RICHARDS ROAD

What it looked like to pack our container

2012-01-23T14:43:00.000+11:00

Merry Christmas

2011-12-21T15:09:00.000+11:00

Well, this is a busy week for all of us isn't it. :) Either travel, cooking, wrapping, family, preparing, or all of these tend to take up our time this week.
It has been a busy week for us too. With all of the above going on in our household. We are getting ready for our move back overseas ad that has been an extra boost on the "to do" lists. :) We have been enjoying Christmas concerts from Gwen and Addy's pre-school and will get to hear Jesiah's tomorrow. Then on Thursday we have the joy of celebrating Jesiah's 7th birthday! Wow, time flies.

Please check out our "Praise and Prayer" tab for some current ways you can be rejoicing with us and praying with us. Thanking God for His ultimate care and concern and involvement in our live,

Houghton, Gretchen, Jesiah, Gwenyth, and Adalaya

Back to "settle in" for the short winter

2011-11-05T13:50:00.001+11:00

We are back in MT now and will be sticking around here for the next 4 months until we head to Australia and then on to Vanuatu. Our tickets are purchased for Melbourne, South Australia for the 5th of February! We plan to visit supporters and churches in the Melbourne area for a couple weeks before heading to Vanuatu for the next 4 years.

February will come SO quickly! We have LOTS to do before we are ready to leave the U.S. and so we are going to have kick it into high-gear (haven't we been in high gear ever since we got back in the states- LOL) to accomplish all that needs to be finalized in just 4 months.

For more details on what we will be doing in the next couple months, click on the "Newsletter" tab to read our latest Newsletter.

Here are some pics that might show you what we have been up to these past month.

Laura and I went to a medical training geared specifically for missionaries in remote places...we met up with Christina Widup who also lives in Vanuatu with her family. Here are some pics during that time...

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During the two weeks that Laura and I were in North Carolina at our medical training, Houghton was spending one week in Colorado at a solar, water, waste training with Casey. Casey and his wife are considering partnering with us in Vanuatu. Here are some pics from Houghton's trip.

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Just two weeks after this training ended we took off for some more training in Florida where we met up with two families interested in heading to Vanuatu. And then to New Jersey to meet up with Casey (same Casey as in the previous slides of Hought's solar training stuff) and Val to talk to them about their interest in North Ambrym as well.

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And some family photos from our recent days

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A little bit of fun

2011-10-21T12:03:00.000+11:00

Are we allowed that! OOOHHH yeah! :) Just a fun little pic taken the other day for you to enjoy with us.

pumpkins fumpkins

2011-10-10T12:05:00.022+11:00

What is it about taking a large vegetable and cutting a picture in while eating its roasted seeds that is SO stinkin fun? I was pumped to find some little carving tools at Wal-mart the other day so I could acutally let my kids carve this year. Last year we just made faces out of paper and yarn for hair etc. (also we were in Vanuatu and didn't feel that we could use a source of food as a decoration).
Here are some pics of our creations. And we plan on doing more in a week or so! So many designs so few pumpkins! :)

Dad's puking pumpkin

Si and grandpa cutting out a spider

Kids with their finished products

Cool eh?

School already???

2011-09-12T07:39:00.000+11:00

Wow it seems that Summer flew past!

Our summer was packed. Absolutely packed! We were able to visit each of our supporting churches and almost ALL of our supporting friends and even got to fit in some family times too.

I am continually in awe of the constant care that God graces us with through His followers. We have been so encouraged through our times of sharing with others about what He is doing in Vanuatu and the hopeful work among the people of North Ambrym.

So whats ahead??

Gretchen and Laura will be taking off this next Sunday (18th) for some training in North Carolina. This training is a "Missionary Medical Intensive" course that is designed just for missionaries who are in remote situations and don't have acess to hospitals etc. It is (as it says in its title) a very intense 2 weeks where the days will be FULL of super helpful workshops including all types of medical emergency situations. We have read one of the books already and it covered everything to flushes out foreign objects in they eye to skin grafts. Suturing to broken bones. Midwifery to skin issues. LOTS of this will be very helpful to have tucked away in our brains (hopefully never to have to use) so we can be available to any who may need emergency care. As most know Houghton is a nurse and so a lot of his training has already come in handy but we would be naive to think that he would be around all the time. And also it will allow us to be a better help to him in case need be. SO all this said, we would HIGHLY appreciate your prayers as we take off and try to shove some important stuff in our already stuffed brains. :)
You can be praying too that I (Gretch) wouldn't miss my family terribly! Two weeks is a LONG time! I will be feeling it before I even hit the airport to take off for North Carolina! :)

Also during the 2 week that I am gone Houghton will be going to Colorado for a Technology training in solar, water, waste and all things pertaining to this (wow am I totally not knowledgeable in this I cannot even write about it) :) This training will be a HUGE benefit to him as he has been trying to wrap his brain around building in the bush. We are so thankful for those who have come along side him and helped him with what they know in these areas! It is incredibly helpful to have your support in this matter as sometimes it can feel as if we are going it alone. You are a HUGE help to us!

If you do your math well (and I know you do!) you would figure that our kids will be parentless for a week. :) That is where the ever faithful and even more gracious (and a little bit of crazy mixed in) grandparents come in! What a tremendous blessing that both sets of grandparents are in the area to be so involved in our lives. HUGE blessing. We look forward to the relationships shared while mom and dad are away.

Please check this out for current praises and prayer requests! (click here )

Did we not get a chance to hook up with you yet and you acutally want to see us? :) Give us a call! 406 853 6412

4th of July 2011

2011-06-05T14:14:00.001+11:00

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Some pictures of late

2011-05-21T08:48:00.002+11:00

It has been awesome to visit many of you and share what God has been doing in Vanuatu and in our lives these last few years. What an incredible blessing to be serving with some amazing followers of Him.
Here are some pics as we have traveled here and there. :)

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Our video

2011-05-14T07:27:00.001+11:00

A little video Gretchen threw together a few weeks ago. The guy singing in the beginning is from North Ambrym. He is singing a song in His language, Ral. There are about 5,000 speakers of Ral in North Ambrym who do not understand the the words of Christ in their own language. Please pray as we continue to prepare to return to North Ambrym and continue our work. They would describe our work like this, 'Turn God's talk into Ral'.

What now?

2011-03-13T11:54:00.000+11:00

Enjoying a day of uninterrupted work. :) The kids are spending the weekend with grandpa and grandma Richards in Terry, MT. Hought and I were talking about the last time that we experienced this. And we figured that we never have. We couldn't think of a time when we had the whole weekend to just us at the house to get stuff done. Or not get anything done. :) That was our options. :) So we are doing a little bit of both. We are working on getting some tax stuff done. A sideshow full of just pics of our best from the last 3 years. And well, you get the point.

We had an awesome time at Frontier School of the Bible. We were able to meet with students who are interested in missions whether it was through encouraging missionaries or through going into missions themselves. What a joy to see the enthusiasm and passion in these students. God used this week to encourage us greatly. We were also able to spend time with friends that we haven't been able to spend time with in a long time.

Some pics from our trip

We also go to go and see our family in South Dakota.

Heading off to FSB

2011-02-07T04:14:00.000+11:00

Houghton, Addy and I all have the chance to hang out on the Frontier School of the Bible campus for this next week. FSB organizes two missions conferences a year, one in each semester and we are thrilled that we get to participate this year.
Our family has been able to communicate with some of the students through Prayer Bands (students meet for prayer during designated chapel times to pray for specific alumni who are involved in missions) and also through AMOOK (Advancing Missions On Our Knees). There was also a small group of students that chose Vanuatu and our ministry specifically to use as a case study for a missions trip. So we have joyfully been involved in the students lives for the last couple years, which makes this trip in person to be even more fun.
Houghton will be speaking at two different times (formally). And then we will always be around and available to any and all who would have questions about... well .... WHATEVER. :) SO we are excited to see what God may have in store for us there BUT more importantly what He has in store for His kingdom through those He will be leading into missions. I have outlined some prayer points for you to keep us in prayer in our "Praise and Prayer" tab on top. Click here to check that out.
My mom and dad will be keeping Si and Gwen fed and washed (and well, much more than that...) while we are away. As I said in the first sentence, Addy will be coming with us. She is (wow, I hope this to be true anyway lol) a bit more "controllable" in these types of settings. AND she doesn't have school to keep her in Miles City. SO we are able to bring her sweetness along with us. :)

Enjoy this smilebox of our goings on these past weeks. :)

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WHOO HOO!

2011-01-01T05:46:00.000+11:00

We have safely arrived in our blustery, blistery, snowy home for the year. As I sit here and type Hought and I think about how we REALLY need to get outside and shovel. Amazingly enough, I am actually looking forward to it. We will see how long before I change my mind. :) SO, without further ado, I am going to go and shovel for the first time in almost 4 years! :)

I wanted to post a quick message to let you all know that we will be updating our blog (this here contraption that you are now reading :) ) and our facebook pics as soon as we get my computer connected to the internet. BAH humbug, oh the joys of my little Mac. ;)

I hope to do that this weekend. SO HANG IN THERE, that is if you are even hanging. :)

Happy New Year!

Malakula Report through Pics Part 1

2010-10-26T13:38:00.002+11:00

I recently went to Malakula, the second largest island in Vanuatu. They have over thirty different languages alone! I was able to hear 6 of them. That was a fantastic opportunity. I went to Malakula to survey one of these languages, Na'ahai. Na'ahai is spoken by almost 1500 to 2000 people on the south coast of Malakula. They do not have a Bible in their language 'yet' and have been frustrated with the Bislama (national language) Bible. Simply, they say it is not very clear. I should point out that the major problem is not with the translation itself. Its due to the fact that Bislama is a second language, and for most from south coast Malekula it is a third or fourth language. This added to the fact that Bislama is a very imprecise language makes for very interesting interpretations and discussions about what God has to say to us in His word.

I worked in coordination with SIL, Summer Institute of Linguistics, and with a local man from the area, Aman. He is fluent in 6 languages alone! My partner in crime, Jim Kenner, is currently in the states so it was just me and Aman. During the survey i visited 9 villages, slept in 4 of them, recorded 4 130 word and simple sentence wordlists and transcribed 3 of them. A final 29 page report was completed and sent to SIL at the end. The hope is that one day a Bible translator will move into the area and begin to learn the language, love the people, translate the Bible and begin Bible teaching/discipleship.

The first few days of my trip were spent in the Maskalyene islands south of the south coast of Malakula. I attended the Presbyterian General Assembly. It was a great time to advocate for Bible translation and the importance of missionaries living in villages throughout Vanuatu rather than staying in the capital city. Not surprisingly, before i was even able to get started the rumor was out about me and many of them came to me to talk. The remainder of the trip was spent on the south coast of Malakula.

Below is just some pics of the trip and some short excerpts. Thanks for your support and prayers!

Above: children are singing in the background anticipating a visit from the Prime Minister. He was visiting b/c the Presbyterian church had their general assembly on the Maskylenes this year. If

I'm not mistaken he addresses them annually.

Maskylenes are well known for their reefs and fishing. And for good reason! I had fish most of the nights with dry rice. Everything but the bones went into my belly. Children are fishing above.

Just one of the evening meals. The village provided free food at the assembly but the guys i bunked with were from Tanna and preferred to pay 120 vatu (about $1.20) for this plate of dry rice and fish. So that's what i did.

Men and women pealed yam, taro, and kumala (sweet potato), all day for about a week and a half to keep up the demand. Over 500 men and woman attended the small island during the assembly. You can imagine the stress the village and gardens experienced. A lot of the food was shipped in in preparation for the assembly. The people also grew more root veggies in anticipation of the assembly.

This little guy (rainbow lorikeet) turned out to be my best friend. A local guy in the village trained him though he just lived in the trees in the village. For whatever reason (the locals figured it was b/c i was white or he liked my blue shirt) he followed me everywhere.

The men of the village performed a custom dance for the prime minister. During the dace they lead the PM to the church. Kinda interesting!

During the last day of the assembly each different session from all over Vanuatu had a ceremony to literally 'pass the torch' to the next province who would host the assembly next year. Man Tanna are in the orange. I bunked with them in a single hut. Man Ambrym are in the Red. Malakula is in the purple and Santo is in the green. They will host next year.

The hut where i slept with roughly 30 other guys. Concrete floor with 3 layers of mats. Concrete blocks about hip high then woven bamboo the the walls and a thatch roof. Aman is in the orange. My pack is on the left. A favorite bag to pack belongings into are rice bags. They are large and water proof. You can see it on the right.

Everyone packing up and getting ready for the 16hr boat ride home.

During my 6 hour boat ride to the mainland we stopped on the island of Axamb. Absolutely gorgeous! B/C of rising sea levels and depleting reefs the island is disappearing into the ocean. Thus many of the locals have moved to the mainland to a different culture and language than their own on the small island.

This is the party i traveled with and our small boat in the background.

Having a smoke after breakfast. Many of them grow their own tobacco.

Just an example of some of the toys they make from the jungle.

Of all of the young strong boys standing around when we left the village they picked these three girls to pack us out of the village and to the next leg of our trip. My pack alone was 23 kilos. Way to heavy. Believe it or not we struggled to keep up with them. As soon as we hit the trail they threw their sandals off and got to work.

This was the end of the trail for them. They prob saved me 5 kilometers of walking up and down and through sand. It would have killed me. From this point we went another 10 strong kilometers or so. It was a long day to be carrying the weight i was on sand beach. Trying to pack lighter but its the recording stuf that weighs the most. I just have to stay in shape!

At the end of their leg the took a dip in the large cool river.

Children washing clothes in the river.

Walked through a large cocao (coco/chocolate) plantation.

Going to trade tobacco for oranges with a village on an island off the mainland

No food, clothes, resources or space is taken for granted or wasted. Woman using her ear to hold a coin

When he found out i was from the US he had an unlimited number of WWII stories. Everyone of them worth recoding and listening to! This story was about the time he spotted a Japanese sub off his island. He reported it with the radio the Americans gave him and a few minutes later fighters were chasing it off. As the story goes they blew it up next to the island of Pamma.

This couple is heading home after a day in the garden. The village has a salt water lagoon with an island in the center of it. Most of their gardens are on this island. During high tide they canoe to the island. During low tide they canoe out.

Preparing for a bride price ceremony. Who said woman aren't valued in this part of the world :). This was a dual ceremony as there were two weddings. Each price was about $500 US.

The price is payed in cash. Each member of the woman's family touches the money and passes it to another member. I was told that this symbolizes that each will get a share (the price isn't about getting rich) and that each accept the union.

The man waiting for his newly purchased bride. The club symbolizes that he can protect and the bow and arrow symbolizes that he can provide.

The woman covers her face with the leaf (taro leaf) that represents her clan.

Mr. Love patrol (tee shirt) is holding the money waiting to pass it off.

Second man waiting for his new wife. He walked down the alley and she, with her family of ladies, followed behind.

A fleet of canoes and fiberglass boats.

Houghton's trip update

2010-09-05T20:31:00.000+11:00

WOW. I have been blown away by the amount of e-mails, fb messages, etc. that I have been getting concerning Hought's trip. We are humbed daily by the grace that He lavishes on us moment by moment and the mercy that falls on us in moments of weakness and stupidity. :) And even now I am so dumbfounded by the grace He covers me with through YOU our amazing support team. We cannot do anything in and of ourselves and it has been such a tremendous gift you to give hand in ways that cannot be expressed!
I have felt SO at peace these last few days! I have been sleeping soundly (well as soundly as a mom of three can! :) ) and have been thouroughly enjoying the company of my kids, my God, and my friends and family here in Vanuatu and around the world.
All this to say a HUGE thank you!!!!

We were told by some missionaries close by where H will be treking that Digecel (the mobile company that we use here in Vanuatu) doesn't work in the Mascilines and Malekula. So I was really bummed that I wouldn't be able to talk to H here and there and hear about his trip etc.
BUT, because God is so gracious, Hought has been able to call 4 times!!!!!!! He arrived without TOO much trouble (4 hour late plane and water coming over the boat in waves) to the Mascilines, which are a small group of islands off the south coast of the large island of Malekula. He stayed there with a large group of men from all over Vanuatu while a conference was going on until today. He will be leaving (as last I heard) today by boat to head to the South West Bay of Malekula. His work is going really quickly and he is getting quite an arrangement of words from these incredible languages.
I wish I could remember the word that meant "ankle" it was hilariously hard to reproduce for my mouth... and a little tricky for him to reproduce to make sure he was transcribing (or writing it out) right. Needless to say, his mind is going a hundred miles an hour, and God has been good to give him strength these last few days.

I hope to get some calls from him while he is treking through Malekula, but I am not sure if his phone will get service. So I am grateful for the calls in the last couple days and will wait to update you more when I know more.

Thanks for the prayer! The answers have been so tangible to me!

Gretchen

A trip to Malekula

2010-09-02T12:03:00.000+11:00

Houghton has taken off to the island of Malekula to do a survey of the languages and peoples there. He was asked to make this survey on behalf of SIL (one of the most influential Bible translation groups around the world) and H was ready and willing to take the trip. This will be the first survey trip that H has been on where he won't have a teammate with him. He will be traveling with a local man who is from Malekula. The two of them will cover a lot of distance by plane, boat, and foot.
Hought will be gone until Sept 13, the day before Gwen turns 4!!! :)

Please pray with us for:

His health - He is still recovering from his bought with malaria (?) that struck him almost 2 months ago
His saftey - as with any trip and trek, things can happen!
His work - Hought will be noticing the gap where a teammate would fill in.... Pray that he would be able to think through things and work clearly without the added bonus of another mind to throw ideas with and against

For me and the kids' health - I always worry that something major will happen while the NURSE is away. :) Pray that we would have an uneventful time without H as far as our health goes! :)
For me and the kids' saftey - Unfortunatly Port Vila is not a safe city. Especially where our house is located. Pray that we would feel safe at night with out the man in the house. :)
For me and the kids' work - WOW any moms out there would know that when dad is away, the daily norm is harder. Pray that I would keep a positive attitude with the kids and that we would enjoy our time together.
For me - I ALWAYS miss H terribly when he is away and I let my mind wander instead of casting any worry and anxiety on Him. Pray that I would rest in the Comforter throughout the weeks he will be away.

Thanks guys. Cannot do this without your prayer!!!!

To finish off July and Start August

2010-08-14T15:30:00.000+11:00

Today our teammates are leaving for the States. It is a bitter sweet. Bitter because they are dear friends who have been by our side (through the good, bad and the ugly) for the last 2 years. Sweet because they are going to be eating TACO BELL in 24 hours! :)

We had an amazing month of July. Time has been zooming past us and, praise God, we are so blessed that each step of the way we know His presence. In the last two years, our journey has taken us to live in two different countries, and meet TONS of incredible people whom He has called out that we are able to now call friends. Although this is only the beginning of our life in Vanuatu, we are HUGELY blessed to call this amazing country home. It is a difficult transition into a new culture, there has been blood (thankfully not lots!), lots of sweat and lots of tears and I can tell you in full confidence that God was in it all. He continues to show us that this is NOT possible in our own strength but that moment by moment we MUST trust in His strength! What a battle! To be in the habit of relying on His strength. Does this ever become 1st nature? So often we muck things up because of our constant power struggle with our all-knowing, all-caring, and all-powerful creature.
Here are some little snippets of the last couple weeks.

While mom and dad were here, we had Tania take some family shots of us all. This tire swing has provided many a picture for our kids!

Although we can get cottage cheese in one of the stores here, I thought I would give my cheese making skills a try. :) I made Ricotta for some lasagna and it was AMAZING!

We were able to celebrate Vanuatu's 30th year of independence together.

These lantern things were SO cool. Its like a mini hot air balloon that you light and send off into the night. COOL! It was a bit windy so that night proved to be a bit tricky, BUT we got it off without lighting anything on fire (as far as we know!) :).

We see this a couple hundred times a day. :) Our little three (sometimes sans clothes!) walking up the hill to see what Lewi and Monique are up to.

Helping Josh wash dishes the last day the Kenners were here.

Getting in some time before the big move.

One final pic as a team...turned out pretty cool! :) The Kenners are now back in the states finishing their support raising.

A Visit from America!

2010-07-20T15:34:00.001+11:00

What a joy these past few weeks have brought as mom and dad (Thulesen) came to spend three weeks with us in Port Vila. This has been our first set of visitors (and I say "set" purposefully as we hope many more visitors will come) and what a delight and breath of fresh air they brought!
For the most part we just hung out and they were just around with the kids and whatnot but we also did some fun "touristy" things that our family otherwise never would have done. Ya know how that is, you never play tourist in your own city. SO here are some pics that display our time with mom and dad.

A sweet long awaited embrace

Showing off the house

Experiencing some new things... like drinking a coconut!

Eating soursop! Dad wasn't too thrilled about this one. This is Laura and I's fav, flavor is awesome but the texture is a bit hard to get used to!

Helping with school

Si got this dinosaur in a care package and has been eagerly waiting to put it together until Grandpa could help him.

Cooking together!

Grandpa is a wonderful walking stick carver. We brought back a piece of wood from Ambrym so dad could use it to carve on.

Oh, how helpful little ones can be!

The next couple pics are taken at Mele Falls. These are amazing waterfalls that run year round.

A friend sent some gifts with mom and dad. Among those gifts were some water guns. Moments after filling them and handing them out, the girls were caught .... watering the flowers! :)

Ooo two against one...

Even though it was a bit cool for us (low 80's) we were able to enjoy some beach time.

Gwen is checking out this sea cucumber.

We have a picture very similar to this only it is from 3 years ago and it was Si in the swing as a baby. It was taken when our family first came to Vanuatu in 2007 to check out the country for the first time. Dad came along with us on that trip.

Mom and dad got to see some new cultural things too...

After church you are introduced and you stand at the entrance to greet EVERYONE on their way out of the service.

Some traditional dances, songs, and dress.

(of course, as my luck would have it, I was selected to join in the dancing!)

Some different things for the palate. This is fish lap lap in the market.

Pig at a meal to celebrate Fred, and Timo's baptism along with the twin's and Lewi's birthdays.

Church service were the twins were baptized with Tasiana (their cousin)

To watch a video of us all celebrating with L and M and family click here

Watching the world cup... Vanuatu style

We took advantage of a photo opp while we were visiting a mock custom village. This was a "show" put on by these men who dressed and acted as Ni-Vanuatu men would have some years ago. It was quite something! As we walked up onto the outskirts of the village, we were brought face to face with a man with spear raised. Then some yelling between him and others who also appeared out of the jungle. Finally a chief came and carried a palm leaf (symbol of peace) and allowed us into their village. Throughout our time in the "village" they showed us traditional ways of fishing, trapping, burials, dances, dress, medicine and much more. It was an interesting lesson on some of Vanuatu's history. I don't mean to sensationalize anything, but I can say this, if we were missionaries a century ago, a survey trip would have looked VASTLY different. Amazing to see what could change only in a century.

We took a ride on a large outrigger canoe.

All in all mom and dad got good time with just hanging out with the kids doing day to day stuff. Perfect! And such a blessing!

Papa read to the kids a lot. Just as he did with Laura and I when we were little. He brought some of the same stories with him, and read some of the kids' new books too.

Our North Ambrym Trip... Volume 2

2010-07-07T00:41:00.000+11:00

Before I start I need to tell you that I totally cheated on this one and used smaller sized pictures. SO if you are wanting to use one of our pics for copying for any reason, just e-mail us (houghton.richards@gmail.com) and I can send you whatever you would want....

For the first week we were in Ranbwe the kids had a break off school because the teachers were at a convention so there were always kids around. I was quite thankful for this because the next week, when they all were back in school, proved to be pretty quiet! So we were lucky (as God orchestrated) that we had this first week with all the school aged kids around! We played lots of games. Tania and Laura and I brought Skipo, Uno, and a memory matching animal game. We were very thankful to think of bringing these things. There really isn't a whole lot going on otherwise. Most of the adults would be out at their gardens during the day and then the ladies would come home and start fires to cook their supper. Some ladies (and men) were around throughout the day also. We would just hang out and talk. Do some wash. Clean up our house and yard. Walk around and go to the salt water. Sometimes the guys went fishing with some of the men from Ranbwe. Or sometimes just Hought and Jim would head to the ocean and do some line fishing with Josh and Si and some of the other kids would follow and all hang out on the beach catching bait with Josh and Si. They would chase crabs, small fish, lizards and occasional snakes.
The boys would also carve on wood. Kids in the village know how to manipulate knives at VERY young ages. They are carrying around machetes as soon as they can walk really. So Jesiah is a little behind the game in this. Houghton would have Si go and just chop and wack at things here around our yard with our machete to get him a little less foreign with the use of it. However, the finer art of small stick carving was still out of his knowledge. But Houghton would watch Si on the beach and gave him his buck knife to join in with some of the other boys. And as you would guess, there was a large slice through his finger that would soon follow! The boys were amazed at the amount of blood that poured from Si's finger! They felt very bad for him but Si was tough and I was thankful for a wonderful husband who is savvy with all things to do with wounds. SO we took good care to bandage that finger up and keep it clean. It healed VERY well a couple weeks later. :)

So what are some other things we did... Well here are some kids eating the inside of a coconut tree, that same tree that the chief chopped down, remember from last post? Who would of thought? Isn't it wild where some food can come from? The tree tastes pretty good. :) It has a sugary flavor with the texture of a grainy apple. Also with the leaves of the coconut tree, the boys (Josh's idea) made a fort type thing. That fallen tree provided all these things, food, fans (weaved from the leaves), and a bench! Waste not, want not. :)

So I mentioned that we brought some games. Below we are playing the kids' game of animal alphabet memory. This was interesting as most of the animals were completely new and foreign to them. Such as "s" for squirrel, or "w" walrus, "b" bear! Can you imagine? They have NO large animals in Vanuatu. The only ones they would have would be cattle (imported), pigs (imported), horses (imported) even the rats are imported! Wild huh? Jesiah really wishes there were monkeys! :) It was fun to talk about the animals on the cards as we played and really interesting to explain some of the animals!

We walked to the ocean a couple of times. To get there we would walk in the dry creek until it opened up into the salt water. It was about a 15 minute walk was all. Us ladies were asked to only wear skirts (or dresses) while we were on Ambrym by one of our contacts in Ranbwe. However, they said it would be okay if we wore our board shorts with t-shirts when we went swimming in the ocean. I never saw any women wearing anything other than skirts or dresses on our entire trip. Very occasionally I would see a younger girl wear board shorts, but the norm is skirts only. So when we live in a village skirts and island dresses will be our norm. I heard some good advise by a friend who was a missionary in a similar culture/country and it was to always keep a skirt by the front door so if you need to leave the house and were wearing shorts (in the house) you could throw it on before heading out the door. Skirts get really annoying 24/7 so I know that having a break from that in the comfort of our own home (we didn't have this comfort during our visit) will be really nice.

As I very briefly mentioned in Volume 1 of my North Ambrym post, the toilet situation was a battle! Houghton brought back pics of what it looked like so we could better wrap our brains around it and be able to mentally prepare. I felt this was SO necessary for Gwen. Even when we moved here to Vila she was freaked out by our toilet. Just because of the discoloration in the bowl as a result of minerals in the water. She was scared to use our toilet here in our house so I knew that she would have strong feelings about a bush toilet. We talked a lot about the toilet and how we would help her and that it would be SO cool for her to be so brave etc. The first time around (in Craig Cove before we hopped on the boat) was a failed attempt. After some terrified cries, we used a better option (in her mind) and she went outside in the dirt....not all that better in my mind, but in the mind of my three year old, it was WAY better. After moving into Ranbwe it took only 2 times for her to get the hang of it and she was totally cool the rest of the stay! What a stud! Si was very brave about it too and he was able to figure it all out by himself. Our little adventurers. :) This is a humorous pic taken of all of us sticking our heads out of the "small house" as they called it. Can you see Laura up at the top? The leaves are trying to cover her up. :)

Addy had moments of freedom from my arms. I am convinced this was God's grace on me. I think I would have had a harder time if I wouldn't have gotten any relief from the CONSTANT clutch of the kids on me. It was exhausting. After a while I did just cope with it and stopped trying to get the kids to go and DO something! I knew that they were dealing with some serious culture shock and my nagging wasn't going to help any. BUT God was good to give me a break here and there. I know that as soon as our kids get used to any new place and all the adjustments that go along with it, they will thrive! When we first moved to Port Vila they were hesitant about a lot of things but after a little time they really thrive here now. Village life is difficult but it can also be heaven for a child! Friends all around! So when the kids were ready to venture out while in North Ambrym, they were met with many happy smiles!

I mentioned in the last post about how the chief tried and tried to get the girls to warm up to him. This is a precious pic of him playing a little hand game with Gwen. :)

Si wanted SO badly to go and shoot things with a sling shot or a bow and arrow. Unfortunatly the bow and arrows were made the last day we were there. But this is Si playing with a stick. When I say that the kids didn't have any toys I am completely serious! The only form of anything was a volleyball and some marbels. That is ALL I saw in the 2 1/2 weeks there. So they have totally different ways to keep busy. Dirt, rocks, sticks, animals, EVERYTHING natural has a million uses! Addy (or any toddler for that matter) figured this out easily and constantly played in the dirt!

Gwen playing patty cake games with the girls. Sing-song patty cake games were a life saver. Laura taught some to Grace Kenner and another girl about Grace's age and they in turn taught it to everyone else! Some of them knew some of their own. This was another one of those things that kept the kids busy. Some of the kids knew Bislama so they were able to talk with us. Their tribal language is VERY strong (spoken a lot), one good reason we are looking at living in North Ambrym.

After about a week in, our family needed to get some time away so we headed down to the beach before breakfast. Yes, BEFORE breakfast - village time is very different than city time. We woke up at about 5 AM everyday, just before sunrise, and the kids would go to bed about 6 PM, just after sunset. Life is built around the sun when you don't have electricity! So we woke up before the sun and took off down the creek to the beach. There is SO much beauty there! I will just let you soak in the pics! Go ahead and click on them to enlarge if you would like to see them larger.

We were SO blessed by the people of North Ambrym. They cared for us so graciously and selflessly. We enjoyed just sitting and talking with them. Meeting their family, learning some bits of their language, playing games, whatever we could think of. Most of the women that hung around close to our house knew Bislama. There were some that couldn't speak it and so they weren't around much. There were some times of awkward moments figuring out that the person you were speaking to couldn't understand BUT we are again thrilled that their own language is still going strong! There are many people groups around the world that are loosing their mother tongue because parents don't teach their children their language and instead only use an LWC (or Language of Wider Communication - in our case here in Vanuatu - Bislama). So, after only 1 or 2 generations a language could be lost. This also goes along with losing some cultural things because once language is missing, so do some of the things that are tied with it.

This womans name was Gwen (below)s. There were two girls that I heard of in North Ambrym with that name. I thought this was fun.

We ate nearly all our meals in the large room of our house. As mentioned previously, they had a schedule of people who would bring us meals throughout the time we were there. Sometimes we went to their house, but mostly they carried the food to us. Even if they were a village away. There was even a time when they crossed the rushing creek to bring us food. We felt bad about this, but that is just their life. Nothing different for them. We ALWAYS, and I mean ALWAYS, had too much food. We would eat and eat and eat but still we couldn't finish all the food they would bring to us three times a day. So we shared it with various families around the village. They were ready and willing to take any leftovers we had.

Gwen LOVED to help me wash clothes. She was really good at it!

A cultural thing here in Vanuatu is sand drawings. Most drawings have a story that goes along with it. Below, Si is drawing in the dirt with them. Laura is in the background filtering our drinking water. North Ambrym is also known for their tam tams. They are well know for wood carvings like the one in the picture below. They are able to sell them all over the world.

Another anxiety for us ladies before going to Ambrym was showering. We went to Ambrym thinking that we would be having to shower in our clothes. But as it turned out we were able to shower quite comfortably in this little bath room. We would fill up a bucket at our rain tank and then carry it to the water basin in the bath room. It took about 2 bucket loads to fill it up. And once you got over the initial shock of the cold water (Addy NEVER got over that shock and I started to use our leftover hot water from breakfast to help warm the bath water for her) then it was pretty refreshing! We had been having the kids get used to cold showers here in Vila (wow we sound like evil parents!!!) so they wouldn't be totally spun out by the thought of showering in Ambrym and it totally worked for Si and Gwen. Addy was just to little, so she got the extra hot water. :) See, we aren't THAT bad! ;) Needless to say since we have come home and it is shower time the kids still ask if they are going to take a hot or cold shower. And gladly I can say HOT! Haha.

I have always loved watching Ni-vans milk a coconut. I love the way the coconut milk washes over their skin. Tania got an awesome pic of Esther milking a coconut over some creek cabbage (island cabbage that grows in the creeks).

Check out these beautiful smiles!

Addy could jump off things all day long! And a friend to join her never hurts!

Gwen, Addy and I got to feed chickens. I was amazed at how quickly these chickens ate up this "makas". Makas is the shavings from a coconut after it had been milked. Chickens roam around the village. They mark them by cutting one of their toes so they know whose is whose.

Here is a good depiction of what I looked like most of our time in Ambrym! Kids, kids everywhere!

For a large chunk of our time in Ambrym we were blessed with good health. About 3/4 of the way through, the kids started a very long bout with diarrhea. Hought thinks it was more than likely giardia. We were able to get them on some antibiotics after about 10 days of them having diarrhea. They were so tough through it! After several trips to the toilet throughout the night we desided it best to not go to church that Sunday. There was a joined service in another village. A village which happened to be at the top of a hill. And not just any hill, but a stinkin STEEP hill!!!!! So after AN HOUR AND A HALF of hiking at about a 60 degree incline we arrived at Fondrareo.
During the climb I was very glad that Si and Gwen were too sick to go with us. I knew that they wouldn't have been able to make the climb! All throughout I was convinced I wouldn't be able to make it!!!!!!!! We stopped several times to catch our breath. Thankfully the locals too were winded and rested with us! I am sure they wouldn't have rested AS MUCH as we did had they not been with us BUT that is beside the point! Haha. After about 40 minutes up the hill I gave up and passed Addy off to Laura. She graciously helped me carry her up to the village ontop. Many of the ladies with us offered to carry her and tried to take her but she would immediately freak and would clutch me like an octopus! So that was no use. One of the ladies suggest that one of the boys ( he was probably about 15 ) carry Addy. I told him thanks but she wouldn't go to anyone else. So I suggested that maybe he could carry BOTH of us! We all had a good laugh at that. Later Jim told me that he noticed that after I said that they boy had a funny look on his face. Apparently he didn't catch that I was kidding! I am sure I scared him pretty good. He probably could have carried both of us up the hill (they are SO stinkin strong) but he still was a bit nervous at the idea. HAHA!

We made it!!! Some girls playing peek a boo with Addy after church.

Like mentioned in my previous post, after church they often eat together. This was our spread of food!

And this was theirs! All different kids of lap lap.

And back down the hill. My legs were shaking the whole way down. It is just steep enough that my quads were having a nice workout the whole hour down! But WOW was it beautiful!

While we were gone at church all day Hought, Gwen and Si played card games, tried to take a nap (unsuccessful because of our curious neighbors) and took trips to the toilet a hundred times. :) Here is a pic of the room our family slept in during our stay. We hung up the mosquito net and me and the kids were all able to fit in. Hought unfortunately couldn't also fit (hmm, he DID end up with malaria too!) The windows don't have screens on them so the nets were necessary. After a couple nights in this room, Houghton thought best to pitch the tent and he ended up sleeping out in that for the rest of our stay. When the kids started getting sick they started sleeping out in the tent with him. It was closer to the toilet!

Ranbwe has an amazing string band! This is the music from Vanuatu and I LOVE IT! I will post some of the video we took on you tube as soon as we are able to pull it off of the camera. I SO want to learn how to play the box bass. It is just a box that has a stick with a string connected to it and you push the stick to bend it to change the pitch! I suppose it wouldn't be too ladylike to play it but I hope to get the chance none the less!

I'm not sure if you can see it all, but I love this picture because of all the things going on! There is the string band playing on the left. Jim videoing the band in the middle, the boys watching the display of the camera (in amazement!) and up above is Houghton sitting in the tree to get some good video footage as well! Cool... and where are all the ladies.... well, culturally we are not allowed close to them but they were very kind and played right next to the house so we could sit in the doorway and watch!

Here we are enjoying from a distance.

Apparently Addy got a little board and found more excitement in the dirt. Imagine that!

After they were finished playing Hought gave a try with Addy on the ukulele.

Ranbwe is hedged in by two creeks. These creeks are dry most of the time (hense how we walked them so often to get to the neighboring villages and also how we got to the beach) but when it rains, water rushes through these with such force that it literally shook the ground as it coursed through the dry bed. It was amazing to see and hear. But a bit unnerving knowing that it was blocking us in on every side from the rest of the world and our way off the island only three days before we were suppose to leave! Though its uncommon, when this creek is at its fullest it poses a threat to the homes close to its banks. And as you can see from this picture... that is some amount of water! Here it had gone down considerably, but it never was a threat to us other than hindering us from getting to our flight in time.

Like I have mentioned before, Vanuatu doesn't have many animals (or insects) that prove to be harmful. Spiders included. The kids LOVE to find all kinds of bugs and keep them as friends for the day. This day a banana spider proved to be Addy's pick of the day. I think it is adorable that she is fearless from these creatures. I am not interested at all in keeping one of these as MY pet, but I am happy they are comfortable with all the creepy crawlies that are here!

(look closely in this pic...the spider is crawling up Addy's chest)

So back to finding and using EVERYTHING here as a toy, this boy had caught a butterfly and tied a string to it! It totally worked!

We were cooked fresh bread everyday for breakfast. This is pretty uncommon in villages in North Ambrym. It was an earthen oven - concrete domes that you can put wood in to provide a fire for it to cook the bread (or whatever). This absolutely amazes me! Our bread was beautiful every morning. How to cook bread with such precision and knowledge of fire...amazing.

I'm not sure what Si and Paul are doing here, but it was cute.

An idea of what our spread looked like two times a day! We were brought SO much food. We tried very hard to "flatten" (or eat all) of it, but after nearly every meal we would share the food around with anyone who was hanging around the house or we would take it to different homes throughout the village.

What you see in this picture (starting from top to bottom) is rice, taro, yam, noodles (like Ramen) with chicken, island cabbage, pomplamouse (like a sweet grapefruit), fresh water prawns (a real treat for us this night), island cabbage, and a couple different kinds of simbaro.

Normally we would eat alone. Our friends wouldn't come inside and join us BUT thankfully on our last night Leena and two of her kids joined us! We FINALLY convinced them to eat WITH us and not wait for us to eat and then eat after. This is customary to have "white man" eat first. It is a hard thing for us to get used to. Its awkward of it thinking that it is coming from the idea that they need to do this for us. We desire so badly to be treated as equals. But that is just how we view it. We don't know why for sure they do this and what it springs from.

The day we were scheduled to head back to Ranon and catch our boat back to Craig Cove we wanted to get a picture of us with all of Ranbwe. We asked around the night before if we could take a picture at sun up the next morning. All seemed that it was a great idea so we waited around that morning for all to gather. When it was nearly an hour passed our desired time to take the pic, we thought best to just go ahead and take it with those that were there. So we started heading to a open area. I was totally bummed that more people didn't show up for the picture but knew that they surely had things they needed to do and that it was a bit "pie in the sky" for me to think that we would really get a group shot of an entire village on a Wednesday morning! So off we went to take our pic with this many people.

And after some yelling from Leena (she cracked me up!!) she called the entire village in about 10 minutes for this picture!!! Everyone from Ranbwe was able to come!

Now it was time to take off. The creek had gone down far enough for us to cross to Ranon and catch our boat to Craig Cove. So we packed up all of our stuff and said our good-byes.

Crossing the creek. We had some guys from Ranbwe come with us on our boat ride to the half way point (remember how we stopped half way on our trip to Ranon -last post-) so they could "run pig". Running pig is ultimately pig hunting in the bush (up and down hills at break neck speed) with dogs. Sadly Hought and Jim just aren't in good enough shape (you pretty much have to be born Ni-Van to handle it!) to join the guys. So they were going to do some scrub duck egg hunting instead. (also read my previous post for more info on these eggs)

Taking a break at our halfway point on our boat ride. The guys are all off running pig and egg hunting. So us ladies and kids just hung out. Well, that was what we were expecting to do anyway, until Tania and I started to watch our boat (anchored just off shore) and we began to get a bit worried. The water was rough that day. and it was hitting our empty boat pretty hard. Many times I would watch from the beach and hold my breath as a wave would toss our boat around. All of our bags were still on that boat as well our way home and the man who had stayed back from the hunt to watch over the boat was out of our view. So I decided it best to stop watching and worrying. After taking Gwen to the bush to go to the bathroom we returned to the beach to find our boat rocking in the waves and the man who was watching the boat yelling for help.
Tania and I, Josh and Grace all ran to help. Laura was off a ways with Gwen and was out of yelling range. So off the four of us ran to try and control a boat in rough water! Come to find out the anchor line had broke and the boat needed to get pulled up onto shore before it went off into open water or flipped. So we ran into the water to join our Ni-Van friend in a lame attempt to pull it in. With all our might we could barely get it up onto the beach. Laura ran to help and the five of us would time the waves and we finally were able to get it half way up the beach. Its back end was still rocking in the waves. With all our pathetic girly might we couldn't get it any farther! So Tania made the good suggestion to unload all of our packs off the water filled boat. We off loaded all of our water spoiled packs onto the beach and could do nothing but wait and pray that the waves wouldn't come onto the beach far enough to take our boat out to sea. Thankfully three guys came back with a pig, cut into three pieces, and Josh ran to tell them our situation. Once they hung the pig in some trees they went and hauled the boat up onto shore the rest of the way. To our credit it did take them some work to get it up. :) So were weren't TOTALLY pathetic in our attempts. Haha. I was bummed when we got home because I realized we never got a pic of my leg. During our attempts to get the boat up, we timed the waves and pulled, as I pulled one time the boat came up and fell down onto my leg, scraping down my right leg. It looked pretty hard core bleeding into the salt water. But no pics to show for it...so I will leave it there. ;)

After unloading our packs onto the beach. You can see how far us ladies got the boat up onto the beach in this picture. This was taken before the guys came back from the pig hunt and pulled it farther on the beach.

Waiting for Houghton, and Jim to come back. They were still off digging for scrub duck eggs. The other guys were busy chopping down branches to make into huge spits to roast the pig. It was amazing to watch them roast it. Like an art.

Check out that huge spear held up by a brace made from a 'Y' shaped branch shoved into the ground.

And here comes the egg hunters! Houghtons body shows how far down into the sand you dig for these things! His body was in a hole in the beach as he felt with one hand down the hole and dug deeper. He is holding his treasure! :) A scrub duck egg!

Si and Gwen watching on as they prepare to roast the pig.

The pig tasted AMAZING!!!!!

Waiting at the airport. Our plane was a little late so we got to hang out a bit. Don't you love the look of this "airport"?

Houghton and Jim outside the airport.

Little did we know we were the verge of a sickening airplane ride for the next hour. It was pretty miserable! Weather was bad, rainy and windy, and our little plane wasn't liking being in the middle of it. I have never wanted to be somewhere else so badly before! BLEH. Poor Gwen, who also gets really motion sick, was having a rough go of it. I was SO thankful that Addy was asleep on my lap. So after an hour of wanting to puke and very sure that I didn't want to get on a plane again for a while (knowing full well that as soon as we got to the Vila airport we would be taking another plane to a Northern island, Santo) we landed in a VERY windy Port Vila. The rain was coming down so hard that our run to the airport from our plane on the landing strip made got us drenched.
Thankfully we had a 2 hour layover in Port Vila before he had to fly out to Santo. I was so thankful for the long lay over so I could get over the previous flight. A friend came and brought us our luggage for Santo and took what we didn't need from our Ambrym trip. This was such a blessing so we didn't have to pack for Ambrym AND Santo before heading to North Ambrym. She also brought cinnamon rolls....this was a God sent! Cinnamon rolls! After eating a totally different diet for nearly three weeks we got to eat cinnamon rolls. :) It was so sweet of her to think of us in this way. The kids also enjoyed some chips at the airport!

And off we went to Santo on a new, big, clean, and COLD (we are NOT used to air conditioning) plane to the northern island of Santo. We desired to visit Santo because the possibility is there that we may be based out of Santo instead of Port Vila. It had been years since I had seen Luganville (the city in Santo), and Tania had not been there yet so it was good chance to see if this city might be a possibility for us. We also met some other missionaries there and got to have a bit of R&R at a resort one of the days before heading back to Port Vila.

Gwen was absolutely THRILLED to be going back home to Port Vila. She could hardly contain herself! And really, we all were SO ready to be home. This pic was hilarious because as we were flying back she kept looking at me smiling this crazy smile saying how excited she was to be at our old house next to Fred and Timo again. :)

Well, that was our North Ambrym trip in a nut shell. Any questions, shoot us a comment! Be sure to check Laura's Blog and Kenner's Blog

Our North Ambrym Trip... Volume 1

2010-07-03T22:59:00.000+11:00

I was talking with Houghton the other day saying that our trip to North Ambrym was what BOOKS are written about. Action, adventure, drama, and everything else that goes into the plot of any good book. The problem is... I am NOT an author!!! So I hope to tell the story with clarity, sincerity, and honesty as I try and paint the picture for you as you place yourself into the back drop of North Ambrym, Vanuatu....

On Saturday morning, June 5th, we found ourselves sitting in the Port Vila airport about ready to experience the first part of our journey to North Ambrym. The day had been planned and anticipated for years past! Although the location hadn't been known for years we KNEW that God has been crafting our individual lives, our families lives, and our personality, our very personhood for this time. For this trip. For this ministry, whatever it may end up being in the future. That is the adventure of it all. God has created each one of us for TODAY, and whatever today brings.... what an incredible thought!

SO back to the airport. I, Gretchen, wasn't nervous about our trip until the actual airport wait. I had plenty of anxious thoughts building up to this moment but I don't actually get nervous for what lies ahead until it is RIGHT there in front of me. And for this I am very thankful. Otherwise I think my nerves might talk me out of many things! ;) God knows!

The kids ran around at the airport a little bit with Josh and Grace but I knew that their excitement for the unknown was also mixed with a nervous feeling of uncertainty of what they would experience on this trip.
Before the "family trip" to Ambrym, Jim and Houghton made sure that they took plenty of pictures from their first trip there last month so as to better prepare our minds for what we would experience to some degree. They took pics of the boat, the house we would be staying in, the toilet (that was a SUPER important one!), etc. Houghton and I tried very hard to prepare the kids for the physical changes that would happen in their life for the 12 days in Ambrym. We talked about sleeping on the floor in one room. Talked about using a hole in the ground as a toilet. About the smell, about the walk to the toilet, about how they wouldn't have to go to the toilet by themselves etc. We also talked about the food and our family tried to eat island food here in Vila several times a week for several months, just to get them used to it. We also tried to help the kids take cold showers as we would be showering with bucket water from the rain water tank. And I can say right now that they did AWESOME with the toilet, with sleeping, showering and with eating! I am so stinkin proud of them!

We took an insanely small plane to Ambrym. A 15 seater maybe, which seems so much smaller when your team makes up 10 people on the plane! I am so very thankful that the ride was relatively smooth. Ugh, I dislike flying! There was a small boy who was probably on his very first airplane ride sitting in front of Gwen and I (Gwen was on my lap). I would pass him some candy and bread throughout the trip to help him cope. His father had asked us where we were going while we were sitting at the airport and we shared with him that we were going to Craig Cove (where the plane would land), Ambrym. He said that his two sons, maybe age 7 and 5, were also traveling there and asked if we would make sure that they made it okay. To which we said , "uh, sure!" Not really sure what that meant. Laura and I joked with Tania that she just adopted the small boy. Haha. When it was time to board, his father had to place him in his seat (kicking and screaming) and then he got off the plane, the older brother sat next to him and tried to calm him down, as did I with the small gifts of food. :)
Once in the air 10 minutes or so he calmed down just fine and made it safely to his families arms after we landed in Craig Cove.

The first stint of our trip was about 1 hour plane ride to the west coast of Ambrym, Craig Cove, like mentioned previously. Craig Cove is the one of two airports (or more appropriately 'landing strips') in Ambrym. They have flights in and out of Craig Cove two times a week. Saturdays and Wednesdays. These flights are always booked weeks in advance. So we were so thankful to actually be taking off this particular Saturday as, if you can remember, we were having some unusually ill kids just up until it was time for us to take off. So if God would have seen best to not have us on this flight, it could have been months before we were able to go again. BUT God saw it good to bring glory to Himself by healing our little ones in time for this flight!

Here is a map of where we went on our flight to Craig Cove.... I am a total visual learner so I hope this helps all of those out there like me! :)

Just after landing we gather our own luggage off the plane and head to the building that is used as an airport where we have a truck waiting for us. This was a pleasant surprise as we thought we would be walking the 2 kilometers to the beach where our boat would be waiting. We happily piled our stuff into the truck and bumped along the "road" to the beach. Esrom (on left of picture) met us here at the airport to accompany us all the way to Ranbwe, which would be our final destination.

But first there was the boat ride. Jim and Houghton had a pretty incredible boat story from the last trip they took to Ranbwe. Before we could be ready to sit in the boat for the next hour and a half, us light skinned people had to lotion up! :) We also made sure we all had gone to the bathroom (an anxiety of mine... what do we do on the boat if we have to go pee???) So after a terrifying experience of toilet training with Gwen (her first bush toilet challenge) and a successful toilet adventure with Si, we were ready!

I am always worried about how we look in this different culture. This culture where they don't own much of anything and get by with living off the land and having just a handful of extras (like clothing, very little to NO toys for children, very little to NO toiletry type things etc) so it makes me feel so awkward carrying the weight of the world in my backpack. My backpack packed to the brim with all that would make me sane in a trip such as this. And let me tell you what, we packed SO light! We brought 3 changes of clothes for each of the 5 of us, shampoo for me and another for the kids, three headlamp flashlights, bug spray, sun lotion, water purifier, sheets for the beds we would be sleeping in, and "go fish" cards for the kids. That is about the gist of what we packed! We wanted to pack tuna but forgot it! To which I am very thankful. :) All this being said, we are SO from a different culture. Our needs (and many would say "wants" but trust me... in our culture they are "NEEDS"... ask me about this if you want more clarification on my idea on this! :)... All this being said I am always so embarrassed about the things that we have when we are in a culture where they get by without...BUT God is good and has been working on me to understand a balance in it all.
SO...

We loaded our backpacks onto our little boat and were ready to take off. We were joined on the boat by a man from another island who comes regularly to North Ambrym (Ranon - where our boat journey would end) to teach in the secondary school there. So it was us 10, this man from the island of Malakula (if I remember right), Esrom (remember he was accompanying us from west Ambrym, where our plane landed, to Ranbwe, our final destination) and our boat driver. The boat driver is not the boat owner, but just the driver. If you were curious. :)

Throughout the first part of our boat ride (we were able to split it in two by stopping about 1/2 way and swimming and hunting for duck eggs!) I was continually amazed at the beauty of Ambrym. The landscape is just breathtaking! This little Montana girl is mesmerized by green and the amount of green! Mesmerized by coconut trees and lava rock, by flying fish and sea turtles, by empty beaches just because of the pure isolation of the beach, and by the HUGE amount of land that was totally unknown to me just a couple years ago!

The stone formations where just incredible! Because of the volcano on Ambrym, most all the rocks that we saw were from lava. There was very little coral (white) ground, which is what the ground on most islands in Vanuatu are covered with. Another thing that just blew my mind was the black sand! I have never in my life seen sand that was perfectly black! Tania, Laura and I were all baffled by this and when we got back to Vila and were looking through our pics we all found that the three of us all took this same pic!

Tania

Laura

Me and Gwen

It was just so wild that your feet could be covered in something that was just like soot or ash and be instantly clean as the water would wash over your skin. So hard to explain! :)
Jesiah and Josh got a good view of our trip from the front of the boat!

In the middle of our boat trip we pulled off onto a nice beach to rest our bodies, cool off in the salt water, and warm up in the hot springs! YES, there was a stream that was steaming hot ( I couldn't go in it cause it was too hot... yep, I'm a wimp...haha) because of the heat from the volcano. It was also close to a spot where you can go and dig for scrub duck eggs. These are ducks who lay their eggs 4 to 6 feet deep in the sand. The eggs are about double the size of a chicken egg. After some of the guys found these eggs they wrapped them up in leaves to keep them until we got to Rambwe.

Here are the eggs all bundled up as we take the second half of our boat trip

After another hour or so after our "spell" on the beach we pulled into Ranon. There were some boys nearby who were called to come and carry our packs for us. This is also very humbling. Such gracious people. I cannot imagine many 11 year old boys who would so sweetly take your 40 lb pack and hoist it up onto their backs just like they were picking up a 5 lb pack! They are so stinkin strong! (I only wish I could have taken a picture of some of the villagers coming home from their garden!!! More on gardens later...) It took us about 10 minutes to reach Ranbwe from Ranon. We got to take the short cut through the school grounds which is normally off limits to anyone not going to the school. When we would travel the other way between Ranon and Ranbwe it would take about 20 minutes. Not too terribly long! Thank God!!! :)

This pic is of us walking to Ranbwe for the first time from getting off the boat in Ranon. Its funny because those boys who took our packs are nowhere to be seen because they walked SO much faster than we ever could, even though they were carrying our stuff! Ha!

Once we were there we sat a bit and were offered some coconuts to drink. Straight from the tree! They took an AMAZINGLY long stick of bamboo to knock them out of the tree and chopped them all loose of their hard shells and offered them to us. LOVE IT!

Also in this pick I was getting sand out of Gwen's swim suit. Hehe.

So here is the house where we stayed for the 12 days in Ranbwe. This is the home that all 10 of us lived in. It was built for the pastor of the church that is on the other side of the house. But as they have been without a pastor for a while, we were able to use the house. Laura stayed in the large room on the left of the outside (but connected by a joining wall) of the house. On the right is the water tank that collects rain water. We were able to use this to shower with, drink, do laundry, and wash dishes with, well obviously ANYTHING that you would need water for. On the left is a bamboo bench that was used a TON. We mostly just hung out and talked with people the whole time we were in North Ambrym. So we were thankful for a place off the ground that we could sit some of the time. The dirt is black from volcanic ash. So you can only imagine how dirty things could potentially be. Addy LOVES dirt and so she found herself covered in the black ash most days!

So what did we do the whole time we were there?

Well, like I mentioned above. We really just hung out. No real agenda to get a whole lot of anything done but just mostly hoped to check it out, meet people, talk with people, see where we might be able to build our homes if God does indeed continue to lead us here, and just get a feel for what village life in North Ambrym might look like.

I will just give you some more pics of what we found ourselves doing throughout our time there!

Tania, me and Laura enjoying the bamboo bench and Gweny drawing in the dirt next to us.

Addy with Joel.

After church they have a pot luck type thing (in the background is a church that is in Ranbwe and just behind Tania - taking the photo - is the house where we stayed) . They eat together for fellowship and meetings after the church service is over and we were able to join in and tell a bit about why we were there. It was various families from this church that organized our meals for while we were in North Ambrym. Can you imagine this? 10 visitors for 12 days? Lunch and Dinner? God is so good to us and blessed us in such amazing ways through such wonderful people in Ambrym!

Houghton sharing why we were in Ranbwe.

As I mentioned previously, Houghton and I tried to prepare the kids as best we could for what they might experience while in the village. What we realized later is that we didn't prepare them for the social changes that they would experience. This was something that totally shook our kids world! Let me explain, they weren't prepared for being the center of EVERYONE'S attention. Gwen and Addy especially. People, both women and men and other kids, all wanted to touch and poke and pinch and hold and hold and hold and hold the girls! They were not prepared to have their personal space completely ignored. Not only where we sleeping differently, eating differently, talking differently, showering differently, washing clothes differently, going to a toilet in a different way, but they also were expected (not by us but by those around them who didn't know any different) to act differently. To be playing and running around just as the local kids do etc. They just were not ready for this complete worldview change! So the pictures that you will see where the kids are being held by someone else are few. I was hoping that they would warm up to all the new things, but I have to tell you the truth, it all was a bit too much for them. Now we know that when we have a home built and the kids bring some of there normal things with them that they would be able to escape and gradually get into a new culture on their own time. This is exactly the kind of things we needed to learn on this trip. God was so gracious to us to teach us these things the first time around so we can better understand our family and the things that we can change the next time around.

Addy was willing to let these boys carry her around for a while. She was a bit unsure but thankfully she had courage to let go of me a couple times a day. :)

This is the chief chopping down this coconut tree. These trees are quite strong and he was going at it with an ax. It was cool to watch! Story goes that he was worried that this tree might drop a coconut on someone, particularly one of the kids, underneath. We were lavished with thoughtfulness and gentleness throughout our stay there. The chief tried so many times to hold Gwen or Addy or to take them to get an orange off a nearby tree, ANYTHING, but the girls were too shy the whole trip. Poor guy, he was so sweet about it too but I felt bad about it. I hope that it wasn't considered too rude. I hope that if we are able to go back that the girls would be more inclined to "venture out" past my arms reach. :)

After a couple days in the house we thought it best for Houghton to set up the tent and hammock and he slept outside. The five of us were otherwise in a small room and Houghton was having some allergy issues to the mold in the room so he fared better outside. And plus, the kids had a good time in the hammock.

This little pig was a good friend to the girls.

Helping with some cooking. We are making banana simbaro. You take a spoon and rub out the fruit from the the peel (these are large cooking bananas) and then roll them in a leave of island cabbage. Then boil them and add coconut milk and salt. Gwens favorite.

A couple days into our stay we were able to go and visit the market that happens two times a week in Ranon. WOW what a sight! There were about 5 tables and a couple of things on each table. We didn't really know what to expect but this was a bit disheartening as we buy SO much from our local market here in Vila. So this may look a bit different if we end up living in North Ambrym. We were able to use this time in Ranon to meet some of the ladies outside of Ranbwe. This picture was taken at the market.

The chief was teaching Grace and I how to make a whistle with the leaves from a coconut leaf.

Washing day! Unfortunately, the day we decided to our wash was the day that it decided to rain. So after all that work of washing out our clothes, they hung in the rain and after they finally did dry they smelled horrible! Haha. Thankfully I have the excuse of washing more often because of the kids! :) So I was able to wash a couple days a week. I actually liked to wash clothes by hand. It takes forever but it was fun to do.

One of the days Houghton and Jim went fishing with some of the guys. This picture is taken from that trip. This is my favorite picture of the whole trip. Check out the colors! The guys took canoes out but the water got too rough so they had to hike back. This was taken on that hike back.

On one of our trips back from Ranon to Ranbwe, we propped up the camera and got a team pic. :)

Volume 2 to come soon. :) I wanted to get this one published before you all lost all hope in me. Haha!

Off we go!

2010-06-04T07:21:00.001+11:00

Well, we are only 1 day away from all heading out to the bush. A bit scary, YES. A bit intimidating, YES. A bit thrilling, YES YES. What a journey God has had our team on. LOTS of here's and there's and everywhere's! (thanks so much to you all who hung in there with us through it all) God just leads as we take one step at a time and we can confidently say that we have followed Him here to this next move. A short stay in a village in North Ambrym.
Although Hought and Jim have taken a couple trips out to N. A. the rest of us ladies and kiddos have yet to step foot there. So we are overwhelmed as this day SO quickly approaches! Saturday, which is your Friday (if you are in America).

We are really just looking at this trip as a chance to get face to face with the people that God may indeed want us to commit a HUGE chunk our lives to! We will just be chillin' with people, figuring village life out, and trying to understand for sure if this is indeed where God would have us.

Please pray for our health! Gwen is battling an infection that has put her out for going on a week now. She is on antibiotics but we are still waiting to see some real results. And Jesiah is now battling a flu.
Pray also for our safety. There is a lot of travel going to be happening. - We will take a plane to Craig Cove which is West Ambrym and will from there hop on a speed boat which will carry us the rest of the way to the North side of Ambrym. This should take about 1 1/2 hours on the sea. This will TOTALLY be a new thing for most of us. :) AHHHHHH. :) Oh, the adventures of it all.
Pray that we will sense a clear direction for God's will in our planting roots here or continuing to do further survey throughout Vanuatu.
Also be in prayer for us as this will be a culture flip for us all. For us ladies, guys too (as they have never been to the bush with their families before) and for our kids. We will be facing almost a change in every aspect of life. From sleeping, eating, bathing, toilets, talking, looking, smelling, touching... YOU NAME IT.... it will be flipped on its head compared to our "safe" culture of what we already know and have grown in. Pray that Satan wouldn't use these things to tear us down spiritually, physically, or socially as a team and ultimately as a vessel for His honor.

These are some pics from the guys survey there just a couple weeks ago. Please browse through and we would be happy to hear any comments or questions you may have that pop in your mind as you view this "new world" of culture.

Click these links and it will take you to our photo album in Facebook:

North Ambrym Hought and Jim Survey - May 2010
MORE North Ambrym Hought and Jim Survey - May 2010

For more of these beach pics check out this album:
Eton beach - church picnic (click)
For some more pics from May:
May 2010 (click)

A time for updates

2010-05-12T20:56:00.000+11:00

A week and some has gone past since Houghton and Jim left for North Ambrym. (I write about these places so much that sometimes I dont explain where they are... SO if you are in any way confused by peoples names or places names...please dont hesitate to ask.) It feels as if they have been gone a thousand years. Well, maybe not THAT long but since I was going to exaggerate I thought I would go all out.
They have been able to accomplish all that they have set out to do!!!!!!!!! How awesome is that!!!!!! They have gathered numerous word lists. SO WHAT THE HECK IS A "WORD LIST"?? ( wow I wish Hought was hear so I could just ask him to explain it... ) Well, before the guys left they gathered a list of words (hmm about 100 or so I think) and put the English in one column, the Bislama in another column and then had an empty column for that word in language (what we call the native tongue of whoever they would be surveying that day). So throughout the survey of North Ambrym, they would go through this list with several people of varying language found just in North Ambrym and compare those words. How close are they to each other if at all, do they use the same kind of vowels as a neighboring language, same kind of constants etc. This helps us know if the languages neighboring one another are similar and could use the same Bible translation, or if they are different enough that it would be too difficult to understand etc. WOW I sure hope all that makes since. I will have to ask Hought to better describe these things when he gets back. I am sure we will post a final update with pics and I will have him explain this better.
They not only are collecting linguistic type stuff but also giving some face time. The more people see you, the more they know you and can trust you and what you are saying. The people of Ambrym have no reason to trust Hought and Jim and believe that they really do have families that want to come in and learn their language and live amongst them! So our guys are just returning to reiterate that we do indeed mean what we say and would like to come and live with them!
Hought and Jim also are looking at land that would be possible for us to build on. And trying to visualize what we could build (i.e. materials there and what is accessible etc.)
After they are finished gathering info in North Ambrym they are flying up to Santo, a northern island. This is the possible location where we will base out of. Luganville, second largest city ( there really only is two "cities" in Vanuatu , Port Vila and Luganville) has supplies that we may be able to tap into and it may end up being easier to be supplied out of Luganville and Port Vila. They are checking into these things and hitting up some contacts in Santo before coming back home.

SO that is what they are up to.
Any questions????? SHOOT!!!

houghton.richards@gmail.com

Moving right along.

2010-04-17T14:43:00.002+11:00

   Ahhhh. Kids are outside playing and I can hear them sometimes off in the distance as Hought and I sit here and massively update everything digital. :) Facebook, websites (yes that is plural as we have started a new one to be for our WHOLE team and not just our family), blogs, newsletters blah blah blah. I LOVE LOVE LOVE being able to write and get connected with the rest of the world all through one little machine here as I sit in our little bedroom. How absolutly amazing it is to have Internet in our lives. BUT it does get time consuming and I am so sorry for lagging behind on my journaling through blogger and also our blog updates. I have to say that Facebook does get most of our time SO if you are a digital girl (or boy) in our digital world... get on Facebook! :) BUT I promise to keep updating all of our little avenues of communication just because I love to please the masses. :)
   Today is SUCH a beautiful relief. It has been insanely humid and hot lately and today it rained all night (well no surprise there.. it usually does which i LOVE because it is so awesome to hear) and then it was cloudy and has been all day. Whew. Just a nice break from the scorching sun.
   The kids have been enjoying the fruits of some packages that came this last week. We are so humbled by those that think of us when we are totally out of sight. I know that it is very easy to also be out of mind and it just is an added blessing when we get something (whether via email, facebook, post, or any other) confirming others thoughts of us. So thanks so much. Amazing people back home supporting us....amazing.
   Well, here are the links to our recent photos..... ENJOY!!! And as always let us know if you have any problems viewing the photos!

April 2010

Jesiah's Photography

More pictures

2010-03-27T22:02:00.001+11:00

We have been keeping busy here. As it has been the rainy season we have had some interesting Internet connections. On and Off all day long! But we are SO SO SO thankful we have Internet some days! SO huge.

Here are the links to our recent pictures. Sorry I am not uploading them to blogger but it just takes too long to get them here and since I can post a link ... well ...

If you have ANY problems viewing the pictures Please let me know so I can fix any problems.

Addy turns 2!

What we have been up to in the last month

Back in Vanuatu

2010-03-02T10:43:00.002+11:00

      Well, its almost been 3 weeks with our feet back on the green green Vanuatu ground. Our bodies are starting to acclimate to the time difference, climate difference, and cultural differences. I say time difference not because there is an actual difference between Port Vila time and Melbourne time but because we are waking up SO MUCH stinkin earlier and going to bed so much earlier as well! :) The sun is UP UP UP by 6 AM and down by 6:30 PM so it tends to change our daily time habits somewhat. Addy is the first to rise (usually even before Houghton which is at 5:30 AM) and she mostly just sticks to herself for an hour playing quietly in her room. Then she decides she has played long enough and will either come and wake up mom or wakes up her sister to THEN wake up mom. :) Keeps me young... HA! Si is usually the last to crawl out of bed by 7:00. So our mornings happen really quickly (or is it slowly).
        Si does school in the AM for about 1 hour. He is learning his alphabet and numbers (reading them). He LOVES his school so I am SO grateful for that! It is relitivly fun ECEPT that I HATE HATE HATE whoever decided that "C" sounds like a "K" when put into most words... I mean REALLY!!!!!!! I have to say here that in Bislama there is NO "C" in their Alphabet. I think they have the right idea! However, if I ever want Si to go to school anywhere else... "C" it is. Dumb. ;)
    The girls do pretty well while we "do school". Gwen is very eager to "do school" as well so she participates in some of what we are doing. She will catch on fast I think. Addy would MUCH rather be outside eating some foreign object off the ground or tearing apart geckos. Yep, she is NOT a girly girl. Ha ha. Although she does enjoy coming and destroying some of Si's school work when he isn't looking. So she does get involved. :)
    Houghton goes for a swim in the ocean every morning at 6:30 and has seen Stone fish (deadly), and coral snakes ( also deadly) on his swims. Yep, pretty sure you will NEVER catch ME out there! I am scared of TROUT in our rivers back home! Too bad it is one of the best scuba diving and snorkling destinations in the world. I will enjoy it all from the sand thank you very much! Our teammate Jim saw a shark last month!! Can you say "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"?
    Well, all that nonsense aside (ha, yeah right), we have been pleasantly surprised at how much our brains held on to our Bislama. Although it sometimes feels like my brain just oozed out of my ear and I cant remember ANY language for the most part, the right language comes out of my mouth when I need it to. I have SO far to go in my language learning though. And as some trips out into the bush are in our not so distant future, I definitely feel the pressure to get out and talk!
    We are living on the same property that we lived on last time we were in Vanuatu so that has again proven to be a blessing as we have friendships here that we can continue to develop and we are comfortable with how to get around in this neighborhood.
    Well, I think that sometime in the coming weeks we will get our tentitive schedule out so you can be knowing what we are up to and know how to pray for us as situations arise.
    Thanks for hanging in there with us!

Here are some links to our photo's on Facebook. You can click on these and view the pics even if you do not have a Facebook account.

Back in Vanuatu

Camping trip to Wilsons Prom in Victoria, Australia

Houghton takes Gretchen to Sydney

Wish List

2010-03-01T15:42:00.000+11:00

Wanting to let you know that I have updated our care package list on our website....

http://www.richardsroad.com/1.html

I hope to be updating our blog soon! Sorry it has taken so long!

Well its about time! ;)

2010-01-06T15:49:00.000+11:00

I am sitting at our local library enjoying some free internet! YIPEE. ;) It has been about a month (if not more now!) since we last updated so I would like to let you all know what we are up to these days.
I will tell you this as I get you up to date with some pictures as well! ;)

Si and Gwen helped make these cookies for our Thanksgiving Day meal. We invited all the Americans we knew and also some Australian friends to come and join us for the day.

Addy enjoying some appetizers

What Thanksgiving isn't complete without pumpkin pie? Well we did it a bit different but equally good I have to say! Pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting! YUM!

Grace Kenner with Addy

Houghton and I were asked to help with a Christmas Banquet that a couple in our church put on every year. It was a beautiful event with music, fantastic food, and a message.

Here I am helping one of the pianists who performed with her page turning...its tough but somebodies gotta do it. :)

Marie-Clare and Emmanuel Azali are friends from church and are on their way to Thailand to work in an orphanage. Sina and Merhnoosh are friends and met Houghton when Merhnoosh was helping Him learn Farsi for language learning class at SIL.

Some of the students that had Merhnoosh as a helper bought her a Bible in Farsi. Here Emmanuel who speaks Farsi is talking with her and Sina about a story in the Bible.

Moving from Kangaroo Ground! Si helping pack up our lives from the SIL housing to move into Joy's house outside of Melbourne. Joy is a friend from church. We will be staying at her house until we move to Vanuatu in the second week of Feb.

Gwen packing up her clothes.

Taking a trip to the dump. Isn't it amazing at how much we acquire (and us only in a year!). Enough to have to throw stuff out! Well, it was mostly just boxes and garbage from cleaning the house out, but still!

Getting the kids settled into their room at Joys house.

Gwen and Grace Kenner

Si and Josh Kenner

Gotta give you a pic we took of a koala. After all we ARE in Australia! ;)

Jim Kenner tickling Gwen.

What great friends and teammates we have! The Kenners, Laura and us.

Joy putting Gwen's hair up. Gwen and Joy have a fun bond. Gwen will crawl up on Joy's lap and watch Philippino TV all day with her! :) Joy is such a blessing to us.

Decorating our tree. Some friends from church thought of us during Christmas and offered a tree complete with trimmings for us to use! I was SO thrilled as it is such a close tradition for me that I was thrilled to do it with my kids. This was the first Christmas Tree we have all put up together!

Our little family

Kangaroos in Montana?? This pic is taking out our front door at Joy's house. We had to laugh because it totally looks like MONTANA! Except with kangaroos! ;)

Houghton was able to go and help a friend work on this house. It is built out of cement board. With some alterations, this could be a possibility for us to use something like this in the bush.

Making Christmas cookies!

Si singing in the children's choir at our Christmas program

Gwen putting up a picture as a story is read for her part in the Christmas program.

As well as singing in the choir with Houghton, Laura and I played the hand chimes. I had never played these before and found it pretty hard. But SO fun!

Our Christmas Eve feast! We made coconut battered shrimp and stuffed chicken breast wrapped in bacon. We were pretty jazzed about how well it all turned out!

Just before Christmas, Si turned 5!!!!!

Joy with Gwen

Opening gifts with Laura

We spent Christmas with some friends from church. We had such a beautiful day with the Hughes-Gage family and felt like we were with family! What a wonderful blessing. We were also able to call back to the states to say an early (as it was only Christmas Eve in USA) Merry Christmas to our parents.

Si painting Gwen's nails!

For a couple weeks we are house sitting and we are able to also pet sit! It has been great fun for us and also for the kids as they get to play with all new toys (the family we are house sitting for has four kids) in a new house! :)

We hosted a New Years Eve party for our church at "our" house.

We visited the Alfred Nicholas Gardens in a nearby Mountain range that was just breath taking!

I should explain this picutre! ;) This was a hankerchif tree. And sure enough the leafs were SO SO soft. So Si gave me a good sneeze so I could get a picture of the leaf in use!

Enjoying some hot chocolate and scones at a shop.

Si got to go to a Cricket game with Houghton

Well that gets you pretty much up to date with us now! We are housesitting for one more week and then we will be heading back to Joy's house until Feb 14th or so which is when we move to Vanuatu.

We still do not have housing in Vanuatu so please keep praying for this as with getting Visas to be able to stay in Vanuatu for the next 2 years!

Since we don't have internet our communication has been slow and for that we are SO sorry. However, we try to check emails every week. So shoot us one! We are so thankful for you all and would love to hear from you and hear what you have been up to these days!

Cheers!

School has finished

2009-11-25T15:31:00.001+11:00

Well, God brought us through! Houghton finished is last class on Thursday and graduation was Friday afternoon. We have been enjoying having him home! This year has been so "full on" that it is a bit weird to have some down time (well sort of - since we are moving its not really "down"). We are enjoying the amazing weather and amazing blessing of family, three wonderful kids who are thrilled to have dad around, and the anticipated get together with friends to celebrate Thanksgiving.
Since pictures is what you all probably want.. :) pictures is what you get. BUT if you DO want some more info... I will hopefully will you all in with our upcoming newsletter. ;)

We have LOVED going on bike rides. Si is able to ride by himself with his bike and we are borrowing this handy little bike carrier thing for the girls! Gotta love Gwen's expression here. ;)

Si is quite a little cricket/baseball player. Which game he is playing depends on if it is me or dad bowling/or pitching the ball for him. :)

Houghton recently celebrated his 30th birthday.

Si and Gwen at family camp. We went for a short weekend with almost all of our church body. What a blessing that weekend was to our little family!

We set up our hammock to enjoy some relaxation.

Addy, Alana, and Gwen

Our little family

The water was cold, but somehow it really doesn't even matter when you are camping! ;)

Gwen sporting daddy's aussie cowboy hat

Si had this little bug for a friend all day. Thankfully it was happy to hang out on his finger as he went about his day.

Tania and I before our end of the school banquet

Making baked apples

Houghton at graduation

September showers bring October flowers

2009-10-22T10:12:00.000+11:00

Yeah, that saying just doesn't have the same ring to it. But we are SO thankful for our summer to be coming around the corner! Here are some pics of late. Houghton has 5 weeks (well 4 1/2 really YIPPEE) left until school is finished. So we are gearing up for yet another move! Thankfully we don't have a whole lot to shift around. But it is amazing what you acquire if you are in one spot long enough.

Gwen and I went out and picked flowers for the table

A surprisingly clean Addy! Usually she finds whatever mud or dirt she can get her hands on.

Yes!!! My little Si loves to help mop

Yep, they can be pretty cute sometimes!

Got a package from Great Grandma!

While mom was away...Addy played!

My mom sent us the Jesus film for kids and boy have they been learning from that. It seemly has cemented some stuff in Si's mind. Stories that we have been reading for years come to life and it has been amazing to watch him learn through this movie! You should check it out if you can get your hands on one.

tata for now!

Crazy Gretchen

2009-10-14T00:20:00.001+11:00

:) Hey guys. Just wanted to let you know that I (aka crazy Gretchen) have finally settled on a background for our blog. ;) I'm sure you are thinking, "didn't they just change this?" YES we did, but it was just too boring for me and well, I am much happier now. Yep, I'm weird.

Only 5 more weeks of school for Hought. YAY! We all have BIG plans for some down time. Some fishing time (Si is really looking forward to this), maybe some camping in our new tent (a huge thanks to a church in Bridgeport, NE), and LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of nothingness. ;)

Our girlies are pretty sick with bad respiratory colds and so that means they have to take it easy and stay inside (nearly an impossible task for Gwen). Can you be praying that they would heal quickly and that the rest of us would be spared from it?

Well, I am getting an evil eye from Houghton...maybe it is time for bed!? It is only a couple minutes past midnight...man I gotta start getting to bed earlier.

We love hearing from you and if you have sent us an e-mail THANKS! We hope to respond to you soon!!

2009-10-05T18:56:00.002+11:00

We have uploaded our new newsletter. Check it out. Just click the "newsletter" tab on the right.....

Check out our new video!!!!

2009-10-03T15:22:00.001+11:00

It is our desire to keep you as updated as possible with what God is doing with the ministry in Vanuatu and here now in Australia. These videos are aimed at communicating with you in such a way that keeps you informed! If and when you have any questions.... let us know!

Enjoy! This video was also sent out to all of the churches we visited while we were in the states. So if you want to have this video shown in your church, talk with your missions leader or pastor and they should have received one! If not, let us know.

Thanks again for your service with us!

To God be the glory.

(click this link to go to the video)

Team Vanuatu Oct 09

Gwenyth turned 3!

2009-09-24T00:13:00.001+11:00

This last Monday (14th) we got to celebrate Gwen's life for another year. What an amazing blessing her life has been. Here are some pictures for you to get a glimpse of her day. Wish you all could have joined the celebrations with us! :)

Amber made Gwen's hair look so lovely!!!

Gwen was making funny noises coming down to show dad her hair

She had a pink butterfly party. So I made butterfly cakes, we had little glittery butterflies all over the house (and still do I might add). Laura was helping me get it all organized. I wasn't sure what the weather might do (here in Melbourne it changes a million times a day) so I was ready for the party to be inside the house if need be.

The weather was WONDERFUL praise God. So we were able to hang out in the yard.

A friend from church Marie-Clare, volunteered to do face painting! What an awesome gift that was! It was a HUGE hit. Naturally Gwenny got a butterfly.

How cute is this face!?

Si was a snake!

Addy got a rainbow.

A friend, Asha, had a princess crown.

Katelyn with a rooster (a very creative one! Way to go Marie-Clare!)

Josh was Bumblebee the transformer

Grace, a snow leapord

Piper, a cat

Sorin, a monkey

Zoe, had flowers on each cheek.

My beautiful little girlies!

Si and Asha eating cake together. I thought this was a cute moment. I love that they just ate it off the ground like that! Well with plates. :)

Blowing those 3 candles out! With some help from dad.

Our little birthday girl.

Hey guys!

2009-09-04T10:06:00.007+11:00

What a blessing this month has been for us. God has been so faithful to answer our prayers concerning the school semester. This semester has proven to be more manageable (or maybe we are just handling it better) and we are able to happily function as a family and be involved in ministry. The first semester tested us with our patience and faithfulness to study His Word. We are SO thankful for the prayers that so many of you uttered for us during that time. We know that it was Vital to our relationship with others and with our Father.

God has used this time in Australia to train and strengthen us for the many challenges that lie ahead.
Thank you so much for hanging in there during this year of schooling.
We are nearing a two week break. YIPEE! :)
The kids have been enjoying some warmer weather! And so has mom!!! They are able to play outside along with 7 other kids here on campus ! What a special time it has been for them!
Houghton continues to excel in his classes. He is so disciplined in his study habits and it has paid off which has been such a blessing. He is excited about the skills he has learned and we are SO ANXIOUS to apply them in a real life situation in Vanuatu!
Here are just some pictures of the past couple weeks.

The International Banquet at our church that concluded the missions emphasis month.Enjoying some food and friends!!!!

Si and Jacob

Stef, Addy, Alana, and Gwen

Si checking out his Wii skills! We totally have to get one of these! SO FUN!

This was taken on the drive home from visiting with our friends (in the previous pics) that live about 1 hour away. The kids always play hard.Their mean pirate faces

Sorry this picture didn't come out very clear, one of the ministries Houghton is involved in is teaching Sunday School.

Saw these amazing rainbows on the way home from church. They were some of the most vibrant rainbows we have seen, short only to those we saw in Vanuatu. There is something about being in this part of the world maybe? They say the sun is stronger so maybe that has something to do with it.

A cuddle on the bed

Is it seriously August?!!!

2009-08-10T16:50:00.009+11:00

The kids got some beanie baby animals in a package and loved them. ;)HAHA. The kids got some "Fruit by the foot" fruit roll ups in a package and couldn't figure out how they were suppose to eat them. It was hilarious!

Tania, Laura and I taught 1st and 2nd grade VBS. This is me teaching them the memory verse.

Houghton and Jim ran the "sport" portion of VBS

Gwen playing in creche (nursery) during the VBS

Si was old enough to participate in the 3's and 4's class

Addy enjoyed seeing mom after a day without her. :) I guess it was mutual.

Helping Lillian show the church what the creche (nursery) kids were learning in children's church. I don't know many people who actually organize a class for the nursery kids. Lillian was SO awesome at teaching this class on creation.

Addy enjoys herself, as you can see. ;)

Six of us ladies got together one Saturday to make skirts for sending in boxes for Opporation Christmas Child. We made 45 skirts!!!!

Since my talent as sewing is less than my talent at ironing... I gladly ironed!

I love these beautiful girls. Us hanging out at....wait for it.... a CHOCOLATE CAFE!!

Kids happily receiving a package from the states!

A visit with friends that Laura and Tania met at a Coptic church observation for class last sememster. We have been able to hang out with them a bit and really enjoy their friendship.

The kids driving home...WIPED OUT. And Gweny was holding Addy's hand, how precious.

2009-07-17T01:05:00.003+11:00

Playing hide and seek

Tania and I with our Christmas in July feast!

Kids reading messages sent by Coalwood, MT VBS

Si's training wheels are off!

Kids going on a hike with Sorin

SUPER ADDY!!!!!!

YAY but also NAY

2009-06-28T22:02:00.003+11:00

Hey all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have reached the break. (listen carefully and you can hear me shouting for joy all the way from across the Pacific Ocean). Thank you all for praying for us this last semester. Houghton had a great semester of wisdom thrown at him and he did a fantastic job of catching a lot of it. We are STILL SO thankful for this year of school. God has grown our family through this time of stretching and we are incredibly thankful for the prayers that were lifted to the throne on our behalf: Prayers for our sanity, for our family, for Houghtons retainablity, and for our teams sustainablity!

Now for the "NAY". We have been informed that we will NOT have internet for this month. We are SUPER bummed to hear this news. We where SO hoping to catch up with you all during the break. If you would, please pray that we would get chances to get to the city and get some internet time at Maccas (or McDonalds as you so well know it as :) ).

And counting....

2009-06-16T15:58:00.003+11:00

We have been enjoying the last few weeks of school. Well, is enjoying the right word? I suppose so. What Houghton and the rest of our teammates have been learning has been wonderful subjects and very applicable to what our future ministry may hold. SO because of THAT we can say that it has been enjoyable...but still anxious for our MONTH OFF. Only two weeks to go!!!!!!!!

Some prayer

2009-06-10T23:02:00.000+11:00

Hey there! Just asking for some prayer for a couple things. Could you be praying with us for Houghton as he is pouring himself into his studies. The days are getting longer and longer for him to be away studying and we are just entering the end of first semester. Would you pray that God would give Houghton clarity of mind and also speed as he is writing papers, working on projects, and preparing for tests all in these next two weeks.
Also pray for me and the kids to be a support to him and to utilize the time we have together as a family when Houghton is able to come home.
God has lead us to take this training and it is a thrill to be learning all that is being taught. But as we were warned, it is very stressful on our family. Thank you for praying for us and caring for us from afar!

Gretchen for us all

Snow and Rain

2009-06-10T20:54:00.004+11:00

I took this pic outside our backdoor!

We have been seeing a lot of moisture this week. It has been good for our thirsty ground, but a bit harder on this outdoorsy family. ;) I fear that we pushed it a bit much and Addy and Gwen are now suffering some cold/fluish symptoms. We even saw hail yesterday, which really doesn't do much for me since I am fairly used to seeing hail, but the kids LOVED it. Si was pretty amazed by it all and Gwen was a bit worried. Her worried face is adorable.
Houghton has been busy busy busy in the library. He is such a dedicated student and he is doing such an awesome job pouring himself into his studies. It does get difficult as wee miss hanging out as much as we usually get to as a whole family but God is sustaining me and the kids and also Houghton as he has to say goodbye everyday to such beautiful faces! ;)
We are certainly looking forward to our MONTH off coming up in a couple weeks! YIPPEE! Time does seem to be blazing past us. I see this most in the conversations with the kids and the clever little things that they come up with.
Houghton and I have been asked to help lead the music at our church a couple times a month and we are also able to be getting into some of the children ministries. Our church body here continues to be such a blessing to us and we pray that God would use us in their lives as well!

Recent days in the Richards residence

2009-05-18T11:12:00.003+11:00

Houghton in class. You can also see Jim Kenner and Brad Jones in this pic.

Si walking holding Gwen's baby for her. I thought this was sweet. :)

Gwen and Addy sharing the stroller.

Kids playing outside together. Gwen, Sophi, Si, Addy and SorinSi and Gwen did my hair for me. Lovely isn't it?

It is quite a sight to see Si go after a drumstick! He is like a little lion cub. It is hilarious! His favorite is the skin. (yuck) So naturally Houghton and I give him ours. ;) Its a good deal.

Addy, Abigail, Gwen, and Si. Abigail come over to our house on Fridays while her mom and dad go to classes.

Si playing with "his man".

Good to have a home

2009-05-17T22:03:00.003+11:00

Gwen bringing up her offering. They have 60 sec. to run around the room and collect as much money as they can from people. This money goes to an orphanage ministry.

At church.

We were able to hang out a bit with some friends from church today. It was so good to have this again. I have really been missing a church body and it is a blessing to have these wonderful people in our lives. What an incredible gift God has given us in friendships through the years! We have traveled SO much these past couple years and I have felt like I have been without a home for these years (such is the "transitions stages" of our life now days) and having a church body that is friendly, welcoming, and hospitable is just a sigh of relief in the purest sense of the phrase!

Things are going well. Houghton is busy busy busy at school as some big assignments are coming due. I am trying to survive as a stay at home mom (how do you all do it???? "survive" is the correct word it seems a lot of times) and God has placed some fun "assignments" in my lap this week. Four people different have approached me about taking voice lessons. All in one week, isn't that strange? God must have something planned. Or He just knew what I needed and I'm going to roll with that. So I gladly am starting to teach two girls on a weekly basis coming this week. And the other two will be something less formal and will happen some time later. I have been able to sing for church one Sunday with Laura. We sang a song that I wrote some years ago. It was fun to add a harmony to the song that I would otherwise sing solo. Add I am joining with Houghton and Laura in another song for this coming Sunday with three other people. So God also knew my heart in feeling like my season of singing was dry. Now to only get into the Sydney Opera!!! :) Wouldn't that be amazing. HAHA. Well, something to pray about anyway is a chance for me to use my classical singing passion.

Keep praying for us. We CANNOT do this without walking in the Spirit and we CANNOT walk in the Spirit without a lot of prayer! It (prayer) is what keeps us out here as we walk (sometimes blindly) by faith. May YOU too walk by faith. How can we pray for you?? Keep us posted in your life. We feel far away sometimes and it would help so much to hear how you are doing and how we can serve you. Thank you for loving us and working along with us.

2009-05-01T15:34:00.003+11:00

Hey we have our new newsletter here on the blog under the "newsletter" tab above. Sorry to all of you who get it through e-mail and it was missing pictures. Seriously weird and we cannot figure out what would have happened. So here ya'll go! :p

Some more pics to end out the month

2009-04-29T23:13:00.003+11:00

After a walk. Caught Addy in a yawn.

Playing with babies while "watching a movie". :) Gwen doesn't sit still for long. Hehe.

Walking down to a store for meat pies. A traditional Aussie meal.

ADDY'S WALKING! I love it. Even now that she has been walking for about a week, she still has this look on her face while she is walking that says, "Whoa, am I really doing this!"

Grandpa and Grandma Richards sent egg dying kits. Which was AWESOME. Aparently Australia doesn't have the fancy kits like we grew up with and loved! THANKS!

Naturally there must be a little bit of body painting going on when you paint with toddlers!

Jesiah's spiderman egg.

Our March/April

2009-04-20T23:13:00.002+11:00

Hanging out with the parents! :)

2009-04-08T23:23:00.004+11:00

It has been a joy to hang out with my mom and dad. We have been showing them around and been taking in some sights of Melbourne. Just some random pics for you to see what we have been up to.

The Melbourne Aquarium

We got some cards from friends at our sending church. It has been a joy to hear from them. Thank you so much for writing us messages!

Journal pournal

2009-03-26T23:29:00.003+11:00

So I wanted to let you all know, well, to those of you who care to read the ramblings of me, Gretchen, (wow how many comma's can you use in a sentence? Okay this is a perfect example...if you are going insane by these ramblings...then the journal page isn't for you ;) ) Hmmm where was I???? OH RIGHT....

I am starting to use my journaling tab again. YIPEE! Cheers.

More and Less

2009-03-22T14:01:00.004+11:00

Oh how I draw blanks when I am suppose to type a "title" for these entries...so I have to say that I just write whatever comes to mind...whether it makes sense or not. And this time...probably not. :)

RAIN

2009-03-03T21:39:00.003+11:00

Thank you guys so much for praying! We have rain. Today we were on high fire alert and the media piped it up to be a day like the one when all the fires started 4 weeks ago. So we waiting to see what the day held.

I know that many of you have been specifically praying for rain for Kangaroo Ground. And at about 9:00 tonight it happened...it had been really yucky looking outside for hours and I thought it looked a bit dangerous outside. The clouds were very angry looking (can you call clouds angry?) and I didn't really know what to think. The sky here is so hard to read...in Montana it was pretty predictable I have always thought, but since moving overseas I am totally at a loss for sky reading. ;) When I heard rain start to fall all I could do was smile! So many of you have written telling us that you are praying for rain...and for you I send a million hugs from the kids (I would send them from me but I think you would rather them from the kids :) :) ).

What a generous God we serve huh?

Our Newsletter

2009-03-01T16:38:00.001+11:00

Check the "Newsletter" tab for our latest newsletter.

A recap of February ... in pictures

2009-02-26T20:22:00.002+11:00

We are working on our newsletter and hope to get it out in a couple days. But tomorrow we have a fire watch so we might just take tomorrow off from our normal "work" here at the house and head into town to get away. We will keep you updated. Keep praying as we are still on high alerts (for four weeks now) with fires burning all around us and strong winds with high tempetures!

BUT for now...enjoy these pics. :)

Thanks guys for hanging in there with us!

A breath of fresh air

2009-02-19T15:36:00.003+11:00

In more ways than one have we been breathing some fresh air. Firstly because the smoke is finally starting to settle from all the bush fires surrounding us these past two weeks, and also because tomorrow is graduation! Graduation from Summer School anyway. We all still have a year to go...but we have next week OFF! YIPPEE. :)

I want to share with you some videos of some of the classes that we have been taking these past 6 weeks. Some might be a bit boring to you but look at it in light of learning to speak another language, write an unwritten language and teach those speakers to also read and write in their own language. What a thrill to test ourselves on the knowledge that we have crammed into our full brains in such a short time! Praise God for His provision for us these weeks and also for His grace and mercy as it has been a long 6 weeks as well. The kids are now through with child care and for that I am glad and sad. They LOVED going and doing such amazing crafts and playing with the other kids there. John and Roz were amazing with the kids and we cannot thank them enough for being creative and lively for 6 weeks straight! :)

VIDEOS:

Our phonetics class: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KnZdGLWO1M

Our Language Learning class: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yyp9hIjmivs
and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It-9eHHmhUM

And our Anthropology class is soon to come: (gotta get from teammate :) )

MORE TO COME of the kids and all...but wanted to post as soon as possible.

Update on fire situation

2009-02-10T15:30:00.005+11:00

Thank you to all who were praying for us and continue to pray as there are numerous fires still burning throughout Victoria. I wanted to post some pictures of the fires that we could see just from our house.

Click on the picture to view it in a large format:

This is a website that has been set up by Equip (school we are attending) just for us as students to know the status of the fires in relation to our campus so check this out and you can get current updated info just as we get it.

Copy and paste into your Internet browser:

http://kg/index.php/kg-messages.html

Click on "Current fire conditions for Kangaroo Ground"

PRAY Victoria is on fire

2009-02-09T13:56:00.002+11:00

Hey all. Please be praying for our neighbors! Tons of people here have been suffering in a great way from the fires that are devastating the state of Australia we now live in. Please pray for our safety as fires burn around us and we hear emergency vehicles all day and night and also pray for the hundreds of families effected by either loss of property or of loved ones.

Thanks!

To keep you updated...check out the news online.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/bushfires/

A week has blown by

2009-02-07T17:55:00.007+11:00

I have to say that today is crazy hot and windy. We reached 115 today and it was 110 steady for almost all day. At 5:30 tonight, the cold front hit. It is so weird how that works here. They can predict what time the cold will hit and, sure enough, you can feel it get cooler...like 20 degree's cooler in a minute! Amazing.

We have had another successful week here at school. Here are some pics for you to enjoy... :)

Gwen feeding her baby some apple pieces

The kids' favorite hiding spot

Si and Sorin climbing in the back of our house

watching a movie with her baby

Addy is pulling herself up on EVERYTHING.

Gwen doing her "homework" We got this awesome coloring book and markers in a care package. The markers only work on this kind of paper. So this is perfect for our little draw on anything daughter!

Si got some sweet action spider man socks and sweatshirt in the care package.

Kids dressing up

Gotta love the bed tub acoustics! Time for lots of yelling. ;)

We found a YMCA close by with a great kiddie pool

Some stickers that came from great grandma

Climbing in back yard

What our kids are up to while we go to school...

2009-01-25T15:37:00.004+11:00

While we are in school the kids go to "play school". They love going. They do all kinds of crafts, songs, stories, play in the playground outside...you name it. They are wiped when they come home. Which is pretty good cause so are Houghton and I from school.

These are some pics taken while they were at play school.

Gracie helped out quite a bit at the begining to help the kids get used to things here. Gwen and Sorian

Ruth and her husband Don are from CO and came here to volenteer for the 6 weeks.

John and his wife Ros, live close by and volunteer every year for the child care program.

Rachel's parents are with SIL and are translators in the Solomon Islands. Her dad Taylor is one of our instructors for the year.

A glimse into our schooling

2009-01-21T20:46:00.005+11:00

I wanted to give you a glimpse of what our days look like and what it is exactly that we are spending all this time and energy doing.

One of our courses is Phonetics. In this course we study the International Phonetic Alphabet so we can translate sounds we hear in any given language into a combination of written "letters" that is understood around the world and can be pronounced around the world...the point of this is so we can translate the language for the people group that we end up in in Vanuatu.

For an example this is John 3:16 written with this Phonetic Alphabet. (said by someone with an Australian accent I must add as this changes the "letters" or more appropriately the phonemes.)

[ fɔ ɡɒd səʉ lʌvd ðə wɵld
ðæt hi ɡɛiv hɪz ˈəʉnli sʌn
ðæt hʉˈwɛvə bəˈlivz ɪn hɪm
ʃæl nɒt ˈpɛɹɪʃ
bʌt hæv iˈtɵnəl lʌif ]
[ dʒɒn θɹi sɪksˈtin ]

We are also taking a grammer class. Which will help us identify the sentence structure of a particular language group. For example, English always has Subject Verb Object (with lots of other stuff thrown in there but I don't want to bore you too much) and this is not true of all languages of the world...so this course will also help us as we learn and write (or create) the language God leads us to.

Anthropology is another once of our courses. This is fairly self explanitory, but through this course we will be practicing how to really look and observe another culture. As well as relate to this culture and live in it.

And finally we are taking a Language Awareness/Language Learning course. In this class we are actually learning another language in the style that we would (or very similar to anyway) on the field in Vanuatu. And lucky for us, there is actually a Ni-Vanuatu man here these 6 weeks who is teaching us his native language of White Sands (from the island of Tanna). There are 4 of us (Houghton and I along with Laura, and Brad Jones) in this White Sands group. Jim and Tania Kenner are also learning this language in another White Sands group, otherwise all the other students are either learning Urdu (spoken in Pakistan and parts of Fiji and India), Indonesian, or Karen (spoken in China, Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand).

We are so pumped about the training we are getting here and so thankful that the Lord has saw fit to lead us down this path. We are excited to use what we are learning in Vanuatu and to use it to better be equip for His plan for our team, whatever lies ahead.

Since Christmas

2009-01-18T20:52:00.014+11:00

As it has been a so long since our last post... this post is FULL of pictures of our last month. Christmas, Jesiah turning 4, our move to Australia, and what our new lives look like here in Kangaroo Ground, Victoria, Australia. So enjoy the pictures of our last month.... it starts with where we left off on our last normal blog entry. So if you remember Addy having Impetigo...this is that same time... :) Hope that is clear as mud! :) ENJOY!

Guys chartered a fishing boat with some other friends here in Vila and caught Christmas dinner. This Yellow Tailed Tuna. We had Tuna steaks for Christmas! It was AWESOME. ;)

Our Tuna is in the middle and on the L is two Barracuda and on R.... cannot remember HAH (its late) :) I want you to know that the fish on the far R is about as long as half my body...just to give you an idea of how HUGE these fish are!!!!!

Jesiah turned 4 on Dec 22! He had chocolate chip pancakes with chocolate syrup for his birthday breakfast.

Blowing out his candle.

Gwen, Piper (Jones), and Addy watching as we open presents during out team Christmas party.

Gwen got a baby and a new Vanuatu style dress.

Si got a flashlight that has different lenses to shine various creatures on the wall with. Zoe is explaining it to him in this pic. ;)

Checking out the flashlight.

Gwen getting her baby...gotta love that "ooo" face.

HAHA houghton was cutting up some amazingly potent onions so Laura and I told him to wear goggles so they wouldn't sting his eyes so much. I guess it worked but the suggestion was more for fun than really for practical reasons. :)

Flying into Sydney

Gracie and Si sat together.

On our way to our new home. By the way this was our first air-conditioned experience in 6 months. It was FREEZING! :)

While in Sydney we tried to take in all the "aussie" things we could. This included going to a meat pie vendor that was world famous here in Sydney. Meat pies were good...I guess I got a little carried away on that bite though :)

I thought this pic was funny as Houghton and I have great expressions on our faces while we try and figure Gwen out. Haha story of my life. :). Love that crazy girl.

Sitting in the harbor

Sydney has a beautiful botanical garden that we only briefly got to see. It was a beautiful day for sight seeing and we were SO glad that we didn't get rained on as it rained the day before.

Gwen all pooped out.

Our group mixed up in it all.

Chilling at Manly Beach.

On the way to Manly via Ferry. This ferry ride rocked because we saw a Ton of the popular sights of Sydney. Plus we had front row seats! Rock on.

The Sydney Opera House (back L). I hope to be able to catch an Opera with Houghton sometime this year.

Addy sitting with Pete. (You might remember Pete and his wife Liz from our early Vanuatu posts. He and his wife are from the Sydney area and were working short term with SIL when we first arrived to Vila. They went back to Australia in September and we were able to spend our time in Sydney with them...what a blast to see them again!)

Sitting in the Melbourne airport waiting for our SIL contacts to pick us up. This is just our lugguge behind us.

Gwen and I in our new house.

A long day aparently. This is the first time she has fallen asleep in her high chair.

Houghtons first driving on the other side of the card, on the other side of the road! AHHHHHHH.

Some Kangaroo pics for you to enjoy. We are literally surrounded by kangaroos. It is so wild!

Houghton took Si on a fishing trip to SugarLoaf lake.

While the girls played at home.

Gracie and Addy have become great pals. This is a trip to the mall close to our school ( when I say close I mean it took a bus and a train to get there )

I got by hair done!!!!! YAY.... It had been a while since I could actually do something with my hair beside a pony tail. In Vanuatu that is all I wanted because of the heat, but here...I can play! ;)

This is our most recient family picture. The school took it for thier records and we took it from them. We hope to get another "less posed infront of a background" shot soon.

Update on Gretchen

2009-01-13T12:24:00.002+11:00

Got back a little while ago from Gretchen's ultrasound and what they scanned seems to be healthy. Healthy bladder, kidneys, liver, aorta. So we are thankful for that! Gretch was able to sleep last night for the first time in days so we are grateful for the rest she got. Today she has been feeling better. Has had no pain to speak of since during the night and is trying to eat a bit today to replenish her nutrients as she hasn't eaten much during all of this either.

We ask that you continue to pray that she would be able to sleep and gain strength and that the pains would cease permanently.

We promise to keep you updated!

Thanks and to God be the glory!

PRAY

2009-01-12T18:07:00.000+11:00

For those of you who will see this before you get our emails...here is a letter we are buzzing out to our prayer supporters with email addresses.

Asking for quick prayer for Gretch. She has been having some intense pain for several days now and medication seems to not be dealing with the problem. We made the decision to have an ultrasound done of her abdomen to see if that could reveal what would be causing such pain. The appointment is set for tomorrow (Tuesday for us but Monday for you we are 15 hours ahead of you in MST) at 9:30 AM. This has been a very very hard time for our family. School started last Thursday (the day Gretch started feeling sick) and it is a very intense program. Because of this delay in our schooling Gretchen has had to make some serious decisions on her schooling program and I have had to be a full time student as well as full time dad and mom all while I haven’t been feeling 100% either. It has been very stressful and emotional. We are anxious about what this will mean if something shows up on the ultrasound. So please pray for wisdom in ALL the many decisions that we have to be making now as well as Gretch’s health.

We can only do this through God’s strength and we HAVE to have prayers going up for us in this immense time. Thank you for promising to be there for us and for supporting us through all the great times. And now some of the bad times. We covet your prayers and encouragement.

The kids are healthy and happy so we praise God for that.

Thank you,

In His care and His hands,

The Richards

WOW

2009-01-11T16:46:00.003+11:00

Just wanted to let you all know that we alive and settling in as we get ready to start school TOMORROW!!! Ah, God give us brains and courage as this next step is SO scary in a thousand ways. We have become so far behind in posts and we are so sorry about the time it has taken just to let you know we made it to Kangaroo Ground, Victoria , AUSTRALIA.
Unfortunalty I have to inform you that both Houghton and I are quite sick and so this post will not be able to be all that we want it to be until we can get our bodies and minds in better shape. We are unsure now what is exactly going on and praying that we will be able to focus on school 100% very soon.
If you could just be praying for us in this way. Thanks. And I promise.....MORE TO COME. Thanks for hanging in there with us!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T12:54:00.002+11:00

Hello to you all on this Christmas Eve day. I am just updating to let you all know that we will be finishing up our updates (on Vanuatu and Christmas, and Si's 4th b-day) when we get to Australia. We leave on Saturday. Today is FULL of getting things packed...Christmas Eve service tonight...and then tomorrow JUST CHILL for Christmas day. Then full of packing the day after as well as celebrating with Louis and Monique, Suzanne, Timo and Fred with their family on Friday.

I wanted you all to know that you will not hear from us for a while as our Internet router was fried during a lightning storm so we are using Internet from our teammates house to update this entry. So we will be getting Internet while in Australia.

Have a GREAT CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!

Updates! :)

2008-12-20T22:19:00.002+11:00

Just a reminder to keep checking up our account through You Tube to see our latest videos....

You can visit this link just by clicking on "our youtube account" tab on the right side of our blog under "links"

Our December

2008-12-20T09:59:00.006+11:00

Addy ended up getting Impetigo. It is a skin rash that is pretty common here and even in the states. However, it is more prevalent here because it is not treated for the most part and therefore, because it is highly contagious, there are more cases of it. If you are interested in knowing more go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impetigo . It started in her diaper area and then they started popping up on her face. Because she is so young she really doesn't even notice that she has these sores thank God. The only thing she complains about is when we give her the oral medicine as it tastes awful! She has had it for about 5 days now and it hasn't spread since she has been taking the antibiotic. So we are hoping the sores will be gone soon.

This is the largest sore. They start out as huge blisters and then when they pop they look like this. This sore appeared overnight.

Houghton, Si, Gwen and Laura along with Suzanne, Fred and Timo went to a hip hop dance competition this week. I was TOTALLY bummed to miss it but because Addy's rash was still contagious I needed to stay home with her. These are some pics of the crowd...It filled in a lot once the show started. But they got a great front row seat.

You can see our crew up in the front here in this pic.

ALL PICTURES FROM A VISIT TO WINNIE'S HOUSE:

We got on the topic of glasses. And the comment was made that I wear contacts...to which MUCH confusion arose. So I took one of my contacts out so they all could see it. It was like I was a magician. Hilarious! But they were amazed that I would have something in my eye to help me see. Later a kid came up and asked if I could take the "marble" out of my eye again so he could see it again.

Winnie sowing up an island dress. If you look at the machine it is a hand crank sowing machine.Taking a bath

The inside of a house. A frame with tin is pretty typical for in the city.

Winnie's son, Joshua, with an unhappy Addy. Addy was wanting mommy this day. It was quite hot and she couldn't fall asleep because it was so hot. So she was a bit grumpier than usual.

Addy playing with a fan

Gwen has taken a liking to Willie...this little guy (or not so little) is about 6 months old and I think is trying to eat Gwen's dress. :)

Climbing trees is done a lot. Si is just now starting to get into it.

I think this picture is great as it shows how chaotic it can get at times. Sometimes I have all three of my own kids crawling to be on my lap, as well as some local kids thrown into the mix. I wouldn't mind as much if it wasn't so amazingly HOT. :)