Summer 2013 :: Review

Our summer was most definitely a busy time!  The kids and I spent most of the summer trying to finish up the 2012/2013 school year.  We had gotten terribly behind during our time of deputation and then our transition back to the field.

In the beginning of June, in addition to our regular church duties (church at two locations on Sunday, visiting on Tuesdays, Bible studies on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, we (Michael) started Bible Institute classes on Saturdays.

There were about 15 students that attended between the four classes.  The classes we offered: Elements of Music, Fundamentals of the Faith, Christian Orientation, and New Testament Survey.

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We celebrated Father's Day on June 16th.  Since we had given the mother's a little gift at church for their special day, we decided to do a little something for the father's as well.  We found coffee mugs that had various Father's Day sayings in English on them and then we filled them with a candy bar.

I love my family (although they don't look impressed with me in this pic)!  This is our "it's-been-a-long-hot-Sunday-morning-at-church-and-now-I'm-tired-and-hungry" look!  =)

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Parker (3 yrs.), came in from playing outside one day with his hands looking like this...

Ouch! We couldn't figure out what was wrong, so we finally took him to see a pediatrician.  The doctor, upon seeing his hand, immediately knew the problem.  Apparently Parker had touched the sap from a certain type of tree which caused a chemical burn reaction on his hands.  We applied a cream for awhile and then over time, it has gradually healed.

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I also tried my hand at container gardening this past summer.  Unfortunately, it wasn't a success.  Between iguanas eating the plants, Parker uprooting the plants, not being able to find a sunny enough place, and then rainy season...yep, it was a no-go.  But I tried.  =)  I got one nice looking green bean and then the plant wilted.  The squash plant would flower and then die off.  Oh well, maybe another time, another place!

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The end of July we celebrated Kyle's 8th birthday!  I can't believe how fast these kids are growing!  And since y'all have read my cake making tribulations, we decided to keep. it. simple.  Yep, I bought mini cupcakes.  And it worked grand!

We have a tennis court near our house, so Kyle was so excited to receive a tennis racket for his birthday!

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A big church project that happened in August,..we were finally able to buy a combi (like a van taxi).  Some of you may remember us talking about this at your church during deputation.  And some of you gave to this project.  Thank you so much!  What a blessing this is to our church!

This is a great help in trying to make our church self-supporting.  It also helps by employing a few men from our church, and it's great for picking people up for church!  The combi has had a few rough spots since its initiation (due to the MX economy), but we're trusting the Lord to continue to make it a blessing!

And that pretty much wraps up the highlights from summer.  Now I guess it's on to see if I need to do a Fall Review!  And since we've been more than tardy in publishing a newsletter this year, it looks like I might have to do a Year-In-Review type of newsletter, like ASAP!  For whatever reason, writing newsletters seems to be our "woe" of missionary life.  It's so easy to get caught up with life, especially when it's so busy, and forget that there are supporters and friends who also want to know and see what's going on.  I'll try to do better - pray for me!  =)