Ahhh, finally some calm! Yesterday, our Winter DTS students left for their outreach locations, so right now the houses and office are eerily quiet.
It's always strange when people leave on outreach, because we all really wish we were going out into the nations too. I'm determined though, that the Lord uses us in mighty ways wherever we are working; whether it's in the jungles of Indonesia or in the office fundraising to send those people. Robbie, one of our Nepali contacts, said it this way, "Wherever you go, that's where God will use you". I think that's really true. Wherever we are, we should always be looking to serve and minister to people.
Speaking of being used wherever we are, (stuck in the office in my case!) the Communication department is making a big push to finally get our new website up and running. So... the scheduled release date for our new site is April 14 at 2p.m.! I'm really excited to go live on a project that we've all worked hard on and looks really good.
I know it's a couple of weeks away, but make sure to check it out! Below I've posted a few pictures from a photo shoot we recently did to get some pictures for the new site. Actually these are some of the ones that didn't make the cut for the website, but I still like them. Here they are:
Just a generic picture of a Bible.
Joel, who just got back from spending five months in Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam.
Part of Sam. I just thought his t-shirt looked cool in this picture.
Maria, standing in the corner.
For the Hawaiian item this week, I promised a good one, so here we go: The ukulele is a four stringed instrument that almost everyone associates with Hawaii and Hawaiian music. Ukulele (which is pronounced oo-koo-ley-ley) came to Hawaii for Portuguese sugar cane workers and means "jumping fleas" in Hawaiian, which makes absolutely no sense, except if you've seen someone playing really fast on an uke. Its a really easy instrument to learn (I learned three new songs and about 20 new chords last night) and is always a crowd pleaser. A lot of times you'll see people playing for money in touristy areas (maybe a new means of support for me?!?) and dozens of people will gather around to hear. It just seems like ukulele music always puts people in a good mood!
Frank Sinatra on an ukulele? You bet! This guy is the real deal, and the roosters crowing in the background is very Hawaiian.
"The ukulele is a symbol of innocent merriment" Paradise of the Pacific, 1917.
Me, bustin out a few tunes in my room.
that's AWESOME!! we need to get some of those for salem!! are you coming? i can't remember... if you do, you HAVE to bring your ooh-koo-ley-ley (i'll practice saying it correctly by writing it phonetically)(that has worked so well with my students).