Good morning! Yesterday Garry brought home his cell phone home and downloaded some pictures he's taken recently. These ones are of the new meeting building that they're constructing up north. Remember that this group of believers heard the Gospel for the first time just a few months ago, and now they are building a place to meet together and learn. Wow!

They've been blessed with some help from New Zealand, friends of the missionaries who have come to help with the construction project. We are excited to hear how these new believers continue to grow and learn!

Today Garry got a late start on his flight. It was pouring when we woke up this morning, so he waited for the weather to clear. Now he's getting close to home. The boys and I plan to meet him at the hangar to give the airplane a good bath and tidy things up. Tomorrow Garry heads back to Manila for meetings. (No, we couldn't plan our time for this week, due to flights that couldn't be changed-- which is why he's going back and forth!)

We trust you have a great week!

Travel and Ice-cream Therapy

We had a lovely time in Manila! I thought I'd share a few pictures of the big city... the skyline is really beautiful if you can ignore the ever-present smog!

Jeepneys are a common and easy form of transportation in Manila. Most are colorfully painted, so this one would be considered somewhat "dull". The jeepneys run certain routes, some of them less than 14 km from one end to the other-- but 14 km can take a very long time in rush hour!

This is the view from the top of our guesthouse... people, people, and more people everywhere! Someone told us that Manila is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, and that might be true. We haven't checked that out, though, so it may not be accurate. At any rate, Asia certainly is different than Latin America in terms of population!

We arrived home happily on Thursday and Garry spent Friday morning in the air. The next few days will be busy with flights, then he needs to go back to Manila for meetings in the middle of the week. Never a dull moment:).

While in Manila we did a lot of relaxing and were hoping that Garry would feel himself again by the time we got home. That was not to be. He came home still exhausted and we wondered why. We know that malaria is hard on the system, but this had been weeks already! Then one of our friends mentioned that a doctor told her that malaria sometimes uses up all your stored sugar and you need to replace it. In fact, the doctor recommended up to a quart of ice-cream or two a day! Sounds like a strange remedy to me, but we've been pretty desperate. So, yesterday Garry started his therapy with a banana split, followed several hours later by a small cone. Several more bowls of ice-cream later, he seems to be feeling much better! Maybe one of you knows something that would explain this... it sounds crazy to all of us who have been trying to cut down on fat and sugar for years-- but it seems to be working!

Good morning! Monday is in full swing here after a great weekend. Thankfully Garry is feeling much better and was able to take the guys on the survey flight. I think they've finished seeing what they went to look at now and are headed back home again.

On Saturday afternoon the boys and I headed out to the hangar to help Garry get things cleaned up and ready for the survey flight today. I finally took my camera with me! Kaleb's job is to sweep out the cabin and help wash the airplane, then clean up the rags and brush after washing the airplane.

Kevin helped wash the airplane then worked on waxing the windows. It was particularly important this time since the survey flight included a lot of picture-taking through the windows! Kaleb actually helped on the windows also, but I think it's sort of Kevin's specialty. By the time we headed home the sun was set and we were glad to be finished!

Sunday was a relaxing day for our family. We listened to a great sermon, played some badminton, picked up some milk from the dairy farm, and had lunch out. We are so thankful for God's day of rest, a day to be refreshed by Him and enjoy fellowship with one another!

Good afternoon! Garry is headed north with some visitors. They are friends of the missionaries at this location and will be helping construct a meeting house for the new believers there. The believers are excited about their new-found faith and it's encouraging to hear what God is doing in their lives.

The boys are at the badminton court, at the class they attend on Saturday afternoons. This afternoon they are also preparing for the upcoming tournament, so they were looking forward to their class!

These are some bananas in in our yard... we didn't plant them, but we are enjoying their fruit! Kevin takes care of the trees as well as his garden. Below is a new pineapple plant he just planted... the last ones were destroyed by the man who cuts our grass, so we hope this one lives to full maturity! Lettuce, cucumbers, peppermint, and bell peppers continue to grow for him also.

Kaleb has been busy drawing again these days, spurred on toward completing his newest art assignment-- a family portrait. That has gotten him back into drawing and painting again, and today he was diligently working on another picture of a knight. He's also still learning to make different paper airplanes as well as inventing a few of his own-- and Kevin has actually joined him in this pursuit also.

Garry is still a bit under the weather, though he has been able to complete his scheduled flights. On Monday he has a survey flight scheduled and Tuesday he needs to pick up some of our missionaries from a location to the south of the island. Pray that God gives strength to do what's needed and wisdom to know what isn't needed right now.

Isn't God amazing?! I wonder at the beauty that surrounds us every day and how slow I am to see it most of the time. The other afternoon I saw this cloud formation and it made me smile so I took a picture. To think that beauty is all over the world, even when there is nobody there to enjoy it! To imagine that God loves beauty and enjoys creating it. To think that we are His children-- adopted sons and daughters, co-heirs with Christ of everything! Wow!

Garry is flying the team to visit another location this morning, then bringing some of them to town. He's had to modify his flight plans this week, but it seems like things are working out. Tomorrow will be a long day anyway, but hopefully not too long.

School is moving along at home and the static of the radio is keeping me company even when the boys are working quietly. With neither of the girls here I've been back and forth to laundry, dishes, and some food prep this morning. Makes me appreciate them even more-- it is just a lot of work to keep house in this country of dust, screen windows, and many little animals sharing the house with us:).

Happy Monday... this must be my day to blog, cause I've hit it for several weeks in a row now! Maybe it's the feeling that I've left it for so long that it has become priority. Or maybe it's the new beginning of a week that motivates me. I'm not quite sure.

We had a relaxing weekend, trying to take it slow so Garry could recover from the malaria or whatever he had last week. He seems to be feeling much better now... at least I think so! He's on his way back from flying a team from the Faroe Islands to one of our locations. This group is here in the Philippines getting some exposure to missions and visiting friends they've supported for years.

The boys and I are back at school. Kevin's allergies are acting up again, so I'm suspecting that something in the office doesn't agree with him. "But what?!" That is the major question! He enjoyed working in his garden quite a bit over the past few days, making a new raised bed in a barrel and starting some new lettuce plants. He also transplanted some pineapple plants that a friend gave him. The green peppers seem to be winding down their production these days, but the cilantro is doing great.

Kaleb has spent the past several days dreaming about remote control airplanes, helicopters, and boats. This is a long-standing interest with him, one that pops up every once in a while. Since he doesn't have any of the above, he's building and flying paper airplanes of increasing difficulty. He's also been busy trying to fix an airgun that someone gave the boys... how does it pump up? What does this part do? and many other questions are floating around the house!

One of the girls who has helped us in the house is starting her own little business so won't be working here any more. She is, however, offering different foods for sale, so I'm sure we'll give her business! My other helper came to work this morning with chicken pox! She's at home now resting and deciding whether she'll go home to her parents or whether the 7-hour bus ride will be too much right now.