It’s hot season here and well….it’s hot. The big difference this week is that the lows are getting higher, so we’re not cooling down as much in the evening. (This week it’s getting down to 79 by 5am.)

Tuesday early morning, the power went out from 1:30AM to 3:30AM. All the kids woke up – hot. The four older kids took their pillows into our main room and slept on the floor. Josh set up a battery fan (weak as it was) and they were content. Once the power went back on at 3:30am – they straggled back to their beds and were all back in their own beds by 5:30am.

Ezra woke up so sweaty. I put him in bed with us with our car battery fan. That way he got the best air, but he kept snuggling close to me (my own personal heater!). He even started singing at 2AM. I think we just about fell back to see sleep right before the power came back on.

Exciting times! Usually we have good power, but during hot season it can go off 1 to 2 days a week for several hours. That Tuesday it was also mostly out from 10:30am to 4pm. We were very very thankful to have it back on and have a good night of sleep – with fans. We wait for rainy season, which usually begins sometime in June. But in the meantime, I’m enjoying having my laundry dry each day!

Ezra loves playing with Magna Tiles! He’s having so much fun learning how to build! Thankfully, we have hundreds of them, so there’s enough to go around for everyone!

No pictures this week as the server would not support any uploads.

Last week, our normally quiet home was filled with the sounds of a Buddhist funeral taking place across the street. For four days, traditional music was blared from the top of a loud speaker, along with Buddhist sermons, chants, and songs. You could not ignore the fact that someone had died.

After nearly two months of deterioration, our 94 year old neighbor died (we’ll call her Great Grandma). She was Davi’s and our landlords’ grandmother and the mother, grandmother, and great grandmother of many of our neighbors. When we first moved to Oyadao, Josh had some opportunities to talk with Great Grandma about the Gospel. Her response to almost everything he said was “it’s the same as Buddhism.” We were so saddened by her blindness to the truth.

When Great Grandma first became sick, I went over with the children to visit and pray with her. We sang some of the Khmer Bible verses I’ve put tunes to and read John 14:6. I prayed aloud that Great Grandma would turn and believe in Jesus. For the past two months, I’ve gone and visited with Great Grandma on the weekends. She was less and less alert but always permitted me to pray with her. I kept praying out loud that Great Grandma would turn to Jesus.

It was hard to be with someone who rejected Christ and had such strong faith that her good works would atone for her sins. It was hard to not weep and plead with her to turn to Christ. It was hard when she died – there was no hope without Christ. She is lost and we weep at her death with a loss that is so different than when you know someone is safe with Christ. This is true death.

Davi (Great Grandma’s granddaughter) told us that many of her relatives have tied a red string around their wrists to protect them from their grandma’s ghost coming to haunt them. For us it is a symbol of their bondage to fear. How Satan must delight in their fear. Davi told us she’s not afraid because she believes in Jesus.

Please pray with us as we seek to speak the truth of Christ to our neighbors. Pray that God will use their fear to turn them to Christ.

Last Saturday Anna celebrated her 6th birthday! We had a fun day celebrating our newest 6 year old. Unfortunately, due to Covid-19, we couldn’t go on any outings (swimming), but Anna took it really well.

Anna loves pigs, so I made her a pig themed countdown calendar. For Anna’s birthday we spent the morning playing Dutch Blitz. Anna wanted hotdogs, mac & cheese, and beans for her birthday meal. She also wanted carrot soup, which we had the day before with breadsticks.

Anna designed her cake and I was thankful it didn’t require too many colors. As part of her party we had our Easter Egg hunt (see last weeks’ blog).

This year Anna is learning to read. It’s been really neat to see her grow in this area. She’s also taken to practicing her math addition facts and I’m very pleased with how fast she’s caught on.

One thing Anna has always enjoyed is writing. I remember when she would fill every block of her notebook with lines. Now that she can read, she’s figured out how to spell words too. Just recently, she’s beginning to write her own books with original illustrations.

The week of Anna’s birthday, Clara began riding a bike without training wheels. It was amazing how fast Clara caught on – she just seemed to do it. But then I remembered that Anna has spent hours with Clara on Anna’s bike, running alongside of her, helping her learn to ride a bike. This is a testimony to Anna’s kindness and patience – even when her sister wasn’t so kind.

We’re so thankful that God blessed us with Anna. She brings great joy to our home.

We started Passion Week with decorating our Resurrection Tree, Palm Sunday weekend. The tree is a branch Josh found outside and most of our ornaments are homemade. Every evening we read Piper’s Lenten Lights. This is the first year we were able to use the special candle holder Josh gave me two Christmases ago.

Monday night we did a play of Jesus overturning the money changers’ tables in the temple. Clara took her part seriously and was an especially angry money changer.

Thursday night we reenacted the Last Supper with crackers and grape juice and feet washing.

Saturday night we had an Easter egg hunt. Josh had the idea to put paper tokens in the eggs that could be redeemed at a store afterwards (we’re overloaded with candy). We hid the eggs twice since the kids have so much fun finding them. Then the kids collected their winnings and we set up the store. The kids loved “buying” things with their egg money after the hunt was over.

Sunday we had our Easter Service at home, exchanged gifts, and had a roast for dinner. We did a few other crafts during the week to celebrate.

Last week Josh celebrated his 39th birthday. We celebrated on Saturday with grilled chicken, grilled pork patties, mashed potatoes, tomatoes, and rolls (of the pork patties). Afterwards we had strawberry cake.

This year I made Josh a birthday countdown calendar.

So glad we have this man as daddy and husband in our home. We are blessed.

Like the rest of you, we’re waiting to see how the coronavirus situation turns out. The Cambodian government has drafted a “state of emergency” law which is waiting to be approved. It will be interesting to see what this means for all of us.

A few weeks ago, Josh went to our local health clinic to see if they wanted copies of a health information sheet the CMA had produced. They were delighted and requested many copies. Josh also dropped off a Khmer children’s comic book that includes the Gospel interspersed with heath lessons.

Last week, Josh was able to deliver soap, masks, and the health information sheet to two Kachok villages.

We’re doing a lot more singing here and waiting as we miss our Jarai church and look forward to being able to worship with them again. We’re thankful that so far Cambodia has been spared from the spread of coronavirus. So far, there have only been 110 cases confirmed and 34 of those are recovered.

Last month Rundell and Judi Maree came to visit us for a Sunday. Rundell was the consultant who did the check on Jarai Matthew 1-16 chapters. It was great to spend time with the Marees and learn from them and their experiences. Judi took lots of pictures and shared them with us. She said she knows the missionaries usually don’t have time to take pictures of their ministries and she likes to do that for them. So here’s a few from our normal Sundays…

Our Sunday begins around 8:30 with Sunday School. There are four groups: men, women, children, and youth. The men and women meet outside, the youth meets in the church building, and the children meet in the old church building. Somewhere around 9:30 or 10 we gathering in the main building for church.

Twice a month we have a neighborhood Bible Club in the afternoon at our home. This includes games, singing, Bible lesson, and snack. We have a completely new group of kids coming since we got back from our time in the States. It’s been a good change and the group of mostly older elementary girls seems to be attentive.

Sunday evenings (no pictures) we have a Bible study with a few adults and some children. We sing, Josh teaches a lessons from Firm Foundations, and we pray and then have snacks.

Last week the Cambodian government asked all religious gatherings (Buddhist, Islam, Christian, etc) to stop until the Covid-19 situation is eased. (Public and private schools have been closed as well.) This means no church or Bible club for the time being. We were told that we can meet in groups of 5-10 people (which is slightly hard for us when our family already equals 7!). We plan to still have our Sunday night Bible study, but we will restrict it to people 13 and older – which will keep our numbers down (it’s around our kids bedtime anyway, so we’ll just let them read in their room).

Life is good!

Tomorrow Clara turns 4 years old! She’s full of spunk and has been enjoying her birthday month so far. Since we were going to be out of town on her birthday, we celebrated last Saturday.

One of the highlights of Clara’s Birthday Countdown Calendar was going to the market and buying a dress. She insisted she wanted a white dress, even though I told her they might not have that color. She was delighted to find a white dress at the second shop Josh took her to. I even had to make her cake with her wearing her white dress.

Clara’s cake request was a bit complicated. She wanted to include everyone that was present at her birthday meal. Thankfully, she said the men could be in a house. Clara made name cards for everyone at her party (she took the idea from A Birthday for Francis).

For Clara’s birthday meal she requested spaghetti. We made garlic breadsticks too. As you can see, Ezra thinks making breadsticks is dangerous business.

Clara was pleased with the way her cake turned out – brownie with frosting.

Two weeks ago, Clara and Anna finished All About Reading – PreLevel. We had an evening party to celebrate and give the girls their certificates. Soon we’ll start Level 1.

Clara has grown up this year in good ways. She’s full of energy and loves life. She loves books and playing games. She loves clothes and shoes. She loves eating snacks. Every night when I put her to bed, the three bears make a visit to her bed and she has all sorts of things to tell Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear. It’s always funny how honest she is with them about her day and her feelings and whether she was disobedient.

We’re so thankful that the Lord gave us Clara. Can’t imagine life without her spunk and thankful for how she’s slowly learning self-control and what I’m learning thought discipling her. Our prayer is that she will grow to love Jesus with all her heart, soul, and mind.

On February 13th, Ezra hit 18 months. Our little man doesn’t sit still often, so it’s hard to take pictures of him, but every once in a while I can snap something of him. He’s much cuter in real life – if you can believe it!

Ezra loves wearing his helmet and going on moto rides. Whenever he knows Josh is leaving or hears him coming back, Era pats his head and motions that he wants to put on his helmet.

Usually Ezra is sporting a bruise somewhere. He bumps his head a lot – but usually recovers quickly. He’s a boy!

Though Ezra naps well (which helps with home schooling), he doesn’t sleep through the night. For some reason he has chosen 4AM or 4:30AM as his morning wake time. This means Mommy and Ezra have lots of quality time together in the mornings. We take a pictures every morning to send to Uncle Johnny….sometimes other kids think it’s fun to get up early too!

Though Ezra talks a lot, he doesn’t say a lot of words. He has signs for please, water, all done, and no and he waves bye-bye. He says Mama, ksss (which means yes), look, what’s that, yuck, and wa-wa.

All Ezra siblings get along with him well and think he’s cute – even though he tries to get into all their stuff. He loves playing outside and walking all over the place. He loves books and is a fan of Eric Carle (he started consistently choosing all the Eric Carle books off the shelf). He has his favorite books he brings to us to read.

So thankful for our little man and all the joy and laughter he brings to our home. Can’t imagine life with our sweet little boy.

Becca took these pictures of flowers in our yard to share with you.

Passion Fruit Flowers.

Red Hibiscus

Bird of Paradis

And some others…

We celebrated Valentine’s Day with our traditional evening party. The kids had been working on their cards for weeks. We made heart-shaped pizzas for supper and had ice cream for dessert. Isaiah was in charge of the games this year – he planned a heart-hunt (similar to an egg hunt) and a few rounds of hide-n-seek in the dark. Afterwards, we read the story of St. Valentine, passed out cards, and ended with giving the kids their gifts. It was a lovely evening.

On his way home from work, Josh asked some people if he could buy some flowers from their front yard. They were more than happy to give him some flowers and even added a rose. For Valentine’s Day Becca made Clara a paper doll with a closet of clothes. Isaiah made me a flower ring. (The other picture is the valentines I made for the family.)

We decorated heart-shaped cookies for Valentine’s Day. We also gave them out at our Bible Club on Sunday.

In other randomness…I got creative while waiting for Josh to come home for supper and made creations with the kids’ food: two Troll Princesses, a chick, and a dragon.

A few weeks ago we had a painting morning. Each child worked on a different project. We ended with a picnic.

The other day in school Isaiah did an activity in reading that required him to read the words on the back of salad ingredients. He then made salads with all the papers he read. When he was done, he said we had to eat our salads. I shocked him by stuffing all the papers in my mouth. Making memories!

Isaiah completed All About Reading Level 3 right before Christmas! We decided to postpone his completion party until after all the Christmas activities were finished. We had a great night – Isaiah received his certificate and chose to play a game, have popcorn and have Josh continue our read aloud. The little girls are looking forward to completing their level of AAR so they can get a certificate!

The second week of January we took a 4-night vacation to Siem Reap with Christmas money we received from family – a great gift! We were all ready for a break after two intense months of Bible translation meetings and all the extra activities that took place in November and December. We stayed at a boutique and had a lovely time together, being away from normal work and everyday life.

One morning we took the kids to a bookstore and let them buy art supplies with some Christmas money a friend had sent them. They were so excited and loved picking out their own things. Afterwards we went for a walk along the river (I think that’s what they call it) and the kids enjoyed climbing on the elephant statues.

The next morning we used the money from the friend to take the kids horseback riding. Becca was excited. It was very thrilling for Anna to ride a horse for the first time and for Isaiah to ride by himself for the first time. The rest of us rode in a horse cart.

Each afternoon we took the kids swimming. It was a nice time for us to be away and the kids really enjoyed having the extra time with us (we didn’t bring any work along!). Thankful for the time we had together and for the mental break it was for us.

This year our Jarai church had their Christmas celebration Saturday night, December 28th, and Sunday morning, December 29th. Both days include a meal, singing, and preaching. Our kids enjoyed wearing Khmer school uniforms for the Christmas service. It’s a highlight of their church year.

The month of December was very full with helping our church prepare for the celebration. Josh and I directed a youth Christmas pageant. We provided the script, costumes, and props and held three different rehearsals. There were two readers while the rest of the youth acted the various scenes out. This year we added the scene with the shepherds, and the sheep (elementary students) were quite a hit. The youth preformed their play both Saturday night and Sunday morning.

I wrote and taught a new tune to some verses in Jonah for the older elementary/jr. high group to sing. I worked with the piano player three different times on playing Christmas carols. I also worked two mornings with a few people who were leading the singing on singing harmony. Josh preached at the Saturday night gathering. It’s really fun to be able to work together as the body of Christ.

Christmas is a very full time of year and also a very fun time to be together and celebrate. For the Jarai Christmas celebrations take place at church – nothing happens in the homes.

Our kids survived pretty well. I was a bit nervous about going to a late service (Saturday night) and then getting up for a very long service and day Sunday morning. Thankfully, Ezra took a nap on Josh’s lap while I helped with the play and the singing. He was so tired!

We had a lovely day celebrating the birth of Christ. I feel like it’s the one day of year we hide away in our house and spend the day together as a family. Christmas Eve we delivered 13 bags of fruit, candy, and a Gospel tract to our neighbors. We always sing at least one Christmas carol. Afterwards we returned home for our traditional meal of tacos, followed by Christmas cookies, hot chocolate, popcorn, and watching the Muppets Christmas Carol.

Christmas morning we had our normal breakfast before we started in our the celebrations – to keep anyone from going crazy with hunger. We sang carols and then Becca did a Christmas play using Little People. She quoted Luke and Matthew. Afterwards the kids gave out gifts to each other and us.

Lunch was cinnamon rolls and omelettes. The cinnamon rolls came out well (the yeast was good), so I was happy the rest of the day.

In the afternoon we read, relaxed, and played games. We had our first ever family four-player games of Dutch Blitz. Isaiah learned how to play. It was an exciting day!

JD & Kim Crowley join is for Christmas dinner. They came in time to watch the kids’ Christmas pageant. We were honored to have the Crowleys for dinner – it was their first time in over 36 years to be without any one of the children. After dinner we sang carols together.

After the Crowley’s left, we gave the kids their gifts from us. It was a lovely day and we all enjoyed being together and celebrating the birth of Jesus.

I’ll add one more thing – each year for Advent we have the tradition of singing Advent/Christmas songs together each night before bed. A different child gets to light and blow out the candles each night. Each person gets to choose a song to sing. We do this every night until the end of December. Some favorites this year were Go Tell It On The Mountain (Anna), We Three Kings, and Hark, How the Bells. The last week our kids started enjoying singing Dives and Lazarus. It ended up in our carol book and became a favorite the last week of the month.

A Christmas tradition for our family is making giant gingerbread people. Each child makes a pattern for his/her cookie. Decorating is a blast, and it takes days to eat the whole thing!

We also made normal cut out Christmas cookies on another day. I was quite impressed with our kids decorating skills. This was the first year I made my own colored sugar sprinkles. We still have some leftovers cookies.

Can you guess what Anna lost? She truly lost it – maybe in the tamarind tree. We’ll never know.

The first Friday evening in December, our family had our traditional Christmas decorating party. I was feeling especially festive this year (no concussion 2017 and no pre-fulough packing stress 2018). However, shortly into our party my joy was gone. Our children quibbled over who got to put up certain ornaments and over whose turn it was to do all the special things we do for the month (candle lighting, advent calendar, turning on the lights, etc). It was like the evening was turned into a fights for one’s rights. Very frustrating. Then I was reminded of the reason for the celebration. Jesus came to save us from our sinful selfishness. To save us from demanding our rights. I stopped and reminded our kids that Jesus came to save them from their attitudes. We are so grateful.

Later as I reflected on our evening, I was reminded again – Jesus came to save ME from my selfishness. Sometimes Christmas can turn into an event with plans that revolve around me – what I want to do with the kids, traditions we need to keep, things that need to get done to celebrate. It’s easy to get upset when things don’t work out the way I want them to or when I’m disappointed. Jesus came to save me from the sin of insisting on things my own way – from the sin of serving myself and not others. So thankful He came to save. Come let us adore Him!

Be jealous