Photos from this summer

Ready to hit the pool!We got a kick out of this sign - especially #4!

Driving stick on the right hand side of the car and road

Something they do every day!

Spencer loves building with Lego Peek-a-boo! Let's have some fun!

Naomi took some pics of Julia with her cool camera

Working with Josh in the office

Our living room

My kitchen - which, unlike the 2 before this one, has running HOT water!

A common sight on the way to the grocery store!

Lighting the candles on the boys' birthday cake!

Julia got a gift, too! Playing UNO in the front yard!

These three got along so well! (Naomi was our guest for 3 weeks)

UNO!

Making pasta sauce together - my mom's recipe - yum!

Early morning - playing with GI Joes (birthday gifts from Miss Jeanie)

Julia loves coloring - she's starting to use more than one color per page!

The boys enjoy playing Boggle - another birthday gift

Naomi and Josie enjoying Avocado drinks

Earthquake!

Hey! Have had a number of emails asking if we're OK since the big earthquake. We were actually in the capitol 24 hours before it hit, but we're safely home and are fine. Generally we don't consider ourselves in danger of earthquakes or tsunamis because our location is kind of off the beaten path of those types of disasters. We have islands protecting us from the open seas, no volcanos close by and I don't think the fault lines run too close to where we are. I tried to google our province and Earthquake but came up with nothing. Most of the disasters of that sort seem to happen to other islands. Of course that's just our opinion, it COULD happen. :)

What a Bore - I mean, BOAR!

The meat on the platter, not the thoughts of the people in the picture!!
I finally cooked that wild boar meat Josh picked up for me at the market. It was not my intention to necessarily cook it today but our freezer malfunctioned and some of the meat inside thawed, so I had to cook it up. I called my co-worker, Jenny, to find out how she cooked it the time we had it at her place, tweaked the recipe a bit and this is what I did: I seared the meat, seasoned it with salt and fresh ground pepper, then put it in a pressure cooker with potatoes, carrots, onions and about 4 cups of coffee. I brought it to pressure, cooked it for 45 minutes (oh, the aroma!) and when it was done, thickened the liquid left in the pot with cornstarch, and voila! It tasted just like roast beef and gravy. Josh sliced it up, we invited some friends to join us and what a yummy meal! Reminded me of a Sunday noon meal back at home in Manitoba! I highly recommend it - and it took so very little prep time! :)

"Mommy, the cockroach is looking at me..."

That's what Julia said to me this afternoon as I was helping her get ready for her afternoon nap! There was a roach on the floor, upside down and not moving, thanks to the roach motels we have in various locations. Thankfully we haven't had any in the kitchen yet (here in this region - we HAVE had them in the kitchen when we lived in another region, you may have read that post from late 2006) - they seem to prefer our private living quarters (bedrooms and bathrooms), which is gross enough but at least I'm not finding them by our food. I just thought I'd share that with you - it made me laugh, plus that is not something I'd probably ever have heard had we not moved here!! :)

We had to take a "couple" picture for something else

so I thought I'd post one of them.

In general, we're all doing well. Josh is extra busy right now, but we're exploring ways that I can help him out more when he's in his extra busy time. Thankfully we're all healthy right now, Julia and Mitchell having kicked a bug they caught just after we came back from interior. The fever was a bit scary and since Julia wasn't able to communicate about her sore throat, we didn't catch it until late in the week. We don't know if it was strep or just a sore throat as it was hard to get her to let us look in, but we're thankful for no complications! (I'm also thankful as my "good/fast" digital thermometer's battery died months ago and we couldn't get the cover open to replace the battery but a co-worker figured it out for us and now we're back in business should we need it again!!)

The boys drinking the water from inside a young coconut from a tree on our yard!

I'm doing a lot of home schooling. Mitchell is officially putting together sounds and should be reading simple words by the end of the week. Spencer is doing well in school and looking forward to time off next week - not only for Labor Day, but his teacher has some visa work to do and will be in another Asian country for a week, so they get a whole week off! I'm looking forward to using that time to do more home schooling with them (he's probably looking forward to spending more time playing with his Lego!).

Spencer with his classmates in his one-room school.

Things are looking slower for the mission home next month, and as it looks right now will be the slowest month for me since I started this ministry. The month of August was the busiest month here (billing wise) in over a year! We had guests from the tribe we visited leave this morning to go back interior after a week or so in town. It's been great to see how visiting them in the tribe bonded not only our kids to theirs kids we visited, but my friendship with the mom is also deeper. It's so helpful to visit people on their own turf - helps you understand where they're coming from and helps you appreciate them more. Spencer & Mitchell had Yohan over for a sleepover Saturday night. It was the first time they hosted someone and they had a great time!! It feels empty without them here.


Julia has been developing verbally in leaps and bounds. She makes us LAUGH with the things she says. This morning when I asked her if she was a girl, she said, "No, I'm an octopus." Very casually but matter of fact. For a while everything was "a volcano", and if her video is over and the credits are rolling, she says, "Mommy, it's not working!" She's doing really well with her potty training, only needing a diaper or pull-up at night or nap times. She also LOVES to "read" and will sit for long periods of time with books on her lap, poring over the pictures. I'm looking forward to seeing how this girl develops. I sure hope she turns into a bookworm (like her mommy and her brother Spencer!) because books open your world up SO much.


Wild boar meat - looks a lot more like beef than pork.
Josh brought wild boar home from the market last week so I'm looking forward to cooking that up. I've had it once here and it was SO good. They marinade the boar in coffee for a day or so and then roast it - it tastes like roast beef! I also had another first that day - I got out the Mission Home's meat grinder and ground pork. Since pork is such a touchy thing here with the need for things to be "halal" you can't get it ground like you can get beef. I like to mix ground beef and ground pork for lasagna and other Italian dishes so it's nice to have some here. I also want to try to make some sausage with the ground pork. The only sausage we can get here is SWEET.

Anyway, that's the current state of our family. Sorry, got a little long-winded! Thanks for praying for us, for the encouraging emails and your continued support of us being here!

Trip Interior

Our family, along with a visitor from the NTM Training program, went interior for a long weekend earlier this month. This is me with our visitor, Naomi at the hangar ready to go!

We visited some co-workers and had a first-hand look at the work they're doing. Since we've only been in this region for 4 months is was also a time to get to know those particular co-workers better, on their turf. They took turns hosting us for each meal and we slept in the vacant teacher's residence.
We all slept under mosquito nets, a first for me and the kids, but not for Josh
We used a bucket-flush toilet and there was enough pressure for water from the taps.

It was a lot different than what "interior" is like in Venezuela, where Josh grew up. There seems to have been a lot more outside influence and they also have a way to earn money (by gathering the sap from rubber trees and selling it). The residents of the village we visited live in wooden houses, had a small general store and some owned motorbikes, televisions and generators.

The exciting thing about this tribe is that they asked for missionaries several years ago, had the first missionaries move in to start learning their language in 2004 and began hearing evangelistic Bible teaching in April 2006. The people wanted the Bible translated into their language. They also asked to be taught and trained to do outreach to all the villages surrounding them. Now the people are taking the Gospel to other villages in the area and three men – Nandung, Yonsen and Akim – are being trained as Bible teachers. Josh was able to attend a teaching meeting one night and we all attended church and Sunday School on Sunday morning while we were there.

Josh and Mitchell at church - no pews here!

Spencer in Sunday School with the tribal kids

Another exciting thing about visiting this team is that they are a multicultural missionary team with the 4 families made up of a tribal couple, Koreans, Germans and Americans. Friday night there was a team fellowship and potluck. We had a GREAT time playing Spoons with them all afterwards. It was hilarious!!

Here are our boys enjoying dinner with the other MK's.

The boys decided they'd rather live interior than in town, and who can blame them, with readily available fishing holes, wide open spaces to roam and their friend and fellow MK, YoHan to hang out with.

The boys on their hike

They had a "jungle hike" with Yohan and their dads the first morning we were there and the entire time interior was a sleepover at Yohan's house! What fun! We celebrated their birthdays (Aug 4 & 5) interior and they both came home with tremendous gifts - sling shots and baskets full of rubber tree nuts to shoot from those sling shots!!

Fun at the creek
All the kids with Naomi

Spencer and his friend Yohan with some tribal kids
So proud of her coloring page!

Josh & I going into the church

Spencer with Korean friends Sean and Yohan

Julia and Sara reading

From the back

Spencer & Yohan reading together

The boys' "jungle" birthday party - the cake fell apart so we made trifle!

Julia and her Korean friend, Sara

Trying on rice farmer's hats

On the little airplane, waiting to take off!

(Little did she/we know that by the end of the flight she'd be throwing up!)

The day after we arrived home from interior, the boys attended their first day of school. We have a one-room schoolhouse with one teacher for 5 grades, so Mitchell goes 2 half-days a week and Spencer goes a half day every day. I teach them both in the afternoons.

Here's a photo of them all ready to go.

Late-Night Answer to Prayer

Last night I was out til midnight, not a usual happening for me. A few girlfriends and I were watching the BBC Pride & Prejudice, and I had a sitter for my kids, since Josh was out of town. We (a guest was with me) drove up a few minutes after midnight, and since my sitter was listening for me, she came outside to greet me.

As she shut the door behind her, the peg-thing that you bar the door with fell down into the hole in the floor, barring the door behind her with my 3 sleeping kids inside the house and the rest of us outside. OH, NO!

Since I had Josh's key ring (obviously not usual for me), I had the key to the garage padlock so we unlocked the garage door and tried the door into the house in there. No luck - later I saw that that door had the key actually in the lock inside at the time, so had we had the key to that door, it would have been useless anyway. We opened the garage door into the backyard and I highly doubted that we'd be able to get the kitchen door open but was praying anyway. We couldn't break into a window - they all have bars! The only other door was only accessible by a gate that was locked with barbed wire on top and the key was probably inside anyway.

Earlier yesterday I had taken the kids swimming and we'd opened the kitchen door to the back yard to hang the towels and swimsuits out on the line. Guess a kid was the last one in, because THE DOOR WAS NOT LOCKED!! Puji Tuhan!! Praise the Lord! I was able to go in and unbar the front door. God is sovereign and He proved it again last night when I couldn't depend on my husband to "solve my problem" - my Heavenly Father took good care of me - as He always does!

Thanks for your continued prayers for us - we truly feel them day and night! :)

Update

The dad of the 4 year old with Dengue Fever Shock Syndrome felt like he had a good talk with his doctor this afternoon. They are also in contact with an American doctor. His condition is not stable enough to be moved tomorrow on a commercial flight, so they have cancelled those tickets. After the 48 hour crisis period is passed, if they need to take him to another Asian country they will call a Medi-Vac flight.

He has passed the 24 hour mark, and although still very weak and on IV and oxygen, he is beginning to talk some. He is still in a crisis stage and the next 24 hours are very critical.

His parents are very weary--please pray that they could get some rest this evening, in spite of the round the clock nursing care that is a required part of being in the ICU ward.

The other 3 children are doing well.

Thanks for your prayers for the whole family.

4th of July Pics

Follow this link to our 4th of July pics! (you may have to copy and paste it into your browser)http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=34707&l=2e36e&id=827110155

Tribal People Reaching Out

Following is a story sent out by one of the missionaries we serve here. For me it brought into focus again the great need that we're here to help fill.

"We have to hurry," Bungon told me. I looked at her with a wrinkled brow. We were sitting on her porch, chatting, and I didn't know that we had plans to go anywhere.

"We have to hurry and finish the Hobongan translation," she said.
"After that you and I are moving to Metalunai to learn Hobukot."

Hobukot is the Hobongan or Punan name for the Bukat people who live in the villages of Metalunai, Nanga Barang, and Nanga Hobat. They live like the Punan did 20 years ago, nomadic hunter-gatherers. Much of the time Nanga Hobat stands as a deserted village while its nomadic inhabitants travel. The Punan believers had, at one time, tried to teach at the village of Metalunai but quickly realized that their limited understanding of the Bukat language was not enough to share the Gospel effectively with these people.


The burden to reach the Bukat still lingers, but the Punan church needs some help in order to plant a church among the Bukat. Learning another language is harder than they realize; it takes perseverance to learn it well enough to teach the Gospel. It takes some linguistic training in order to write an unwritten language and work on Scripture translation.


The Punan church planters are in need of co-workers in order to carry out their vision of reaching another unreached tribe. Do they need to wait another 10 years until the Punan Scripture translation is complete?

Do the Bukat people need to wait even longer before they get a chance to hear the Gospel?

"Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." -- Jesus in Matthew 9:38

New Family Interior and some Miracles

On Monday of last week we said good-bye to the Carpenter family as they headed to their new home in the interior region. They have 4 children: 2 boys and 2 girls, ages 5 to 13 or so. They will be living in a rough home with no bedroom doors for now and a built-on bathroom (with a brand-new toilet that flew in with them - the people interior don't use toilets like we do). I haven't seen pictures yet but I have heard that the house is non-stop full of people, mostly kids. This is probably very stressful as the Carpenters only speak the trade language and not the language of the tribe that they moved into. Thankfully there's another western couple already there to welcome them and help them get set up. When the Carpenters' plane took off last Monday we received word that their co-workers both had a bad stomach bug. As you can see, these families need your prayers as they work to settle in and start building relationships and learning the heart language of the people they have chosen to love and bring the gosepel of Christ to. The Carpenters will also be home-schooling their 4 children and doing all of the normal things we all do, minus the time savers like normal stove/oven, dishwasher, washing machine and dryer. They probably wash their clothes in the river, cook over a gas flame and I don't know if they already have a propane/solar refrigerator or not...

They're going to be there for 24 days before they come out for the first time. When they do, they'll be staying with us. Please pray for wisdom for us as we seek to minister to them, not having done what they're doing and not knowing how it's affecting them or what would be an encouragement to them. Their co-workers have said that every time they come out to town and then it's time to go back in, it's "an act of will" to go back. Pray for both couples with us. Thanks!

On to the miracles...
This last week we saw 3 miracles happen in one day - incredible answers to prayer. First of all, one of my helpers "lost" a large amount of money, her savings. She was understandably upset about it and though we did all we could to find it, it didn't show up. She left for home, having finished her time working for us and we continued to pray that the Lord would bring her savings to light. On Thursday we found out that 2 co-workers had taken the opportunity to seach her room thoroughly one last time, and miraculously found the money stuck way up in the back of her dresser. We were so glad that she got her savings back!

Then, as Josh was working in the office under a deadline, he was trying to transfer some files from one computer to the other. It JUST WOULDN'T WORK. We didn't know WHAT we would do - we were under a deadline and thought we might have to do all of the many hours of data entry again. He kept trying to contact people who might be able to tell him what he needed to do to fix this problem, when he got an email - one of the guys had received his data, extracted it and emailed it back to him. He plugged it in and it WORKED! Whew!

Finally, we had some friends from Australia staying with us for a bit. They'd planned to leave Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest, but on Thursday at noon they were still with us. Their paperwork was STILL in government offices and they had tickets to fly home to be with their teenaged son for Friday. We received a phone call during lunch saying that there was a problem with government computers - some had been seized and so it was holding up the works. Who knew when that paperwork would make it out? After lunch as we were still at the table, talking, one guy suggested we pray about this situation, that the paperwork would arrive in a timely manner. 2 hours later, 1 hour before they needed to leave for the airport, our friends received the news that their paperwork had come through and they could go home.

It's been amazing as we wait on the Lord to see what He will do with the various situations in our lives - He is ALWAYS on time, He longs for us to depend on Him, to wait for Him, expecting a show of His strength, a show of His understanding, a show of His incredible care for us. He always comes through when we wait for Him and don't run ahead of Him.

Thanks for praying with us as we minister here.

Powerless

Not me, US. Looks like we're going to have another day without power, the second this week - and that means no A/C (check out the temps on the column on the right), only fans (not TOO bad, considering) and hearing the generator which is just outside my kitchen window LOUD AND CLEAR all day... It rained all day yesterday so hopefully today is sunnier so the clothes and towels get dry.

The kids had a blast playing outside in the rain yesterday morning but by 11:30 were chilled. We were all cold at lunch time - wonder what the temp was. Should probably get a thermometer for moments like that because we'd probably be amazed at how warm it actually is when we're thinking about a sweater!! There was a cool breeze so that's probably why we felt chilly.

On Tuesday Mitchell started Kindergarten! He's doing a great job and has a great attitude - of course he has a great attitude about it - he's been pestering me to start Kindergarten for months!! I'm glad he enjoys it and am SO excited that he'll be reading in a couple of weeks. I remember doing this curriculum with Spencer and it was so fun to see him figure out how stuff goes together. By the 2nd week of school they're already reading primers. I was just remembering last night some of the cute things he used to say - that he doesn't say anymore, and I'm not sure we got it on video tape! He's growing up so fast!!

Spencer is doing a 1st grade math review and flying through it so far. I'm doing it with him because he's going to be supplementing his 2nd grade math this fall with this other math curriculum and didn't score well on the placement test because he didn't get the format, not because he didn't know the math. It seemed that it would be best if he spent some time with the curriculum reviewing what he already knows before he started new material with a whole new format. It's from another Asian country so some terminology is a bit different than we would normally use. I think he's enjoying it and he seems to get it all. Can't wait til he gets to the Challenging Maths, we'll see how he does. Seems to be laid out really well. Maybe after he goes through all of this I will "get" math too!! In the photo below the boys are checking out the turtles and fish in our small backyard pond. Note they're squatting like local people do. If only I could get MY muscles to let ME do that!!

Our Julia is talking up a storm. Her favorite things are My Little Ponies, her baby doll, and her "beautiful" shirt. I was getting her dressed yesterday after coming in out of the rain and she requested a long-sleeved shirt in her closet. She volunteered that she wanted to wear it because it was beautiful. I don't remember how she pronounced it, but it was cute!! Here she is in her new piggie pajamas - from her aunties, matching her cousins' pajamas! She said, "Mommy, the piggies are running!"

OK, that was strange, but I'm glad to say that our power just came back on!! Anytime the power goes off first thing in the morning (like 6:15 or 7:30 or some other time that's precise like that) we are usually in for a day "off". Have a great day!!

Overwhelmed

Today I’m feeling overwhelmed, but it’s for a different reason earlier this week.

It’s been TOO long since I’ve written, but for good reason. We’ve been transitioning into our new ministry roles, and also have been out of town for about 2 weeks. We had a good time at our Field Fellowship time, connecting with colleagues, taking some time to relax and enjoy the company of friends from language study and also having the opportunity to shop in a grocery store that had western-style groceries. Highlights of the grocery shopping trip include whole wheat flour, flax seed and other grains for baking bread as well as a HUGE food service sized can of nacho slices!! We opened it today for lunch – haven’t had jalapenos since last summer – it was wonderful!! (...I forgot how spicy they were…) It should last a while…

Since we arrived home from Field Fellowship on June 6th, we’ve had guests in spades. Yesterday, the last guest left (until more come tomorrow) so we took the two days to move into our new home!! Part of being overwhelmed before was that our guests helped us move all of our stuff over (thank you!) but we didn’t have time or brain power left to figure out where to put the stuff. So, we walked around it for just under 2 weeks! I’m thankful to report that my floors once again can be seen by all, most everything is somewhere I can find it if needed and I feel much more settled in!!

We also got sick on the way to field fellowship and were sick about half the time there. Then on the way home we all got sick again and are still working to kick the head/chest colds we got!! Julia’s still not better and I’m still fighting a sore throat but the rest of the family seems much better.

That takes me to my current overwhelm-ed-ness. Today our supply buyer walked into our home carrying THREE care packages!! One we were expecting because it was stuff we paid for and had sent. The other two were from friends sending stuff to us because they love to minister to us that way. There are miracles all over this situation. We have already seen a number of times where packages have been held up in customs (or who knows where). Then they arrive on the perfect day – either exactly when we need what’s in them, or on a day when we could use a little pick-me-up. (For instance: Last fall we had decided to see if we could find some matchbox cars for the boys since theirs were looking a little run-down. That same day we received an unexpected package containing matchbox cars!! I prayed for months that the birthday package my mom sent would reach us before we left for our new region – we got it 2 days before we left (over 5 months after she mailed it). One day in fall (my favorite season – non-existent here) I was missing the leaves and we received a package with laminated multi-colored maple leaves from my sister!) So, here are some miracles for today, lest we forget…

We took our last vitamins last night not knowing when the next ones would arrive– the package we had sent to us contained the new ones we’d ordered.

Then another: I decided to go off of sugar for 1 month for health reasons this past Monday. It’s been going OK but sometimes it’s hard and I’m scrounging around the kitchen for something to ease the munchies. 2 of the packages I received today included sugar-free stuff, including strawberry Twizzlers (as anyone who knows me well knows, I LOVE strawberry Twizzlers) and she’d found them in Sugar-Free!! She also sent Splenda, which you can’t get here! I’m totally a beverage person and both packages included sugar-free drink mixes. NOW I'm set! (that's for Brenda)

On top of that, had our supply buyer not been there to pick up the packages, we may not have received the vitamins in them because they were not in original packaging and customs had a problem with that. He was able to talk to them and convince them that these were not illegal drugs or an import that I was re-selling but just something for my family to be more healthy. So I thank God for taking care of that too!

Beyond all of this, a couple from our church brought care packages from our church friends while at field fellowship as well –including an incredible assortment of items from our list on the blog (besides Spencer’s entire 2nd grade curriculum). We are excitedly anticipating making pepperoni pizza this weekend; we have some needed medical items and many other things to enjoy!

So here we are, with heat, humidity and a bunch of wonderful friends and family that God is using to bless us!! How overwhelming is that!!! We’re SO thankful for the tender loving care from such a caring Heavenly Father!