Where have we been?

These past few weeks have been so busy. I have realized it has been a long time since we told you what we are doing! The discovery team left to go home this morning after their two month experience in the Philippines. Last week Dan and I took them for their debrief to the beach. (tough life, huh!) It was a great time to process everything they have been through in their village experiences.

Now, Dan is catching up on some much needed rest this evening and I have begun orientation at Faith Academy. I will be telling you more about it soon, but so far the best part is meeting all of the new teachers and staff that will be working with me!

We had a little camera mishap, so that is really the delay in pictures, but hopefully we will have some more up in the next couple of days!

Scruffy is doing really well. He is sleeping through the night most of the time. (though we are still wearing earplugs just in case!) Also, he hasn't met a stranger. Everyone in the condos knows him and loves him. (who wouldn't love our cute little boy!!)

Just thought you all would enjoy my random update! : )

Scruffy the Great Puppy!

Well, after 3 days of having Scruffy we are totally enthralled with everything that he has learned and all that he does! He is such a wonderful puppy and we are so proud of him! He loves to play, but can also be so calm and quiet.

Scruffy was able to meet and play with lots of kids today because we took him up to Faith Academy while I worked in my classroom! Though, I didn't get that much work done since everyone wanted to come and meet Scruffy! We didn't mind though! So far, having a dog has made us even more social since people are so much more likely to talk to us, and come meet us with Scruffy around!














Scruffy hangs out on our glassed in porch most of the time. Here he is just hanging out before a nap! You see his ball behind him that he could play with, but he actually likes a toilet paper roll better!!
















If you haven't noticed already, we are very proud parents!!

Hurricane Dennis Update

(If you want an update on Scruffy, scroll to the bottom of this entry.)

I talked to Dad this morning. His house is fine, except for a broken window, and a bunch more trees have come down (again). I'm begining to wonder how many trees are left.

The consensus around the neighborhood is that a tornado spawned off of the eye-wall of the hurricane as it passed directly over the area. This tornado somehow caused the bay to rise up about 18 feet in our location, and destroyed many piers. (Dad's house is 22 feet above sea level.) It also destroyed a home that is two doors down from our house. A section of the roof from that house is in Dad's yard right now.

So, Dad and Belinda are working to get things back to normal--they hope to have electricity by Friday.

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OK, all you puppy lovers: Scruffy is currently taking his afternoon nap in his crate. He has plans to go visit the Chesnut home this afternoon. So far, we have learned that he likes to play with paper towels, he doesn't like the food that they were feeding him at the pet store, and he likes to urinate on floors. He did remarkably well last night, and he only barked a few times around 3AM. Not bad for his first night in his new home. Way to go, Scruffs.

A New Addition to Our Family!!

No, we aren't having a baby. BUT as of this evening, we are new parents to a 12 week old puppy we have named Scruffy!!

Since we arrived in the Philippines we have known that we wanted to get a puppy. We weren't allowed to have one at our first apartment. Now that we live at the condos we are able to have a precious pet!

SO, over the last few weeks we have been on the puppy search. We were excited to learn about an animal shelter they have here named PAWS (Philippine Animal Welfare Society.) Unfortunately, when we went to visit, hoping to rescue a sweet puppy, they only had bigger dogs, and none of them were truly puppies. Also, most of these "native dogs" (mutts) of the Philippines are medium to large size. We hoped to find a small one, but we haven't been able to find any at all.

Next, we began the pet shop search. This has been, if we are near a pet shop we go in it. All of the dogs in the petshops are pure bred dogs. Not at all a requirement or desire for us. We have visited a few, but none were in our price range of what we were willing to pay. UNTIL, on our way home from work today we stopped at a small pet shop in a mall close to our house. They were able to give us a great deal on our priceless bundle of fluff! (who happens to be a shitzu)

Here I am with Scruffy right after we left the petshop!!

Learning that Lasts

Last week I took a class entitled Learning that Lasts. It is all about how about to teach adults, though I think it still definately applied to my future 3rd grade class!! I entered the class kind of intimidated because there were several translators and linguists in there. I also entered knowing that I would have to teach a 40 minute lesson of my choice to these brilliant people!! (SCARY!)

My fears were soon calmed once I realized we were all kind of intimidated! I mean, even for the translators, it was a different story teaching a lesson to your collegues verses teaching a village setting. SO, then I just sat back and enjoyed.

The workshop was very interactive, went by fast and didn't leave very much time to be bored! In presenting lessons, I got to work with a good Pilipina friend of mine. We presented about using a website to tell other people about your ministry, (that was led by me!) and then also the about the importance for foreigners in the Philippines to learn Tagalog. (This encouraged me, to continue keeping up my Tagalog!!)

Hurricane Dennis

Well, my hometown of Gulf Breeze, FL got hit again by another hurricane. It's been only 10 months since Ivan hit, and many people had to pack up the homes that they just rebuilt. Fortunately, the initial reports are that the damage isn't nearly as bad as Ivan, which is great.

I think the biggest news is that Jim Cantore from the Weather Channel camped out in our town (never a good sign). In case there was any doubt, I now believe that this man is truly crazy.

Brad's Roast Video

Some of my old friends at Premier, Inc. recently roasted Brad, my former manager who is celebrating 10 years with the company. Brad's motto for management style is: "If they do it wrong, then correct them gently. If they do it right, then torment them mercilessly."

Since I had the unfortunate ability to do things right, my colleagues wanted to give me an opportunity to "get back" at Brad. Instead of stooping to his low-ball antics, I decided to take the high road and send him my warmest, most sincere congratulations via video.

Click here to view the video that was seen during the roast.

Running time: 1 min, 47 sec

File size: 2.02 Mb

Jimbo & Kristen's On-Line Journal

Some of you might know our friends from Auburn, Jimbo and Kristen. They recently started their own on-line journal, called LifeOnTheWater.net. Feel free to check them out!

Jimbo and Kristen sit somewhere.

Get Global Trip to the Kinaray-a People

I just finished a week-long trip with a group of college students to the Philippine island of Panay. The trip was called "GET Global" (Go Experience Translation), and was organized by two former translators, Ed and Linda. Ironically, Ed and Linda were two of our teachers during Wycliffe's Training Camp, which we participated in exactly one year ago. (Although it feels like it was about 5 years ago...)

While on Panay, the Kinaray-a Bible translation team showed us how they are translating the Bible, and helped us learn some Kinaray-a. The team is led by Bea, a demure yet resolute Filipina who has patiently worked on the translation despite the loss of her husband and open-heart surgery. It is estimated that Kinaray-a is spoken by 400,000 people, and yet they only have a few books of the Bible in their language.

To get the full experience, Bea encouraged us to live with nearby pastors who graciously accepted us into their homes. We all had vastly different experiences, and the Lord was teaching us all different things, but if there was one unifying epiphany that I could identify amongst all of the students, it would be: "I can do this!" Because of this trip, they now believe that one day they could become a missionary.

One of the requirements for our trips is that we stay in contact with our home office in Manila. Here, I am making the daily cell phone call on a sandbar in the middle of a river that was near the village. This is the only place where I could get any cell phone service.


Chatting with Pastor Gregorio (the pastor I lived with, in light blue shirt). In the provinces of the Philippines, it is common to see close friends of the same gender holding hands, or putting their arms around each others shoulders. Holding Pastor Gregorio's hand is a close pastor friend.


Pastor Gregorio's church. (I'm the tall white guy in the center.)


"Very many thanks for taking care of us!" During our last Kinaray-a language class, we were instructed to say this to the pastors and their families.