Welcome SBS 2009!

SBS 2009 is officially underway as of today! There are 14 nations represented in the classroom! We are looking forward to a great year with this new bunch :).

What we'll be doing: 2009

After a fairly-crazy 2008, we really wanted to hear God on what He wanted us to be doing in 2009. A good friend of ours (thanks Kerry!) offered to watch our kids so that we could get away to pray. :)

We, of course, had spent much time talking, thinking, praying during the previous months, but it was such a treat to be able to take a whole day together just to seek God.

We felt God speak and give us direction concerning several things -- some of our decisions being that Michael would staff SBS once again and that Amy would devote two mornings a week to working on Titus International stuff.

We are excited for the coming year and pray God will give us His grace and strength so that we may devote ourselves wholeheartedly to Him, to our family, & the ministry to which we feel He has called us! :)

Highchair hotel

OK, so you can all probably sense my fondness for creepy crawlies if you've read any of the previous posts (sorry, I know i need to branch out a little bit!), but this was amazing (in terms of downright nasty)!

We had been having trouble with our roach population for awhile, and noticed baby roaches often crawling on Nathan's high chair (wonder why?!)... we scoured his chair several times, but there was one section of the chair that was inaccessible, and thus, unwashable (not a real word, but you can pretend it is)... Well, one day Michael finally decided just to break the chair apart as we highly suspected this was the main source of the problem, and lo and behold, what we found!



The video doesn't do justice to what we actually saw -- 20+ live ones crawling around & about 15 egg sacs, and oh yeah, all the black spots? Yep... yummers! Yippety-DOO-dah!

We seem to have a repeated theme...

We picked Kenna up from school this afternoon, and met up with friends on the road as we were walking back...

The girls invited Ella to come over and play dress up, and they started off, excitedly running down the alley towards the back gate. Except that Anaya, running to catch up with them, biffed it on her way down the hill. I picked her up, holding her and trying to comfort her, thinking, "that was a pretty hard fall." Then, once again, someone pointed out to me that she was bleeding... we wiped her off, and seconds later I was calling Anna, "Hi, can my kids play at your house instead? ... uhhh... I need to take Anaya in for more stitches!"

As soon as she heard that, Anaya began repeating, "No! I don't wanna lay down! I don't wanna lay down!" She remembered very vividly being totally strapped down on the stretcher the last time she got stitches: 3 weeks ago! (see Nov 30 entry)

She made it through -- lots of crying, but 6 stitches to the forehead and 2 to the lip later, she was good to go!

You can see she is enjoying her candy-afterward treat (thanks auntie Anna)!

Did they fall together?!

Anaya and Nathan are looking like twins these days... egg twins... same spot on the forehead... and all the Chinese comment on it, everytime we go down the street!

Nathan (sorry, didn't get a picture) decided to go down the front stairs by himself, Michael found him after he landed, so don't know quite how many stairs he tumbled...

Anaya's nice bump came the day after. She and a neighbor girl from several floors above us were outside taking turns pushing each other on a tricycle. Loving to live more on the edge, Anaya was having fun being pushed down the small incline from our back gate, until they ran into the rock wall & pavement underneath!

Titus Taiwan 2008

As I reflect back on Titus Taiwan, 2008, it has been a full year. Exciting. Rewarding. Fruitful. A year in which we have much to give thanks for!

We had a team teaching Himalayan pastors that came down from the mountains for 3 months of their winter to study the Bible, a team out in the jungle villages of Borneo, a team fighting the cold wind in Mongolia as they traveled out to teach in the ghers, Mandarin-speaking teams on 'the other side', teams equipping church leaders with tools for inductive Bible Study, teams discipling new believers, etc.

January: Ran first Training Time. Sent teams out to: Indonesia, Nepal, C*, Taiwan.
February: Ran second Training Time. Sent team to Mongolia.
March: (the day after the above school left for outreach) Michael started full-time SBS staff.
April: Welcomed first set of Titus students back from outreach, debriefed, graduated them.
May: Welcomed first set of Titus students back from outreach, debriefed, graduated them.
June: Staff training & preparations for July school.
July: Ran third Training Time. Sent teams to: K*, C* (x2), Mongolia.
Aug/Sept: Office logistics. :)
Sept/Oct: Welcomed July school back from outreach, debriefed.
Nov/Dec: Office logistics & prep for 2009!

"Titus has been the most challenging but also most rewarding 3 months of my life. I was able to conquer my biggest fear of teaching & come out knowing that God was pleased with me. It was awesome to see the people that I taught begin to really understand how to study the Bible inductively." S.N. (July student)

With SBS, Titus, 4 kids, etc., 2008 was definitely a full year for us -- but we feel so privileged to be equipping students with a solid foundation in the Word, then training them up as teachers and sending them out! All the glory goes to God!

Get me outta here!

It was Sunday afternoon, we had just finished up with lunch and were looking forward to putting some of the kids down for naps, having a cup of tea, and relaxing for a bit on our 'rest day'...

... until Anaya climbed on top of the dehumidifier and fell off -- landing face down. She cried a bit, then settled down on my lap. A few minutes later Elise noticed, "Anaya's bleeding!". Sure enough, she had split her chin open, so off to the ER she went with Michael & Kenna (to help :)).

Anaya, being our more stubborn, I-don't-do-anything-I-don't-want-to-do child, had lots of fun being strapped down to the stretcher. To the doctor's amazement, she managed to wriggle her hands out, smiling & waving them around, "Look at me!" They re-strapped her in and she was still doing ok, until they covered up her face to shield her eyes from the bright light, leaving a hole for the chin to stitch her up. At that point she yelled as loud as she possibly could, "Get me outta here!" and then started screaming.

When Michael dropped her back home and went to park the van, I asked her about her visit to the hospital: "How was it?" Good. "Did you cry?" No. "Did it hurt when the doctor stitched you up?" Not really. "Can I see your owie? (Juts chin out) Mom! Look at my candy the doctor gave me!

When Michael came in the door, I asked, "How was it?" Well, she was a bit of a handful. "Did she cry?" Ohhh -- she screamed! Did they strap her down? They sure did! And she didn't like it one bit, you should've heard her...

Well, so much for our quiet Sunday afternoon, guess we'll try again next week. :-)

Michael's last book for the year: Daniel

SBS has less than a month to go! The students are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel (a very GOOD tunnel, being immersed in studying the Bible! But, a very intense time too with lots of long hours and hard work!)

Here is Michael teaching the book of Daniel, his last book for this year. After this, it's catching up on grading, end-of-school stuff, catching up a bit at home :P, and then Titus starts just 2 weeks later!