Building begins

Today we started on the construction of the much needed goat pen. Dean and Terry (the base director) went shopping for material on Saturday because the stores will be closed for holidays till Wed. The base was blessed with the funds to build this project from friends of the Fehr's. Who will be here today! Today they are preparing the base and hand mixing the concrete. Those of you who have ever mixed concrete by hand will know how much work that is. I will post pictures of the progress as I get them. Pray for good weather and no rain. We will need it.

mission kids

There are so many great reasons why people choose to go on missions. These are some of our reasons.

Fun day in the village

One of our favorite things that we have done is to bring a poleroid camera with us and take pictures of the kids and families to give them. Lots of people living in situations such as this have never had a picture of themselves that they can keep. It is a huge relationship builder. Everyone loves to see pictures of themselves. For them to be able to keep the picture instead of just to look at the picture on some ones camera is huge. The next day after taking the pictures they ran up to me saying "senora photo" they new me and wanted to hug me and walk with me and hold me hand.It is the most fun thing for me to be able to do. (Thanks Con and Lorraine!).




We spent another day in the village teaching the kids and having fun. It was neat to go the second day because the kids came running, knowing our names and wanting hugs. We took the kids to the beach for a couple of hours in the afternoon and played in the water and in the sand and fed them treats. We will miss them.

Visit to the indigenous village

This is the first KidzReach team in action.
Colton and Miranda had fun playing with the kids in the village. Colton made balloon animals. Miranda skipped with the kids and drew with them and they both showed them pictures from back home. The kids were very excited when I brought out the poleroid camera and took pictures of everyone in the village.


This is some of the houses in the village that we visited. They are all built up on stilts. Some of the house don't have walls all around them and babies sometimes fall off the edge.

Sun

Thank you God it is not raining today!!!!!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!! We have had a very different Christmas this year. You would expect that we would be having a very hot sunny Christmas. But this year we have had lots and lots of RAIN. Yes, rain 15-20 inches in the last few days. Everywhere we go is by boat because we are in a house far away from anywhere.
Today we decided to ignore the rain and go by boat to the nearest beach. We could have walked but it is an hour through the rain forest jungle by foot. So we jumped on the boat and headed over. It was a fun little excursion. We played in the sand and ate some coconut and watermelon and headed back. Tonight we will have a ham and potato supper made by our hosts.
We hope everyone has a very merry Christmas and we wish Don a very happy birthday.

Bastimentos, Panama

We are on the small island of Bastimentos Panama. This is the second part to our KidzReach outreach. We have had a busy last few days. It has been raining like crazy for the last 3 days. They say they have never seen it rain like this in December. So it feels a little like Vancouver. I didn't ever think I would miss snow, but I have been talking about snow a lot. It is so much dryer than rain. The blessing is that the house that we are staying in even in the rain is so great. It is up on a big hill over looking the mangroves and the bay.
Today we spent the morning playing with some of the local indigenous kids. They came over to the house and we baked Christmas cookies and just got to know each other. In the afternoon we made the families in the neighborhood a big Christmas dinner of chicken mixed into rice with boiled beans on the side. We also served them the Christmas cookies that we had made for them in the morning. Before dinner started we had to go and pick them up from the village so that they wouldn't have to treck through the jungle in the pouring rain.
We had a bit of a program for them. The kids did a skit for them about the meaning of Christmas. They really seemed to like it. After dinner before they left we gave each child a bag with a toy in it that we brought from home. They were so excited to get this gift. Because not only was this probably the only gift they would get this Christmas. But they also took the left over food home with them so that they would have food for tomorrow.
We talked a lot this evening about how happy we made these families and how that is a great way to be able to serve. We are so blessed to be able to have this experience and can't wait to tell our friends and family more about it when we come home. Merry Christmas!

Colton's fish

This is the picture of the Yellow finned tuna. Notice the rain in the background.

Today Dean and Colton went fishing for the morning. They got up shortly after 5am to get an early start. It was a cloudy day and it looked like it would clear up. It started to drizzle a bit and only down poured a bit here and there and on the way back. Colton caught 1 10lb. yellow finned tuna a king mackerel a and Benito. As you can see Dean is not holding a fish ) - :

Scuba Diving and snorkeling

Miranda's post:These are my friends that I met on the bus ride from Costa Rica, There names are Jen and Kelly. We had lots of fun on the beach. They used to be cheer leaders and they taught me a new move. They are really fun and they are like my big sisters.

Wendy's post: We have been doing a bit of tourist stuff the last few days. We are spending our few free days on the island of Bocas. Yesterday Dean and I went scuba diving and Colton and Miranda went snorkeling above us. It was a great day doing something that we all love.
Miranda's post: Yesterday we saw a lot of starfish and we saw alt of sea cucumbers wen my mom and my dad went scuba diving . There was a lot of Coral . Today my dad and my brother went fishing and me and my mom are going to go on a shopping spree.

miss you

Well ...we've been gone 9 whole days and today not one e-mail. Not even spam. Sigh.. ) - :
Disclaimer: Dean is NOT in favor of this post but Miranda says that I am my own woman and she thinks that I can.

Bocas Del Toro, Panama

Now for the rest of the story....
We did leave in the rain and we packed our bags through the rain to the bus stop. We took the 1 1/2 hr. bus ride to the border and then walked across the bridge from Costa Rica to the Panama customs and Immigration. That in itself is very interesting. The bridge is for trains, cars and also people to go across. The cars and people drive and walk on 2x6's some of which are broken. The bridge is about 150 yards long. So while I was carrying two huge backpacks as was Dean, Colton and Miranda were also each carrying a pack. What fun! Thankfully the rain stopped and we definitely thought that we had had ENOUGH! Then when we arrived into Panama and went to the 3 different places to get our passports stamped we grabbed a taxi bus and headed to the banana boats which we had taken last year. The trip was about 45 min. long. We were so happy to finally get there. When we dragged all our bags down to the boats we were told that there was a tree that had fallen across the canal and the boats wouldn't be going any more till tomorrow. SOOO we got back n to the taxi and took the road back from were we had come and went another hour to the other way that you can get to Bocas. Then when we got there we took a different boat for 1/2 an hour to the town, YEAH, we made it!!
Our bed and breakfast place has hot water and a/c. We are in heaven and we slept. Oh how great it is to sleep and not sweat. Today we did something cool. We went with some people that we met (on the long bus ride from Costa Rica )and rented a boat for the day. We went snorkeling and to the beach. We also tried to learn more about the indigenous by trying out one of their boats as you can see. Big fat Canadians are not meant for little cayuca canoes.
We also studied up on the local wildlife in the area. These are both native to the area and we just happened upon this strawberry poison dart frog and also this very cute howler monkey on the beach. No really, these are in the wild and that is why we love to come here.

Beach

We left the YWAM base after a busy week. It felt like it was a whirl wind of planning learning which was why we were there. It was amazing to see the difference in our whole family when we first spotted the ocean. We all came alive. We all got a new energy that is so fun to see. We started talking about what we wanted to see and do and laughed about how much fun it was going to be. After a long day traveling on a bus for 81/2 hours it was great to have some excitement again. We dropped our bags and headed for the beach to play in the water before it got dark. Also we needed to find something to eat. Dean is o.k. with food on the side of the road but me and the kids are a little more cautious about what we eat. We also had to make Miranda happy and find a coconut and eat it. That was what she wanted to do the most.
The next morning we started the day at the beach finding more coconuts to eat and also to take a walk along the beach rain forest jungle. The path takes you along the beach and in and out of the jungle. We took so many pictures along the way it was so beautiful.
That night it was sooo hot. We lay in bed a sweat. It was so nice to finally get out of bed in the morning and go out into the breeze. But unfortunately it was raining. It would have been a nice light rain other than we had to hike our 5 backpacks to the bus stop and then change buses 2 more times and take a half hour boat ride to get to Panama. Tomorrow you will hear.....the rest of the story.

New Goat pen needed

Here is a picture of the space that needs a new goat/horse house. Here are the kids with a kid.

KidzReach orientation

We have been very busy the last few days. It feel like we have been here a long time and it’s only been three full days. We were very lucky to be able to have our own house. It is a one bedroom house that we can stay in this week that Taja lives in. She works on the YWAM base and is out on Outreach for the next while in Columbia I think.
We started our time here with some tours of the main base. We looked for projects that we could do when the Fehrs arrive in Jan. One of the projects that is really needed is a new pen for the goats on the base. Right now they don’t have the funds to build one and the goats are tied out on ropes all day. Last week they lost one of their best breeding goats because it became entangled in it’s rope and no one saw it in time. So if it works out we would like to build them a space. I will try to download a picture. We have been having problems with our e-mail ever since arriving in Costa Rica. I found that I could get e-mails but I can’t send them from our computer. Ryan showed me how to start a new Gmail account and that seems to be working but of course we don’t have any of our address book in this new account and so it takes a long time to send a bunch of people e-mails.
The other things that we have been doing is preparing for our outreach in Panama. Colton and Miranda have been making prayer journals to document their time while one KidzReach. They have also been packing tracts into the toy bags we brought down from home We went on a bus ride down to the next little town San Rafael and the kids played in the park with the local kids and then after our time there they handed out 25 bags or so. The kids at the park were very happy to get these toys.
Yesterday we started to learn a drama to do for the indigenous in Panama. It is a story about 3 trees and how they were used to glorify Jesus.
We have been having a great time living like the Costa Rican’s, and team building with the Bedencops.

KidzReach

We made it to Costa Rica. We spent today in orientation and went into town and played at a park with the local kids and handed out a bunch of the beanie babies and hot wheel toys that the kids back home collected for us. It was very fun to see the faces on the local kids and also on our kids faces. It was fun to see our friends Ryan and Sarah and the kids again.

Panama 2007/2008

Dear friends and family,
We wanted to let you all know what has been happening in our lives. We have been seeking what to do this winter and we feel that we are being led to Panama. We met a family last year in Costa Rica at a YWAM (youth with a mission) base and told them of our desire for taking our kids on missions. They also live that dream them selves and we talked a lot since then about what that could mean for our families. Well, this summer we talked about how in addition to our family we would like to see other families also experience missions abroad. We knew from last year that there were a few building projects that really needed to be done on the base that we had visited. That seemed to be the direction that we would go. Then in another discussion with Sarah (the YWAM mom) we started talking about a plan to involve our kids directly with the children in that country to show them the hope that we have in Jesus. We prayed a lot about what that would look like and Sarah came up with the idea to start a team of kids and equip them to go out and reach their generation among the nations and show them the love of Jesus. Then after much prayer she thought of a name to call this outreach. She is calling this mission KidzReach.
So this December we will be going for a month or so to isla Bastimentos, a small island off the coast of Panama in the Bocas del Toro island chain. God blessed us with the opportunity to go and spend Christmas with the Ngobe people who live on this island. Last week Sarah and her family were there for a week and brought down a bunch of bibles that had been translated into Ngobere (their native tongue). When the first man, a new Ngobe believer took the bible carefully in his hands he asked “who wrote this?” He was asking who knew his language and took the time to write God’s word so that he could truly read and understand.
These are the people that we will be visiting. We will also be able to help the new YWAM base on the island to build a church/school for these people. The material for the building has been sitting there for a couple of months because a group had fundraised and bought the material to build it and the material didn’t arrive in time to do the work. So Dean is very happy to have a project to do while we are there. They are very happy that someone who has building experience will come and help them.
So we will be the first exploratory team for KidzReach (the new ministry Sarah has started). We will be focusing on the relationship aspect and then trusting God to show us what to teach and how to act to bring His hope into the lives of the indigenous. The first KidzReach team will be training, mobilizing and Educating kids to take the gospel to the unreached. So we are trying as a family to wait and see what else God is asking us to do. We are trusting that He has a plan for us every step of the way. So many times during this we have seen how God is surprising us and guiding us in directions we never expected to go. Every time we think that we have it figured out, we are again amazed at the cool things that He has for us to learn. Once again we find ourselves traveling a new journey and through Gods grace we will see where that leads us. Thank you for all your prayers and support.

Dean, Wendy, Colton and Miranda

Canadian Summers

Canada has some of the best summers. We spent the summer being together as much as possible. We tried to go camping as many weekends as we could. One of the best beaches in the world I think is Grand Beach north of Winnipeg.
One of the things we also did this summer is to plan where we would go this winter. When we got an e-mail from Sarah in Costa Rica asking us if we would like to help her get a new mission off the ground in Costa Rica, we jumped at the chance. This was exactly the type of program that we had hoped to find when we started becoming interested in serving abroad with our kids. It is all about families serving others and how kids can make a huge impact on the world. The name of this program is KidzReach. It is about Kidz reaching across the nations. www.kidzreach.com
So that is what our plan is for this year. We will be flying out to Costa Rica and meeting Sarah and her family and busing it down to Panama with them. There we will boat out to a remote island where we will meet with a village of indigenous people. We will also help to build them a small church. It will be a challenging few weeks but we are all really looking forward to it. After Christmas on this island we will make our way back up to Costa Rica and work on the YWAM base that we worked on last year.

Worship at Soar

We experienced some very powerful worship times at Soar. The teens have so few barriers to worship compared to all the ideas that we were raised with. It was cool to see such exuberance. We had a very busy 10 days. We started with setting up and cleaning up the facility. Then the people arrived. All 200 of them. So we found places for everyone to sleep and arranged for everyone to have a place to sit at meals. We started the week with orientation and on Monday everyone left for their individual team service locations. So we thought for a few minutes that we would have a bit of a break till they returned, But then we noticed that we needed to clean up and restock toilet paper and hand towel paper and vacuum and have meetings and suddenly it was 4:00 and everyone started coming back and wanting to take showers and wow was it busy. Then after supper we had worship and team times and snack and then the process of getting 200 teens to bed. Well that in itself was interesting. But everyone was very mature and usually by 12pm or so it was quiet. So we could go to bed. Then the alarm went off one night and the other things that keep you up in a different place all happened and we got really tired. But it was so fun and the people were so great that I can't believe that we have never been to soar before and can't imagine not being involved every year from now on.

Soar Heartland

This year during spring break we will have a unique experience to go on missions. We are going to help out at Soar Heartland as Facility Coordinators. This is really exciting for us because it is totally using our gifts to their greatest potential and it is neat to be doing something this big so close to where we live. We will be working for 10 days (with Colton and Miranda) while staying at the facility so we will be immersed into the mission similarly to the way we would be when going to another country.
Soar is a mission that takes youth from around the province and brings them together in one location. Trains them and takes them out into inner city life to help the people who need it so badly. There are some who will work at building project,soup kitchens with kids on spring break with other churches and during the week there is a big carnival for all the kids. It can be a very spiritual journey for the participants and also the people they are helping. It will be interesting to see where Jesus shows up in all of this. Also to be a part of it and see what this experience will teach us about our neighbours. I will try to blog while we are there but again when in something like this it is hard to know what to expect. They are looking for all types of volunteers so if you would like to do something big during the break call me.

Mission 2008

We have been home for two weeks and are planning the trip for next year. Our dream as a family is to be able to share the love of missions abroad with other families. The first step we have done already. The plan has been put into place for Jan. 2008 for us to go back to the YWAM base with a group of families and help them build a new kitchen facility and/or a new cabin for staff or hosting missionaries. The base was were we stayed and helped build and work the first week in Costa Rica. We also have been asked to come back to the bible school next year and again help with their kids camp. We will need people to help build and people who love kids and people who like to cook and people who want to pray and people who want to travel.So if this is what God is calling you to do, give us a call. The people in Costa Rica would love to have you!
The picture here is of the little cabin that we stayed in at the YWAM base and is similar to what they would like to build more of. They have cut the lumber from the trees on the property and would like to use it to build other buildings that they really need.

Going Home

Our time in Costa Rica is slowly coming to an end. We have had such a great time. As I watch Colton and Miranda playing and interacting with one another I am amazed that they can play together all day without fighting, with no toys, just each other. If nothing else came from this trip but to be able to see the friendship between these two kids grow, that is enough for me. But neadless to say we saw and did and learned so much more. When I think how this trip started from a dream to travel, do missions and be together as a family in another country. I think it was sucessful. We became closer and saw new things and discovered a bit more about Gods world. It has been a great adventure. We also have alot more insight to hopefully bring a group of people back to this country next year. There are people here who are waiting for our return with open arms. We have also found a great place to have fun on the beach! We have been blessed by so many people that have helped to make this trip possible. If Dean`s dad wasn`t there working his but off and taking care of work we couldn`t have come. If Justina wasn`t looking after our house (and a dog in heat)I don`t know what we would have done. If the teachers and principle at school didn`t support us in this it would have been so much harder. We also have so many people who are praying every day for our safty and that we will make a difference here. We feel so loved and supported. WOW!

Surfing

Colton learned to surf today!!!

Fishing pictures

Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

We finally left the rain and are in hot hot hot!!! We love it. We flew from Panama to Costa Rica and ended up in Quepos, Costa Rica 1 1/2 hrs. later. We found a condo to stay in and today we went fishing. Colton caught a 20 lb. rooster fish and a Jack fish. The Rooster fish is a fish that everyone is trying to catch out here. So Colton is really pumped and Dean is a little jealous. Miranda caught a Gar and Dean also caught a nice Jack fish. The Jack fish have dark red meat and when you fry it, which we did for supper it almost looks like your eating beef. While we were fishing we saw a 12 foot croc. swimming in the ocean. That was realy cool to see. We also went snorkling for a while at the end of fishing. Dean pulled out 8-10 oysters and him and Colton ate them raw. We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and playing on the beach. I'm trying to get over all my ailments. The other day I was cutting open a coconut and Cut my finger, than the same day I ripped half my fingernail off. If that isn't enough the mosquitos in Panama bit me up to pieces and I have at least 100 bites and I am soooo itchy, mostly at night. So I'm hoping that they will leave me alone in C.R.
We are planning on spending the day in Manuel Antonio park tomorow. It is a haven for monkeys and tonnes of birds and a few crocs. so that should be fun.

Bastimentos, Panama

We have been spending our time on this island dodging the rain and whenever possible having as much fun as possible. We went to see a whole bay of dolphins we snorkelled we have been fishing, Dean and Colton 3 times. We have met a tonne of people and we are so thankfull for the chance to be able to fill our lives meeting people from around the world.We love to be able to see things that most peple wouldn-t want to because its to hot or to dirty or to dangerous or they just want to stay home. So hopefully we can share some of this trip with the people who wouldnt want to do it but still find it interesting. Today we ate in a restraunt that they just opened 2 days ago. We had fried chicken and french fries and coleslaw made by this charming Jamacian looking lady. Colton said it was the best papas fritas (french fries) that he has ever eaten. The place looked like someones back deck but it was really cool. Well I had better get back to the only sun we have had and try to soak it up. Hopefully it doesnt shock my system.