Easter and catch up
Dear Friends,
Wow, a month has gone by since I last wrote to you all, and sent the update video. A number of you expressed appreciation for that so maybe I'll do it again sometime!
We just returned from a wonderful weekend with Matthew, Rachel and Graham, Nathan with his fiancee Katelyn, and Alysha. Unfortunately, the Navy is keeping Josh too busy right now so he wasn't able to join us in OKC. We all enjoyed time with Graham who is now 2 months old and full of smiles and coos. Please pray for his system to settle down as he struggles quite a bit with gas and spitting up. https://www.facebook.com/512961306/videos/10157413477656307/ (Rachel's parents are in the attached photo as well.)
Pickle ball, volleyball, football (for the boys including Scott, but not Graham!), cards, lots of chatting and getting to know Katelyn, Nathan's fiancée. Katelyn is a 3rd grade teacher and a lovely Christian woman. What a blessing to be together! We called Josh on Easter so he could be "with us".
Meanwhile, today Scott starts orientation for a job at Walmart "picking" online orders. His temp job lasted just over 2 weeks so now he has applied to work for Walmart itself. We are trusting that God will use this to open doors of relationship with co-workers for His Kingdom. It looks like I will be facilitating a women's Bible study at our church on the book of Mark using "Son of God" by Keri Folmar. I did this study with some women in Louviers last year and really enjoyed its inductive study method (asking observation, interpretation and application questions of the text).
Scott very much enjoyed preaching at our church 2 Sundays last month while our pastor was away. I think there will be some more opportunities for him to preach when our pastor is gone this summer.
I continue to see progress in my job. Recently, I opened two "Communities of Purpose" - one for our TCK Advisors and one for our Child Safety Officers. This is a place on the internet where we can share resources and discuss pertinent issues.
Over 18 years ago, I met Moira, an elementary school teacher who came to Thailand to run Homeschool Weeks for missionary kids. These were amazing opportunities for our kids to be with other homeschooling kids as well as learn skills. I am now working with Moira on a big project - putting together a flow of training on TCK issues for missionaries as they move from pre-field to orientation to field to home assignment, etc. This training is also looking at developmental stages - babies, elementary, teens, tertiary. This is a long term project and I'm so glad that Moira is heading this up for me as she has much experience with MKs, education and curriculum.
As I'm writing this, I'm realizing that I have mentioned some of this in previous emails. I guess that's cuz these are long running projects, and seem to take a long time to launch. Your prayers are much appreciated.
In March, a Singaporean friend and I ran a two week session called "Practical Child Safety" for one of our fields - training people on how to train kids by using scenarios, body safety rules, self-defense, etc. We are planning to give this training to our Child Safety Officers in May and then have them train the workers on their fields. We hope this will put practical tools into families' hands to protect their children from maltreatment.
My parents arrive tomorrow and we'll be touring the Kennedy Space Center next week. I'm excited!
May God continue to strengthen you all in this unusual time. God is at work - He is drawing people to Himself for His glory.
Blessings,
Jennifer