I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain about an hour away from where we live a week and a half ago.  I went with my friends, Laura and Nori.  Laura and I basically went to supprt Nori, because she was moving to Texas and wanted to go one last time before the move.  Laura and I both acted like tough chicks with attitudes of "yeah, sure, we love roller coasters...we'll go".  This was before we saw X2.  When you go to the actual website, you'll see what I'm talking about.  This roller coaster not only has you dangling in your seat, but has you dangling off the sides as your seat itself flips in full 360 degree circles while the ride is doing loops, turns, etc!  And you start the whole thing facing backwards!  In addition, you have full sound effects in speakers on either side of your head and you go through fire at some point in the ride (I did not actually see this, because my eyes were closed at that point.  But I did feel the heat.)  It was nothing like I had experienced.  It was a 2-hour wait just to ride the thing, so Laura and I had plenty of time to come up with an array of creative excuses of why we CANNOT ride this roller coaster.  But we did...ride it, that is.  No chickening out for these borderline-cowards.  The fortunate part is that since we rode this ride 1st, it made everything else seem like candy in comparison.  Thanks, girls, for a great day!

Speaking of Nori...Mike, Nori, and their son, Jeff, just left for their own exciting ride to the world of Texas.  They have now officially moved.  I can tell you that it has not hit Rick and I yet.  I think we are in denial...or we are so used to people leaving and coming back that we are just believing they are coming back...or maybe we feel a little angry with God, which is masking the truth of their absence...I don't know.  All I know is that a truly amazing, supportive, generous, loving, leading family has gone to God's next step for them in life and the process of accepting that is not easy.  We are thrilled about what God is going to do though as they pursue a future in ministry.  We are so thankful to have been a part of the preliminary shaping for that.  We love you guys and miss you already.

The final ride in my list here, is that of Ron Fisher's.  Ron is a chaplain in the Army, smack-dab in the middle of a 15-month deployment to Iraq.  He got to come home for 18 days in June to visit his family, but leaving again was all that much more difficult.  This time the kids grasp the enormity of what it means when Daddy walks out that door...and Ron and Amie probably do too.  Please pray for their family as it has been especially hard on the kids.  I know that when Rick receives emails from Ron, it really puts into perspective the smallness of our own struggles here in Port Hueneme.  It also puts into perspective how fortunate we are to be close to our family and not have our lives and the lives of dear friends in continuous danger.  It's a crazy world out there.  And sharing Christ to certain parts of it can be pretty risky.  Fishers, you guys are an inspiration.

More to come on the wedding in Sacramento we just returned from soon.

Much love,

Melissa