We started our Saturday with a visit at the house of our former pastor and a mentor of Chuck’s.  We enjoyed our time of fellowship with John and Barb Stanley very much.  The kids were able to ride a 4 wheeler and take a ride in a bush car!  What fun they had!  I am afraid of what Kyle will be asking for on his next birthday!

The drive along Georgian Bay was beautiful.  Every time the kids would see the water, they would yell, “water!”  We loved looking at the old farm houses and the beautiful new homes along the bay.

From there we continued up the Bruce Peninsula to a cabin on Lake Huron.  What a beautiful place to be!  The view was fantastic.  The beach magnificent.  And the cabin gorgeous!  We spent the evening visiting with friends from Bethel Evangelical Missionary Church in Lion’s Head.  The kids had a great time running around outside and making new friends.  Us, adults, enjoyed visiting together, catching up on the past 3 years.

Waking up Sunday morning to the view out the big windows of the cabin was breath-taking.  I couldn’t resist having the kids pose for a picture before we left that beautiful spot that God created.

This is Sophia as she tried to smile for me!  What a character she is!

We were blessed with a wonderful Sunday morning of sharing the ministry we have been involved in in the Philippines with the folks at Bethel EMC.  We also enjoyed a time of fellowship over food after the service.

We feel so blessed for the things the Lord allows us to experience and enjoy.  He didn’t have to allow us to stay in such a beautiful place but He did because He cares for us.  What a privilege it is to serve our Creator.

“You alone are the Lord.

You have made the heavens,

The heaven of heavens with all their host,

The earth and all that is on it,

The seas and all that is in them.

You give life to all of them

And the heavenly host bows down before You.”

Nehemiah 9:6

We would love to visit with so many of you also.  We look forward to seeing many of you at the churches we will be visiting but we would love to visit with you one on one.  Send us an email if you would like to visit with us in your home or ours.  We would love to share with you more about what the Lord is doing in the Philippines with the Ga’dang people.

She loves to run around the house and chase her siblings.  Or run away from them if she has stolen something that belongs to them!  She has mastered the stairs, moving the step stool all over the house to get what she wants and how to sulk when she gets in trouble!  After being told to not play in her cup at the dinner table this week, she decided she would cover her head with her blankie and hide!

One of her other antics is to take off her clothes.  It is common to see her with 1 and sometimes 2 arms out of her shirt sleeves, putting the neck around her belly.  Or she will take of her pants and run around the house.  Sometimes she decides she wants different clothes on and proceeds to empty her lower 2 dresser drawers in search of the perfect replacement!

With Chuck working 3 days a week, she sure misses her daddy.  When Chuck calls at lunch time, she yells “Daddy, talk Daddy?”  Then she will smile and say hi to daddy on the phone.  She will come running to see him as soon as she hears his voice when he gets home.

But my most favourite thing about Jenna is her cuddles in the morning.  For those of you who know me, I am not an early or easy riser in the morning!  Chuck is always up before me.  Ever since Jenna moved out of room, Chuck would get her up in the morning and bring her to me because she was nursing.  After she stopped nursing she became my alarm clock.  After she is done breakfast she comes in to wake me up and give me cuddles in bed.  Now that she is talking, she comes in saying, “wakie, wakie!”  But she still climbs up and gets under the blankets and cuddles in with me.  I am starting to wonder if this is why I can’t get out of bed in the morning!

Jenna brings such joy to our lives every day.  We are so blessed to have her as part of our family.

Medical Fund:

We would like to be able to help the Ga’dang more with their medical needs.  There are many times that people won’t go out to town to seek medical treatment because they don’t have enough money.  It is hard to not be able to help people that we are there to help when we ourselves don’t have the extra money to give them.  There have already been a couple times that we have needed to use the helicopter to get someone out to town for medical treatment.  This costs us $189 US to fly a patient out.  This comes our of our regular support right now.  We don’t want to have to stop and think about whether or not we can afford to fly someone out that needs medical help.

Our desire is to see $200 a month designated for this medical fund.  This is just a beginning.  We don’t really know what the needs will be in the future.  This could be 2 people at $100 each, 4 people at $50 or 8 people at $25 a month.  Or any number of ways.

New digital Camera:

We are constantly taking pictures of the people and things in our village.  We use these pictures for language learning, to share with you all and make copies to give to the Ga’dang people.  We have been getting by with just a cheap camera for a couple years now.  We would like to get something that is good quality so it can last a long time and be able to bless those we come in contact with. Cost: ???

Skeetervac/Mosquito magnet:

We don’t think of ourselves as being in a malaria area but Hala and Jenna have both had malaria in this last term in the Philippines.  We are wanting to reduce the risk of malaria by killing the mosquitos that are around our house.  Hala is also very sensitive to other insect bits and this will help her in that area. Cost: $400-800 depending on the machine.

New laptop computer:

As many of you know the tropics are not good for computers.  When we returned to the Philippines in 2009 we had 2 laptops, one for each of us to use.  While there those 2 computers met there end.  We were able to purchase a new one in August but are still in need of a second computer for Shannon to use.  Cost $1,000

New Generator:

After building 2 houses and powering our electrical needs for a year, our Honda generator died on us in September.  We were thankful to be able to use our co-worker’s generator to meet our needs for the last 6 months we were in the village.

We desire to have solar power but we also need a back up.  When it rains for days on end and we don’t see the sun for weeks, having a generator that can give power to charge our batteries will be a necessity for us.

We would like to purchase a Honda EU2000i, from the US (they have linking capabilities that the Canadian model doesn’t.)  Cost $1,200

Mission Medicine Intensive Training Course:

ways.  One of ways we show Christ’s love to the Ga’dang people is by helping them with their medical needs.  This is sometimes cleaning a cut on a child’s foot and putting a band aid on it but many times we have people coming with different illnesses.  Our desire is to help them however we can.  Shannon would like to attend a 2 week medical course run by Equip International in North Carolina this September.  This course is geared towards missionaries and how they can help their families and the people they minister among.  For more information check out the link: Mission Medicine Intensive.  Cost $2000 including course fee and airfare.

Return plane tickets:

When we booked our plane tickets to return to Canada we had enough money to purchase just one-way tickets.  We will need to purchase return tickets towards the end of the year. 

Cost $6,000

Solar Power Equipment:

Our desire is to be able to set up a solar power system to meet our electrical needs in the village.  Up until now we have been using our generator to power our needs.  In the long run using solar is much more cost effective.  Cost $8,000

Monthly Support:

Our current monthly support is at about 50% of the mission recommended amount.  We really need to see our support increase before we return to the Philippines.  It has been hard to meet the needs of our family and it has kept us from being able to do more to help the Ga’dang people.  We are also looking at sending Eli, our oldest child, to Faith Academy.  It’s a boarding school in Manila.  We are trusting in the Lord to see our monthly support increase to 75% by the time we return.

It’s Spring in Ontario and one of the best parts of springtime is seeing all the birds come back to Ontario.  We have watched flocks of geese in the air many days when the weather was really warm.  We are so blessed by having many bird feeders in the back yard that we can watch the blue jays, and robins come to eat.  We even have charts by the back window to help us identify some of the many birds that come our way.

We have also noticed the many seagulls here.  Just a couple days after we arrived, Jenna saw a bird flying in the sky and said, “chicken!”  It reminded me that we don’t see seagulls in the Philippines.  I then thought of how few birds we do see.

A normal day in the village starts and ends with the sounds of roosters crowing.  Actually those sounds only end when I finally fall asleep.  Many nights I will wake to hearing the roosters crowing even in the dark.  And the sun being up doesn’t stop them from crowing either.  We sure don’t miss the sounds of those roosters. 

Every day we see many hens and their chicks wandering around looking for something to eat.  It is fun to watch the chicks grow as the weeks go on.

The only other birds we see are the odd bird that someone had killed to eat.  We don’t see fancy parrots or birds flying from tree to tree.

So this spring we will take time to enjoy all the birds we can see.

It has been great to see so many people.  We have missed our family and friends.  The kids have begun having sleepovers with their cousins and get togethers with their friends.  We have been to my sister’s hockey game.  We’ve had meals with friends.  Shared many meals with my mom.  And enjoyed many lunches with Grandpa.

We have been able to get bikes for almost everyone.  They even ride in the driveway with all this cold weather!  We are looking forward to family bike rides once the weather gets nicer.

We have been so blessed by the gifts from so many people.  The 2 biggest blessings have been a house to live in and a van.  Chuck’s parents have allowed us to stay in their house while we are home. 

We have also been blessed with an 8 passenger van to drive.  Thank you so much to everyone at Faith EMC and Lion’s Head Missionary Church for helping us to get this van.

As we begin April and look to what the Lord has for us, we see a busy month ahead with many appointments.  We are hoping to get all of Hala’s appointments done this month.  Plus we are going to be making a trip to NTBI Jackson for the last week of the month.  We look forward to being able to see so many of you soon.

We continue to make contacts with churches and individuals as we seek to share what the Lord has been doing through us with the Ga’dang people.  Our first speaking engagement is April 29th at our home church, Faith EMC in Wasaga Beach.  After that we will be kept busy speaking in different churches almost every Sunday through June.

We still have many dates available to share.  So if you would like us to come share with your church, small group, youth group or just you, please send us an email or call us.  chuck-shannon_talbot@ntm.org  or 705-429-3365

Please be praying for us as we travel throughout this month and the months ahead.