There's Just Something Special...

The Morrisons are wonderful friends from Mozambique! They welcomed us into Mozambique, helped us get settled, and made sure we were adjusting okay. Ms. Tricia helped us out a ton when everything went on with Ian and his malaria. When Mom, Dad, and Ian were in South Africa, she prayed with us, played dutch blitz with us, and just made sure we were overwhelmed with love during that time. The Morrisons drove Damarise, Sarah, Andrew and me part way down to South Africa to reconnect with out family after Ian's malaria ordeal. In a nutshell, they are wonderful people :) Wonderful people who we got to visit with Thursday night!

They just so happened to be driving through Chattanooga, and how could we not welcome such a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with them. They had another place to get to, but we got to hang out with them for about 45 minutes. It was great! There's just something special about sitting down and talking with people who know all about our lives :) They know about Ian's malaria, they know what it was like to live in Mozambique, and they know our family. It was such an encouragement to sit with them and catch up on how they are doing, and the amazing work that God is doing in Mozambique. :) It was also nice to have someone genuinely caring about how we were doing and wanting to know what was going on in our lives.

Thursday night with the Morrisons was a huge blessing! When they drove away all I could do was thank God for them, for our time in Mozambique, and for the amazing Body of Believers that we were a part of while there.

Goodbye VI kiddies :(

Wednesday marked our last day to babysit for the VI team meetings. We haven't babysat since we got back from South Africa... so our first time babysitting... was our last time. We had a nice time watching the kiddies and I know I'm going to miss them all SO much! The VI team has some amazing kids! Well behaved and respectful and it is always a joy to get to watch them! Damarise and I love doing it and we will definitely miss them all!

Okk... so since it was our last time we snapped a lot of pictures. :) 

Noah found a frog and named it Sammy :) He kept it in a bucket for a while just to look at and then let it free :) 

Damarise and Renata... She is the cutest girl in the whole world!!!

Renata and me. I love this lil' girl!!!

Noah and his froggy :) ... haha... he was laughing cause he turned the frog around right when Damarise went to take the picture :P Silly boy!

Ummm... Noah was climbing up a tree... and was hanging on a branch when that branch broke! *scary!!* he was fine and dandy and the place on the tree where the branch had broken was leaking this creamy looking stuff. Weird! 

All the Roger kids have these adorable crocs! :D

Is he cute or is he CUTE?! Asher is one adorable looking boy!!! :D

He can right the first letter of his name! WOW!!!! Way to go Asher!! :D 

Haha, Noah and Emily were showing us there Tae Bo skills ;) 

Noah was the guard of the tree :) 

Damarise showing Renata and Emily the video she took of them. 

Awwwww :)

Asher is so cute! :D

My feet :)

Awwww Ms. Damarise and Asher :)

Asher and me... hehe... he's such a goofball :)

Swing fun! :D

Just thought this was a cool picture of Asher's hat :)

Damarise and I with all the kids that were there Wednesday. 

Kris in the office downstairs :) 

The Mozambican flag :) I love it! It's so colourful :) ... 

And that's the end of all of our babysitting adventures for Mozambique :( I'm going to miss it SO much! Maybe someday we'll get to hang out with all the VI kidos again :) Who knows.... 

VI Thanksgiving 2008

Saturday the VI team in Nampula got together to celebrate Thanksgiving. It was a fun time with lots of good food :), lots of laughs, and just a great time getting to be together. 

Our family was in charge of organizing it all, so we rented the dining hall at SIL for the day and decorated a bit for Thanksgiving. 

Then at 4pm when everyone arrived we ate. Mmm! There were loads of good food! Everything from mashed potatoes, rolls, and stuffing to pumpkin pie, apple pie, and fudge. 

Me and Renata :)

Before dessert we went around the room and everyone said something that they were thankful for :)

Then Mr. De Jongh had a singing time. :) He made up a song for Thanksgiving (It was great!!!) And got all the guys there to do the chorus (A bunch of la la la ) :) It was hilarious! 

After the delicious meal we played volleyball :) It was fun!! 

Anywho, there's our Thanksgiving with the VI. On the actual Thanksgivng day this week we will be celebrating with the Woodrows. :) So, stay tuned for our second Thanksgiving :D

Babysitting the VI kiddies

This morning, Damarise and I got to babysit the Vi kids while the parents had their Wednesday meeting. It was fun fun! We haven't done it in a while, so it was nice to see all the kids again :)

Here's a glimpse at our morning... and some of the wonderful, cute kids that we get to watch.

Renata and Asher Rogers.  They are soo cute! And always smiling! 

The cute crocs. Both the Roger's and Kern's kids had them.

Emily Richardson and Christian Kern entertaining me :)

Awww! My two lil' friends! Renata and Emily! Aren't they cute?!

Asher trying to get past my legs... *Beep, beep*

Renata, Emily and Stefan Paetzold cleaning up around the play house. 

Cohen Kern telling me all about his balls :)

Awwww!!! What adorable feet lil' Christian has! 

And there's his face... Aww... can you give me a smile Christian?

Asher can smile! :)

And Cohen can... hehe.. do a silly face...

Oh! There we go! Cohen can smile!

Emily can smile!

And Renata can smile! *Cute!*

So can you smile now Christian?... Aw... guess not. 

The Babysitters!! :)

Uh oh! Renata found the mud! 

Ok! This is sooo weird! We have babysat at the VI for the last 2 years and never noticed this before. That is a satellite dish covered in vines! Ew! ... I wonder if it works?

Hehe, I was trying Damarise's bandana on Christian.

He's not to sure about it :P

Anyways, there's all the pics from this morning. We had a blast! :D

Faces of the VI team

The past two weeks have been the translation workshop for the VI (NTM) team. Sunday morning we all got together and had church. It was so nice to have a church service in English! After church we went outside and took pictures of the team and families. So here's the team!

The team photo. There are loads of little kids on the team! Our family definitely has the oldest kids :)

The Kern family. Mr. Kern is a history teacher, and he is here to build a school (Lord willing high school included) for the MKs here.

The Chees are out in a village work.

The Zooks. We were with them in Portugal. They learned Portuguese extremely fast and came out to Mozambique right after Portugal. They've been in a village work for about 2 years I think, it could be a little more. 

Esley De Jongh! Cute kid!

Melody Zook! She is adorable!

Cohen Kern. He's a cutie too!

The Henderson family. They are out in a village work with the Hattinghs. And Mr. Henderson is my teacher's (My teacher in Canada) nephew! Wow, it's a small world.

Hehe, Mr. DJ threw Ms. Tricia up in the tree... and then tried to get himself up, but got some help from the guys there.

Woah! He almost fell off! 

Then the guys put the kids up...

Aw! Great pic of the Morrison family! They work in the office here. 

The Richardsons (Mrs. Richardson was sick with the stomach flu :( ) They are learning Portuguese and hoping to go out to a village work sometime. 

Hehe, our family doing the Mozambican smiles... or no smiles.

And our family pic. We are going to be leaving NTM in after furlough. And hopefully start a Christian liberal arts and science university here in Mozambique! 

The Roger family. We were with them in Portugal too. And Damarise and I babysit their kids a lot. They are so fun! ... I'm not sure what they plan on doing... either staying here in town or going out to a village work.

The De Jongh family. We met them in Portugal. Mr. De Jongh was the guy who got stuck in our bathroom in Portugal. ... Haha... Anyways, I think they will be staying in town and working here.

The Hattingh family. They are in the same village as the Hendersons.

The Paetzolds. They will soon be going out into the same village as the Chees.

The singles on the team trying to get organized for the picture. *Steven looks thrilled eh?*

The singles from left to right, top to bottom: Cornelia, Kris, Steven, Clemilda, Rubenita, Arnie (he is working in the same village as the Zooks). 

And there we have it. The team in Mozambique. (some people aren't here cause they're on furlough.) What a great team!! :)