If you ever really want to get Molly excited, just ask her if she wants to go see Samson.

Guess who’s sitting in the Bumbo seat? A big thanks to Aunt Sarah who came by with baby-friendly equipment and a new batch of clothes for this rapidly-growing girl. I’ve said this before, but it’s worth repeating: I am extremely thankful for these hand-me-downs! They have been such a blessing. Even if (and that’s a big if :)) I enjoyed shopping, I would not have the time, what with all these other children underfoot. Thank you, Sarah!

And naturally, as soon as Ruthie was on the floor, guess who parked herself right next door?

I’m telling you, it’s like clockwork.  Then the interaction begins.

First the exploratory fingers go out.

Then the sniffing.

For the last two years, Peter’s gotten a bum deal in that Dad is in Africa during his birthday.  As such, our annual father-son birthday flight either happens before or after I get back.  This year, every time I tried to fly with Peter for his b-day flight, either the weather was poor, planes were scheduled or I had to work.  Poor guy.

18 days after Peter’s birthday, we managed to get a flight in. Today we took off from Naper Aero to meet the family for dinner at our favorite restaurant, Pilot Pete’s in Schaumburg, followed by a night flight around Chicago. Peter requested that Jeremy  join us, which turned a 3 year-old boy who likes to talk a lot into a downright giddy chatterbox. (I had to turn Jeremy’s radio off during take-off and landing just to be able to concentrate.)

While I generally opt for the beauty of a mountaintop over the city, there’s something about seeing the skyline of Chicago from a bird’s eye view.

This will never get old.  Happy 6th Birthday Peter!

Our GPS track and a video.

I have come home from my sixth trip to Africa and it never gets old.  Few things compare to sharing a close, blood-like bond of brotherhood in Christ with people so vastly different than yourself.  Yet that is exactly what happens when we are connected to the Vine.

This trip centered around our annual short term missions trip with athletes from Wabash College. It’s a favorite of mine simply because of my ability to participate along side a movement of the Spirit – in a most unlikely situation.  You see, Wabash is an all-male university with high academic credentials as well as a reputation for heavy partying. Six years ago my college roommate, Neal Neathery, coached the football team and began voluntary chapel meetings prior to every football game.  At first, five players reluctantly showed up.  Six years later 95 out of the 109 players are enrolled in weekly Bible study and the team has embarked on their third short term missions trip with OneWay to Botswana.  The campus is in a revival.

On the mission field, this team is such a blessing to the villages and the youth in the area our full-time missionaries minister in.  You can see on the kids’ faces the team’s arrival is a highlight of their year. The platform these men have leads the way for one of the clearest and most effective communications of the saving power of the gospel I have ever seen.  And for a few of the Wabash men who came on the trip unsaved themselves, well, the final day we celebrated with a baptism service welcoming them into the family of Christ.  Like I said, few things compare to sharing life in Christ   -Jim

Every post should start off with a picture of an airplane. Before the team arrived, we took a flight over Botswana’s Okavango Delta, the world’s only inland river delta and saw from a bird’s eye view elephants, buffalo and hippos.

This river delta pours itself onto a desert for two months out of the year and turns a brown, arid wasteland into a lush green haven for wildlife.

And where there is wildlife, there are people.  Notice some of the huts that are being constructed.  There are few mortgages in Botswana and most people do not have bank accounts.  So when you need to build a house and have enough money to afford a single cinder block, you buy the brick and immediately mortar it to your foundation.  When you have enough for another brick, you do it again.  In a year or two, you have a completed one room house.

Here some of the Wabash men learn some African dancing.  Now you know why I like to be the one taking pictures.

Then men memorized Bible stories, which after the sports camps they would share them with the village or school.  Here, a Wabash man teamed up with one of our African missionaries and together practiced sharing the story in both English and Setswana.

Ever play the game Sharks and Minnows with 400 kids? We did!

At a village named Sehithwa, over 700 kids aged 6 to 18 showed up.  Here two school teachers, along with many students accepted Christ.

Always a favorite is the prison.  This quite possibly is the most fruitful time of the trip as these men are broken and very receptive to the gospel, two key ingredients to eternal life.

How many Wardens in the US would welcome the gift of Bibles and freely distribute them the prisoners.  I don’t know the answer, but in Botswana Bibles are gold in the eyes of the prison officials.  This man told us he has never seen a freed inmate come back to prison after they accepted Christ behind bars.

Because we lacked adventure in our week, we set out with our 4x4s after a village meeting into the bush to catch glimpses of some wildlife

It’s hard to miss sighting an elephant when he’s ten feet from the truck

And the week ended with professions of faith in Christ from some of the Wabash men.  Of the 23 men who came of the trip a few did not have Christ in their life.  We chose to take them with the hope that God would work in their life through the other men and the experience.  He did.

Look who’s sporting a new swim suit:

With a hood for protection on those hot sunny days.

And now that Ruth has her own suit, we needed to try it out, you know, make sure it works okay. And it was these guys who came up with the idea:

From the time her big toe hit the water, it was clear that Ruthie liked it. She splashed a little and kicked a lot. But she was serious. Very serious. She didn’t crack a smile the entire swim.

Babies spit up. It’s a fact of life.

I’ve attached instructions on how to take a burp cloth and dress it up a bit with some ribbon. When you wipe spit-up with something cute, it makes the job more enjoyable, no?

This method could also be used for hand towels by finding some nice ribbon and sewing it onto the edges of the towel.

Burp Cloth Instructions

Look what we found in The Tooth Book by Dr. Seuss:

Let’s see those tooths, Ruth.

Come on, open up…

I can almost see those pearly whites…

There they are!

This is worth watching in full-screen mode…

Peter’s birthday this year has turned out to be a birth-half-of-a-month.

The celebration began in February when we had family over for dinner.

Peter and Hannah – best buds for 6 years now!

Bonding time with Aunt Judi.

Then on March 9–Peter’s actual Big Day–we went to the Planetarium and gazed at the (fake) stars.

Ruthie enjoyed the field trip from her comfy seat.

Then Grandma and Grandpa treated us to dinner at Red Robin, per Peter’s request.

Judging by the look on his face, dinner easily trumped the Planetarium.

And to top off the half-month birthday celebration, Peter had his buddy Luke over for some play time.

Jake and Derek, the social coordinators for the party, made up a scavenger hunt game for them.

I could go on for hours about all the things I absolutely love about Peter Stephen. He is a special, unique little guy, and I am thankful to the Lord for putting him in our family.

“I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart. I will set no worthless thing before my eyes” (Psalm 101:2-3)

This is my theme since Jim has been in Africa. There was a book written many years ago called, Who You Are When No One’s Looking , which is a great question to ask when talking about integrity. So whether my house is full of people or empty, or whether my husband is around to keep me accountable or not, I will walk within it in the integrity of my heart.

When Jim was in high travel season a few years ago, God opened my eyes to see how much garbage I was watching on TV whenever he was gone. So I made a commitment not to watch TV alone. This was totally not a legalistic move, but a way for me to honor God by not setting any “worthless thing before my eyes”. What later became clear is that not only was I watching garbage, but I was wasting hours of time.

I’ve been reading a commentary of sorts on the book of Ruth in the Bible. Basically, the author states that the implications of the book of Ruth are so much bigger than we think.

“One of the great diseases of our day is trifling. The things with which most people spend most of their time are trivial. And what makes this a disease is that we were meant to live for magnificent causes. None of us is really content with the trivial pursuits of the world. Our souls will not be satisfied with trifles…

We live in the Swiss village but stare at the wooden figurines in the window rather than lifting our eyes to the ‘everlasting snows.'” (John Piper)

He goes on to assert that the book of Ruth teaches us that when we follow God, our lives always mean more than we think they do. We were made for a purpose far greater than ourselves, so every step of obedience we take is significant. Satisfaction in life comes from not being caught up in the time-wasting trifles.

There are advantages to having:

1. big kids

2. big kids of the same gender as the little kids

The kids and I went to the YMCA Saturday night for a swim. Jake and Derek offered to take care of Peter and Jeremy in the boys’ locker room, which meant I was responsible for..Ruthie. Just Ruthie.

We girls sat on the pool deck (Ruthie does not own a swim suit) and watched the boys splash around for a while.

They even wrestle in the water.

In case you ever wanted to know, here is what I see every night as I am preparing dinner.

Two sets of eyes staring at me for two different reasons.

The baby is hoping I will pick her up and cuddle with her. The dog is hoping I will drop a morsel of food on the floor.

Here, the dog realized that the oven had the food, not me.

Silly dog.

Jim left last week for Botswana, Africa to boost the work of missionaries who are supported by OneWay (Ray and Cynthia Mensah and their adorable kids are pictured above). For the third year, he will be joined by Wabash College athletes. They will be traveling to villages in Botswana to run sports camps and share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You can read about their adventures here.

So, Ruthie, how does it feel to have a new tooth?

It’s a great title for a children’s storybook, don’t you think?

Ruthie had her 4 month appointment with the doctor today, and lo and behold, the doctor informed me that her first tooth has erupted out of her gumline!  I’m sure I would have discovered it on my own eventually. Ahem.

Ruth’s Tooth. Ruthie’s Toothie.

And in other baby accomplishments, remember this from last June?

Like brother, like sister:

Of course, the paparazzi was hiding in the bushes in the family room ready to capture the bad hair morning.

And look who’s attempting to calm her hair down:

This girl will never take herself too seriously.