Outside our window... 

Well, sort of like home...minus the layers of mountains hiding behind the wheat! 

A recent sunset... 

This is where we live!!!! 

Happy Birthday Mom! 

The Nepalese heartbreakers....Anjena and Angita....tooooooo cute. 

Egg Toss! 

A Tug-O-War Victory!!! (It's like it was the World Cup or something!) 

Autumn's food

Let me tell you about the food In India . I like to eat rice, dahl, curry, papaya and bananas, especially fried rice. Auntie Harm thinks that papaya tastes like dirt. I don't like tofu and dried fish with chillies and the eyes are inside of it. I don't really miss anything from home except my friends and family. AUTUMN

TIME FLIES

TIME FLIES

 

Well, I bet you’re saying that’s sure a novel title for a report! My father turned over the 91^st leaf of time on good ole Robbie Burns’ birthday (for those of you non-Scots, that was January 25). I remember Dad’s comment a dozen years ago, “I am 80+ years old and I have no idea how I got here.” I remember an intellectual dissertation by Robbie Zacharias, in which he confessed that “time” is one concept he does not comprehend. I am also reminded a favourite prayer line of my Dad: “Lord, please remind us that life is short but eternity is long.”

 

Another man of considerable experience and wisdom put it this way: “Time is like a roll of TP. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes!”

 

On January 1, Ellen and I gave the year’s edition of “Our Daily Bread” to each of our staff here at Silver Oak School. Just like it were crafted for me (and likely you), our morning devotion (January 31) was entitled, TIME FLIES. If you are following the monthly version of ODB, you likely didn’t read these comments by David Roper.

 

Many metaphors are used in literature to describe life’s brevity. It is a dream, a swift runner, a mist, a puff of smoke, a shadow, a gesture I the air, a sentence written in the sand, a bird flying in one window of a house and out another. Another symbolic description was suggested by a friend of mine who said that the short dash between the dates of birth and death on tombstones represents the brief span of life.

 

When we were children, time loitered. But as we get closer to the end of our lives, time moves with increasing swiftness, like water swirling down a drain. In childhood we measured our age in small increments. “I’m 6½,” we would say, for it seemed to take so long to get older. Now we have no time for such childishness. Who claims to 63½?”

 

Ouch! For those who know me, that’s a little too personal for comfort!

 

And, an often distributed plaque states:

Only one life.

‘Twill soon be past.

Only what’s done for Christ

Will last.

Meet My Friend

Let me tell you about my friend ARUN. ARUN is from Nepal. He is 10 years old. He is cool because he's a monkey when he climbs trees. He is GREAT!
-Andrew

The blogging children...

Hello, everyone. Well, Autumn and Andrew are now official bloggers! As a part of their writing homework, they will be doing some weekly entries on the blog. So check in on Mondays to see what the Canadian Mizo kids are up to! Here are their first two entries. Feel free to leave a comment! :)

Awesome Anjali

Let me tell you about my friend Anjali. She is 7 years old. She has 2 younger sisters and an older brother, Arun. She is in class 2. She is Nepali. We like to play dolls together. We tie our babies to our backs, just like the mothers do to their babies . We like to climb trees and go exploring, just like monkeys! We are always pushing people on the school swings. Anjali is my best friend!
-Autumn

If you want to see some pictures...

Hey, this is Harmony writing! I've snapped a number of pics during my week or so here, so if you are interested you can view them here

A Canadian visit!

 Wilf and Laura got to spend some time with us recently, her are some of Laura's reflections:

Frozen Land:  We are back to the frozen land of Canada.  We were glad to get home before the storm on December 30^th.  But it has been mighty cold since we have been back.  Thanks to the many who told me they asked to have winter wait till we got back.  It is much appreciated J.  We had a great time on our trip.  We enjoyed beautiful weather the whole time, met many wonderful people and saw a totally different way of living.  It makes you stop and wonder why we have so much or even need so much.  It made me realize the hectic life of Canadians is something I wish I could change.  Really, you can get just as much done at a slower pace!

Our time in India was relaxing; most of the time you had no choice, because most things in India take time.  One day Ellen and I wanted to make gingerbread men, but, no ground ginger; so the next day (because you can’t just run to the grocery store, a trip to town is min 4 hrs) we went and bought some fresh ginger root, grated it, dried it in her little oven then borrowed a mortar and pestle (an old axle from something) and pounded and sieved it until we had ground ginger.  Then we had no molasses so we used sugar cane rock candy and melted it down until we had something similar.  So we got the cookies made, and got them in the oven, six at a time, because Ellen’s oven is just a small toaster oven. Electricity there is interesting.  It is supposed to be 220 volts but it is seldom that high. We were lucky that day, because the electricity was coming in between 160 and 180 which worked well to bake.  Other days it comes in at 110-120, so cooking is nearly impossible, but it didn’t really matter.  It was all fun.  

We spent a week with them in Shillong, walking around and visiting places they used to live, the school where Ray taught, the church they were married in and much more.  It was great to watch them interact with the people they knew from 30 years ago.  As they have here, Ray and Ellen have touched the lives of many people over there.

Ray, Ellen, Autumn and Andrew are all doing fine.  They have adjusted well to their environment.  Ellen has spent much of the last few months figuring out how to cook, get to the market, do laundry the Indian way.  She is very good at it now and quite comfortable with it.  The kids jumped right into school and have been learning to write the Hindi language, speak Mizo and keep up with Canadian studies.  They have lots of friends and seem to be adjusting well.  Ray is busy as he always is.  While we were there he spent a lot of time fighting with his computers. (Sound familiar?)  You think it is frustrating here taking them to the shop; just try it there.  He was also busy organizing teachers and classes. Before we got there he was teaching full days at the school, English and Bible classes and some English at the University in Aizawl.  So he is busy,  but really enjoying it.  It was great to see them doing so well in their new home land.

Autumn kept saying “When you come next year Laura…”

Thanks to the rest of the staff, and Melissa and Jill, for taking on extra work so I could be gone.  Thanks to everyone who fed my kids or just checked to see how they were doing.  It has been a good experience.

 ~Laura