Sweet surprises...Profound promises

All hail the invention of SKYPE!

Do you not yet know of this? It is wonderful invention that allows those of us on the other side of the world to teleconference, through our computers, with loved ones at The Old Place. When using SKYPE computer to computer it is a free service and by using a simple camera on the computer...we can actually SEE our loved ones!

Today we've enjoyed another lovely aspect of this system...

Our loved ones at The Old Place can call our cell phones...while sitting at their computers...and we can TALK, TALK, TALK! We enjoyed the surprise last week of some of our dear friends calling first. Then today, a double blssg when I answered my phone and it was first my brother J & his lovely wife Shanny! I nearly cried! Several of the little H's were able to talk as well.

Then...just a hour later...my Mom and Pendy were able to call! Amazing! We chatted and chatted about life here and there. It sounded like they were in the other room. I think it's costing them .02 per minute to call here! (Can you remember when long distance in the US was considered a "deal" at .15 per minute?)

Since I hadn't heard any of their voices in over three weeks...this was a most welcome surprise!

Now, I need to get our dear Rockstar, Princess and Butterfly plus G. Deanie and my Dad set up and any of you others there who would like to hear us up close...how we miss your precious voices!

We are really thankful for technology right now. Really, really thankful.

Also delivered to our apartment last night was a mattress topper for our bed. This was such a great addition to our sleeping arrangement! We slept better than ever...which, by the way, helps one's adjustment to new cultures, languages and food, immensely!

Our text books should arrive this weekend and then we'll be fully into lesson planning for the new year. I will teach 18 periods per week and Dad will teach 16. I keep teasing him that he's got the sweetest schedule because after his 15 minute home room in the morning then he has the first two periods off M-F! This is good for two reasons. The first...he is not really a morning sort of guy. The second...if any of our kids need some extra help or attention...he can help in the mornings and I can help in the afternoons!

So, now I think we're ready to put out the call to any of you who'd like to come and visit The New Place...we'll be looking for some interesting additions to our faculty!? Perhaps you would come visit for a bit and then contribute by teaching a few of our classes? My cousin who arrives this December is an accomplished photographer...Dad already has plans to do a "photography unit" in his art class in the month of December!

Also to those of you at the GNF farm at home...soon we'll be planning for future English camps here and would love to have some short-termers come over and help us put on some camps to reach out to the local children...

Please...let us know if you have any interest!

We enjoyed immensely last night the dinner prepared for us by The Dutch Girl. She stir-fried garlic, green onions, broccoli, cauliflower and chicken in some awesome sauce and we feasted like Kings! It has been amazing to have her here during this time...how will we make it when she leaves to go back to The Old Place next month?

The kids are planning a big swim tonight at the pool. Unfortunately given the heat of the days...the pool is more like bathwater...but it's swimming after all and there is joy while we do it!

The games preoccupy much of the discussion and focus of our world here. Are you enjoying watching them? You must be learning so much about our home here. We're cheering not only for The Old Place but the New as well and it is really a meaningful time for our family.

I'm guessing we'll never forget this summer and the games we watched...

One last thought in this wordy post...

We were given a phenomenal daily reading book...Streams in the Desert...recently updated with more common vernacular...WOW is this great daily reading!

Today the writing was about ship building. The writer asked the question that when a ship builder builds a boat...does he only intend for it to stay on dry land? Does he build it with the knowledge that storms and rough waters will come? Of Course! Or else what sort of ship builder would he be? This is not unlike us who have been built by the Master Builder. We too have been fashioned to weather the storms and rough waters of life and we are to draw upon the precious promises we find in the Book... That we will never be left of forsaken. That we can do all things through Him who gives us strength. That He has plans for us to give us a hope and a future. On and on they go. The writer of the book said that we to often admire those promises and treat them like museum pieces instead of tools for weathering the storms of life. That we in fact insult the Giver of the promises if we don't claim them and live by them in our day to day lives.

We've been built for this...come storms or rough waters...we have the precious promises to wear as life jackets...

We need not be afraid.