Happy 2nd Birthday to our little man! Ezra celebrated his 2nd birthday on August 13th. A tradition in our family is to decorate the bedroom doorway of the birthday child on the eve of his/her birthday with balloons and signs. Ezra woke up before 5:30 and was very excited to see the balloons hanging down into the doorway!

A few days before Ezra’s birthday, we found out that some of our friends would be in the area and both our schedules worked out so that they could come for the day to celebrate with us. I just so happen to have enough hotdogs in the freezer – so we had hotdogs, beans, and veggies for lunch. Party time!

Ezra’s favorite stuffed animal is a bunny, Malone (Bone). Ezra is happiest when he has Bone in one hand and his left pointer finger in his mouth. If he’s tired, his eyes light up and he laughs with joy when he finds Bone. I made Ezra a bunny cake.

In the evening we gave Ezra his gifts. His siblings were very excited about their purchases for him. He loved everything. The sweetest thing was that he was content with each thing he opened and didn’t just set it aside to ask for the next gift. When we would tell him there was another present, he would clap his hands and say “yay!”

Ezra continues to be a happy boy. He enjoys sleeping in the room with all his siblings. Usually, Josh reads him a book before bed. If Josh is occupied with listening to one of our 1st graders read, Ezra just comes into the bedroom and asks to be put into bed. Ezra wakes up around 5:30am. He’s very enthusiastic and calls all his siblings to get him out of bed. The other day he made it to the end of the list with “Dada – Dada” when he got no response he called “JOSH – JOSH!”

Ezra says a lot of words. He’s got great final consonants. He rarely puts two words together. He loves playing outside and always hears Josh’s moto returning in the evening and runs out with his helmet for his nightly moto ride around the yard.

Ezra loves to play with his siblings. During the school day, each grade level is responsible for playing/watching Ezra for about an hour each. He loves it when he can have the full attention of his siblings. He’s not so happy when they expect him to be content while they play something else!

Ezra loves to play rough and run around. He seems to have quite a sense of humor too. We love our littlest man and pray that he will grow to know and love Jesus.

Here’s a two year old comparison picture of all our children…..

Jensens in Cambodia

Since April, Josh and the translation team met all their goals for translating the book of Matthew. In July, the committee of church leaders finished checking through the remaining chapters of the book. The team spent June and July adding footnotes and cross-references. Last week an outside consultant met with the team to check the last 14 chapters of Matthew.

So now the entire book of Matthew has been consultant checked and is in the final stages of revising. Please pray for the team as they work through the final edits and prepare the book to be printed.

The team has already begun to draft chapters of Genesis. Josh’s co-worker is in the States for a year and Josh has many extra responsibilities as he supervises all five team members (his normal 2 full-timers, and his co-worker’s 3 part-timers).

Our children finished the school year on July 1^st. We had a special graduation ceremony to celebrate their accomplishments and allow them to perform for us all. It was a fun evening for us all. We’ve started the new school year with Becca in 5th grade, Isaiah in 3rd grade, and Anna & Clara in 1st grade.

We are happy to share with you that we’re expecting Jensen Child #6 during the second half of November. Due to COVID-19 international travel restrictions, we plan to go to Phnom Penh to deliver our newest addition.

Prayer and Praise

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.

Praise the Lord for the completion of checking the book of Matthew. Pray for the team as they work through the final changes and finish up tasks before printing. Pray for them as they work on the book of Genesis.

Please pray for Josh as he supervises and assists the team as they finish Matthew and begin full-time work on Genesis.

Please pray that soon churches will be allowed to meet again at full capacity. Pray that the Jarai believers will not grow weary during this time of meeting in small groups and that they will be diligent to encourage one another in the Gospel.

Please pray for Amy as she homeschools 3 grades, watches Ezra, prepares lessons to teach the ladies’ leaders, and meets with our neighbor once a week to read through the book of Mark.

Please pray for a safe pregnancy and intervention-free delivery during the second half of November.

Please pray for Becca, Isaiah, Anna, Clara, and Ezra to grow in their knowledge of the Lord. Please pray God would give them growing faith and that each would find joy in doing the work God has given him/her to do at his/her age.

Please continue to pray for Pastor Choul. There is no change in his condition. He has good days and bad days. He doesn’t seem to be declining — just bad a lot of the time. He’s so wasted it’s amazing that he’s alive. But in some ways he looks healthy (for example, his skin looks good). God has some good plan in this, but it’s not obvious. Pray for spiritual encouragement as Choul continues to suffer.

July 20th I celebrated my 38th birthday! Becca made brownies and a raspberry sauce to go on top, Josh made grilled chicken with baked potatoes and garlic bread, and made a watermelon fruit basket. Gifts were given after supper. A lovely day with a lovely family who spent their time preparing food and gifts for my birthday. I am blessed!

(At the end of this blog is a video of the entire graduation program.)

On July 1, we celebrated our last day of the 2020-21 school year with a special graduation ceremony. I decided we all needed some closure to the school year and that it would be fun to have a ceremony with performances from each student. We spent a few weeks preparing for the program. The week of the program we rehearsed each morning and I set up a stage with a curtain.

We started the evening with a hotdog and mac & cheese dinner. Then we prepared to begin our program.

The girls all had new outfits made for the occasion. They chose and bought their own fabric and we had our local seamstress made dresses/skirts for them. We bought Isaiah a new shirt.

Here’s the program from our graduation:

Becca – Piano
The Whirlwind
The Magic Man
Sonatina
The Greatest Show on Earth

Clara – Dramatic Reading – Lost in the Bog by Marie Ripple

Isaiah – Piano
Hey, Rock and Roll Man!
Old MacDonald Had a Mouse
Bubblegum
A Little Boogie

Anna – Dramatic Reading – Run, Bug, Run! by Marie Ripple

Isaiah – Dramatic Book Review – The Mystery of the Aztec Warrior

Becca – Dramatic Book Review – Freddy and theFlying Saucer Plans

Slide Show – Year in Review

Spelling Bee  

Presentation of Diplomas
Final Presentation

The final presentation was a rose for me from our HeadMaster.

We ended the evening with frozen chocolate pudding, topped with whipped cream and sprinkles. It was a good evening. Good for the kids to be able to prepare and perform. Good to celebrate all the things accomplished this year. Good for me – Mommy & Teacher – to see our children perform and enjoy celebrating all the work we accomplished this year.

We made a video of the program: Enjoy the Show! (I made most of the videos the morning of the program, so I could enjoy the real program without being occupied with recording.)

Today was playdough making day!! The four older kids each got to choose her/his own color. Ezra got some of each!

Due to traveling and a wire failure in our internet line, there’s no new blog this week. Maybe Next Week!

Happy Daddy’s Day to our man! We had a nice day celebrating with lots of special foods and special guest Uncle JD (who was kid-less and wife-less). Clara made Josh peanut butter cookies. Anna made Josh cinnamon rolls. Dinner was a pork roast, garlic bread, salad, baked potatoes, and frozen fruit smoothies for dessert.

Isaiah made Josh a countdown calendar and he and Anna provided gifts each day of the week leading up to Father’s Day. Ezra and Becca made cards and Becca’s card had some coupons for washing the supper dishes.

Every workday Ezra looks forward to Josh coming home so he can have his nightly moto ride around the yard. The kids enjoy each going to the market one Saturday a month with Josh (four kids – four Saturdays a month). It’s a fun time to go on errands with Daddy and buy something for themselves. We’re so happy to have Josh as our Daddy!

Wednesday is usually history day in our school week. We study a chapter in our history book and do activities related to the chapter. Recently we’ve been studying the Middle Ages. Last month we had a joust between two royal knights. Two fine princesses watched the jousting. (Ezra sat in the rocking chair and watched.)

Last month the kids found some interesting bugs hanging out in the cracked kapok pods on the ground. After two days of playing with the bugs, we bought Isaiah (as part of his birthday countdown calendar) and the girls containers (couldn’t leave them out) to create habitats for their creatures.

Each child created his/her own home for the bugs. It was rewarding to watch our kids have such joy in catching, watching, and playing with bugs. They even observed them mating.

This seems to be bug season, so we’re getting lots of interesting things to observe!

A few weeks ago, we caught a spider holding her egg sack. We put her into a habitat and she held on to her egg sack for about two weeks. Then the spidlerings hatched. We let the babies and mom go the next day.

On June 18, 2020 we finished reading aloud through the Little House on the Prairie series (by Laura Ingalls Wilder). We started in January with the goal of finishing in one year. My plan was to read them to the younger girls as part of their school day, Becca and Isaiah decided to join. I wasn’t expecting the series to be such a hit or to finish in half a year.

Little House in the Big Woods – Jan. 22, 2020 (283 pages)
Little House on the Prairie – Feb. 8, 2020 (335 pages)
On the Banks of Plum Creek – Feb. 25, 2020 (339 pages)
Farmer Boy – March 17, 2020 (372 pages)
By the Shores of Silver Lake – April 17, 2020 (290 pages)
The Long Winter – May 6, 2020 (335 pages)
Little Town on the Prairie – May 23, 2020 (306 pages)
These Happy Golden Years – June 10, 2020 (289 pages)
The First Four Years – June 18, 2020 (134 pages)

My biggest surprise was how much Clara (4) loved the books. She decided she was Laura and was absolutely smitten with Almanzo. She was devastated when Jack died and when Mary lost her sight. She couldn’t wait until Laura married Almanzo. She loved when Nellie Oleson was angry. It was a delight to read these to Clara. The other kids got involved too. During our reading of Plum Creek they spent lots of time outside building houses in the mud.

The series ends on a downer. They should have stopped with These Happy Golden Years, as The First Four Years is rather depressing (crops fail for four years straight, house burns, baby boy dies) and doesn’t have the same tone as the other books. I think we’re going to try to find a copy of On the Way Home to see if that leaves us in a happier state.

What did Ezra do while we read? We usually read after breakfast, Bible study, and clean up were finished. Ezra usually napped, watched worship songs, or wandered around.

Other chapter books we’ve read this year:

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White – April 8, 2020 (184 pages)
The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary – April 22, 2020 (158 pages)
Babe the Gallant Pig by Dick King-Smith – April 30, 2020 (112 pages)
The Hundred Dresses by E. Estes – May 4, 2020 (80 pages)
TumTum and Nutmeg – Adventures Beyond Nutmeg Hall (a three book collection) by Emily Bearn – April 2020 (read by Josh) (503 pages
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl – June 2020 (read by Josh)

The kids have also listened to many Audible books this year. We’ve especially enjoyed all the free books made available by Audible during the pandemic including: Five Children and It, White Fang, The Enchanted Castle, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Happy Little Family, The Lost Prince, The Princess Test, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, & Homesick – My Own Story.

A big thank you to the Gottwals for giving us many of the books in the Little House on the Prairie series!

In July 2016 the kids and I started reading through the Old Testament. We read one chapter every morning (minus Sundays). Or course, there were days we missed due to sickness or traveling, etc. We also took about a half a year break when were were traveling in the States. On May 28, 2020 we read the last chapter together. Now on to the New Testament!

This week Isaiah celebrated his 8th birthday! We started the celebrations two weeks ago with a Hardy Boys countdown calendar, which included gifts, snacks, making his cake, swimming, movie (March of the Wooden Soldiers), etc. It was nice to be able to go swimming. Ezra loved it and went down the slide multiple times.

Isaiah chose a soccer ball cake with a birthday dinner of hotdogs, baked beans, and mac & cheese. He also requested baked potatoes with sour cream for lunch.

After eating, we watched a slideshow of pictures of Isaiah’s past 9 years. Some siblings were surprised at how cute Isaiah was as a baby. Gifts were the last part of the night. It’s always fun to watch our kids give their sibling gifts. So much fun!

Isaiah’s main birthday gift was a new bike. His previous bike was form his 3rd birthday, we it was time for an upgrade!

We’re thankful for our newest 8 year old! Isaiah is finishing up the 2nd grade and enjoys math most of all. He’s almost done with 3rd grade math! He’s working on reading 100 books this year and has read 61 books already. He enjoys reading the Hardy Boys. He likes to creating things, climbing trees, riding bikes, and listening to books. This year Isaiah started taking piano lessons and is progressing nicely. We’re thankful for our firstborn son and the man he is becoming!

We’ve had a breakthrough in the heat and we’re so thankful for some rain and cooler temperatures (high 80s, low 90s during the day). One thing we do enjoy about hot season is that it’s also mango season. We’ve been enjoying mango ice pops almost everyday!

Josh and I continue doing morning prayer and coffee before our day starts. Most of our kids are out of bed by 6AM, so our prayer time is never peaceful.

Life continues without church or any church activities. Rumor has it that the government plans to keep schools closed until November (their “summer break is usually August -October), and that religious organizations will be the last to open back up.

We find creative ways to stay cool. Ezra decided to open a coffee bar….

The younger girls made their own cell phone recently. They found pieces of wood outdoors and painted them.

I taught Isaiah how to play Solitaire. Anna learned how to play Dutch Blitz and we had our first family game on her birthday.

Ezra goes between being very germ conscience to putting his fingerings into the mixing bowl. The kids made me a countdown calendar for Mother’s Day. I’m not taking many pictures these days…between home schooling and managing everything else. But we manage to get birthday pictures and event pictures!

Having trouble uploading pictures this afternoon. This is the one that came through….me and our youngest. We were playing with modeling clay, since I didn’t feel like being outside in the sun.

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.