Monthly Archives: May 2018

Friends – The Carsons

Cambodian Adventures

Last Sunday, our friends the Carsons joined us for lunch. The Carsons are SIL missionaries working on the Tampuan Bible Translation. They come out our way every Sunday to meet with a Tampuan church. Both Andrew and Tanuja have been an encouragement to Josh and me: Andrew to Josh with his years of experience in Bible translation, and Tanuja in the ways she’s always checks up on how I’m doing.

Our children especially enjoy playing with the three Carson girls, who have always been very kind to our kids. We all had an enjoyable time, so much so that by the time the Carsons left it was time for dinner. The Carsons leave in a few weeks for a year back in their home country. We’ll miss our interactions with them.

A Week Without Daddy

Amy, Anna, Becca, Clara, Isaiah

Last week Josh was away at the Pastor’s Bible School in Ban Lung for five and a half days, from Sunday afternoon until Friday evening. We’re thankful for the smooth week we had without him (minus the toilet getting backed up from an accidental discarded spoon going down it). Each of the three old children got to have a special sleep-over with me on the nights Josh was away (I took Monday and Thursday nights off).

Each child got to plan his/her special evening. Becca wanted to do mineral face masks and play Monopoly. Anna wanted to paint our toenails, eat popcorn, and read books. Isaiah wanted to make a number chart on the computer, drink decaf coffee (we added whipped cream and Hershey’s chocolate syrup0, and read books. Clara didn’t need a special sleep-over, as she got up every morning before 5:30 (sometimes before 5!) to spend extra time with me. It was a busy and full week!

I’m just a sinner trying to point other little sinners to love Jesus…

Amy

I love being a mommy – each life we’ve been given is a gift and is full of blessings. Joy. Laughter. Love. There are only a few things I value more than the gift of motherhood. But I’ll be honest…it’s not all joy, love, and laughter. Being a mommy is one of the toughest jobs I have. Why? Because I’m just a sinner saved by Jesus trying to lead other little sinners to know and love Jesus.

Yeah. Motherhood would be easy, if I were sinless. If I consistently loved like Jesus. If I didn’t want my love-tank to be filled by my children saying what a wonderful mommy I am. If I always returned good for evil. If I didn’t struggle with anger, impatience, selfishness, and pride (to name a few of my sins). If I didn’t have thoughts like how can you treat me like this after all I’ve done for you ALL day?!? If I didn’t struggle with those I just want to have fun with you – not disciple you thoughts.

I tell our children all the time, Mommy is just a sinner like you, trying to learn to be like Jesus…I just know how to sin in culturally acceptable ways and don’t throw fits. I speaking these words is important. It’s important for our children to know that I – Mommy – know I’m a sinner and that I need Jesus’ help just like they do. One reason is because I desire someday as adults, our children feel comfortable joining me in that journey of fighting sin and becoming more like Jesus. So someday when our daughters struggle as adults with anger, impatience, selfishness, and pride they don’t feel like they have a mom who doesn’t get it. No – she’s been there all along – a sinner trying to be more like Jesus and failing plenty of times. I want them to know that we are all in this battle together and that we can be more than conquerors through Jesus Christ our Lord.

I need Jesus. Everyday I fail and sin. Living with children 24/7 prevents me from deceiving myself into thinking I’m ok. When I preach to my children – I’m preaching to myself (wow – I can give some pretty convicting sermons!). I’m a sinner, saved by Jesus, and I desperately need His help everyday to fight my flesh.

Motherhood is a wonderful gift. We all love and cherish our children. But maybe one of the most important gifts it gives us is another opportunity to see how sinful we are and how desperately we need Jesus to help us turn from our sin and cling to Him.

Anna’s New Bike

Anna, Becca

Last week Anna got a new big bike as a reward for quitting her night-time thumb sucking. We’re so proud of her! Anna was thrilled to ride her new bike and it’s so fun to watch her. The bike came with a cushioned seat in the back, a basket, and a bell – everything that Anna wanted.

Last week we also had a young sparrow visit us for several hours. His nest had fallen from a tree and some kids brought him to our house. He was quite friendly and loved sitting on Becca’s shoulder. After a night of rest, he flew out the window and we haven’t seen him since then.

Visa Trip to Laos 2018

Cambodian Adventures

This week we took a quick trip to Laos to change our Cambodian visa type. The Laos border is about 4 hours from our home and it was the easiest way to leave Cambodia and reenter to obtain new visas. This was our first time to Laos and since we had to buy Laos visas we decided to spend a full day in the country.

Both the first (Monday) and third (Wednesday) days of our three day trip were taken up with travel and crossing the border. On the way to Laos we ran several errands in Ban Lung and had lunch with our team members in Stung Treng. It took us over an hour to cross the border and then we had over a 2 hour drive to Pakse, Laos. We arrived after dark. Our hotel was right along the Mekong River.

Tuesday was our fun day without any border crossing. In the morning Josh and Clara walked around the hotel and had coffee, while everyone else slept in until 7. We had a great breakfast at our hotel and headed out to see some waterfalls in the area. The first was neat to see, but we couldn’t get very close.

The second waterfall was more kid-friendly and the kids enjoyed climbing behind the waterfall with Josh and riding a raft up to the falls.  After a very late lunch, we enjoyed the hotel pool until we took baths ( the kids loved having a real bathtub!), ate supper in our room, and ended the evening with watching Toby Tyler (an old Disney movie I enjoyed as a kid).

On our way back to Cambodia, we were delayed over two hours at the border. Border crossings take time, especially with multiple kids. However on the Cambodian side of the border we ran into a snag when the officials didn’t want to issue us the new (NGO) type of visa, since our old visas don’t run out until August. The reason we were doing this early is because our other option for getting the new type of visa was to wait until we were in Thailand for the birth of our new baby. That would require us to wait for the baby’s passport number before we could start the initial paperwork and could possibly keep us in Thailand 5+ weeks after the baby is born. It took quite some time to explain that we needed to make the change now, but finally the officials agreed. Thanks be to God.

We arrived home Wednesday night after dark. We’re so thankful for the safety God gave us on our travels and for the success in getting our new visas.  We’re thankful for the extra vacation day we could have as a family enjoying doing fun things without errands or other things to take care of. Thanks be to God.