School Happenings

 School is in full swing!  Last week we were blessed to share a bit of our "classroom happenings" with parents and friends at our Open House.  It was a fun night with alot of talent!  Marcy's class performed "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" while Mike's high-schoolers created an "Are you smarter than a High-Schooler?" game for their parents.  Afterwards we chowed down on snacks and gave tours of our rooms.

 The whole gang!

 Are you Smarter than a Highschooler?  An awesome side note...our school was in need of a projector.  While we were at the Centennial Conference in Panama, one of the US churches that helped with different things offered us the one they brought with them.  They also donated a brand new keyboard to the school.  How cool is that?!

 Our music appreciation class showing us their rhythm.

Poor Ella was still sick with strep so she wasn't able to participate but the others did great filling in her part and all my kids did an awesome job!

And this is how you do partner reading when its over 90 degrees in your classroom!

Grammy's Here!

The kids have been counting down to "G-day"...Grammy day!  Mike's mom and brother were able to come and visit us in Pucallpa.  The visit didn't go quite as planned...Ella managed to catch strep throat the day before they got here.  But while we didn't get to do things quite as we hoped, the kids did get lots of cuddle time and Ella was given the "ok" by the doctor to go to the zoo on their last full day here.  (Side note...my first trip to the doctor here was very stressful and made me realize how limited my language skills are.  And to make sure I humbly master this skill we have now been to the doctor three times and will probably be there again tomorrow as Liam is having the same symptoms!  I can now say I handle the appointment with a little more grace and a few more laughs thanks to prayer and the wonderful doctor here.)  We were so blessed to have Mike's mom and brother here!  While it was super hard to say good-bye I'm so glad they were able to see our home here and take part in some of our ministry as well.  It was a really great week!

 The zoo!!

 These little guys were not in their cages!  Escapees or jungle folk visiting their captive relatives?  Hmmm...

 A few more monkeys we found:)

Isn't he cute?  *No animals were fed or harmed in the making of this photo*

 A walk on the wild side..

We planned on celebrating Ella's birthday with all her friends while Grammy and Uncle Brian were here but strep throat would visit instead.  So we had a nice little family evening...isn't she getting big?!

And Christmas came early...it seemed a little weird with Christmas carols playing and the thermometer reading 93 degrees.....BUT...it was still awesome to celebrate with the fam while they were here.

One last Christmas present from Grammy, Uncle Brian and Pappy and Aunt Michelle back home.  The awesome thing is here in Pucallpa, we can even use it on Christmas Day!

SAM Centennial

In September we were able to join with over 300 other missionaries and friends of SAM in Panama to celebrate 100 years of serving in South America.  It was an awesome week of uniting, encouraging and praising God for His faithfulness.  We were truly blessed to be able to rest and enjoy each others' fellowship but also to learn more about how we can strive to make the next 100 years even better in our service. 

Philip Yancey was one of our guest speakers.

 Each day they featured videos of retired SAM missionaries.  It was so awesome to hear from these amazing people who spent their lives in service to God.

 A wonderful church from the US put on a great VBS program for the kids while we were in sessions.  They had a great time with other kids from all over the field.

 Some of the kid's buddies...friends from orientation and language school...reunited!

 And our buddies from language school!  Cristi and her family are serving in Colombia.

 Getting to play in the jungle!  Because we don't see alot of that where we live:)  Ella got to feed some monkeys from our boat. 

 We can say we rode on the Panama Canal...even if it was just a teeny part of it!

 Fellow SAMers from Colombia, Peru and the home office.  We had a great time hanging out with this bunch on our free day.

 And just because they look so cute.

 Ella celebrated her birthday in route back to Pucallpa.  Got to celebrate in Lima with dear friends the Martins before they headed back to Arequipa to finish language school.