Sweet Baby Boy

It's true . . . another long gap in my blogging. Sorry about that. My few loyal readers are going to give up on me!

It's almost the end of the year, which is always a super-busy time at IGSL. We are busy sending one group of students home, and busy with the Admissions Department processing new students coming in.

In the next few days, I am losing two of the four employees in my department. OUCH! They are irreplaceable! Shelby has been with me 10 years, and Leah for 4 years. Pray for me, I don't know how I can survive without them!

And now, presenting . . . more photos of the cutest little boy on the planet. Yesterday, my brother Joe became a grandpa. That means all five of us siblings are grandparents now. Amazing! (Joe won't mind me calling Danny the cutest little boy on the planet because his grandchild is a girl.) So here are the latest shots of Danny Boy...

Our Growing Family

We often mention our hundred-fold family, from Mark 10:30. When James and I talk about this special family of ours, we mean the brothers and sisters God has given us in our ministry (that's the colleagues we work with) and the sons and daughters in the ministry (that's the people we have discipled). But that only covers the early stages -- the first generation. Just as we have recently become grandparents in our natural family, we are also enjoying the grandparenting stage in our spiritual family. (This is the part where someone else does the work and we enjoy the benefits!)

The group pictured above is a part of the Nepali branch of our family. John and Diana (wearing red at the far right) were students at our school about 10 years ago, and we poured ourselves into their lives. Since their graduation, they have worked in Nepal, teaching in a Bible school. They in turn have poured themselves into many students through those years. They are always on the lookout for ones who seem to have good potential to become key leaders themselves, and they send those back to us at IGSL for training. Three years ago, they sent Satya and Kalpana (left), then two years ago they sent Beki and Aruna (next to me). A year ago they sent Kumar (at the back).

The reason this photo is special is because John and Diana are back here in the Philippines for a while. It's really quite unusual for all of us to be together in one place. John and Diana came a few months ago for the birth of their baby, because Diana is from the Philippines, and her family wanted her to be here. This has been great for us to all be together for a few months. The photo was taken at baby Sandesh's dedication here in Manila. Every person in the photo is dear to me--we have gone through so many experiences together through the years, some fun, some hard, all opportunities for growth. It is such a joy to see their increasing passion for God. I feel like an incredibly wealthy woman to have a family like this!

This afternoon John and Diana and baby Sandesh spent the afternoon with us. We spent the whole time making plans. Part of the time we talked about what we want to do in the next few weeks while they are still here in the Philippines. We have planned several outings, some fun times, some spiritual times, some with "the grandchildren" and some just with John and Diana. We are also making plans for April, when James and I will travel to Nepal for our IGSL Nepali Alumni Reunion. For one week before the reunion, James and John are going trekking in the Himalayas. They will visit a remote church planted by another of our grandchildren. Meanwhile, I will visit some of our other children in Western Nepal. We are bursting with excitement about our plans!

Women's Ministry Fair

I haven't posted in a while . . . which means things have been busy in our world! One of the big events that happened this week was our Women's Ministry Fair at IGSL. It was a project put together by my discipleship group for all of the women of the school.

This idea started brewing among the Partners in Ministry faculty about six months ago. We thought it would be a good idea to invite women from all different kinds of ministries, and let them show our students what they do. Our goal was to give our IGSL ladies a taste of the many different ways that God uses women.

Usually when we have a special event in our Partners in Ministry program, we ask one of the discipleship groups to handle it. This is a wonderful opportunity for the students to learn about planning and managing a project from start to finish. My group had the honor of leading this event, which we have called the "First Annual Women's Ministry Fair". It was so much fun that we definitely want to keep doing it each year.We invited women from 13 different ministries to come and show us what they do. Some were women's organizations, while others were women who serve in an organization for both men and women. We had so many different kinds of organizations! This group works with women prisoners and their children. The lady below is from a local publishing company. Her presentation encouraged the women to consider writing for publication. She used to study at IGSL, so it was great to have her with us.We also had a group that works with prostitutes. I am so impressed with their ministry! The workers go out to the "red-light" districts of the city each weekend, and build relationships with prostitutes. They really pour their hearts into this ministry, and they see results. One of their projects is a jewelry-making enterprise (for alternative forms of livelihood). That's why they had jewelry on display at their booth.

Another challenging presentation was from Open Doors, a group that supports and encourages the persecuted church. Some of our graduates also work with this organization, and we are very proud of their ministry. Their stories brought to tears to our eyes.

Other groups work with preschoolers, ladies' Bible studies, musicians, street kids, and international missions. The variety was amazing! I gave a short talk at the end, called "Two Extravagant Women," using two stories from the Gospel of Mark, about women who were commended by Jesus for the choices they made.
You can see our discipleship group here, our smiling faces reflecting the joy we all felt in a job well done!