ESL Christmas Party

After 3 years "doing" ESL, I decided we needed to have a Christmas Party.

If we had it at our house, the decorations were already up.

Plus, we wanted to have them all in our home.

We had no idea how many to expect, but were thrilled to have a total of about 45!
The other teachers and helpers brought refreshments while I made the drinks (hot apple cider and bottle drinks) and cupcakes and juice for the kids. The Primera pastor's wife brought a big tray of nachos.

We asked the Mobberly youth to lead a children's Christmas party down in our game room, since  whole families were invited.

Five youth (including Carl) did a fantastic job.

Noel, Molly, and Elliott also came to enjoy this party with us.

They ended up helping in so many ways!

Thank you. Lord, for a successful party.

We begin classes again in January.

Autumn

What a nice surprise!

With our terrible drought this summer, I figured we'd not have 

a very colorful fall. Wrong.

We have enjoyed a beautiful fall season.

All these photos were taken from our back deck.

Hope all of you are having a beautiful fall, also.



Dad goes traveling

Dad and the missions pastor of our church in Texas traveled to INDONESIA to see how our church can help in what is going on there.

Here is the K's new home!

The local hand carving and furniture factory.

A busy street.

The K family goes to the modern mall!

One of the local mosques.

On a trip up the river.

Kris and a colleague strole in a village.

Papa tells the Grands a story. (See their new beds?)

And then (all too quickly) Dad and Joe pack up and head to INDIA.

Here they meet with Srinivas and his family in Dad's hotel room.

Busy India street.

They visit the villages. Here Dad is preaching, Srinivas is interpreting, and Joe is observing.

They visit the large village school that Srinivas has built and started. Our church is helping in the ministry. All the teachers are believers and this is such a wonderful opportunity to share the Good News with people who would not hear it otherwise.

All students commute from several villages. But the pastors' children all board here. Here Dad teaches those children to do string tricks. Srinivas watches.

It was a fast trip. But a good trip. A lot was done in a short time. We are thankful to be a part of a stateside church that is active in missions, both at home and abroad.

 













Front Door

The front door of our house

should somehow be a "welcome, come on in" sign

to visitors.

But, our door was showing its nearly 20 year age!

We tried to clean it, to no avail.

So we decided to give a whole new look to it.

This is the result.

And the finished product.

Welcome! Come on in!

Coming......

Okay. There's a problem: we can't locate Dad's camera, on which are pictures of his latest mission trip to Indonesia and India. That was to be this post, and is why it has been awhile since I posted. So stay tuned......  we'll find the camera eventually. Meanwhile, this is the one picture from my camera, taken the day he left with Joe, our Missions Pastor for Overseas (we have another Missions Pastor for stateside). This is at the church with our Develop Pastor (discipleship), the missions assistant, and Joe's son and daughter-in-law. All were gathered for prayer before piling into the van. Joe's son drove them to Dallas to the airport. They did indeed have a great trip. More info later.

Sealing the deck

When we bought our house 3 1/2+ years ago, we were thrilled with the decks out back, providing many square feet for outside entertaining and relaxation.

 However, even at that time, we realized that it needed attention. The wood needed to be cleaned and sealed. But we got busy and other things took precedent. Finally, Johnny tackled the big job.

Getting things ready.

Carefully going over every inch.

Cleaning it first.

Then going over the whole thing again with the sealant.

That's a lot of wood!

Cookie looks over the finished deck.

She thinks Dad/Papa did a great job!

Papa goes to Liberia

If you're in the immediate family, you've been receiving emails about this remarkable mission trip.

Now for a few pictures of that beautiful place and those dear people.

The beach scene Johnny saw everyday.

This is where Dad and the others stayed on the beach. Papa's room is the one on the left.

Papa teaching at the seminar. There were two 5 day seminars,
training 70 pastors.

The pastors and leaders practicing telling the stories.

Papa's partner, Ralph, and his wife Rosene.

Johnny with some of the pastors.

The first seminar proudly show off their certificates.

The market in Monrovia.

"Grandpa" with the main Liberian leader's children.

 



These are some of the faces of Liberia.

And now...... Papa is getting ready for his next trip

just 8 days away!

                                                    Johnny has really enjoyed playing on

The Mobberly Leftovers team,

which Noel coaches. Their record for fun was 1.000 but their won/lost record was only about .500.

However, for the end-of-season tournament they made it to the championship game and lost a nail-biter, 23-10.  Oh well, second place ain't bad.