A Trip to Lucky

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By Elizabeth

I braved Lucky on a Saturday evening. I have a love-hate relationship with Lucky. For one, I am very thankful there’s even a grocery store here and I am fully funded and can shop at it. That I love. But the experience of Lucky is something I could do without.

I fill my CVS-size shopping cart to the brim while people stare and point. They touch Faith and laugh when she cringes. The carts don’t maneuver well when empty, and certainly not when full. Many items are not in English, or only partly in English, so finding what you want is tough, and deciding how many to get is tougher. About halfway through my list, my brain stops working. I am already pretty embarrassed that I’m white. Additionally I have a full cart (Cambodians tend to go to the market daily and buy less). It’s only enough food for a family of 6 big eaters for one week, though. I branch out this week to the produce section. Every other time I am too exhausted after picking out the staples. . . Next week I might foray into beef and chicken.

At the very end, with Faith whining at the bananas I squeezed into her seat, and with people staring at me, I pick up my last item — the kind of mop and bucket my house helper needs. I push the overflowing cart with one hand, and pull the rolling bucket and mop with the other, through impossibly narrow aisles to the checkout counter, where I hope and pray Jonathan Trotter is done with his shopping elsewhere in the mall. He has the cash, you see. He arrives, I avoid crying for the time being. A total of 4 ladies help me at this point. When the cashier can’t find the price on the cheese, another emplyee runs to the refridgerator section, and when she returns with the price, speaking in Khmer, they all laugh hysterically. Jonathan pays, and we leave.

When we arrive home, after unloading and getting the kids a snack b/c it is now past bedtime (meaning Jonathan had to drive in the dark which is always stressful), we discover the source of the ant problem I’ve had this week. Ants in my precious brown rice (have I mentioned whole grains are hard to find here??). Plus some other creepy looking critter. So I cry, “mommy, mommy, mommy,” and I’m not sure if I’m talking about myself or my own mother. We clean out the pantry and dump the rice container, which is obviously not airtight. I take care of the mess while Jonathan reads Narnia to the kids.

What a day.

Memories, of the Way We Were

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by Elizabeth

On our way out to CO for missions training we drove through Fort Riley and Junction City, Kansas.  Fort Riley looked just the same.  All the housing, just as I remembered it, having ridden through those streets on the school bus so many times.  I got out of the van at our old quarters and walked around.  I met my first homeschooled friend there, next door.  Drove past the garages converted from horse stables.  Drove up the hill to my old middle school, where I passed my very favorite school year, 6th grade.  Not even Mrs. Sample’s Brit Lit and Mr Smith’s Chemistry in 10th grade at Lee’s Summit High School could eclipse my year at Fort Riley Middle School.  Drove past the big hill where Dad left us sledding in the cold with those homeschooled friends and Mom got so irritated.  Drove past the Fort Riley Elementary School where the tall metal swings still stood, 20 years later.  On the way out of post there was a dog park where the buffalo used to be. No more caged bison.  Shocking, I know.

We drove through Junction City to our townhouse there.  I tap danced in that kitchen, read in my bedroom with the window open while it rained, talked to Dad in my bedroom, just the two of us.  We drove past the Church of Christ in Junction City, which was so much smaller than I remember it I almost couldn’t believe it.  The years at that church were very formative for me spiritually because that’s when I started going to Silver Maple Camp.  Camp is where my love of singing was born, and it was a place of incredible learning.  I returned to Silver Maple year after year until I was in high school.

Lastly we stopped by Eisenhower Elementary, the school I attended before we moved on post. I sat and nursed Faith, my fourth born, on the step of the shadeless playground where I played so many years before, and watched my older 3 play now.

As I contemplate leaving the country of my birth for a new one, I am so thankful my husband took an hour break on our drive through Kansas to let me see with adult eyes the places of my youth.  Over the last few months I have been able to process my years in Fort Riley and Junction City.  I’ve finally integrated the bad (the part when kids were mean to me as the new kid in school) with all the good.  In many ways those years were defining for me, and my soul is at peace with them now.

Welcome

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Well hey there, and thanks for dropping by!  We’re the Trotters and we’re happy to meet you. 

As you probably know already, we’re planning a little move (to Cambodia!) sometime this January.  You’ll find all the other details (like “Why in the world?!”) on this site.  If you want the latest news, be sure to check out our most recent Newsletter.  

Thanks for dropping in, and may God bless you as you live all for One…

                                       Jonathan, Elizabeth, Nathaniel, Isaac, Hannah, & Faith

Fireworks for Freedom

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Check out www.fireworksforfreedom.com for more info…

LISTEN – by Elizabeth

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[From our March Newsletter]

I posted my theme for the year – Listen — around my house.  So I’m on the watch for what God wants to teach me, and He seems to be drawing me to His Spirit.  I know He lives in me, and I’ve had an ongoing conversation with Him for years.  I ask for guidance, He guides. I ask for comfort, He comforts.  But I’m learning He is more than merely a candy machine, dispensing money or answers or happiness when I input some prayers.  He is Holy.  The Almighty God of the universe lives in us.  Sometimes I have forgotten what a big deal this actually is.  Let me also say that my education in the Spirit has been very humbling.  I’ve learned to reverence Him so much more – a powerful God who is not a toy to be played with.

God has always been there for me over the years, as a counselor Who I can trust, Who handles my emotions, and Who heals my soul.  But my relationship with Him as a person was rather emotion-less.  These past few months I’ve been on a journey to fall more in love with God.  I’ve gained this ridiculous longing for Heaven I’ve never had before.  Sure, I knew Heaven was perfect.  It was going to be fun.  But now, I see it differently.  God is there.  And I want to be with Him so much.  This world is so broken, but Heaven is whole.  God is there — that’s why it’s whole.  So I do feel I’m falling more in love with the Lord.  I am so grateful for all He’s done in my heart my entire life, and especially in this new year.  I hope to fall more in love with Him not just the rest of this year but all the years of my life.

P.S.  Some of what I’m learning I read in Francis Chan’s Forgotten God.