FOLLOW OUR ADVENTURES IN DEMLAND

We live amongst a tribal group known as the Dem who are located in the mountains of Southeast Asia. We are here to learn their language, translate the Bible into their language, and teach them about God. If you would you like to receive our monthly newsletter, send us an email at: dylan_vanrensburg@ntm.org

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Dylan is back from his trip now, but these are from the day he left.  I'm a little behind:)

I had Roman in the front carrier so we borrowed a leash for Gideon.  He was not a huge fan, but settled down for a little bit after a while.
 However, the departure time continued to get pushed back and he really wasn't happy and my leg hurt (more on that later:), so I took him to the car to wait with him strapped into a carseat and me enjoying the AC.  Hence this picture of everyone minus me, Gideon and Roman.
 Dylan, Logan, Jay and Jared
 Ready for take off!

They flew on this plane for about an hour and a half and then took a helicopter to the tribe.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

The great lice debacle of June 2012

You can't tell from the picture but her head is laden with lice and eggs.  This was taken the day before Raquel ran in the house crying after bumping her head.  After I kissed her and hugged her, I jokingly pretended to inspect her head for the huge hole that had resulted from her fall.  Instead of a hole I found a tiny bug, and then another one, and another and another. . . 

Hindsight is always 20/20. I now know that when I had looked at her hair a week before that and said 'oh you have dirt in your hair, we need to wash it' what I was seeing was not dirt but indeed lice eggs stuck to her hair.  Yuck yuck yuck!
Look at all that hair everyone had!
We chopped Raquel's and my hair (there were a few in my hair since she and I shared a hairbrush - that's in the garbage now.  The boys really didn't have any lice, but we weren't taking any chances) and buzzed the boys.

Raquel sporting her short haircut smothered in mayonnaise in hopes it would also 
smother any lice left.

We bought a lice killing hair treatment that you leave on all night.  Dylan was very excited to take a picture:)
We stripped all the beds and washed everything we could (not as easy as it sounds with no dryer and no hot water going to our washing machine). Roman's pack and play was being disinfected so the little baldy happily spent the night in a trunk.
Over the next few days I spent a total of 8 hours with a headlamp picking hundreds of eggs out of Raquel's hair.  She was amazingly well behaved and still, watching movies and doing art projects while I worked.  We're assuming she got it from the neighbor kids that she plays with even though our neighbors would say otherwise.  A few days later we were next door talking to our neighbors and they asked me how she got it and I just said "I don't know", they then shook their heads and blamed the dog.  The funny thing was that the lady who asked me was lying on a bench while another lady picked through her head looking for lice!

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

And we're back!
We finally have internet at our house now. Whoo hoo!

  In keeping with the birthday theme of the last two posts, these are pictures from a 1st birthday party we went to a while ago for a little boy from our church- it was quite the shindig.

Here he is on his throne by his cake table - check out the poster of him in the background.

 Compared to this, the turn out for Raquel's party was rather small;)
 One of the presents was wrapped in Shaun the Sheep paper and when Gideon saw it he grabbed it and wouldn't let it go.  They let him carry it around until we left.
 The birthday boy gave the first piece of cake to the youngest person at the party.  That turned out to be Roman!

Thursday, May 3, 2012

and a two year old!

Gideon's birthday was a little more low key:)  The Teall's came over for cake and he got to open presents.   
 It took him a while to blow out the candle, but he finally got it:)
 He was very meticulous about opening his gift and put each scrap of paper on the table in front of him as he unwrapped it.
 It's Shaun the Sheep!  (We got a couple of Shaun the Sheep DVDs here and he has fallen in love with them and asks to watch constantly)
Raquel gave him a toy rhinoceros that she wrapped herself.

He will now say he's two if you ask how old he is, but will only put up one finger:)  I can't believe he's two already.  He was just the baby!
Happy Birthday Gideon!

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

We have a six year old!

We had a fun day celebrating Raquel's birthday

Chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, and she got to open up one present- a bag of marbles (hours of entertainment for fifty cents:)
 We invited 5 friends (3 fellow mks and 2 girls from our church) over for supper and cake.  The day before I told one of the neighbor girls who Raquel really likes that she could come over at 6 with her brother to eat cake.
 They apparently spread the word, and we had around 25 extra kids show up.  We just cut the pieces small and there was plenty for everyone:) They all sang to her and then played with balloons for about half an hour.
 After the huge group left, she got to open fun presents.
 Then came the unveiling of the dollhouse!  Dylan and I spent Sunday and a sleepless Monday night building, painting and making furniture, but it was worth it:)  She was very happy with it, and Gideon likes to use the roof as a road for his cars.
Happy Birthday Raquel!  We love you and are so glad we get to watch you grow into such a big girl!

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Just dropping by to say 'hi'.  We're still here.  Trying to get internet at our house.  Will hopefully be posting more soon!