Behind the Scenes

This semester I have been able to add a couple of MK Orientation Events that I have never done before.  I have lots of ideas but there is no way I could put it all together by myself.  There are a couple of people that have been a HUGE help to me.   Vern faithfully helps me set up, take down, clean up and do LOTS of running around before, during, and after my MK Orientation  Events.  It has been a dream of mine for several years now to be able to put on an airport event where our families go through an airport starting at the ticket counter, going through security, arriving at the gate, getting on a plane, then going through customs and immigration.  It looked like this fall things would finally come together to make this event actually happen.  However in August when I started with my veritgo, life has changed.  Although I am better than when it first started I am still struggling with dizziness and it has made life more challenging.  It looked like this airport event would have to be pushed to the back burner again.  However, slowly things are coming together to make it actually happen.  Although, Vern is not a part of the MK Care and Education Department he is my right hand man and has been a HUGE help to me in making this dream become a reality.  He has put countless hours in helping to buy supplies and build my "plane" and "luggage and body scanner" among other things yet to be built.  This is true love in action to see him take his weekends putting in lots of hours to make this dream a reality.  It was so special to see how Aurora is even getting into helping with this event.  There are still LOTS of details to work out before our Saturday event.  I would appreciate your prayers for me and my team that as we do this airprot event that it would be a great learning experience for our children who have never flown before.

Celebrating Chinese New Year

As a part of my MK Orientation Events yesterday we celerbated Chinese New Year.  (Chinese New Year is not until Feb. 5th but we used it as a great learning opportunity.)  Many of our students will be moving to another country and will begin living in another culture.  As they enter a new culture they will want to learn as much as they can as not to out right offend the people in your new culture.  A good way of starting to feel at home in another culture is learning to adabt to new ways of thinking and doing things.  In celebrating Chinese New Year is was a great way for the kids to learn few fun facts about the holiday, the Chinese people, and their language. Since I love having food at these types of events we enjoyed some egg rolls, "sushi", rice, fortune cookies, and mandarins.  Before everyone tried eating with chop sticks we had a litte race carrying marshmellows with chop sticks.  The kids raced against their parents.  The parents had to carry mini marshmellows while the kids carried giant ones.  I think there were a lot of parents who know how to use chop sticks as their bowl still ended up having more marshmellows then the kids.  As a part of the New Year celebration all the kids also received a little red envelope with a "Chinese" coin inside.  It was such a fun learning time spent together!

An Unsung Hero

There are many unsung heroes in this world and Camille is one of them.  Camille is a RN at a nursing home.  When you think of all the places that you can work as an RN not many people jump at the chance to work at a nursing home.  To many people in this world, your job is just a place to make money.  I am so glad there are nurses like Camille out there who can lovingly and patiently come along side the residents and care for them and share the love of God with them.  No one plans on getting too sick to be unable to care for themselves.  Moving into a nursing home is certainly NOT on my bucket list of things to do.  However, this is the reality that too many face in this world.   What a ray of sunshine Camille is and I honor her today.  Today is Camille's last shift before she welcomes her new little one into this world.  The next time you visit a nursing home make sure you thank the nurses and care workers for all they do.  Better yet, put some actions into it, and bring them in a treat!  Some day they might be caring for one of your loved ones, or even you.

Cultural Transplant

Cultural - relating to the ideas, customs, and social behavior of a society.
Transplant - move or transfer (something) to another place or situation, typically with some effort or upheaval.

On Wednesday night I did another event for our student families called "Cultural Transplant".  I tried to explain to the children what "culture" is.  We talked about the many different things they will see, hear, and will taste in different countries.  And these are just the tip of the iceburge.  We talked about how there are many things in a culture that have deep roots and how it is important to observe, ask questions and be a learner.  It is easy to think our culture and the way we do things is the right way of doing things.  I tried to encourage the children to be open minded and to see there are many different ways of doing things.  Please be praying for our families as before long many of them will be leaving their North American culture and way of life and embracing a new culture. (As a hands on activity each family transplanted a plant.)

How Full is Your Bucket?

This semester I have been working on putting together a few more events and activities for our MK's/TCK's.  I have lots of ideas but I am not that crafty in seeing them all worked out.  I am thankful that one of our students, Allegra, has been able to help me out.  She has been a HUGE blessing to me!

We had the privilege to work with a group of children this afternon using the book: "How Full is Your Bucket".  The book talks about everyone having an "invisible bucket".  When our buckets are full we feel great but when our buckets are empty we feel horrible.  The books goes through the life of a boy who goes to school.  Through his interaction with people throughout the day he can see how his bucket is gets drained when mean and hurtful words are spoken to him.  However, as kind words and deeds are done to him his bucket get filled and that makes his day so much happier.  Then the boys can also see how he affects other people.  He has that same power to fill peoples buckets or to drain them.

When we finished reading the story the kids went around and took turns picking up a water droplet.  They had to decide if that water drop would either fill someone's bucket or drain someone's bucket.  Then they each got a couple of their own of water droplets in which they could practice saying life giving words in filling someone's bucket. And they were reminded of words and things they do that that drain other's bucket.  They each brought home their own little bucket with water droplets so they could have a reminder to be a person that fills other peoples' buckets.  

This is a cute little story and yet I think one that we as adults need to be reminded of as we go through our day.  Are we people who are dishing into others with our words and actions and filling others "buckets".  Or are we people that through our words and actions drain peoples bucket causing them to run on empty?

Being a Life Long Learner

I am quite proud of Vern as he keeps pressing on, working towards his masters in ministry.  In August he started year two of grad school.   Every semester he has had to be quite flexible with his schedule as class times can be all over the map.  One semester he had a class from 8:00-11:00 p.m.  Vern is not a night owl so that was quite stretching.  This semester every Saturday morning he gets online to attend a class and soon he will be starting another class that he will add to his schedule.  To fit in all the reading and papers has also meant for some early mornings and full days packing a lot more into his schedule. When we started praying about the possibility of him doing a grad program we had no idea how this would all play out.  It has been a big learning curve but it has been very worth while as he continues to learn and grow in so many ways.  He has been able to learn so many things that he has been able to bring  into his teaching.  We also didn't know how things were going to work out financially to make it possible for him to purue his studies.  We haven't fallen into great riches to make this possible but every time he needs to pay for the next semesters of classes the funds are there to do it.  It is a walk of faith as we see God's hand each step of the way.   

The Looming Transitions

Yesterday was the kick off for our first MK Orientation event in which we try to help prepare our children for some of the transitions ahead. We are blessed to have many families with children in the training.  In a short couple of months our 3rd semester students will be graduating.  Although we are thrilled to see our students moving out to their new ministries, it does mean more transitions are ahead for our families. Some of these children have been together in Bible School for two years and now another 1 1/2 years here.  It will not be easy for these children to leave good friends not knowing when they will see each other again.  It was fun to hear the children enjoying themselves and memories together with their parents.