A Good Way to Spend a Saturday

Weeks ago I wrote about how God has blessed us with a couple of missionaries that our family supports on a regular basis.  I wrote here just a bit about one of our missionaries, a beautiful young lady named Beka, who left for the Philippines back in January to work alongside local churches to be a resource in preventing human trafficking there.  (By the way, she is making great strides in settling in and learning the language and plugging in to the churches and I am sure she would covet your continuing prayers.)

I had always meant to circle back around and tell you a bit about a missionary family we support as well. Having relocated from Pennsylvania in 2012, James and Loni are serving at OMS headquarters in Greenwood, Indiana - about 45 minutes from us.  James is Mr. Techie (but I'm not allowed to call him that) - he is a self taught guru on all things web and computer related and is serving the organization currently in an IT and web programming capacity.  And there is PLENTY of work to keep him busy.  Loni stays home with their three beautiful children - Emma (6?), Luke (4) and Titus (7 months). And so there is obviously PLENTY of work to keep her busy, too. 

We have pledged monthly support, but recently it occurred to us that there might be additional ways we could support James and Loni - especially in the midst of so much busyness.  It has not been too many years since we had a child in diapers and we have known the experience of living far from family (and will again soon), so we are empathetic. 

So yesterday we went to Greenwood to give James and Loni some uninterrupted date time.  They had not been out together without at least the baby along since Titus was born.  We arrived at 2:00 pm and they bolted out the door at 2:03!  ;-)

While Titus finished up his afternoon nap, I took our kids and Emma and Luke to the open grassy area around OMS headquarters, right across the street from their house for a bit of Frisbee and fat bat.

Luke playing with the fat bat.

Luke and I playing Frisbee.

Emma and The Princess made "soup" out of a puddle nestled in the root of a tree.  This soup contained grass, pine cones and flowers and it required constant stirring.

Around 4:00 we came in for make-your-own pizzas for dinner.

 

Then Titus woke up.  If he was put off by being greeted by a house full of strangers, he kept it to himself.  Though he had to be wondering who these extra kids were who all wanted a turn in holding or feeding him.

Still wondering...

Later, Melissa made cupcakes and The Princess demonstrated proper cupcake-eating techniques.

About the time James and Loni were returning home from their date, Dats decided to show all the kids how a "ripe" cattail from the pond next to the house will explode with a twist of the hands, sending seed fluff everywhere.

Pretty soon, they were bringing cattails by the armloads.  Ida collected a big pile of the fluff and tried to blow it, but it didn't move much on the ground.

So then the wise guy picks up a handful and says, "Daddy, get a picture of this - you can tell everyone it's snow!"

Then he gave it a good blow right into my face and ...

...laughed his head off as he ran away.

 

Only about half of the fluff went up my nose.

Things quickly deteriorated from there as the kids all chased each other around with handfuls of the stuff, lobbing it at each other amid all the laughter and screams.

Both Emma and Luke ended up in tears as they spat great globs of mushy cattail fluff from their mouths and tried in vain to rub seeds out of their stinging eyes.


That's when we ushered our kids into the van and hurriedly drove away.

But seriously, James and Loni seemed very thankful for the quiet time together.  (I hope they remember that as they spend the next several months ridding their carpets and laundry of cattail seeds.)  And I know their kids had a great time - up until the crying.

But I think each and every member of our family enjoyed the day as much as anybody else.  As we drove away, one of the kids asked when we could do it again. 

Soon! Our kids were excited to hear that we will have plenty of opportunities to spend time with James and Loni and the kids come July when we'll be spending three weeks at OMS headquarters for training in cross-cultural ministry - which will be another key step on the path to putting our family in Haiti.  More about that to come ...

P.S. You can see some of James' programming handiwork at the official One Mission Society website HERE.  He's also the one who helped us out by creating our special "50 for 50" website  Coincidentally, both are easy pathways for anybody considering joining our financial support team ... have you checked them out??