What's Your Text?

We are having a cultural exchange!  Friends from Texas are visiting us.  We enjoy seeing our life through their eyes.  They enjoy the things through our Third Culture Kids' eyes.

We enjoy things like this:

Kris says, "Do you want chicken, beef or goat?"

Chris M. says, "Wow.  I have never been asked that question before!"

They enjoy things like this:

Pastor Todd says something like, "Joel, you should preach for us.  Do you have a text?"

Joel responds, "I don't have a phone."

We've also enjoyed a visit from Grandma.  Kris' mom spent the week with us and we have so enjoyed her!  So that's what we've been up to this week.  Lots of laughing, lots of experiences, lots of memories.

So, if I had to choose a text for this week, I'd choose Psalm 116:7, "Be at rest once more, oh my soul, for the Lord has been good to you."

Puzzling Pictures: A Different Kind of Traffic

Even on this busy overpass, we are reminded that we are still in Asia!

Floppy Toast

When I lived in the dry desert in Africa, toast was easy to make.  A slice of bread quickly turned into a giant crouton not long after taking it out of its bag.  I liked to make bread crumbs to use in recipes, so my habit was to remove the heels of sliced bread and leave it on a rack in my kitchen.  In a few hours I would return and the bread, dry as a bone, could be easily crushed into dry bread crumbs.

A few weeks ago I had a couple of pieces of bread I wanted to make crumbs out of.  I took them out of their bag and plopped them on a rack and went about my other chores.  That evening I returned to the kitchen and grabbed what I expected to be two dry pieces of bread.  As usual, planning to crush them into crumbs. I was surprised to find two floppy soggy pieces of bread.  Oops!  I live in the humid tropics now!  Ha! Ha!  I had a good laugh at myself!

Things are just different in the tropics and sometimes I forget.  I have moved from the desert (with almost no humidity) to the tropics with 70-90% humidity!  I have to learn to do things different.  It's not just the humidity, I am still learning how to get to know my neighbors, how to share about Christ, how to cook, how to act and yes, how to make bread crumbs!

8th Grade Science Lab

We are deep into home schooling.   It is so cool to have an extra "side" kitchen that serves as a pantry and also as our Science Lab.

Aaron is getting the test tubes ready for his experiment.

It's super fun to have all this REAL Science stuff, like test tubes and beakers and one of those cool alcohol heater thingies.

Acids and bases.  This was so cool!

Oh yea, and droppers, those are cool too.

The reporting part is not near as fun, but a necessary part of the Science Labs.  Get to work, Aaron!

Puzzling Pictures: Lizard Eggs

We found wall lizard eggs in our door frame!

Sayur Lady

We have two vegetable (sayur) ladies who come down our street almost every day.  One (who is pictured below) says, "Sah-YUUUUUUUUUUUUR!" and the other one hollers, "Woooooooo" in a sort of falsetto voice.  I guess that way you know which lady is coming, if you have a preference.  You can buy vegetables, fruit, fish, chicken and clams (A Clammy Story) and, well, it just depends on the day.  On this day, we bought some bangkwang (did I spell that right?), a white root that is sweet and can be eaten raw like carrots and cucumbers.

The other morning we heard the Es Puter man ringing his bell and Joel prayed for him.  

"God, please bless the Es Puter man with lots of customers so that he will make a lot of money today."  After he prayed, he explained, "I like to pray that God will bless the street vendors."

"Oh, did you pray for God to bless the sayur lady the other day?" asked Seth, "I saw her with lots of customers, that must have been why."

Planty Projects

Joel gets a CLOSE look at some plants!

Our postage stamp back yard is just big enough for some good plant specimens!

Finding treasures...

Examining roots...

Weed experiment.  This is SUPPOSED to show that a plant cannot grow without light.

SO, we put one plant in the sun and one in a box.  And what happens?  The one with sunlight WILTS and the plant in the dark box GROWS!  Oh brother.