Happy New Year

Welcome back to Grenada!  And happy new year!  We are still alive, serving our Lord, and watching for the return of our Savior.  We are having a week of revival/crusade meetings this week and are receiving much nourishment from God's word. 

Since the last time we wrote, the couple, Shannon and Janelle, that were committed to helping pastor the church here, found out that Janelle had cancer and they couldn't come. Continue to pray for them as they go through this hard time.  Our family took a 3 week vacation in the states and were encouraged and refreshed as we spent a lot of time with our families.  There was a fill-in family (Keith and Kendra Zimmerman) waiting on us at the airport when we returned to Grenada, and that was so good to meet them there.  They have served 2 months now and are returning home (PA) today.  They did so well and we will miss them so much.  We will welcome Dervin and Lydia Seibel  this evening.  They have committed for 3 years and we are excited about getting to know them and working with them.

Now for a 'few' pictures that were not taken by us.  We are thankful for visitors that come and take lots of pictures and then we 'steal' them.  This is a picture of the inside of our church and how a typical Sunday morning looks.  Before and after church, the visiting happens on the veranda so that's what the second picture is about.

Sunday afternoons, we sing somewhere once or twice a month.  This is at a grandmother's home of one of our church members.  Right after we sang here, we went to a point and had a picnic lunch.

Andrea Yoder teaches 3rd grade and her family came for a week visit the middle of January.

Steve and Joan Yoder and 4 siblings from VA

 

Here, their family helped with clubs held in a community close to the limes.

This is an evening of singing with Steve's, Keith's, the teachers, and us.



This is where Morgan and Nicki like to sit when they are listening to music or a story.





Some boys are playing marbles. 

Here's Peter, a school boy in Nicki's class.

The end of January, Marvin's parents came for a week and a half.  Mom did lots of cooking. Dad did some odd jobs and played with Shawn.  It was so good to have family here.

Marvin and dad going in to the hospital to visit.  They came home right at lunch with some gross stories and I about couldn't finish my lunch. 

 This was a picnic at Fort Friedrick.  We often take visitors here since it overlooks St. George's and the beautiful sea and sunsets.   Euran shared some iguana with us for supper.

 Playing a game of 7's.

 Dad's got to witness 'cross country' race.  Our children ran well.  Nicki was the youngest in the older division and came in 4th of the girls.  She ran 3 miles.  This was in the morning of the race.

 Warm-up

 Dad built this hut for Shawn.  It was outside our fence so it was an attraction for the whole community.  After dad's left, we took it apart and moved it to the back of the house cause we really don't need any more playground for community children than what they have already:)

 The Saturday that dad's were here, we drove around the whole island.  This was the first time our family did that.  There are little towns along the way and then a larger community and town at the North end.  We packed our lunches and ate at the beach.

 The next Monday, we hiked out to the end of the runway to watch a Jet land.  The jets come in right over our heads since the runway is just on the other side of the fence where we stand.

Marvin took dad's to the market.  I'm pretty sure this woman has the best price! 

 Dad helped entertain Shawn.

 This is mailboxes for our church.  Dad is doing the final coat of varnish.  We have it up in the church now and need to put name tags up yet.

 This is at Annandale Falls.  This man wants money for letting visitors hold his monkey.

 This is mom talking to a lady who was asking questions about our faith.

 Some men that dad was talking to for a while.

This is a pavilion close to the hospital where we like to take a picnic supper and watch the cruise ship leave.

 Feb. 10, Oneida and Vicki King came for a week.  They helped out so much and we also had fun walking around, visiting people, and hiking.

Shawn's 4th birthday party!  Now he will soon be 5!  Oh the minds of little people:)

This man's foot looked painful and swollen. He found a place to rest for a while.

 A neighbor man said we could help ourselves to gospo ( between a grapefruit and orange).  We picked a bunch and then a day later, he brought another big bag of them. 

Juicing the gosbo and freezing the concentrate!  So yummy!

Enjoying the beautiful sea and big waves.

 Oneida and Vicki took us out for supper.  True Grenadian food...fried rice & vegies, steamed vegies, jerk chicken, B-B-Q chicken, cold bean salad, pumpkin!

 This is how I keep ants out of food while I'm thawing it!

Coloring with Nicki.  I find it so hard to spend time with Nicki so this was fun to do together! 

 Grand Etang is up towards the middle of the island and is where there are wild/sorta tame monkeys. I believe this was the highlight of the trip!  The monkey's were very hungry the day we stopped in and ate all our bananas.  2 monkeys and about 8 bananas.

 Some men drove by and had to stop and watch the show.

 Euran is one of our youth boys in church.  He had never seen the monkey's like this before.  He had so much fun he wanted to take Keith's to see them the next Sunday.  You can guess what happened, they didn't see 1 monkey!

 After the bananas were gone, we tried to feed them peanuts but they walked right past them.

This is the kitchen in our house.  We have been having trouble with termites for a while and it came to the place where some of the boards needed treatment and replacement. So some of the cupboards had to come down and all the 'stuff' in them.  After the project was done, I had the opportunity to decide what color to paint it!  It was a lot of fun, although, if I'd ever have to do a whole house, I'd probably grow a lot of grey hair over the decisions.

 So this is a before..............

 and after.....

 Oneida wasn't sure if Nicki knew how to wash dishes.  She proved them wrong!

 This is still all part of tearing out the walls to treat for termites.  This is on our veranda and Oneida diligently finished the job.

 Do I need to say anything here?  Oneida loves her goats!

 and plants.

 This is Miss Ann.  She loves to have us come chat with her a while.  The children make her nervous so our stay wasn't too long.

 We didn't plan near enough time for shopping in the Market.  We rushed here and there and then had to be home at a certain time:(

 Marvin and I attended a funeral of an elderly man that used to attend our church and once was a member. (while Vicki and Oneida took care of our children and painted! Imagine that mixture)  His death was sad since he returned to drinking rum.  Marvin preached the sermon and Keith took charge of the burial ceremony.  It was interesting to see the traditions of the Grenadians as they kept bringing out fresh flowers and plants to cover the burial spot while we sang. 

This is an addition to a man's house (the man with the gosbo tree)that Marvin has been helping with. 

Yes, Grenadians wash their clothes by hand, too.  There are still quite a few people that still do their wash by hand. 

 Here we are!  Thanks for your prayers!