Summer Fun

The kids finished up their year in school. Kayla finished her eighth grade year, Braeden his fifth grade year, and Ellie finished first grade. All of them did very well and we are very proud of them. Next year we will be switching to a different program. This program is the one we used for reading with Ellie this year and uses work books. This program is accredited so that Kayla can start high school and graduate from there. We have prayed about this decision and feel that is is best for all of them.

Our language test results came through. We both passed!! I am still studying for the higher level test I will take in September. Justin took the higher level test. Our instructor was pleased with our results and we will have a break this summer and start up language school again at the end of August to prepare for my test.

Family Day went smoothly. We had two families attend. One is the family that is part of our small group. The other was a new family. They seemed to have a good time. They seemed interested in the small group but have not come yet. We will continue to grow that relationship and pray for God's blessing.

I have to admit, after the family day I was a little discouraged. We knew that ministry is slow here but I still had high hopes. We did have some logistical problems with advertising that we know now how to overcome and we did have a good time visiting with the families there. If there were more families it may have not been feasible to have the quality of time we did have. Through prayer and Bible reading God made it clear that we are called to be obedient to what He asks us to do. He alone is in charge of the results. What a freeing realization that can be.

Though it is tough to see the slow growth here and easy to compare to others in warmer regions where they have fast results, we know God called us here and wants to minister to His people here through us. We are continuing to plan for the kids club in the fall this year and praying for other opportunities.

We were reading and ran across an interesting statement: If your church died tomorrow would anyone notice? This got us thinking. Right now no, probably not. The book was focusing on serving others and through that God using that service to bring others to Him. It has been weighing on our hearts to find ways to serve others here as a family and also as a part of our small group. We are praying for God's guidance on this as it can be a daunting task and take up much time if not focused on what He truly wants us to do. Would you pray with us for this? More than anything we just want to be used by God. We are here and ready to serve.

We hope to get the kids involved in activities this fall which hopefully will help them make friends and meet others. Please pray for this. I pray every night that God would place one friend at least in each of our kids lives here. It is very important for them to have friends. They are growing so fast and play well together, but I know they miss their friends and would love to have some here. I cannot believe this coming year I will have a ninth grader, sixth grader, and second grader! This mom feels old!

Thank you for your prayers and support! We love and miss you all!

 The kids at the Family day

 Kayla did face painting

 We had four games: bowling, golf, ring toss and throw the ball in the bucket. We also had face painting  craft and balloon animals

 The 23rd was the celebration of the summer solstice here called Jaanipäev. We went out to the neighborhood celebration and met up with some fellow missionaries here.

 They light a big bonfire.

People sit around and have a picnic, play, dance to music etc... Here the kids are waiting for the fire to be lit. Believe it or not it is about nine o'clock in these pictures. This was the longest day of the year. From here on out the days will get shorter.