Where does the time go???

I really am not sure how we have been here already five months. It has zoomed by!
The boys safely arrived the end of July after a great summer staying with their Aunt Elaina and Uncle Ric. We basically got them off the airplane, showered and sent them off to school (actually there was a couple days in between). All four of our kids are going to school at the same place, as Mari has started pre-school there! It is really fun! This is the only year it will ever happen :)
We spent the summer months with two different college interns. One from PLNU, Kate, and one from NNU, Ryan. It was such a blessing having them here with us this summer. It is so fun orienting people to the Philippines, showing them the fun differences and similarities to our home culture.Andy got the opportunity of going to Thailand with his volleyball team. They played in a tournament with other Asian schools and got 3rd place! We are excited for them and for the great opportunity they had of going and being a witness to the other teams there. He enjoys playing volleyball, but both Andy and Luke are counting down the days until they can start playing rugby. They LOVE that!

Eric and I worked together and provided childbirth education classes to three couples all associated with APNTS. It was a lot of fun working together, teaching and encouraging them. One of the couples delivered a beautiful little girl three weeks ago. We got to meet her for the first time today at church and it felt like we were meeting a little niece.

We got to spend some time with some friends from Papua New Guinea while they passed through Manila. We tried to collect several of us who had been to PNG at one time or another, and shared a meal together in our home. It was a fairly large crowd :) (plus a couple extras).

The gang in Eric's office is ramping up to do a call campaign for Nazarene Compassionate Ministries (NCM). They will be making phone calls via the internet to every local churches missions president, across the US, almost 5000 people! This is the fourth year the group has done this call campaign. The intention is to make the missions presidents aware of available materials to help get the word out about NCM and the World Evangelism Fund. Each phone call includes a "real-time" prayer between the caller and the missions president. Once again, we get to experience the mission field calling "home." Please be praying for this group as they prepare for this awesome opportunity. The first calls will begin on October 18th.

These past seven weeks have been riddled with sickness in our home. With the exception of about 6 days, there has been someone in bed with a fever and aches and pains. Our schedules had to be adjusted quite a bit. Luke has just come down with it again last Wednesday. There are a lot of people really fighting sickness this month. We know that several of you have been lifting our health up to the Lord, and we really appreciate it.

Thank you all for the way you keep us in your prayers. It is essential!

May God grow you and bless you today!

In service together,
Eric and Linda