Family News

So two weeks after Mikayla turned 18 (see post below), Ben turned 14. They're all growing up so fast!

 Ben opted for a pool party with some of his friends. A few more came after the pic was taken.

 Ben also wanted to try some of the "acrosport" formations like Mikayla did at her party, but they didn't go as well with this age. Still fun though. :)

 They also played some basketball and other pool fun.

Happy Birthday, Ben! We love you!

Zach was recently inducted into the National Honor Society. In some places, this is based almost entirely on academic grades, but here they are very strict with the other requirements of leadership, character and service, so it is quite the honor to get in, especially as a sophomore.

Meanwhile, Mikayla's graduation will be here before we know it!
NOTE: YOU ARE INVITED TO AN OPEN HOUSE
 IN LINN CREEK, MO on JUNE 10 from 1-4pm to CELEBRATE WITH US!

(email or PM me for details!)

18th Birthday!

Mikayla turned 18 last month! Crazy to think of our daughter as an adult herself...

We got to celebrate her actual day with my parents and our teammates since we had our team retreat that same weekend. Also blessed to have Chad and Katie from our home church here for it!

 Happy Birthday, Koodles!

She chose a chocolate mousse cake that we all enjoyed!

 We also had a party to celebrate with her friends. She wanted a swing dancing party, and we were able to rent out a room up at school for the festivities.

We started with some "acrosport" challenges in teams. Was fun to watch them figure out to create the different formations, and they seemed to have a good time too. :) 

 This group is ready to party!

 Homemade ice cream cake.

 And then everyone had fun swing dancing. They especially like the "stunts" where they lift, flip, and twist through the air (hard to get good pics since it all happens so fast!). With all that flipping around, I was glad to see that all the girls knew to wear shorts under their cute dancing dresses. :)

 This is one of my favorite pics from the night - Zach doing "Angel" with Mikayla. Is fun to watch them continue to develop a deeper friendship.

 So thankful for our sweet Mikayla and proud of the young adult she is.

Village Visit

In February, we had a very small team come visit - my parents and 2 of our closest friends, Chad and Katie. Such a blessing to have them!

They hit the ground running when we headed out to catch our domestic flight after only a couple hours sleep after their international travel. 

The first day found us in Agta villages in Bicol. Try doing this bridge on a couple hours sleep in as many days...but they did great!

 We had the privilege of sharing testimonies and words of encouragement with some believers who are feeling lonely and isolated.

 We were able to not only share stories of God grace with them, but we were also able to spend time praying for them. Such a privilege to lift one another up!

 We traveled from place to place in this trike (little motorscooter with a sidecar). At the beginning, Katie was inside the sidecar with me, my dad and my mom...sardines have more room in a can for sure! Katie sweetly said to my mom, "I'm sorry, am I crowding you?" Let's just say we were all crowding everyone, which is the only possible way when you have that many people riding in and on such a small vehicle.

 We were able to visit 3 different places to encourage the believers in those places.

 In the last village, we were encouraged with how many of the men stuck around to hear what we had to share...usually the men seem to disappear.

 We ended the day at the training center so that Chad could see the finished product of what he helped to build when he came as part of the building team in July 2014 (click here for flashback post). We also had a good time visiting with our tribal partners and hearing their reports about what God has been doing in the various locations.

 We finished the day with this gorgeous sunset, a reminder that He will make His glory known.

 The next day was a travel day. We flew back to Manila then drove north so that we could arrive bright and early the next morning in the Bugkalot village of Talbec.

There we met with the tribal leaders and visited the places and people that are so near and dear to my parents' hearts (and ours, but my mom only gets to come occasionally, so this was definitely special for her).

 We also got to hike up and see the "house in the clouds"

 It was great to check out the status of the coffee trees and hear the latest updates about what God is doing with that side of the work.

 Coffee cherries everywhere!

 That afternoon we drove back down towards Manila so that my parents and Chad and Katie could catch their flight to Singapore for the weekend. 

Once they got back from Singapore, we had a couple days with my parents at our house. It was fun to have my mom there especially since she so rarely gets to come. Zach took the opportunity to teach her how to shoot rubber bands properly. :)

 Then we all headed down for a quick team retreat just south of Manila. The first evening, we had the privilege of helping to put stickers on the new batch of roasted coffee.

 So cool to see these bags of coffee ready to be sold. God is at work!

 The next day we spent time in prayer and worship together as a team. It was a sweet time, and we are so thankful that we had the opportunity to join our hearts together for this time.

 Here is a current team picture. We are rarely all in the same place, which makes it even more special when we are!

Outdoor Ed

For those of you who have followed our blog through the years, you will remember Outdoor Ed. It is something that Faith Academy does with the middle school every year where they camp out in different locations and learn various practical skills. Mikayla started going on OE as part of the "homeschool squad" back when we still lived in Bicol. Then both Zach and Ben have been able to go with Faith Academy. This was our last year of OE since Ben is in grade 8 this year. 

The focus of OE this year was learning about sea turtles (also got to release them into the ocean!), jungle survival (including starting a fire with bamboo, cooking in bamboo, and foraging for food in the jungle), and then a day of ministry at a local elementary school.

Here is Ben with his cool squad of 8th grade guys. 

 

 Something that was cool this year is that Mikayla applied and was accepted to go to OE as a counselor. She was stationed at the beach site and helped with the turtles as well as served as a lifeguard. 

She worked with a great team of students and teachers, and they were definitely stretched when their venue was unexpectedly cancelled midweek, and they had to move to a different site. At the new site, no one spoke good English, so Mikayla's Tagalog fluency came in really handy for the whole group! 

Mikayla loved working with the other students at the beach site. They came back tired, but they were blessed to serve in this way.

 Shortly after Outdoor Ed, it was time for the Sadie Hawkin's banquet. Mikayla and Zach both had fun getting dressed up and practicing their swing dancing moves.

Corregidor Island

All you history buffs will be especially interested in this post. We went on another adventure over Christmas, this one not ministry-related, just for fun. We drove a couple hours north of Manila to Bataan, then took a boat across to Corregidor Island (google it to see the historical significance; riddled with tunnels and decked out with guns from WWII). 

Our group consisted of about 30 people, all from Faith Academy. Most of the group was seniors or recent grads, with a couple of adults and other high schoolers thrown in. Ben was the youngest of the group.

 We camped on a grassy area right on the beach.

The kids all slept in hammocks. Not sure why they chose to stack their hammocks like this, then having to use the lower hammocks like a ladder to get to the upper ones, but it made for great pics, and they seemed to have fun with it. 

One of the coolest things happened on our first morning at daybreak. Steve realized that sea turtle eggs were hatching all across the beach, and the turtles were making a run for the water. 

 It wasn't long before we realized that a bunch of them were going the wrong way, up into the grass instead. We were able to rescue about 20 sea turtles and release them in the sand so they could make the journey to the ocean.

 Every day different groups headed out to hike various parts of the island. They explored caves and tunnels, climbed massive trees, and hiked through dense jungle. Lots of adventures!

 The various gun batteries are fun to explore. 

 This group is comprised entirely of seniors, which means they are getting ready to graduate and get scattered to the 4 corners of the world.

 It was a fun group of travel with...but a BIG one!

 Everyone brought their own food and cooked for themselves. 

 Notice anything funny about this picture? Zach is exploring the level below, but a shell blew a hole in the concrete, so he was able to reach up through and grab Kayla's hand. 

 So many cool trees there!

 Some of the guys made a raft one afternoon on the beach. It didn't float that well, but they had fun creating it.

 Our campsite from the mountain above...

 Another cool tree:

 So thankful for more great memories to cherish!