Emma

Emma is doing very well. This past week she's found her fussy time, but it's surprisingly a joy for us. She didn't have a good day yesterday and was awake most of the day fussing and just not real happy. After rocking her for an hour last night, she fell asleep around 10:30 and didn't wake up until 5am to eat. WOW! That was nice! She got her rest and we were able to sleep very nice.

Drum Accessories Need

Fellow missionary in Cofradia, Doug Taylor, oversees the drum set and the drummers in the worship band. He sent me a list of needs for the drums we have in Arrayanes. Please consider how you can help. Following is the list...

2 drum keys for tightening heads

Arrayanes kit could use:
drum stool
snare drum stand - I don't know how much longer that one will last
high hat stand - ditto
cymbol stand - ditto
bass drum (or kick drum) pedal

All of these are there and usable but are of poor quality to begin with and are wearing out. I have fixed the highhat stand a number of times, wired the cymbol stand together and tried to stop the foot pedal from squeaking at least 3 times.

More Blessings!

Thanks to a church who was really generous to us and gave us the finances to buy a new laptop, something with wireless internet access and DVD programing. It's a huge blessing. Thank you Texas!

Zuniga-Pender Family

Yesterday we went to the Seattle side of the water and drove around running errands and enjoying the scenery up north. On our way down we stopped at some friend's house in West Seattle, Luis Zuniga and Stephanie Pender. I had the privilege of marrying them in 2002 in Guadalajara. Stephanie is from Seattle and was teaching at a school in Mexico when she met Luis who I lived with while going to language school in 1996. Luis also participated in our wedding in 2000 as one of the groomsmen. It was great to see them and it's always nice to get "caught up" with old friends. They have a two-year old daughter named Isabella...she's a cutie! Her and Rebecka had a great time playing together and again, Rebecka did not want to leave. She loves going out and visiting people. We had authentic Mexican tacos for dinner...WOW! Great stuff! Thanks Luis and Stephanie! We had a wonderful time.

Working Hard

Rebecka has been helping Grandma in the yard lately.

Blessings!

God is always blessing his children. He wants to. We have experienced this in the past week or so, not just with the birth of Emma, but in other ways as well. As you know, I work with the worship band at the Cofradia Church and with that comes the need for materials. A couple of weeks ago a friend donated to us a much needed speaker for an electric guitar, thanks Rick! Last week some more friends were being sensative the the Holy Spirit (I say that because we didn't even ask), and donated to us a VERY nice Casio Keyboard, thanks Taylors! We also had our digital camera replaced which is such a blessing! I didn't realize how much of an asset a digital camera could be until the other one was stolen. Thank you Jesus! "And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus!" (Philippians 4:19 NIV)

Easter 06

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

Interesting Prayer

I received this in an email over the weekend and thought it was worth posting. Thanks, Roger!

Thought you might enjoy this interesting prayer given in Kansas at the opening session of their Senate. It seems prayer still upsets some people. When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard:

"Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done; We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem.
We have abused power and called it politics.
We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!"

The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest. In 6 short weeks,Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively. The church is now receiving international requests for copies of this prayer from India, Africa and Korea. Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, "The Rest of the Story," and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired.

38 Years!!

My parents celebrated their 38th Wedding Anniversary yesterday. I was waiting to get a picture of them, but it never happened. Congradulations Mom and Dad!

Photos of Emma

With big sister, Rebecka. She wasn't really happy at the moment :).

With cousin Trisha

With Mommy

A couple of minutes old.

Emma Rose...awake and not crying. THANK YOU JESUS!

With Daddy

Emma on the Internet

Here is Emma on the Hospital's Internet site.

EMMA ROSE

Emma Rose was born this morning at 5:45 am. 7lbs. 9oz. 19 1/2 inches. Lots of hair and big sister Rebecka is really excited! ...so are we :). More news later.

Hurricane Ridge

Yesterday we went up to Hurricane Ridge and played in the snow. It was really nice weather and not too cold. In certain areas it was pretty windy though. The scenery is so beautiful up there. My parent's digital camera was low on batteries so we weren't able to take a lot of scenic pics. We forgot our sled so we had to use a make-shift sled...the floor mat in my parent's car. It worked really good! We started to slide down on our bums, but that got a little cold. My dad pulled out the rubber floor mat and off we went. Rebecka joined me flying uncontrolably down a steep 20 degree, 20 foot hill :) It was a lot of fun and Rebecka really enjoyed herself. However, I think she enjoyed eating the snow more that playing in it.

The Smith Family

We went to visit Jeff and Beth Smith on Thursday and it was a lot of fun. We had a great barbecue, played Croquet, hit some golf balls, and had a great time just hanging out. Jeff is a friend of mine from college and it's always nice to be able to see him and his family. Rebecka had so much fun playing with their daughter Madeline outstide in the playhouse and playing ball with little Owen. Again, Rebecka didn't want to leave. She has so much fun playing with other kids. But she was ok after a while.

Mini-Bus

Wednesday I had the opportunity to go to Fife, Washington where they have a bus sales lot. We didn't see anything potential at the lot, but there was a park-n-sell down the road that had something that pretty much fits the description of what we're looking for. It's a 1996, 24 passenger Thomas school bus. Next week I'm going to be doing some more research as far as what's out there, because the price for this bus was over $10,000. Our budget right now, I believe, is $0...that would be a gift :). Anyway, I'm posting a picture of an idea of what we're looking for so you can be praying and looking yourselves as well. We would sure appreciate any kind of help.

The Eilertsen's

We had a great evening with the Eilertsen's yesterday. It was nice to see them, we haven't visited with them for two years. I met John in college and Monica at a church I attended for a while during college. They are some great friends who now are working with married couples and individuals for marriage counselling. It's was exciting to hear how God is using them, not only with married couples, but in the church as well. Rebecka had a great time with their children (Jet-7, Marianna-5, and Amaria-2[not sure if spelling is correct]) and did not want to leave...even telling them that we were going to see Grandpa and Grandma couldn't convince her.

Trisha Graduated

Trisha is my niece who graduated from High School last year and on Friday graduated from Esthetician school. We all thought the graduation ceremony was a 1pm, including Trisha. Gena and I had a meeting to be at in a different town and we were planning to be at the graduation on time. When we got there, we found out that everything started at 11:30, so we missed it. We all went to Olive Garden for lunch/dinner and spent the evening enjoying one another's company in celebration of Trisha's graduation. We're all proud of her. Good Job Trish!!