian slip from me. We all split into groups and then rotate from the different activities around the community. There was gardening, garbage picking, kid's activities in the park, prayer groups, and many other things. The whole goal of the week was to serve the community and show teens the benefits of serving. Being a servant is the first and foremost step in being any sort of minister for the Gospel - and it's the small things we do that can really make a big impact!

Friday was main event day. We were allowed into the biggest mall in the West Midlands to do a day's program of songs, dramas, balloon animals, puppet shows, and face painting. In fact, this year I was asked to be the official 'face painting' instructor, a covetted title. (Okay, no one else really wanted to do it, and I just love paintin beards on little kids.) Anyway, on Wednesday night the germsI had been battling won the war when it brought out the fever weapon. Danny drove me back to Walsall to recover for the rest of the week. I was so disappointed that I was missing all the fun! But I slept lots and did my best to recover for the main event on Friday.

Friday morning came and I shakily dragged myself out of bed, got dressed, and tried to make myself look not so much like I'd just escaped from the Betty Ford clinic. I whined and pouted to Danny to take me to the main event at the mall. There were so many little faces to paint and they would need all the help they could get! Finally, he agreed to take me but I was under strict orders to take it easy.

When we got to the mall no one was there except the other members of our group setting up and store workers. Our group was pretty much done: the tables were set up, balloons were filled and the puppet curtain was just being hung. There really wasn't much for me to do but sit in the face painting area and watch.

As I sat down my body reminded me of my current physical condition. I felt gross. My head was swimming and my stomach was sea sick. What was I doing here? Why had I come? I was totally useless! Was there going to be anything for me to do today? I should have stayed in bed...

Then, just as the stores were beginning to open, came our first customer! A lady and her three small children approached the face painting counter and politedly asked, "Excuse me, are you open yet?"

"We sure are," I replied excitedly. First victim of the day!

"How much is it to get your face painted?" she asked.

"Absolutely free," I was very proud to tell her.

"Oh, well that's great!" Turning to her three kids she asked them, "Would you all like your face painted?" And what kid doesn't? And they've hit the jackpot! We could paint Spidermen, princesses, butterflies, dinosaurs, you name it - we could do it!

But these kids didn't look very thrilled. They all huddled in closer to their mother and scanned us over very suspiciously.

The mother looked her children in the eyes. "It's alright. It doesn't hurt. It will be fun!" They didn't budge. "Look," she tried again, "see? It's fun! Here, how about I have my face painted first? Then if you like, you can have yours done to."

The woman's two little boys looked more nervous by this comprimize than comforted. Her little girl, only about two years old, clung tightly to her mother and began to sob, "I don't want it to go on your face!"

"It's fun! Trust me," and the she sat down in the chair. "I'd like a little butterfly on my cheek please." And with that, one of our face painters began to paint a very delicate, purple butterfly just below her eye. Her two boys barely blinked as they carefully watched over their mother and her little girl continued to sob. I tried to talk to them, to distract them, but they were very focussed on their mother's face.

"They're pretty shy," the woman said to me, "but I'm hoping that if I can show them that its alright, they'll get a bit braver."

"Well in that case, don't forget to go get a balloon animal after, too!" I said and we both had a little chuckle.

We continued to talk while she had her face painted. At first it was the usual stuff, 'Where are you from?', 'What are you doing here?', 'Do you like England?' I told her about our activities throughout the week, the litter picking and games and gardening. She was particularly interested in the last one.

"I've just moved into a new place last October and I'm trying to start a garden. It's hard to find the time to do it though. I'm a single mother." She explained.

"It certainly does look like you already have your hands full," I joked as her arms were still trying to comfort her toddler.

She laughed and then paused for a moment. It was one of those pauses that come when a person is debating on what to say next. Not only what to say, but if they should say it.

Something made this woman decide to say it.

"Actually, my husband passed away a year and a half ago," she said quietly, as if still trying to protect her young children.

"I'm so sorry," I replied. What else could I say?

Another moment of silence as she made her next decision.

"He passed away from a brain tumor."

At that very moment I knew exactly why I was there. I didn't say anything at first, I couldn't. After all, this woman was telling these things to a complete stranger! She didn't say much, but she didn't have to.

Her butterfly was finished and she said thank you to the artist as she looked her cheek in the mirror. Her kids were still anti-face paint, so she stood up to leave.

"I don't mean to sound weird," I carefully started, "but would you mind if I walked with you?"

The woman smiled graciously and invited me along.

"I'm a strong believer in Divine Appointments," I said, "and for me, this is one of those appointments! I really related to what you were saying. You may not believe this but, I had a brain tumor."

The conversation went from there for another 30-40 minutes (it's hard to tell, you know how it is when women start talking.) We talked about the depression, the disappointment, the loneliness, the questions and all of the stuff that comes with losing a loved one (as I had also lost my mother to cancer). She asked me about how I felt while I was going through my own diagnosis and what I felt watching my family worry for me. She shared her own pain that she had gone through watching her husband suffer, and the new pain now as she lived a different life without him. She told me about how hard it had been on her children. They were so scared of losing her too they rarely let her out of their sight. We talked about the good things though as well, the things we've learned, the prayers we've had answered and God. Although I never found out what her own faith was exactly. We just talked.

Our visit ended with the two of us wiping our tears outside of a Carlton Card shop. We exchanged email addresses before she had to go so we could continue to stay in touch.

As I walked back to the face painting counter I was so excited and encouraged, no germs could survive! Why was I here today? As far as I was concerned, it was for that 40 minutes with that mother and her three kids. In fact, why was she there today? Maybe for me, too! That's just the way that Divine Appointments seem to work!

So as you go into this new week, my prayer is that your days will be filled with Divine Appointments!

God bless you and take care!

Sincerely,
~Alycia DeLong

P.S.- When you think of it, please say a prayer for Jo and her three kids. Thanks.

Guess Who?

2006-04-24T16:57:00.000+01:00

A riddle for you...

What's stinky and sweaty and hasn't sent out an email update in a ridiculously long time?

Answer: Danny. He's terrible at email updates. That's why I do it.

Greetings and Salutations to you all! Wow, it has been a horrendously long time since I wrote, but I had a shower so I'm not stinky and sweaty anymore. I guess I should fill you in on what's happening, and what's been happening over the past month.

We are now in Malta (and the peasants rejoice)! We arrived last Tuesday, April 16th. It has been a wonderful change for our team - we've all felt the thrill and excitement of a new country and a new mission! Our schedule is already full with presentations and programs in 2-3 schools a day and 2-3 evening youth clubs a week! Then there's all the extra stuff we get ourselves into!

For example today. We did two schools and then went to another radio mission based here in Malta and did some backyard labour on their building. Hence the afore-mentioned stinky and sweatyness. We've been having a blast in schools. It always amazes us how we can speak so openly about our faith and the difference Jesus has made in our lives right in an assembly!

We had a really cool experience on Friday night. The man that runs all the Catholic youth clubs in the country asked us do to some of our dramas on the steps of the Mosta Dome! I know you're like, "Wow! What the heck is a Mosta Dome?" Glad you asked!

A picture speaks a thousand words. Take a look for yourself

http://www.maltavista.net/en/list/photo/471.html

http://www.maltavista.net/en/list/photo/472.html

It seems to be a bit of a running theme for us, performing in cathedrals. Just a few weeks ago in England we did a week long program in the Lichfield cathedral. Look at this one.

http://www.lichfield-cathedral.org/

Anyway, I'm sure it's only a matter of time before Jay Leno calls.

Okay, this email is long (no surprize there) so I'll wrap this up for now with one last exciting thing...

Yesterday we went swimming and I was stung by a jelly fish! Actually, it didn't hurt that much, it was just a little one. But then, because the driver of the boat we'd gone with felt sorryfor me, he let me drive the boat! I almost capsized and killed us all! How exciting!

With that, I should go. I'll be writing again, don't you worry! I have a couple of great stories I have to tell you about, but this email is long enough as it is! So God bless you all and take care!

Sincerely,
~Alycia DeLong

P.S. - Don't worry, I didn't let anyone pee on my jelly fish sting.

Finally the Internet and I Meet Again

2006-03-16T17:53:00.000Z

Hello there my favourite family! I'm beginning the enormous job of replying to an obscene amount of emails. We haven't had email access in almost over 2 weeks and it HAS DRIVEN ME CRAZY! First of all, I've wanted to send out an email to let you know how my test results turned out. Well, I passed all my tests: my thyroid is fine and my cortisol levels are normal (that's some sort of adreneline hormone.) A couple of things have come up though. My prolactin levels are still way too high, causing low estrogen levels (which explains why I've been watching sports, scratching myself and leaving the seat up), and I also have low levels of IG-1 hormones. That's a growth hormone. Basically that means I won't be having any growth spurts any time soon. It's not a big deal. It just seems that its a case of hyperprolactaenamia. Yeah, I could have guessed that. (????hyperprolacti-what??? I'll take hormones of the pituitary for $1000, Alex).

I still do need a lot of prayer. The doctors are a bit baffled by what is causing this and I'll still have to go for more tests. They want me to have my MRI first before they start jabbing me with their torture sticks again. They can do what they want, I'll never talk!

Otherwise, to be honest, I've been pretty run down. I missed pretty much all of last week, which was a bummer. We did a whole week of our program in the Lichfield Cathedral! Yeah, Europe's biggest three-spired cathedral, like 800 years old, an absolute masterpiece of architecture and history. And we did a desecrated it with our loud dramas. It was awesome, and I missed it.

I've found that I just have 'shut down' days. It's pretty much impossible for me to function when this happens, it just feels like a total energy drain. It's nothing that a quick 14 to 16-hour nap doesn't fix. It's most likely because of the hyperprolabadabadoo thingy combined with our lifestyle/stress/lack of chocolate intake. Okay the chocolate intake may not be a real medical solution. Yet.

So I do need a lot of prayer so that I can try and keep up. Danny and the team have been great to accommodate me and my health. The team doesn't know all the details about everything (it's sort of hard to explain anyway), but they've never asked any questions or judged me about my time off. And Danny has spoiled me rotten, as usual!

So his birthday and our anniversary was just last week! Thank you for all the emails wishing us the best! I didn't see Danny at all on his birthday because he had to take the team to a mission in a different town while I stayed behind an extra day for a doctor's appointment. Then we had our anniversary. Did you know that the 5th anniversary is the wood anniversary. I thought about getting Danny a popsicle, but Danny definitely won the prize for most thoughtful gift. First, he gave me this beautifully carved wooden box and inside was a very antique looking French song-book and piano sheet music! Wow! Then he surprized me even more when that weekend he took me to a hotel in Dudley (called ' The Village')! When we got to the room there was flowers, champagne and chocolates waiting to meet us there! I even had a massage there! It was just what any doctor would order.

Okay, what else did I have to say? Oh yeah, I have tragic terrible news! THE CAMERA IS BROKEN!!!!! I don't know what I'm going to do (but I'm hoping that in the rebound I will be able to console my broken heart with 5 or 6 pixel Fuji). It broke sometime last week in Lichfield. We think it must have gotten crushed in the bottom of the back pack. Usually I carry it with me everywhere in my purse, but because I wasn't well last week I wasn't able to protect it from the cruelties of the world! It is especially painful now that we are in Scotland and there has been the most wonderful snowfall here! I would be taking so many pictures if Canon A80 was here...~sigh~

On a serious note however, we had some sad news from the homefront. Danny's birth grandfather passed away last weekend. It was quite a surprize to the family I guess. We only got to meet him once, but are we ever glad we did!

Well, I've still got a million and 99 emails to respond too plus if it is possible I'll put out a general update as well!

I love you all and I miss you all! God bless and take care and hopefully I'll get to write again soon!

Love always,
~Alycia xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Kids Say the Darndest Things

2006-02-21T16:50:00.000Z

Hello all from sunny, rainy, hailing, snowing Walsall! Yes, it's been a funny day for Mother Nature, she just couldn't decide what she wanted to wear today.

I just had to send out this story that happened this evening. We were at a kid's club for 6 to 12 year old children at the church. We did our dramas, told a Bible story, and played some games. The kids at this group are very, how shall I say, energetic? Enthusiastic? Rambunctious? And sometimes down right menaces! But they are so sweet and it is always such a huge blessing to us to have them run and give us hugs when they see us coming.

Okay, so at the end of the evening, we had some spare time to tell one last story, which is, naturally, Danny's job. He is the master of 'one last story.' So he proceded to tell the adventure of going Go-Carting last week with the youth group. Danny recounted every detail, every danger, and every challenge and the children (and us) were enthralled. He told of his brave battle on the go-cart track, racing against vicious teenage challengers, who tried to bump him off the track, but he didn't let fear defeat him,and he finally finished victoriously in first place. Actually, it sounded a lot like "Days of Thunder" except with go-carts.

At the end of is story, Danny asked the kids, "Does anyone know why I won the race?" Why yes, of course, Danny. It's because you didn't give up.

The responses from the children, however, were as follows:

-"Because girls are bad drivers." (That boy's walking home.)
-"Because you cheated." (Thank you for your honesty.)
-"Because you ate bananas." (Where we listening to the same story?)

And my all time favourite, the answer to every question:
-"Because you had faith in God so he helped you to win." (What can I say? We know how to program the young minds of today's generation.)

You know, there are only 3 or 4 children from the 30 plus group who actually attend church outside of this Tuesday evening club. But they are really teaching them the right answers to all of life's tough questions!

Until the next crazy thing that happens (which shouldn't be too long, we have another kids' club tomorrow night), God bless you all and remember...

...have faith in God!

Take Care,
~Alycia DeLong

Happy Valentine's Day (or week for those of us who are forgetful)

2006-02-18T09:09:00.000Z

Happy Belated Valentine’s Day, everyone! Hope your week has brought you many bouquets of flowers and boxes of chocolates! I’ve got no complaints myself. We’re in Stafford right now enjoying an easy going week as it is half term break for schools so we don’t have any assemblies or classes. This week’s schedule has consisted of bowling, movies, games, go carting, ice skating and tobogganing (indoor, of course). We’ve just been hanging out with the local youth group as much as possible, which has been awesome! We needed a week like this; the last two have been insanely busy with schools and events. Hey, that reminds me of a funny story…

So last week we were in Wales, Clydach to be exact. I know what you’re all thinking, ‘Hey, isn’t that by Swansea, where Catherine Zeta-Jones has a mansion?’ Why yes, as a matter of fact it is. But we never saw her. Sorry. I hope you weren’t thinking that was going to be my funny story.

Our entire team stayed in the church for the week, boys in one room and girls in the other, including Danny and myself (also not the funny story. Side note: And people are so shocked that we don’t have children yet). Anyway, we were scheduled for full days of schools from Monday to Friday and evening stuff every night. Our previous week in Stourbridge had been much the same and we were already pretty exhausted, but there’s nothing that a little coffee and a lot of prayer can’t do. We pulled ourselves back together and arrived at school Monday morning ready to go.

When we arrived we were quickly taken into one of the classrooms by the teacher who was coordinating our week. He told us that a major outbreak of the flu had broken out at the school. In fact the previous Friday recorded around 200 students absent. He asked if we’d all had flu shots (to which we just said yes) and said he’d keep us updated on the situation. We didn’t think much of it, but it was nice of the guy to tell us what was going on. There shouldn’t be any real problems because of this, or so we thought…

By the end of the day it had been confirmed that two of the students had meningitis and that they were taking emergency medical measures to stop a possible epidemic. There were staff meetings to be held, letters to be written home, public parent meetings to be arranged, staff and students to be tested, and lots of pills to be handed out. Wednesday was spent in a line filling out forms, answering medical questions, and receiving antibiotics. It was panic and chaos. Parents we taken there kids out of school, teachers were calling in sick, the media was all over the story, and rumours were flying that they were going to close down the school. It was up to us, four Canadians and two Brits, to save the day!

By the end of the week we’d seen every present student in years 8, 9, 10 and most of the other year 7 and 11 students. Pretty much everyone between the ages of 13 and 17 we had contact it. And guess what, we never even got meningitis. Not even the sniffles! Originally we were only going to see a few classes, but it seems that God perhaps had a different idea and cleared the schedule for us! On the Friday night, when we held our main outreach event, we had around 100 students and adults pack the church and enjoy a night of comedy, and at the end they heard the Gospel.
We move on to Walsall for 2 weeks after this and then we’re off to Scotland for a week, which will be fun! We had a great mission there last year, so it will be exciting to see everyone again.

Well then, I guess I’ll be off for now. I think it’s time for a cup of tea. I also want to see what’s happening on the Olympics. Men’s Skeleton was very exciting yesterday as Canada took the Gold and Silver! And of course there’s HOCKEY! I’m looking forward to what today will hold!

Until next time, God bless and keep your stick on the ice!

Sincerely,
~Alycia DeLong

Guess Where I Am?

2006-02-07T10:28:00.000Z

Hello from WALES!!!!!!! Yes, I am finally here! We are in Swansea right now until next Sunday. Unfortunately its such a busy week, I'm not seeing too much. And this is probably the only chance I'll have to do any internet stuff until next week. All of us are staying at the local church in Claduch, but it's the boys in one room and the girls in the other, so Danny and I are split up for the week. We don't have access to a phone or to the internet there (I'm at the library right now using the computers). Our schedule is full of school and classes during the day and meetings and kids club in the evenings.

So here's a funny story: The school we're at for the week is having a real flu epidemic. Out of 750 students, over 200 of them were away sick last Friday. Anyway, yesterday, 2 students were diagnosed with Meningitis. Today the entire school, including us, received free antibiotics to prevent it from spreading any further. So it's been a little crazy around here to say the least!

Other than that, we are loving it here! The church we are working with is small and mostly made up of age 60+ members - which means we are getting spoiled! The best thing in the world happened when we arrived at the church Sunday: I walked into the kitchen area and on the table to great me was a big container full of WELSH CAKES! It was magnificent (even though they aren't as good as your welsh cakes, Grampa)!

I'd love to be able to call or write again, but I don't know if that is going to be a possibility unfortunately. The past couple of weeks have been really packed. Last week we ran a youth drop in every night from 6:30 to 10:30. We were totaly wrecked by the end of the week. Hopefully we'll still be alive by the end of this one! Next week is the half term break for schools here, so it will be very laid back for everyone.

Well, I have to run, my time is up I am afraid. Everyone's leaving the library and I need to go with them so I can find my way back to the church!

God bless and Take care! Hope to talk to you all soon!

Love always,
~Alycia xoxoxoxoxoxo

Week Three and Still Alive

2006-01-28T14:33:00.000Z

Hello everyone! I know you're all probably wondering where we've been the passed couple of weeks. I missed you, too.

Last week we were in Kidderminster. We had originally been booked for a mission in Wales, but they rescheduled, so the gracious church in Kidderminster was blessed with our presence instead.

First, let's take a short trip back, back in time, to our mission in Kidderminster with our team last year...

It was a busy week in Kidderminster last February, 2005. Everyday was filled with assemblies, drama workshops, classroom presentations, and extra curriccular clubs. The church we were working with was very small and hoping to get more invovled in the community. At the end of the week, we planned a drama night and invited students from all the schools we had visited. When the event came, the church was packed with over 100 kids and parents! What a fantastic ending to a fantastic week!

Now, let us return to the present day - January 17th to 21st, 2006...

We weren't in schools very much because our schedule was put together very last minute. But when the schools heard we were there for the week, by Wednesday we were booked up for Thursday and Friday! We only visited two schools, one on Thursday and one on Friday. It was extremely encouraging that when we walked in we were recognized right away! The kids remembered every drama and every story we told! They even made special requests for their favourite sketches! We thought, 'Ah, we'll throw together a pizza and drama night and invite kids. Hopefully we'll get 30 or so.'

Friday night came. It was 6:40 and we could hear a few kids russling around the church doors as we set up inside. It was relieving to know a few did show up, even though we hadn't really advertised or prepared. At 7pm we opened the doors and there were over 100 kids and parents that filed in through the doors! It was fantastic! We had an absolute amazing time, they were a fantastic audience, and we even had the freedom to share the gospel with all who came! It was an absolutely fantastic end to a fantasic week!

This email is getting long so I'll give you a nutshell of this week. We've been back in Walsall, although we've been doing more promoting to schools that performing in them. It's all part of the procedure. But we've had an excellent response and much of our daily school schedule has quickly and easily filled! Not only for this mission, but even for the next year! They are pretty hard up for entertainment with a meaning here! I'm sure there will be many amazing stories to come!

With that I will close this installment of our adventure diary. Hope all is well with you! Thanks for the constant emails of encouragement we receive! They really make my day!

God bless you all and take care!

Sincerely,
~Alycia DeLong

God's 2 Cents

2006-01-21T13:40:00.000Z

Hello there! This is just a quick note (yeah right). Everything's going well, we've had a great week, but I just wanted to send out this little interesting story!

A couple of days ago one of the girls on our team, Trisha, was talking with her host and looking at pictures. Her host told her about how she felt that God had really called her to be an intercessor and in particular, to pray for the healing of people. Then she pointed out a few pictures of families that she had prayed for to have children and they had. Anyway, all of a sudden she told Trisha, "I've been praying for Danny and Alycia, actually. I've felt God lead me to pray against anything telling them they can't have children."

Okay, I barely know this lady and she barely knows me. If she knows anything about what's been going on with my health lately, I have no idea how. We haven't talked to anyone here about it and even our team doesn't have all the details! But, this is what she said! The freaky fact of the matter is that I have had some doctors tell me that I may not be able to have children. It's been a hard and scary thing to hear and at this point we've really just been seeking God for his plan and purpose.

And then this? Yeah, goosebumps!

So how about that? God puts in his 2 cents, perhaps? If this is the case (which, I don't know about you, but it sure looks like that to me), God's two cents is worth more than the price of all the Starbucks grande cappacinnos in the world!

Just wanted to share that and say thanks again for all your prayers! They are being answered in amazing ways already!

God bless!

Love,
~Alycia

Another Quick Note (but not as quick as the last one)

2006-01-18T18:38:00.000Z

Hello there all! Thanks for your prayers yesterday. We had a long day at the hospital, from 9 - 2. Most of the time was spent in the waiting room in between tests. All the doctors and nurses though were very nice. We played the pin cushion game, which is never much fun for me as I always have to play the cushion. My arms look a little mangled and they'll be bruising and sore for a couple of days, but the sympathy attention I get from Danny and the team makes it all worth it!

I'll be going back in about 6 weeks to meet with them again and see how I did on the tests. I hope I passed! I don't actually know what most of them were for. I was in the Endocrine department, so all the tests had to do with checking hormone level. By the end of the day I'd had 5 needles, filled six tubes of blood, and had one very nasty injection into my arm muscle to see how my body reacted. They passed on taking my blood pressure after seeing how stressed I was after telling me I had a bunch of needles ahead of me for the day!

Ooh, here's the funniest thing about the day (and it is definitely the funniest as I wasn't exactly laughing at anything else): When I first when in one of the nurses took my weight and height. When she pulled the measurement bar down to see how tall I was, it kind of klonked me on the head a bit. It wasn't bad, but it made a big clang sound. She apologized profusely and said, "Ouch! Sorry! I don't want to knock you on the head and give you a brain tumor!" She had no idea what was in my file, she was just the nurse taking some details! I laughed and laughed. She laughed too, feeling pretty good about the success of her joke, I suppose. She actually stopped laughing before I did and was looking at me as if to say, "Geez this kid is hard up for a laugh." I never told her why it was so funny to me. I couldn't. I was laughing too hard!

Well, I'd better run. I have lots of whining to do today about my poor arms. Hopefully, I'll get a couple of chocolate bars and a foot rub if I play my cards right.

God bless you and thank you all again for your prayers. I can't tell you how much I needed them (and Danny too)!

All our love,
~Alycia (& Danny)

A Quick Note

2006-01-16T23:36:00.000Z

Hello there! Hope the week is treating you right. I, so far, have no complaints. I'm on my second cup of tea and things are looking good!

I just wanted to send out this little update/prayer request to a few of you. I have an appointment with a specialist in Birmingham tomorrow to try and find out more on what's happening with me healthwise. Hopefully, they'll be able to shed some more light on why my pituitary gland is acting up and how to sort it out. Even if they don't know what to do, we have Dr. Jesus who is the best out there. You never really know what he's going to do. It could even be that he wants to use me to show off to a few doctors and show them what a real miracle man can do! I'm up for that!

Anyway, if you would keep Danny and I and the doctors we will meet in your prayers tomorrow, it would be much appreciated!

Thank you and God Bless!

Love,
~Alycia

Week One on the Road

2006-01-14T16:30:00.000Z

Hello and Happy New Year!

Hope this email finds you in good form and back into the swing of things after the holidays! We are full speed ahead into our tour time and have just completed our very first week on the road. So here is the run down of what's happened this week.

It was a fantastic first week in Walsall with the Walsall Christian Centre! All week we were in Manor High School doing assemblies, Religious Education Classes, and performing our play. On Wednesday we did our play 4 times in a row! By the end of the day we all deserved Oscars, or gold medals in long distance drama performance. Every other day, though, we'd arrive at the school at 8:30am for a 20 minute assembly in the morning; then we'd split into 2 groups and do classroom workshops about basic Christianity, Faith, Personal Relationships (in which students brought up everything from dating to divorce), and all sorts of the issues we face today.

It's always an exciting time going into classrooms because the students here really aren't afraid to ask you any questions about anything. And it's exciting for us because we really have to be on our toes when it comes to responding to their questions. The two months of training really helped! The team was great. It can be very scary to be put on the spot, especially when it comes to questions about God and faith, but they really shone! That is one of the most rewarding things for Danny and me to see as leaders. The truth is that in the training time, we don't really teach them what to say when answering questions. The training time is only supposed to be a launch pad to help them discover these things for themselves. When a student in a high school asks one of our team, "Why do you believe in God," or "Do you ever have doubts?" or "Why does the Bible say that you have to believe in Jesus?" we don't want our team to have a scripted answer we wrote for them and made them practice over and over. We want them to know it for themselves. One of the greatest things I learnt from going through this training and being in classrooms myself over the years is this: God is not afraid of questions. He's not afraid of simple questions, he's not afraid of hard questions, he's not afraid of a sceptic’s questions, and he's not afraid of my questions. I think that in most cases, we are the ones who are afraid of answers.

On Friday night we did our second full play for the church youth group. We'd invited students from Manor to come and about 10 or so came. At the end of the night, we were able to really tell them about Jesus. With that, we had 4 young people decide for themselves that they wanted him to be a part of their lives, too.

Saturday morning we did a kid's program at the church and had a blast! I don't know who has more fun running around in the games, us or the kids. I think I had the most fun sitting and watching. You know, some one has to do it. One of the guys on our team, Trevor, is really good at making sound effects over a microphone and he can sound just like an entire drum kit! The technical term for his talent is called 'beat boxing.' When he got up on the stage to do it, he asked the kids first, "Does anyone know what 'beat boxing' is?" One boy enthusiastically put up his hand and answered, "It's when you beat some one up and put them in a box!" Come to think of it, I didn't see his little brother at kid's club that morning. I wonder...

Well, that wraps it up for me! We're heading out to Kidderminster for this next week, so hopefully I'll have internet access and a great story or two to send off! As well, Danny and I move out of our flat (apartment in Canadianese) tomorrow, so I still have lots of packing and cleaning to do! It's true what they say: There is no rest for the...outrageously good-looking.

God bless you all and talk to you again soon!

~Alycia DeLong

Happy New Year!!!

2006-01-03T16:33:00.000Z

Am I on the ball or what? I've sent out emails before, during, and after Christmas, and now here's my New Year's update already! Yes, I am the Queen of Keeping in Touch!

That is until Saturday when we pack up and hit the road. We'll be moving out of our flat and travelling with the team for the next 4 months. Ah, yes, happy days are here again! I will do my best (as always) to keep you all updated on the latest amazing, unbelievable, incredible, and embarassing tales of our adventures on LifeForce, though! We start our presentations in schools on Monday and are travelling around the United Kingdom until early April. We will then be doing the rest of our mission in Malta. This week is the try-to-remember-everything-we-forgot-over-Christmas-break week, which is always a bit shaky, but a lot of fun. It's only the third day of the new year and things are full-steam ahead!

So how is the new year treating you all? Hope everyone had a festive and blessed holiday. I spent New Year's day in the same way many British people did: On the floor of my bathroom. My reasons were completely legitamate, though, I assure you. I came down with a very violent case of the stomach flu on New Year's Eve. This is my first day out of our appartment this year (ha ha. clever.) What really sealed my doom was that on New Year's night I had some Stilton cheese with mango and ginger. We all make mistakes and have regrets, and well, I learned my lesson the hard way.

You know, this may be the cold medicine talking, but sometimes I even amaze myself at what small incidents (that should probably never be spoken of) I can turn into a paragraph-long story. Maybe I should make a New Year's resolution about that. I won't go into any more details, but let's just say that my resolution to lose 5 lbs - I've already accomplished.

Change of topic: New mailing address. Yes, since we will be on the road, exploring the wild English country and its ruggid terrain, we have established a mailing address to which all letters, cards, photos, care packages, money orders, traveller's checks, credit card numbers...oh, whoops! What am I saying? He he he, just a little missionary humour there (and the cold medicine). Anyway, if you ever want to mail us anything, our mailing address is

(drum roll...)

Danny and Alycia DeLong
1 Prince George Road
Wednesbury
West Midlands
WS10 9PZ
England

With that, I think I shall bid you all adieu and go back to bed. I think the cold medicine is wearing off.

God bless you all and may the new year hold many blessings for you as well!

Best Wishes,
~Alycia DeLong

Christmas Time

2005-12-25T18:26:00.000Z

Wow, Merry Christmas, eh? Hope the holidays are treating you well and all your Christmas wishes are coming true! Danny and I wished for snow. Guess we should have been more specific and wished for snow here. We have none. The weather's been quite nice actually. Light winds and slightly overcast...

Wait! What am I doing? I have to tell you what I got for Christmas!!!!!

So Thursday, Danny and I took a trip to (drum roll please...) LONDON! It was beautiful to go at Christmas with all the lights and carollers and psycho shoppers! Since it was Christmas, Danny and I decided no to have the usual McDonald's lunch, but to really treat ourselves like royalty. We went to Burger King. Enjoying our Whoppers and fries, Danny asked me, "What would you like to do first?" It didn't really matter to me, we were in London! But that sneaky guy had already made plans. He reached into his pocket and pulled out (drum roll again, please...) TWO TICKETS TO SEE THE LION KING MUSICAL AT THE THEATRE!!!!!!!

Yeah, wow! I don't know what to say about it except that it was AMAZING, INCREDIBLE, SPECTACULAR, MAGICAL, ENTHRALLING! In a word - it was COOL! The puppets, costumes, music, set, stage, everything was unbelievable! It totally inspired us both to revamp all our LifeForce drama stuff. We might need to adjust our bugdet a bit and squeeze in some more fundraising stuff, but it will be all worth it!

I still can't believe we went to the Lion King.

All that tormenting and teasing is finished! For Christmas Danny and I saw the Lion King and it was the best Christmas present!

So yesterday, Danny and I are sitting at home enjoying a quiet Christmas eve, when all of a sudden he says to me, "I have the best birthday present ever for you! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Unbelievable.

We have enjoyed our Christmas here overall, although to be honest, it hasn't really felt like Christmas to either one of us. The lack of snow is a big factor. And it is an even crazier time of year here than in Canada. We are truly a laid back culture. The English are all or nothing people. They either don't care at all or they are 100% gun-ho! And when it comes to their music, they are crazy! The show "X-Factor" which is like one of those Pop Idol shows, had a third of the country voting on it's contestants. Will a third of Canada vote for a prime-minister in January?

Christmas lights are another thing the English are crazy about. There are no houses with one simple string of icicles hung from the eaves. Oh no. There will be 5 houses in a row with not even a paper snowflake on the window and then BLAM! Some one has decorated their place with enough lights to make Stevie Wonder blink. They put up twinkling lights, strobe lights, flood lights, light-up snow men, Santas, reindeer, stars, angels, nativity scenes, candles, etc., etc. 'What's that? Does it light up? Stick it to my house.' It a totally unrelated story, Scotland and Wales are experiencing rolling blackouts due to power shortages...

Well, I'm sure you all have many Christmas things yet to do today so I won't keep you any longer! May God bless you all this Christmas and all throughout the new year!

Best Wishes,
~Alycia (& Danny) DeLong

An Apology

2005-12-21T15:34:00.000Z

Hey everyone!

I know that I just sent out an email a couple of days ago, but hey, it's the holidays! What else am I going to do?

Really, the purpose of this email is to apologize to everyone for my email "DeLong Reports: UNBELIEVABLE" in which I wrote how Danny found out what I got him for Christmas. I didn't mean to belittle anyone involved in 'letting the little cat out the bag'. Danny and I thought the entire thing was funny, after all, I had bought the gift at a second-hand church sale for about 50 cents. And I didn't throw it out the window. But I was a real jerk when I teased some people about it. I never meant to hurt anyone's feelings or make them feel stupid, but I did. And I am very sorry. It seems my gift is not only to totally stick my foot in my mouth, but to shove the keyboard in there too. I figured, though, since the my offense was made in public I figured the apology should be made in public as well.

Well, then, there it is. If any of you wish to email me and call me a jerk personally, I am open and understanding to that. Otherwise, I just want to say again that I am sorry.

Hope I haven't dampened the holiday cheer for anyone. Take care and God bless!

Best Wishes,
~Alycia DeLong

Unbelievable

2005-12-20T16:24:00.000Z

Seasons Greetings and Christmas Blessings to you all!

I have an absolutely unbelievable story. No, seriously, this one is takes the cake. Now, I realize that this is a huge claim to make after all we've been through (ie the "prostitute/pastor too" incident), but at the end of this you will say, "UNBELIEVABLE!"

Remember my last email where I confessed to my own humanity and weak nature when I almost overheard (okay, eavesdropped on his conversation with his mother) what Danny got me for Christmas. But, as you all know, by the grace of God I was saved from my sin and I still do not know what he got me. Apparently though, most of the rest of the world does because I have been receiving non-stop emails from people (most of whom are in my immediate family) teasing me that they know what it is and I do not. I have graciously accepted this. After all, I deserve it, right? Well perhaps it's time that we bring some balance back to the scales of marital bliss, shall we?

I have been very excited for Christmas, not only to find out what Danny got me, but to give him a great present as well. The church we go to here in Walsall had collected a bunch of stuff from the congregation to have a fundraiser sale for the nursery. At the sale I found a great gift for Danny - a video game controller for the computer. It was still in the box and everything! Just like new! And I bought it for 30p - which is about 60 cents Canadian! As soon as I got it home, I wrapped it and hid it in my closet, and I could hardly wait until Christmas to give it to him! This year I got him something that he will like and use for sure! I was so excited I even emailed a few people, who will remain nameless (but they are all my immediate family) about it. That was my fatal error.

To those persons who shall remain nameless (but are all members of my immediate family): You know when you reply to an email, the original email is attached to your responding email. Hence, anyone who reads that email can also read the original email sent. For example, let's say some one emails you secret information concerning a Christmas gift purchased for their spouse. You reply to the email. The spouse then has access to both your email and the original message.

I know what you are all saying: NO!! HE DIDN'T!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!!!

Danny confessed yesterday. He said he didn't mean to find out what I got him for Christmas - it was an accident. Yeah, you're getting a big lump of coal buddy. I threw the game controller out the window of our 4th floor apartment. Sorry, it was an accident.

And as for my immediate family - if I had a will, you would all be removed from it!

Merry Christmas and God bless us everyone!

~Alycia DeLong

Nautghty or Nice?

2005-12-18T19:15:00.000Z

Hello, it's me again (I can hear those groans). Remember last email how I mentioned that I had a Christmas story already? If you don't it's probably because you're one of 'those' people who don't actually read my brilliant work in its entirety. I don't take it personally; my own husband doesn't even read the whole thing! That last one was pretty long though.

Anyway, on with the show...

So, Christmas is less than a month away (insert screams and shrieks of panic here) and the hunt for that perfect gift is on. Well, for like 2 weeks now Danny has been bragging about having found the most perfect present ever. Every day I hear him teasing me with his little sing song heckling, "I got you the best present! The best present ever!" He'll sing and prance around non-stop. It makes me want to beat his little secret out of him. But he's just so gosh-darn cute. So I satisfy myself by imagining that I pie him in the face instead.

The other night we were at a friend's house to use their phone. Not only to use their phone, but also so Danny could watch NFL football (the real motive). I'd been on the phone for some time talking with Danny's mom, when he came in for his turn to chat with her. A few minutes into the conversation I was informed I had to leave the room because he wanted to tell his mother what he had bought me for Christmas. Well, I pouted and whined for a moment, but then left the room to join the others watching football in the living room. But as I left, the funniest thing happened. I was passing through the kitchen when all of a sudden a little devil popped up on my shoulder. He was dressed in red and had horns, a pointy tail, and even a tiny triton in his hand.

The little devil said to me, "Hey, you could totally listen in and find out what that great Christmas present is. Danny wouldn't even know and you could just lie about it if he brings it up!"

Yeah, I could! I made a small u-turn in the kitchen and headed back towards the door to the room. I could hear Danny's voice clearly from inside.

Just then a little angel appeared on my other shoulder and said, "No, Alycia, don't do that! You don't want to wreck Danny's surprise for both of you. And you certainly don't want to deceive your wonderful husband!"

Of course not. That is definitely true. What a brat I am! Why, shame on me for...

"Awww, what's the big deal?" the little devil piped up. "Besides, you'll be doing you both a favour by finding out. The suspense is going to drive you crazy! And then you'll drive him crazy!"

Definitely a good point. In fact, it's already driving me crazy! I suppose it's really not that big of a deal if I just hear a bit about it...

"Alycia Rae Stephens!" Uh oh. My full maiden name. This little angel meant business. "You know happy it makes Danny to surprise you! And how he's taken the time, the energy, and the money - going out of his way to do something special for you this Christmas - and you want to take that away from him? Shame on you indeed! Now, you turn yourself around and march straight out of here NOW!"

What was I thinking? Of course I don't want to spoil Danny's fun and I especially don't want to lie to him about it! What am I? Five years old? How ridiculous am I being...

The little devil gave his final argument. "Awwww, come on!"

Sold!

I snuck around the door and crouched down behind the cupboard so I could hear but not be seen. As I huddled there, totally still, ears alert and tuned into every sound I could hear Danny:

"I got Alycia the greatest gift! She's going to love it! I saw it last week but only picked it up the other day..."

Blah blah blah! Get to the point!!!!!

"Oh dear," said the little angel. "Looks like I'm going to have to call in some Divine intervention." Producing a tiny trumpet, the angel lifted it to his lips and gave it a loud blast.

Danny continued. "This Christmas, I got Alycia..."

"DANNY! COME QUICK!" Our friend Matt boomed as he burst through the kitchen doors and ran towards the room my ear was glued to. He had scared the living daylights out of me (to put it politely), but in that split second I jumped to my feet from my suspicsious position by the door.

"Shhhhh!" I hushed him angrily.

"But the football scores are on!" said Matt, defending his overwhelming entrance.

"Not now!" I continued scolding him, "He's talking to his mother!" I was on a mission here! Matt huffed and returned to the TV, and I returned to my espionage...

"Anyway, that's what I got her," Danny finished up. Pause. "I know! It is the perfect present!" End of conversation.

I missed it?!? I MISSED IT!?!?!? Why, of all the unfair, stupid, bad timing... This was all Matt's fault! If he hadn't been so rude and selfish...

Wait a minute. Who's the bad guy here again?

'What's gotten into me?' I thought. I left the kitchen and sat down on the couch in front of the TV with Matt and the others there.

You know, I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do and what I hate I do. And if I do the wrong thing even though I admit it's wrong and I don't want to do it, I'm still guilty because I do it anyway. As it is it is no longer I myself who does it but it is sin living in me (a.k.a. the little devil). I know that nothing good lives in me that is in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good but I cannot carry it out.

Know what I mean? I think Paul in the Bible can relate. After all, he wrote about it too in Romans 7.

Thankfully, I was rescued from my fall into temptation by God's divine intervention. I suppose it shouldn't really surprise me. Since Jesus himself suffered when he was being tempted (in Matthew 4) so can he help us when we are being tempted (see Hebrews 2).

Finally to wrap it all up here, I just have to say that looking back at my shameful, pathetic behaviour - it was by grace that I was saved! (Ephesians 2)

With that, take care, God bless and try not to peek under the bed or snoop through the closets!

Sincerely,
~Alycia DeLong

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Canada

2005-11-27T17:12:00.000Z

Hello there from sunny England! HA! It's snowing here. Big fluffy snowflakes and quickly everything has become a winter wonderland. How magical all the Christmas lights are! How magestic are the Cathedrals! How quaint are the little English homes! How insane are the motorways! In fact, we are not driving home tonight but will be staying out at the OM/LifeForce base for the night. On that note, what a perfect opportunity to finally catch everyone up on what's been happening here!

Now, I realize I haven't written since LifeForce training started back in October. Wow, has time gone fast! Let's do a quick recap though:

1. LifeForce training is happening at the Operation Mobilization base in Halesowen. It's a fantastic place with rooms for our team to eat, sleep, learn, practice, watch movies, and just hang out in! If you'd like to see it, go to http://www.luke.om.org/about_virtual.htm and you can see pictures of the place.

2. Danny and I are living in Walsall, about 20 minutes away (when there is no traffic). Typically, we commute every day between our flat and LifeForce, but on average we are spending at least 2 nights a week at the base: Danny in the boys' room and myself with the girls. Those are usually late nights, if you can imagine.

3. There are 9 of us all together at this UK LifeForce base. Three will be returning to Canada after Christmas though to carry on with their normal lives (which may never be normal again spending 3 straight months with us). Wow, exciting stuff, eh? Well, maybe I have kind of skimmed over things a bit.

The classes we've had have been excellent. There have been teachers from all over the UK come and share their experiences, their wisdom, their victories and their failures with us and each class has impacted all of us in many different ways. It amazing how God can use the same thing to teach different people different things. He really knows how to meet us where we are!

Wow, exciting stuff, eh? Well, maybe I have kind of skimmed over things a bit. I'm trying to spare you from a horrendously long email. That's why I'm keeping it to an obscenely long email. You're welcome.

Well, I should wrap this up here for now. Speaking of "wrap," I have a Christmas story already. Next time though. I will say that the UK is crazy about Christmas! Lights and decorations have been up and blinking for a good couple of weeks. There is a big debate about how much 'Christ' they should allow in Christmas. It's pretty much the same thing we deal with in Canada: don't say 'Merry Christmas' in the shops, don't play Christmas songs about Jesus on the radio or sing them in schools, should nativity scenes be banned, yada yada yada. Here's a funny thing that happened. A few local radio stations here had people from the Muslim, Hindu, and other religions calling in a singing Christmas carols over the radio in protest to a ban on traditional, religious-based Christmas music. Many people of other religions are starting to feel unsafe about the security and protection of their own faith, after all - look at how this 'Christian' country treats its own. It may not be long before more religions come under attack. They other reason for the protest though is that you don't have to be of any faith to see how stupid it is to make a fuss over these songs we sing once a year. Listen to the top 10 music charts, and the government wants to censor songs about Jesus' birthday over 2000 years ago?

Here's the real kicker: So the fear is that Christmas songs will offend people who don't believe in Jesus? The other day as we were driving, we passed a bingo hall and what was the name mounted on this massive building in bright, flashing, tacky colours? MECCA. Please forgive me if I am being ignorant and disrespectful for saying this, but if I was a Muslim, I think that I may be more offended by a bingo hall named after my religion's place of holiness than walking into a store that is playing "Joy to the World" over the speakers. Maybe that's just me though.

And that is my rant. Glad you hung in there with me. In the end though I am faced with a challenge to myself: Do I just rant, or can I do more? I can't leave it all up to everyone else to fight my Christmas battles for religious freedom. Not only that, but it is the time I like to take time to personally celebrate the birthday of some one who's become very special to me. This year, let's all send some one in office a Christmas card. Not to aggravate or harass them, but to wish them a Merry Christmas, and encourage them to at least learn about the man they are trying to cheat out of his own birthday party.

Yep, this email is now officially horrendously long. My apologies. Until next time, God bless and take care!

Sincerely,
~Alycia DeLong

Better Get a Coffee

2005-10-24T12:08:00.000+01:00

Hey there everyone! I know I didn't finish sending the rest of the Chapters from this summer's adventure. I'm going to amalgamate them into one story. So in a nutshell, after we returned from Malta we threw ourselves headlong into a week of kids’ club. There were over 50 kids that came. Most of them, actually, it was pretty much all of them except for a couple, came from low-income areas and very broken, confused families. Divorced parents, separated parents, arguing parents, teenage parents, no parents, grand-parents…you get the idea. But all of them 100% kids ready to play. We’d pick them up before 10am and drop them off around 5pm. We had 6 very long days of parks, playgrounds, songs, games, face painting, scrapped knees, and badly watered down juice. It was fantastic! You just don’t know how much difference a week at a kid’s club can make in a child’s life. Now, I never came from a background like any of them. I was very blessed with a wonderful mom and dad and even a brother. I never had to think twice about if they were going to be home when I returned, I never had to worry about if there was going to be food, I never wondered if my parents loved each other or me. Those are just a few of the things too many kids deal with by the time they’re 5 years old. But what I do know is that before I ever went to church on a regular basis (which wasn’t until my teens), I went to a kid’s club in my neighbour’s back yard for a week in the summer every year. We sang songs, heard stories, and played games. I learnt new things about God, and it always stuck with me. I don’t know where these kid’s will be 10 years from now, I don’t know where I’ll be – but I do know that that week, we could share with these kids that God loves them, and will always be there for them.

After kids week, Danny and I went to a weekend conference in Devon. It was beautiful there and the weather was great Danny and I were staying in a 2-man tent (borrowed) and we had an inflatable mattress to put in it (also borrowed). Sounds perfect, right? Well, the people that brought us the mattress forgot to bring the caps for it so no air would stay inside. But that didn’t stop us! We’re Canadians – get the duct tape! We fashioned ourselves a couple of caps that would have made MacGyver proud. However, once the mattress was fully inflated, we found it was too big for the tent. We let the air out and slept on the ground, which was just fine.

Okay, the last chapter was about a mystery ingredient recipe. One day Danny and I found this discount grocery store and in the reduced to clear bin (which is always a bad sign, but even worse if you find one in a store full of stuff that has already been discounted) Danny found a jar of yellow chunky sauce. It had no label, but it was 5 pence (which is like 2 cents Canadian). Being the adventurous people we are, we bought it. Now we do joke about being on a missionary budget, and that we are from Canada and that Canadians eat anything – but this transcends into a whole new level. A level I don’t even know if people in trailer parks resort to. The important thing is that we both lived to tell the tale. I don’t know if it’s a good illustration about faith, or a story of taking a stupid risk. A little bit of column A, a little bit of column B…

Well, this email has been huge. I hope you are all still with me! I haven’t even written anything about how LifeFORCE is going yet! We are into our second week of training and everything is going very well. We seem to have all settled in (all 9 of us) and are in the full swing of things. I’ll be writing more on that though next time. I’m sure you all need a breather. This is why I don’t preach on Sundays!

One last thing: I just want to say a huge thank you to all of you for everything. Every little email you send me back, every little prayer you say for us, all your immense patience and understanding with these massive updates and a few sparse personal notes in between, and the financial blessings – can’t forget that! Even though Danny and I are in another country, and sometimes we do feel very far away, we never have felt alone in this work. My prayer is that will return these blessings back to you in greater ways!

God bless,
~Alycia DeLong

Let's Finish Catching Up

2005-10-24T12:01:00.000+01:00

Hey there everyone! I know I didn't finish sending the rest of the Chapters from this summer's adventure. I'm going to amalgamate them into one story. So in a nutshell, after we returned from Malta we threw ourselves headlong into a week of kids’ club. There were over 50 kids that came. Most of them, actually, it was pretty much all of them except for a couple, came from low-income areas and very broken, confused families. Divorced parents, separated parents, arguing parents, teenage parents, no parents, grand-parents…you get the idea. But all of them 100% kids ready to play. We’d pick them up before 10am and drop them off around 5pm. We had 6 very long days of parks, playgrounds, songs, games, face painting, scrapped knees, and badly watered down juice. It was fantastic! You just don’t know how much difference a week at a kid’s club can make in a child’s life. Now, I never came from a background like any of them. I was very blessed with a wonderful mom and dad and even a brother. I never had to think twice about if they were going to be home when I returned, I never had to worry about if there was going to be food, I never wondered if my parents loved each other or me. Those are just a few of the things too many kids deal with by the time they’re 5 years old. But what I do know is that before I ever went to church on a regular basis (which wasn’t until my teens), I went to a kid’s club in my neighbour’s back yard for a week in the summer every year. We sang songs, heard stories, and played games. I learnt new things about God, and it always stuck with me. I don’t know where these kid’s will be 10 years from now, I don’t know where I’ll be – but I do know that that week, we could share with these kids that God loves them, and will always be there for them.

After kids week, Danny and I went to a weekend conference in Devon. It was beautiful there and the weather was great Danny and I were staying in a 2-man tent (borrowed) and we had an inflatable mattress to put in it (also borrowed). Sounds perfect, right? Well, the people that brought us the mattress forgot to bring the caps for it so no air would stay inside. But that didn’t stop us! We’re Canadians – get the duct tape! We fashioned ourselves a couple of caps that would have made MacGyver proud. However, once the mattress was fully inflated, we found it was too big for the tent. We let the air out and slept on the ground, which was just fine.

The conference was very interesting. There were numerous speakers, all of them doctors, professors, authors and all with education in the sciences. Everything from biology to math. At first glance, I thought, “Yeesh, it’s going to be one of those weekends.” But it wasn’t like that at all. Much of the focus was on creation and evolution. I came away from it feeling not only encouraged about the reliability of the Bible and creation, but also so impressed by how incredible our universe is – how much more incredible must our creator be? So often we believe what we are told or taught, and the things that are being taught today as truth should be put under the microscope – especially by Christians. I really believe that we aren’t supposed to hide from science. I don’t believe God is scared of our questions. I believe that He’s given us not just the right, but the responsibility to ask questions about what we believe. There are answers. Maybe not all of them come right away, maybe not all of our questions will be answered, but we’ll never know if we don’t ask. Do you believe in evolution? Why or why not? Do you believe that the universe and everything in it was created by God? Why or why not?

If you want to email me back about your thoughts, feel free. I can’t promise I’ll email back in full detail, and I don’t want to start any wars about it either. I’m just putting it out there, I guess. I believe in creation as it is stated in Genesis. God + nothing + 6 days = everything. If some one were to ask you, what would you say?

Anyway, here is an interesting website www.creationmoment.com

Okay, the last chapter was about a mystery ingredient recipe. One day Danny and I found this discount grocery store and in the reduced to clear bin (which is always a bad sign, but even worse if you find one in a store full of stuff that has already been discounted) Danny found a jar of yellow chunky sauce. It had no label, but it was 5 pence (which is like 2 cents Canadian). Being the adventurous people we are, we bought it. Now we do joke about being on a missionary budget, and that we are from Canada and that Canadians eat anything – but this transcends into a whole new level. A level I don’t even know if people in trailer parks resort to. The important thing is that we both lived to tell the tale. I don’t know if it’s a good illustration about faith, or a story of taking a stupid risk. A little bit of column A, a little bit of column B…

Well, this email has been huge. I hope you are all still with me! I haven’t even written anything about how LifeFORCE is going yet! We are into our second week of training and everything is going very well. We seem to have all settled in (all 9 of us) and are in the full swing of things. I’ll be writing more on that though next time. I’m sure you all need a breather. This is why I don’t preach on Sundays!

One last thing: I just want to say a huge thank you to all of you for everything. Every little email you send me back, every little prayer you say for us, all your immense patience and understanding with these massive updates and a few sparse personal notes in between, and the financial blessings – can’t forget that! Even though Danny and I are in another country, and sometimes we do feel very far away, we never have felt alone in this work. My prayer is that will return these blessings back to you in greater ways!

God bless,
~Alycia DeLong

The Worst Story Ever

2005-10-18T22:47:00.000+01:00

Hey everyone! LIFEFORCE UK HAS OFFICIALLY STARTED! Yes, all of our staff and students have arrived making us a strong army of 9. Of course, 3 of our crew will be returning back to Canada at Christmas, leaving 6 of us to go on the road in January. It has been totally crazy. Good thing I write my email updates in advance. I'll bore you more with all the details of our training centre later but for now, here is my last terrible story. I fear that the rest of my chapters may be so out of date now that they are irrelevant, but maybe I'll just merge them all together into one super-chapter.

Without further delay, this is the last, and the very worst one.

So Danny and I were in Kidderminster (some small town) doing school programs with the local church. The pastor of the church is only like 25 years old, and we all have a lot of fun together. Anyway one day, this pastor guy, Dan, and I were walking through the town centre to pick up some things for school when we ran into some one he knew. This guy was a big, rough looking guy - raggidy clothes, unshaven, smoke hanging out of his mouth and a really thick accent. They chatted for a moment and then this guy turns to me and says, "So, are you a prostitute?" I was shocked. I was appalled. I was confused, insulted, angered, etc, etc. I thought to myself, 'What is this guy about? Do I look like a prostitute, buddy? It's not even noon! This guy has to be drunk or something. Why I oughtta...

"Uh, no!" I squeeked out. I was speechless. (Insert your own sarcastic remarks here)

The pastor I was with, Dan, came to my rescue, "Ah, she's just here helping with the stuff we're doing in schools this week. We've got to run though. See you later!" My hero (that's sarcasm). As we're walking away I said, "I can't believe that guy! That he would just ask some one he's never even seen before a question like that!" Dan shrugged. "Oh he probably just thought that because you were with me." He said nonchalant.

My inner monologue voice was livid. "Because I was with you?!?!? What is that supposed to mean? Is there something about you I don't know?!?!?" I thought.

There was no time to get into it then as we had to get to the school for classes. The rest of the day though I was sick about the whole thing. Later that evening I brought it up as we were all haning out. I leaned over to Danny and told him, "Today some one asked me if I was a prostitute!" My sensitive husband burst out laughing. "Really? When did that happen?" "Dan was there! Tell him Dan! About that guy who asked me if I was a prostitute!" I blurted out. "What!?!" exclaimed Dan. "Where was that?" Typical man. Didn't even notice.

"In the town centre today. Remember that guy when he asked me, 'Are you a prostitute?'" Dan reflected for a moment. "Alycia," he slowly explained, "he didn't ask you if you were a prostitute. He asked if you were a pastor, too." Dead silence. Then the eruption of laughter. Finally, my eternal shame.

That is my worst story ever. I hope.

Anyway, those are my stories right now. I'll continue with the other chapters soon.

They kind of seem a bit boring after that, so I'll try and spice them up. Talk to you later! God bless!

Love,
~Alycia DeLong

The Donut Disaster

2005-10-11T17:01:00.000+01:00

Hello again everyone! Here is story number two in our series of commercial breaks. This one's brought to you in dedication to Tim Horton's. Let's not take Canadian tradition for granted.

So last week we were in Kidderminster (some small town near Birmingham) working with a church in high schools. Danny, me and the pastor of the church were in 2 schools doing classes about values and christianity stuff and drama presentations every day, 5 times a day. It was very intense. So one day at lunch I found - to my great joy - that it was donut day in the school's cafeteria! Well, I snatched up one of the big ones, the kind that are long and topped with chocolate and usually have whipping cream on the inside. Ooooooh yeeeeeeaaaaaaaaah. I carefully plucked it from the donut tray and lovingly carried it back to our table in the cafeteria. Well, upon examining my treasure, I found that it was in fact not a donut, but a pre-cut hot dog bun from lunch the day before that some one had slapped some chocolate icing on and a few crap sprinkles! I have heard of some horrendouse crimes in the past, but this! THIS!! WHY?!?! Needless to say that I threw that disgusting forgery in the garbage (after licking all the chocolate off first). Appalling. Simply appalling. I am already in the works of drafting up a bill for the EU about this travisty (travesty? how do you spell that?).

Anyway, if I can have one request - please have a box of Tim Horton's donuts and a moment of silence this week. Do it for me. Do it for all Canadians around the world.

God bless,
~Alycia DeLong

Shaken Not Stirred

2005-10-08T16:43:00.000+01:00

Just a quick story here. I actually have 3 outrageous tales of a typical day in the life of Alycia DeLong, but I'll start with this one. It is by far the least outrageous of the three. Consider this as a commercial break in the Chapters of our DeLong Sega. This message is brought to you by Alycia DeLong, the blondest Canadian in the UK, possibly Europe and the world.

I have to get a certificate in food and hygiene so that I can help in the kitchen preparing meals during the training time. It's a one day course and at the end of the day there is an exam. Well, I was all signed up to go last Wednesday, the college had called twice to confirm I was coming to the food and hygiene course. I was a bit nervous (you know, first day of school) but I thought, 'Oh, it will just be a bunch of cafeteria ladies and I'll make lots of friends.' I was the first one in class. The next person who arrived was a 40 or so lady who was very nice and we hit it off right away. The rest of the class arrived but to my surprize it was all young, 20-something guys (and not bad looking, but that is purely observation).

The instructor went through the schedule for the day, we filled out the registration forms and then he sent us downstairs to pay the class fee before we started. On the way down, I commented to my new friend about what kind of homework came with a food and hygiene course (ha ha). She looked at me and said, "Food and hygiene? I must be in the wrong class today!" I wasn't sure if she was making some sort of joke in British humor, which I sometimes don't understand. It made me suspicious, though. Suspicious and nervous. I excused myself from the line up, ran up to the class and asked the teacher, "Pardon me sir, but at the end of this course, what kind of certificate do you earn?" The reply came, "You get a private liquor license."

Now I have to be honest with you all, I did hesitate leaving the room. Not every missionary has their own private liquor license. In fact I can't think of any off the top of my head. But we are pioneers, aren't we? And it could be a great tool for reaching people in the world, where they're at, right? And think of the income that could be generated - extra money to give to the poor, perhaps? Danny and I have always liked the movie, "Cocktail" with Tom Cruise...

Okay, okay. I didn't stay for the course and I didn't get my own private liquor license. As it turns out the lady who registered me had signed me up for the wrong day. The Food and Hygiene course was the week before, so I have to wait another month. Besides, the course for the liquor license was £160 which is over $220 Canadian (not that I would have earned it all back making martinis for people in our appartment building.)

Anyway, that's my story of the day. I hope that if nothing else, its left you shaken, not stirred.

God bless,
~Alycia DeLong

Chapter Two: Lord of the Passports

2005-10-03T18:24:00.000+01:00

Chapter Two: Lord of the Passports – Return of the Canadians (almost)

You know, passports are a mystical thing. They contain magical little stamps imprinted with ink made by gnomes. Some of the gnomes are happy little things, but some are surly. The surly gnomes poison the ink so that when certain airport personnel hold the passport, their reason is clouded and they become discombobulated. Confused? Exactly.

Basically what happened is this: We arrived back in England and while passing through immigration, the astute young man behind the counter informed us that the immigration laws in the UK changed in March. Not everyone in every airport knows everything about it yet, but what it came down to was that they weren’t going to let us back into the country. Some one some where when we returned in June didn’t know this something about the changes to the law and gave us some stamp in our passports that weren’t the right some stamp that we needed. They took our passports and said we would be sent back to Canada right away!

To cut a long, irritating and confusing story short (now there’s a first), we spent 3 grueling hours in the airport praying, sweating, brown nosing the airport personnel, and praying some more, but were finally passed through.

Free again we left the airport and drove back to Walsall, which is just over an hour away. Upon finishing packing we discovered that our little CD binder that holds about 12 CDs was missing. It had been left on the plane! We called and called but to no avail – it seems our beloved worldly possessions are gone on a vacation of their own. Permanently. Hope they have their passports worked out…

Well, that’s that then for this week. Next is Chapter Three: Survivor – Kids’ Club Season (insert dramatic music here).

God bless and have a great week!
~Alycia DeLong

Chapter One: National Lampoon’s Trip to Malta

2005-09-22T01:24:00.000+01:00

Chapter One: National Lampoon’s Trip to Malta

Let’s start where we left off last email: August 11th. That was the day we left for to spend 10 sunny days in Malta. Weather there in August is quite a contrast to England. It was HOT! This made going swimming all the more appealing. Unfortunately, I have no idea what country my bathing suit is in. Only one of the many perils of travelling so much. This did not dampen our dreams of jumping into the Mediterranean Sea; I just did it in my shorts and a tank top. All was well once again. Until Danny lost his flip flop to the sea. We were walking across some rocks to a small piece of land just off shore when the waves swept his sandal right off his foot and quickly took it farther and farther out to sea. Danny, being the athletic swimmer he is, instantly handed me his shirt and back pack and dove in after it. The shoe was quickly recovered and all was well again. Except that our cell phone was in the pocket of his shorts when he dove in. The phone was fried, well, drowned the fried (we did try to revive it by laying it out in the sun to dry). Thankfully the chip that records all our contact names and phone numbers was alright though. We only needed was another phone to put the memory chip into and a friend happened to have an extra one to lend us for the week. All was well once again.

Then we found out August is Malta’s month of festivals. Every night, every town has a fantastic show of fireworks. Now I know you’re saying, “Well, what’s wrong with that? Party pooper.” There’s nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all. But for some reason having fireworks at night aren’t good enough for the Maltese. Oh no. They have to set fireworks at all hours of the day. This includes 7:45 am. And 8: 30 am. And 9:17 am. And from 9:18 am until 11:00 pm. Everyday. It was like we were under attack. But at the end of each day, as we watched the beautiful display from the roof tops of Malta, all was well once again.

The rest of the trip went fairly smoothly despite those slight set backs. We went to a beautiful wedding on the beach, visited many of our friends, enjoyed many free home-cooked meals, and saw Madagascar (soooo good). We went swimming, read some good books on the beach, and didn’t even get sun burnt. Yes, all was well and right in our lives.

Unfortunately we had to return to England, which turned out not to be as easy as usual.

Stay tuned for Chapter Two: Lord of the Passports – Return of the Canadians (almost)

God Bless and have a great week!
~Alycia DeLong

Update Overdue Charges

2005-09-17T01:44:00.000+01:00

Hello there everyone! I hope this email finds you in good health, sunny weather, and happy times! Yes, we’ve been having our own share of sunny weather and happy times around here, noo doot aboot it (I am informed by the British that that’s common Canadian lingo). There is only ONE MONTH until the UK LifeFORCE base blasts off into action. Registration day is October 16th and the party starts October 17th. Everything is set up, but we are still trying to get a few last students in. We are looking for 3 adventurous and dedicated suckers, uh – I mean students. So far it looks like our team size will be 6, but we’re still pulling for 9! Well, actually, we wouldn’t mind if 30 students signed up over the next few weeks. We’ve got places to send them!

Life hasn’t been all LifeFORCE for Danny and I over here. We’ve been busy with a number of kid’s camps, youth nights, camping conferences, drama workshops, and tons of meetings. Since school has started up again, we’ve been involved in organizing a number of activities for classes. We’ll be running an after school drama program at Emmanuel Christian School here in Walsall and we’ve also been putting together class programs for churches in Franche, Kidderminster and Stourbridge. We’ll actually be going with church teams into schools to talk about values, choices, who is Jesus (yes, we can talk about that here) and all that fun stuff. We’ve also been offering our van to churches so we’ve been busy picking up other teams on summer missions, taking kids to camp and youth to bowling, that sort of thing. It seems that even if Danny and I weren’t here with LifeFORCE, we’d still have plenty to do!

I know I haven’t written in ages and I do want to catch everyone up to speed, but there is just so much! Therefore, to spare you from another one of my novels, I’m just going to break them up over the next few emails. I already have the chapters worked out:

Chapter One: National Lampoon’s Trip to Malta
Chapter Two: Lord of the Passports – Return of the Canadians (almost)
Chapter Three: Survivor – Kids’ Club Season
Chapter Four: Cabin Fever – Camping at a Church Conference
Chapter Five: The Iron Chef – This Week’s Secret Ingredient

Wow, so much to look forward too, eh? Yes it has been a busy month. Just one more thing before I go: A few updates ago (back in June, I think) I mentioned about a young girl named Sarah who was addicted to smack. We’d met in the town centre one day and got to pray with her. She came to a few free diners at the church and was connected with some of the staff. Well, Sarah has just returned from a camp in Scotland for kids trying to get off drugs. She’s been gone for over a month climbing mountains, making new friends, and getting counseling. We met up with Sarah yesterday afternoon and she looked great! She’s gained a bit of weight and her colour is much healthier. We still have a long road ahead, though, so please remember Sarah and all of us here who are going to be helping her with this over the next however long it takes!

Alright then, that’s all I’m going to write this time. Tune in next time for…yeesh! I need to switch to decaf tea.

God bless,
~Alycia DeLong

Don't Judge a Book by It's Cover

2005-09-09T01:09:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone! How's it going, eh? I just had to put that in. I have no one to say that to here. Everyone just laughs at me and start saying, "Eh? Eh?" Yeah, yeah, I'm quite the novelty. I don't mind, though. The Brittish are so cute when they start giggling!

Not too much has been happening over the past couple of weeks. I don't remmeber if I mentioned it in the last email but Danny and I have moved into our own appartment right smack in the middle of Walsall. If I did mention it before I probably went on and on about the 62 steps we have to hike up and down between our place and the rest of planet earth at ground level. I won't go into that again. It's a great appartment though. It was fully furnished so we didn't have to carry any furniture up those evil stairs. The place even has a TV, but we don't watch it. Not because of any personal convictions about spiritual contamination and rotting of the brain. Oh no. It's because here there is a TV tax. You have to pay 100 pounds a year for every TV on your property that is connected to any type of station services. Basic cable is only about 7 channels and then you pay for anything extra after that. What this works out to is over $200 Canadian a year for 7 channels. $200 plus for Coronation Street, a few news updates, and the weather. There's breaking news: Today's forecast is rainy with some sunny patches. It's not even about that the price is too high, but its the principle of the thing. We come from the land of the glorius and free. We ain't paying no stinking TV tax! That's like having a separate donut tax at Tim Hortons. Yes, these are sad and sorry days. Danny and I unhooked the cables from the TV and sent them back to our landlord. We don't have any channels, but we can still watch movies on it, and there is even a DVD player with our place! And we don't have to pay any TV tax.

DeLong's - 1; TV Tax People - 0. The MacKenzie Brothers would be proud. (If you didn't get my SCTV referrence there, don't worry about it.)

In a related story, Danny and I have kept busy reading quite a few books lately. And being that it is summer, here's some short reviews of what's been passing our eyes lately:

Stormie - by Stormie Omartian (Its a she, and that is her real name)
Category: Christian Autobiography
Some of you may have hear of Stormie Omartian before. She's written a bunch of books such as, "The Power of a Praying Wife" , "The Power of a Praying Husband" , "The Power of a Praying Parent/Grandparent/Second Cousin/Mantis..." and so on and so forth. I've actually never read anything of hers before. My reasons are shallow - I always thought she looks like the Christian poster-child for Prozac. Anyway, somehow I ended up with her autobiography for a few days. It was really good. The lady's got quite an incredible story. I do recommend it and I may just be picking up another book of hers in the future.
Rating: 4 stars (out of 5).

The Lazuras Trap - By Davis Bunn
Category: Christian Suspense Fiction (supposedly)
My interest was baited by the back of the book cover: A man awakens with bumps and bruises but no memory of who he is, where he is from, or what has happened to him. As memories flash back, he finds himself in the middle of fraud, revenge, and murder. Sounds exciting? Well, it wasn't. What a disappointment for a book with such great potential in its plot. I never really became attached to any of the characters, no real surprises (the guy had his memory back within 3 chapters so the plot was over), poor dialogue, and there were lots of loose ends. I hate to be cruel, but leave this one on the shelf.
Rating: 1 star (its a pitty star, really).

Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less- by Jeffrey Archer
Category: Fiction
Jeffrey Archer is an English writer who specializes in tales of brilliant fraud and big stakes. Ironically, Archer is in prison for a brilliant fraud in which the stakes where too high for him. No joke - the dude is doing time. I enjoyed this book very much though. When four guys are suckered and loose big bucks, they decide to return the favour by scamming the scam artist back, but for not a penny more, not a penny less. If you like that Ocean's Eleven feeling, then you'd probably like this book.
Rating: 4 Stars

Kane and Abel - by Jeffrey Archer
Category: Fiction
Another book about fraud (write what you know, as they say). This is a biggy, though. It was, like, twice as big as "Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less." It follows the lives of two men from different worlds. Inevitably, their worlds collide. Its all about the money, the power, and revenge. It was interesting because you really saw what made each man what he was and what he was about. Take note, though, this isn't Christian fiction and some parts are a bit graphic, which never enhances a book's impression in my opinion. This one is seriously 500+ pages, they could've done with out some details.
Rating: 2 stars

Black, Red, White - by Ted Dekker
Category: Trilogy, Christian Fiction
This is a set of 3 hefty books, but absolutely fantastic! A man is trapped between two realities: One of the world where a deadly virus is about to be released; One of strange creatures, true love, and the battle between good and evil. But which one is real? One world may help him save the other. And one world might save him. Let me warn you, if you pick these books up you will not put them down. They are super great fantastic! Yes, a real adventure. It's like "The Clear and Present Danger" meets "Lord of the Rings."
Rating: 5 stars (even 6 stars, they are that good).

THR3E - by Ted Dekker
Category: Christian Suspense Fiction
Okay, Mr. Dekker made a fan out of me after Black, Red, and White, but after this one, he's made me an obsessive follower. This book was nothing like the trilogy, but just as super great fantastic, which, to me, shows talent. In this psycho-thriller a man receives a call from a stranger. "You have 3 minutes to confess your sin," is the demand, "or you will die." Whoa! Read this book, but not when you are alone in the house. Or after dark. Ted Dekker has an incredible gift for taking something from the Bible, be it a verse or a principal, and building an entire story off of it. The thing breathes life - and it is exhilarating! Get ready for goose bumps!
Rating: 17 million stars (the ultimate 'read-it-now' rating).

A Painted House - by John Grisham
Category: Fiction
I am a huge Grisham fan. Many of his books have been made into movie classics such as 'The Firm,' 'The Pelican Brief,' 'The Client,' 'A Time to Kill,' and there are a few others. He usually writes a typical lawyer/underdog type of story, but A Painted House was totally different. It's written from the perspective of a 7-year-old boy growing up on a cotton farm in Arkansas during the 1950's. Another doozie of a book, around 500 pages, but it was a great read. Lots of great things that kept my attention. I admit that in this one I did find myself laughing out loud in some parts and wiping away tears at others. I'd recommend this one if you're on holiday. It was delightful (sorry for the cheesiness, but it was).
Rating: 5 stars

Harry Potter: The Order of the Phoenix - J.K. Rowling
Category: Children's Fiction
Ha ha! Just Kidding! I haven't read this one. You should have seen the madness here in the U.K. when it came out! Let me put it this way: When JK Rowling releases a new book, the Royal family could go to a McDonald's drive through, order Happy Meals and wear the boxes on their heads to the mall without it making the papers. Potter is royalty over here (although nowhere near as good looking as Prince William).

Once again, I have written a novel of my own. Is everyone still with me? Are any of you experiencing a dryness of eyes or stiffining of back or cramping of retna and that sort of thing? Maybe wait 24 hours before picking up a book.

On that note I will be off. Oh hey, one last thing. Danny and I are heading over to Malta this week for about 10 days. We will be in a few churches and taking a few potential candidates for LifeForce out for coffee (shmoozing, as we say in the business). There's also a wedding we get to attend (score - free cake). So until next time, God bless you all - I hope you are all having a wonderful summer - and give your TV's a hug this week, for me and Danny.

Sincerely,
~Alycia DeLong

The London Bombings

2005-07-09T05:13:00.000+01:00

Hello there everyone! Yes, we have had one wild week here in England. On Wednesday, July 6 English spirits soared when it was announced that London would host the 2012 Summer Olympics. Thursday, July 7 there were four bombings on London's public transport - three on the underground subway and one on a street bus. There has been very little talk of Britian's gain of the Olympics. All the broadcasts are about yesterday's loss.

Danny and I were not in London when that all happened, so for those of you that have written asking if we are okay, the answer is yes. Apparently this has been the work of terrorists (and not the French blowing off some anger about losing the Olympic bid). We did have to take some friends to the airport in Birmingham (about 2 hours north of London) that afternoon, and the main motorways were filled with confusion from the attacks. The electric road signs that notify drivers of road delays, construction, accidents, etc. read, "CLOSED: LONDON." At the Birmingham airport there were hundreds of police and military officers fully equipped with guns and on high alert.

The reports are that at least 50 people have been killed in the blast and more than 700 injured. That number is actually surprisingly low considering it is said that almost 3 million people commute into London everyday. Personally, I think we can thank God this wasn't much, much worse.

Security everywhere is up today as England begins to process what just happened. Thankfully, we all know that God is an expert in bringing beauty out of the ashes and that is something we can all pray for right now.

So, thank you for all your emails and concern for us - we are just fine! Thank you also for your prayers. May God bless you today with a joy and awe about the preciousness of life, and what a true gift it is to have been given another day. My prayer is that with that in mind, we will take opportunities to share our gift with others.

Sincerely,
~Alycia DeLong

What God did This Week: Part II

2005-06-22T02:16:00.000+01:00

As promised, here is the second installment of our on-going adventure here...

Tuesday, June 21

Today in the Walsall town centre we decided that it would be nice to hand out flowers to people as they suffered through another typical English day - cloudy with sporadic periods of drizzle. It went over fantastically and many people stopped to talk. About an hour into the afternoon we were out of flowers and I was elected as the one to restock our little operation. As we were figuring out how much I should spend, I said, "I know, I'll just tell the guy we're doing this because Jesus wants to show people that they are special!" Everyone laughed at me (Thank you, Ned Flanders, and that sort of thing ). So I started laughing, too. Then everyone was laughing with me. Another excellent cover on my part. Anyway, I went and bought the flowers. And we didn't get them for free. But we gave them out for free and people were really touched.

Cool story 1: While handing out flowers, I met this wonderful little 70-something lady named Judy in the town centre who loved the little bouquet she was given. She said she had been here the day before and saw us doing drama and after some one had shared about Jesus. Judy also said that she was a Christian and that Jesus had been the only one who got her through the deaths of her husband and her daughter. There were times when she felt God was so far away, but later, in looking back, realized how close he was and how he had carried her through. Seeing the drama and hearing about Jesus the day before had reminded her of this.

While she was thinking about this, the women sitting on the bench next to her was also watching what the church group was doing and remarked about how she had believed in Jesus but felt so far from God right now as she grieved the death of some one she loved. Well, Judy picked up her cue and told her all about how she'd gone through it, too, and how God helped her. She revived this woman's faith and encouraged her to hang in there, keep believing, and keep praying!

And that woman was...(drum roll)...

Okay, I don't know who she was. But talk about a divine appointment! It reminded me how important it is not just to pray for myself that God will help me tell people about how much he loves them, but also to pray for His others who are out there too!

Later in the afternoon, oops sorry I forgot...

Cool Story 2: We met a 16 year old girl named Sara who is addicted to smack (heroine). At one point last year, she was staying with her older sister in an abandon car. The car caught fire after they had forgotten to blow out a candle before falling asleep. Sara and her sister both escaped, but Sara has some serious scars on her left arm and a nasty one in her throat where paramedics inserted a tube into her esophagus so she could breath. Her sister said that it must have been God that saved them. Ever since then she's been trying to clean up her life. Sara couldn't understand why God would save her though.Why is it that sometimes the simplest answers to givee are the hardest answers to understand? So we tried to tell her in the best way that we ourselves understand it - God loves you! That evening we got together again, and she let us pray that God would help her break free from smack. I was thinking praying for some one to be healed of an addiction to heroine seems a lot more difficult than praying for some one with hay fever, or at least to me. But then that quiet voice from Heaven seemed to drop a thought into my thick head,"you praying for this may seem for difficult, but Me answering it is not." Oh yeeeaaaahhh. Duh. Anyway, there were no flashes of light or the echos of breaking the chains of addiction at that moment, but Sara and her younger sister came to church on Friday night and Sunday. And are planning to continue. Sara found out how to get connected with a Christian agency that helps teens quit drugs and has asked for help from the people she's met, and more importantly, from God.

Cool Story 3: At the end of the afternoon, the guy who sold us flowers in the market came by and gave us a bucket of beautiful blue flowers for free. (I should have joked about a million dollars. )

Today's Lesson: Ephesians 3:20-21 "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen"

And that is the DeLong Report: UK for Tuesday, June 21, 2005. Until next time, take care and God bless!

Sincerely,
~Alycia DeLong

God Bless You!

2005-06-15T21:43:00.000+01:00

Hello Everyone!

I know you've all been waiting with baited breath for another update, so I'll use my regular format. First off, I start my emails with the usual: The Apology. I'm sorry that I haven't written for a while. Second of all: The Excuse. We've been very busy. Lame as usual. There, now with that out of the way, let's get into it.

Last week we did a mission with one of the Walsall churches. They did a week of all sorts of activities in the community and town centre to share Jesus with people. We did dramas, music, free food, free flowers, free balloon animals, free Jesus, and ended the week with a free buffet at the church on Friday night. Each day was incredible see how God will touch people's lives in such a special and personal way. Many times we didn't even use anything, we just went to the town centre and sat around. It was INEVITABLE that you would get into a conversation with some one and get to tell them about what Jesus has done in your life and for the world on the cross!

Now, this email is going to be long enough as it is, so I'm just going to send you Monday's cool story and I'll carrie on with the rest later. Oh hey, a little warning here. You may want to grab a snack or a drink or use the toilet before you continue reading because this is a doozey.

Here's my cool story now: So on Monday we went to the town centre for the first time and there were tons of people walking around, going to work, shopping - that sort of thing. This young guy came up to me (probably in his early to mid-twenties) and asked me if I had been in any accidents. He sold some sort of claim insurance just out in the street. I told him I hadn't had any accidents. But he said again, "What about your accident?" I was a bit confused but I restated a little slower, "I haven't had any accidents." He insisted again, "No what about your accident?" Now I was a bit nervous and quickly scanned my shirt and pants to see if there were any 'accidents' I was unaware of. But I could find none, so again I repeated myself slower and louder, "I haven't had any ACCIDENTS!" He looked me in the eyes and replied very slowly, "Your ACCENT, what about your ACCENT?" Then to my embarassment I realized he wasn't asking me about any accidents. "Blonde," I answered, "My accent is blonde."

Ha ha ha. But that isn't the cool part...

I told him I was from Canada. He asked why I was here. I explained that my husband and I (yes, I brought that up as quickly in the conversation as possible) had moved here to plant a new training centre for a Christian theatre company and a bit about why we are doing it. I was brief in my explanation (if you can imagine), but it was because I usually try to avoid conversations with young men I don't know. I mean, why should they get their hopes and dreams up only to find out I'm already married and older than them anyway? Right. Well, we got to talking about Christianity and the Bible and I was able to ask him what he thought about Jesus as a person, not just a church. He said he did believe in God and had believed in Jesus as a child, but was interested in learning about other religions right now and persueing other things. The entire time we talked he was always sneezing and blowing his nose as if he had a really bad cold. He apologized after a fit of about 4 sneezes in a row and revealed that it was hay fever. He'd never had it as bad as this before, apparantly. He took echinacea and a bunch of other herbal stuff, but so far he just had to suffer it out. At that moment, God really did something and before I realized what I was doing, I'd offered to pray for him right there and he'd accepted! I don't even remember what exactly was prayed, it was only a second or two.

When we had finished he looked up at me a bit confused and aked, "What was that?"

I thought, 'Look, I know I'm no Billy Graham of a prayer warrior, but I meant what I said.'

"That was a prayer?" I sheepishly responded.

"No," he said and he took a deep breath, "I feel different! I don't have a scratch in my nose or anything!" And he took another deep breath.

Well, I looked at him sideways thinking, 'Okay guy, what are you talking about?' Then it sunk in. He had stopped sneezing! In fact we continued talking for over 15 minutes and he never sneezed again. At this point the door was wide open to tell this guy about all the things Jesus could heal a person of and share about the things Jesus had healed me of. Every ten seconds or so he would interrupt me and say, "I'm sorry. I just feel so different! I feel so much better!" We talked about many scriptures in the Bible, we talked about Jesus, we talked about the cross. He went away thanking Jesus and rekindling an new relationship with Him!

Okay, I know maybe this isn't the biggest miracle - you know, not exactly some one jumping out of a wheel chair or anything. But isn't it so amazing that God, the creator of all things, the one who sees all the pain in the world, thinks that hay fever is worth helping some one with hay fever! Wow, God is good! I just don't know what more to say about it! I've never really seen anything like it before, and I don't know if I will again. Why not, though, I guess! It's really reminded me of how much God wants to use us to touch other people and bring them to himself! It also reminds me of how powerful the Holy Spirit is that he could totally take over the whole situation and move me around to pray for that guy!

Wow, if you are still reading - three cheers for you! Stay tuned for the next, soon to be released (hopefully), installment of "DeLong Reports: UK!"

You can't say I didn't try to warn you about taking a bathroom break before the story. Hate to say I told you so, but there it is.

Unitl next time, take care and God Bless!

Sincerely,
~Alycia DeLong

Hello from the UK

2005-06-15T01:23:00.000+01:00

Hello Everyone!

We have landed in the UK! Yes, this is one small step for the DeLongs, one giant leap for LifeFORCE...

(We didn't sleep much on the flight so the jet lag is hitting us something fierce this time)

As we both try to gather ourselves and put a list of priorties together, I just wanted to pass on some prayer requests:

1. The LifeFORCE Base
- Please pray that everything would fall together for getting a place where we can facilitate the teams, the training, the eating and the sleeping for all the students will come.

2. The LifeFORCE Students
- Okay, we need those students to put in the new LifeForce base. We are looking for about 10-14 students, and actually already have one!

3. The LifeFORCE Leader
- We already have one leader for our local team, but we do need one or two more for our international team going to Malta and Northern Africa. If all else fails, Danny and I will lead that team (which may not be such a bad thing. We love Malta and have never been to Northern Africa before).

4. The LifeFORCE Van
- We do have a van, but it is a bit of a seedy thing. We need to get a few things fixed or possibly sell it and go for a new (new to us) one all together. Please pray that God will direct us there.

5. The LifeFORCE DeLongs
- At some point (hopefully very soon) Danny and I would like to be in a place of our own. Right now we are staying with some wonderful friends in Walsall, but we don't want to be squatters in their home forever! We aren't looking for anything fancy. Fancy place equals expensive place. Expensive place subtracts from my chocolate budget. Negative chocolate budget multiplies my crankiness. You can do the math. We do want to be as close to the LifeForce training base as possible.

Well, I think this is about it for now. I'm working on getting things super-organized (HA). I've noticed some of these updates have been getting bounced back to me, so if you wouldn't mind emailing me back if you got this or if there is a different email account I should use, or if you want to be taken off my update list because you're sick of my ramblings, etc. You know, that sort of thing.

Again, thank you all for your prayers and support! It is a bit strange to be here without a team in the physical. But in the spiritual, we know we aren't alone.

Thanks for joining us!

God bless and take care!
~Alycia DeLong

And We're Off to the UK

2005-06-10T14:19:00.000+01:00

Hello Everyone! First off (as usual), my apologies for the inconsistent time periods of these email updates. With that said, let's all get caught up!

Sunday, May 15: We returned to Canada safe and sound and exhausted. The following morning we began debriefing with all the teams and students.

Friday, May 20: Early Friday morning, we left Calgary with Danny's parents and drove 12 hours to Vancouver. There we met up with Danny's birthmother and the rest of her family. Danny met his 2 half-brothers, and 1 half-sister, as well as his birth mom's husband. They are really a remarkable, wonderful family and we all had a blast getting to know eachother more.

Wednesday, May 25 (I think): Things get a bit blurry here. We were back in Calgary for 2 nights and a day. Our brains hadn't even recovered from jet-lag yet!

Friday, May 27-ish: Back home to good ole' Regina, Saskatchewan to visit the family for a week. We had a great time, although very hectic! Danny spoke at the Sunday night service at the Regina Apostolic church, then we spent the rest of the week getting in those last minute Tim Horton's meetings with friends before we left again. It was wonderful to see so many people though.

Friday, June 3: Up to Edmonton for a family reunion with Danny's massive family. Thankfully, the weather was nice for a few days so we got in some quality BBQ and picnic time with all the family. We even had a Bacci ball tournament with all the grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, second-cousins, second-cousins' kids, etc. There were A LOT of people there!

Tuesday, June 7: We finally made it back to our place in Calgary. Now we've just been spending the week packing like crazy, getting all those little details in order in the house and the office. Needless to say, these past few weeks have been a blur - but it was still great to be back! We fly out to England Sunday, June 12.

I'm not sure what else to say at this point except thank you all for everything! We will do our very best to keep in contact regularly, and we will miss you! So until we meet again, God bless you and take care!

Sincerely,
~Alycia DeLong

On the Road Again

2005-01-22T14:18:00.000Z

Hi there everyone! Long time no email - but had another funny story. This one takes place at a junior school with a group of 13 year olds, in a galaxy not so far away...

So we had just finished a short drama where the four girls on our team are in a car trying to decide on the quickest way to McDonald's. One character is apathetic, one is indecisive, one is a bit anal and the last is blind. After all having a turn behind the stearing wheel, they eventually end up in the ditch. The point of the drama is about how much your attitude toward decisions is important for choosing a direction for your life. However, when I asked the audience what were some of the main points they got out of the sketch, one brave young man raised his hand and shared with such a conviction, "Women shouldn't drive."

Let's just say that his parents probably will never have to worry about their son dating too young. Hopefully he's made it home safe.

In other news, we have purchased a mini-bus! Its a long, white, 9-seater diesel beast of a van, but it will get our team around this year and in the years to come! We are leaving Walsall tomorrow evening to go to Litchfield, so please pray for our safe arrival (more specifically, the van's safe arrival).

So with that then, I will bid you all adieu until the next hilarious insight some brilliant child throws out at us!

God Bless you all!
~Alycia DeLong

Out of the Mouths of Babes

2005-01-19T19:17:00.000Z

Hey there everyone! It's a balmy day in England (rainy) and we've just reached our first-week anniversary of our trip! We've been in about 5 different schools, done youth group, church services, kid's programs, and a whole lotta eating!

Straight to the funny story of the week:

Saturday morning we were handling the children's program at the church for kids between the ages of 4-11 years. After presenting a short funny drama about how gaining money and other stuff really can't give you true happiness, Jana stood to give a short speak about the skit. She asked the children, "What is something that you really, really want?" To which a sea of small voices responded with their various desires: "A barbie"; "A dog"; "Candy" and so on. Then Jana asked, "Well, kids, do you know what I really want?" Without missing a beat a small boy emerged from the audience and called out, "A boyfriend!"

I missed her point after that.

We leave Walsall on Monday and head to Litchfield for a week. Please pray for us as we are trying to buy a small 9-seater van for this trip and the new LifeForce Base. We are sorting things out with insurance (woo hoo).

I will write again as soon as I can. Until then, God bless you all and take care!

Sincerely,
~Alycia DeLong

Did the Pigmys Get You?

2004-04-13T07:15:00.000+01:00

GREETINGS EARTHLINGS! After a short trip to my home planet, I have now returned to your little blue planet until the mother ship comes for me again.

That is for those of you who thought I had dropped off the face of the earth. We are still alive and well here in the Philippines. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for our website, so I am returning to the old fashioned general update. Internet access has been difficult over the past month.

Let me catch you all up. I'll start from the beginning of March. Once upon a time...

March 6th
We left San Pablo for Davao in the southern part of the Philippines. Our mode of transportation was Superferry 15, which was a 55-hour ride! We had a great time and enjoyed air-conditioned cabins, cable TV, and a buffet for that time.

About a week before, the headlines of the papers read, "124 Missing from Superferry 14 Bombing." Much to our dismay, there were no bargain prices for Superferry 15 in light of the previous ship's mishap. We did arrive safe and sound in Davao though.

March 9th
Danny and I celebrated our 3rd year anniversary staying at the House of Jubilee in Davao. There we were involved in many school presentations, drama workshops, children's ministry, mall outreach, etc. We were very busy and the 3 weeks we spent there just flew by!

Originally we were going to be working on a building project and assisting in the Mercy Maternity Clinic. However, schools everywhere began opening their doors to us and we were in sometimes 2 or 3 a day! It was non-stop!

The building project was put on hold for a different team and us ladies only spent three days in the maternity clinic. However, it was still quite the experience! Though we did not see any babies being born, we had opportunity to do many things in the clinic. I took blood from women's fingers to test for - I don't know what actually. Frankly, I could have past out every time. They do not have the same equipment we do. Oh no. It was not some handy-dandy little pen that you click the top and the little blood-test-elves to the rest inside of the device. No. It was a sharp piece of metal called a lancet that I STABBED women in the finger with and then tried to catch the dripping blood into a thin glass tube about as long as my pinky finger. Yeah, let me just restate that I am positive that the good Lord has not called me to be a nurse or in any way, shape or form supposed to be in the medical field. You got a problem? I got a band-aid. If that doesn’t work, it was nice knowing you. Goodnight.

March 29th
Good-bye Davao – Hello Superferry 16! Yes, let us tempt fate twice. We crawled on that 55-hour boat ride once again and returned to Manila. We were only there for one night before we caught a small 50-seater plane to the island of Catanduanes in the Bicol province. There we were involved in 2 separate Vacation Bible Camps. I swear every kid in those villages and then some came out. I guess we shouldn’t have advertised, “FIRST EIGHT KIDS GET A FREE CANADIAN.” (Ha ha. A little humour from some one who has had too much sun today.) We spent 10 beautiful days running ourselves ragged, trying to understand the dialect, gluing paper crafts with water and flour paste, and learning the names of the animals on Noah’s Ark in Tagalog (the main language here). My group was the Elephants, which in Tagalog is Elephantes. Yes, it is tricky. We had a great time though.

April 13th
We are now in Manila, our final stop our on 4-month tour. It is hot here, averaging between 35-40 degrees! Right now we are staying at an orphanage until Monday. It is quite the place. We have 2 small rooms: one for boys and one for girls. The school season is finished so we will be helping out more with the odd jobs, local Bible studies, and just playing with kids. There are about 35 kids at the orphanage between the ages of 7 to 18 years.

We will be moving into a bigger place that belongs to a local Pastor’s sister. We will be working closely with their church groups doing services, Sunday schools, visitation, and outreach stuff, etc. There are 35-million people in Manila, so we can always find something to do.

Okay, now you are up to date! Internet is a billion times better here (even though the server has had to be rebooted 3 times while I have written this email) so hopefully I can get that crazy website happening again!

Thank you for your patience and understanding! Most of all, thank you for still emailing me! I love hearing from you all! Thank you for your prayers and constant support and encouragement! You know, since January we have seen around 350 people decide to follow Jesus for the first time in their lives! Bible studies, support groups, and youth activities have been started in homes, schools, offices, and communities all over the Philippines and you have a part in that! So God bless you!

Love,
~Alycia DeLong

First Website

2003-12-26T16:14:00.000Z

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Hope you've all had a wonderful holiday! No complaints from me. We have a bit of a wesite up and running. It is still under construction but the basics are up. I will be updating it regularly from now on instead of sending these mass general emails from now on. Hopefully, this should makes things easier on all our email accounts. Our website is:

www.delong.bravehost.com

Have a great week and a happy new year!

Sincerely,
~Alycia DeLong

In the Beginning

2002-12-11T16:39:00.000Z

Seasons Greetings everyone! This is the first official email update from the exciting lives of Danny and Alycia DeLong! Some of you are probably thinking, "Its about time those lazy snobs wrote!"; and some are thinking, "I've received mass emails before, what makes this one any different?" Still others are thinking, "How did you get my email address? Will my Block Sender option work?" Well, in response to all your thoughts:

1. Please forgive us for not doing this sooner. We did not mean to be lazy snobs.
2. Our general emails will be filled with exciting tales of adventure, inspirational testimonies, but mostly embarassing mishaps. That is not an empty promise.
3. We have our ways of sending you our updates, whether you like it or not. There is no escape. So you might as well enjoy!

So without further delay, here is the premier segment of the "DeLong Adventures" (though I'll try to make DeLong story short...ha ha ha!) (Please don't stop reading already)
We have officially passed the half-way point of bootcamp here at LifeForce, which means everyone is pretty drained from the intense classes and relentless practises. The Malta team has been doing great! There are 11 of us on the team (there was 10 until a couple of weeks ago when the England team was dissolved due to lack of missions and team members). We have split our 6-guy-5-girl group into 2 sections; one drama and one music. The play we are taking to Malta is a sort of musical mockery of the recently popular programs "Teen Idol" and "Pop Stars". In the drama there are 5 characters competing for fame and fortune, and one janitor with her mop just doing their job. The entire play is the same scene acted out 5 times, only each is from a different character's view point. Through the different characters issues such as peer pressure, drugs, relationships, acceptance, and true happiness are portrayed. All the music is performed live by our very own actors and band, so it makes for quite the production!

The schedule for our time in Malta is quickly filling. We will be in almost every school performing our play and sharing in classes. Every Sunday we will be in a different church, as well as taking part in youth groups and Bible studies on a regular basis. In addition we are planning a small mission for the girls and guys separately. Hopefully in April the men of our team will accompany a pastor from Malta into Libya to help take supplies to the Libyan churches. Meanwhile the ladies of the team would take a short trip to Sicily to work with some churches there. We have been working on raising $5000 for this exciting opportunity!

Another exciting opportunity that will be happening is that we will be hosting another team on a short-term mission. The Regina Apostolic Church will be sending us a group of prayer warriors in Febuary/March for two weeks. They will be supporting the team in prayer as well as ministering in churches and taking part in outreaches.

This is about all I have for right now. It could have been much longer but I left out all of the everyday details concerning classes and practises (which are going great by the way). I will work on sending some team photos and such with our next email. Until then, have a wonderful holiday season and God Bless!

Sincerely,
~Danny & Alycia DeLong

P.S.- Oh yeah, as for non-LifeForce stuff, we are doing great - loving Calgary, LifeForce and the Lord! Also both of us are doing well healthwise, though we would like a little more sleep!