city girl update

We are quickly becoming city girls...and gaining our city-girl 5 pounds :)

Yes, we gave in and got Sofie Frozen dolls for her birthday.  It's painful, following the fad :) But the girls ADORE.

Uncle Adam has patiently taken us all over Philly.   The girls top event, so far, has been riding the train.  Nobody else riding the train seems to think it is so special, but these two LOVE it.

Yesterday at the Reading Terminal Market the girls got to see all the "under the sea" creatures we've been studying this week!

and some fruits that were even weird to us!

I've always thought that Haiti is just far more social than America. 

But, living in the city this past week, I'm starting to wonder if it just has a lot to do with proximity.

When you're eating lunch at tables with strangers filling every chair, riding trains with people in every seat and aisle, sharing crowded sidewalks and living on a crowded block...you're making friends.  We're lovin' it.

There's also so much to do and see, all of which is extra exciting to the girls.

We have been doing school in the morning and checking out the sights and playgrounds in the afternoons, getting home in time to get dinner going and be there when Lisa gets off work.  

Matt's presentations and work in England have all been going really well, and he's finally catching up from being 6 hours ahead.

This weekend he is here, in Edinburgh, Scotland.  We are missing him :(  Staying busy and being here for Lisa as she rapidly approaches due date day helps so much!

Saturday, this girl and I have a date to see a play.  She's been wanting to see a play or ballet for YEARS now, and we're finally making it happen: The Wizard of Oz.  Can't WAIT to watch her watch it.

Lisa's starting to feel pretty awful...those last few weeks just aren't fun.  

Dad and Cindy, of course, are having a WONDERFUL time in Hawaii, and it's so good to have Dad off doing something FUN and relaxing.  I don't know if I've EVER had this experience in my lifetime, of Dad off having fun :)

Meanwhile, back home our missionary family is working hard to prepare for a team of 18 coming next week to do a VBS at Prudence's church and to build a student hang-out/outdoor worship center place at the front of the campus!  Teams are such a blessing, but involve a lot of prep work!  So thankful to have a team in place this summer to DO this kind of ministry, and thankful for staff and students all coming together to make this possible!

Also, Junior and several students headed to Bahon yesterday for a four-week missions trip.  They've joined Ezechiel, are staying in homes of people in the church, and are helping him with his discipleship program, evangelism, and helping him better develop his discipleship program.  This is going to be such an encouraging time, we pray, for the church and for Ezechiel especially.  

They are also working with some water filtering devices Junior and Phil have been building to help the community with their contaminated water issue.  We're excited to hear more about this trip, and so thankful for Junior and the students willing to go minister in one of, I would argue, the world's most difficult places.  

Life today looks awful different than life a month ago.

Nonetheless, all I can think and see is that it's ALL MINISTRY.

My conviction that we are ALL full time missionaries in this world is renewed.