It's been a while

Hey there friends and family. We know it's been a while since we have updated our blog. Here are just a few updated pictures for you to enjoy.

Dwayne participated in the annual AEA (Christian Camping International) conference in May. They had a tour of the kitchen facility at the hotel they were at and all had to wear hair nets. His mom would be proud.At the conference, he also had the opportunity to do the leap of faith. It was a bit intimidating at first, but he made it with no problems.Also at the conference, Dwayne was able to see the car we will be buying. This is a 2005 Chevrolet Zafira, which is a 7 seater. The present owners are missionaries with AEA and are returning on furlough to the US for 6 months. When they return they will be down sizing their car. When they heard we were in the market, they made us an offer to buy their car with a small trailer (sorry no picture) for R$40,000 (about $23,500 Cnd). That is a few grand cheaper than what the general market value is on this same car without the trailer. It is a gift from God. We do, however, need to raise about $8000 Cnd to buy it.

We will get the car at the end of August and have until the end of their furlough, in January, to pay it off. Please pray with us that this $8000 will come in.Jessi is becoming more and more her own person. She is quite athletic and enjoys playing sports such as hockey, soccer, basketball and even volleyball. She can walk or jog dribbling a ball as well as handle a soccer ball with her feet. It is neat to see how active she is and determined to get better and better at what she does.She is also very much of a helper. Jessi loves to help others clean pick things up or with whatever they need help with. Although she is very strong willed, she also has a soft side to her when it comes to serving others this way.Jasper is still and will forever be our nature lover. She is the happiest playing with bugs or plants or water or what ever else nature has to offer her. It is great to see how much she appreciates the littlest bugs and respects they as living creators. Each one is very special to her and captures her imagination. She just needs to learn that sometimes it is best to just leave certain bugs alone.Jasper also loves to do crafts. She loves to draw, color, paint, cut, glue, etc. to make things for people. She has a good imagination and is getting quite good at her drawings. Jaden is growing into a young man very quickly. Physically he may be taller than Dwayne already, but even his maturity and understanding of what is important to know in life is growing. He has been doing quite well at school (he brought home a 100% in his last science test). He is growing spiritually (he desires to go to church and adolescent group as well as trying to read his bible on a daily basis), and he is growing socially ( he is picking up more on the Portuguese language and finding more friends at church)Here Jaden is participating at a Campers Encounter we held last week. He is getting freer to get involved in activities and using his Portuguese.Shannon is also doing well. She is very excited that she has not had the same nausea as with the last two pregnancies. She tries not to involve herself too much with Quest activities at this point and focuses most of her attention to the kids and our home. Here, however, she is participating in our first Quest Board Retreat we held in May.She looks, oh so beautiful, doesn't she!Here Shannon is standing with the wife of one of the Pastors from Jaraguá do Sul. We hosted an appreciation B-B-Q for the Pastors and their families this past weekend because June 10th is Pastor's Day in Brazil. Grazi is due (with their first) at the end of July and Shannon (with our fourth) the end of August. Even tough pregnant and sore a lot of the time, Shannon still has fun with the rest of us. We had a Murder Mystery meal as Team Quest in which each of us had characters we needed to play. Well, Shannon was a n old gold miner. People figured out who she was by process of elimination of who was there. What do you think of her get up?Dwayne on the other hand was a rodeo cowboy. He always like to use his beard to his advantage when it comes to dress up. With that knife and that look, no one wanted to mess with him.Finally, we just wanted to show you this picture of our board from the retreat. Our guest speaker was Dr. Dan Bolin (second from the left in the back row) who is the president of CCI World Wide. It was a HUGE privilege to have him come to speak to us as an infant camp in southern Brazil. He blessed us tremendously as a ministry and gave our board (and our team) a lot of wisdom in how to run a healthy camp. Two of our board members where not able to make it, but we videoed the session for them and the benefit of future board members.

We would love to hear from you and receive pictures and updates of your families as well.

God bless you and please continue to pray for: us, our family, money for our car, Quest and our ministry. Thank you!