Cheery Yellow

While Maggie heads home, the boys and I have been painting her attic bedroom. She chose her second favorite after Barbie Pink: Cheery Yellow. So we have been layering that on. Plus she said she'd like the old brown rug out of there. So Rob and James rolled it up and carted it down to the garage. Then Rob puttied the cracks in the plywood while James and Peter slopped sealer onto the baseboard. I hope we get the floor painted before she gets here. It has been a hot job, but I am proud of the boys. I know she will be too.

Most importantly we shall have her bed set up and ready for her to flop. Losing hours from that far away has to mean some kind of jetlag!

Here is her letter from yesterday:

Hey guys,
This is probably going to be my last letter from Sri Lanka since I head
out to Colombo to catch a plane tomorrow..... :( :( very sad. but not too
sad because I'm going to come back some day. seriously, I love this place.
Actually there really isn't anything extrordinary about the country itself -
its the people. I've built some great relationships with some sri lankans
and its going to be hard to leave after just a week.

these emails have been sort of difficult becuase I can't really express
exactly what i'm feeling about things. I could tell you what sri lanka
is really like but you would have to see it for yourself. if i tried to
decribe the land you would probably get a really bad impression. maybe i'm
just weird but the only culture shock that I have had is that everything is
a quarter to half the price of stuff in the USA (they gave us 13 bucks a
week for transportation and food.....and i still had some left over to use
for souviners, i have my own money too so i am laden down with gifts...yeah)

anyays, the sri lanka that I love is not the palm trees and the ocean
breezes or the rainforests. It's the little kids who run behind us as we walk
down the railroad tracks yelling "hello-ello-ello-ello-ello...". It's the
little old man named Nasely who literally force fed us rice and curry (then
gave us more tea....aaaah). Its stuff like that that is great. everything
else is wonderful too. there are trash piles on the side of the road
everywhere, but hey cute kittens and puppies live in them!

so anyways tommorrow this time i will be on my way far away from the little
old lady with no teeth that is always on bus 654, farhaan, the little boy
who successfully steals all our fruit at the work site, the party bus ( a
bus addorned with flowers that plays this singhala polka music ...its
hilarious) and all the men i could have married...lol...oh i didn't tell you
about the proposals and professions of undying love i get daily...mom you're
lucky i'm coming home at all...yeeees....."hey! tsunami aid! you want to
marry me! no?" lol.

ok almost out of time. i will tell much much more in person when i get
back and actually have time. take care God bless.
Maggie

Pale and Wan No More

"Look at the difference in the boys, Syl!" Bob called as he finished drawing a new pencil line for each on the laundry room wall where the three guys measure their heights. Peter is now as tall as James was when they arrived, and, as Bob also noted, "They are a far cry from the pale and wan little boys who sat across from us in the Orphanage Director's office seven months ago."

I have caught James checking his muscles in the mirror from time to time, and his eyes sparkle as he shows me that he is now up to my eyes. "If I ate good food all my life like you, Rob, I'd be almost as tall as you," he laughs. Well, mark your calendar because yesterday he drove the tractor up the driveway to the shed! Soon he and Rob will be competing for the job of cutting the grass.

Peter and James love wrestling each other, a favorite passtime in the orphanage. Sometimes they can be a bit rough with American kids, and I am not sure how to handle that, just remind them to ease up. I watch them laughing as they pound each other, ready to intercept if I see a head hold I don't like. Still, I remember how the Angel and Jacob wrestled. Jacob was no wimp in pursuing the blessings of God. He prevailed, too. And if we 'faint in the day of adversity,' our strength is small.

While the guys are growing taller and stronger they are also growing as brothers and sons of their father. To not grow in that area shows we are still shrimps inide, so I quote to myself daily, "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit." And now I am hearing that love happen, in the laughter between James and Rob, James and Peter, and more and more frequently between Rob and Peter. Love, joy and peace can't be pasted onto a person, so my new policy is to shut up and pray.

Bob is giving all three boys swimming lessons each evening. Peter has added a breathing rhythm to his swim stroke. Last night James did a flip into the pool, and Rob's stroke is so smooth that I think he should join the swim team. God be praised!

Skating is becoming the new Mississippian thing to do when you have a heat wave on top of another heat wave, on top of another heat wave. So Bob took them all down to the Ice Park Sunday afternoon...

Well, the boys have just come bursting through the door. I can hardly believe the hugs and kisses I just got! And they were only gone 2 hours! Hmm, I wonder what is up. Now they are off to watch the next episode of Anne of Green Gables, the orphan girl they love who has a family now, and hopefully will come to her senses and marry Gilbert Blythe.

Maggie Update

Maggie has written again from Galle, Sri Lanka. This is "the best thing that has happened to me in a long time," says she. She especially enjoys the Sri Lankan people. They "invite you into their homes and stuff you full of tea and whatever they have in the house, no matter if it means less dinner that night for the family. It's impolite to refuse."

She is enjoying one family that has adopted the Word Made Flesh team even though they weren't some whom the team helped. Their son comes around and helps them on site where they are assisting another local rebuild the foundation to his home which was demolished by the tsunami. The man had given away all the supplies donated to him by Habitat for Humanity. Now his grateful neighbors are building him a nice 2 room house.

More news when she gets back Saturday (Boy, that was quick!). God bless her and her old Michigan friend Meghan, who is in Zambia right now. Please pray for both girls, and our friends George and Debbie's son Aaron as he heads soon for a semester in Australia!

What a wonderful time to be alive for these kids!! Praise God.

PS a new note from Maggie says the interent is slow and costly... but that things are going very, very well and that she is already considering returning next summer!
While she watches the 'God of Wonders beyond our galaxy' at work on an island in the Indian Ocean, we are also witnessing Him at work in Ukraine as He reaches into the darkness and brings out two more "treasures" from our boys' class in Odessa this week. They are lovely 13 year old girls. Soon they will be in their new home in Nebraska, praise God.

The Weather in Sri Lanka

If you had asked me a couple months ago if I knew or cared what the weather was like in Sri Lanka, I would have scratched my head at you, but here I am adding it to my "Favorites".

I will just give you Maggie's off-the-top-of-her-head-excited journaling for those of you who are interested. We have not yet heard from her final destination, Galle, where she will work with the Word Made Flesh team among the "poorest of the poor". The plan is to do some building there. Why else would she pack her hammer. :)

Here she is, as of Monday, July 19....

Hey guys!
I am finally in Sri Lanka and I don't think I have ever been so happy to be anywhere before. It is so so beautiful. The weather is pretty much the same as Mississippi right now. The flight over was uh....long. We had a ten hour layover in Hong Kong so Julie and I made our escape and took an express into town for a couple hours. It was...interesting. I failed to take several things into account before leaving the airport. First of all 36 degree centigrade isn't really the same as fahrenheit. no...not at all. secondly. Everyone is Chinese and oddly enough, they all speak and write Chinese too.I don't. need I say more? anyways It was pretty much a really big really confusing really expensive city that I don't have much of a desire to go back to. But I did get a stamp in my passport, which is always exciting. Anyways, we arrived last night in colombo and were met by a nice looking smily little man who took us to a funny looking little van and began drove us to our hotel about an hour away. Ooooh my goodness. I've never been on a roller coaster but I seriously don't think they could be any different from driving in Sri Lanka. There is one road rule:honk. And I'm not kidding. lanes and such are suggested but not really paid attention to. anyways, finally the the man turned into a skinny alley and stopped by the gate of Tropical Inn where we met up with girl under whom we will be working. This morning we had breakfast which consisted of papaya and a little banana looking thing and lots and lots of tea and toast. after breakfast was orientation. the gist of that was that bugs are sadistic creatures with tiny black souls whose goal in life is to destroy the human race. but of course, after living in Mississippi for two year, i know that already. anyways, We are going to be taking a taxi from where ever we are right now to Galle after exchanging our money. The taxis that I have seen are these weird looking little three wheeled scooter trucks called tuktuks...i guess thats a good way of describing it. I hope we get to ride in one. :D They all drive on the wrong/right/left (however you want to say it) side of the road so that makes it all the more exciting, not to mention the million of little motor bikes that seem to be more numerous than mosquitos and drive more eratically. Ok its time to sign off. I hope you are all well. Do write personal emails. I might not get to read them all but its still nice to see you write. God bless.
mimi/maggie

Into the Wild Blue Yonder

Well, isn't it true that every day our faith gets tested in some new and wonderful way! Maggie found some good ones for me this week.

After two flight cancellations, her tickets arriving a day late because of a mechanical failure on the Fed-Ex plane in Memphis, finally she is off to Sri Lanka!

When she did go, her plane leaving Mississippi was quite delayed, so we expected to hear that, oh joy, she'd missed her connection in Dallas. In fact the airlines told us as much.

After arriving in Dallas, she dilly-dallied in her happy-go-lucky Maggie way through the Dallas airport, thinking, 'Oh well, so I missed it. I will get another flight.' As she approached the gate desk, she heard the intercom announce her name. Apparently they were holding the L.A. flight for her. The blessed girl was the last one on.

Despite info we got from the airlines that she was headed for San Diego, next thing we heard was her voice calling from L.A. reporting that she had been joined by her team mate from Detroit, and they were off across the ocean to Hong Kong!

She'll email us soon....

The girl has spunk. Plus, the verse she gave me this week during all the changes and uncetainty not only of the flights but of her girlfriend possibly cancelling out, was Proverbs 4;25 "Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee."

Be it unto me according to my faith!

God is good. : )

Suntans, Sri Lanka, and Storms

We have returned from a wonderful trip up North to see family. The kids had a great time meeting and being with their big brothers and dear sisters. God also arranged it so that we were able to spend time with friends and their children (boys mostly). Our new guys made friends and now feel quite at home in Rochester as well as Mississippi.

After spending a week there with family and a fun reunion with Canadian cousins, we cut across the state to Maranatha Bible and Missionary Conference in Muskegon, where we met up with our English teacher and her husband for the week.

We are recommending Maranatha as a great family reunion place, and also for adoptive families of kids from Odessa Internot #4 to meet next year for Family Camp, Week One, the end of June-early July. Book rooms now and you can decide for sure later.

Week One has a baseball camp hosted by professional players who share Jesus with the kids. There is also volleyball camp at the same time. You might see pictures of our gang in the photo gallery at http://maranatha.gospelcom.net/

You can get your deposit back in May if it doesn't work out for you, I think. The music and conference teachings at Maranatha are very uplifting. There is a free Christian Music concert every Saturday. Chris Rice was there the day we arrrived. We bought his CD to sing along with on our way back South.

Beach activities are at 2:00 every afternoon for families, but this year we mostly just relaxed with each other. Next year we will be back into the swing again, winning the sand castle contest as usual. : )

Our Emily and Chad and wee Mia shared a big apartment in "Jordon" with us. You can see Jordon on the website. The kids laughed their way through the week, turned toasty brown, climbing on the golden dunes and kite flying in the sunshine and wind. They jumped into the waves of the clean Lake Michigan waters, and we buried them to their necks in the warm sand.

Chad's folks brought their boat up for the weekend, and I held my breath as the boys wrestled with Dad and Chad for space on the raft they'd tied behind it, weaving back and forth across the wake and bouncing wildly, pushing each other off into the water.

When we weren't down at the beach, we all were climbing back through the woods to play hours of putt-putt golf, tennis, basketball, or frizbee. They boys listened attentively (or fell asleep exhausted!) in meetings, and we all consumed amazing amounts of famous Maranatha icecream!

Now we are back in the real world of tutoring, cutting the grass, and watering the garden, bathing the dog, checking off the job list, and swimming in our pool. Thank you, Lord, for the pool.

This morning as the red sun rose through the misty dark, I peered at it through my windshield with bleary eyes. I was driving to a town south of here to meet our Rob at his pick-up point from youth camp. His bus driver had wisely scooted them homeward by the back roads of Alabama and Mississippi, avoiding the Interstate bumper-to-bumper with cars that were evacuating coastal Alabama ahead of Hurricane Dennis.

By the way, that storm is heading straight our way, but thankfully we are halfway up the state. May God have mercy on those down on the Gulf.

We thank Him that the teens had a great time at camp even though they had to leave early. There's not much news yet from our sleepy boy, except that he had fun and that God was at the meetings.

Next week our sweet Mimi will be heading west across the Pacific to Sri Lanka to help rebuild from its storm. Please, please pray for her last minute arrangements, her safety and the adjustment to what will surely be a jolt to her system culturally. She feels calm and confident and ready to follow where God sends her, but, well, it's a long way away.

Speaking of traveling...praise God for the other kids who have arrived home in America from Ukraine! And prayers for them too as they struggle with the cultural changes during those first eye-opening days of learning to comply with their new parents wishes. Some are livewires, and some are like little 13 year old Yana, who I hear is settling in peacefully in Texas.

Meanwhile Michelle is praying for homes for more of the children she knows personally. All of these kids are like ours, too old for most people to notice or consider. But Jesus considers them very important and has a great plan for each of them, to set them free from their pasts, and bring them into a Family with God as their Real Father...if only someone will show them how.