Our work these days

The last few months we've spent purchasing items for Vanuatu, packing, and doing lots and lots of paperwork and admin for exporting everything overseas.  On Monday, we have what's called a "live load" of our items to the container we'll be shipping to Vanuatu.  A semi will come in the morning and we have 2 free hours to load, then when we've finished, the driver will haul all our items to Vancouver, where they ship out a few days after US customs clears everything, Lord-willing.  It has been quite a learning curve to do this but if anyone needs to ship a container overseas, let us know because we'll be experts by the time this is all done!  Please pray as there are some outstanding items to be resolved still for everything to come together.

Houghton trying out a mattress sample at Costco.

 Piles of paperwork.

 Organizing more paperwork!

 Packing the crates that will go in our container.  Hooray for Houghton and my dad for building these and making just enough so it all fits good!

 When we were inventorying everything and packing the crates, Gretchen needed warmer feet so she put on my gloves...  :)  She reported that they did the trick!

Outings

We've had a few fun family things this winter.  First, I went with Hought and Gretch to take some family pictures for them at the river.

 

One of the sleepovers I had with Gwen, my mom had one night to use up a free blizzard at Dairy Queen so she treated us - yum!

 

 

 

All year I've been wanting to go to a basketball game so we went to the high school boys game.  Honestly it was a terrible game, but we still had a good time.  Gweny was transfixed by the cheerleaders...

My nieces and nephew had Christmas programs for their schools so it was fun to see them with their classmates singing and quoting poems.

Hanging out with my mom.

Canning take 2

We got another opportunity in December to practice canning again before packing our stuff for Vanuatu.  This time we tried some new recipes and to can meat too.   Haha, look at us, apparently we're all coordinating!  I'm just really thankful for my mom and her expertise and help with this stuff and her servant's heart in doing all this with us!

 Spiced apples and beef roast.

 Roast and hamburger.  It looks disgusting but it tastes awesome!

God's faithfulness throughout generations

I've had graduation pictures of my grandparents and parents for years and always wanted to do something with them so I finally followed through this year.  Unique Creations in Miles City did this awesome job for me!

 My dad, me, Gretchen, and my mom.

 I had this plaque put in the middle as a testimony to God's faithfulness throughout the generations of my family.  All my grandparents are/were Christians, my parents are Christians, and my sister and I are believers too.  I am thankful for the witness each generation has been to the next of our Great God!  I can only pray that Gretchen and I are as faithful in passing on the knowledge of God to the next generation.

 Paternal grandparents: Jim & Betty Lou Thulesen.

Maternal grandparents:  Marvin & Eunice Benhardus.

 

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we got to celebrate with my dad's side of the family in Sheridan, WY.  The whole crew stayed and my uncle Mike and aunt Libby's.  We had an awesome time hanging out, doing crafts, and eating of course! We also got to see our friends Rollie and Bev for the first time since we went overseas, which was great!

Uncle John & Aunt Karen, Grandpa & grandma, Uncle Mike & Aunt Libby, Dad & Mom, Me, Houghton, Gretchen, Addy, Gwen & Si.

 Good snow for snowmen!

 

 

 

 

 Aunt Karen & Aunt Libby playing a jewelry game with the kids.

At the Christmas stroll.

 

 On the hayride.

 My Aunt Libby (2nd from R) is in a bell choir and played at the bank so we got to go listen.

 

 

 

 We made jewelry together.

 

 

 Turkeys and deer abound in Sheridan and were walking around in people's yards!

Florida training 10-11

In Florida in October, we did orientation with Wycliffe. We thoroughly enjoyed getting to know others who attended with us and hearing their stories of how God led them to be involved in missions! Two families are headed to Vanuatu, praise God! And we learned that Vanuatu is in the top 20 countries most needing Bible translation, so we can use you too; come on over!!

All the attendees.  Their largest group yet!

Presenting the ministry.

All those going to Vanuatu, Lord-willing!  

The Team

 Displays about Bible translation issues in what they call the Discovery Center.  

 Various words for "to carry" in a language.  They're all different based on what you're carrying and how - just imagine learning all of those!

 

 Displays of John 3:16 in various languages with translated New Testaments around the world.  You can see the verse in each language, hear it read by a native speaker, and see a model of a real person from the language group.

 All the languages of the world - the language tree.

 

The founder of Wycliffe.