Merry Christmas

We have been so blessed to spend the holidays here in the US this year. Its been snowing like crazy and we've been enjoying celebrating with my family. Every year we do something special on all of the 12 days of Christmas. Each day we do a holiday activity like making cards or snowflakes or looking at lights. This year we also went as a family to see the Nutcracker. The girls loved it!

Adventures in Homeschooling

This year Natalie started homeschool. She is loving it. Her favorite is math and she's an excellent reader. Last week we had a great time learning from a book called Living Long Ago. We read about ancient fashion and culture. Her favorites were the Egyptians and the Middle Ages.

Supporting the church

As an Assemblies of God pastor in the Philippines, Gabe's heart really went out to a very special AG church near to where we were staying. They had no pastor and struggled with issues of division and a lack of understanding of how they could reach their community. While they were zealous for "spiritual" things, they often missed the mark when it came to sharing the gospel with the community and supporting each other in practical ways. Gabe was honored to be able to teach on "The 8 Qualities of a Healthy Church." It was a great eye opener for the people to see that they needed organization as well as spirituality, brothers and sisters serving in their gifts and need meeting evangelism. We pray that God will use this fellowship to reach many people in the future.

Rocket Stove

An intereseting project that Gabe was able to work on while we were in the Dominican Republic was building what is called a rocket stove. The majority of the people in the countryside still cook over a wood fire. This type of cooking takes more time, requires a lot of wood, and the fumes are very toxic to breathe in. A technology was developed using recycled material, that is accessible to everyone, that would cook food faster and for cheaper. Instead of using a lot of wood to build a fire, only a few twigs burn up an insulated tube and produce "rocket-like" heat.

The people loved this project and Gabe was able to share the gospel with many community groups because of his willingness to help them in a practical way.