August & September

So, July 29th marked the 2 year milestone in our lives here in Grenada.  We have seen the Mighty Power of God so real and we've also seen the terrible craftiness of Satan so real.  Continue praying for the Grenada Mennonite Churches.   We've also experienced God's faithfulness in our family and our desire is to continue to follow Jesus wherever he leads!

OBMM granted Marvin and I the privilege of taking in the Missions Training in NYC this past August.  We still had vacation days for our family, so we extended our stay in the states and took the whole family. We flew on the same flight with the WATER students to Miami, and then said our good-byes as they went back to SMBI for wrap-up and we flew to Philadelphia.   It was a refreshing time for us, but ended hard when we found out Lia (my brother's daughter, 4) was diagnosed with brain cancer.  Pray for their family as Lia is taking radiation now and chemotherapy later.

We had a good bit of time with the Lapp's.  Here are the 5 little girlies born in 2014....and the Grandparents tried hard to get them all on their laps.

We enjoyed a weekend at a hunting cabin in Tioga Co. with family.

A brunch with the Lapp ladies at Trina's house.

A picnic supper up by the woods at dad's.

Best friends....even though they are 17 years apart with 6 brothers in between.

On our way to NY mission's training week.

August 17th, we were Grenada bound again.

We were blessed to have Elmer Glick and Lester Burkholder here for a week of CLE training before school started.

We took Elmer and Lester's on a picnic to Fort Fredrick one of the last evenings they were here.

September 5, 2016 was the first day of school at the Limes Mennonite School.  Our family was ready for school to start.  The children enjoy school and we were all ready for the routine of school again.

General assembly/devotions

Mr. Mapson going over all the 'do's' and 'don'ts' for the school year.

Nicki's teacher is Miss Rhonda Stoltzfus.

Conrad's teacher is Mr. Brent Bontrager.

Marvin has been giving work to this man.  He is one of the few beggars that is willing to work for payment.

One Saturday, Marvin, our boys, Mr. Brent, Danny, Jamarie & Tiana (Danny's son and niece), went to the beach and brought home close to 40 sea eggs. We ate them raw and they actually tasted pretty good but were a lot of work for a little pile of sea eggs.

God's beautiful creation never ceases to amaze me!!

The newest addition in Grenada, Tessa Mapson...daughter of Sammy and Jana.

A Saturday just recently, we had a joint church picnic.  It's usually well attended and very enjoyable. 

The rest of the pictures were taken while on a walk through the neighborhood one day.

We live on school lane with our church and school, a preschool right next to us, and then this special ed school at the beginning of the lane.

A public car wash at the beginning of the lane.  This is free water for the community.

Some men had just brought back these buckets of crabs and were wrapping them up so people could buy them without getting pinched.  $1 US a piece.

This is the home of ........

........Elizabeth and her 4 children, Chris, Melanie, Codel, and Harmony.  She makes baskets for a living.

This is Rosie Brubaker with Harmony.  Her husband, Jeff,  is administrator of OBMM and we enjoyed having them for a visit this past week.

Miss Ann is an inspiration to visit with.  She has arthritis in her knee but she doesn't let that keep her from gardening, walking her goat to fresh grass, and Praising the Lord in spite of her pain.

Some people refuse to have their picture taken, and other's ask for it.

And now a few shots of our staff right now.  We are so thankful for each one.

Dervin, Lydia, and Rebecca Seibel

Austin Weaver and Brent Bontrager

Rhonda Stoltzfus & Andrea Yoder

And the Marvin Lapp crew!

Thank you for your interest in our lives.  We appreciate each of ya'll and covet your prayers!

End of school year/VBS/WATER students

Each trimester of school has a theme or activity that the students and teacher's work together on.  1st trimester is Christmas program, 2nd trimester is sports events, and 3rd trimester is Bible memory Quizzing Day.  July 1st was quizzing day on the verses in John 4: 1-14.  The students learn these verses top to bottom, word for word, bottom to top, and mixed around.  These 3 ladies at the table are the "judges" and "quizmaster".  The students are sitting on electronic pads that let the judges know who jumps first.

This is the older division

                                 At the very end of the quizzing day, the teacher's do a quiz also.                              That is one fine row of teachers right there!!!!

Closing program/awards night!  (July 6th)

The WATER students arrived June 28th.  The first week they helped out with the snack station on the quizzing day, and planned games for the school children the last day of school.  Our children always enjoy the WATER students because they get more books read to them and they get to go do so many things with them.

It was fun having our niece, Rachel Miller, with us for the summer...

Carmel raises chickens for butchering so the WATER students were able to help her one day.

The WATER team: Megan, Ben, Tinslie, Rachel, and Tony

We loaded up a bus of children and hiked out to watch airplanes land.  Many of them had never been there before.

Helping a neighbor lady cut down her tree...

Praying with a neighbor man whose Grandmother passed away that morning.

Making soft pretzles with the older school girls.

Supervising the older school boys while they painted boxes that Pastor Dervin helped them make for shop class.

A yummy pot of 'oil down' for supper one night.

ZIKA!!!!  Yes, we almost all had Zika here in the Limes.  It comes with headaches, rash, red eyes, fever, and achy joints. It lasted about 3 or 4 days.  It brought back really bad memories of Chickengunya and had very similar symptoms, but for us it was a 'walk in the park' compared to Chickengunya.

A church singing and picnic one Sunday afternoon.

We sang at the Poor House.

We enjoy this "Banana Boat" man when we sing at the Poor House.  He got this nickname because anytime he talks to anyone, he's informing them of the next banana boat that is coming.  He also makes a joyful noise to the Lord while we sing, and is always sure to inform us that the male males are downstairs and the female males are upstairs:)

We held VBS in another community (Willis) the beginning of July.  It was a small turnout but good.  There was another activity in the same community that interested a lot of people that week.

The last day of VBS, we went touring.  This is the Grand Etang Lake (a crater lake).  We save old, stale bread to take along to feed the fish here.

The Sunday night after VBS, the Limes and Laborie churches got together for games and snack.

The WATER students rearranged the class rooms for school this year.....

Cleaned the church and school....

and played with the community children a lot.

There are lots of sheep and goats raised here....mainly for meat.

Caleb's 8th Birthday!  He got Coke, Pringles, Skittles, and gum.  (Think he likes snacking?)

And a turtle cake.

Another thing that happens occationally, is the dedication prayer of a newborn baby...Actually, the babies are a couple months old when they bring them.  We require the parents, usually just the mother comes, to bring the child to church 2 Sundays before we 'lift up the child'.

Nicki and Jenarosa

Melanie, Elizabeth, Harmony, Codel, and Christopher.

Megan sewed quite a few school jumpers for us.  Thanks so much Megan, they are all in use now!

Rachel and Tinslie made dozens of cookies for church camp.  We were still eating them after camp.

Nicki discovered she could make bags and didn't quite know when to stop.  She made these to pass out to friends and family while we were in PA this summer.  She's made a lot for friends here in Grenada, too.

This is our staff before Matt and Lynette moved back home this summer.  We miss you and hope you are settled in back home by now.

And our church group minus Euran...who was in the hospital because of an automobile accident with his boss and was waiting on surgery to take glass out of his elbow....he finally had the surgery a week after the accident.