More Friends

 

We are loving being closer to family and friends!  Last Wednesday, our friends, the Conards, came to bring us a van from Minneola United Methodist Church and to help us unpack.

We found a good balance of work a little, play a little.  The dads took the kids to a park, while Gayly and I went out to lunch to celebrate our birthdays.

Back at the house, the kids enjoyed playing Hedbanz while the parents unpacked.

The Conards' oldest daughter made necklaces and sold them to raise money to buy our family gift certificates.  What an amazing encouragement and blessing as we set up house in America again.  A big thanks to Lenna and to all of those who bought her necklaces to help our family.  We are humbled by how many people have pitched in to help smooth our transition.

Gayly and I both agreed that ice cream cake was the best way to celebrate the May birthdays - Clara celebrated her second birthday last week, Gayly's was yesterday, and mine comes at the end of the month.

And no day would be complete without some sword fighting!

From Wycliffe Pray Today

“Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.” (Hebrews 10:24, NLT).

Wycliffe is inviting you and your friends to play an interactive online game called In Other Words.  Each day of its four-week run, a new Bible knowledge or Bible translation trivia question will be posted for participants to answer. By correctly answering questions and recruiting others to join in the game, players can earn points and compete for weekly prizes and a grand prize at the conclusion of the game—a trip for four to Orlando, FL, to visit the Wycliffe Discovery Center and a selection of Orlando’s finest tourist attractions.

Wycliffe’s hope is to engage more people in the ministry of Bible translation through the online game, and to encourage them from God’s Word and educate them about the Bible translation process. To join in the fun, go to www.wycliffewords.org. For a complete list of rules please visit http://wycliffewords.org/rules.php.

• Pray for word to spread about In Other Words, and that many people will register to play.
• Pray that this game will introduce many participants to the vision and mission of Bible translation.
• Ask God to use this experience to call new audiences into partnership with Wycliffe and the worldwide Bible translation team.

Please feel free to e-mail, Facebook, blog, or Twitter this link to the game: www.wycliffewords.org.

Traveling Tuesday

Yesterday's travels felt so easy - partly due to the huge overseas flights just two weeks ago, but mostly because lots of people were praying for us. 

The two younger girls still delight in the waterfountains in the airport.

We found two sets of grandparents, one uncle, and lots of hugs waiting for us when we arrived in Little Rock.



Now we begin the task of unpacking our boxes from storage and settling into this lovely house that God provided for our family.

This amazing couple has been instrumental in our journey with Bible translation.  They recruited us to Wycliffe in 2004, and they also helped us get in touch with (and subsequently assigned to) SITAG in 2006. 

 

We were thrilled to find out that they were also attending Wycliffe Connection on their furlough and that we would get to spend some time with them again.  Lori makes delicious hot fudge sauce and brought some over to the apartment for us to sample - yum!

Thanks Lori and KJ for investing in our lives!

Mom's Hot Fudge Sauce:

1 cup of Chocolate chips or 170-200 grams of a semi-sweet chocolate bar

1 stick or 1/2 cup of butter

melt together on low heat

then add 1 can of evaporated milk (usually they are about 12 ounces) and 2 cups of powdered sugar, stir in well then bring it to a low boil when it begins to boil then set a timer or watch the clock for 8 minutes-stir frequently so doesn’t burn. When 8 minutes is finished, remove from stove and add 1 tsp of vanilla extract(optional) I just use vanilla if I have it, you can get creative and use other flavors too. Smile!

Snapshots Around the World

We are finally flying back to central Arkansas today, so while we are in the air, I thought I would share one of my favorite blogs that showcases beauty in small things through the eyes of different cultures:  "Snapshots Around the World"

Dance

Church

Vegetables

Thanks for doing such a great job!  You truly "celebrate our lives which are so different and yet so similar".



Avon Park

We haven't seen this precious family in almost four years, but they have been friends through thick and thin, through weddings and babies and brain cancer.

Aaron enjoyed borrowing Mike's cello for a little taste of practicing.  He sounded much better than I think I will sound when I finally get to hold my cello again.

We played games together...

enjoyed a big sleepover..

and worshipped together Sunday morning.

Twenty-nine hours together was NOT enough!

 And when we finally made ourselves pull out of the driveway,

 I kept a straight face.  Until I saw my sweet friend Joy dissolve in her husbands arms.  Then, I lost it, too.

Katherine expressed what we were all feeling when she said, "Mama, it's sad to my heart."  At least it won't be four years before we see them again.  We love you guys!

Happy Mother's Day

"Listen to your father, who gave you life,

and do not despise your mother when she is old....

The father of a righteous man has great joy;

he who has a wise son delights in him. 

May your father and mother be glad;

may she who gave you birth rejoice!"

Proverbs 23:22, 24, 25

This is where I began my Mother's Day.  In the home of dear friends, watching the sun come up behind a grapefruit tree, I pondered the sacrifices our mothers and grandmothers have made.  Not just the sacrifices of the years when we were small, but the current sacrifices they make to encourage and support us while we live so very far away with their very cute grandchildren.  Thank you for releasing us to go to the Solomon Islands.  May we give you reason to rejoice!

Wycliffe Connection

Oh, what a busy week it's been!

 We are enjoying staying in the beautiful Wycliffe Associate apartments here in Orlando.  They have served as a peaceful home during our transition back to the States.

We've learned a lot this week...

worked hard...

experienced Wycliffe's Discovery Center...

prayed for each other...

enjoyed the ocean again...

got plum tuckered out...

and played hard at Gatorland.

A HUGE thanks to the staff of Wycliffe Connection who helped each of us learn how to re-enter our passport culture successfully and to all of the Wycliffe families who made the time in their schedules to attend and share their stories.

Where we'll be...

...learning lots at Wycliffe Connection from Monday until Friday.  We appreciate your prayers!

Old friends and new friends

One of favorite things about central Florida is all of the amazing people that we know and love here.  Way more than we could ever see in three days.  Saturday night, we met some adopted grandparents for supper in Orlando.  When I pulled out the camera and began to take pictures, I realized I had left the SD card in the computer - aargh!

So, the only memento I have of our fun together that evening is the Chuck E Cheese version!  Our friends had fun spoiling their "grandchildren" and helping us learn a little bit more about this new fangled technology of smart phones.  We have a lot to learn!

On the way home, we watched the supermoon rise.  Absolutely beautiful.

Benjamin really enjoyed playing the organ at GranMollie's house

This morning, we drove to DeLand where we attended church at our old college stomping grounds.  It was nice to find a few familiar faces still there after so long.  Oh, and sitting in the service melted more of the crusty edges of my heart.  It's been so long since I really enjoyed church.  After church, we went home to GranMollie and Grandpa T's house.

Katherine loved the exercise machine, even though she couldn't sit down and reach the pedals at the same time

These dear friends have been a part of our lives for twenty years, and we are so thankful for another set of "grandparents" that God has placed in our lives.

The kids especially enjoyed the piano and organ in the same room and played duets for a good portion of the afternoon.

"Aunt" Tara, a sweet college friend, got to come over and join the party, too.  What a joy to see her beaming smile again!

Group hug!

How I love these two ladies

And if we are in DeLand, we absolutely have to go get ice cream at Rodeo Whip.  It's a Choate family tradition.

Rodeo Whip's ice cream is the best!  Peanut butter fudge crunch has been my stand-by flavor for twenty years, and it didn't disappoint me today.

Unlike some stores who just plop the ice cream on top of the cone, Rodeo Whip fills up your cone - all the way down to the bottom!

And the best part of the ice cream run?  Turning bloggy friends into real life friends. 

We finally got to meet Lisa and her family!

A big thanks to their crew for their willingness to drive a long time during a busy week to meet total strangers.  What a gift.