Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas!

We are so enjoying being with family and friends in PA over this wintry holiday season.

And so, this is my lousy Christmas post. I didn't take any pictures...

...but, thankfully, my sister took a few pictures. Below is a very rare Pardoe family picture and also one of Taylor with his hair spiked (thanks to Brenda and Mom!!!).

My Little Hunter Man

Kyle loves to hunt! Ok, well, at least in his imagination or playing with his daddy. But since we've been able to spend some time with family over Christmas, Kyle got to go hunting for real with his Uncle Dan and cousin Dereck. They didn't see any squirrels, but had a great time!

Graduation Time!

December 8, 2009: Michael's graduation from Spanish Language School at the Rio Grande Bible Institute in Edinburg, Texas.

Michael receiving his certificate/diploma. (A very beautiful, blurry picture! Me and my camera were having issues...)

The faculty and staff having prayer over the graduates.
Michael with one of his tutors.
A very special couple - Kevin & Rachel Sommers

These dear friends helped us immensely this past semester. They both were in the first semester of language school with me (Crystal), they came to our church, and then they watched our kids for an hour every day so we could go to our tutor hour (and did I mention they have three small kids of their own?). What a blessing to us!

End of School Year Activities

With December, comes the end of the school year. What a happy and busy time this is for us!

The kids had fun all semester being in day care while we went to school. Here's the small group of them.

Kyle's special friend, Joshua. They are about the same age and enjoyed playing together.

We first semester students held a dinner in honor of the second semester graduating class. Below is one of the singing groups from RGBI who provided music for us.

A small gift our class presented to the second semesters. This is our "beloved" spanish grammar book with the faces of Michael's class forever embedded onto its cover!

A Special Visitor

Aunt Brenda has come to visit us again!

And...we decided to make a visit to the beach...it was a lot of fun and very relaxing! While there, we decided to have Brenda do some family pictures for us...she did a good job!

Below is a cacophony of pictures ~ enjoy!

It's A........

After a doctors visit and ultrasound, the results are in:

20 Weeks!

Church Sign

We were finally able to get a new, "temporary" sign put up here at the church.

Special thanks to Fain Morley and Jonathan Springer who helped with this project.

An Announcement...

So, the time has finally come. There are some things that can only be kept a secret for so long.

Without further ado...

We are excitedly anticipating the arrival of
Mason Baby #3 in approximately 24 weeks!!
(my preferred way of keeping time during pregnancy)

Below is a very blurry ultrasound picture that was taken at
11 weeks/2 days.

Pony Rides

You never know what great fun can be had when you attend our church!

Our neighbor periodically brings horses over to graze at various places in our backyard. This past week, it was an old pony. After church last night, Jared decided to give our kids a pony ride...imagine our surprise when we looked out the window! I ran to get my camera, because it was just too cute!

(Please excuse the blurriness of the pictures...I'm still trying to figure out what's up with my camera.)

Recent Misc. Pictures

Meet the newest member of our family!!
This is our German Shepherd puppy, "Minka".
She's a super good dog and we have really been enjoying her!

[Minka @ 9 weeks]

[Minka @ 12 weeks]

Mommy and Kyle

Kyle
(I'm not sure what's up with all of these goofy expressions!)

(Sorry there are no pics of Taylor...I can't get him to stay still long enough, or get my camera to cooperate with clear pictures...maybe next time!)

Michael was asked to speak at an area church the other Wednesday night. It is a small Spanish church held in a plaza. The Lord came and helped us as we sang and as Michael preached.

Michael preaching

I'm Long Overdue...

...for a blog post, that is!

It's hard to believe a month has passed already since my last post! We had a wonderful Vacation Bible School here with lots of new faces.

We also really appreciated having a youth team from the Richfield, PA Evangelical Methodist Church come down and do the actual Bible School for us, plus they helped with so many other things!!! Since Michael and I both started school that same week, we were very thankful for the team being here!

Considering we normally run around 25 people total in our little church, we decided to set a goal of having 40 children one night during the VBS. We had been advertising at our little stand at the Flea Market and also did some door-to-door calling. We all volunteered to bring people or pick them up if they needed a ride.

And so, we're very happy to report that we reached our goal!! Two nights in a row, we had over 40 children and almost 70 people total!!! Our church is really small, and we were very crowded, but we loved every minute of it!

Michael had told the children if they reached the goal, whoever had the most points from VBS, would get to throw a whipped cream pie in his face Saturday night at our little cookout.

Needless to say, our Vacation Bible School was a "smashing" success! It was a privilege to share the gospel with these children and we're praying the Lord will lead them back through our church doors again.

One of the nights of VBS

Some of the kids enjoying food from our cookout

Michael getting whipped cream pie in his face

The youth team from Richfield, Pa, plus two of our own youth who helped a lot with the VBS.

Changing of the Guard

This past Sunday, were Ron & Esther Junod's last services here at the Donna God's Missionary Church. The torch has been passed on to us, and we are now the pastor and family.

This past week has been filled with a lot of "busy-ness"...helping Junod's pack, trying to get some large mounds of dirt moved from the church property, looking for a lawn tractor for the church, preparing for a team from PA who will be doing VBS next week, and taking care of some parishioners chickens!!! Oh, and did I mention, language school starts next week?!

So, if you don't hear from me very often in the next little while, you'll know we're very busy...and maybe you could say a prayer for us and our (lack of) sanity!

Kyle Turns "4"

Today is Kyle's 4th Birthday, and we're happy to be able to celebrate it while we're here in PA!!

Here's Kyle sporting his combined gifts from everyone! He loves baseball and is one happy boy with all this new gear!

Happy Birthday, Kyle! And we wish you many more...!

(Continue reading previous birthday posts...)

A Visit to PA

We're so thankful that we got to come home to PA for 2-3 weeks this summer before language school starts back up in August. We are enjoying ourselves tremendously! Michael gets to attend conference, and Penns Creek Camp starts up this weekend. Kyle's birthday is also coming up...

Below is a couple of photos we took to help us remember our time here this summer.

(Aunt Brenda and her two nephews)

(Taylor checking out his belly button - cute!)

(Mammaw Pardoe with Kyle)

(My sister and I with our grandfather)