Saturday, December 25, 2010

Wishing you a Blessed CHRISTmas!

May the peace of Christ rule in your hearts this Christmas
...and always!
Love from, Ian and Nadia, Jonathan, Karlyn and Caleb

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

A Joyous Day

This past Sunday was a joyous one as four adults confessed their belief in Jesus Christ and became members of our church. Two children were also baptized. Praise be to God!

They are: Tono Abitoko, Noipe Silas, and Damien and Margaret Paino.

Noipe's son Rapaiel being baptized.

Damien and Margaret's daughter, Athalia
with a beautiful smile as she is baptized.

Tono was quite emotional as he read from John 1--The Word Became Flesh.

Andrew and Natalie and girls also joined us for the special day as they arrived back on Saturday!
Everyone was glad to see them, especially Louisa!

Glad to be together again...

Please pray for Andrew and Natalie--they found out on Monday that they had 2 days to pack up everything and get it into the container! They have been madly packing since and at the same time dealing with a nasty stomach bug that has hit all 3 of their girls already, and some members of our family too!

Friday, December 10, 2010

School's Out!

Today was Jonathan's last day of school. Totally different school year than Canada, which we're still getting used to. But as of today, the summer/Christmas holidays are here! I think he probably could've kept going since he loves school, but I'm pretty happy about not having to prepare school lunches for a while or rush out the door at 7:30am, Monday to Friday!

The new school year will begin at the end of January, when he will begin Grade 1...finally. He's a little miffed that his Canadian cousins and friends started in September already!

We are thankful to say that he received a special award this week--for "Outstanding Citizenship". The school follows a 'virtue program', focusing on a different one every week. These virtues are also very Biblical, even though it's not a Christian school, per se. Anyway, he received this award for consistently showing these virtues throughout the year.

This is he...he was just a little shy about going up in front of everyone and wouldn't show his face...

He felt a little braver once the other 'outstanding citizens' joined him!

With some of his fellow classmates...

As any parent can attest to, it is a joy to watch your child grow and learn right before your eyes. This year had its challenges too, but we are thankful to God for what Jonathan learned and accomplished.