Growing Up

Time is going by so very fast these days. Last week the moment that made me feel like I needed a time machine to go back in time was when Sophia lost her first tooth!!!  In just 18 days she will be turning 6 years old!

Actually I was the one who pulled it out for her. It was very very loose. She showed me and then I grabbed a cloth and pulled! There were many tears.

After Sophia settled down and we carried on with our afternoon, Jenna was behind me and started sobbing. She said, “I don’t want to lose a tooth!” Oh the poor girl. She gets to watch her older sister do everything dramatically and instill fear in her mind! I then went on to tell her that she would be much older before she would have to lose a tooth. Then the tears continued as she told me “I don’t want to get bigger!”

These 2 girls are joined at the hip. There is almost 4 years between Hala and Charlotte and they don’t seem to have the same connection that Jenna and Sophia do. Jenna has been a little out of sorts lately as Sophia does school all morning. She plays a lot on her own and with Bea but she sure misses having her sister to play with all day.

Here is sad Sophia after the traumatic event.

This is her 2 days later.

And here are my 3 girls having a great time together!

Now we wait for tooth #2 to come out!  I expect it to be ready by the end of the week!

Treating the sick

I have been asked recently how things have been going with any medical work in the village.  If you remember this time last year I was in North Carolina at Equip International's Missionary Medical Intensive course.  So was it worth the time and money?

Most definitely!  The first day we arrived in the village the medical questions/concerns started.  It was actually the need for a sterile blade to cut an umbilical cord!  Thankfully I had one and I was able to help tie off the umbilical cord of a baby just minutes old and watch the father cut the cord.  The best part was being able to hold this little guy when he was less than an hour old.  Even before we arrived in the village I was getting texts from people with medical questions.  Chuck had asked me what to do for a man’s foot that was cut when he was in the village before I arrived too.  Almost every time someone comes to me I pull out my trusty “Village Medical Manual”.  It certainly has come in handy in finding a diagnosis and deciding on treatment.  I still don’t claim to be a doctor or a nurse.  There are many times that I still don’t have an answer or just can’t treat a person.  I still recommend that people go to town to see a doctor when it is something I don’t know how to deal with.  Then I also have my doctor friend in Manila who is just an email away.  I am so thankful for the training I had and help that I can get.  It has given me a new confidence to be able to help people with their needs.  But I still depend on the Lord for wisdom.

So what else has come my way in just 5 weeks???  I have seen 4 feet with “something” in them.  I have been able to treat 2 of them and recommended that 2 of them go to town.  I have seen a 1 yr old with pneumonia.  Treated 2 UTI’s.  I have seen an older man that has many problems far beyond my ability.  And given out a lot of antibiotic ointment for impetigo.  I have listened to many chests of babies that have had coughs.  I have given out medicine for many fevers and achy bodies too.

In all of this I was able to build new and better relationships.  I have been able to trust the Lord to heal those who are sick.  I have been stretched in my language ability.  I have learned some new words.  My favourite being the word for pus, “nana”!  Sorry Nana but your name means pus here!

Thank you for all who have prayed for me while we have adjusted to life back here with the Ga’dang people.  Some days are very stressful.  Please continue to pray for me and the Ga'dang people.

Here are pictures of a couple of my patients: (I'll keep the nasty looking toe to myself!)

Solar Installation Complete!

Have you ever thought about what it would be like to not have electricity? What if you had electricity but it was only “on” a few hours a day? How would you feel if you always had to take a flash light with you the bathroom in the night? Or to find your pj’s to get ready for bed?
Up until 3 weeks ago that is how we lived. The village we live in does not have electricity. When we first moved into the village we were the only ones with a generator. As time went on people started buy generators to use. The problem with using a generator is you need to have gasoline to run it, or diesel if that’s the type of generator you have. You would think that gasoline would be cheaper in the Philippines than Canada but that’s not so. It costs about $1.30 a litre. Plus we pay another 30 cents a liter to get it to us. We would use about 120 liters of gas a month. We needed to use our generator to charge a couple large batteries, to charge our computers, to run the modem for our satellite internet, to run our twin tub washing machine, to charge our cell phones and flashlights. Those are just a few things we would use the generator for. We also had some lights in our kitchen, living room, bathroom and office. We only used our generator for a couple hours in the morning to run the washing machine and charge up a few things. Then we would use it for about 4 hrs in the evening to continuing charging things and have lights for showers and eating dinner. The kids never had lights in their bedrooms, so they would use a flashlight when they needed to go in there…if their flashlight was charged, something they would often forget to do!
Throughout the 18 months that we lived in the village prior to our home assignment we would dream of the day that we would have solar electricity. So it became one of our projects for fund raising while we were home. It actually fell at the bottom of the priority list because the cost was so great. We estimated needing about $8,500 for the complete set up. As we were able to raise enough money for our other projects we started seeing money come in for the solar equipment. It was very exciting! We then contacted the Tech Center, a part of NTM, that designs and purchases solar equipment for missionaries. As we worked through the planning of what we needed we soon realized that it was going to cost more than what we had thought to get what we wanted. We worked on reducing the consumption of electricity so we could reduce the number of solar panels and batteries. Finally the best we would do was going to cost over $10,000 plus shipping. We continued to trust the Lord to provide the money.
While we were waiting to see if we would have enough money, we started talking about who would be able to install the solar equipment. The Tech Center sends detailed instructions for installation but it still takes time that Chuck didn’t have. One night we commented on the idea of how great it would be if a guy we knew from before that works at the Tech Center would be able to come and install it for us, it is one of his ministries. Within a couple days we received an email from this very guy offering to come install our solar system as he was planning a trip to the Philippines to do this kind of work. The trip was at his expense, we just needed to buy the solar equipment and have it here ready for him! We praised the Lord for his provision.
Then the Lord provided the money to order the solar equipment! What an exciting day that was for us. Then we just had to wait for it to arrive. We had heard that shipments from the US were taking unusually long to get to the Philippines. So we prayed that the stuff would arrive before Jason arrived to install it! And it did! About 6 weeks after the equipment was shipped it arrived at the flight center, all but the solar panels. But thankfully they arrived 2 weeks later.
Just days after we arrived in the village as a family, Jason, Jonie and Jordan arrived to install the solar system. This involved wiring our house for DC power and some AC power, and installing 8 panels and all the equipment that makes it all work. The batteries needed to be connected and grounding plates installed. Plus many other things. Jason planned for 12 days in here with us and finished in 10 days. He worked 12 hr days in the heat with a house that was still being unpacked and 8 kids under foot along with 5 adults.

The day we switched over to battery power was so nice! Then the next day the AC power was hooked up. How nice it was to be able to turn on a light during the day if it was too dark from a rain storm. But the best part of me…was the ceiling fan over the kitchen table! Chuck’s favourite part is having a light in his bodega (shed!)

The silence we have in the evenings now by not running the generator is so nice. Being able to turn on the fan when it is too hot to eat a meal without turning on the generator is even nicer. Sending the kids to their room to clean up after dark means a tidier house! All these things and so many more are such a joy to us. And it’s all because of the generosity of our supporters. Thank you to each one of you who contributed to this project. The money we can save now by not buying gasoline and paying to ship it in to us is a huge blessing.
We especially want to thank the guys at the Tech Center for their help in getting all this equipment together for us. And a very special thank you to Jason for his hard work and long days.
We are so blessed!

2013 School Year has begun

It's hard to believe that the school year has already begun for the kids. It's crazy to think about what grades the kids are in this year!


Elijah is in grade 11. He is working from home with the Independent Learning Center in Ontario. It has been a slow start for him as he is waiting on more books to arrive but once they come he should be able to move along without waiting on anything else.



Hala is in "grade 8". Many people ask her what grade she is in and grade 8 is what she tells people but she works at many different levels to be able to meet her special learning needs. It's one of the best things about homeschooling, we can use what best helps her to learn.



Kyle is also in grade 8. He just became a teenager! This is a more challenging year for him as the work load is greater. We are hoping that this year will help to prepare him for high school next year.



Charlotte is in grade 6! She just turned 11 yrs old and is growing like a weed. Straight up that is! I'm certain her legs account for more than 50% of her height!



Sophia has started grade 1! I can't believe she is old enough for grade 1 but she is. She is loving learning to read and is doing very well in math. She amazes me everyday with what she knows.



 Jenna is just 3 1/2 yrs old and wishes she could go to school. We are planning to try her out at the village "daycare" like Sophia did. It really is like preschool would be but maybe even more learning involved!




Bea is learning all she can from the environment around her. She doesn't miss anything. She loves to sit with a pile of toys around her to play with.  She also knows how to make a fuss so that someone will come and pick her up!



Chuck is back at language study full time. It was a process to get us all settled back in to life here but now the real work begins of language and culture study.  He is thankful to have a couple men able to help him in this process.



Shannon, that's me, has had plans to get started in language study again but with needing to organize the house and then having my house helper sick for over a week, well it has yet to happen. Now that she has returned to work I am seeing the beginning in the near future.



Now the most exciting thing about this school year is that I am not teaching the kids!!! We are so blessed to have Lindy Meeker here with us to teach the kids. She has taught them so much already and much of it isn't in the classroom! The girls are learning to knit, cross stitch, draw and sing! They are loving it. Kyle has been enjoying having someone work through his science curriculum and now they are working on some more writing skills.



What a privilege it is to have our kids at home with us all the time. And to have an amazing young lady here to teach them.

Friends

Earlier this week I listened to the kids tell their Grandpa Percy and Aunt Chelsea, via Skype, that they didn’t know what they would be doing that day.  But as soon as we finished talking I walked into the room to find the kids looking like this:

Over the last 6 weeks that we have been in the Guest House in Manila there have been so many kids passing through.  Our kids get to be friends with other kids from all over the world.  In this picture with our Canadian kids there is an American girl, a Filipino/American/Canadian girl and kids from South Africa.  Last night they were also playing with friends from Germany and more American kids.  What a great opportunity to get to know people from other countries.  And we are all here for one purpose, to see tribal Filipino’s come to know Christ as their personal Saviour!  How awesome is that!

In a couple weeks Charlotte and Kyle will get to spend a week at soccer camp with a friend and will get to make new friends from all over the world.  They are looking forward to a time of learning new skills and making new friends.

So as much as the kids say they don’t know what they are going to do today, I think they will find something to do with all of their FRIENDS!

Here comes the rain again...

Our second trip to the village was to be a week long, with the goal of getting some maintenance done on the houses before our families moved back in.  The area had been experiencing a lot of unusually dry weather so the trail remained dry enough for certain vehicles to get into the village.  We decided to take advantage of this and hire our neighbouring village friend with the truck to haul in some building materials such as plywood, and some of the Eastons’ belongings such as their mattresses and appliances.  (Mattresses in particular are best not hauled in by water buffalo and sled in the midst of rainy season.)  My tribal friend, Gaton also came out to accompany us back in.  It sounded like a grand plan, so we went forward with it.  Then it happened…

As mentioned, the weather had been unusually dry up to this point.  Normally we would be getting into rainy season here, which generally means you can count on a good down pour every afternoon by around 3 or 4 pm.  This wasn’t happening this year.  But the day Dennis and I travelled north to begin our trip into the village a low pressure system developed to the west of our island, Luzon and the forecast was promising lots and lots of rain for the coming week… while we were in the village.

We loaded up the truck as planned that morning but as is often the case here, plans never go quite accordingly.  By the time it was all said and done, it was 2 pm before we actually got on our way to the village.  Although (technically) we were the ones who hired the truck, there’s always a number of people from our village and surrounding area looking for the opportunity to either send cargo on the truck or catch a ride themselves.  Such was the case this time and as we moved along, pausing at various points in town.  The pile on the back of both stuff and people, seemed to increase with each stop.  As we left town and headed into the hills we could see some wispy clouds to the west but nothing looked too ominous just yet.  I could see though by the way our driver friend kept looking at the load and the sky and shaking his head that something was going to happen.

After about an hour we reached the last leg of the journey, ‘the Junction’ as it is known by the locals.  It is at this point where we turned off the main road (it certainly isn’t a ‘main road’ by North American standards, but that’s all relative) and started down the trail towards our village.  Normally in the midst of dry season this leg of the journey can take about 45 minutes, provided there’s no stopping and the trail is still in decent shape.  As we climbed the first hill, I quickly noticed it must have rained at least once since our 1^st trip as the trail was showing evidence of water gouging and wash out.  I confirmed this with the driver who said it had rained just 4 days earlier, and he glanced out the window yet again at the now quickly darkening sky.

I too, had begun to notice the clouds begin to build in from the west as we made our way from town to the Junction.  I’m always amazed at how quickly weather can change here in the tropics. You can go from a bright, sunny day to pouring rain in a matter of minutes, but fortunately we’ve learned some of the tell-tale signs that indicate something is about to change in the weather.  (Even then surprises do happen!)  I texted Shannon to start praying for the rain to hold off until we arrived at our destination.  As we drove down into the first valley along the trail I started to hear a distant rumbling and saw the occasional bolt of lightning in the now black horizon approaching us.

We lightened our load slightly at the bottom in a tiny settlement of 4 houses, and I jumped out of the truck briefly to take a better look at the sky and see who was getting off.  The driver motioned to me to get back in and on we went.  It was a good thing he was driving and not me, as the long climb back up out of the valley was interesting to say the least.  The trail was showing significant evidence of recent rain storms as we cradled and/or swerved around deep crevices, all the while climbing upward and around several tight corners.  I could see the driver focusing intensely as he gripped the steering wheel and swung it back and forth and we careened from one side of the trail to the other.  We both knew that if he stalled out on the hill or got stuck in one of the wash out trenches we were done for and the ride was over.

The top was a welcome sight for us as we could now see our valley just beyond the next ridge.  It also brought into view a now very, very dark and foreboding sky, ready to let loose on us at any moment.  Thunder rolled around us and every few minutes lightning would strike.  We just needed to get through the next valley, over the hill and down into our village and we would be safe and dry.  Would we really make it down the still dusty and rugged trail before the sky gave way?

At the top of the next ridge we stopped again to unload more passengers and cargo.  This village was the last one before our final destination, but not our driver’s.  He was from this village here and was hoping to make it back there again today.  I began to seriously doubt whether or not he would actually do it, or if we would even make it to our village in time as the wind suddenly picked up and I could literally feel the temperature drop.  He hurriedly dealt with the ones being dropped off, mumbled a few words and we were on our way once again.  The trail was rough enough, but it felt so much more now as we hastily bounced and jostled our way down the hill and across the valley.  We were almost there… and then it really happened!

We were only about a 5 minute ride from our village when the skies finally gave way and the rain came gushing down.  So close, and yet not quite there!  We soon stopped driving as the road became too slick and soupy.  The one working wiper on the driver’s side also couldn’t keep up with the torrent of water flooding the windshield and so he couldn’t see where he was going.  We were also getting soaked inside the truck as the side door windows were stuck open and the handles missing.  I happened to be sitting on the outside and Dennis was in the middle so you can guess which one of us took the brunt of the downpour.  Our driver hopped out and yelled at Gaton over the deafening roar of the rain, who had been riding on the back of the truck with the cargo, to go to a house we had just passed to borrow a tarp so we could cover the cargo.  Dennis and I figured that by this point though, everything was likely soaked through, including our bags with clothes and other personal belongings.  Too bad!

Within 20 minutes the rain slowed to a drizzle and the sun began to peek out from behind the grey clouds.  Gaton found a tarp and arrived back at the truck shortly after Dennis and I left to walk the rest of the way into the village.  It was only 1.5 km but the previously dusty dry trail was now a series of slippery little slopes covered with gooey muck that both clings to your footwear and makes you feel like you’re sliding on ice all at the same time.  We finally arrived and as we walked through the village to my house, greeting people as we went, we were met with smiles and chuckles.  Everyone could tell we got caught in the rain and then the mud as they looked us over.  We obviously stood out as we were a soggy, muddy looking couple of white guys.  But we made it… almost unscathed!  (The truck also made it the rest of the way to the village the following day, once the trail dried up a little.)

As I say all this it reminds me of how ‘fluid’ our plans have to be as we work for the Lord here in the Philippines.  We make our plans as we move forward, trusting Him to direct us.  Proverbs 19:21 tells us that “many are the plans in the mind of man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.”  How true this is as we seek Him each day.  Our number one desire in all that we do should be to allow Him to fulfil His purpose through us.  I may not understand at this moment what His purpose was in allowing us and our cargo to get completely soaked that day, but I can at least stand in awe at the beauty and majesty, and the awesome power of God that I saw as we drove along and observed the storm moving towards us.  I can and certainly am very thankful for the distance we did get to with the truck.  We had considered waiting an extra day, but we are very thankful the Lord gave us the insight and worked out the details so we could hire the truck to go when we did.

To Him be all the glory!

Bea is 4 months old!

I don’t know where the last 4 months have gone.  Time goes by too fast some days.  Maybe it is age, or perspective or something else but I remember when our first 4 kids were young that the days seemed to go by so slowly.  Now I feel like I just want to slow the days down so I can enjoy my family more.

Yesterday was Bea’s 4 month birthday.  We didn’t do anything special other starting the day off at 5 am and saying good-bye to Daddy as he went to the village again to get our house ready.

Bea is a very serious baby.  She knows how to laugh but she holds it in as much as she can before laughing, or she gets mad and cries!  She is not very cuddly, and I wish she was    I enjoy those rare moments that she falls asleep in my arms.  She is already sleeping a solid chunk anywhere from 8-11 hrs at night.  Plus she naps twice a day for 2 hrs each nap.  I am so thankful that she sleeps so well.  It has been a huge blessing to me as we get settled back into life back in the Philippines.  She is already a TV junky!  She loves to watch a movie with the other kids, although not for as long as they do!  She is also becoming attached to her pink blanket that she sleeps with.  She pulls it up to her face as soon as she gets it in her hands.  She has her favourite people, Mom, of course, Dad, Kyle and Hala.  I am sure Eli will become a new best friend again when he gets back here.  I love getting to know this little person that God has blessed me with!

Today I decided it was time to get out the “big” camera instead of my iPod and take some pictures of this sweet little girl.  Hope you enjoy the pictures.