Greetings and welcome to 2019!
I hope your 2019 kicked off with a bang! We have hit the ground running, continuing some ongoing projects and heading into several new ones.
Ministry updates
Jaynee just returned from a four-day missions trip to Takuapa, in southern Thailand. A small group went to this rural village to tell the Christmas story and distribute gifts at different schools.
Read more about Jaynee’s trips to Tapuaka
She’s also been working on this month’s service project for the 12-Month HOPP. During January, they will participate in World Vision Australia’s 40-hour famine which helps provide water filters and food for families in South Sudan.
If you’re on Facebook, you can read more about the project here.
More good news. Through these projects and partnerships, Jaynee and her project partner Brodie, have secured a contract to run a photo booth at an upcoming Billy Graham convention.
Justine also will help with this project and will go on a weekend missions trip with her school in March. I don’t have many details about it, but I’ll send an update later!
As for me, I have been plugging away at capturing some of our stories and adventures in book form, revamping our website and reviewing social responsibility projects at work.
The book is coming along nicely, and way faster than I expected. Though I haven’t published any stories on the website yet, I have been “remodeling” it in preparation for that … and maybe a few other things!
Can you pray for each of these projects to reach the unreached by bringing clarity and hope to a few more people in this wide, wide (yet very small) world?
Family updates
Russ is away this weekend teaching bicycle training to Peace Corps members in Singburi. Next week, he’s off to teach high schoolers team building and adventure safety skills at a boys camp in Khao Yai National Park. He’s also been teaching diving courses on the weekends and helping William advance his diving skills.
William and Albert spent most of Christmas break working … and learning to drive the boat at TE Wake N Ski!
William returned after the new year and is preparing for his last few weeks exams, which will complete his final year of high school. Besides working at the lake when he can, he’s been taking advanced diving courses in hopes of teaching PADI diving courses with Russ after graduation.
Jaynee is preparing to take her GED January 18 and 19. This will finish her last year of homeschool. She’s working to complete a short course in business marketing and deciding how she wants to learn and grow during this year.
Justine finished her first semester in “real” school and impressed us all! After homeschooling for nearly seven years, she was a bit nervous about how she would do. And even though she started a month late, she still managed to get three As, one B, one B+ and a C+. She flat out flunked Spanish II, which frustrated her in a lot of ways because she enjoys Spanish and has always been pretty good at it. Still, she decided to drop the class and take speech this semester instead.
That about wraps up the beginning of our year! We hope 2019 is getting off to a great start!
Many blessings and tons of hugs from Thailand!
Korina and the gang
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