Jason and Angie Bechtel Bringing Hope to Unreached People Groups
Where were we earlier tonight? At Christmas in the Country, of course!
This was our second time going. We had a blast!
The girls (and Jason) all got to ride in a little atv-drawn train. And we all went on a horse drawn wagon. We saw geese, goats, sheep, pigs, chickens. Even alpacas.
And we got to hold baby rabbits.
But the best part was likely getting our photos with… nope, not Santa Claus (that line up was too long) … but with Vixon.
This past weekend we were able to head a bit north for some extended family time. We stayed at Miller’s Family Campground with Jason’s dad, brother and sister-in-law. It rained on and off all weekend and it was quite cold, but we weren’t bothered by any of that. Thankfully we’d had the foresight to book two little cabins, which had cold running water, but best of all, they had wood stoves! We were toasty and dry all weekend! 
It did stop raining enough for us to enjoy some walks and a little trip into Tobermory. The girls were pretty disappointed that they couldn’t go swimming in Miller Lake, but they seemed to enjoy themselves despite that fact!
Here are a few pictures of the older girls (the youngest was napping at the time) taken by our wonderful sister-in-law:
You can see our little cabins in the background.
The view from our cabins.
Sisterly Love.
Even Lexi joined in the fun!
Can you believe it is already the 10th of August. The summer is flying by. The days are getting shorter. School is just around the corner!
Thanks for praying! You are a vital part of our tribal church planting team!
Thanks for praying! You are a vital part of our tribal church planting team!
How can we be praying with you this week?
Lorelei taking the plunge
These past two weeks, from 4-5pm, the girls have been taking swimming lessons. Delena took lessons when she was 3, but this was her first time to complete a red cross level and she was awarded the level one and two badge! I can hardly believe how much she’s improved over these past two weeks! At the beginning she couldn’t even make it across the width of the pool without touching down and now she’s jumping in the deep end with no life jacket and swimming the entire length of the pool!
This was Lorelei’s first experience with swimming lessons. At the very beginning of the summer I wasn’t even planning on her doing lessons because she was so timid around the water, but as we had a few more chances in different bodies of water, she got braver and braver. I decided on a last minute whim to see if there was room for her in lessons and I managed to get her into the slot before Delena with only 3 days to spare! She did really great as well. She had the perfect teacher because her teacher would ask her to do something, Lorelei would say ‘no’ and the teacher just ignored her ‘no’ which is exactly what Lorelei needed. She did very well and managed to pass the first three levels of the toddler program!
Delena’s teacher’s comment in her report card was, “You are just like a fish in the water!” I think that pretty much sums it up for both girls!
Last night we were able to attend the staff open house up at Jungle Camp. There are 5 houses this year and one of them is my brother’s. His was the most unique, being triangular in shape! I’m pretty sure that’s the first time that’s ever been done in all the years in Jungle Camp!
It was fun to visit him ‘in the forest’ as the girls were telling anyone and everyone! He served us a fine supper of chicken and rice with pickled carrots (compliments of some friends of his and ours). The pickled carrots were a first for us, but very tasty!
The girls had fun playing on his dirt floor with his wood for burning in his clay oven, but the evening ended a bit abruptly when daughter #1 accidently threw a piece of wood THROUGH his wall! Whoops! Thankfully it should be patched up fairly easily with man’s best tool: duct tape!
Here are some photos of some of the houses:
An insulated hot water tank and its proud owners
Steps just her height!
Testing out someone's hammock
At the Uncle's
Yesterday our whole family walked ALL the way across the street to see Delena’s end of the school year performance. The Junior Kindergarten class sang, “I can’t spell Hippopotamus”. It’s a cute little song about all the words they CAN spell, like, cat, dog, etc…all rhyming, of course! It ends with, “But I can’t spell Hippopotamus!” Thus, they are all wearing hippopotamus ears.
They sang ‘Oh Canada’ as their second and final number and then the SR Kindergarten class sang a few numbers and then received their diplomas. It was short and sweet!
Here is a picture of Delena during her performance…It was hard to get a good shot with her in the back row, but here’s what we got:
This weekend we made a trip to Ottawa! One of my cousins was getting married and they asked Lorelei to be the flower girl. Delena was kind of disappointed that she didn’t get to do it, but since she’s done it twice before, it was time to share the wealth!
It was an outdoor wedding and blazing hot, but thankfully we were in a mostly shaded area, so no one fainted or anything!
After the rehearsal going smoothly the morning before, I wasn’t concerned at how the wedding would go. Lorelei had only met my cousin once before when she was a baby, so she didn’t remember her at all! Lorelei was happy to go with her and with the little ring bearer whom she hadn’t met before either! As Lorelei and the little boy walked across the grass, they started wandering off to the side in their own little world. We had to call them to walk down the actual aisle. I guess they were a little confused because there had been no chairs at the rehearsal and they COULD just wander wherever. Oh well, they did their job…they were cute!
We had a lot of fun leading up to the wedding as well because most of our clan all stayed at the same college residence, so we were able to meals together and spend time together. The girls especially enjoyed one particular cousin who came all the way from Switzerland!
The drive home took FOREVER! We left at 10:30 in the morning and didn’t get home until 10:30 at night! There was a LOT of traffic on the 401, so after inching along for awhile, we decided to take back roads. I’m glad we did that because, although it took longer, it was relatively stress-free! So we were beat when we got home, but it was worth it for the good weekend that was had!
Much of my life is spent doing childcare. Okay, all of my life is childcare, but on Monday and Thursday mornings I spend half the morning looking after other people’s children at New Tribes Mission. I help look after the children of students who are training to be tribal church planters. It’s a fun time for me because I get out of the house and my kids LOVE it. Every morning Lorelei asks if we get to go to childcare and both her and Delna get extremely disappointed if we don’t end up going, usually because of sickness.
It’s a nice set-up — there are three rooms side by side so I have one of my children in each. I’m normally in with the toddlers, but every-so-often I end up with the babies and last year I was 3 days a week with the pre-schoolers — so I’m fairly comfortable in any of the rooms. It’s nice for the children too because when they have the same workers fairly consistently, it gives them a sense that all is right in the world. I really enjoy getting to know the children and their parents through this ministry. Definitely a highlight of the week!
