Candyland and Beyond

Divine Appointments

2009-05-20T02:06:00.000-07:00

It was 4 am in the morning and we decided to see what Bia has been up to. She had a big dream to help the people effected by the tsunami and get them back on there feet financially. (Bia, is the girl in the dark blue sweater)

And here we were in the middle of a micro-mushroom farm-business. The people had their own little areas where they filled dozens of bags with sawdust and spores... Everyday, morning and evening they would be picking baskets full of beautiful mushrooms from these stacked up little bags. Then they take the mushrooms to their homes and weigh and bag them and then promptly take them to the market to sell.

Bia, is such a treasure to Rob and I, and it feels so much like we still have our daughters here with us. It's a joy to enter Bia's life, everywhere she goes she shares about Jesus, and she speaks "such perfect Thai". We love having her as our daughter!
Here we are after teaching English in a sea gypsy village. It is a joy to love people, and be Jesus' hands and feet. what a wonderful job to have!

And what a treasure to still be connecting with the Island people where MBMSI built homes after the Tsunami. The little glimmers of Faith encourage us. And what a honor to come and encourage them in their faith.

Here Rob and I are both having fun teaching English. the kids just think he is so funny.
Rob has such a tender loving heart for all these little ones, being a grampa so far from his little girls, just gives one a whole new perspective how precious these little lives are.

This down-syndrome young lady is absolutely lovable! And we know that she has been so loved by the love of Jesus, that one day she will understand who Jesus truly is.

It's always a lot of fun to get a ride home in the missionary vehicle, and it is especially cool that there is actually air con blowing in the back.

Here is our friend Kevin, one of our supporters. God has given him such a generous heart to bless those in need. What a joy it was to see him brighten the days of several of our needy friends.
This is Dang, our special friend who is a nurse in our international hospital. She loves Jesus, and is such wonderful influence on all those around her. She has such a heart of serving and encouraging.

Here is part of our family. Two amazing daughters who are a huge joy to us in so many ways. How wonderful that God would carry us through this time of empty nesters by giving us more kids to live in our home and share our heart and passion for the lost. This is Naat and Bia.
And here is Kevin. It seems like yesterday that he was a twenty year old freshman at Bible School who hung out at our place. Now years later, he blesses our ministry. Thank the Lord for supporters with such generous hearts to invest in a people who are just longing for a touch from Jesus.

Saying goodbye to Amber and Amanda

2009-03-15T03:23:00.001-07:00

Here are two very special girls, who are leaving a whole lot of LOVE behind in this beautiful country of Thailand.

And God is so good! For the passion that has been in Amber and Amanda is also in our 'adopted' daughters as well. They all have missionary hearts to love on people all the time.
Here is our last kids club with the girls. The kids just love games of all kinds.
Amber and Amanda took so much time to make each kid there own special gift, and in it once again the gospel in clearly given.
We did skits of real life stories where God showed up and did some powerful things. One of them was God healing Amber's broken arm... However, Amanda played doctor and she had everyone laughing so hard.. But the kids still got the message.

We have an evening where we invited a few neighbors. The gospel was shared again....

It was such a special night, as we went around the room hearing testimonies. We had neighbors that aren't even saved yet saying that they see Jesus living in them. And then there were tears shed as new believers shared the impact the girls lives had on them. It was so special.
God continues His work pursuing our neighbors, and it is exciting. One day... there will be a huge harvest... and now we remain faithful to plant the seeds. For God is doing a greater work that we can't see.

A beautiful new grandchild

2009-02-11T03:09:00.000-08:00

I am so blessed to have been able to be home for the birth of Keziah Grace Stelmach.
Even though Grampa wasn't able to come to Golden B.C., he was still a big part of every day. He even tried holding Keziah on skype, but it didn't exactly work.

Gramma had so much fun with her two little granddaughters.

Sherri's already multitasking with her two little girls. While Keziah sleeps in her sling, she gets Makenna ready for bed.
Gramma is making sure she gets every bit of play time in before she leaves back to Thailand.

Here are Sherri and Troy, just a few minutes after Keziah was born. They had left for the hospital at 6:30 that evening.... We all thought it would be one of those long nights, since contractions weren't consistently close. But at 8:03pm, January 26, Keziah was born. And Sherri was home the next morning. Keziah weighed in at 7lbs- 3ozs, and she was in perfect health, Praise the Lord!!

Daddy loves his girls, and it was so nice that he shared them with me for those days I was there.

Doing fish lips with mommy, and so glad to be feeling better. Makenna had got the tummy bug just an hour before Sherri went to the hospital. She was just so sick with a fever and throwing up, so it was so special when she could finely hold her sister.

Keziah is so alert for being only a couple days old.

Here's Makenna's little sister. It was so cute how Makenna would continue to comment, "She's so tiny."

Yes, that is Sherri still in her street clothes. She didn't have much time to change. Little Keziah was eager to meet her family.

Makenna loves snow! And she is quite the ski-er at 2yrs and 3 months. I wish I had pictures to post of her coming down the mountain with her dad, she just loves every moment.

Here she is modeling her little gifts from aunty Amber and Amanda.

It was so much fun to sleep in Makenna's room on the floor. I would be drifting off to sleep, just to open my eyes to see her eyes looking over her bed, she would just giggle and then slip into my bed, only to tell me she was squished and needed me to move over. Too cute!
Makenna has a special auntie that made her this little poncho. It's actually Sherri's aunt Trudy. And since Rob's mom has passed away Trudy has been blessing all her nieces and nephew's, and their children... just like oma had done so many years ago.

A Great start to a New Year

2009-01-12T01:51:00.000-08:00

As we drove up to this MBMSI village house, you would think no one lived here, but in a matter of minutes people were coming out of the wood work. It was special to reconnect with some of our old friends there, and even more special that we had those Samaritan purse Christmas boxes to give away. The people were so blessed, that even more came after this picture, and a little senior lady wanted to know if she could have one too. It was so cute as we watched her take a tissue and shine up her new tube of toothpaste. It was if God was speaking to her and saying, "I love you, and haven't forgotten you".
Then to make this day even more special, God put another divine appointment in with the mix. The very lady we were coming to visit was getting married. And to everyone's surprise, even ours, we were invited to her wedding. The Island people were so cute as they were impressed at "How Lucky" (As they kept saying) we were with the timing of our visit. So now Khun Ae, is married. She had been widowed after the Tsunami, and her new husband had been widowed two years ago after his wife gave birth to their second child.

Well, it was a special day that had all started on that little ferry ride to Koh Kho Khao, the Island MBMSI had build the home on. We met J. and her little boy for the first time, gave her a Samaritan purse Christmas box and shared the love of Jesus with her, she was very interested in the tract we left with her, and the next day we went to visit their little family. A special friendship has been planted... and, another special thing is that because of the small community of people we are most likely to bump into some one we know, and that we did, the lady in red is one of many touched by the generosity of our churches back home.

What a Joy!

2009-01-04T23:10:00.000-08:00

What a joy as we arrived in front of our home after being away for over 4 months. We were met by a young lady who literally jumped off her motorcycle in excitement. She had some great news for us! "Guess What? While you were gone I was baptized and all three of my little brothers received Christ!" Wow, and that was just the beginning of all the other stories that came... That's a picture of the triplets that gave their hearts to Jesus. Please really pray for them as they grow in Christ and face many obstacles.

We've been back in Thailand for a month now, and sure love and miss our little granddaughter, Makenna, but we sure praise God for the fun times we had together. It is so wonderful that we can see and talk to her on skype, even try tickling her, and playing some hide and seek. God is so good. It is so wonderful that God's grace is so perfect and enough, for He also raises up others around us, especially these little ones to hold and love on. And God has raised up some more daughters to love on too. Just a little taste of heaven.

Christmas, was so much fun! There were outreaches in schools, parks, and homes,... and we had a pile of fun just blessing people and sharing the good news. But this night we sang some Christmas Carols with these Aka tribal people. It was so special to hear their testimonies. One lady lost her husband 8 years ago just after her baby had been born. She's a recent Christian with such a special story of someone had coming to her house and sharing the gospel to her in her own language. She said over so often that she misses her husband everyday, but is learning to see that Jesus is her husband and will take care of her. They all had a story, some more grief than others, but they delighted in knowing Jesus, and they were all so grateful for their faith and all Jesus has done for them. It is so precious how they feel called of God to share the good news among their people. The picture above is only showing two of the Aka ladies, there were were a bunch more but they didn't join in this picture.