Dear All,
Happy New Year!! Well, I hope that you are having a
great and wonderful new year!! (I know many of you enjoyed the snow storm
of the year. I hope all of you are fine and doing well.) It sounds
as though it was a crazy storm because I have heard many stories. If
you have time, I would love to hear all of your “snow/ice/rain” stories.
Oh my, I almost completely forgot to tell you this story. One day, during
some of your extreme cold weather, I walked outside in my short sleeves and
shorts to find that one of our dear friend’s, Sam, was walking around in his
very heavy winter coat with his hood on. I got such a kick out of it,
that I took his picture. I will try to have Don send it to you all.
It will give you a good laugh.
Well, our dear friend, Lee is long gone now. I am sure
that he is settled in at home once again in his normal routine. We really
enjoyed him being here. They were able to get many printing press things
in order. Naturally, they ran into several problems but with the Lord’s
help and a friend of Lee’s all is well and taken care of. I also want to
thank each and everyone of you for your cards, pictures, and gifts. We
really have enjoyed each and every one of them. All of my family photo’s
went above my “kitchen” counter. All the “kid’s
friends/cousins" pictures went on the wall in the back room next to the
kid’s beds. (Though, I want to remind you that I know many of you missed
Lee’s coming - like ALL of our family - so I want to remind you that
we have another friend coming in February. Please get your pictures and
Christmas cards to Doug Billenstein and he will be sure to get
them to me. And I will add them to our walls.) It is so fun looking
at all of our pictures.
School is back in session; though, much has changed about
our school. It was good because it really had become rather
monotonous. Right after Lee left, we added a nice back porch with a
cement floor. My Christmas present - the kitchen table - fits under
it. It is so nice. We moved our chalk board outside under
our porch and now it has become our “classroom.” We
all really like it. We also have added a few subjects to our day like
learning sign language and French and typing. We also made a new schedule
when we added those in. The crazy thing is is that so far, we have not
only finished all of it but have gotten done early. (Though, our
day, is somewhat tense at times.) 😊
I have to tell you this story. It really breaks our
hearts as a family. There is a boy who has legs that bend in. He
can’t walk. He is a yr and a half. Please pray for his safety and that we can find a home for this boy.
My husband has been working very diligently for the past
couple of months hoping to start a soap business. His hopes are that it
will bring our field leaders out of poverty and give them jobs. He is
also hoping that it will provide them with enough income that they will only
need to work for 4 days a week and then also be able to still go on mission
without needing to worry about their family’s needs while they are
gone. Well, it has changed from a Don “business” to our
Family “business.” We are all working together to make it
happen. The boys worked hard by making a cutting table. Many
cutting tables have been made but with much happiness this one works.
PTL! The soap is made and is put into square molds. When it
has cured enough, the molds are taken off. Then, the large square mold is
pushed through the wires on our cutting table. It makes several long cuts
all at one time - cutting down lots of time. From there, the long tubes
get cut down into actual soap bars. Then each soap bar is stamped with
our business name on 2 sides. Our business name is Pure Life
Soap. (Of course, I am really biased; but don’t you love the name?!)
We are also putting our business name on 3 wheel barrows hoping that our field
leaders can sell their soap out of the wheel barrows. Please pray that
our family business will turn successfully into the field leader’s business.
Oh, I must update you concerning our animals. First of
all, Jesse, our chimpanzee is doing much better. First of all, I must ask
this question. What is Jesse’s favorite food? Nope, I am guessing
that most of you guessed bananas. If you did, you are completely
wrong. In fact, I would say that is very low on her food list.
Well, unless, it is so old and smoochy that there is mold growing all over
it. Then and only then, will she be excited. Oh, and even at that,
her favorite part is not the banana’s inside but rather the skin.
Thankfully, though, we have learned that her favorite food is bush kola.
Once we get our hands on that, her health seems to return to normal.
Unfortunately, our favorite duck, Love, died this past week. Much to the
Liberian’s dismay we buried her in the ground. She was very sick and did
not recover. (This was Tommy’s duck and he was very sad.) Kimduck
(Tommy and Grace’s duck seems to be sick with the same illness but we
think that he may be improving, so we will see what happens.) Christian is
now a very proud owner of a hen. As of right now, she
is sitting (on our coal pot) on 11 eggs. It is common to hear
her grunting as Christian and Big Don enjoy petting her. Today,
Tommy, Grace, and Christian bought the family’s ducks. So, everyone is
back into the farming business. While we are discussing
animals, our dog, Hope is doing just fine. He has really grown
a lot. He is now bigger than normal African dogs. (But
clearly, he is still not finished growing.) Most people
are VERY afraid of him. We say that he has the 6th sense about
people. The people that we don’t trust, he does NOT trust at
all. However, we have to laugh, because he also does not trust small
kids. LOL! Oh and Puppy’s pups are growing and are so
cute. (Unfortunately, one of them died in an motor bike accident.)
The pups love to play with Hope. It is so cute because they run after him
like they are so tough and bigger than him. He runs away like he is
afraid, but clearly he is just playing.
Well, we love each and everyone of you! Thank you so
much for all your prayers and support! We really, really appreciate it!
Love,
Mel (and the family) 😊
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