An encouraging conversation

Today I very hesitantly called our son's private school to talk with the principal there about our son's trip and how that will affect his school attendance. I was concerned that they would be very disappointed that he would miss three weeks of school right away at the beginning of the year. The principal, Mr. Brouwer, was very encouraging and told me I should talk with each of the teachers about how our son can best stay on track by either working ahead or doing extra projects. He then spent several minutes on the phone with my son. According to my son he told him that he thinks this is a wonderful opportunity and that he knows our son can keep up but that he will have to work hard and apply himself fully to be on track in October. Mr. Brouwer then transferred my call to Mr. Greene's room.
Mr. Greene will be our son's science and bible teacher this next year. He also taught those same subjects to our son last year. Mr. Greene was a teacher in international schools for about 12 years in Brazil and Japan. He raised his children internationally and has worked with many missionary children, otherwise known as "third culture kids" in the schools he taught in. He was very excited that our son would have this opportunity to see his future home country before the move and even more excited to hear about our upcoming move. He shared about how his children have grown up to be internationally minded and one is currently looking at missions. The other is currently doing well in college. We also spoke of the many Christian colleges that have great "re-entry" programs for third culture kids. TCK's often grow up between two worlds, thus creating a third culture. They often do not feel at home in their "home" culture but also are diferent within thier host culture. However these children usually grow up to be well adjusted, world minded adults that have a great concern and love for others. Our conversation was so encouraging to me as he expressed that he feels international travel is one of the best things to offer a child to help them learn to apreciate being an American and realizing how blessed they are as well as turn them into responsible adults.

Praise reports!!

First, an update on Joseph. He is being treated at a burn center. His burns are all second degree. The praise is that there are no third degree burns. This means healing and scarring will be much less. His parents report that they have seen God's hand throughout. Joseph was wearing a hat and his glasses at the time of the explosion so his eyes and above were protected. Gasoline burns are known to sometimes worsen anytime in the first 24 hours so there was concern these could become third degree. They did not. It looks like he may be able to be home sometime this weekend.

Second, and seemingly much less important when put in perspective, Collin's passport arrived today. We were surprised it was here already but glad. Now Collin's visa application can be sent along with the entire teams which will save us money and concern about time limits.

Praise report

In regards to our son joining Shannon on the Tanzania trip in September we have applied for his passport. It was expensive-an extra $60 to expedite it- but should be here in 2-3 weeks. We are praying for it to arrive by the 14th as that is when the visa applications are being sent in for the rest of the team. If we have to apply for his seperately it will add even more to the cost and possibly take longer. Also, we have been able to get him tickets for the flights. Let's pray that passport here!