Natalie Joy

Natalie Joy was born on March 22, 2010 weighing 5 lbs 3 oz and measuring 18 inches long.
Abby and Emily are loving being big sisters!

Furlough

Different everyday! That pretty much describes our furlough so far. We are half way through our 10 month furlough and enjoying almost every part (I could do without the cold weather!)
It has been an incredible joy to spend time with family, visit friends, and bring another little girl into our family.

The most consistent part of our furlough has been the Sunday speaking schedule. Whether there is one church or two churches to speak in that day, we are always on the road. It has been an incredible pleasure to see old faces and update the church families that are a part of our ministry.

The pictures describe a typical Sunday: 1) Kyle packs the car (usually a couple of trips). 2)The girls set up the display table once we get to the church. This is an incredible help! 3) Abby and Emily enjoy singing a song in Zulu. The skirts and necklaces that they wear were made by the AIDS hospice patients that we work with. 4) COLLAPSING in the car! What you don't see is that I'm usually asleep also :)

Packing

We had a quick trial run with the girls to see if all the bags (and us) could fit in the car for the drive to the airport. We are excited to be leaving on Monady.

Family Picture

After MUCH effort, namely telling the kids to look at the camera and keep smiling, we finally managed a family pic that will become our new prayer card!

These last couples weeks I've been heading out with Kyle on Tuesdays and Wednesdays to the hospice support groups to teach a lesson on hand washing. This was my first lesson done all in Zulu! I was pretty excited to hear the reactions and get their feedback on my Zulu progress.

We used a product called Glow Germ which I used in nursing school and in hand washing checks at my job. The ladies would apply some of the special lotion and then wash their hands as best as they could. Then we looked at their hands with a black light and any of the remaining lotion that they didn't wash off "glowed". It was a great exercise to demonstrate how germs can hide on our hands and be tricky to wash off. We talked about how germs are spread and how they make us sick. The response was very positive and people were pretty surprised to see "glowing germs" still left around their fingernails and such.
Hopefully, God will provide more opportunities for teaching and further growth in the language!

Holiday Bible Club

Every July our church hosts a Holiday Bible Club. It is just like a VBS, running all week with puppets, crafts, games and class time. This year we averaged around 150 kids each day aging 4-12 years old. I helped with crafts and Kyle did games. He also played a character called Dr. Dig-a-fossil-up. The pictures are of him and another missionary having fun with a skit.

Holiday Bible Club