School's Out

Deep and Wide
This was about where Ben realized that the whole room was watching him and started really hamming up the performance. It was side splitting entertainment!

If you're happy and you know it clap your hands.

If you're happy and you know it stomp your feet.

We had our last day of class today. The kids had some special things planned for our Celebration time, so I had to share some cute shots. The little ones were terribly cute with their three songs. Ben, being quite the ham, danced and jumped around through the whole thing! The big kids quoted a good portion of I Corinthians 13 and a long recitation about Romans. Everyone did really great, I just wished I'd had a video camera!

For those that keep up with us on Facebook, you've already seen some pictures and know about Mike's knee injury. We are still waiting on results from the MRI and a decision to be made about what that will mean for our travel plans. We're still hoping for the best.

With Love,
Heather

Lasts

Football Fun

Just Hanging Out

Crazy Hat Day

Caleb admitting defeat in a wrestling match with B

Ben loving on his buddy S

We are half way through our long week of lasts. A sweet M came over on Friday and the kids had some special time with Aunt S while Mike and I got to have a "last" date. Tuesday night some other friends came over and we had some family fun with them. They are the closest family in proximity to us here and they have been very special to us. Everyone here has been so great and we'll hope to be crossing paths with them again sooner than later. We had some nice "last" moments with some national friends too and hopefully more to come as the week wraps up. And this will probably be my "last" post from Vancouver.

With love,
Heather

Family

We are making lists, sorting what to keep and what to trash and what to keep and eating weird stuff as we prepare to head back to Abidjan. We are making plans for our return and dreading goodbyes this week.

I talked to my friend, Agira, in Africa, and she has been having trouble with her left hand/arm. Pray that God will heal her. She's supposed to go next week for an Xray to see if they can find what is going on. She seemed really down when I talked to her, so I am looking forward to being on the same continent and staying in touch better.

We'd also love for you to pray about details of our return. There are lots of decisions to make as we go back. Pray that we will hear well from the Lord and make good choices.

With love,
Heather

Summer Fun in Vancouver

Long Day!

Playing ball with the boys! Thanks for being so patient Uncle R! Ben is going to miss his little friend S too!

There's a whole park and Karis and Ben are playing on the dirt pile.

Ben loves to CHEESE!

Goofball

Weady, Set, DOOOOO!

"You stay over there, and I'll stay over here!"

Lovin' the water

Park Fun!

Today was one of the rare days of our stay here when the temperature got nearly up to 70. It may be the warmest day before we depart, so Karis and Ben tried out the water feature at our neighborhood park. Karis loved it, but was cold within a few minutes, as you can imagine. Ben thought the water was much better for stomping in than for running through. Apparently he prefers puddles to sprinklers if the temperature is below 70! Can't say that I blame him.

If you are one of those "prayin' Christians", I ask that you'd pray for a recent contact that Mike had. It's a lady that I feel like is teetering on the edge of a decision. We have so little time left and I hope she will understand fully the gospel and make her choice while we still have time to hook her up with someone else here.

It's about time to be hearing of some of you buying those tickets to Africa. We need HELP out there. Let us know if you are looking for an overseas trip and think that Abidjan might be right for you!

With love,
Heather

Ticket Day

When we were in our orientation session before going overseas for the first time, we were told that it isn't unusual to have a "ticket day". A "ticket day" is a day when one says to themselves, "if only I had a ticket in my hand right now, I'd go home". We were told that we just need to hang in there and remember our calling and hope our spouse didn't have a "ticket day" on the same day!!! ;) I was thinking of that as I counted how many more days were left until our real ticket day when we will head back to our West African home. In less than two weeks, our feet will be on African soil again!

Knowing our time here in Vancouver would be short, although there have been moments that our departure seemed an eternity away, I determined to "be" here and "connect" here, but on a limited level. I planned to engage myself in our task here, but to hold people at arm's length. Our task as sent out ones requires that we get personally involved in the lives of nationals, pray for them and love them, but I figured I just needed to get along with the other sent out ones here. I mean, we're all going our separate ways soon, to work with the people we hold dear, so no need to get emotionally attached. Well, of course you can imagine that we work with really great people and so that desire drifted off somewhere and I've found people that are great kingdom workers, amazing partners in ministry, wonderful thinkers and strategizers and yes I love them!

So as we pack our bags and try to make up menus to use up supplies in the cabinets we are looking to more tearful goodbyes not just to nationals, but to co-laborers as well. SBs have amazing people on the field and if you are one, you should be proud to know that.

God bless you and keep you and make His face shine upon you!
Heather