All that move...for what?

I went back today to check on our old apartment's mailbox and to meet some students from the country of Oman. After collecting some mail and a fun discussion with 3 guys from Oman (positive mind you), I talked with my old neighbor. As it turns out, the slum which burned all that trash is gone....completely gone!

The huts are gone and all that is there is a leveled field of dirt! I’ve been after the employers of the slum dwellers who promised me years ago that they slum was going to be moved. Now, less than 2 months from the time we leave…they are gone!

For some reason God had us move out of that complex…on our part it was solely because of the pollution. I’m just thinking He’s got his reasons for the move and we are supposed to be at our new location. It will be exciting to see why in 2007!

But it sure makes me just smile. Things change here daily!

Life on the Flip Side,

Bill

DELIRIOUS

While I (Bill) was in Bangalore, a large city in the southern part of India for a week, our kids went across the street from our apartment complex and down about 3 blocks to a concert. DELIRIOUS came to Pune on Friday the 19^th. They are a Christian band from the UK. I got great reports from the kids about it. It is very rare that these kind of things happen here so we try to make them into really big events for our family. Joseph said he was yelling/singing so much at the concert his throat hurt! Lots of our kids’ friends went, too. The Picture was taken from our apartment.
Instead of going, Danielle went to her youth group with a bunch of other kids her age. She had a blast!

We want to congratulate Bob and Shamira, as on the 17th, Luke was born...one more person to carry on that van den Akker name!
See their blog at http://flvda.blogspot.com/
(See link to the right)

Back from "Vacation"

Maria writes:

We’re back from our “vacation”. You ask why it’s in quotation marks? Well, it wasn’t exactly restful, Nafisa, Mom and eventually pretty much everyone in our family got at least a cold. We went to an island named Ko Lanta with another family that lives in our city. And besides being sick, one of our most important suitcases (it had most of our swimsuits in it and new blankets from Oma) got lost or something by the airlines and we got it the next day. ALSO it rained about three of the four days we were there.

That isn’t the only thing we did while we were in Thailand though. While Mom and Dad were in meetings I hung out with some of my friends, Danielle and Joseph went to childcare. Joseph and I went with some friends to go paintballing and we had a blast. It was Joseph’s first time, by the way. After Dad and Mom’s meetings were over we went over to another hotel to stay for a few days.

We are now are taking some rest from our “vacation” back in Pune.

Here are some pics from our trip:
At Kho Lanta Island











Bill and Joseph at a scenic view while biking the Island











Danielle with her friends singing Christmas songs along with the hotel band. They were much better than ELVIS who appeared every night!












On the ferry to Kho Lanta Island