Goschenhoppen Folk festival

Today I won't post about visiting a church, about Belize, training, or Oasis.

We spent some time today at the Goschehoppin Folk Festival.  A and S were a little reluctant to go, especially because for me this is counting as a school day.  In the end I believe they had a lot of fun.

We learned a lot about what life would have been like 100 and even 200 years ago.  

It was interesting to think about how much was required of children, mostly due to needing help to survive

Our kids got to try their hand at washing, shelling peas, explored a garden, spoke with shoemakers, tanners, wheel-builders, gunsmiths,farmers, and play games.

I am hoping they learned that kids were much more easily entertained years ago

One thing I didn't think about was catching up with old friends. We saw a few old friends.  Here is Nathanel talking with my former teacher: Harry Ansalmo, who retired this year after 27 years of teaching.  Nathanael remided me today that I'm a part of his legacy.  What an honorable position to hold!  He believed in and encouraged me.  It was very good to see him again.  

As a fun closing picture.. all of the kids loved rubbing their hands on the lemon balm in the garden.  Abigail and Selah decided they should put their whole head in to get the smell on them ;)  

a swimming hole

Some of the "latin America" families went swimming in the free time during Oasis.  Here are some of those pictures:

This is Ted Smoker, Nathanel, Galen and some of the 13 children that were with us

It was a good time of getting know each other on a fun level

Training and Retreat

Just a few pictures from training and Oasis (retreat)

Training was actually very small.  There were 6 adults the first week, and 11 the second week.  In the second week the children outnumbered the adults (12 children 11 adults)  

Having an intimate group, especially that first week was awesome.  It felt like I really connected with people more because there were so few of us.  

At Oasis, the numbers were much greater (pretty much all of the missionaries on furlough were there) and there were some people I didn't get to meet due to circumstances.  Oasis was really nice we got to connect with others and my kids really enjoyed meeting other missionary kids.  For them I think it was helpful to not feel so alone.  

We also got the chance to meet Galen and Phyllis Groff, the couple that will be our regional representatives in Belize.  It was nice to connect with them in person instead of skype.  It was also so cool to see their heart for us and for our children.  I think we are off to a good start :)  

A great surprise to me  is we were "adopted" by members of local congregations for Oasis.  Each of us got a "care" bag, with fun things in them.  Mine had chocolate and books.. won me over right away! 

These were just a small  smattering of pictures and happenings.  Don't let them mislead you though, we actually spent most of our training inside in a classroom setting (but who wants pictures of that!) 

Some of the awesome people who took care of our kids while we were in class (and Troy photobombing!)