Monday, July 30, 2007

These are some recent photos of our boys!

We are now into our final weeks here in the states… again! Joel's parents are here for the week visiting and playing lots with their grandsons. We have a busy week planned but it should be very enjoyable for us all. Joel leaves Saturday with his parents for New York. They will be there and in New Jersey for the week before Joel's brother's wedding. Mom and I will have a few days here in Missouri before going out there just few days before the wedding. Then we return home to Missouri for a little over a week and on the 22nd, we will fly to Indonesia.

Our boxes to take back are all but packed with just the odds and ends to throw in before we leave. The other things we left in Indonesia are now in our new house awaiting us! We are sooooo eager to get back there and begin our ministry at the guesthouse.

The photo here is one we just got from our co-workers in Papua of a bridge that was just recently repaired. Yes, that is a light pole in the middle of the road at the end of the bridge. And yes, they did remove it - just a few weeks after. This is where we are heading to live! Not quite like America, eh?

Bethany

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Summer Update from Eary July

Hey all, Life has been active lately and we haven't been able to communicate much. So in everyone's interest, I'm gonna catch you up on some things.
#1 Jack has been singing 'Tomorrow' from Annie, except that he sings it as 'Tonanno, tonanno, I yuv ya, tonanno. onwy day away!'. It's very fun, that kid has music in his blood. Wonder where that trait came from... #2 We had a really fun 4th of July. Finally a BBQ with no rain! We had several friends from church over. All the kids swam in our wading pool and the adults all swatted flies. But we had fun doing it. Yummy food, a good musical playlist, tiki torches, and homemade ice-cream!!! We watched fireworks from our church's parking lot. The biggest show in Springfield is shot from a location just north of us, so we had a great view... #3 Bethany and I had and have an awesome opportunity to put together a missionary Teamwork workshop with a group of folks who will be sent out of High Street as missionaries. Because our training with NTM is based on the premise of working in teams, our Pastor as well as Missions directors asked us to host this event and present some information about working as a team. We were really excited and honored to be able to do this. Our first meeting was on July 5 and our next will be the first week of August. #4 We're close to being done with the biggest stretch of fencing in the backyard. I've really enjoyed the 'manual labor.' There's something satisfying about that kind of work. #5 Mom Stroud went back to work this week after three weeks off for her surgery. She's just working half-days this week and then will move back to full-time next week. It seems she is healing well and the surgery was a success. #6 B and I are going away for two nights this weekend down to Tablerock lake to the south of us. We're so excited to have some time for just the two of us and to finally celebrate our 4th anniversary! That's the high points right now. We're really excited to see Dad and Mom Potter in 3 weeks and we're trying to use the time before they come to finish up the fence and some other projects.We are also trying to begin the packing process for returning to Indonesia. Our goal is to have most of our stuff packed and ready to go before we leave for my brother's wedding the first week of August. We also finally have a date set to return to Indonesia. Our tickets are booked for August 22nd. We still have no word on how our visas are coming along but we are just going to assume they will be granted and will progress forward!

That's all for now! Enjoy your summer! Joel for the Potter 4!

Monday, July 16, 2007

packing

Well, the time has come for us to begin sorting through our things in preparation for us to go back to Indonesia.  We have about 10 boxes of stuff that we've pulled out from our storage unit to see what we can actually take with us.  We will have to do some trial runs on packing to see how much we can cram in and then decide how many extra totes we can afford to take.  Mom's dining room will be sorting central for awhile and we will count today as the first day in our preparation to return "home". 

 

Joel's parent's will be here in 2 weeks and then the wedding and just a week later, we will be leaving once again, on a jet plane!  Let the games begin!

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

One side of the fence completed


Installing a fence panel


Jack


Owen - Indonesia or Bust!

Our friend Rachel Burch made Owen this fun tshirt! He's ready to go!

Some of the flowers from Mom's garden


Putting in a post for the fence

After many weeks, we finally are getting the posts in the ground. This is no easy process!

Jack's Thomas Train and Makeshift Track

jack absolutely loves Thomas the Tank Engine!