Family Update

OK, let’s start with the oldest – Me. Still healthy, staying busy, can’t lose weight, can lose hair, getting poorer (aren’t we all), ministry going well, and overall – blessedly content.

Now for David. A couple of months ago, David transferred to a house where he shares the rent with two other guys from his work. Aside from his job, he has his routine of fixing his meals, washing his clothes (occasionally), going to church on Sundays, and playing a long-distance computer game with Jonathan on Friday evenings (Saturday mornings our time). They both get on Skype, the free audio/video computer communicator interface, and log on to Runescape, an internet team strategy game. As they talk together, they attack their enemies for several hours until its past time for David to go to bed and for Jonathan to eat lunch. It’s amazing how technology can bring us together.

Sara is finishing her last two classes and will get her Associates Degree in Graphic Communication in December. Her temporary job with Neiman Marcus ended in September, but there is a possible permanent job opening in a month or two that she hopes to grab. If you are in the habit of purchasing luxurious items from the famous Neiman Marcus Christmas catalogue, such as a $15,000 crystal chess set, or $60,000 for a personal, life-size replica of yourself in Lego bricks, you could see Sara’s picture-alteration work on some of the pages. Sara is still living with our dear friend, Peggy Hodges, and her playful white cat, Snowball.

Hannah calls each week with new stories of college life in America. Even though Liberty is a Christian college, it has its share of students who aim for the social fast lane of dating, movies, make-up, and hanging out. Fortunately, Hannah has made several friends with young ladies who live on her side of the world. She has found a church, attends a Bible study, and takes occasional trips to nearby Roanoke to visit grandparents. She enjoys her classes and is doing quite well in them. Recently, her and David spent the weekend together with a Filipina friend touring Washington D.C. Hannah likes being just four hours away from big-brother, David. (P.S. Hannah is wanting to go on a mission trip to Bosnia next year during her spring break. Anyone prompted to help her out financially can contact her at halfling390@yahoo.com)

Martha is enjoying having her own bedroom to herself for the first time in her life. She has the corner room and prefers not to have curtains so she can let the breezes and the sunshine in. Blue is her primary color with brown as an accent. When she is not agonizing over her school assignments, she relaxes by playing the keyboard, strumming her guitar, cooking in the kitchen, drawing new pictures, or reading from the many good books parked on the beautiful shelves that Daddy built. She exercises on her own and enjoys contemplating about the world around her. Though she very much misses her older siblings, she is learning, by God’s grace, to be content, too.

Jonathan is everything but content. He constantly wants to increase the size of his zoo. To date, he has a dog, 4 parakeets, and an itinerate cat. He would like to have some computer games if Daddy would let him – which he won’t. So instead he wants to play with concrete, fuses, and gunpowder. Hmmm, maybe I ought to let him have a computer game. Neither he nor Martha have found any friends here yet, so that makes our bonding here really close. So close that we have to put limits on how many times a day one can enter another’s room. Pray that Jonathan can find a good friend. Between reading novels and shooting his airsoft rifle, Jonathan finds time to do his schoolwork. Actually, he and Martha are both doing well in their studies.

We hope to be together for Christmas. Sara has her plane ticket to fly to Washington D.C. on December 12. The next day, her, David, and Hannah will fly together to Manila and then here to Iloilo. The I.M.B. is very generous to allow every MK one free ticket back to their foreign “home” place. They will stay until January 2. Please pray for my tribe as we are so spread out. This is the emptying nest stage for me and I’m not eager to see it empty. Pray for Martha and Jonathan that they will grow to be mighty in spirit, prepared for the time when they, too, leave home.