Thankful for Opa and his "Christmas Eve Surprise"

I am preparing for a teaching session this week for a Mennonite Youth Camp we are speaking at December 26 to 29. My sharing is focused on the Anabaptist history, and in wanting to relate personal stories of Mennonites across the world, I've been reflecting more on my Opa's story. My Opa, now 97, is a courageous man of peace, who, following his experience as a German Army Captain during WWII, chose to seek forgiveness at the cross and spread and live Jesus' message of peace during his life.

I asked a friend from church to send a version of Opa's story found in the children's book "Plant a Seed of Peace" by Rebecca Seiling (story in photos below). As I read the story of the Christmas he spent on the Russion front when he heard Christmas carols being sung across the enemy lines, it brought tears to my eyes. I thanked God, once again, for the deep impact he has made in my life. 

The last line of this story says, "He never would have guessed, on that winter night during the war, that during his life he would plant seeds of peace in many others." Opa, you have planted this seed of peace in mine and Darnell's lives and we know that if it weren't for the way you have followed Jesus in your life's journey, we would not be here in the Philippines today, planting more seeds of peace. We love you and we miss you this Christmas. Thank you for choosing to live a life committed to Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

Birthday blessings: a car, a weekend getaway, a reunion, and a dolphin show.

On Friday afternoon we bought a vehicle and an hour later we were on the road, ready for a weekend away to visit old friends and celebrate Darnell's birthday. We planned this trip at least a month ago, and while I was excited for the getaway, I was quite set on only going if we already had purchased a vehicle by that time. Our goal was to  have wheels in time for the long trip to our speaking engagement at the Mennonite youth Conference later this month. While we did go on many long bus rides with the kids when we first arrived here, Makai was not a busy crawler at that point- now he won't sit still! Anyways, I really wanted to be able to strap the kids into carseats for this trip. And what do you know, we bought the vehicle without a minute to spare!  Here's our new ride...

Our 7- seater 1.3L Toyota Avanza. 

We spent the weekend at Andrew and Brittany Wilcox's place in Subic (a former military base, they teach at the international school), about 3-4 hours north of us. Andrew and Darnell were roommates at Columbia Bible College when Darnell and I first started dating (2005) and hadn't seen each other since then, as Andrew moved back to Ontario right after his year at CBC. It was very fun to hang out with this lovely couple. Even though I didn't know either of them before this weekend, it sure felt like going to visit old friends! And how cool is it that Darnell got to spend a weekend with his old roommate??? Andrew remembers the evening when Darnell came home from his blind date with me:) Being on the other side of the world from all our friends at home who "know" us, having a reunion like this was extremely special. And they were fantastic with our kiddos....

We enjoyed relaxing afternoons, not having to clean/cook, playing at the park, a nice dinner out, hanging out late while the boys slept, seeing a new town, eating birthday cake and most of all... the Aquarium! We went to Ocean Adventure on Sunday for Darnell's birthday (or maybe more for Cody... its a toss up) and had a blast. The best part was the dolphin show. Cody was VERY excited about watching dolphins (ever since his outing to the Vancouver Aquarium with his cousins he does "dolphin jumps" and always asks me to draw dolphins), but I think we were all as excited as him :) Who wouldn't be.... look how cool this is!

Can you spot the man above the dolphin???

Cody couldn't keep his eyes off the dolphins... or his mouth closed.

We also saw a very entertaining sea lion show. One of the volunteers from the audience actually ended up in the water. So funny!

And the Animals in the Wild show. Cody got to touch the snake.... he was thrilled and a little scared.

So all in all, a fantastic weekend. The only downer was the boys both getting a little sick.... I cannot even begin to count how many throw-ups we've cleaned up since we came to the Philippines! And of course, our new ride was also christened... poor Cody, I think the back seat is a little bumpy:(

A Summer Wonderland???

We were listening to Christmas music today... in shorts! It's not exactly "beginning to feel a lot like Christmas" here and it won't anytime soon. Its pretty much 32C (feels like 45C with humidity) every day of the year. Though we did enjoy Mandarin oranges this week and lit a Christmas-y smelling candle while listening to Boney M, its pretty hard to feel like Christmas when we're hot and sweaty everyday. I know many of you are probably jealous and would love a tropical getaway, but believe me, the heat gets old very quickly. Every time I wear jeans, I regret it. I'm terribly sick of cut-offs, tank-tops and flip-flops and would love to wear (and be comfortable in) a cozy sweater, boots, a wool coat and scarf. 

On the positive side, we can enjoy the pool in our apartment complex, it doesn't take forever to bundle up the boys to go for a walk (sandals and a hat does the trick!) and we get to play outside in the sun (actually only in the shade... we don't dare play outside mid-day). So I will choose to be thankful and share some pictures of December-but-feels-like-a-very-hot-August in the Philippines...