Feb 26th sees our family thinking about some of our summer plans as we return to Canada this summer. We are really enjoying life here and feel that this is our home now. Our children are doing well and we are once again this year learning how to live and minister in a different country. We are looking forward to connecting with people while we are home this summer, the relationships are things that we miss while we are here, although we are making great connections with people out here. Hopefully in the near future I can post where we will be at what times during the summer so that we can connect with as many of you as possible.
Jalen continues to go to school and is doing much better these past few weeks in listening to his teacher the first time she says something. For a couple of weeks we were struggling with Jalen's behavior in school and just his respect level. It looks as if it is coming around and we know that this is just the beginning as he turns into a boy and then a young man. It is so encouraging seeing him reading books and doing math facts. He is doing great!
Kaya is going to preschool and doing well. She really looks forward to learning her letters. Just yesterday they learned the letter 'P' and so the teacher that day had all types of games and crafts with the letter 'P'. Neat to see her loving to learn.
Jalen and Kaya also have begun piano lessons with Janna and this is really neat to watch them practicing.
Janna is still highly involved with the planning of the preschool. She is also now teaching some piano lessons and trying to keep our house in order. She is also finding places to go for walks and is now helping once and a while with the girls basketball team here.
THis week sees me in the middle of an Indonesian Basketball tournament coaching two teams. The team here at the school and an Indonesian team. The schedule works out great that neither team play at the same time or against each other. Great times. I am also encouraged because the athletic director at our school is returning which means that hopefully I can give this job back to him as he returns here in about one month.
God Bless. That is a short glimpse into our lives this Feb 26
Monday, February 25, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Another Week
Another week has gone by and we are beginning to settle into a routine again after the OE experience. This past week my body just let down and I have been sick for a little while as I try to recover from running on Adrenaline for 2 weeks. Please continue to pray for health of the family. Thanks
Last night we had one last Team Awesome party (that was the name of our OE group), so 9 students came to our house for supper and a time of games. The kids (Jalen Kaya) love when this type of stuff happens, and they get WAAAYYYY over tired until they are weeping messes. Our group really did bond out in the jungle and so it was neat for Janna to see the people that I had spent two weeks with. We had a good time sharing stories, sharing life issues, jumping on the tramp, and then of course playing games. I was blessed with a really neat group this year.
We are beginning to think about and try to plan for our summer furlough this summer. As the weeks fly by it draws closer and closer and I think that this weekend we just realized that it is coming up and we had better get a more concrete idea about what we are doing this summer. God has blessed us again and right now we have appointments for the kids in Singapore to see the same eye specialist that we saw this past year. So we will be heading through Singapore on the way home. I am also trying to get an appointment in Singapore for my knee that continues to cause me some pain. I think that is all for now. GOD BLESS
Last night we had one last Team Awesome party (that was the name of our OE group), so 9 students came to our house for supper and a time of games. The kids (Jalen Kaya) love when this type of stuff happens, and they get WAAAYYYY over tired until they are weeping messes. Our group really did bond out in the jungle and so it was neat for Janna to see the people that I had spent two weeks with. We had a good time sharing stories, sharing life issues, jumping on the tramp, and then of course playing games. I was blessed with a really neat group this year.
We are beginning to think about and try to plan for our summer furlough this summer. As the weeks fly by it draws closer and closer and I think that this weekend we just realized that it is coming up and we had better get a more concrete idea about what we are doing this summer. God has blessed us again and right now we have appointments for the kids in Singapore to see the same eye specialist that we saw this past year. So we will be heading through Singapore on the way home. I am also trying to get an appointment in Singapore for my knee that continues to cause me some pain. I think that is all for now. GOD BLESS
Monday, February 11, 2008
OE done, Family back together...
OE is done and I am home, PTL. Even though it has taken some adjustment, I am home and we are back together as a family once again. Janna and the kids seem to do well while I was away.
Eipomek is a village in the mountains of central Papua. This year it was the home of Outdoor Education which saw 82 people fly into the village and work on different projects, do kids clubs, and try to serve the local missionaries in any way that we could. We were there for 2 weeks living in rooms and going to the bathroom in the jungle. Our shower was the river and our food was made up of things that we had brought in and local foods. The local food included sweet potatos, white potatos, different types of vegetables, and of course pig meat. The first day there we bought a pig and butchered it for meat with our meals. Some of our students killed the pig and ground up the meat. So needless to say, this is what I would call "roughing it".
One other thing we were able to do was to hike into different surrounding villages for 4 days and 3 nights. This was a very interesting experience. Each leader was in charge of 9 students and so 9 students and I hiked for a while through the mountains to get to the village of Sarabom. There we stayed in a traditional hut with the people for 3 nights. I am sure that you can not even imagine what this is like. The huts are round with a fire in the middle and a penned up pig in the hut as well. Our 6 girls slept in this area with around 9 other women and the pig with the fire in the middle. The hut is no bigger than about 15 feet in diameter, so you can imagine how the girls slept. Women and men rarely sleep in the same place and it just so happened that our house had a mans area attached to the round hut. It was a rectangle that 5 men slept "comfortably" if by comfortably you think of basically sleeping touching each other the entire night. What a time of group bonding! Also on the mens side there was no fire place and at the altitude that we were at it gets cold during the night. After the 3 nights of bonding we returned to Eipomek to our regular rooms.
The last chapel that we had students shared about the things that they had learned and it was interesting to listen to the stories of how God was working in their lives.
Experience of a lifetime and I am happy to be home. Thank you God for answering prayers.
Eipomek is a village in the mountains of central Papua. This year it was the home of Outdoor Education which saw 82 people fly into the village and work on different projects, do kids clubs, and try to serve the local missionaries in any way that we could. We were there for 2 weeks living in rooms and going to the bathroom in the jungle. Our shower was the river and our food was made up of things that we had brought in and local foods. The local food included sweet potatos, white potatos, different types of vegetables, and of course pig meat. The first day there we bought a pig and butchered it for meat with our meals. Some of our students killed the pig and ground up the meat. So needless to say, this is what I would call "roughing it".
One other thing we were able to do was to hike into different surrounding villages for 4 days and 3 nights. This was a very interesting experience. Each leader was in charge of 9 students and so 9 students and I hiked for a while through the mountains to get to the village of Sarabom. There we stayed in a traditional hut with the people for 3 nights. I am sure that you can not even imagine what this is like. The huts are round with a fire in the middle and a penned up pig in the hut as well. Our 6 girls slept in this area with around 9 other women and the pig with the fire in the middle. The hut is no bigger than about 15 feet in diameter, so you can imagine how the girls slept. Women and men rarely sleep in the same place and it just so happened that our house had a mans area attached to the round hut. It was a rectangle that 5 men slept "comfortably" if by comfortably you think of basically sleeping touching each other the entire night. What a time of group bonding! Also on the mens side there was no fire place and at the altitude that we were at it gets cold during the night. After the 3 nights of bonding we returned to Eipomek to our regular rooms.
The last chapel that we had students shared about the things that they had learned and it was interesting to listen to the stories of how God was working in their lives.
Experience of a lifetime and I am happy to be home. Thank you God for answering prayers.
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