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Our Trip to Grand Cayman

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Rarely do I get a chance to go on a business trip with my whole family.  So I was excited to be able to bring them all along with me to Grand Cayman (of all places!).  The greater blessing of the trip was that this one happened to be longer than my usual long weekend trips, so we were able to enjoy some good family time.  Our whole family is indebted to Pastor Jeff Akenberger of the Midland, MI district for facilitating it all.

The purpose of the trip was multifaceted: (1) to hold youth revival and evangelistic meetings, (2) to meet with conference and union officials to develop a strategy for a GYC in the islands, and (3) to visit Adventist and non-Adventist secondary schools to talk about challenges being faced: peer pressure, excellence, sexual abuse, etc.

Pastors Dixon and Blythe, conference and union youth directors, respectively, were also with us for most of the time.

During the mornings, we visited schools.  Jeff and Daniel Jean-Francois (CAMPUS Chaplain at Michigan Tech) gave talks to the young people.  Scott Bennett was the singer and we made good use of him — he sang his head off!  Evening messages were divided between Jeff and myself, with Daniel and Judy giving talks on relationships before each sermon. 

The highlight of the evening meetings for me was when someone walked in from the streets and made a decision to get baptized!  The meetings were held in a tent right outside the church.  People who would walk by the church on their way to running errands could hear the messages.  I remember seeing two gentlemen walking by and stopping to listen.  Usually, people would listen for a few minutes and then walk on.  When these two walked away, I thought they’d continue on their errands, but they came around the wall that separated the church lot from the street sidewalk, walked to the front of the tent, and sat down.  During the following evening’s appeal, one of them made a decision to study and join the church!

The trip was among the best I’ve been on, and I was thankful for the opportunity to serve.  Here are some pics.


Me getting the boys ready, while Judy (family photographer) ensures that our camera is working and ready to go!  The boys had to get used to wearing little clothes.  In order to prevent sudden shock, we had to get them accustomed to this change in the familiar environment of their natural habitat. 


Our arrival to Grand Cayman.  BTW, we hate Delta Airlines.  Just had to get that off my chest. 


The boys are happy to discover that the new world has a much warmer climate!  It SNOWED at home the day before we left. 


The team, minus Judy (the team photographer). 


Judy getting ready for her talks based on Adventist Home.


Jeff and Daniel eating breakfast


Scott singing Jeff’s favorite song: “Watch the Lamb” during the Sunday concert. 


The Union Youth Director came in from Jamaica. 

 
The Conference Youth Director and his family.  Awesome hosts and great Christians!


Sometimes, in the mornings we would go out to the beach and swim for a couple of hours during our free time.  Micah loves the water, but got really scared with the waves and was traumatized for a long time.  He is now okay with taking tubbies again.

 
To cope with his trauma he acted as though he wanted to play the sand, but in reality was eating it!  Sneaky little guy!
 
 
Decided to take a family picture.  We missed Daniel Mendez and Stephanie Quick, our two favorite family photographers!


Trying to go for round two.  But it didn’t work.


So we decided to teach Daniel how to swim.  Here he is mastering Lesson #1: Learn how to float


He was so excited to pass with flying colors that he didn’t notice the bunny ears Jeff was giving him. 


The stingray looking thing in the water is Daniel.  Micah made a friend whose name was Emma!  There she is sitting next to him, ready to protect. 


We ate at an Italian restaurant.

 
Micah is not ready to hear his daddy preach every night!  Once a week is already too much! 


On Sabbath, we were pleasantly surprised to see that Jukes and Aileen decided to take a last-minute vacation to the Grand Cayman.  It was so awesome to see them there.  We got to spend some nice time with them.  Uncle Jukes is Manu’s favorite uncle, even though Auntie Aileen always feeds Manu.  Micah, however, melts everytime he sees his Auntie Aileen.

For fun, we visited Stingray City, a turtle farm, and a Dolphin Discovery that was owned by Adventist businessman Gene Thompson.


Daniel picking up Big Daddy.  His shell weighs more than 300 lbs. 


Manu was afraid to touch the turtles at first, but then he wouldn’t let them go.


Micah is not petting the turtle.  He’s examining its texture to see if the standards of edibility are good enough for him.


Since they weren’t, he converted to veggieism


Getting ready for the dolphins. 


Manu reflecting on his experience with the dolphins.  He had some regrets.  When the dolphin came to get a kiss, he replied “I don’t want to kiss him, he should kiss me!”


For two of the days, we took a few hours of family time and got a hotel.    


More swimming for Manu, that’s all he likes to do at this point.


Micah is excited for the night’s menu


Evidence that I used to model and still have it in me 


Sun setting for romance


Me ordering room service


Manu taking swimming to the bathtub

For the record, as soon as the food arrived, I had to go preach.  When I got home, they were all asleep and the food was all gone! 

 

The End. 

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Another Sabbath is Here

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 After a tiresome week of traveling (-driving down to Lansing, meetings, visiting, & driving back up), we arrived back home and are adjusting back to normal life.  Traveling always has a way of throwing things off when it comes to parenting.  Not only does it mess up the daily routine/schedule, but it always leaves opportunity experiences that make character building challenging.  I must add that often times new experiences and influences greatly benefit children.  But outside of the safety and protection of home, you never know what will come up.  It takes a lot of wisdom and patience to discern what you should/shouldn’t do.  I think I could write forever on this topic since we do so much traveling, but I’ll refrain for now.  Let’s just say that I’m glad to be home where Imanuel’s bed which is easily accessible when it’s obviously nap time and with Micah’s toys so he is content to play on his own…for the most part. 

I think I can officially say that he can walk, but half of the time he wants to hold my hand and a quarter of the time he still crawls.  So, we’re almost there.

We got home on Tuesday afternoon and on Thursday (-yesterday), we found ourselves driving Israel to the airport for another trip.  He is in Germany for ATS Youth.  What a lucky duck.  I sometimes wish he had a video camera attached to his forehead that was always on “record” so we could share in his experiences.  That would be preferable to us actually going with him.  I must add that many people often ask me how it is that I manage by myself without Israel when he goes on these trips – taking care of the babies and the pets, keeping the wood stove burning, working for GYC, cooking, cleaning etc. 

The answer is quite simple. 

First of all, Israel always asks my permission to go on a trip.  Now just to make things clear, I’ve never told him “no” except once.  And that was for New in Ministry the week Micah was due (in the middle of winter).  How can I say “no” to God’s calling?  I don’t think I could live with myself.  I also trust his judgment because he has sometimes said “no” himself. 

Secondly, he always offers to fly all of us over when possible (-using airmiles, of course).  I know that is what he really wants.  However, I usually tend to make the head-not-heart decision to stay home.  It’s just so much easier that way. 

And thirdly, I’ve found that in a strange way, him being away occassionally on these trips has actually strengthened our own presonal relationships with God as well as our marriage relationship.  Sometimes we need to be away from each other to truly appreciate them.  And when we’re away from each other, we have more alone time with God.  I think that’s important.  So, while this may sound strange, Israel being gone is often a blessing!   

We often bicker about which is more difficult:  to be the one left at home or to be the one gone on a trip.  I think being left at home is definitely more difficult because you’re at home in your element missing someone in your everyday life.  On the other hand, when you are on a trip and you leave your family at home, you are experiencing a completely different lifestyle/schedule and usually you are busy enough to keep yourself occupied. 

Anyway, to sum it up, it’s difficult and it always will be.  But I think it’s been much more manageable since I’ve realized that God often uses Israel’s trips to reveal Himself more to me AND since Imanuel can talk now and we can actually hold a conversation.  He also is my little helper and is always willing to be there for me (-unless he is napping).     

As Sabbath approaches, our little family traditions make us miss Israel even more.  From Friday dinner to Sabbath family worships, it’s not the same without him.  (And it’s impossible for us to read the Spanish story with any clarity!)  It has been about a month since Micah started partaking* in the Sabbath Roll (-minus the dah-guang: pickled radish).  He can down an entire roll by himself and eat plenty of edamame on the side.  I think that’s his favorite meal for sure.  Imanuel eats 1.5 rolls.  So, for those of you who understand how much this is, when I make the rolls for our family, I have to make 4 cups of rice!  Anyway, it was a good day and I’m glad it is the Sabbath.        

*And speaking of partaking, a couple Sabbaths ago, I forgot it was communion Sabbath and therefore forgot bring an alternative, unblessed, edible distraction for the boys.  Surprisingly, Imanuel didn’t mind not partaking at all.  Praise the Lord!  I think Grandma Karen explained it to him.  Micah on the other hand was a mess.  We had to hide our bread (-“we” meaning me and the two ladies sitting on both sides of me) but when the juice came, it was over.  He kept grunting and lunging for our juices.  Oh, and he did remember to emphatically sign “please” plenty of times.  Next time, I’m sitting in the back.      

Here are some pics that we wanted to share with Daddy of us eating our Sabbath Rolls:

   
I cut Micah’s rolls skinnier because I knew he would stuff them in his mouth whole.  I caught him once trying to stuff 2 at a time.  When his mouth is filled to capacity, he requests a swig of “Sabbath juice” then swallows it all in one gulp.  I think when he gets older, we’ll sign him up for the veggie hot dog eating contest (-if that exists).  We’ll be rich. 
 
the Micah and his “kim-bbops”.
 
Manu ate with his new chopsticks today.  We got complimentary kids’ trainers from P.F. Chang’s (for Tennille’s birthday!) while we were in Lansing. 

Manu demonstrating his skills.

We love Sushi!  🙂

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A Day of Showing Love

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This Valentine’s Day, I’m glad it fell on a Sabbath. 

While we (Israel and I) have never done much for Valentine’s Day, I decided that we could use this opportunity to express our love for our church members.  Imanuel and I wrote and passed out little Christian Valentines to all of his friends, the ladies, and the widows of the church.  They were very simple, but the message was the same – “God is Love” and they are all very special and loved by us. 

I also began thinking of those in our church whose loved ones (spouses) passed away.  Many of them have been living alone for years.  Holidays such as these must be very difficult for them.  We wrote special notes for those who were widows.  Israel delivered the ones to L’Anse church and he told me how touched one lady was.  She told him that it had been YEARS since she had received a Valentine and she was so thankful.  While I’m not a big fan of this holiday, I do want to say that it is a wonderful opportunity to reach out to those who need to feel loved – especially those who have lost their spouses. 


We gave away 32 cards, stickers and candies.


Manu hand-delivered the ones at church and we mailed out the rest. 

Hope you felt loved on Valentine’s Day!  If not, we love you and Jesus loves you more!   

**  We wanted to also wish our sister, Julie, a special, happy birthday today!  May God bless and guide you even more this upcoming year!  ** 

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The Best Sabbath

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This past Sabbath was perhaps one of the greatest ones we’ve ever had – and for sure the best one while in the U.P. There were 2 special baptisms, Sara and Jamie Oger (husband and wife) from the Greenland Church and because Greenland doesn’t have a baptistry, it was decided that it’d be best to have it at Houghton Church. The home school group that we started at L’Anse was going to sing special music at Houghton as well. So, all three churches in our district came to worship together at Houghton. Not only that, Dr. Pipim and the CAMPUS missionaries came up for the week for the Bible Lecture Series that will be held on the campus of Michigan Tech. So, with the baptism, our kids singing special music, our entire church family and many visitors, and our special speaker, Dr. Pipim, it was an inspiring, Spirit-filled church service. Not to mention the awesome potluck and fellowship that followed. I think it can be assumed that it has been several years since our church was that packed! God is doing something in the U.P!
The only down-side is that Israel had (and still has) strep throat.  So, he sounds like the godfather and he’s been on antibiotics for a few days.  Good thing he didn’t have to preach! 

L’Anse Christian Home School Group
In September of last year, we decided to start a home school group at our church in L’Anse. There are two families in that church that are home schooling and there was another home school family with 7 children that we met through our VBS that previous summer. It started off a bit rocky, but the Lord has truly blessed our humble efforts and it has grown to over 20 kids (counting the babies too :)! We meet once a week (on Wednesdays,) for special classes that normal home schoolers cannot take at home. Daniel Jean-Francois leads in Worship/Bible, Israel teaches the Spanish Class, and I teach the Music Class. The kids bring their lunches and in the afternoon it’s either free time for games or there is a science lab. We are all Christians, but only about half of the families are Adventist. God has really opened up doors to reach out and share our message. And it gives me an opportunity to teach again! It’s been very exciting because our kids are the best kids in the world.  It’s almost unreal.  These yooper home school families/kids are amazing!

Here are some pictures from this past Sabbath as well as from our home school group:

Sharing their testimonies.

Jamie Oger ready to enter the watery grave.

Sara Oger publicly giving her life to Christ.

Dr. Pipim preaching, “Alone With God”.

Potluck.  🙂

Manu honking Auntie Alanna’s nose…hard.

Our kids sang, “The Gift Goes On” and did an excellent job!
 
Some of our girls playing a game at one of our Wednesday meetings.

The little kids always have craft time while the older kids take their classes.  This week (-it was back in September/October) they made bird feeders out of milk cartons.  The birds at our house ate all of the seeds from Manu’s feeder within a few days! 

At Elisabeth’s surprise b-day party!  Laura, Sara, and Casey

Ryan and Vinny – Best Friends. 

Uncle Daniel and Manu having some fun.  🙂

We feel so blessed to be a part of such a faithful group of Christians.  God has been using Daniel in such a mighty way to draw others closer to Christ.  He has been using Alanna to rally our student group together.  And we have been inspired by our faithful church family.  Sometimes it is hard to believe that God could/would want to use us to be a part of His ministry.  What joy it brings!  We hope and pray that God continues to use us to serve Him.

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A Week with Magabookers & Inspiration

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The magabookers just left after a week with us here in the Yoop. It was a blessing to host them and in many ways, it was very refreshing to see young people working so hard for Jesus. They were a grateful bunch as well. Imanuel and I were able to pray together for the colporteurs from day to day. Before they left every day, he would exclaim, “God bless you!” as they walked out to the car. They were definitely a great influence on him! Now he wants to go sell books! (Must get that from Daddy’s genes.) I really hope my kids decide to colporteur when they grow up…

On a different note, this past week was a week of re-inspiration. It started over a year ago. Over a year ago, my sister and I rearranged our living room and we bought two large picture frames. We never ended up printing pictures and filling them, but my sister insisted that we at least hang them up so it would remind us to fill them. Well, the blank picture frames were up the entire time and from time to time, I would feel the need to print some pictures, but I never acted upon it.
So, this week, I decided enough was enough. I got on the computer and got Israel to do the same and we went through all of our pictures and saved a bunch that we liked onto a CD. I took it to Walmart and I had them printed on the picture kiosk. We were so excited by the pictures, that we decided to buy 2 more picture frames and filled them too. After that, we were inspired to do our scrapbook page for our Florida vacation that we took this past February. (After we came back from Cancun, our first family vacation back when Imanuel turned 1, we bought a couple scrapbooking sets and a bunch of materials for them. We dedicated one to family vacations.) So, Israel and I spent one evening working on our vacation scrapbook, which was very fun and exciting. This sparked both of us to work on two different projects over the next couple of days. Israel spent hours (over a few days) working on a wedding album (-finally after 4 years!!) And I was finally inspired to catch up on the baby books! I filled in all of the information, put in some pictures, and I just went through a bunch of pictures and saved the ones that I still needed to fill in the books. Today I’m going to take them to Walmart to print. It was SUCH a productive week in the area of family bonding/reflecting/archiving. And we did all of this just because one day, my sister decided that we should hang the frames up, even though they were empty! If we never hung them up, they would still be collecting dust in the closet, along with our empty photo albums, baby books, and scrapbooks!

And as I think about it, I realize that this is human nature. What is our problem?! How come we can’t get ourselves to do things that we know will benefit us in some way unless we get inspired? We often realize our needs, responsibilities, and even wants! But it’s so hard to get a move on it!
But, if we give ourselves reminders to inspire us (- if we put ourselves in positions/places where God can speak), we can finally overcome ourselves and what seemed like a laboring task, would be a delight! Sometimes it just takes one little thing that we decide to do that would give us the momentum to accomplish many things. Just one solid commitment. Just one firm decision. And in the spiritual sense, that one little thing can often be inspired by those moments spent with Christ. In giving of ourselves to Him, we’ll be surprised by what we feel inspired to do!

Back to the colporteur work. I can imagine some of the people who bought GCs or DAs or COLs etc…and as they look at the book, they feel obligated to read it since they paid their donation. But as time goes on and remains untouched. However, one day, as the Holy Spirit inspires them, they will look over at their bookshelf and see that dusty book that they bought from a cold, wet colporteur who was working their way through school. They’ll pick it up, read it, and the rest is history.

I hope to be inspired every day to cheerfully do the things God would want me to do, and to continue making small decisions that go a long way! How productive we could be!

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Fall GYC BOD 2005

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We had a GYC Board of Directors meeting this weekend.  It was good
to see all these people whom I respect and admire so much.

A powerful thought was shared during one of the sermons presented.

Humans are so selfish.  We even tend to be selfish in the way we
approach salvation.  Don’t get me wrong, we should love salvation,
cherish it.  Saying that “it’s the best thing in the world” is an
understatement.  But at times, we love ourselves more than we love
salvation.

Think of this:

Moses and Paul were willing to give up their salvation for the people
they were ministering to.  That’s how much they loved
others!  That’s almost a powerful thought!  But it’s too hard
for us to fully comprehend.

Try this:

Jesus was not only willing to give up His salvation–He DID.

He, of course didn’t need saving.  But Christ is SO unselfish that
He–in reality–gave up His eternal life.  The constant thought
running through His mind, perhaps from Gethsemane to Calvary, was that
there was no human way He would survive the death of sin resting on his
shoulders.  It was too great, too offensive.  Faith surpasses
reality. And faith was the only thing that allowed the thought of a
resurrection being possible.

And He decided to die anyway—eternally!

That is unselfishness.  And I am not synonymous with that!

Too often, we just care about our salvation.  Maybe it’s time that
we start caring about the salvation of others.  Maybe that is what
true religion is all about.  Maybe our salvation remains most
secured in seeking to secure the salvation of others.

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CAMPUS Musings

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Alanna and I are the only ones in the office.  I made it in before
everyone even though I missed the exit.  Dr. Pipim had a meeting
yesterday with the Secretary of the GC whom he calls “The Cardinal” (I
thought that was so funny).  Anyhow, he got in at 5 am and slept
in even though we had a staff meeting today.  I don’t know WHERE
IN THE WORLD JUSTIN is even though I just got off the phone with
him.  But he’s late too.  Even Randy isn’t here yet.  I
think he forgot we had a meeting.  Or he might just be out of town.

Even though Alanna is present with the flesh, she’s absent in the
spirit.  I have no idea where in the office she is!  I’m
starting to get freaked out.  Was there a secret rapture that I
missed?

Judy is at an inservice today.  It’s on health or diet or
something.  Dr. Griffin, MI Conference Health & Temperance
Director,  is going to be there.  Which is so funny because
last night I dreamed that we were on a flight with her.  Judy and
I totally moved everything around in the house.  It was so
impulsive.  Oh man!  Justin and Dr. P just got in.  I
better go before the doc reads our xanga!

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Crash Course on S. African Lingo

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I thought I’d write something so that people would quit talking about Egypt…

Chester and I are in South Africa looking for Mandela so that we can take a picture with him.  No success in finding him yet.  But we did visit the union office where he used to work.  And during our trips to the mall we read a lot about him so that I feel like I know him personally.
We are here to explore the opportunities available for starting a GYC South Africa.  So far we’ve met with Conference officials in the Southern African Union.  We’ve also been able to make presentations to churches, youth leaders, and families.  Good times.  Keep us in prayer because both of us will have to preach at two different churches this Sabbath. 
During our free time we’ve eaten a lot.  But I think I’m actually losing weight.  Too bad Shaun, our South African-now-American host, can’t say that 🙂  He’s had quite a lot of lunch/dinner invites…and boy can you tell.
We are having an excellent time with him.  We visited Cape Point, where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet…supposedly.  It was a nice climb though.  We were able to see South African Penguins too.  For more information and pictures about our trip, check out Chester’s page.  My camera battery died and I haven’t taken cool pictures like Chester since like the 2nd day we arrived.
We meet with our good friend Gerda today!  And plan to check out the Cape Town International Convention Center.  Gotta run!
Everyone, pray for Judy…she’s sick…and her birthday is coming up on the 4th 10.4!  That’s the day I get in!  So write her some nice cards and email them to her at jnamm@misda.org…no junk mail or group mail or non personal mail stuff please…and NO FORWARDS!
Power.
Israel
PS.  Here are some new South African words I’ve learned:

1.  Is it?  Mostly used instead of American word “really”
EXAMPLE
Israel: I’m going to go see the penguins now.
Shaun: Is it?

2.  Shame.  Used frequently for no particular reason.
EXAMPLE:
Israel: I hate tomatoes
Shaun: Shame

3.  Sorted.  Used instead of fixed
EXAMPLE:
Shaun: Let’s get this sorted out