This is For Everyone Who Know My Husband and His "Love" For Games!

We have a weekly family night. It's on Mondays.

Each week one of the kids gets to plan the whole night - from what we eat to what music we listen to to what games we play and what movies we watch.

Tonight was Lyndsey's night. For the game she picked "Hand and Foot." It's a very long card game - but an enjoyable one I might add. Well, Dad doesn't like games but for Family Night he will play anything. Did you read that?! Anything! So tonight, he played "Hand and Foot" with a willing attitude.

I have to say that it was by far our best Family Night yet. We had so much fun! I don't think we've laughed that much ever!

I did take actual pictures of the family playing cards but I forgot to check and make sure my memory card was in the camera. I can only load the pictures into Kodak's software and now I can't figure out how to find them. So....as soon as I figure it out, I will post the pictures.

We Finally Figured Out...

the reason we have to wait so long in the exam room at the doctor's office. It's to give the doctor enough time to finish eating the popsicle so he can use the stick on our tongue when we say, "Awwwwww!" At least that's what Phyllip thinks in his own world! *giggle*

I Finally Finished...

a crosstitch I started (get ready for this) 5 years ago!!!! I know, I know. That's a long time! However, in my defense, I let Lyndsey use my scroll frame (used for crosstitching) so she could make one of her aunts a picture and it took her a year to complete it. I know that still leaves 4 years, but hey, I've been busy. Raising 3 kids, homeschooling 3 kids, working for my church part time and all the ministries our family is involved in with our church tends to not leave a whole lot of time for crafts. But, I'm not complaining!

I do have 4 other crosstitch patterns left to do and 2 blankets. One of the blankets is almost done. I'd love to add in some sewing projects, too, but not sure on that one. I'm hoping to paint our living room, dining room, hallway, and kitchen this summer so.........not sure how many projects I will be able to get done. They just keep piling! Never a dull moment!

I also decided to make some homemade bread yesterday and today. I tried 2 different ones. It's been probably a dozen years since I made homemade bread. No bread maker this time! All done by hand (with the help of my trusty mixer, though). Can I just say that my family and I think both breads were fabulous! I made cheddar cheese bread yesterday. One regular loaf and one braided loaf. That one was really fun to make. Then I made Parmesan cheese bread today. Yummy!

We are having company for dinner after church on Sunday so I decided to experiment on my family the last couple of days to decide if I wanted to make any for company. My husband says the Parmesan bread. The kids say the cheddar cheese bread. Decisions, decisions!

A Visit with a Friend and the Creation Class

Monday, April 14

Word had gotten back to Ja that one of Rachel's friends, Nina, was needing to talk with her. Ja needed to run an errand and they told us to tag along with them. Ja dropped Rachel and I off at Nina's home. We caught her at home.

Nina has had a difficult life. Her parents died when she was about 18 years old and she had to finish raising her brothers and sisters. I think there are 4 or 5 of them. One of Nina's sisters is struggling with depression. She had tried suicide but it didn't work. On that particular day, her sister was in Tana (the capital city of Madagascar) in a hospital psychiatric ward.

Nina told us that her father used to go to a witch doctor for help. The witch doctor was absolutely the wrong place for him to seek out help! But, nevertheless, he did. We believe very strongly what the Bible says in Exodus 20:5 "Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them (idols), nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;" We believe that because Nina's father went to the witch doctor along with other things, his iniquity is visiting on his children - at that particular moment it was Nina's sister.

Rachel counseled her to have a "family fast" and pray 1 day a week for at least 3 months to break the iniquity from continuing to visit upon their family because it sounded like a spiritual problem. It could have been a little bit physical but for the most part a spiritual problem. I also encouraged her to pray with belief. So often we pray and ask God for various things (healing, financial security, etc.) but we don't really believe God will answer our prayers. If we pray with unbelief He won't answer us. Nina was very open and sweet.

L to R - Rachel, Nina, Me

Ja and Walter made several visits. They were able to lead a man to the Lord. It was like that with every visit. It was an incredible experience to work with people who were willing to listen to the Bible and actually believe what the Bible says!

It was also the 2nd night of Walter's creation class. There were 43 people in attendance. The ladies had asked Rachel if they could make potato pancakes and sell them to buy decorations for the church building. Ja said it was ok. So the ladies gathered early before the class started and prepared the food. Rachel and I stayed outside and cooked them. They were a hit! Everyone liked them.

The only problem was the mosquitoes were out in full force that night! Up until that night, I hadn't been bit. Well, I was a feast for the mosquitoes! I counted how many bites were on my legs the next day and there were 17! My legs itched and burned so badly. In fact, they bothered me until a few days after we got back to the USA!

Scary

Click here and watch the video. It will be an eyeopener!

The "Dirty" Lake

I forgot to mention this in my last post. When we were at the volcano with all the "sellers" I was getting a little irritated because they just wouldn't let us alone. I decided to take pictures of them. And then I counted how many of them were huddled around us. There were 17 of them! No joke! I counted twice just to make sure my math was correct!

Sunday, April 13

Ja had asked Walter to teach the children's Sunday school class. Kristoff interpreted for him and the children seemed to enjoy it.

After church we went to lunch with the Sigmuns'. After lunch we went to the "dirty" lake. There are 2 lakes in that area - the "clean" one and the "dirty" one. Close to the "dirty" lake is the big open air market and we went there as well.

The "dirty" lake has raw sewage in it, people wash their clothes in it, they bathe in it, and they catch fish from it. I don't know how the fish can even live in it but somehow they do. It was gross! Below is a picture from the "dirty" lake.

This is a picture of the lake and the home of someone.

We found a few remaining flyers for Walter's creation class so we passed them out. The people came running! There were several women that were mad when we ran out because they didn't get one!

We walked up to the market and looked around. It was huge! We didn't go very far in. You see the same things sold over and over and over and over again.

Those are 'used' undergarments for sale!

This is a cow's head for sale!

This is the "sludge" we had to walk thru at the markets. It's a mixture of animal blood, urine (animal and human, I'm sure), water, etc. On this particular day we didn't know we would go to a market and I had sandals on. I had to be extremely careful where I walked.

We walked back towards the "dirty" lake and off to the right of the lake was a small neighborhood. It was the most impoverished area we visited. Now I thought we had seen poverty. But not like this neighborhood! It was bad. We walked down into the neighborhood. We stuck out like a sore thumb! Everyone knew we were 'visaha' or "foreigner" and they kept shouting 'visaha' at us (in a friendly way) with big smiles on their faces.

These little guys chased me down and begged me to take their picture. They were very happy!



The children are asking Kelli Sigmun about her daughter, Selah.



Notice how this house is falling apart. But people still live in it!

Sightseeing

I just want to say I was working on this post and it suddenly disappeared! So.......it was back to the drawing board.

Friday, April 10

Really no news for this day. Ja was still very sick with pneumonia. Ja's wife, Rachel, wasn't feeling well. My hip was hurting to the point that I couldn't walk very much. Just sitting in a chair was painful. So we laid low that day. Walter visited some families with Kristoff but other than that we didn't do anything.

I forgot to mention that we picked up the sign from the paint shop for Walter's creation class on Thursday. We put the sign up across the street from the church and the Pritchards' house. The Pritchards' built the church/learning center on the lot next to their house. Very handy I must say!Below is a picture of the sign.

Saturday, April 11

It was the day before Walter's creation class was to start. We had 500 copies made of a flyer advertising the class. We attached a Gospel tracht to each one of them and we set out to pass them out. There are only a few roads/highways that go either the length or width of Madagascar. The Pritchards' live right off one of the roads. And it's a busy road, too! So we decided to just walk to that road. We took one of Ja's sons, Joel, with us. We passed out half in the morning and half after lunch. It didn't take very long to pass them out.

The Malagasy people are very different from Americans (as if I hadn't said that before). It's been our experience that Americans don't want what we have. It doesn't even have to be from a church. You can be advertising anything and Americans won't take a flyer. But....in Madagascar if you are passing out anything, they will take it! They say "thank you" after you give it to them. They are very gracious. The people don't rip it up; they don't throw it down; they actually READ what you give to them. We saw person after person stop what they were doing and read the flyer and tracht.

We started out standing on the side of the road. People walking by would take one. Pousse drivers and their riders would take them. We held our hands out for bicyclists and motorcyclists and they would take them. There were even a few cars that stopped to get what we were handing out! Now it was very dangerous for the cars to stop alongside a busy highway like that! There are big semi trucks, cars, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, pousse drivers, men pulling carts, etc. all using the same narrow road and for the cars to stop could have caused an accident or two!
Once people saw we were handing out something they came to us. We didn't have to go to them. There were even a few people running to us!

We walked past this man as he was reading one of the flyers we handed to him.

The Pritchards house is right next door to their church/learning center. As we passed by the street the church faces we saw the following scene.

All I have to say is who needs a lawn mower when you've got herds of cows passing by to cut the grass for you! Ha ha!

I thought this sight was so hilarious I had to get pictures!

That's the church sign.

Another missionary couple, Richard and Charity Jertberg, took us sightseeing. We started out at a paper factory. It is very different. Not really to be used for writing with. The owners showed us how they make it (very involved and I didn't get pictures of everything so I won't bore you with those details). It is completely made from plants and flowers.

When the decorating is done, it's put out in the sun to dry.

The owner told us that he had a contract selling his paper to a company in Ohio last year. Wow!

From there we went to a lamba (silk scarf) factory. Lambas are traditional Malagasy clothing worn by the women. We got a tour of the factory and it was truly a "sweat shop." We aren't sure about the other factories in the country (Nike, Gap, Old Navy, Liz Claiborne) but we know this one definitely was. These scarves were made out of 100% silk.

The next pictures were taken in the village where the lamba factory was.

If you enlarge the picture you can see the police station better. It was the size of maybe a 6'X 6' room.

The side of the little shop was made out of the top and bottom of 55 gallon drums. They don't throw anything away! Pretty ingenius!

This is public transportation. The people enter thru the back of the van. There's no limit on the number of people they will haul. We saw them full to overflowing!

Picture of an impending storm

From the lamba factory we went way up into the hills to an extinct volcano. The crater of the volcano now has a lake in it. It's called Lake Tachevah (not sure on the spelling). It was a loooooong bumpy ride. Charity told us to expect "sellers" to hound us when we got out of the car. And hound us they did! They have a plan to get you to buy their souvenirs. First they ask you your name (and then they call you by your name the whole time you are there). Then they offer you a handmade straw bracelet as a "free gift." If you take the bracelet you must buy their merchandise. Even if you don't take the bracelet they don't take "no" for an answer! And if you say "no" to one thing they will put it back in their basket and get something else out and beg you to buy it. The cycle just keeps going and going like that from the time you get out of your car until you leave. They even follow you alongside your car while you're driving down the mountain.

Pictures of the lake. It was absolutely gorgeous up there!

Looking on a remote village from the volcano

Rice fields from the volcano



More views from the volcano

We stopped for dinner after the volcano. It was a fancy shmancy place for Madagascar. This restaurant actually had menus in English. The menu was very funny because the translation was odd. For example, you could order 2 balls of ice cream or mushed potatoes. You could also order what we think was chili (kidney beans and duck breast cooked for a long moment). Or a steak cooked Henry IV way (in a butter sauce). I really wanted to ask the waiter if I could have one of the menus to bring home but I didn't. We got so tickled over that menu. What ended up being even more funny was that another missionary couple, Jason and Kelli Sigmun, took us to the same restaurant the next day (they had no idea we had been there the day before). We got to look at the menu again and just laugh.