Relaxing in Winter Park with Familiy and Friends

January 20th we headed back to my cousins house in Winter Park for the week.  We originally had this scheduled because we were going to speak at Fraser Valley Baptist Church on January 22nd.  Long story short ...the pastor that was there last year set up for us to speak at the church and then he had to move in July.  Before leaving for the States in November we knew that it was not going to work out for us to share there in January but since we already planned to spend the week here we decided to enjoy it.  We did attend the church over New Years and meet one of the elders.  We really enjoyed the service and looked forward to our time back this month. We had coffee with one of the elders the other day and had a great time sharing about the mission and learning more about the church.  Turns out this man is also a missionary with Campus Crusade.  At the end of our time together he invited us back in March to share with the congregation about Samaria Mission and encourage them to consider joining us on outreach in Mozambique in the future.  We are so excited how the Lord worked all of this out and of course that means we also get to come back to the mountains one more time before leaving. 

This was a great week as we got to spend time with my parents, Mark's mom and her husband Bruce and our good friend Mendi.  The kids enjoyed having time with two grandmom's at the same time.  We played, ate, laid around in our pj's all day, ate some more, played some more, watched the fox eat, rested and relaxed.  Luke was able to get his cast off and is now in a splint as his wrist continues to heal.  He couldn't ski but he found ways to have fun anyway.  We will let the pictures do the rest of the talking. 

dinner in Amarillo

love my granddad

 

How He Loves-David Crowder (w/ Matt Chandler & John Piper)

Here's the latest

We wanted to update everyone on what we have been doing for the first part of January.  Time is sure flying by.  We arrived back in Amarillo, Texas on January 4th.  The kids started school on the 5th.  This was the first time for them to work on school since arriving in the States.  They had worked hard all last semester to get ahead and we all enjoyed having the month of December off.  My mom has been working with Luke which has been a huge help. They are doing good BUT I will tell you it is hard to work on school when you are not at home.  There are so many other things they would rather be doing.  With that said, they have adjusted to their schedule here and are working hard to get all of January's assignments done so we can enjoy some family time in Winter Park at the end of the month.  Please continue to pray for the kids as they stay focused on their school work and enjoy time with friends and family.

January has been busy already.  We have been able to spend time with my parents, my sister and her husband, my granddad, my aunt and uncle as well as Mark's dad and his wife Bonnie and Mark's cousin Jennifer and her family as well as a few friends. Here is a quick recap of the last 2 weeks. 

On January 7th we were able to have dinner with Roelof and Stephanie (Roelof used to be a full time with Samaria Mission).  Stephanie happens to be the daughter of one of my mom's friends.  We had a great visit. 

Sunday we drove to Lubbock, Texas to speak at Bacon Heights Baptist Church and spend some time with Mark's grandmom.  Mark went to Bacon Heights BC when he lived in Lubbock as a teenager.  He enjoyed seeing some familiar faces.  After the service we were able to visit with several people and we were so encouraged and blessed by their interest and enthusiasm about the work the Lord is doing in the mission.  We were also able to enjoy time with Pastor Jerry and his wife at dinner.

The next two days we spent time with Mark's Nannie and Papa John play cards and of course eating all of our favorite foods and desserts.  

Before leaving Lubbock, we stopped to visit with a good friend of my family.  Marsha has loved me and my sister like we were her own.  It was great to visit with her and show her pictures of our life in Africa.

Back in Amarillo and on Wednesday, we were able to watch Mark's cousin's son play basketball.  It was great to visit with them and enjoy a jr. high basketball game.

On Thursday, January 12th we shared with my mom's education group.  I knew several of the teachers that came that night and it was great to visit with them.  They were all very supportive of the work we are apart of with Samaria Mission.  Side not ... After going through the video and presentation I left there really missing home.  It is great to be in the States for awhile but I can't wait to get back to South Africa.  

I wasn't able to get any photos once we started but here is how we set things up. 

 On Friday afternoon we were able to visit with the Pastor at St. Stephens.  This is my parents church which of course is the church I grew up in.  We had a great visit and we left there encouraged by his excitement about missions.  On Sunday, he introduced us to the church so they could have a face with the names of the people they have prayed for (my parents have kept the church updated on us and asked for them to pray for us since we moved).  We were also able to share with a few Sunday school classes as well.

On Saturday we were able to surprise one of Luke's friends from San Angelo.  He was in town playing in a Hockey tournament.  We enjoyed visiting with his family and watching him play.  His team tied the game with 8 seconds left.

Thank you for praying for our family.  We are doing good and we are enjoying time with our family and friends.  We are so thankful that the Lord provided a way for us to spend this time in the States.  We have made great memories and we have many more to make before returning.  We must admit though we are missing home.  We are missing our friends in Polokwane, missing our mission staff meetings, Mark is missing leadership training in Mozambique and of course we are missing our 2 dogs.  Sounds silly but we are.  Here is a picture that was sent to us last week with the following caption.

They said to tell you "Hey" & "Hurry home, we miss you!"