Dear all,

Another beautiful sunny day today. We've seen lots of people planting flowers and gardens, although the forecast says it could still get below freezing Tues-Friday evenings. We've had some rain this past week - the thunder and quick rain one day reminded me a bit of Cameroon - sigh!

But I don't miss the accompanying mud (although the kids miss the Cameroon mud fights....)

So how was your Mother's Day? I felt like it was Mother's Day and my birthday all rolled into one - haven't been spoiled like this in a long time! Mike and the kids did all my "work" (including meals), and I got gifts from my mom, Mike (nice!), Laura (a spider plant from Kindergarten), Kenneth (a poem he wrote at school, with a splash of perfume on it!), Jenny (still in process, so I don't know what it is - I think something crocheted), and Christy (coupons for various things including doing laundry and kid-sitting). Mike & Christy enjoyed a piano concert in the afternoon, and Jenny entertained the "kids" via face-painting (Kenneth & Jenny - tigers; Laura - bunny), so I was able to play some computer games then read out in the sunshine. Then we enjoyed supper in our back yard with my parents, and some ball throwing (football) and kicking (soccer) afterwards. A very nice day!

Of course, for church yesterday morning there were the "Hermie" productions where Kenneth was an ant and Laura a flower (and I helped backstage for the 2nd service). It was a lot of work for all involved, but resulted in a lot of cute pictures and a good message of how God made everyone special.

Our weeks continue to be busy; swimming lessons every afternoon as part of Kenneth's school, Kenneth & Laura's usual soccer practices Mon & Wed, Jenny's bi-weekly blood test Wed. morning, ACSI music conference all day Thurs & Friday (Christy was involved), ACSI concert Friday evening and Christy's soccer game Friday evening, "Hermie" practices for Kenneth and Laura Friday and Saturday evenings, and a home-school graduation on Saturday afternoon followed by supper at some friends' place. Besides all that, by Sunday evening the last of the goldfish had died (various reasons), so it has been a very tiring and emotional week for Kenneth (he was so tired after the Hermie practice on Saturday evening that he said he didn't want to be part of the play any more, and it was quite a chore to get him to go on Sunday morning! We're working on the sleep angle!).

Then specifically for us adults: Mike's missions conference planning meeting on Monday evening (another one tonight); Mike, Tim, & Angeline spoke at prayer meeting Tues. night (and I enjoyed the exercise class afterwards); Chamber Choir practice for Mike Wed. night and then they helped in the "teaching" time at the ACSI conference Thurs. afternoon; Thurs. morning a meeting re: a book the town is putting together about the history of the businesses & buildings here - I offered to help with the typing, proofreading, etc.; listening to Christy's band Thursday evening; and Saturday afternoon I went to an accordion group practice at one member's place who owns a turkey farm - complete with 2 pet turkeys preening in the front yard - fun!

So what does all this have to do with missions? Well, Mike's been spending many hours helping bring together the plans for the missions conference coming up in a couple of weeks. Email, phone calls, talks with local people and World Team home office staff continue. We're working on a newsletter (late again!). Etc. Etc. By the way, during the ride to the accordion practice and back, I was with missionaries who live here in town now, but still produce Portuguese radio broadcasts in their house; churches have been dropping their support because they no longer live overseas, but are doing the same work - very frustrating!!

Again the great divide between churches and "missions"....

Meanwhile, Jenny seems to be getting over her slight regression - thanks for your prayers. She still has some movement hesitations and verbal repetitions, but nothing like a couple weeks ago. She made cookies to take for snacks for their Sunday School class, and we are now confident leaving her in charge of the house when we (adults) need to go somewhere. It's so nice! Keep praying for the remaining symptoms, and for wise past-times for her now that she's not so busy with school-related activities. She really needs to get into shape (physically) after a winter of sitting around, and social interaction is also good.

This coming week has the "usual" - soccer (K&L practices, 2 games for Christy - 1 away and 1 home), missions conf. planning meeting, WT prayer meeting, exercise class, etc. The Chamber Choir has a supper/planning meeting Wed. evening, there is a bike rodeo at K&L's school Thursday afternoon, and then there is a long weekend coming up - no school Friday or Monday! We're hoping for a game night with Bowmans Saturday, and Mike will probably be in the worship team on Sunday.

On the Cameroon side of things, the Friesens have been able to get a bit rested up, and Rachel is working hard finishing up her gr. 7 schoolwork.

Dan (who loves statistics) reported the following...

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Regarding the Oroko translation:

Verses in Bible: 31,015 (OT: 23,020, NT: 7995, Gen: 1533, Lk: 1151)

Drafted: 2899 (OT: 1671, NT: 1228) - 9.3%

Revised: 2211 (OT: 1040, NT: 1171) - 7.1%

Checked: 1859 (OT: 688, NT: 1171) - 6.0%

Published: 566 (OT: 457, NT: 109) - 1.8%

And regarding the Oroko dictionary:

70+ names for over 30 reptiles

55+ plant names

100+ fish names

plus birds, animals, etc.

We also got lists of "ideophones", that is words that sound a bit like what they describe - an area that is very rich in many African languages, but often ignored in dictionaries. For example (it works best to read this out loud), the sound of walking in shallow water is "chaba-chaba", while knee deep water is "chubum-chubum", and walking in rubber boots is "kpudu-kpudu", while walking on dry leaves is "choa-choa".

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