June 2007

In early June I went with my mom to a retreat at Capernwray School on Thetis Island. One of the things I looked forward to the most at this retreat was spending time with my aunts. Only three (out of 6) of my mom's sisters could come. But it sure was a fabulous time. There is a reason, that they stick the Dyck ladies (and their friends) out at the last cabin at the edge of the camp. They are soooooo noisy, even till late at night. Never expected this from a bunch of ladies who are supposed to be grown up. Glad I went.

Cory, Betty (my mom), Auntie Annie, April (my Uncle's wife of just 1 year)

My first time kayaking...I really enjoyed it.

We've also babysat for Kim and Lance one evening. (Lance is Chris' brother). They had it nicely planned out. We have to get up at 4:45 am in order to get to work on time, so Kim arranged it that we would watch the kids in the evening and then her dad would come over at 8pm and watch them while they slept. That way Chris and I could go home and get some sleep. What a smart sister-in-law.Katie was a doll

Chris invented a flying paper airplane, launch pad, refueling game for the boys

Ethan thoroughly enjoyed it

That is a shuttle (made of paper) on the other side of Chris' gut.

Of course, the photographer does not get to be in the picture...but I assure you...I was there!

On our way home

We are in Rocky Mountain House this morning. Will be stopping in
Nordegg to see my first church and then at the camp there. Hopefully
a stop at Bow Lake and then on to Kelowna. It'
s been a nice road trip.

Graduation

After seven years I have finished my degree. Officially it is a "Masters of Arts in Christian Studies". Although I have grown quite a bit through the program it sure is nice to be done.

So what's next? Well Cory and I are going to go on a road trip to Alberta and then May 1st we start working for my brothers company again.

Had to turn the heater on

We are back in Canada today. I started up our car and one of the first things I did was turn the heater on. Wow, what a change. From 40 degrees in high humidity where I got a little sunburn to trying to figure out where I put all my sweaters.

School and Tutoring

Most of my days here in Belize are very busy between volunteering at the school, then after school, travelling from one house to another to fit in 2-3 or more hours of tutoring.

I arrive at school at 8:40, and split my three hours there between the kindergartens, the grade 1 class and the grade 2 class. I usually pull the kids out of class and work one-on-one (in the storage room -- only room available) with them in a particular area of study that they are having trouble with. Usually reading or spelling.



Kenny's reading has improved dramatically over the last few months.

In the afternoon, I travel from one home to another tutoring students. Sometimes we do homework, but mostly I like to review important concepts like times tables, do some practice reading, and spelling. I have been trying to learn about different styles using those in my tutoring and volunteering.
For example, I ask the student to make the numbers 3, 6, 9, 12...and so on from the 3 times tables, out of play doe. I may then ask him questions such as "which number comes between 12 and 18?" or "Which number comes after 33?". This for of questioning also him to spend extra time looking at the sequencing. We then say the numbers forwards and backwards. Everytime we finish a sequence, we take one number away. Then we say them forwards and backwards again. In the end, he will say them about 12 times in that short period of time (forwards and backwards), the last time without having any of the numbers in front of him. Using the play doe seems to help him as he gets to spend extra time, in a creative fashion, working with the numbers -- rather than just writing them out. If you can count by 3s, you can do the 3 times tables. Next week: the four times tables.

(See the play doe in the picture?)

I also lead chapel this last week. My puppet Marty and I were playing "catch" in a museum where this crazy statue holding a banana was on display. It seems that the banana was already but even though it had not been peeled. Hard to believe. We equated it to a Bible story in which Doubting Thomas would not believe that Jesus had risen from the dead unless he saw it with his own eyes. At the end of the show, you find out that the statue (who comes to life) is very hungry and eats the banana. Low an behold!! The banana was indeed already cut even before he peeled it! In fact, the banana pieces fell all over the place. And later another teacher stepped on it!

The school science fair happened a week or so ago. I took special pleasure in asking the kids I work with to show me their projects. Some unique and challenging projects were presented, including Mikaylas discovery how friction effects the speed of a car.

Wesley's demonstration of a water wheel.


And these boys showed how an egg will be sucked into a bottle when the fire is looking for oxygen.
I asked this student's mom if I could teach him over Christmas holidays since 2-3 weeks off was such a long time, especially when we had just started a new reading program. The first time he came over was hard for him (after all, he is on holidays). However, after that first time, he has loved coming over. He now asks his mom, of his own volition, if he can come. And his mom looks at me and says, "what do you have at your house that he likes?" A lamb! Yes, a little bribery seems to work wonders. He comes and reads and then gets to feed the lamb. Now what will I do that Lily the Lamb has been weaned?


Another student, I asked her mom the same question, if I could teach her daughter over Christmas. As this German mother saw me working with her daughter, she asked it I would teacher her too! So now, I also spend about 2-3 hours a week with the mom, helping her gain better reading skills, and at the same time explaining what these English words mean. As an added bonus I have been teaching her how to help her children with their school work. The children do not get much homework at these young grade levels and yet there are certain areas they may be struggling in. I have been showing her how she can do things at home to help. I never fully realized before how much the parents need even this type of training, especially when the parents are all German, and their kids are attending an all English school. For this parent, she is also taking "grade 1" in the evenings at the home of one of the community members. For her, then, she has the advantage of knowing what the special sounds are, how to mark the vowels and so for. Many parents, even parents who speak English, would not know these things since they are specific to phonics and Abeka curriculum.


The game we are playing here is kind of like Uno except with words and sounds. You have to match the vowel. Hot -- Sock -- lots...etc. And use a "Swap" card to switch vowels. I found this resource in England and ordered it off the web. They also have a software version to which you can add your own words. I have used it before in learning spelling words.

1 Month Left

I announced a new addition to our family, Larry Darren Priebe (Stanley), and yet he didn't survive a week with us. Five days after delivery to our home, we found him dead. Possible reasons:

1) We took him swimming on Sunday (day three of life with Priebes) to Green Lake. We discovered that bunnies can swim...but they don't like it. He was so cold after getting out of the Lake (the Lake is not that cold) that he just settled into a blanket and tried to get warm....so cold that he couldn't move his cold foot from being up in the air to close to his body to savor body warmth.

We snuggled him in the towel and let him recover. He did, within a half hour. Now the question is: Was his untimely death on Tuesday a result of Sunday's adventure -- massive heart attack [hmm...he is just a baby bunny]?

2) Lily the Lamb and Stanley the Bunny shared the same bedroom (a room in one of the back buildings on our property that we rent -- remember, we live in an archaeological outpost house, with many extra buildings on the property). Well, we locked Stanley in the room because he was being potty trained and during that process I didn't want him getting out into our big yard and then not coming back. After he was potty trained, he'd return to the same spot from now on to do his business. So here he is locked in this room...the same room Lily gets lock in at night (otherwise she goes to the main house window at 4:30am and bleats for our attention)...the same room that Lily (who had no discretion where she pees or poohs) uses quite regularly for her business. I fear that bunny was so close to the ground, so close to that pooh that he suffocated to death...pooh fumes inhalation!

3) Chris figures that maybe Lily stepped on Stanley early in the morning (she would do that, oblivious to the fact that he was even down there are her feet). Then, after massive internal bleeding throughout the day, he died in the evening. Far fetched I think.

4) A snake came in the open window and killed him.

I felt really bad at first on Sunday after seeing Stanley struggling with being so cold. Who would have thought he'd not respond well to swimming? I mean we took Lily swimming when she was just a month old and she's fine. But then he recovered, or so I thought.

Now, I am beginning think it was a snake. Not far fetched for this house. People who used to live in this very house told me that their cat often caught snakes around here. Not that we've seen one in the 5 months we've lived here.

I don't think we will be getting any more animals since we only have 1 month left in Belize.

The next weeks will be very busy as we wrap up our ministries. Chris has a couple more preaching sessions in San Felipe (Spanish church) as well as one in Shipyard (Old Colony, although the church we are at on March 18th is an evangelical church plant within the old colony...reaching out to them). And I have another few weeks of volunteering at the school here and tutoring students. Pray that I would use these last few weeks to help the parents know of some ways to help their kids using some new methods. Pray as well that the materials that I am waiting for to arrive will come soon yet so I can show the parents how to use them before we leave.

Thanks for your prayers

Through the Week

So we got back from Canada, and almost immediately both us got sick. Thankfully, we were only sick for a few days.

Then on Thursday I fell off my chair at school and hurt my ... . After school, as I was waiting for a student to arrive at home so we could begin tutoring, I decided to lean against the motorbike. Bad idea as I burned my calf against the muffler. Ouch! Two nice big bubbly blisters, and one small one. The nurse told me that you aren't a real Blue Creeker until you've had a motorcycle burn.

Then the next day, I had some grade 4 students over to look at the full moon through our telescope (I tutor 3 grade 4 students and then have been studying the solar system recently). Since my friend allowed me to borrow a telescope and take it to Belize (thank you Amanda), I could share that with the students.



Up on the roof, there are some cement things that just jet out of nowhere. I was so excited to have the students over last night, that I didn't see where I was going in the dark and badly stubbed my toe on the cement thing. Ouch again!

I feel a little like an accident waiting to happen. So, between my sore bum, my burned leg, and my majorly bruised toe (oh not to mention the finger that still hurts from where I bent it wrong 4 weeks ago), I am quite a site.

Here's the latest family photo.

Koshka and Lily (the Lamb) did not get a long at first.

Lily just wants to know if Koshka has milk. She greets everyone the same way.

But they seemed to do better as time went on. But it didn't matter much since Koshka did not live with us. Chris and I were thinking of bringing him to live with us, but before we could, he has disappeared (possibly is dead) from his old home.

Just yesterday, though, we got a bunny...not a replacement for Koshka -- we could never replace him (well, maybe we could). We have been thinking about getting a bunny for a while. His name is Larry Darren Priebe. We call him Stanely for short. In honor of our beloved brother.

We have him tied up because he is being potty trained. Yes, you can train rabbits to be potty trained! He's quite scared right now having just moved in with us. But I think he will get used to us. I told him that we tie up all the new animals...that way they will learn their new home and never run away.

We figure this is our one time to really have an "Old Macdonald Farm" since when we get back to Canada there are certain bylaws that will prevent us from owning too many farm animals (like sheep).

Today, one of my tutor students taught me how to ride a 4-wheeler. Now I would like to get one. But I don't know where I would ride it in Canada.


Never thought a nine-year old would teach his teacher how to ride a 4-wheeler!

Cory

Grad Essay Completed

After 7 years I have finally wrapped up my graduate program. The last task I had was to make the final changes to my grad essay. I know lots of people have been asking me about it so I have posted it on the web in the hope you will find it useful.

Click here to download the full paper

How to Study the Bible: Part 1

Last Sunday we were in San Felipe where I preached part 1 of 6 on "How to Study the Bible". The main idea is that we need to be careful not to put our Bible reading on our "checklist" of things we have to do. That kind of an approach makes Bible reading a "job" and a burden.

Instead we can think of our Bible study time like food. Just like our physical bodies need to eat on a regular basis so our spiritual side needs food as well. We can also think of this time as relationship. If I want to build a relationship with my wife or the pastor at the church I spend time with them. One way we do this with God is to listen to what He says in His Word.

I tried to be really practical and address questions like "Where do you read from?" "How much do you read?" and "When do you read?" The short answer is it does not matter too much where, when and how much but that we are doing it. The best advice one of my pastors ever gave me was to pick a time of the day, pick a place and pick an amount to read and do it everyday. I started that practice 15 years ago. After all these years I know the Bible has shaped my life and defined my spiritual journey.

Safe Arrival

Cory and I made it back safe in Belize. It was a very hectic trip back and in our rush I fear we forgot to say good-bye to most people. For this we are deeply sorry and thank-you for all your patience and understanding.

We had a wonderful trip back to Canada. We spent the first part in Abbotsford where we were able to make some short visits and catch up with some collegues at Trinity Western University. By Thursday we were off to Kelowna where we say our delightful nieces and nephews on both sides of our family. It was so great to see our brothers and sister-in-laws again. I also had a chance to go into the office and see how things have grown. Another great team to work with!

We tried really hard to buy a house in Kelowna but that market is going nuts and despite all our effort we'll just have to wait till the time is right.

Then on Friday we headed to Kamloops and had a great visit with my parents.

We flew out on a Wednesday and boy was that crazy. We got there right around the time the airport opened in the morning but the line was so long to check-in that we made it to security the same time our plane started boarding (5:30am). Of course both Cory and I got the full security detail and had to run for the "last boarding call". My lungs still hurt (must be out of shape). Anyhow we are most thankful we made it in time.

Now this week we are back in Belize and my old friend Mike is out here with us.

Prayer request1: This Sunday I begin a 6 week series in the San Felipe church on how to study the Bible.
Prayer request2: For Cory as she starts tutoring students again this week. Pray especially that she'll be able to help the parents find ways to tutor the students when we are done in April

Prayer for safety

We leave tomorrow (Friday) for a quick trip back to Canada. We managed to book our flights to include a night in Miami tomorrow. This should be interesting as we've never been there before. By Saturday we'll be in Abbotsford where we'll spend just short of a week. Then Kelowna and then Kamloops. We fly back to Belize on Valentine's day to wrap up our last 2 months of ministry here.

We could sure use your prayers for safety and for divine appointments as we travel

Trip to Cayo District

We have a kitten…born Nov 23rd…one day before my (Cory) birthday. Her name is Koshka which is Russian for cat. Chris and I have both spent some time in Russia and like that name. We wanted to name her Sobaka, but didn’t think it was quite appropriate since sobaka is Russian for dog.

Koshka lives at one of my tutor students houses. Her cat had kittens and I asked if I could have one, but keep it at her house. So she cares for it, and I just come over and pet it…and we got to name it too. I Koshka out for visits sometimes as well.


Chris and I went on a little trip to Cayo District for a 4 day vacation. We were gone for three nights and had plans to visit: Barton Creek Cave, Rio Frio Cave, Rio On Pools, Five Sister Falls, go to a butterfly farm, and Big Rock Falls.

As we drove up Mountain Pine Ridge in Cayo District, we kept looking for a road that would lead to Barton Creek Cave. Finally we saw one: Barton Creek Cave Archeological Area. Although it wasn’t a complete sign to the cave, it did have a picture of a little man taking a hike and so we figured it could be the road. We decided to try. The road was very skinny…there was no way to turn around. As we forged on ahead, we found it getting muddy. I was concerned because I didn’t want to get stuck out in the boonies. But we kept going. Finally, going up a hill, we realized that it was impossible to go any further (we don’t have 4 wheel drive). But since the road was too skinny to turn around, we had to drive down backwards for a while. What I didn’t know is that there were banks on each side of the road with little ditches (small tiny, ditches) – looked kind of a like a bowling alley with high banks behind the gutters. But I didn’t know that. And when our two left side wheels got stuck in the gutters and Chris kept driving all that way, not realizing there were banks, I thought we were going over a cliff. I was freaking out!!! Thank God, though, there were banks! Then we hit a bump and the truck swung out of the gutters and now was across the road. Our front bumper was two inches from one bank and the other bumper was two inches from the other bank. Not only was this a skinny road, we now took up the whole road with no room to go anywhere. I was now having visions of us rolling over in the truck down the hill. (With all my parinoya, I didn’t think to take a picture, although it would have been very funny – in hindsight). So Chris inched the truck from a fifty point turn. Back and forth, two inches each time, back and forth…until finally we were facing the right direction and we got out of there.

Then we found a place to stay for the night and went a visited a butterfly farm. I didn’t quite realize that they actually raise butterflies at these farms. Here I learned how to hold a butterfly and all about the life cycle. Tragic that their lives end in 2-4 months.

The next day, we got instructions on how to get the Cave entrance. Turns out the entrance is through an Orange Grove that has no signage (actually our entrance we found yesterday was the correct one, but not the one taken when the road was impassible; the orange grove is a secondary entrance … and you pass through an Amish community this way).

This time, we had to cross a creek. We thought we could make it. Turns out that we only could get to the other side before the truck had taken in too much water. After 10 minutes, though, we were good to go again. One more creek after that (this one smaller though) and we made it there!



At Barton Creek Cave you hire a guide to take you through the cave, which is pitch black, in a canoe. We had actually brought a guide with us that we met at a different location (he was the one who convinced us that we could make it through the creek!). With a flashlight in hand, we entered the cave. Amazing adventure…a claustrophobic experience.
Going back we got stuck in the middle of the creek! When we opened the doors to get out and push, water came flooding in and soaked the floor of the cab! An Amish man with his horse and buggy was passing by and gave us a tow but he couldn’t make it up the little bit of a hill on the opposite side so a 4 by 4 who came along shortly gave us a tow from there.



We went to Big Rock Falls later that day.


Next day, to Five Sister Falls…which was amazing. You could climb the water falls, and when you got to the top, there was a whole nuther set of falls for you to climb!


We also went to Rio Frio Cave and Rio On Pools that day too. Rio On Pools was simply beautiful. Chris and I had to go and kiss under the waterfall since our first kiss (Aug 4th, 2003) was under a waterfall along Harrison Lake. Nostalgia.

Oh, and we have a phone number now: 501-624-4984. It doesn’t cost us anything to receive calls.

Finished my Masters Degree

After 7 long years of squeezing in courses while working full time I have finally completed all the assignments for my Master of Arts In Christian Studies. I finished my grad essay last week before New Years and now all I have left is an exit interview.

It feels great to finally be able to move past this and get on with other parts of life.

Watch the Lamb

We have decided to get started on our family so are now raising a lamb. She is very cute and then more cute. We feed her a bottle 3 times a day and then she has a milk mustache. She follows us where ever we go, until her feet get all tangled up in the leash. We haven't really named her yet; any suggestions?

Christmas break is upon us and the kids are out of school. I am still tutoring some students over the holidays and I have taken on a few more whom I worked with in school and wanted to continue with over the holidays so that we don't loose momentem (did I spell that right? And I'm a teacher!).

Chris' parents have come!

Chris' parents have come to visit. We have visited Lamani (Mayan Ruins) and Shipyard (Old Colony Mennonites).

Today was very boring for them. I (Cory) had to work in the morning at the school. Then I had Spanish lessons (yes I am taking Spanish now) at 1:30-3:00 and then tutoring from 3:00-7:00. The motorbike broke down today, so I rode my bicycle to a few of my appointments. Man, didn't realize how much out of shape I was. Then when I did get the truck, the tail gate fell off!!!!

The Trinity Sermon

I preached on the Trinity last Saturday night in San Felipe. I had a great time during the week pouring over the subject and trying to put together what God has been teaching these last 10 years or so. I was very excited to present it. I think it went okay but it was very difficult because it was being translated and I had too much content and was trying to chop it out as I was preaching. All the same I think it made some sense and I really hope God used it.

The translator asked for a copy of the manuscript and he is going to translate it into Spanish and then give it to the people in the church so they will be able to understand it better.

I have put the English transcript online.

Unity

I preached last Sunday in San Felipe about unity. Willy translated for me. It was his first time and he is more used to Creole than English but he did great. The text was Eph 4:1-6 on how God has given us all a high calling.

Here is my summary:

- Ephesians 4 says that we have a calling to live up to

- We need to live a life of humility, gentleness, patience and we must bear with each other in love

- I shared a story about how I was wronged and maybe you too feel you have been wronged by someone. We must let it go and seek to live in love, everyone is watching us, this is our high calling in Christ

- I shared stories about how when I was a youth pastor all the churches got together and prayed and we saw God move among our city. Churches that were divided found healing and people came to Christ.

- I shared how there are churches all around the world and we all worship differently but we are all one body.

- We have one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith and one baptism.

- I challenged you to unite with all the other churches in San Felipe and the world to bring Christ to the lost

- But I also warned you that there is a bad teaching that we are one with everyone

- Not everyone is our brother. Some people worship some other Jesus.

- Then I asked how we should treat them

- I warned about how the church did bad in the middle ages by killing those who did not agree

- Instead we need to be like Jesus who died for those who did not believe in him

- And then I shared stories of how in my city we have an event called “Love Abbotsford” and all the churches get together to do acts of kindness to the people in our city.

And now I want to close with a prayer from Jesus. In this prayer he actually prays for you and me and He reveals one of his greatest desires for us today.

John 17:20-23

When we were done Willy asked for the manuscript. He is one of the elders and he really wanted to go over it again and then discuss next Sunday how they could implement it. His challenge to the congregation was that too often we hear things and it goes in one year and out the other (this is a rough translation from his body language). We need to take this to heart.

So please be in prayer for that little town. I told them that they could not just take what we do in Canada and put it into their village, it has to be translated into their own setting. I am excited to see what God will bring about.

I will preach again then on Saturday the 25th of November. The topic will be on the Trinity in hope to be able to help them some with a teaching in that village called "Jesus only". That teaching claims that there is only Jesus and not the Father or Spirit.

Thanks once again for joining us on our adventures.

Chris

Prayer for San Felipe

I was sick with a headcold (they call it snod' a'nieze here) last week so couldn't make it San Felipe. We made it last Saturday night though and it went really well. My Spanish is still really poor so I did not catch most of the service but I did recognize two songs and the elder who was preaching told me it was on 1 Kings 18 (Elijah prays for rain).

10 people were baptized last Sunday morning in that church and the pastor is very excited about the growth in it. I'm signed up for preaching next Sunday at 9am. I asked them what topic to preach on so the pastor called a little meeting of all the elders right there in the middle of the pews. It was fun to watch them talk about it and try to figure out what the greatest need was, especially since the service was about to start and this delayed them (which is fine in Spanish culture). The topic they chose was inter-church unity. Cory suggested I preach from John 17 where Jesus prays for us (that we would be united). She also suggested bringing in some stories from love Abbotsford (do any of you have any you could send me?)

Feel free to post any content you have on inter-church unity in the comments section or email me.

I also value your prayers for this little church and our ministry there.

Chris

First Week

It has been an eventful first week.

Thursday - arrived, no water and lots of power problems, slept at Carl and Margarets.
Friday - Fixed the water
Saturday - Can't remember but I think that was the night we went out for dinner and had some really good connections with friends.
Sunday - Went to Church - great sermon on the lost coin and how God wants us to reach the lost around us
Monday - Fixed the power, the breaker and some fuses were blown
Tuesday - First day for Cory back at school, great meeting with Principal, lots of potential. Got the gas to work in the house.
Wednesday - Cory went to school and helped students, Chris went to Spanish Lookup to pickup 5000 teak trees, Chris comes home very dirty. And great news we now have hot water for the shower.
Thursday - Cory got bitten by lots of fire ants and had an allergic reaction. Praise God she made it to the nurse who had a shot to lower her adrenalin.
Friday - Cory continues to help at the school and is tutoring students after school. Chris managed to get some trees to the field and is working with some fellows to plant them.

Upcoming. We have some of the new teachers coming over for supper tonight and hope to be able to have some games and be able to encourage them. Saturday I hope to make it to San Felipe and see how the church there is doing and how I (Chris) can help out.

We arrived safe

Thanks for all your prayers. Cory and I are safe in Belize. We have spent the last couple days setting up our house. We have running water now (I am so thankful for even a trickle right now) and are able to get the doors closed (they were a bit too tight before but I borrowed a grinder and trimmed them down).

We have met up with lots of friends and are starting to settle in.

Prayer requests

- That God will show us which open doors we should take to best use His time here
- For great friendships and relationships to grow and be a blessing
- That we will experience God in the small parts of life.