Our Christmas Tree!

This Christmas we have a Pilipino Christmas tree!  When it was first brought into the house Emma-Joy said, "That not Christmas tree!"  I have to say, compared to what I have been used to having grown-up in North America, I tended to agree with her.  The older kids and I were excited about this new Christmas tradition we would be creating.  Here are some pictures of the kids preparing the tree Daddy selected. 

 The boys prepared the tree by cutting off the tiny parts of the branches.

 Shirley helped by performing a side-show.

 She made herself antlers so she could pretend to be a reindeer.

 Once the branches were trimmed to make the tree look like the Christmas trees in Daddy's memories, the tree was stood up in a bucket of rocks and brought into the house.

Once we brought the tree into the house, it was equally as unimpressive to Emma-Joy as it had been outside.  The kids put a few things on it because they couldn't wait to decorate it.  We had to wait until we made a trip to town to buy the necessary materials for decorating the tree.  This is what the tree looked like while we waited.

Last night we were able to go to the dollar store to buy the needed supplies: cotton balls, glue, candy, and a few assorted things of Mama's addition :-).  This morning we went to work to turn our tree into a Pilipino Christmas tree.  Daddy was in charge this year since we were making the tree from his memories.

 The first step to decorating our Pilipino Christmas tree was to glue cotton balls to the tree to make it look like it's covered in snow.

 While Daddy and Matthias covered the tree in "snow" Micah, Shirley, Emma-Joy and Mama used some foam craft stickers and some string to make some ornaments (one of Mama's additions to the tree!).

 These are the ornaments we made!

 Once we finished the ornaments, the kids all pitched in to finish "snowing" the tree.

On the trees Daddy remembers the other additions were garland wrapped around the tree and wrapped candy tied to the tree.  Our wrapped candy is definitely North American being wrapped candy canes and chocolate Christmas balls.  With our foam ornaments, a few ornaments made by Shirley, and four miniature nutcrackers, our tree was nearly complete.  Daddy suspended a star from the ceiling (again a North American addition!) and we were done!  Enjoy the pictures of our beautiful Christmas tree!

Shirley made this ornament especially for our tree this year.

This Christmas is definitely a different one than we have ever had.  Some people view different as bad or sad or disappointing.  Our family has enjoyed creating new and special memories.  We are very thankful to be able to spend Christmas together!  

Emma-Joy

Thank you for praying for Emma-Joy.  Her temperature spikes at a lower and lower temperature each day and hasn't gone above 100 degrees today.  We are very thankful.  Thank you very much for praying!

Please pray for Emma-Joy

Please pray for Emma-Joy.  She woke up with a fever of 101.8 F this morning and had a croup-type cough through the night.  It wasn't really bad, just occasional through the night.  Her fever came down when I gave her Tylenol twice today and she hasn't coughed as much during the day.  Please pray that she does not have croup or that it is not a serious case if she does.  Children that have had croup are prone to having it again while in their baby/toddler/preschool ages and she has had it once before--last year.  She and I didn't go to church this morning.  We learned the hard way last winter not to push the kids too hard as we travel.  Thank you, once again, for your prayers.  Our thanks can never be enough!

Count Your Blessings?--I can't!!!

God's promise to care for us has been kept over and over again as we travel.  Today we returned to the Haven House at Harvesters Baptist Camp after an eventful 10 days of traveling to Kenora, Ontario and Winkler, Manitoba then back here.  We have been looking forward to returning but were very surprised by what we returned to!!  Up to this point there has been a very small (hotel sized) refrigerator in the Haven House.  Our friends, Michael and Jennifer have been very kind to allow us to keep food in their freezer when we have needed to.  Today when we arrived there was a beautiful stainless steel refrigerator in the house! (Borrowed from another building and so kindly moved here just for us to use!) On the table were groceries for several meals with more to come apparently.  I texted my friend Jennifer to ask who I should thank for all of these blessings.  She told me that at prayer meeting Wednesday night (at Harvesters Baptist Church) the ladies organized to collect groceries for us.  We have been so blessed!  How humbled we are by the giving of God's people!  This is the second time in the last month we have been given groceries.  We still have a few things left from the last time God's people from another church gave us groceries!  These are only a very few of the blessing we have seen from the hand of God.  He is so faithful and we are so undeserving!

Lord willing I will post a few pictures from our trip to Kenora and Winkler sometime on Monday.  Thank you for praying for our safety.  Tomorrow we will be at Mission Baptist Church in Brownsville, ON with Pastor Rempel.  Since it's only an hour away we get to sleep here!  Have a great Sunday tomorrow!

Today has been a day of remembering the past.  Today we drove through Chicago where exactly a month ago today we rented a van to drive back towards Ontario because we couldn't fly back due to hurricane Sandy.  Tonight we are staying in a hotel of note in our lives too.  Last summer we stopped here in Hammond, Indiana on the way to Ontario.  That day we drove through a blinding rainstorm during which our headlight blew and Jun had to change it in the rain in the McDonald's parking lot while I (in vain) held an umbrella over him.  Meanwhile, inside the car, Emma-Joy was "getting sick" every two minutes and continued to do so for the next four hours!!  I am extremely grateful that these two events are only memories!  Tomorrow (Lord willing) we will be back at Harvester's Baptist Camp shortly after lunch time.  Thank you for your prayers.  When we get back to camp I'll try to post some pictures of our trip to Winkler.

Snow, snow, and more snow!

After a relatively warm day and plenty of glorious sunshine for driving yesterday, we were shocked to wake up to all of this snow this morning.  Last night, after 12 hours of driving, we stopped in White River, Ontario (the birthplace of Winnie the Pooh!) to get a good night's sleep before heading out for what was supposed to be an 8-hour trip today.  The picture does not capture the true state of the weather.  After loading the van in the bitter, blowing conditions we drove 2 minutes to the gas station where we filled up the van and bought some breakfast.  At the Esso station we were told that the police have closed all roads in and out of White River.  We finished our "8-hour driving day" in 2 more minutes back to the hotel.  We checked back into our room and are sitting here wondering how long we will have the privilege of staying in Winnie the Pooh's home town!  Supposedly there is a Winnie the Pooh Museum across the street but it was too dark to see it last night and now there is too much snow!  

We'll post an update whenever anything changes.  Thank you for praying!

Our family is about to set out on a 10-day trip.  Tonight we will be with Pastor Brian Thiessen in Mississauga, Ontario.  Tomorrow morning we will set out for a 20-hour journey to Kenora, Ontario for services there on Sunday.  On Monday we will head for Winkler, Manitoba and stay with our friends Marco and Trisha Paulician.  The kids are very excited to see Josh and Josie again.  This family really helped us to have an encouraging start to deputation/pre-field ministry at the beginning of this year.  A week from tomorrow we will begin traveling back to Ontario for a meeting in Brownsville a week from Sunday.

We are doing well.  The Haven House here at Harvesters Baptist Camp has been a tremendous blessing to our family.  It's so great to have a place to call "home" for a little while.

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Thank you again for your prayers.  Our new prayer letter will be out very soon.

The Lord has provided a "haven of rest" for our family.  Located at the Harvesters Baptist Camp (a ministry of Harvesters Baptist Church) is a house with a wooden sign on the front "Haven House".  This place has been a place of rest for our family.  We are tremendously thankful to have a place to call "home" temporarily.  This weekend we will be heading to Buffalo, New York.  We covet your prayers as we drive to Buffalo on Friday and return to camp on Monday.  Please pray that we will be a blessing to the folks of Faith Bible Baptist Church as we are with them on Sunday.

Welcome to our new blog!  We have created this blog in an effort to help you all stay updated with where we are, what we are doing, and how you can pray for us.  Our gratefulness for your prayers, love, and support is difficult to express.  Since "a picture is worth a thousand words", I thought this picture would be a great way to illustrate the life we are currently living!  Hope you enjoy "following" us on our journey!