Typhoon Update

Just wanted to let you know what's going on with Typhoon Reming. We are now (5:33pm on Wednesday) starting to get the cycles of wind and rain. We had a couple of hours today with no power but thankfully it's back on now. We're just praying it will stay on!

According to www.typhoon2000.ph the eye of the storm is headed a few hours north of us. However, we will still probably get a lot of the wind and rain. This storm is 720 km wide with peak wind gusts of 205 kph. Needless to say, much of the Philippines will feel this one.

Our province, Albay, has now been raised to alert level 3 (out of 5).

Please keep us all in your prayers!

Praise the Lord....Wade made it home safely a few hours ago.

Another Typhoon?

Just wanted to let you know that it looks like we may be hit with another Super Typhoon.

Tropical Storm Reming has left the western coast of Micronesia and is headed our way. However, as of the last couple of hours it looks like the eye may head north of us.

Reming continues to pick up strength and will probably be upgraded to a typhoon tonight, according to www.typhoon2000.ph. The wind and rain is expected to hit us sometime tomorrow.

Please keep the Philippines in your prayers! There is still much devastation from Typhoon Milenyo. We are praying this one won't be as destructive. On a personal note, Wade is out of town doing Church Planter Training. Please pray for his safety as he travels home tomorrow and for the kids and me as we may have to weather this one alone! Thank you.

Thanksgiving Day

I must admit, I really get into the holidays! Maybe it's the elementary teacher in me. Or maybe I want to instill an understanding of our American holidays in my children. Either way, I love to decorate and establish family traditions.

Our Thanksgiving Day this year was a calm, quiet day for the most part. We were blessed to be able to spend a lot of the morning on the phone with family back home. Also, we were excited because we actually found a turkey breast in Manila! (Turkey is hard to come by in the Philippines!)

We had turkey and dressing, cranberry sauce, fall veggie salad, green bean casserole, corn, deviled eggs and wheat rolls!

One of the things we were most thankful for was that Dad was home! He'd been gone for almost 3 weeks to another country to do Church Planter Training.

One of the cool things about living in the Philippines is that it can be sunny and rainy at the same time! I don't know if you can tell much from this picture, but it had been really sunny all morning and just as we sat down to start eating our Thanksgiving Dinner, it started pouring down rain. But there wasn't a cloud in the sky!

Another thing we are thankful for is a wonderful pet - our beagle named Cody.

He sat like this the whole time we were eating. I'm sure he was hoping for some left-overs!

This is a drawing Carly did with her chalk pastels.

Thank you, Lord, for another wonderful year filled with Your blessings!

Oh La La

We recently discovered a new resort in our area called "Oh La La." It is located in Guinobatan, Albay, about 45 minutes away from us. We've seen ads for this place several times and have been curious so a few days ago, on our day off, we packed up a picnic and went exploring. We were very pleased with what we found. They had 3 large pools, 6 water slides, nice cottages and a small playground. The water at "Oh La La" is spring-fed so it was really cool the day we were there. We enjoyed a nice quiet afternoon with the kids - a much needed break!

The big pool

"Playing" with our underwater camera again

I think Caleb was pretending to be Super-man in this picture.

This is one of the large pavilions available to rent.

The medium-sized pool