Life

Hi dear friends,

I have been just about everywhere except at the computer...

Today it is drizzly outside, and it feels a bit like winter, just a bit :) It is very pleasant.

I had asked you to pray for my neighbor, Merly. She and I started a Bible study together. She has been very willing to come and study together. We are reading through John in both English and Tagalog. We are using the time together to study God's word, and to help each other with our language learning. God is doing wonderful things in her life, in the midst of some very difficult things. Merly recently re-committed her life to serving God. She lives in a house with no other evangelical Christians, and meets some resistance from the other family members. However, she has found a wonderful relationship with Jesus Christ, and is pursuing that. Merly was 6 1/2 months pregnant, and went into labor, delivered a beautiful little girl, who only survived for 30 minutes. Please pray for Merly as she mourns the death of her daughter. She has had some very difficult questions, ones that I couldn't even begin to address in Tagalog, so I was able to get our Pastor, who is a widow, to come and pray with her, and talk with her. I know that God will continue to work in her life. Filipino people are amazingly resilient, and seem to always put a smile on their face. Please continue to pray for Merly as she journeys with God. Please pray for me as I try to walk along with her, and encourage her.

There is an annual event at Faith Academy for the Middle School, called Outdoor Ed. It is an opportunity for all of the Middle School to go out and experience some Science and life learning first hand. Eric and Luke both got to go. Eric went as a squad leader or 12 boys, including Luke. There were three schools combined for the experience, and it totaled approximately 300 kids. WHEW! They spent the week at the Taal Volcano area. The first night, all of the kids were together, then each night, they divided up into three different locations, and all rotated through those spots. One night they slept on the volcano, after a hike and a swim in a sulphur lake. They went for a discovery dive in the ocean (shallow scuba dive), and slept on the beach. They cooked for themselves, chicken, potatoes and biscuits in a fire. Did I mention, that the chicken's were live to begin with. They had an outreach project for some of the kids in the area. Our boys designed their own tattoo, that had a gospel presentation involved with it, and got to draw tattoos on the kids in the area (just with gel pens). They had a wonderful time, and many of the kids had some wonderful growth experiences.

I was able to go with 69 other women to a Ladies Retreat up in the mountains last weekend. It was put on by a group of ladies from the Chicago area. They came over here with the sole purpose of doing two separate Ladies Retreats for missionaries. The first one was in our area, and the second one was down south. It was a great time of fellowship, worship, and pampering :) They brought supplies for all of us to have pedicures, manicures, facials, and neck/head massages. Imagine 69 ladies with goop on their faces!!! Hilarious! God's presence was with us! It was a wonderful break.

Our backyard was the venue for an Outreach Valentine party. It is the beginnings of a new church plant, a "baby" from another church that began in our backyard, before we were here. It was really fun to be a part of their outreach. They are targeting an area between our home and the kids school. Please pray for this group as they follow God's leading.

These past six weeks have been full of appointments of several types. We've had Dentist appointments, for cleanings, two cavities, another broken tooth, and Mari got her first experience sitting in the dentist chair. She was hardly cooperative, but she got to ride up and down in the chair :) We have also experienced our first ruptured eardrum. Andy had a slight collision in basketball, and popped his eardrum just like a rose petal in your hand. That has taken us back and forth to town a couple times(and one more to come). Mari has also had standard appointments for her thyroid checks, but that is two different trips downtown, which can be a two hour drive one way. However, we are so thankful that we have found wonderful medical care here, and feel very confident in it.

Eric and the crew have been very busy with training for a new piece of software. They will be supporting this as it will be used in all six regions of the world. God provided two new people with the perfect skill set and disposition and Eric was able to bring both of them onto the team. We are praising God for his perfect timing, and his faithfulness at seeing things to completion. Please pray for the crew as they are taking on this new task, and learning new things.

We have had a lot of visitors on the Seminary Campus this last six weeks. It has been very wonderful to meet these people, and have them in our home for fellowship. There have been people here from Texas, Florida, Maryland, Korea, Australia, and I'm sure I've missed someone. One of the visitors is a developmental therapist and I was able to spend some time with her brainstorming on new things to do with Mari. It is really great the way God puts people in our path.

We had a Work and Witness Team here from the Washington DC area for two weeks. They worked on the new Library , and we had a wonderful time with them. We each had meals with them at the Seminary campus, and we also had them out in our homes for meals. They were here over Superbowl Sunday, and so we had a Superbowl party with them. They had a great trip, and God was definitely with them as they worked together and got to go out ministering with some of the outreaches in our area. Upon arrival back in the states, one of the couples were in a tragic car accident, and the wife was taken home to be with her Savior. Please pray for Paul, her husband who is in critical condition still and will be grieving his wife. Please pray for the other team members who are also grieving.

There are exciting things going on at the Seminary campus. There is a renovation taking place on the cafeteria, and that will make it a much more useable space. The Volunteer Missions Center is underway, with walls continuing to go up and progress continuing on. It will be a great building to have available to the many of volunteers we see come in and out of this area. It is exciting.

We are so blessed to be here, involved with these wonderful people. Thank you so much for allowing us to be here :)