Good morning! I've enjoyed your comments. Yesterday Garry came home with some great photos of some of our airstrips. This airstrip is down south and is one we fly into frequently. There is a church established in this location and the missionaries there continue to teach and do translation.

Those of you who are into aviation will appreciate a few things that the rest of us miss:). Most of us just see the beauty of the green trees. Or the readily apparent isolation of this location. Or maybe we check out the houses. Or maybe a dip in the river sounds like fun! Maybe you see the rice fields and wonder what kind of rice they grow or how much they get per acre... Either way, enjoy this glimpse of one of the places we service!

This morning one of my helpers is sewing some curtains. After more than 3 months in this house, we thought maybe it was time to cover up the windows a bit! The more urgent things of life have taken all our time and energy and we feel in some ways that just now we're really getting settled! Bel is ordering water... a rather mundane thing that we do several times a week here since city water cannot be used for cooking or drinking. (We go through at least 8- 5 gallon bottles of water a week!). We text the hospital by cell phone and they bring the water on a trike. Quite handy, really!

In the middle of posting this we got a call there that is an emergency medical evacuation needed down south. After discussing things for a while, taking into account the weather and time, we decided to do the flight tomorrow in conjunction with the other planned flights. Thus, tomorrow will be busy, but we will have this afternoon to get the airplane ready and things arranged. We're praying for good weather!

"Normal" is an interesting concept... what strikes you as strange about our lives? As rather boring? It always amazes me how things that seem so new and strange upon arrival at a new place quickly become mundane! I'm trying to portray some of the things that struck us first when we came to live in the Philippines, but mostly I want to say that our lives are normal, they feel rather "mundane" most days, in fact! But in God's reality we are each part of the epic story of His creation and redemption of mankind! May you see his redemption at work in your life and around you today!

Don't you love our oval house? We just love the personality it has, the number of windows, and the rather "European" feel to it! As you can see, we have a very beautiful yard as well (no thanks to us!). And just in front of our house is a cute little gazebo... it is set up for bar-b-ques, but we haven't made use of that yet. Maybe one of these days!:)

These days I'm reading the story of Hudson Taylor. His passion for the lost in China has impressed me again. How God planted that passion in his heart and tended and grew it to the birth of an incredible mission and the salvation of many souls. What, exactly, is God's call on our lives? On yours? How many of us live with that kind of single-mindedness? Are we even supposed to, or is that reserved for a few that God chooses?

Garry got his laptop computer yesterday, so he was busy getting a cable run between the computers so we can share the printer and internet access. We found out we're pretty technically challenged, but in the end it worked out OK and he is now set up in his office to better accomplish the things on his plate. (BTW, they did solve the "green fuel" issue!)



Yesterday continued on a fun note as Jen came over for a while. Her two kids, Mirielle (age 3) and Kellan (age 6 months) are a lot of fun. We ladies had a great visit over iced coffee (she had to bring the ice as we were out at our house... I guess the 8 people that spent the day here and the extra two for lunch were just enough to deplete my supply!) Meanwhile, Kaleb and Mirielle built a tower in the bedroom, complete with most of the bedding and many of the toys. Jason came by later and we all had supper together-- just simple sandwhiches and leftover salad, but a little more time to just be together. It is such a blessing to have partners and function as a team!

Today is a "radio day" for me. Garry and Jason are going south to do some checkout work at one of the airstrips, and I am standing by, taking down position and altitude reports about every 10 minutes. For the most part I enjoy the radio, though I could do without the static! (If you'd like a little idea of what it's like to stand by the radio, set your timer to go off every 10-15 minutes, and stop what you're doing and pretend to answer the phone and take a note or two! Sometimes give yourself 45 minutes or so in order to understand the thrill of them being on the ground!) The boys and I have done some reading together already this morning, Bel is here cleaning up from breakfast and startiing the laundry, and the boys are doing yardwork. Soon it will be time for school to begin! And thus I must close for today... may rich blessings be yours!

Good morning! It's almost noon here, though it's nearly midnight for most of you:). Garry began this morning working on his airstrip profile for one of our locations. He is putting on paper all the information Jason will need to know-- length and width of the runway, normal wind patterns, changes that make a difference in how much cargo they can take in, etc. When he was almost finished, the computer locked up and he lost it all. Thankfully he was able to nearly finish it a second time! Now he's at the hangar dealing with a fueling issue-- what makes avgas turn green when you pump it?!

We have a young boy helping in our yard here, so Kevin and Kaleb spent some time cutting grass, digging weeds, and trimming hedges before they started school. Meanwhile, I was busy working on getting this blog done for a while, then spent some time with the girls in the house. Finally, we got down to school! Kevin finished his reading and vocabulary study and Kaleb did reading and math. Kaleb is reading his first book, "Go, Dog, Go"! It's fun to see him learn to read. Now he's reading it a second time to Kevin.

This morning the girls and I were discussing different cultural things. They told me last week that I am getting fat... which is actually sort of compliment here. (okay, so it doesn't FEEL like a compliment!) Which brought us to the fact that Filipinos don't mind if you think they're old either. And information about your finances is not personal! It's fun to get to know these ladies and hear how they think!

We have company coming for lunch, neat friends who work in one of the tribal locations here. It will be fun to see them again! And with that in mind, I'd better close for now!

A photo of our family...

Good evening! I am just beginning to be a "blogger" so you'll have to bear with me through this process:). Somehow, I can't even see my sight until I make a post... so here goes!

The intent of this blog is to give you an idea what everyday life is like for us here in the Philippines. Of course, life changes from day to day! However, maybe over the next month you can feel like you're listening in and watching what God is doing here! I hope you're encouraged and blessed as we are....