This week was the school’s annual lectureship. Chris invited a former professor of his, Dr. Benny Aker to speak and he graciously accepted. So, we spent a very busy week, especially for Chris, at the lectureship. He had morning lectures, afternoon faculty paper presentations, including one given by Chris, and evening round table discussions. Of course, he still had his regular classes to teach, too.
We enjoyed getting to see Dr. Aker again. According to Chris, his lectures were stimulating and relevant. It was a worthwhile week of learning for students and faculty alike.
I had a busy week with all the usual stuff. I also started out the week with a terrible sore throat, but thank the Lord we are all well again! So, I was able to go to church after being away for 3 weeks with various rounds of illnesses. It was good to worship together with fellow believers.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Busy, Busy
We have had a busy week. The next trimester here at APTS is now in full swing. Chris is busy trying to catch up on work after having to miss some time by staying with Wesley in the hospital. I had to catch up on some baking and on running errands after a week of sick kids. Some of these errands lead me to the mall. While looking around the department store (I was there to replace a broken iron) I noticed that all the latest fashions seem to be a revised addition of everything 80’s. Leggings and big shirts, stripes, skinny ties, all seem to be back in style, at least here in the Philippines. This made me feel a little bit old. I’ve now lived long enough to see something go out of fashion and then come back in.
Anyway, back to my busy week. The week seemed to get progressively busier. Yesterday was the busiest day of them all. In the morning I did some baking. Then, we went to a playgroup with other missionary kids at camp John Hay. After that we had a quick lunch. Then I had to come up with a game idea and make up all the materials for Bible club. I also had to rearrange the furniture and clean and set out all the toys for Bible Club. I managed to squeeze in some time for home school with Wesley and Addie in the afternoon, too. At 5:00 we had our area director, Bill Snider over for dinner as he was in town for a meeting. At 6:30 we had Bible club. It went very well. Our lesson was from Mark 8 where Peter proclaims that Jesus is the Christ. So, we did several activities in our activity centers with the kids where we learned about how Jesus is our savior. (The pictures above are of kids at Bible Club). I finished the night after getting Wesley and Addie to bed, by trying to get Hudson to sleep while watching a DVD with Chris.
Today, we had faculty/student home groups that we host at our house. Our kids always love it. Wesley is so social that he has a great time entertaining the students. Everyone enjoys the merienda (snack), which always includes several home baked items and sweets. I just finished writing up some of my Bible Club lessons. Another lady on campus has requested a copy of them to use in her church. She is teaching kids age 4-6 but has no curriculum to use with them. Hopefully my materials will be helpful to her and encourage her to keep on ministering to young kids. Well, I’ve still got some errands to run and I need to do some schoolwork with the kids so this will have to end my blog for today. Truly the life of a missionary Mom is busy, busy!
Anyway, back to my busy week. The week seemed to get progressively busier. Yesterday was the busiest day of them all. In the morning I did some baking. Then, we went to a playgroup with other missionary kids at camp John Hay. After that we had a quick lunch. Then I had to come up with a game idea and make up all the materials for Bible club. I also had to rearrange the furniture and clean and set out all the toys for Bible Club. I managed to squeeze in some time for home school with Wesley and Addie in the afternoon, too. At 5:00 we had our area director, Bill Snider over for dinner as he was in town for a meeting. At 6:30 we had Bible club. It went very well. Our lesson was from Mark 8 where Peter proclaims that Jesus is the Christ. So, we did several activities in our activity centers with the kids where we learned about how Jesus is our savior. (The pictures above are of kids at Bible Club). I finished the night after getting Wesley and Addie to bed, by trying to get Hudson to sleep while watching a DVD with Chris.
Today, we had faculty/student home groups that we host at our house. Our kids always love it. Wesley is so social that he has a great time entertaining the students. Everyone enjoys the merienda (snack), which always includes several home baked items and sweets. I just finished writing up some of my Bible Club lessons. Another lady on campus has requested a copy of them to use in her church. She is teaching kids age 4-6 but has no curriculum to use with them. Hopefully my materials will be helpful to her and encourage her to keep on ministering to young kids. Well, I’ve still got some errands to run and I need to do some schoolwork with the kids so this will have to end my blog for today. Truly the life of a missionary Mom is busy, busy!
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Wesley's trip to the hospital
I had started to write a blog about the trials of having sick kids, only to have things get even more difficult. So, to all my faithful readers, I’m sorry about the recent lack of entries, but I’ve had one or more kids sick for over a week now.
In fact, Wesley got so sick, that we had to take him to the hospital. He couldn't keep so much as an ice cube or one sip of rehydration fluid down. The school nurse took one look at him and said he needs to go to the hospital. I guess she was right. Wesley was so dehydrated that it took 3 attempts to get an IV started. Wesley did remarkably well. Even with all the poking around he never cried!
Wesley was admitted to the hospital for his dehydration and further tests. At first his lab results showed an elevated white cell count and the doctor was concerned that he may have appendicitis. Since, he had no other symptoms and no stomach pain she decided to wait and see. We were relieved that she made this decision, as we were unsure if there were any adequate surgeons or that the he even had appendicitis.
The next day the doctor said that his tonsils were very red and had white spots and she decided that he must just have a throat infection (although she never did a throat culture). She started him on IV antibiotics. After about 24 hrs of antibiotics, his fever was gone and he was able to eat again. So, the doctor said that he could come home.
Going to the hospital with a little kid is never easy. In the Philippines it’s even more of a challenge. In the US you may have to wait in the waiting room of the ER for a long time and you’ll certainly have to pay a lot of money, but at least you can be reasonably sure that you will get good care and that your doctor knows what he/she is talking about. This isn’t necessarily true here.
There are some good doctors here. You can get some good treatment, but in Baguio you just can assume that every doctor is reliable. I never realized just how much trust we as Americans put in our physicians until I had to take my kids to the hospital in a third world country.
Taking Wesley to the hospital was actually the second time I’ve been to the hospital here. The first time I went I had to take Hudson in for an accident we had. When I stepped into the ER I immediately noticed that the sheets were dirty. They didn’t change them between patients! I also discovered that there was no soap in the bathrooms, or anywhere that I could find in the ER! When Hudson had to have an IV, there were ants climbing up and down his IV pole. I did feel like the doctors were correct in their diagnosis and treatment, and they did appear to use clean needles, but the overall lack of sanitation was alarming.
So, this time when we had to take Wesley to the hospital, we tried out the new private hospital. It was a much smaller hospital, which meant that initially Wesley had to share a very small room (about the size of a standard single hospital room in the US) with four other sick kids, including a newborn baby. Thankfully, a private room soon became available and we didn’t have to worry about Wesley spreading his germs to the newborn or catching anything from anyone else. That being said, we were still much happier with the new hospital. It was so much cleaner! Clean sheets, soap in the bathrooms, and even rubbing alcohol was used by the doctors before treatment.
Another thing about the hospitals here is that the patients are expected to bring a caretaker with them. The caretaker is usually a family member and will assist the patients with everything non-medical (such as feeding, dressing, etc.). This meant that Chris or I had to be at Wesley’s bedside for 24 hrs a day. We couldn’t even leave him to make a trip to the cafeteria. Doing so would have meant leaving Wesley all alone with out any supervision or help. This gets challenging when you have two other little kids at home. Thankfully we have good friends here who helped watch Hudson and Addie so I could bring Chris something to eat or give him the chance to come home and take a shower while I took care of Wesley. Let me conclude this entry with a big thank you to everyone who helped us here in Baguio. Thanks also to all our friends and churches around the world that prayed for us. We certainly felt God’s peace in the midst of everything and are rejoicing in Wesley’s home coming thanks to all of your prayers.
In fact, Wesley got so sick, that we had to take him to the hospital. He couldn't keep so much as an ice cube or one sip of rehydration fluid down. The school nurse took one look at him and said he needs to go to the hospital. I guess she was right. Wesley was so dehydrated that it took 3 attempts to get an IV started. Wesley did remarkably well. Even with all the poking around he never cried!
Wesley was admitted to the hospital for his dehydration and further tests. At first his lab results showed an elevated white cell count and the doctor was concerned that he may have appendicitis. Since, he had no other symptoms and no stomach pain she decided to wait and see. We were relieved that she made this decision, as we were unsure if there were any adequate surgeons or that the he even had appendicitis.
The next day the doctor said that his tonsils were very red and had white spots and she decided that he must just have a throat infection (although she never did a throat culture). She started him on IV antibiotics. After about 24 hrs of antibiotics, his fever was gone and he was able to eat again. So, the doctor said that he could come home.
Going to the hospital with a little kid is never easy. In the Philippines it’s even more of a challenge. In the US you may have to wait in the waiting room of the ER for a long time and you’ll certainly have to pay a lot of money, but at least you can be reasonably sure that you will get good care and that your doctor knows what he/she is talking about. This isn’t necessarily true here.
There are some good doctors here. You can get some good treatment, but in Baguio you just can assume that every doctor is reliable. I never realized just how much trust we as Americans put in our physicians until I had to take my kids to the hospital in a third world country.
Taking Wesley to the hospital was actually the second time I’ve been to the hospital here. The first time I went I had to take Hudson in for an accident we had. When I stepped into the ER I immediately noticed that the sheets were dirty. They didn’t change them between patients! I also discovered that there was no soap in the bathrooms, or anywhere that I could find in the ER! When Hudson had to have an IV, there were ants climbing up and down his IV pole. I did feel like the doctors were correct in their diagnosis and treatment, and they did appear to use clean needles, but the overall lack of sanitation was alarming.
So, this time when we had to take Wesley to the hospital, we tried out the new private hospital. It was a much smaller hospital, which meant that initially Wesley had to share a very small room (about the size of a standard single hospital room in the US) with four other sick kids, including a newborn baby. Thankfully, a private room soon became available and we didn’t have to worry about Wesley spreading his germs to the newborn or catching anything from anyone else. That being said, we were still much happier with the new hospital. It was so much cleaner! Clean sheets, soap in the bathrooms, and even rubbing alcohol was used by the doctors before treatment.
Another thing about the hospitals here is that the patients are expected to bring a caretaker with them. The caretaker is usually a family member and will assist the patients with everything non-medical (such as feeding, dressing, etc.). This meant that Chris or I had to be at Wesley’s bedside for 24 hrs a day. We couldn’t even leave him to make a trip to the cafeteria. Doing so would have meant leaving Wesley all alone with out any supervision or help. This gets challenging when you have two other little kids at home. Thankfully we have good friends here who helped watch Hudson and Addie so I could bring Chris something to eat or give him the chance to come home and take a shower while I took care of Wesley. Let me conclude this entry with a big thank you to everyone who helped us here in Baguio. Thanks also to all our friends and churches around the world that prayed for us. We certainly felt God’s peace in the midst of everything and are rejoicing in Wesley’s home coming thanks to all of your prayers.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Especially for Grammy
It's tough to be a grandparent with your only Grandkids thousands of miles away. So this one is dedicated to m
y Mom. We love and miss you! Here are some recent pictures of the grandkids for you to see and share. 
y Mom. We love and miss you! Here are some recent pictures of the grandkids for you to see and share. 
Happy New Year!
Horns blearing, yelling, banging, and the exploding of fireworks, what do all of theses things have in common? The answer is New Years Eve in the Philippines! We discovered this custom for ourselves just a few nights ago.
As midnight approached the noise from all around the city grew. At the stroke of twelve we could here it crescendo, even though we are somewhat insulated from the sound as we were inside our house on campus, which is on the outer edge of town. Are New Years Eve was spent in a somewhat less traditional fashion. No one even banged on the pots and pans. Instead we invited over several other faculty members and missionaries for a potluck Mexican dinner. We enjoyed some great food and a long night of talking as we welcomed in 2008. Chris and I are looking forward to our first full year in the Philippines.
As midnight approached the noise from all around the city grew. At the stroke of twelve we could here it crescendo, even though we are somewhat insulated from the sound as we were inside our house on campus, which is on the outer edge of town. Are New Years Eve was spent in a somewhat less traditional fashion. No one even banged on the pots and pans. Instead we invited over several other faculty members and missionaries for a potluck Mexican dinner. We enjoyed some great food and a long night of talking as we welcomed in 2008. Chris and I are looking forward to our first full year in the Philippines.
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