Little Run...

Saturday, some people from our training group ran in a half marathon. The race was good...pretty flat, lots of humidy and lots of people (1,300). I think I finished 427. It was a fun race.

No news is good news?

There are a couple of ways to take the title when a person says those words. In this instance, I will disagree! A couple of weeks ago, when we were scheduled to get our innoculations, Valerie decided she didn't want to get any. So, she decided to pull the "I'm pregnant" card! Can you believe it? I would have held her hand, given her a lollipop, ice cream, but she wouldn't settle for any of that.

We had the first appointment on Friday and confirmed our thoughts. We'll have the ultrasound on Wednesday. But, as it stands right now, we're expecting an April baby. The children are all very excited! The girls are pulling for a girl and the boys for a boy.

Valerie has felt somewhat sick most days. She did have four days in a row with little to no nausea. We're hoping that she will fair this week as it's supposed to be a long one. We have contingency training in which we'll be given preparation on how to handle the "hot" situations.

I'm looking forward to this time. We have been very blessed with the preparation given to us during our time. The leadership does a wonderful job providing sound biblical/doctrinal preparation with practical application...this week being a good example of such training.

I didn't include a picture of Andrew last time. This picture was taken while preparing for his bath. He loves playing on the playground (ground rubber for ground covering-That's what's smeared all over his face.) and in the sandbox. We usually dump about 1/2 a cup of sand out of his clothing afterwards.

Please pr*y for:

Valerie's pregnancy

Collier Child "Cinco"

The Word of G*d to be hidden in our hearts so that we are prepared in and out of season. (Our new family Psalm is Psalm 127.)

G*d's preparation of our people group....fertile soil!

A few little things...

Life has certainly been rolling by. A typical day for us begins with the children waking up between 6:30 and 7am. About 7:15 to 7:25am, we head out the door for the cafeteria to have breakfast in the cafeteria. At 8am, we head back to our "quad" (actually should be called a tri as we only have three apartments because we have bigger families) for small group worship. At 8:45am, we head out the door to take the children to school. The boys are on one side of campus and the girls are on the other, but it works out well as most everything is in a line for us. Most families aren't that fortunate.

VJ and I are in class from 9am until noon. Sessions usually involve learning about persecution, definition of the church, spiritual worship. The sessions are led by amazing people so it's usuallly quite an experience! We have lunch in the cafeteria from noon until 1pm. (It's nice to have lunch with just adults.) After lunch, we typically have two more hours of sessions similar to the morning sessions. Then we pick up the children. (That's always a great time because they are so excited to see us!) We'll play on the playground (We have a great playground just outside of our quad.) for a while, have the girls practice violin for a short time, and then head to dinner around 5pm.

After dinner, it's usually more playground (pg) before heading in for baths. (They always need a good scrubbing after the pg as the surface is recycling rubber with a sandbox, too.) Then we'll read a book or two before a Bible story and bedtime takes place around 8pm.

This week Elizabeth got BJ Bear, the girls' class "pet". She got to take him home for a couple of days and do everything with him. Abby was line leader and is currently preparing for her class play starring in the lead role as food police, patroling the eating habits of others!

Shorty...

I just have a second before walking to dinner, but it'll be something. So far some of the fun things we've enjoyed are: sharing the G*spel, meeting new friends, going fishing, going into Short Pump to eat pizza, "Skyping" family, getting inoculations, classes, meals in the cafeteria, and more. I've tried a couple of times to insert video, but so far, no luck. I'll keep trying. I'll have more soon!

Love,

Rick (and family)