Last Saturday we spent the day at my brother’s lake house. It was a great day for all with food, fun, and fellowship. Always great when cousins can play together. So fun!

Tuesday and Wednesday this week, Becca visited BJU and enjoyed shadowing Isa to find out what college life is like. After we dropped Becca off, we wandered around campus a bit to show our kids our old stomping grounds. Tuesday night Josh gave a talk at the BJ Seminary (see poster). There were about 81 in attendance. Josh did great, and the audience seemed to enjoy the material he presented. Yesterday we went out to lunch with the Casillas. We enjoyed our time with them.

We’ve spent the past two weeks in Spartanburg at Cleveland Park Bible Church. We enjoyed our time in their missionary cottage – this is where we lived during our deputation, 10 years ago. We were able to get together with several of the families from the church: Wilburs, Casillas, Tatems, Karpiks, Bastains, Williams, Dodds, Mr. Cunningham, Johnsons, and Mrs. Burch. It was really fun to catch up with people we’ve known for years and get to meet some new families. Josh presented our ministry the first Sunday we were at the lunch, and I spoke at a ladies luncheon the next Saturday.

The house was close to Cleveland Park, and we enjoyed spending several afternoons at the park. My sister came out to visit one day and taught the kids all sorts of embroidery/knitting/crocheting projects. Ezra designed and embroidered his project.

We’re in the modern land of America, and the Internet is down where we’re staying. Tune back in Saturday morning to see this week’s blog!

This week we celebrated Clara’s 8th birthday! We started out her celebrations by having a cousins party with her 9 Sutter cousins the Friday before. It was our first time to see them in 5 years ,and everyone had fun playing games outside together.

One of the things we’ve noticed about Clara since being in the States is how well she interact with older people. I was impressed with how kind she was to my grandma and by the fact that Clara wanted to visit her again. Clara seems to find the grandmotherly type ladies at every church we go to and endears herself to them, as though they were her own family. She loves playing with kids her age, but she also loves to talk with adults. It’s been fun to watch her blossom in this way. Thankful for our Clara!

On Clara’s birthday we went to the Spartanburg Children’s Museum with Grandma Jensen and then had a picnic at Cleveland Park and spent the rest of the afternoon there. The weather was perfect!

Saturday Feb 24th we drove to Alexandria, VA to spend time with Engleside Baptist Church. Pastor Ben greeted us at the van and said everyone’s name as each exited the van. He had been practicing for a week to get ready. It was a great place to start our adventure visiting churches. Pastor Ben showed the kids his chickens and then joined them playing a Khmer stone tossing game they taught him and his daughters. We presented at the church, Josh preached, and Monday morning Josh did an elementary school chapel.

Monday the 25th we visited The National Museum of the United States Army. It was a great place for our family and had things to keep all age ranges occupied. The docents in each exhibit room were amazing – each being a former solider. A very educational, very enjoyable place for our kids. No one was asking to leave when we finally had to go.

From the museum we went to visit the Gustafsons. They kindly hosted us for two nights so we could visit with their family. Tuesday we visited Mount Vernon. It was another great fit for our family. It was a little cold and rained in the afternoon, but we were able to do most of the outdoor things before the rain hit and the indoor museums were excellent.

Wednesday we traveled down to Burlington, NC to be with Beacon Baptist Church. We enjoyed fellowship with our friends there, and it was great to reconnect with church people. The younger girls are especially good at being friendly with grandmotherly type ladies. It’s been great to watch.