All My Chicks Under My Wings

February was a special month for us!  Jim and Michelle and the two boys came from Papua New Guinea to stay with us and wait for the birth of their new baby (due in March).  At the same time Matt and his girlfriend Adela came from Vancouver to spend their spring break.  And so we were all together for the first time in five years!  It was a wonderful week.  Enjoy the photos!

The whole clan

 



Here we are with our "original kids"

 

With Matt and his girlfriend Adela

Daniel James, age 3

 

 Joshua Levi, age 17 months

French Braid Quilt

I've shown you some photos of quilted handbags I've made in the past few years. The bags were sort of "practice projects" for a wall hanging I wanted to make, but didn't feel confident enough to try.  I had seen a book called French Braid Quilts and I thought the quilts were beautiful.  I even bought some pretty green batik fabric for the project, but couldn't quite figure out how I wanted it to look.  About two months ago, I  decided to jump in and start.  I just designed it as I went along.  Now it's finished and I'm just delighted with the results.  It hangs on the wall of our porch, where I can see it every morning. It reminds me of mountains, of Asia, of creativity, and it makes me smile.

 

 

 

From Bhutan to Nepal to Canada to the Philippines to . . . Cyberspace?

Have you heard of the country of Bhutan?  It is a tiny country sandwiched between India and China.  There are tens of thousands of ethnic Nepalis who were born in Bhutan but were forced to leave their country because of ethnic tensions.  (You can read about it here.) Most of them spent years in refugee camps in Nepal and were eventually resettled in western countries, including Canada.  Our church in Canada, Ebenezer Baptist Church in Saskatoon, has an outreach to refugees and immigrants from many countries, including these Bhutanese Nepalis.  About 15 of them have been attending Bible studies, and several have even been baptized -- clearly an indication of great openness!  But our pastor was concerned that they were not able to understand well because of their limited English.

That's when our friend Hal had a creative idea.  Hal is one of the pastors of Ebenezer Baptist Church, and he visited us here in Manila last year.  He knew that we have a lot of students from Nepal.  Why not set up a Skype Bible study, using an IGSL Nepali student to lead the immigrants in Saskatoon?  We tried it and it worked!

This is Rajen and his wife Shristi, leading the study from their dormitory room in IGSL.

When the internet connection is weak, they have to try different options to make it work.

 Sometimes they bring the computer outside where there is a better wifi connection.

 Don't you love the bamboo hut with the wifi connection?

The main thing is that they are really studying the Bible.  It's working!

We don't usually join them, since we can't speak Nepali, but sometimes we do, just to encourage them.  It's so nice to see this couple's growing concern for the young believers that have been entrusted to their care.  That's the ministry of dis-skype-leship!