Thursday, April 29, 2010

April floods...

Tropical wet/dry climate zones experience some awesome floods. Not awesome as in "Awesome, dude! Let's catch the next wave, totally!" More like, "I am experiencing some awe when I look at all the roads around my house, because they're canals." Canals. Seriously.

Lately, we've used our little Rav4 to auto-wade through some new streets, and we've experienced Suriname's only movie theater. What a pleasure! Fortunately, our work down here does not entirely consist of pleasure-cruising (it really is like driving down a river), but we also get some chances to minister, as well.

  • The schedule is set for the summer program, as is the multi-thousand dollar budget. The two of us are the leaders, and we'll have occasional help, once or twice a week, as well as a week with Anna, Amy's sister, assisting, which will be wonderful.
  • The last quarter of the schoolyear has begun, and for some students, education has become a little like bad athletics: their leaders have to coach them to finish strong. This has been a great chance to get involved in the lives of students in a more personal way.
  • Amy's planning a field trip to a bakery nearby for her 3rd graders. They're studying the way businesses work. In addition to the field trip, they'll be venturing into the free market as well, selling some ice cream to the hungry student population.
  • Conner's drama class is three weeks away from the production. Some pieces of the set have made an appearance, but only a few. Costumes, which have not been observed yet, are up to the students to bring, so next week, Conner will take a cue from his alma mater and have a "Dress check" pre-performance.
Please pray that everything continues on smoothly. The schoolyear is almost over, and new opportunities will arrive as the situation changes.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Lots of Kids

Whew! It's been kids, kids, kids in our life lately! Over spring break, we attended a family camp with several local churches. This was not only a nice opportunity for us to relax, but also a great chance to minister to some kiddos. But that, of course, fits best into our bullet point news:

  • Kids at camp: Amy and I helped with the 3-7 year-olds, and some of them even spoke English! I think the main value we added was in giving the parents an opportunity to sit back and receive some good teaching on what family means.
  • Kids at school: The return to the education system from the wilds of the extra-curricular came as a shock to some students, but they mostly made it back safely. We've had some chances to hang out with students and improve our worldview-integration in the classroom, and that's been nice for both of us.
  • Kids in bellies: Amy's been dealing with pregnancy like a pro, and we're happy to observe that we've been given a new Item to keep us constantly in prayer.

Lots of Kids