What Happens on a Sleepover....

Our friends have gone out of town so we are having their daughters as guests for a week. What do you think they do with our girls?....

FACIALS!!!! Quite interesting...even for Nafisa!

Facials...cucumbers on the eyes....


A mixture of oatmeal, apples and some other stuff makes for smelly concoction!



Whose having the most fun?

A Day in the Life - August '07

Joseph (Alias "J", "Joe" , "Guiseppe") with Merrilea


YUCK - Youth Under Christ the King,
Saturday evening August 18 in our living room).

Playing UNO with friends at an engagement party for friends....


More games at that party

Nafisa couldn't get enough of Connect Four!


New bunny from Oma! Came Saturday the 18th! Thanks Oma!


Our friends: Shine and Janina - engagement party!

The Terrace

Sometimes you may just get in your car and drive to a special place to relax. For me (Bill) back in the US in Massachusetts during my young adult years, that would have been the Blue Hills or Wampatuck State Park or just getting onto I-95 and cruzing up to New Hampshipre to get on the Kancamagus Highway in the White Mountains and back. In Wyoming, that would have been a day trip to Sheridan or the hot springs. When we are in Pennsylvania with Merrilea's mom and dad, for me it's driving through the hills to Amish country and purchasing some of their GREAT cheese!

Here, it takes a bit longer to get places. 45 kilometers (28 miles) may take an hour or more. We've gone to some 'hill stations' - low mountains to the west of our city. There's one place that is known throughout our state for strawberries.

Sometimes, if we just want to 'get away' we sit on our bedroom patio, here called a terrace. It's a small area but it overlooks that park and the mountains to the south of our city. We get a really good breeze there as well. ... So make a cup of hazelnut coffee, take a Bible or another family member and just sit for a while!

At the Park + College Interns

Joseph and Maria and Bill took Nafisa and Sofy to the park this week when it wasn't raining.


Sofia (Sofy) is Nafisa's best friend. Her mom and dad own the coffee shop we go to - Coffee Jar. It's got the best coffee in town!

They really enjoyed the rides and the other stuff.


On Friday we gained another two team members for 6 months! Chassidy and Sarah arrived from Southwest Baptist University in Missouri. We promptly put them on an Amazing Race Pune to become confident moving in community, riding several rickshaws to various places of interest around the city. They then went with Merrilea to visit some of her friends.

Our kids went out to their youth group this evening, so Nafisa and I spent some time together joking and playing.

Maria's Real B Day

By her desk with new, special layered hair-dew!

Singing around the banana cream pie!
Maria and her hot air!

Tonight we enjoyed the company of some friends and celebrating Maria's real birthday. Maria even got her hair cut for this special day.

Maria's 14th Birthday Party

Maria and FriendsWith Meesha
Singing and Cutting the Cake.
We sang..."How do you solve a problem like Maria...!
An Indian tradition we keep with vigor!

New Arrivals and what a week!

This last week we welcomed our new colleagues, Mark and Aimee from Oklahoma! They got their feet wet in riding rickshaws and eating spicy foods. It’s great to have them here. It’s fun to see them experience the very same things with similar reactions we had all those years ago when we first arrived. The start of a new adventure....

Our kids seem to be extremely busy in extra-curricular fun with their friends. There's ballet for Maria and Danielle, guitar and cricket for Joseph - even the laborers in the construction site enjoyed his game. (see pictures). It’s NOT raining heavily every day now, so it’s great to have this cooler weather…in the upper 70’s most days. Danielle’s school teacher has been sick most of this last week, so she’s not accomplished that much this week. I know she doesn’t mind.

Maria turns 14 on Tuesday (24^th). This Sunday night we’ll have a party after our house church meeting.

Back Home in Pune

We made it back to Pune all in once piece, even with an overweight piece of exercise equipment! We didn't know if it'd make it onto the plane nor through customs here but it did. Merrilea and I are already using it! We'll let you know how the weight loss/exercise regiment is going. When electricity is out and no water is available (as water is not available right now...nor was it most of the day for that matter) it makes regular exercise a challenge. It just adds to the list of excuses. Now, we have no excuse for not exercising! We just met with our church tonight and my accountability partner is among our house church membership so we agreed to a fixed schedule...if we don't work out 3x per week minimum of 30 minutes each time, we'd owe each other 500 Rupees (roughly $15) each time we miss.

Sounds like a good plan!

Regarding the water problems, apparently the water pump to our apartment complex is out so for the last week we've had random water cuts. I'm grateful for buckets! The weather is cooler...it's been in the upper 70's now. It's been very comfortable even with the daily rains.

More as the week unfolds.
Bill for the family

Photos in Thailand

With the Youth


Covered in Shaving Cream!






Note: Danielle's chipped upper tooth! While at a waterfall on a family outing, Danielle fell on rocks...ouch!

Within a day the dentists here had it fixed so you couldn't tell the difference!!!


At an orphanage where they youth scrapped and painted some playground equipment!





Maria with friends in a 'Sung-Tao' taxi-truck


Nafisa with John!



Going Paint-Balling!

Joseph with the Youth

Joseph with other youth during talent night!

Fun on the 4th

Maria with our old friend "Unbearable-Bryan"




Visit with friends we had from the late 80's!!!

Ok, What is Merrilea doing driving a scooter with her friend and suitcase in tow? E-mail Merrilea and ask her!!!