Our Little Rascal...

These past couple of months Zeke has become more and more interested in doing the things that we do. As it often goes with little boys, he is especially interested in what his Daddy is doing. Through his efforts to "help" he has learned the names of many different tools and even has a basic understanding of their use. Scott can ask him to go get the hammer and he is able to bring it right to him! However, there is a downside to all this selflessness: with learning comes creativity...and creativity in a two year old can equal trouble!

Recently we have had a number of things break down in our house so Zeke has had ample opportunities to play with Scott's tools. Many times we are able to offer him a little job where he feels like he is a part of the action, but isn't causing any damage. Also, this Christmas we were able to give him some of his own play toys, so can "fix" things around the house to his heart's content. All of this is part of the fun of having a toddler. They are very curious and wanting to experience everything themselves...the real trouble comes when they aren't being supervised...

Last night we had put Zeke to bed and presumed that he had fallen fast asleep because we didn't here any noises coming from his room. As is our tradition, just before Scott and I settled down for the night we went in to check on him and make sure he was not hanging half off the bed or without his blankets or something. However, instead of seeing one of these normal sights of Zeke sleep we saw quite a different scene before us...a complete path of little boy destruction! It was especially easy to spot because he had turned a small light on in his room so we could see everything!

We first saw evidence that he had taken his toys back out because we had put everything away before putting him down. As we got further into the room we saw that there was more to this story. He had thrown his pillows off the bed and onto the floor and had nicely displayed the evidence of his adventure for us.

He had pulled out his tooth brush and toothpaste and made a mess with the gel. He had also found a new pez dispenser that he had gotten as a Christmas gift, busted it open and proceeded to eat two entire packs of the little candy. I am hoping that the candy came first and then he thought it might be a good idea to brush his teeth, but I'm not holding my breath on that one! At some point he had crawled back into bed, looked at a book of his for awhile and then finally passed out in what I can only imagine was a crash from the sugar rush!

We know that this won't be the last of our little guy's shinanigans, but at least since he was asleep we were able to have a good laugh about this one without him thinking we approved of his activities! Zeke is constantly making us laugh with the things he does and we praise God for him. Even when life here can be overbearing God has given us this gift who lightens our moods as well as provides fun stories to tell!

A wonderful Christmas 2009!

This Christmas season really has been a good one for our family. Now that we have adjusted more to life here and have found so many new ways of doing our own traditions, despite the lack of available materials and ingredients, we are able to fully participate in the season. I would say our celebration really started last weekend with our Christmas production.


We have been working over the past month or so to prepare for putting on a big drama with music and sharing about the true meaning of Christmas. One of our interns did a ton of work planning out a drama that could easily be followed by non-native English speakers and putting together a cast and practice schedule. When the night of arrived it all came together beautifully. We had put up about 80 chairs thinking that we were dreaming big with all of the inviting we had done. As we began our play the people kept coming and coming! It was difficult to get a full count but we had atleast 110 people there, of which around 75% were first time visitors! It really was a blessing and we were even able to share our tradition of a candle light service with people from here. The funny thing was that instead of helping eachother light their candles, many pulled out their lighters and started lighting candles around them, so the glow started at the back of the room instead of the front! It was a wonderful evening and we look forward to seeing how God wants to use it.

For Christmas eve we decided to start a new tradition. Zeke was allowed to open the gifts in his stocking and Scott and I each opened a gift of our choosing. We also shared with Zeke a very simple version of the Christmas story and then enjoyed a glass of juice together. However, our juice was supposed to be some berry conconction, but it ended up that it tasted just like Dimatap! Same consistancy and all! It was a wonderful night, though, and it really primed Zeke for Christmas morning!

Christmas morning we woke early and had a skype call with Scott's family. Then the gift opening commenced... Zeke was so excited he could barely stop to look at all the toys he was oohing and awhing over! We were blessed by many this year who sent us all sorts of treats and comforts of home. Thank you to everyone out there who thought of us over this Christmas. We really do appreciate you! Zeke's excitement over his new toys has continued as he plays non-stop with them all day long and even babbles on about various toys as we are trying to get him to settle down for sleep!

We have 3 interns who are here for the year assisting our team with teaching at the center as well as with many other projects that come our way. Scott and I decided to invite them over to spend Christmas day with our family. Together we were able to have a wonderful brunch together (complete with donuts that I just learned how to make) and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon of watching the movie "A Christmas Story." It was a blessing to get to know these guys better and also to have their help in preparing for Christmas dinner.

Including Zeke we had 12 people around our table for Christmas dinner. Because we don't have access to what is often a tradition in American family Christmas dinners, instead of ham we made thanksgiving dinner all over again. Fortunately for me, I love turkey and all the fixings! We had quite an international group at our table as we had 4 different nationalities represented. The cool part of that is knowing that in Jesus we are all family. It really was a wonderful time and no one left with an empty stomach!

To top off a full Christmas day we attended an engagement party for some friend's of ours! It was wonderful to be able to celebrate their coming union together as well as an opportunity to sneak in a few more Christmas goodies before the normal rules of healthy eating were reinstated! We realized, however, that as ten'o'clock hit that Zeke had been pushed to his limit for the day and we headed home to all happily crash into bed. We really enjoy both the spiritual and cultural aspects of the Christmas holiday. It is always good to be reminded of the importance of family and traditions as well as to continually be refreshed of the sacrifice that God made for us all through His Son. We really are blessed to be a part of what God is doing around the world and know that these reminders can find us no matter where God asks us to go. We hope you all had a wonderful and meaningful Christmas as well! God bless!

A candlelight Dinner...

Sometimes I do sort of a mental "double-take" at my life. So much has changed in the last year and a half and we have learned so much in the interim. Yesterday was sort of a crazy day for us. It started out with basic plans to do some studying and the normal routine stuff of daily life. While we were studying we got a call at about noon asking where we were. Several days before this I had made plans to visit a friend of mine that morning, but her husband had called the night before and told Scott that she was sick. So that morning I had sent here a text wishing her better and saying that I would try and see her later in the week. Well, long story short, we had a big misunderstaning with the whole thing and not only was our family supposed to be at their house, but they were making us lunch! So we packed up our books, picked up Zeke and rushed over there. We had a wonderful visit and lunch. This is a family we have really begun to connect with, both Scott and I, with our respective genders. Plus they have two boys that, although are older than Zeke, he looks forward to playing with.

So we got home and received another call. Confirmation of plans that we had loosely made the week before to have a family over to our house for dinner. So I kicked it into gear and got some chicken roasting in the oven as well as a stew (which is a staple in meals here) on the stove. About an hour into the dinner making process I was pretty proud of myself! I had three things being prepared as well as the last few items prepped in anticipation of the family arriving within that next hour. Well, as often happens this time of year, the family called us and said they wouldn't be coming after all because one member was sick! So I have all this food cooking for a group of approximately 8 and only 3 of us to feed! Amazingly I didn't get irritated like I might have in the past...I just started going through a mental list of who might be hungry and without someone to cook for them! From this family our one friend did end up coming and we ended up inviting another man who is on his own here. So, we had ourselves a group of 5 and plans to send the leftovers home to our friend's sick family. As if this all wasn't crazy enough, just as dinner was finishing up the electric went out. We have had really terrible electric these days, but have been grateful for atleast having it in the evening so that we aren't sitting in the dark. However, after a few minutes without having it return we realized it would be an hours wait until our neighborhood generator kicked in. So, with the quick lighting of some candles and a group effort of holding a flashlight over the chicken while we carved it, we were able to get dinner all on the table. So we had a lovely dinner over candelight and enjoyed a nice evening with friends. Also, on a humorous note, Zeke has really adapted to this culture well. Everytime we have a visit he asks for tea after we've eaten our meal, which is an expected part of every visit. So below I have included a picture of him enjoying his own little personal cup of "cha" as they call it here. So the moral of this whole story is, I suppose, to not get all worked up when life throws challenges your way, but to go with it and see what God has in store for you. This evening was certainly one that will stick out in my memory above others!

Another Friday Outting

This past weekend we were able to head out of the city to a smaller town that is about an hour away from our home. We met the family of Scott's tutor. This family has 7 children in it, all grown, and one that is married and has a four year old daughter.

Zeke had a blast playing with his new little friend. This little girl was SO adorable and sweet. She kept trying to talk to me, but her voice was so quiet I just couldn't understand her. Zeke thought it would be fun to tackle her down to the floor! She put up with him for about 2 minutes before she finally started crying so that he would get off of her! Originally we thought he was hugging her, but did use the opportunity to talk with him about the differences between how girls and boys play! He had the biggest smile on his face the whole time...ah, what a little boy, huh? He loved entertaining everyone and getting as much candy out of the visit as he possibly could.

They made us a great big meal. It was pretty typical with rice, chicken and a vegetable stew as the main part, but this time they also made us fish that was very good. They also served us a typical drink that is made up of yogurt and water, but it is very sour and fortunately over our time here I have learned that it is not insulting for me to refuse it. Scott enjoys it enough to please them with his glass or two of it.

This was the father of the house. He was very typically dressed for an older man here. After this picture he even went and got a special addition for his hat, in order to make the most of the photo op!

Because we spent most of the day with this family, Scott had the opportunity to go to the mosque with his tutor. One interesting part was that his tutor was actually doing the calls to prayer that day, so Scott got to see up close how that was done and we were able to learn how the words never change from one caller to another, but they each have sort of their own style in how its sung. This day was a beautiful day, so instead of doing their prayers inside the building, all the men went outside and took advantage of the warm sunshine.

We were very tired, as usual, by the end of the visit, and our legs a bit sore from sitting on the floor off and on for 6 hours, but we felt we were able to connect well with the family and learn more about the culture. One valuable lesson we picked up is that when you travel outside of the city to see someone you should assume that you are staying the night! We had plans for the evening so when we made motions to leave around 4 they were having a hard time understanding why we weren't staying over! This is all pretty different from western culture, so next time we will pack our little overnight bags and plan on another whole new experience! Another bonus of the day was the drive to and from the city...its hard to say where I think is most beautiful, but I would say this drive definitely ranked up in the top 5! The mountains are amazingly beautiful and some are evening starting to show their snow caps! We took a little extra time on the way home to capture some pictures of God's beautiful creation. Below is just a small taste of what surrounded us on all sides of the car. God truly is an amazing creator!

Recent Events

One really fun opportunity with running our center is that through the contacts we meet there we are able to throw special events. This can range from additional seminars that we offer to our students to seasonal parties to ladies events. The latter of the three is something that we have had the opportunity to do several times over the fall months. In the beginning we did some low key events in our homes, but discovered that having these parties was really meeting a felt need in the lives of many women. Most women here are caught up, like many women in the world, with the care of their homes and family. Some of these women also have jobs or studies in the local university. On top of these responsibilites that take up so much time, because of social rules and obligations, many women don't get out of the house very often at all. Therefore, these ladies events offer us the opportunity to serve these women and show them love, while for them it is a great time to let loose and relax with only women around!



We have had many short term visitors over the past few months. Because of their excitement and energy they really help us out by taking care of many of the details of the events and really executing the plans. The picture above was from our fall themed "thankfulness" party. We had a great time with talking about what we are thankful for in our lives, a fun craft, our make-your-own pizzas and dancing!

Another ladies event we had focused on beauty. Like every culture in the world beauty is something of great importance to women. We had another guest from the states who brought out a suitcase full of gifts for the women which really delited them! The gift bags were full of fun American beauty products and even included notes and pictures from women in the States who had put them together.

As a craft for the beauty event we supplied many decoration things so that the ladies could make their own cards to send back with our visitor to give to the ladies who put together the gift bags. It was fun to see how the women got into this craft, really bursting with creativity and fun ideas. It even sparked an idea for possible future events! This gathering ended with a crazy fashion show that the ladies loved! Some of us girls chose funny outfits that we tried to pass off as the season's latest fashions! It was great to laugh and have fun together and to see these women really open up their lives to us.

In my past I have generally worked with teenagers. However, I wondered how that sort of experience would translate to my work here. I am discovering with each new experience that although I am working with a different age group here, that the principles of it remain the same: out of an overflow of the love that I have received I can show love to these women here by serving them and openning my home, time and life to them. It will be different than my past experiences, but I am confident that God is directing my path and is preparing me for the things that He desires for me to do. With that I have confidence to venture into new areas and to try things that I previously thought I couldn't do. I guess thats all part of trusting God and walking within His strength...fotunately, its not about me, but about what He wants to accomplish!

Thanksgiving take 2!

This year marked our second thanksgiving outside of our own country and culture. Amazingly enough, it was vastly different than last year! I really appreciate how God continues to answer prayers that I hadn't even realized I had! This year my prayer was to feel more and more like this is our home and to be able to maintain our own traditions while learning about those practiced here. God is good and we are so very thankful for His work in our lives and provision of our known and unknown needs!

Although we greatly missed our families back in the States, we had a wonderful time with our new family that we have right here. Thursday we started out our day with yummy cinnamon rolls and some quality time with Zeke. Then later in the morning we headed to Cheryl's where us ladies cooked up the final sidedishes to compliment our Thanksgiving meal, although Cheryl had already done the vast majority of the work! We enjoyed a huge meal with all the trimmings with our entire team, plus a couple of straglers who came with another friend. It was so delcious and really made us feel like we were right at home! For the afternoon we relaxed, watched movies and played games. For the evening we all enjoyed turkey sandwhiches and more good conversations. I couldn't believe how quickly the day went and as an added bonus for the day Zeke even took a nap in a bed that wasn't his own!


The next day we actually did it all over again! This time we invited some friends from this culture to join us. We chose a family that we have been growing closer to over these past few months. We also chose them because we know them to be more adventurous than most and that they wouldn't pick at the food the way that some might. The meal all came together with only one minor problem...I completely forgot the pumpkin pie that was in the oven and burned it to a crisp! Fortunately the apple pie sufficed for us! One surprise for us was the hit side dish...cranberry sauce! The entire thing was eaten and the plate practically licked clean! There aren't any cranberries available here, so that was the first time this family had ever tasted them. Also, the mom of the family absolutely loved the devilled eggs I made, so that was a new favorite for them as well! After dinner we asked the family to help us in our tradition of decorating our Christmas tree. The adults got more into it than the kids, but it was fun for us to be able to share some of our traditions with our new friends.

Altogether it was a wonderful way to spend Thanksgiving this year. My only wish was that it wouldn't go by so quickly and then take so long to get around to it in another year! Directly following our holiday was a huge holiday here that commemorates God's provision of a sacrifice to Abraham. We were able to visit many of our friends during this time and continue to deepen those relationships. This week we are a bit tired out from last week, but continue to look foward to every opportunity that presents itself to us. Hope you all made the most of your family time and had a wonderful holiday.