Beach Trip!

Hello to all.  We have a busy week this week.  It is a short week for all of the high schoolers.  They have an all school Beach Trip coming up Thursday - Saturday.  I have been invited to join that group of 65.  It should be a lot of fun and a great time of unity for the school.  It is crazy to think that Wyatt and Emma are both in high school now.  There are 9 of us going to the beach from this dorm and 6 staying back.  Hopefully everything will run smoothly for Garth while I am gone.  There is a lot to be done to get ready for such an adventure. Pray for good weather, safety and unity.  Want to come?

I will make sure to take lots of pictures to show all of you.

Love

Rachel

Our Kids

Hello to all you wonderful people!!!!!  I want you to see some pictures of our great dorm!  I am just going to do quick introductions right now and later I will highlight each kid so you can get to know them.  

Wyatt

Astract

Sophie

Alyssa and Atalee

Hannah

Emma

Cale

Some weird kid

Jacob

Arnold

Dirk

Yohan and Seun

Atalee, Hannah, Sophie, and Alyssa

Getting Ready

Hi. I am supposed to be down in the gym watching my kids play soccer, but I wanted to talk to you real quick before I go.  The school year is about to begin-Tuesday.  The dorm kids are about to arrive-tomorrow.  So many thoughts have been running through my head today.  I was especially thinking about where we were last year at this time.  We were stuck in America waiting for our visas with no definite plan of when they would come, we were unsure if we should put our kids in school in Williams Bay, we were so disappointed that our kids were going to be late starting school here in Indo, and that the dorm couldn't open on time...thanks to many generous people we did have a place to stay (Hallelujah! )-THANK YOU COUSEN'S and DIETZ'S!!!!!!  Such craziness!  Yet God provided for us in every way.

Now, here we are about to start another school year, and thankfully I feel more prepared.  I am NOT ready for the summer to be over, but I am looking forward to another year and excited to see what God has planned!There are some things we need prayer for:*We have been short 2 pembantus for the last few days, and I am not sure when they are coming back...hopefully tomorrow because I need all the help I can get.*Garth has a bit of a stomach bug and I have a chest cold.*We are still short teachers for this school year, so some people are pulling double and triple duty to make things work.  I get to help out teaching art!!!  I love that!*Smooth transitions and unity in the dorm.  It is a transition for us to go from a family of 6 to a family of 15.  Our kids have to start sharing us again.  They are excited about the kids coming back but we always want you to pray that we find a good balance of how we spend our time.The dorm kids start arriving tomorrow, some with parents and some without.  We are having all the family over for dinner at night and having a parents meeting and a dorm meeting.  There is such a variety of ages and maturity, missionary kids and business kids...I will take pictures of them tomorrow and introduce you to them. Anyways, I need to go.  Keep us in your prayers.  Thanks.Rachel

Dance

So, we are starting to get ready for the troops to return.  This week we did some shopping to try to stock the pantries and closets, getting all the rooms cleaned and beds made, walls washed and curtains cleaned etc. It is quite the job.  We aren't there yet but we are getting closer.  We aren't going to have as many kids to start with as we thought.  Two boys aren't coming until January and one brother and sister will be a day or two late.  

Cale still doesn't have a teacher for his class.  There are several teacher slots open, actually.  Pray about that.  Some teachers are in the States waiting on passports, or visas, so they may be delayed in getting here as well.

In the next few weeks there will be a LOT of people traveling here so please pray for safety.  There are many sicknesses going around the community right now, infections, tropical ulcers, chikungunya, dengue fever, malaria etc.  We all need to be restored to health.  Thankfully, our family is healthy.

I have had a song stuck in my head that I learned when I was a kid.  It is a song where God is singing to us.  It goes, " 'Dance, dance, wherever you may be.  I am the Lord of the Dance,' says He. "And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be, And I'll lead you all in the dance with Me."  I love the picture this creates of God standing there with His hand out ready to take mine so we can dance together.  He is such an awesome, loving God, and I am so very precious to Him.  He is not in Heaven rooting for me to fail, only seeing the worst in me.  He is my Father looking at me with eyes full of love, waiting to take me in His arms and dance with me.  How beautiful is that?

Love,

Rachel