A Somewhat Quiet House

With the 4 of us living here, our house is never quiet, but it is much quieter now than it was last week when it was full with 6 teenagers, 5 young adults, 2 adult leaders, and a Boy Scout Man even joined us for a night! We were also often joined by 80+ Vacation Bible School children and 20-30 youth, although they usually kept to the church side of our house:) And...we loved it so much and miss them greatly. The group was from First Korean Presbyterian Church of Anchorage. They kept busy doing work projects in the morning, VBS in the afternoons, and worship services with their praise band in the evenings. I honestly saw more young people at church than I've ever seen since being here (except for Christmas, New Year's, and funerals). We pray that we are able to continue the ministry they began while here. The following are photos from the last couple weeks.




We ate amazing Korean food all week and the boys were able to practice using chopsticks again:)


Logan and Owen were kept entertained. The girls played with them any chance they could get and the boys were always busy doing something exciting. We tell everyone that we don't need a TV because we just watch out the window for entertainment. The group thought this was funny at the beginning, but by the end of their 10 days with us, they too were excitedly calling people to watch exciting happenings out the window!


This particular day, the boys watched Justin and Joe lift very large rocks and throw them into the deep puddles that surround the church..."Mama...SPLASH!" The purpose of the project was to prevent kids from cracking their heads open when they fall off of the church bell stand that they constantly climb on and then fall off onto the rocks...and also to fill the holes that create the puddles so that young children don't fall into them and drown. I don't know if the project was successful, but it was definately entertaining to watch:)


I just thought this was a cute picture of Logan and Owen, once again, helping themselves into their rain boots and going outside to join Jacob. I suppose it is pretty exciting to see rain when you've seen nothing but snow for the past 8 months!


This is a photo of one of the evening worship services. The drumset drew people in from all over town! They left it behind for our church. I don't think anyone in Savoonga knows how to play yet, but Owen set himself upon the stool and was pretty good!


The boys weren't very interested in joining VBS...I think there were too many people and too much noise for their likings. I found them sitting together reading magazines one day while I was running back and forth between them and VBS. They read like this for a good 20 minutes! They did join the 1st grade class one day for craft time. They were supposed to paint a little ceramic animal, but Owen declared, "Already painted, Mama...white." They enjoyed painting the drop cloth instead.


A photo of VBS.


Owen: "Take a picture of us Mama. We're friends."
Me: "Do you want to go to VBS?"
Both: "NO!"
At least they have each other!:) We're still working on the making friends part!


It's hard to capture dance in a picture, but the group went to an Eskimo Dance one night. Maybe you can get some idea of what it looks like??


This is a picture of the Korean church's "groupies"! There are several young women in the village who are still asking for their phone #'s! It's not everyday "a band" comes to Savoonga!


And they are off. I included this photo so you could see our airport...high security:)