Guess who came to town...

I had to laugh, when on the way back from our Thanksgiving retreat, I recognized a familiar face in the airport, singing Christmas songs and shaking his booty. Nope, I am not talking about Jody....

Doing Time

We spend the best hours of our day in a class room studying language with a private tutor. I thought you would want to visit our classroom and meet our teacher, Lu. She is 34, single, a dear sister, and probably one of my closest friends here. She has been a valuable asset here in offering insight into the culture from the perspective of one who walks in the light.



Occasionally Jody and I become restless and start acting silly. Today we put basket lids on our heads and did a little dance, singing "We are siamese, if you please! We are siamese if you don't please!"


Lu found this so amusing that she joined in the fun and added her own interpretive movements! Don't you wish you were in our class?

Thanksgiving and a volcano

For Thanksgiving we got to visit another island and get together with colleagues to recount all of our blessings. We stayed at the foot of two active volcanos and when the cloud cover cleared, you could see them smoldering on the horizon. That was exciting! Here we are on Thanksgiving day with one of the volcanos in the background.

The beauty of Boomyah

One of my favorite things about living here is the natural beauty of this place. After visiting another island this week for Thanksgiving, I am even more in awe of how unique this place is. It is easy to grow complacent where we have been "planted" and take our surroundings for granted. I have been challenged to look at my surroundings through the lens of my camera and am amazed as I notice how incredibly creative the Master Artist is and the care He took in His creation. These are some pictures Jody and I took recently on a walk.

Thanksgiving

This year we had our traditional Thanksgiving meal with all the Americans we could find (21 in all) on the Sunday before the actual holiday since we will be going out of town Wednesday for a retreat. On the retreat we will have fellowship with like minded people for a few days as we reflect on all that we are thankful for, however we will only be eating local food since it is a retreat center. We wanted to have the customary turkey and gravy so we had that meal today with friends. Along with the turkey and gravy, we ate dressing, mac and cheese, sweet potato souffle, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie and carrot cake to celebrate Nathan's 3rd birthday. We missed all of you and are thankful that you are in our lives.

The Buffet table

Happy Birthday Nathan!



New Brother and Sister!!!!

Our sweet friend, Ari, is still in ICU, but last night as he was sleeping, he had a dream. There was a huge number of people dressed in white, but in the middle was one who shone of light and had his face covered. He identified himself and said to Ari, "It is time to follow me." This morning as he woke and recounted his dream to another believer, they asked him, "So, are you going to follow Him or not?" He said, "Of course I am. He came to me and invited me." He and his wife joined the family this morning! Thanks for lifting him up. The swelling in his body is gone! I cannot wait until the day you can meet him and the others here who will be there on that day as a result of his work translating the word!

Requests to lift up

I just returned from the hospital where I have been all morning with a friend. We have two men who are dilligently working on translating the Book into the local language. It will be a miracle if both of them survive and live long enough to see it completed. One was already a believer when he began the work. He was diagosed with diabetes recently which is almost always fatal here as there is no reliable way to check blood sugar on a regular basis and the doctors have little knowlege on the illness. The second, Ari, a hindu man, responded to a request to translate literature. He is a scholar and has extensive knowledge of both the existing language and the language the book needs to be translated into. A month ago, his body started swelling and his condition has continued to get worse. His wife says that he has been comatose for the past week. A local witch doctor told him that he has had a curse placed on him by someone that deals in black magic. We learned for the first time last night that he was sick and have been interceeding for him over the past 12 hours. Right now he is intensive care, but the swelling has started to go down. Please join us in asking that he would be fully healed. Ask that this would be a turning point for he and his wife as they would acknowledge the One who heals. Finally, ask that these men would be able to continue the translation work so that others may learn of the hope that we have. Thank you.

Blue Lagoon

This is a beach we visited over the weekend, appropriately named, "Blue Lagoon". It is quiet there and we were two of just a handful of people on the beach. We enjoyed a picnic lunch in the shade of a palm tree as we marveled at how blue the water was. It is one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. Unfortunately most of the beaches here have been taken over by the tourism industry which has spoiled the natural beauty.

A tour of our new apartment...

It has been a busy month since I wrote last. We have moved in with a local Boomyah family. They were gracious to offer us their second story apartment so we have access to privacy when we need it! They put in a kitchen just for us, and it is probably the nicest kitchen I have ever had. The whole apartment is only about 300 square feet, with a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and balcony, but it is perfect for us right now. We plan to be here about 5 more months before we move out to the village.

This is our kitchen...


The bedroom...


The Bathroom...


The Balcony and our view from it...


And here we are...home sweet home!