Weekly Workout

So, I've been getting a good workout every Tues morning for the past couple of months!  Not a physical workout so much (except that the action songs should probably count for something!), but rather a Chinese workout.  A lady in our church started up a 'learn-an-English-song-and-do-an-activity' play group to reach out to non-believing moms & their kids in our local community.  She asked if I could come help for two hours each Tues as she is expecting and found the action songs to be getting a bit more difficult.

Every Tues morning, 15 moms and their kids show up (there are more who want to come, but we have to cap it at 15) and we sing a song, learn some actions, and do a craft/activity all together.  Afterward, the ladies divide into two groups and we read through and discuss an article (Christian, with a Bible verse) that speaks practically into daily family life.

It's been good.  I've enjoyed meeting more moms from the community and it has helped my Chinese a lot (since we're not taking classes anymore).  I find that I can hardly go down the street anymore without running into someone I know.

This past Christmas season, we practiced, "If You're Happy and You Know It" and "Jesus Loves Me" for several weeks and then sang them in front of the whole church.  For many/most of them it was their first time ever to church -- and of course, since they were performing, we had each of them invite the rest of their family & extended family to come see. :-)  Several have ventured to Sunday school with their kids in the past couple of months -- we can all pray that God works in their hearts and draws them to Him!

Philippines: Here we come!

We have been debating, talking about, and praying whether we should try to lead one of the Titus teams for the upcoming January program.  In the past, we haven't really considered it that much -- the Titus teams we send out are usually made up of 2-5 people.  So, with us at 6 -- we are a whole team just by ourselves! :-P  We know we would one day go again, but being in the middle of a season of very young kids and all that that entails, we just didn't feel the time had come again yet.

However, as we've been praying about various locations, and as we are in desperate need for more Titus staff outreach leaders, we thought maybe we should just go for it this time.

Today we found out that the girls have an extra-long winter vacation, as Chinese New Year falls a bit late this year -- and it's perfect timing for when our outreaches go out -- so we've decided to do it!  We will take a team to the Philippines for 4 weeks (Michael may stay an extra week to two weeks while Amy takes the kids back for school), and then the team will finish out on their own the last couple of weeks.

We're all pretty excited, and this will be our first outreach since we were pregnant with Elise!