Dear all,

Happy American Thanksgiving on Thursday to our American family members & friends!!

Cooler weather today, but no snow, and the highs this week are all above freezing - in fact, Wednesday and Thursday should be warm days (~11C/52F). We sure appreciated the warm weather last week - the house is all wrapped (not for Christmas, but a standing advertisement for Home Hardware!!) thanks to Shaun & Trever, all the windows are in, our friend Henry G. has been putting J-channel (for the siding) on all the windows for us (a bonus!), and Mike, Shaun, & Jerry worked hard Wednesday through Friday with Scott, the friendly (Christian) furnace guy, to get the new furnace & ducting all in and working. They even pulled out the old furnace (needs a good home - still works), and I'm looking forward to building myself a new storage closet in that spot!!! Of course, Monday and Tuesday Mike was busy preparing the 8'x8' space under the house for the new furnace - sand & paving stones on the floor, new wood walls to hold back the dirt, etc. So it's been a very busy week!!! This week Mike hopes to cut back on the housing stuff a bit (needs to do the electrical & hang doors in the new section) so he can start working more on World Team stuff.

Besides the house stuff and the usual things (choir & worship team practice for Mike, AWANA for the kids, quizzing practice for Christy), I spoke at a women's missionary prayer group on Thursday evening, Laura had a birthday party to attend Friday evening, we "babysat" 3 kids (gr. 1-5) after school on Friday, and Friday through Saturday Christy was gone to Edmonton for a Bible quizzing competition (their team got into the championship level, but were the lowest there, so probably could have won the consolation level).

This week we have something every evening!! Tonight Mike will go to WT prayer meeting while I attend the annual PCA (our kids' school) meeting; Tuesday is AWANA/church prayer meeting; Wed. is parent/teacher meetings for Kenneth & Laura plus Mike's usual choir practice; Thurs. is an American Thanksgiving meal with friends plus Christy's usual quizzing practice; Friday is an accordion practice for me and a church family film nite for the rest; and Saturday we go to Brunch Bunch then have a young families group here for a work bee & supper. I'm tired already :).

Now that funding (FSCD) has gone through for Jenny, one of my friends, Roxy, has been helping her this past week. Thursday Roxy helped her with homework, and Friday evening they went to youth group. It is so nice to have someone do this - helps Jenny mingle more, she doesn't complain as much that she doesn't have anything to do, and gives me a break. I did have to laugh though - this past week one of her teachers chatted with me, saying he hadn't had a parent/teacher interview with us, but wanted to discuss a few things, including the fact that maybe she was reading too much. In a healthy kid, yes, reading too much instead of getting outdoors, etc. might be an issue (although in this day and age it is rare), but with Jenny often the choice is reading a book or playing on the computer, and since we limit her time on the computer.... Anyway, reading "too much" is a problem I'm not concerned about right now :) Jenny hasn't improved this week, and we're getting to the end of the medication, so Mike is waiting for a return call from the doctor to see what's next. Continue to pray for wisdom.

Ok, the BIG news of the week... the SIL consultant has given approval for the Oroko translation team to print the entire book of Luke!!! Yeah! And they are looking at perhaps getting approval for the entire book of Genesis this coming April. It's so neat to see these big accomplishments! Keep praying for funds for the Oroko translation project - all this hard work means printing costs, etc.

Pray also for the Waite family, who is in Cameroon for their "field visit" - they are appointees to Cameroon, but need to settle on a specific location/work. Continue to pray for the Bowmans as they proceed toward going to Cameroon. If any of you is interested in getting either family's newsletter, you can let us know, and we'll pass your info on to them. Thanks!

Love,