Nepal

We will leave today for Bangkok, and stay with friends there for about 36 hours. By Wednesday we will be in Kathmandu, Nepal. This is our third trip to Nepal, but it is our first-ever IGSL international alumni reunion. We have had alumni reunions in Manila before, but this is the first in another country. We have a lot of graduates there -- 25 from our masters degree programs and 15 wives from our Partners in Ministry program. We hope that we will be able to see them all. I will post if I can, but electricity is erratic there these days, so it might not be possible. Please pray for our trip, that God will use us to encourage each graduate that we meet.

The Sun and the Stars and the Friends

The ingredients for an evening of fun . . . sun, stars, and friends. I love the people I work with--and I know that a great team is a precious gift from God! The faculty ladies in our Partners in Ministry program are good friends, some of whom I've known for 30 years, some I am just getting to know. We work hard together as we minister to our students, but we have fun together too. Recently we spent an evening at a roofdeck restaurant where we ate dinner and watched the sun go down.

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When we finished eating, the sun had completely set, so we spent the next hour stargazing. We saw Mars and Saturn and lots of stars whose names we have already forgotten. But we won't forget the fun we had that night.
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Graduation

This is the time of year filled with events, celebrations, milestones. It's the time when we thank God for all that He has done in the lives of the 39 people who finished their courses this year. They have grown so much! This is why we love teaching and discipling! I wish you could sit down with them and hear their stories. Each time I watched a graduate pick up his/her diploma, I would remember a kaleidoscope of happy/sad/tiring/painful/touching/stretching/funny moments we shared during the past three years. It has been such a privilege to be part of their lives! And now they're moving out, to the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Korea, Nepal, and Pakistan. We have such cool jobs!

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