Moments With Our Farm Family

When Jimmy and I talk about the institute with each other, we always call it "the farm". So if I say farm and it sounds confusing, I really mean institute. It is a working farm though. Right now there are lots of agricultural projects, plus bees, fish, meat chickens, doves, pigs, goats, and turkeys. There is also all kinds of construction going on, more students houses, water and electricity being installed still to the last couple homes, Juan has a new house waiting for a floor, fence is constantly going up, repairs and improvement are constantly being made. Petén is a high maintenance place to live (rats, termites, humidity)! 

 Our friends, Jim and Bonnie, that I mentioned in the last post, are bringing a work team to the farm Tuesday! They gave over $2,000 for supplies already to help with the church building being built and other paint projects. It is a concrete base with wood walls. They are nailing/screwing up the walls and painting as many student houses as they have time. The oil based paint makes the boards last longer. We are very thankful for their investment of heart, time, sweat, and money into the farm. Please pray for their team! 

So, this is a hopping place! In between all the classes and work, we do share lots of time together celebrating special moments in each others lives!

 

This was Pedro's birthday. Paul (missionary pilot) had brought a team of 3 guys that day to help with the little stone walkways being laid to each house. 

 This was when we got back from our last furlough. We brought presents! That was a fun day.

{Mateo and Silas}

This was Juan's birthday!

Jimmy introduced helium to everyone who is from Petén!

As you can tell it was a big hit! Afterwards they wanted to release all the balloons and watch them fly away.

 

Then there was the birth of Shelley Eunice! Could she be any more beautiful?!

That was pretty stressful. It was the first pregnancy at the farm. There was a month long window where Jimmy had to answer every single phone call from the farm no matter what time of night (haha!) just in case Natividad was in labor. He got lots of phone calls after 10pm about chicken feed or other supplies they needed that could have waited 'til morning. 

Just about the time Shelita was due, their doctor in Santa Elena went out of town. They went to a clinic here in town the week of her due date where they were told their dates were off because she was measuring small. We were worried so Jimmy took them to another doctor in Santa Elena a couple days later who said she was measuring small because there wasn't hardly any amniotic fluid left. Natividad ended up having an emergency C-section. Then the hospital did a crummy job of checking on the baby until she was ready to be discharged and ended up wanting to keep the baby for 4 days after they discharged Natividad. Her only option would have been to sit in a plastic chair outside in front of the hospital for 4 days, while she was healing from a C-section, so that she could nurse her baby every 3 hours. Newborn babies want to be nursed a lot more often than every 3 hours. RIDICULOUS! There are many mothers who have to do that. Go look in front of any public hospital here and you will see them. Can you imagine? Why doesn't someone protest that! A shelter walking distance from public hospitals for new moms would be a great social project! I wish someone would do something like that which would actually really affect people. Jimmy basically refused to let the hospital keep the baby and took the 3 of them (Pedro, Nati, & Shelita) to a private clinic and paid for a private room for them for the next 3 days.  

 Jimmy, Henry, and my 3 kiddos flew with Paul to the department south of ours to recruit students. I will share more in another post.

 We celebrated Nidia's first birthday! She is a cutie. I am working hard to win her over. She loves Jimmy, but is still kind of afraid of me, but 2 Sundays ago she came over to shake my hand on her own for the first time. I was thrilled! I think the pink cake helped.

 

Henry turned 20. We are on the hunt for a wife for him, haha! I already picked one out. I am planning their meeting pretty soon! This was his layered cake. Cooking cakes in a 90+ degree kitchen and then driving them 10 min down a bumpy dirt road doesn't always end well.

 Nacho turned 5! His parents planned a large birthday party. Jimmy preached the service. Formal Kekchi birthday parties are kind of like church services where you eat afterwards. It is really sweet. They are acknowledging God's blessings and also that they need His guidance.

 This was his cake. I am running out of cake ideas, always on the search for more!

 

We had a baby dedication for Shelley and her parents. 

 

There was also a wedding in December. I will do a whole separate post on that since I love pictures!  

Sometimes, like the last couple of days since the semester has started, the farm can be overwhelmingly stressful and frustrating. (Maybe a lot of the time.) But, there are so many good moments we must remember to be thankful for, when we should pause and tell God thank you!  Men/families are preparing for ministry... for battle! The devil is constantly busy. Please keep our farm family in your prayers!

Family Traditions #30: Thanksgiving 2015

Jimmy found 4 pumpkins at the grocery store in Santa Elena a couple weeks before Thanksgiving. The chances of them having them and then us being there before someone else picked them up (all the restaurants shop there too) is so small that we were celebrating big time when he came home with these. Pumpkin pie is a super big deal for Jimmy and Silas. Sweet potato casserole is an integral part of our Thanksgiving foods too but no place had them this year. Jimmy went on a wild goose chase and ended up in a Kekchi village close to the farm waiting on a woman willing to sell them to dig them up out of her yard. So basically Jimmy saved Thanksgiving!

 

We usually host a large Thanksgiving at our house with some missionaries that live within an hour or so of us. Well that wasn't happening this year. It ended up that some of our sweetest friends here, Bonnie and Jim, invited us over for Thanksgiving Dinner. They are a big part of our life and always an encouragement to us! Bonnie is a wonderful cook (she's from the south!)

I didn't take pictures that day really, but found some on my phone that the kids had taken. Ms Bonnie had everything decorated so pretty!

 

 

After dinner Jim and Bonnie said that they wanted to show us something. They live on a large mission base right now and took us to another building. They had built the kiddos a Packers theme corn hole! They are just beautiful and you know me, I love handmade things! So much time went into these!

 

The boys didn't understand right away. They thought we were just playing a really fun game while we were there, then when they found out we were taking them home with us, they were thrilled! 

 We have a family fun day every Saturday and are big time game players. These corn holes have already gotten a lot of playing time and of course you have to wear a Packer shirt to play!

{Eden's victory dance}

Here are some pictures Bonnie took!

Bonnie and Jim made our day extra special. We are very blessed to call them friends!

Here is our thankful wall we created during the month of November. We have so much to be thankful for! 

{I have 4 photos of this wall and all are photobombed by a different member of my family who thinks they are hilarious.}

The Radio Station at the Farm

About a year ago Jimmy and I started talking about a Kekchi radio ministry based at the institute/farm. We thought it would be a very effective tool. Plus, the students could be trained to run it and get another valuable skill. 

There are Kekchi radio ministries further south of us, but there are none that reach the majority of Petén. There is a monopoly on radio frequencies, so to purchase a registered one would cost $130,000. The ones south of us are operating without being registered and could be fined and shut down at any time. We really thought this was impossible, but still felt God was placing a radio ministry on our hearts.

Then last September Lifeword, a Stateside radio ministry, contacted us and asked if they could help us start a small radio station at the farm. We found out that if your station reaches under a 10 mile radius it doesn’t need to be registered. This ministry sent a team from Honduras to help us set one up. Professor Juan is going to head up the ministry and 2 students were trained on how to edit new programming. We have a store at the farm but it isn’t always open because it would cut so much out of our profits paying someone to run it. Now we can pay these guys, so that as they are running the store they can be working on programming when no one is there buying things. They can also rotate so that they can still work on their farm projects.

The Radio Tower Going Up

    The radio station runs from 6AM to 10PM. We record the 4 services during the week along with music, dramas, and other devotionals and discipleship materials the students are working on all in the Kekchi language. It’s neat because the radios in people’s houses run on batteries so even when there is no power (which is pretty often) and things get quiet, you can hear the radios coming from everyone’s homes. 

Students Being Trained (Everyone was interested!)

 Over the last couple months people from all the neighboring villages (8) have been coming to visit the radio station! They often bring donations because they appreciate it so much. We are looking forward to getting more training on editing and organizing programming so that we can have a large library of Kekchi programming. Jimmy and the students have translated several worships songs into Kekchi, they go out over the airways during the services. 

Our first youth service that went out over the radio.

The students want to start a call in program. They want to begin with pray requests but eventually make it a question and answer time too for people who have specific questions about the Bible. Lifeword contacted us again last week and said that they would like to continue helping with training and also with equipment to start more radio stations around Petén as the students graduate and spread out into the unreached villages!

So God put this radio ministry on our hearts without us understanding how it would be possible while He was orchestrating all of the details. Please pray for the men working the radio and that God would continue to use this ministry to open doors into the unreached hearts and villages all over Petén!

Like our church and our fourth child, it is taking us some time to come up with a name. Everything is just "the church at the farm", "the radio at the farm". So when we figure any of those out, I will let you know!

The Fastest Year Yet

I cannot believe Jonah and Silas are 6! It really seems like just a month ago it was the day after their 5th birthday and they were telling everyone they were still 5. I don't know if they thought that once they fell asleep that they might lose a year. 

Finally in the same crib in the NICU, always been the best of friends

This year, early in the morning of their 6th birthday they came running into our room to jump on the scale. They wanted to know how much they grew... overnight! Their birthday fell on a Friday, which was perfect for a party. It's fun to celebrate on your actual day. I was really sick still at that point, so while I was preparing for this "little" party was the first time I took nausea medicine. I'm so thankful I did! 

My little Taste Tester

The boys love picking out their cakes and theme. I really thought we would end up with a Star Wars theme this year, but their love of Avengers is pretty strong still. Plus, this was 2 months before the new Star Wars movie came out. Their Avengers Party from their 4th birthday was pretty epic in their minds, so they wanted to experience it again! Cuties! I love this age when they are still grateful and easy to please. 

Jonah went with Captain America!

Silas chose a Thor Hammer. 

They were supposed to look kind of sunken, like the Super Hero had just thrown them on the ground... I don't really know what I'm doing, but the boys were thrilled, so win-win!

 They got to open their present from us, in the morning. They had asked for Iron Man hands. We shop for birthdays and Christmas months in advance when either we are in the States or someone is coming from the States, since American toys are more expensive here and really only available in the Capital at like a 40% mark up! I was glad they still wanted these by the time their birthday rolled around!

 

Then we Facetimed with G to show him our cool Iron Man Hands! 

 I had saved all the printables from the last Avenger Party, so it made it super easy. The boys wanted everything exactly the same!

 

 We are so thankful for sweet friends that live pretty close by right now!

 

We ate, played games, had cake, and MaG and G got a horse for the boys for their birthday, so we had horse rides in the back yard. 

 The boys named the horse Possum from the Everything is Awesome Song. Possum lives at the farm and once it gets a little older will be really helpful there. He is so tame and sweet with the kiddos. They go to the farm and ride him a lot. 

There are some serious works of art as far as piñatas go in the Capital, I think the weird ones get shipped to Petén. This one looked like Iron Man and Princess Leia had a baby... Iron Man child with weird buns on the side of his head. I tried to not make fun of it in front of the boys, it was hard.

My boys are so blessed with the sweet Christian friends around them at this point in their life. I'm still trying to trust that God will continue to provide that for them, from whichever country. 

After the party we Facetimed with MaG... and showed her our cool Iron Man Hands!

It just so happened that this was their first night in their new room. We have all the floors poured and all the windows in our house done now. They had been sleeping with Eden in Jimmy's office the last 2 years. This was a pretty exciting day! The 2 kids' bedrooms are off of the school room. 

I love these boys SO much! They are beautiful human beings on the inside because of their relationships with Jesus Christ. They are growing in their faith and Biblical view of the world every day. I love to hear the profound things they say! 

Jonah is on the left, Silas is on the right

 They are best friends. Silas is our little peace maker, always putting his brother first. He is a crazy story teller. He is very creative on a large scale, doesn't like to waste time on the little things if he doesn't think they are practical, like coloring a worksheet. If he needs props to tell a story though, he is going to go all out! We call him an elephant because he never forgets anything, even if you don't think he is paying attention. Jonah is our tender-hearted little artist. Jonah will take forever on something to get it just right. Except for his supper, he eats faster than anyone else and usually more too. He is quick to pick up on other people's feelings and try to comfort them. He always has a song he is singing and is obsessed with football and the Packers, especially Jordy Nelson.

We finished off the day Facetiming with Kiki and Papa! They are night owls like us! 

Here is our traditional birthday interview, poor Jonah is more asleep than awake at this point:

New Beginnings

Life is starting to get back to normal after the 3+ months of morning sickness. I am so thankful! We hit the halfway mark in our K-5 homeschool, that means we will be finished in April, before the baby comes. Tomorrow will be a fresh start of the second half. K-4 was a blast and I am so thankful we did it. Jonah and Silas have such a good foundation. We had 2 solid months of K-5 and then I got sick. This year being mostly just a confidence builder has been really helpful or I might have been panicked right now! While I wasn't feeling so well and falling deeper into a pit of mommy guilt I told the boys, "soon everything will be back to normal and we will have our old awesome school days again." Jonah said, "I like THIS school, Mama!" He is always the encourager! 

Homeschool Experiment

A new year at the institute starts on the 11th. This is the 3rd and final year for our first group of students. I don't know how we will let them go, I try not to think about it. We will miss them and their families terribly. This will be our first year of having 3 years of classes happening at the same time. That is 9 hours of material a day being taught, Tuesday through Friday, 12 classes a week! Jimmy is teaching 6 of the classes this semester, Pastor Norberto is teaching 1 (the students are so happy he is returning), Juan is teaching 4, and I am teaching 1. Please pray for Jimmy since there is a lot of material to prepare for along with managing the farm and students and overseeing the church. I often wonder why God didn't send us teammates, but God's plan is better than mine, haha! Eventually some of the graduates will end up teaching, I'm sure. That's better than an import!

The new beautiful stone porch across the front of the academic building.

In typical Kekchi fashion, we have no idea how many new students we will have until they actually show up with their families. Jimmy had one more family house built and is building a house for Juan (dean of students) so that it frees up more single student space. We might be building more houses the first week of classes! One new single student has already moved to the village next door with his family. He will move onto the farm next week. Several single guys and several families have said they were coming, but you just don't know until the last second, that's how this culture works. Please pray as our new semester begins!

Roof going on a new family house.

I have so much about our ministry and family over the last 3 months that I want to post. So much I want to remember and be able to look back on! So... that is what I will be doing over the next couple of weeks, posting everything I missed. Happy New Year!

Pregnant in Petén

   Our internet has been pretty bad for about 4 months. It is too slow for skype and my patience is too short to wait to upload photos for a blog post. I love photos, without them, how do you tell a story?! Anyway, today the internet isn't that bad, so I'm going to upload as many as I can. 

    In September, we found out that we were pregnant... bahaha! After Eden we tried for 2.5 years. Then we thought that since God hadn't given us another, maybe He just wanted us to have 3. We were VERY grateful for our 3 and decided not to even think about it anymore and just celebrate and enjoy our family of 5. I know they tell people who have dealt with/dealing with infertility that all they have to do is relax and stop stressing and then they'll get pregnant. That's a bunch of hooey and could be pretty hurtful if they are in the middle of it. In this instance, I think God must have a specific plan for this 4th little one, and that plan starts in 2016. Who would have thought that after all our journeys, we would get to experience a surprise baby. Seriously, are we now people who make babies "on accident"?! I never understood how that could happen.

    I remember one of my friends telling me that once you are 35+ and pregnant they call it "advanced maternal age". Yeah, it feels like it! I'm kind of embarrassed to describe how hard this has been for me, I sound pretty lame. I had horrible all day long morning sickness with my other pregnancies, but this is the first time drugs were needed. I take them every night or else I wouldn't be able to eat and I would get dehydrated. Besides stomach cramps, I can smell everything and it all makes me gag. The worst is probably the calcium in our water. I have started using plastic cups and bottled water because I can't get the smell off our dishes. (Can you imagine having to live with me, poor Jimmy!) Our shower makes me gag, but there is no way around it. Sweaty little boy hair... wow! My kids are going to have a complex. And my gift from Petén, something crawled behind my oven and died. Sometimes big dead lizards can stink, but I've already given it a week, so it's something larger... who wants to go find it? My oven is a wall oven mounted in concrete, so it is going to be an ordeal to get it out. 

   Jimmy has been the biggest sweetheart. He is working non-stop at the farm, teaching, welding, finishing up construction projects, and fixing different problems. For about 2 months he fed us too. The staples that I could eat were homemade carrot soup,

homemade cornbread croutons (minus the chicken, but with lots of avocado),

tons of baked sweet potatoes, and taco salad. Jimmy made sure the baby got lots of healthy stuff. He is such a good husband and daddy! These past 2 months have been really hard on us. I'm not complaining, I'm acknowledging how much my family has been through to help me. I felt like a worthless burden. The worst is over now, the stomach cramps are better. I'm in my 14th week and really praying that by week 16 the nausea will be completely gone too!

I had 2 sweet missionary friends make us some yummy food and bring it over. We had meatballs, sugar cookies, and then cinnamon buns for days! SO good!

 Another beautiful friend brought chicken and dumplings with apple pie. Those are Silas' favorite foods! He might go live with her.

 I think another reason I have really struggled with this pregnancy is that our first appointment was in Petén and it was a train wreck. I was spotting and worried. I kept saying, "I see the baby's heart beat" and the doctor said probably 4 times, "well, that's the good news" and then just had this silent smirk on his face. That made me so frustrated. Are you a sicko... don't stand silent for 5 minutes when an emotional pregnant lady is in your office! I could see the pockets of blood in my uterus too, which I've had before, but he finally explained it like it could be the placenta detaching itself and starting to miscarry. That upset me even though I didn't believe him. He wanted to give me an injection of progesterone, without checking my levels and then immediately start me on tablets and then have me stop 2 weeks later. WELL, I'm not a doctor, but after the mountain of doctors we have seen over the years, I'm pretty sure that drop in progesterone would have insured a miscarriage. My good doctor is 7 hours away. I just wanted to see him!!!! 

Another thing that was difficult for me is that while this was happening I couldn't share it with anyone in our ministry. In Kekchi culture, it is vulgar to talk about being pregnant. I wanted to know people were praying for our baby, but not a mention was made. Sometimes I would miss important things like birthdays or services because I was sick. I couldn't explain why, it's rude. Jonah told one of the parents of the students who was visiting the farm that I wasn't there that day because there was a baby in my belly. The parent was horrified and couldn't believe that we speak of such things with our children. All cultures are different, but that is one difference that I really struggle with. Finally, last Wednesday one of the Spanish girls that come to our youth group patted my belly and said, "You have a bump! How many months are you?!" That made me so happy! I had a little moment of sharing my pregnancy and someone to celebrate with.

Traveling to the capital takes up time we don't have, it's expensive, and there have been lots of protests blocking the roads anyway. Thankfully about a month after our first appointment we decided to try a new doctor here in Petén. He looks about 18. I'm assuming he was a child prodigy.

No, he was really nice and so much more knowledgeable. His office in located in the middle of the "red light district". Jimmy always wants to be with me when I get news about the baby, so we all loaded up and went. We get out of the car and literally had to step over this drunk man laying cross-ways on the sidewalk. At that point I was still trying to be optimistic. But then a couple minutes later I got to see my baby! I cried! 

 

Everything looked perfect! No more pockets of blood. The baby waved their arm and then did this cute little bounce. (I think we might have another little Jonah personality in there!) The doctor gave us an excellent report and the due date of May 15th. 

This next Monday we got an appointment with my OB in Guate who will deliver this baby. We found a baby sitter for our kids and Jimmy and I are flying up and back in one day. I cannot wait! I hope we will get to find out the sex, he has 4D on his machine. Eden really wants a baby sister and of course the boys want another brother. I am thrilled whatever they are!

    God, the Author of life, has given our family this wonderful blessing! If my kids had been any younger, they wouldn't be sharing this experience with us. Each night they pray that God will protect our baby and help it grow! Eden keeps asking me when the baby is gonna come out. "It taken SO long, Mama!" I am making her a little baby wrap for Christmas because I know she will be right next to me all the time with her baby doll strapped to her like mommy! This is one lucky baby to have 3 siblings that are so excited about loving on them. Silas told me today, "Mama, I'm really happy God put a baby in your tummy. I will love it forever and ever."

 CUTE ITEM OF THE DAY: We were all discussing names the other day. Jonah really wants us to name the baby Honey. We told him that we probably wouldn't pick that name. He said that he didn't care, that would be what he calls the baby!

What if my kids don't thrive in every culture they are in?

Wow! There is nothing that causes me more anxiety than that question: "What if my kids don't thrive in every culture they are in?" Every missionary kid's life looks different. Every country/culture is different. Different parts of a country are different. That means there is no magic formula or list of steps to help your kid thrive as a missionary kid. 

Thriving to me means (whether reasonable or not)

1. Understanding and valuing the culture inside our home. (Biblical world view)

2. The States not feeling completely foreign to you. (English)

3. Participating in the culture outside of our house. (Spanish)

4. Participating in the culture at our church and around the farm. (Kekchi)

If we lived closer to the capital my kids could go to a good Spanish school, or maybe an international school all in English where they would have lots of extracurricular activities. None of that is available to us and wishing is a waste of time and sows seeds of discontentment.  Reality is we live in the most rural part of a developing country. I think putting my kids in a school here in our town would cause more problems than it would solve. I could write a paragraph about why that is, but unless you have lived in a culture similar to our town I don't know if you would understand.

What if we lived somewhere with a big missionary community. My kids could probably get by just having close English friendships, but they still wouldn't be able to participate in the world around them. Besides, we don't know anyone close to us anyway with kids that has made longer than a 3 year commitment to be here. We have said goodbye so many times I feel like, why even put forth the effort to build these relationships... we still do though.

Everything is easier with Eden right now. She isn't a twin, so she doesn't have a buddy to talk to in English outside of our house. There are 2 little girls who live behind our house whose parents' are Christians (Jimmy led their dad and one of them to the Lord). I love them and their mom. I don't think Eden is going to have as many problems at this point in her life; she has Spanish friends everywhere.

The boys though... those boys! I pray every day that God would send them good Christian friends. We live on the outskirts of town, so there aren't too many houses around us yet and the boys we have met so far around our house are kind of naughty and their parents don't know where they are or care what they are doing. It's hard anyway in the culture in our town to make true two-way friendships. (I feel like it is easier with Kekchi people.) It hurts when you realize someone is just trying to take advantage, not share in a friendship. I don't want that for my boys.

Every time Jimmy and I meet a nice couple I ask if they have kids and if we can set up a play date. I'm a crazy friend stalker! They do not offer any sports for any children under 8 within an hour of us, so a soccer team isn't an option for a while. I think that will be wonderful once it is possible! They have good friends at church, but they are 9-12 years in age, not really peers. Also Kekchi kids don't learn Spanish until they have gone to school a couple years, so at this point their true peers don't even speak Spanish yet. 

Our church was all in Spanish and my boys were doing really well participating in Sunday School, but once we moved it down to the farm property, everyone who attends is Kekchi. Now, the only service that is in Spanish is the youth service. My kids sit through a Kekchi kids Sunday school class where they are completely lost unless I sit in the back and translate a little for them. 

So what do you do? Do you hire a Kekchi tutor to come teach them after their hour of Spanish everyday? (By the way, Kekchi tutors don't exist.) 

Spanish tutors are a difficulty in itself. My boys are on their 4th tutor. It's hard to find someone who knows how to teach (better if they don't speak any English),shows up, and doesn't apply for the job just to milk something from my family.

When you have a birthday party, do you have it in English, Spanish, Kekchi or mixed? It is really difficult to have mixed get-togethers just because someone is going to be left out. You don't really do the same things or even eat the same things with all of those people.

They have to read in English, be fluent in Spanish and kind of comfortable in Kekchi... all before they turn 6, or at least that's what it feels like in my head. Also, I am doing everything I can for them not to believe the States is this magical place where you get to play in snow, there are no bug bites, everyone speaks English, Mommy and Daddy don't have to work, you visit Lego Land or some equivalent on a monthly basis, everyone acts like they are so excited to see you, complete strangers give you presents, and you visit your grandparents everyday. I don't want them to yearn for the States.

Are you feeling the pressure with me yet? And don't forget the pressure of not putting this pressure on my kids!

They have this awesome life here where they get to understand something outside of their tiny little lives. They get to spend a lot more time with their dad than the average kid in the States. They also understand the "why". They like to call themselves missionaries to. I would never assign that to them, but that is the conclusion they came to. They want to help us with the purpose God gave us here. 

My kids are content little children right now, but I feel we have to diligently stay on this path of helping our kids build true relationships in this country, inside and outside of our ministry. I want them to be comfortable and functional here there and everywhere. I ask every single day for God to help our kids and direct us in the decisions we make regarding them. I cannot imagine what it would be like to be a missionary kid... I'm kind of a mess as a missionary mom! 

Every day is a lesson in faith for me. I wish I could type it in the tone in which Jimmy says it to me, 

"(Well) that's faith!" When God led us to Petén, He knew that later He would give us kids. They were never separate from His plan. So this is what faith looks like to a crazy control freak: There is an obedience part of faith (Deut 4:1-4), that's usually the easier part for me. It's the other part I struggle with, the one where instead of coming up with "what if's" (Like what if when they are teenagers they hate it here, how am I going to prevent that.) you look back and come up with "what He has done", all the ways in the past God has been faithful to our family (I Sam 12:24; Phil 4:6-7). (Like this time or this time, or this time) I'm still more comfortable with strategy than faith, but I'm looking at God. I'm going to keep looking at Him until I get this faith thing down.

{Or this one}

 So that's a little glimpse into the mind of this missionary mom, trying to help her kids navigate life in a second and third culture in a rural part of a foreign country, while learning (maybe just trying, still working on the learning) to put her faith in the One who is with us here.