Prayer Requests

Please keep us in your prayers. Everyone but me (Lindsey) is sick in our family and I am starting to get a scratchy throat. Hudson has an upper respiratory track infection. Chris has an amoeba & an allergic reaction. Addie and Wesley have sore throats and fevers. Half of them are on antibiotics and I'll take Wes and Addie to the MD tomorrow. Pray that we all get well so we can go to our Southeast Asia missionary meeting in Malaysia this weekend. Our time in Malaysia will include an annual business meeting and a time of spiritual renewal for the whole family. Thank you for your prayers!

The Graduates

As promised, here are some of this years graduates and some information on what they plan to do now that they have completed their degrees.

Mayo Reyes was one of Chris' Greek IV students this year. His wife, Rhea also graduated and delivered their second child a week later! While students Mayo and Rhea led the student outreach projects. They plan to continue to do outreach and Evangelism here in the Philippines, their home country.

Pastor Dom was one of Chris' students this year. He lives here in the Philippines and has been a teacher in one of the local Bible colleges. He plans to return to APTS to pursue a Masters in Divinity degree so that he can become a better equipped for teaching

Angela Hughes is from New Zealand. She and her daughter began His Heart Ministries while Angela was a student here at APTS. They are staying here in the Philippines as missionaries and are continuing their ministry to street kids and their families. Each week the Hughes' have a home church and feeding program that they run. His Heart Ministries recently hosted a retreat for the mothers of street children where several of the mother were saved and delivered from depression or illnesses. It is exciting to see one of our graduates involved in such a blossoming ministry.

Agnes has an incredible testimony. While a student in at a secular university she became a member of a gang. She had been running from the call that God had placed on her life as a child. Finally, she came back to God and came to APTS to prepare for ministry. After graduation Agnes will be leaving for Cambodia to serve as a missionary with the Philippines Assembly of God.

Amar and his wife Sarita are from Nepal. They are returning home to have their first child. Amar is hoping to teach at a Bible college in his home town of Kathmandu.

Edgar graduated after the second trimester. He is currently pastoring. He also is a part of the Christian Education team of the Philippines Assemblies of God.

Laurent Tranque and his wife Lydia were two of Chris' students. Laurent just graduated while Lydia has one more trimester before finishing her degree. They plan to help in one of the first Assemblies of God Bible colleges in Vietnam. Look for more about this couple in our upcoming newsletter.

Sam Matia is from Samoa. He was a student in Chris' hermeneutics class. He plans to return to Samoa to train pastors.

Bill Snider is an American missionary with the Assemblies of God. He and his wife, Kim, are the area directors for south-east Asia. Bill plans on using his masters degree in missions as he continues to serve in the Asia pacific media ministry and as an area director.

This student is from Korea and will be joining his father on the mission field in Mongolia.

Ogino is from Japan. He has returned to Japan to pastor.

Daniel and Ora are from Indonesia. Ora was a student in Chris' hermeneutics class. Daniel and Ora will be returning to Indonesia to either pastor and/or teach in a Bible college.

the Amoeba's Ugly Cousin

I know I said I'd do a blog on this years graduates, by my plans have been stalled do to illness. Hudson and I (Lindsey) were sick for the past two weeks with a terrible illness that my doctor called the "cousin to the amoeba". It was not fun! Plus, the medicine we had to take to get over it was just about as bad as the sickness. It reminded me of pregnancy with morning sickness, frequent trips to the bathroom, and exhaustion. Just part of the experience of living in a third world country. Thanks to all of you who prayed for us. We are doing much better. As soon as I get caught up on all that had to wait while I was sick, I'll post the pictures and info about this years graduates.

Graduation

Sorry for the lack of recent blog entries. Both our laptop and our camera died! Thankfully, our regional director, Russ Turney, brought new ones with him last week when he came up for graduation. The camera and laptop were late Chrismas presents from Chris' parents. Thanks Mom and Dad and thanks to the Turney’s, too!

Last week was graduation. It was a week filled with events and ceremonies. Here are the highlights.

On Monday Chris administered his last final exam. On Tuesday Lindsey attended the lady's tea and met the board memeber wives. Then, on Wednesday we all (except Hudson who was napping) attended the dedication of the new library/facutly office building ->

Chris and Lindsey also went to a lunch with the faculty & board members.

Wednesday night was the graduation banquet. After the dinner each of the graduates took turns sharing their future ministry plans. It was wonderful to see what God was doing in the lives of our graduates. The next blog entry will have photos and information on all of this years graduates. The banquet concluded with prayer over all of the graduates.

Thursday was the day of the actual graduation. Here is a photo of Chris during the processional and another of him with the special speaker, Rev. John Bueno, the director of foreign missions for the Assemblies of God, USA.

In the midst of our busy week, life as normal still went on, including Hudson learning to walk. Here he is walking with his Daddy at the graduation reception. While it certainly was a busy week for us, it was a great one.

New Books!

Currently our days are filled with the noise of construction as the new library is being built just across from our front door. While the noise is at times a bit of a nuisance, it has been interesting to watch the building progress. Now it is nearly completed. Thanks to the donations from the children's department at Orlando Calvary Assembly of God we now have over 350 children's books to add to the collection. They arrived last week. We are storing them in our house until the new children's room in the library is finished. In the meantime, Wesley and Adelaide have enjoyed reading them each night before bed. We've also shown them to some of the other missionary kids and student's kids. They are all pretty excited about them, too! So a big thanks to all the kids and the children's pastor at Orlando Calvary Assembly of God! You've blessed us!

Ice Cream Social

On Tuesday night we invited all of Chris’ students and their families over for ice cream Sundays. We served chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice cream and offered a variety of toppings, including homemade strawberry sauce, chocolate sauce, cookie crumbs and more. More important than the food was the opportunity the event provided for us to get to know some of Chris’ students a little bit better. It was nice to spend some time out of the classroom together and for our families to get to know each other. The ice cream social just might have to become a new tradition that we keep each trimester.

A Day In The Life of the Carters

First of all let me give a little side note. I'm sorry about the recent lack of updates. Our laptop that I use to blog has died and we sent it off to see if it can be revived. In the meantime I have to go into Chris' office to use a computer there. It hasn't been easy to get away and use it as we have been very busy and the kids are all sick again with colds.
Anyway, I've been meaning to do a day in the life of the Carter's in photos, so without further ado, here is a typical day for us, Thursday, January 31...

Our day started out with me waking up late, due to a long night with a teething, fussy baby. When I finally got out of bed I realized that we were scheduled for a year book picture of all the faculty, missionaries and students at 9:00 AM. I had five minutes before picture time, and neither I nor any of the kids were dressed! So, we raced around, got everyone dressed up and ran down the hill for the group photo. We made just in time for the picture to be taken(and only 10 minutes late)!
We returned home for breakfast and then began to pack for our upcoming weekend in Manila for cultural training. We were leaving first thing the next morning, so I wanted to get everything in the car by that evening. Here's a picture of Wesley and Addie packing for our trip. They are like their mom; they love to pack!

After we finished packing, Chris returned home for lunch. We had spaghetti . Here is a picture of Hudson eating his noodles. After lunch we had homeschool. Here's a picture of the kids and me reading a book about Flowers in the Philippines for a science lesson.
Meanwhile, Chris was busy teaching his two classes all afternoon. He is teaching Greek III and a class on the Pastoral Epistles this trimester. Here's a shot of Chris explaining some Greek grammar to his class.

After homeschool, I spent the rest of the afternoon setting up the house and getting ready for Bible Club. I also managed to do a little baking and to start a few things for dinner. Here I am stating a loaf of bread in our bread machine.
Chris came home from teaching at about 5:00 PM. He helped out by finishing the dinner that I started while I watched the kids and finished getting out craft supplies for Bible Club. Here is Chris cooking the pork chops we had for dinner.
We all sat down and the table and enjoyed a tasty dinner of pork chops, baked potatoes, broccoli and fresh baked bread. Then we cleared the table and welcomed the kids as Bible Club began at 6:30. We had a good bunch of Pre-schoolers for Young Kids Bible Club. That week we learned about the transfiguration of Christ. This was a challenging lesson to present to kids ages 2-6, but we focused on the fact that this story shows that Jesus is fully God. Here is a picture of some of the kids around my table doing their craft project.
After Bible Club, we got Wesley, Adelaide and Hudson in bed and finished up packing the car. Then Chris and I watched an episode of Star Trek Voyager on DVD (that we borrowed from another missionary family here) before heading off to bed. It was a pretty full day, but that is what most Thursdays look like for us.