Hey!  Courage here!  Sorry I've not been in touch for a while, but boy have I had some adventures...will update soon.  Anyways, Norine has gotten me some answers to your questions about our trip to Bali...was that ever a long plane trip...but I occupied myself by checking out the things stored underneath the seats on our row and taking little naps...it was hard, but I kept quiet the entire flight.  Oh, yeah, back to Norine's answers:
     1.  As far as games that kids in Bali play, the team kids play things like we do in America, Littlest Pet Shop, Barbie, Badmitton, etc.  We did not see any Beyblades, but the boys were pretty young yet (no boys over about age 4).  Norine says when she went before, the Balinese kids at the orphanage liked to play Uno, Leggos, all sorts of balls, and were really good at playing with anything they could find.
     2.  As far as we know, there are no kangaroos on Bali (unless they're in a zoo), although there are plenty of Australian people on Bali.
     3.  Norine's favorite thing she ate while in Bali was chicken satay (first time she'd tried it...I couldn't watch), and she absolutely loves all sorts of fruit juices that are offered (watermellon, mango, pineapple, passion fruit, ...)  Her daddy even tried avacado juice, and some kind of drink that had kidney beans in it along with gummy fruits.  She did not have to eat bugs (that she knows of), but did eat a fish with it's head still on it.  One thing she did NOT like was a raw chili pepper she picked off a plant.

We need to get answers from the church in general for the other questions...but Biggi sends out a raucus "Go, Go Dawgs...sick-em, woof woof!"

P.S.  Silas is thinking of some questions for you all...will be back soon!

Questions!!

Hello - Mercy here!

I am just back from a fantastic trip to Zimbabwe - I was so busy I didn't get time to keep up with my blog so I will have to try to remember all that happened and get it up to date now! Yesterday I was still feeling very tired, so I stayed in at Pastor Iain and Norma's house while they went to church. But Ruth showed everyone in Bubbles, Splash and Tide Turners what Norine wrote on her family's blog about her perspective of their trip to Bali. Nico had to explain to some of the younger people there what "perspective" meant, but then everyone really enjoyed hearing about the trip and looking at the photos. The photo we all like best is the one with the monkey and its baby..

After they did all that, the children had a think about some questions they'd like to ask. The first 3 are for Norine and her parents to answer about Bali, and the rest are things we would like to ask all the children in Athens Link.

1. What games do children in Bali play? Do any of them have Beyblades?

2. Are there any kangaroos in Bali?

3. What sort of food did you eat? Did you have to eat any bugs?


1. How is Courage?

2. Have you any new members in Athens Link?

3. Are you all Georgia Bulldawgs fans?

Are there any questions you would like to ask us? Let Courage know and he can put them on our blog, like I've done!

That's all for now!
Mercy

P.S. Did you know that the people in XStream decided to change the name of their group to Tide Turners? That happened a while ago but I'm not sure if we ever told you!

One more!

Courage here; I forgot to share one more picture--Mercy got to be with John one Sunday night at church, and help welcome guests!

Pictures from January!

Flying in for a moment...Courage here! Well, I'm in a Bali now with Norine and her mom and dad. I can't wait to share pictures and stories from my time there! But I did want to share a couple of pictures of my time with my best friend Mercy while she was here!

That is Ms. Payton on the right with some of the kids at Athens Link. Mercy is right in the front! Ms. Payton is with the children on Sunday night and we love her so much!

Ms. Kelli, the Athens Link worship leader, showed us how to play on the djembe...it was soo loud!

Our Psalm

Hello everyone - Ruth here!

I hope Mercy and Courage are having fun together while Mercy is in Athens for a few days! We prayed on Sunday for Pastor Iain, Doug and Mike to have a really good time with everyone there and for God to speak to everyone in Athens Link and do amazing stuff so we look forward to hearing all about it!

We read a great Psalm on Sunday morning in Splash - it was Psalm 145. We had a great idea - that we could write our own Psalm in Splash! Katie, Josh and Anna put their heads together and thought up what our Psalm could say, and everyone did their bit in writing it down too. We thought you would like to read our Psalm, so here it is:

God is great
Over all the earth He reigns
Doing different things

In our hearts He reigns
Sing this song with us

God is good
Run around and praise Him
Everyone sing and shout
And say
That God is great

If you read the first letter of each line down the left hand side, you will find it says something about God! That was the theme of our Psalm... We hope you enjoy reading it!

A good visit!

Courage here:

I had such a great visit with my friend Mercy last month. I was excited to see her and Iain and Norma. She told me all about her time in Africa. Wow! I got to share with her what we do on Sunday nights with Ms. Peyton and the Athens Link children. God is so good!

We also spent some time looking at the world map. Mercy pointed out where she had been-cool! I loved hearing about Brazil.

Seeing the picture of the Dunfermline Link on the map!

The picture on the bottom of the map is a prayer and support card for my friend Sarah Olds. Sarah is a missionary in Mozambique. She has a blog too! Her blog is found at http://www.sarah-n-africa.blogspot.com/

We also spent some time putting our heads together to think of new blogs to share!

I'm always so thankful for the time we get to visit with each other!

At the farm

Hi everyone! Courage here. Everyone has been back to school for a while, and we are finally enjoying cooler weather! Here at Athens Link we got a new children's teacher this year-Miss Peyton! She is so great! Tonight we talked about what it looks like to love God with all of our hearts, soul, mind, and strength.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind...Luke 10:27

We at Athens Link are getting so excited about seeing Iain and Norma soon! I had such a fun visit with Mercy the last time she was out here. We visited friends and even did farm chores! Here are a few pictures...

Yay friends!

We rode in the front of the four-wheeler! I almost needed to use my googles!

This is Abigail, Norine and Silas's little sister, who was telling us to hold on.

We found a comfy spot in the hen house during farm chores!

That's a lotta chickens.