Birthday Boy

Dear Everybody,

My baby is 10!  I can hardly believe we have a 10 year old in the house until I take a good look at Micah and realize how BIG he is.  Our little boy is turning into a little man who loves to sit at the lunch table and talk with us instead of running off to play with his siblings.  What can I say, he's growing up...

I decided this year to make Micah a special cake.  If any of you know my sister, Esther, she is the one who makes amazing cakes for her kids' birthdays.  I am NOT that tatented, but I wanted to try.  So I decided to make an Angry Birds cake.  It turned out better than I had hoped and Micah loved it which was the best part.

here's the finished product 

Sunday night we ate his birthday meal even though his birthday was on Monday.  He chose Pad Thai Noodles with shrimp.

We are thankful the Lord gave us Micah 10 years ago.  He is a blessing to our family and I pray that the Lord will use Him greatly for His glory.

On Sunday for Father's Day, I also got this picture of Danny with all four kids.  Happy Father's Day Dan!  We thank God for YOU!

Liz

Big Girl Bed for Madeline

Dear Everybody,

Danny put the last few coats of paint on the bunkbed this morning and this afternoon, he installed it upstairs.  This set up gives the girls much more room to play also.

Matti helped Danny since he was done with his schoolwork

We'll see how the girls sleep tonight in their new beds.

I spent the morning getting the boys through school and then doing wash and cleaning house.  I also got a cake made to take to the Bible Institute for lunch with the students.  Pretty boring stuff but part of life just as much as anything else.

Danny had to study quite a bit for his class tomorrow.  We will be going to Temuco tomorrow for his class and for the missionary prayer meeting with Daryl and Earlynne Thompson.  They are getting ready for their furlough coming up next month.

That's all our news for now.  Miguel kept working on the window frames and is almost done with that project.  We have to wait until next month to be able to afford buying the windows.  He also prepped the wood for the countertops that will go in the guest house kitchen. We want to have it dry before we put the countertop together.

No blog tomorrow but maybe on Friday.

liz

Plumbing and Painting

Dear Everybody,

Another storm front has moved into our area.  All night we heard the winds howl through the trees and the rain fall in huge drops on our tin roof.  This weather system is supposed to stick around a few days so as far as work goes we are stuck doing inside jobs.

The new porch on the front of the guest house is still standing and we haven't noticed any leaks either so the guys did a good job on it.  Today they focused on getting smaller projects done.  Miguel built a dolley so we can move larger objects around easier.

Do you notice the flooding? A day of dry weather and it will all be gone because of the sandy terrain.

Danny studied for his class in the morning and worked on the workshops he will be giving at our first National Camp Conference in Chile. More on that at a later time.

He had a little helper helping him cut up some veggies for lunch.

After lunch he went out to work.  We plan on moving Madeline to a regular bed soon.  Both girls will share a bunkbed.  There was a set of metal bunkbeds in the guest house that we took apart.  Today I sanded them down and Danny repainted them.  Tomorrow we hope to set the new bunkbed up for the girls.

painting the rails

and the head board and foot board

Then Danny focused on more plumbing.  He got all the cold water plumbing in for the bathroom and the kitchen done today.  What a job!  We are reusing all the copper pipes from the previous set up so it means cleaning the fittings up but it is a savings.  We might have to buy a few more fittings to connect the hot water but overall we came out way ahead reusing the old.

After a warm bowl of soup and homemade buns, we're ready for a quiet evening.  The kids are in their beds reading.  They are pretty tired out after a morning of school and trying to stay busy in the house since it was rainy outside.

Thank you for your prayers as we continue to serve the Lord here in Chile.

Liz

Rollerblading Fun

Dear Everybody,

Friends of ours in the States, Jim and Dee Buizer, gave the kids each a pair of rollerblades.  They have enjoyed using them even on rainy days since the gym has a roof.  Danny has a pair of rollerblades too so it's been fun for them to play together.  For Christmas we got the boys hockey sticks and pucks so they can play street hockey if they want.  Good exercise and lots of fun!

Here is a video of them goofing off for the camera, hopefully you won't get dizzy watching them:


Click here to watch

Liz

Long Time No Blog

Dear Everybody,

Sorry for the lapse in the blogs.  I ended up with a cold and it was hard enough just to get the basic things done in the house, let alone write a blog post.  But, now I'm back with lots to tell.

In my last post, I mentioned Miguel's stove and water tank.  That project took about a week to get all connected and finished.  After many leaks to repair and final touchups it's up and running great.

They also installed a barrel wood stove in the shop.  It's nice to have heat in there to work and also clean up wood scraps.

Then the guys were able to focus their attention back on the guest house.  Miguel has been working on framing up the windows.  Here in Chile, windows are done different also.  We have a young Christian man who attends one of our country churches who owns a window/glass shop here in Lican.  We hope to get the windows put in next month.

Then the guys started on building a covered porch in front of the house.  We get LOTS of rain here in the south and a covered entrance is a wonderful thing to have.  We also want to make it a sort of privacy screen between our house and the guest house.

The first thing we had to do was take out an old sidewalk.  The kids helped with that project.  As the boys tore up the sidewalk, Morgan carried off the rumble.

The guys started to put up the posts, rafters, purloins and then the tin.  Between each sheet of tin, they put a piece of polycarbonate roofing to allow light to come through.  We finished off the work and then stained the wood.  We hope to pour a cement slab so that at the back, we can install the washing machine.

taking the gutter down

first post

as the kids were loading firewood to our front deck they would get wheelbarrow rides back to the woodshed

painting a coat of stain (goes on purple but dries clear)

finished, we just need to pour the slab now

This past weekend, we had the visit of two young men from Santiago, Andres and Jose.  Andres has worked at camp for three years now so is very familiar with Lican.  His brother and wife are the couple that will be living in the guest house and become the first young couple to be trained on camp.  This was the first time for us to get know Jose, a young Christian, who loves the Lord and wanted to serve God at camp.  He is an electrician by trade.  Both guys arrived around 10 AM on Saturday and worked all day until close to 3 AM Sunday morning.  Then they were back at it on Sunday morning until noon, when we had to travel to Llonquen for church.

At church they gave a short testimony and Andres led in singing some choruses.  Danny preached and I had ten littles kids in my Sunday school class.

Video of singing in UCB Llonquen

 After church, they finished up the work right before catching their bus back to Santiago at 7 PM.  We are thankful for their willingness to come and serve the Lord.

Jose

Andres

Thank you for your prayers as we continue to work.  Tonight we hold a planning meeting on conference call with our team.

Liz