Monday, May 28, 2012

Gardening

For those of you who know me, I don’t have a green thumb!  So I haven’t done any gardening over the years.  But I thought that maybe it would be nice to do some gardening with the kids while we are in Canada this time.  Thankfully I have a father-in-law that has green thumbs and fingers, so I can get plenty of guidance and direction.

About 10 days ago we planted our seeds together.

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It was great to have lots of help to get it all planted.  Hopefully I will have the same amount of help as we need to weed!

After being away for this last weekend, we came home to many sprouts of plants coming up!  How very exciting!  We can’t wait to eat the fruit of our labour!

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We hope to have peas, beans, carrots, cucumber, tomatoes, squash, pumpkins and corn!

Many of you have asked if we have a garden in our village, so we can have fresh veggies.  The answer is no.  First we don’t have any space near our house.  The people from our village have their gardens out in the areas surrounding the village.  We would have to rent land from someone to do it.  The second reason we don’t do it is, we don’t have time!!!  Our days are so full with language and culture study, plus home schooling and raising 6 kids, that we just don’t have enough hours in our day to tend to a garden.

Vegetables are very cheap to buy in town.  About every 3 weeks we have fresh fruit and veggies come in to us.  They last about 10 days.  After that we eat canned veggies.  Sometimes we are able to buy a little bit of string beans and eggplant from the villagers but that isn’t very often.  We hope to be able to supply the people with some seeds for some other vegetables that maybe they can grow for us and keep some for themselves.  We shall see how it all works out though!

Monday, May 7, 2012

God’s creation

What a beautiful weekend this last weekend was!  The sun was shining and the air was warmer than it had been in weeks.

We started our Saturday with a visit at the house of our former pastor and a mentor of Chuck’s.  We enjoyed our time of fellowship with John and Barb Stanley very much.  The kids were able to ride a 4 wheeler and take a ride in a bush car!  What fun they had!  I am afraid of what Kyle will be asking for on his next birthday!

The drive along Georgian Bay was beautiful.  Every time the kids would see the water, they would yell, “water!”  We loved looking at the old farm houses and the beautiful new homes along the bay.

From there we continued up the Bruce Peninsula to a cabin on Lake Huron.  What a beautiful place to be!  The view was fantastic.  The beach magnificent.  And the cabin gorgeous!  We spent the evening visiting with friends from Bethel Evangelical Missionary Church in Lion’s Head.  The kids had a great time running around outside and making new friends.  Us, adults, enjoyed visiting together, catching up on the past 3 years.

Waking up Sunday morning to the view out the big windows of the cabin was breath-taking.  I couldn’t resist having the kids pose for a picture before we left that beautiful spot that God created.

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This is Sophia as she tried to smile for me!  What a character she is!

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We were blessed with a wonderful Sunday morning of sharing the ministry we have been involved in in the Philippines with the folks at Bethel EMC.  We also enjoyed a time of fellowship over food after the service.

We feel so blessed for the things the Lord allows us to experience and enjoy.  He didn’t have to allow us to stay in such a beautiful place but He did because He cares for us.  What a privilege it is to serve our Creator.

“You alone are the Lord.

You have made the heavens,

The heaven of heavens with all their host,

The earth and all that is on it,

The seas and all that is in them.

You give life to all of them

And the heavenly host bows down before You.”

Nehemiah 9:6

We would love to visit with so many of you also.  We look forward to seeing many of you at the churches we will be visiting but we would love to visit with you one on one.  Send us an email if you would like to visit with us in your home or ours.  We would love to share with you more about what the Lord is doing in the Philippines with the Ga’dang people.