Summer Time

This summer was busy with travel and LOTS of meetings, but we did get to take a couple days of down time on one of our favorite islands in SE Asia.

We love this "blowhole" where the waves come in and shoot out in a spout. Such a beautiful place.

It was a very busy summer, but the meetings we attended were very fruitful, and we were encouraged by seeing some amazing places and catching up with some wonderful people.

 

Fun with Visitors

At the start of the year, we were blessed to welcome some visitors. They really came more to see Mikayla (it was her prior teammate, Allison, with some of her family), but we all had a great time at the beach & and down in Bicol. Even got in some wakeboarding & hot springs time!

While we were in Bicol, we were able to see Mt Mayon erupting at night again! Such an amazing experience. 

Can't beat the sunsets around here!

My (Jen's) dad also got to come for a visit, and we enjoyed going to see a musical together. It's not all mountains & beaches. :)

Sweet Family Time

As you know, the boys were here over the summer helping with surveys & other ministry needs. Mikayla was able to arrive the end of July, just in time for our whole family to spend a couple of days at the beach together! It was such a sweet time, made sweeter by the fact that Ben's girlfriend as well as our team were able to join us as well. It was a big, fun group, and we enjoyed sunsets, our favorite pizza restaurant, spikeball, worship time together & swimming in both the ocean & the pool. So incredibly thankful for this time together!!

This time was a gift straight from the hands of our good Father.

 

Family Time

We are so blessed to have our boys here this summer (and Mikayla has tickets booked to come back the end of July, so we'll all be together a couple of days before they take off!). And we are loving getting to know Katye (we hadn't met her in person before this - she's jumping right in!). 

Because everyone's flights arrived as scheduled (thank you, Lord!), we had 1 day with just us before the crazy schedule started. We enjoyed some wakeboarding, hot spring soaking, and getting caught up. Then after a week of ministry, we got to enjoy a day off together with friends in Manila as well. We are so thankful for the moments that He is blessing us with this summer!

Giving Thanks!

In November, we got away for a few days with our team & had such a wonderful time relaxing and refreshing together on the beach that we forgot to get any pics! Here's some of the setting though - use your imagination :)

So very thankful for this team!
The pic below was when they traveled up to Manila to celebrate Thanksgiving with us and the rest of our coworkers.

After the Thanksgiving celebration, we went back to our house with Mikayla & Claire for 1 last dessert together. So thankful!

Summer Sojourns Pt 2

Claire's family headed their own way at that point, and we continued on with our 3 and my parents. We stayed in a airbnb Italian villa in a tiny village in Tuscany and thoroughly enjoyed exploring Orvieto (a highlight for sure!), Siena & Florence.

 

We even found a field of sunflowers so of course had to take some pics!

I can't even say how thankful we are for this blessed time together. While Italy has always been on my "bucket list", I NEVER would have expected that we'd be able to go, much less with the whole family. He is so very good to us.

After a fun food tour in Florence, we split ways again. My parents headed home, the fearless 3 headed to the Swiss Alps by train to crash with a friend, and Steve & headed trained to Cinque Terre, Italy to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary (ok, so a year late so our 26th because that was when we had meetings in Europe so tagged it on!).

Mikayla, Zach & Ben had a great time together in Switzerland, and I loved seeing their pics!

Steve & I stayed in a the tiny town of Corniglia - it's it adorable?!

We enjoyed the sunset from our tiny balcony (and lots of gelato!)

We also enjoyed the fact that our credit card points paid for our stay! :)  

Our hearts are overflowing with thankfulness for His many blessings! Never would have thought we'd have meetings in Europe, our family would get to join us, and that we would have this amazing opportunity.