Days of our lives

Sorry Folks

So sorry for the runaround but after trying out several new blogs, we decided to stick with typepad.  Typepad seems to be the best one for us for now.  I found some nice blogging software but it was too expensive.  Especially since we are not very faithful with our blog posts.  But sorry again.  You can still use the www.fredandjane.com though.  Hopefully we can blog more often.  But no promises.  I like to keep my promises.

Sliding Doors

Have you ever seen the movie, “Sliding Doors”, starring Gwyneth Paltrow?   It came out a while back when I was in high school.  Well, if you did you’ll know what I mean.  I tend to refer to it a lot when a single event causes a chain of events to occur like a domino effect resulting in a particular ending.  And then I wonder if the ending would’ve occurred if the initial single event had not occurred.  Do you know what I mean?  

Anyway, I was reminded of that movie once again this Sabbath afternoon while sitting around our dining table for lunch.  Two gentlemen, Dr. Chung and Mr. Yoo, joined us for Sabbath lunch at our home.  Dr. Chung is a Korean dentist from Bakersfield and has been here in Trinidad for the past two months serving as a relief dentist for our hospital.  Mr. Yoo moved here from Korea six months ago as an independent contractor and is pursuing a project here in Trinidad.  

Some time in the middle of last year, Fred, Joshua, and I were eating at a local Chinese restaurant when we saw two Korean-looking men pass by and take a seat at a table next to us.  At the end of our meal we discussed whether we should stop by their table and ask if they were Korean and if they lived in the country.  We decided to do so and discovered that they were in fact Korean and one of the men would eventually move to Trinidad some time that year.  So we left our number and told him to contact us when he arrived. 

About six months later, we received a phone call from a Mr. Yoo saying that he found our number that we gave to him at a restaurant some time back and was calling because he needed help with his computer.  When Fred went to see what the problem was the computer all of a sudden starting working by itself.  Thinking it a little strange but not thinking much of it, he left.  

A few days later we planned on having dinner at our home with Dr. Chung and thought that we should invite Mr. Yoo as well since we now had his number.  So Mr. Yoo came over and we acquainted ourselves with one another when the topic of the Bible came up.  Dr. Chung, fluent in Korean, was able to briefly explain the need for God and the truths found His Word to Mr. Yoo, an agnostic.  The conversation continued when Mr. Yoo decided that he wanted to come to church with us the following Sabbath.  Praise the Lord!  Mr. Yoo then revealed that when he arrived in Trinidad last October, he was surprised to find a Bible placed in his suitcase by his wife amongst his belongings.  Ever since he had been reading the Bible searching for some kind of truth.  The following March he decided that he was going to start going to church but was unsure as to which one to go to.  His landlord suggested going to a Catholic church down the street.  So Mr. Yoo decided that he would begin attending that church from the next Sunday on.  But God had other plans.  By His providence, we had dinner together the Wednesday before and Mr. Yoo came to church with us that Sabbath and every Sabbath after that for the past two months.  Mr. Yoo is now studying the Bible even more diligently along with Bible studies and books on Daniel and Revelation.  Praise God!    

So you see why sitting around the dining table with Dr. Chung and Mr. Yoo today reminded me of Sliding Doors.  You see… God can use us to win a soul to His kingdom with just a simple phone number.  That one event can trigger a chain of events resulting in a particular ending.  I don’t know if I could call that Sliding Doors or more definitely God’s providence.  Will you let God use you today?

 

Fred and Dr. Chung at the Clinic

Springtime in Trinidad

You always know it’s this time of year in Trinidad because these trees called Poui blossom all over the country.  There’s really no springtime here only dry and wet season, but these trees tend to flower towards the end of dry season.  That’s how you know rainy season is on the way.  I like to just call it springtime.

These last few weeks have been really busy for us in a good way.  For the whole month of April, two LLU med students came to do an elective here at the hospital.  It’s always nice to see and hang out with people from back home.  I hate to say it, but it’s like a breath of fresh air.  For some reason even though we feel like we’ve adapted pretty well here, it’s still just not the same.  Anyway...we had a good time with them.  Here are a few pics of our time together:

This is actually just before they left, right after I did a filling on Rita (middle).  That’s Jean on the right.

Dinner at our receptionist’s house.  The food was awesome.

At least twice a week Jane, Joshua and I go for a walk around the largest park in Trinidad called Queen’s Park Savannah.  It’s approximately 2.3 miles around and has a paved sidewalk for walkers/runners.  This is usually our weekly exercise routine.  The only bad part about it is that we ruin it by having dinner at these street vendors that sell local foods.  The two things that we usually eat are corn soup and a local favorite called doubles.  Doubles have become my new favorite Trinidadian food.  It’s two flour patties with curried chickpeas, cilantro sauce, tamarind sauce and pepper sauce.  yummmmm....you may not like it at first, but these things are soooo good.  Here’s a picture of one of my doubles:  I eat like 3 or 4 of them.

Does that not look so good?  After doubles and corn soup sometimes we treat ourselves to a snowcone, another local favorite.  I’m pretty sure the ice is not clean or sanitary, but I think our bodies have adjusted by now.  Sorry I don’t have a picture of that, but maybe I should take one next time.    

The girls after our walk/run.

After the girls left.  Oh I gotta tell you how sad Joshua was when we were saying goodbye.  It was so sad.  I don’t even know how he knew we were saying bye for good but when they came around to say bye to Joshua he didn’t want to leave them.  When Jane came to take him away he pushed her away and wanted to stay with the girls.  And usually when he wants to delay the inevitable for example bedtime he tries to play cute by saying “nose” and pointing to your nose.  And he kept doing that to Jean.  How sad.  He rejected Jane like 3 or 4 times until I had to distract him just to take him away and as they walked away he started to whimper and almost cry.  It was really sad.  I had to really distract him in order to keep him from crying.  I wonder if he’ll ever get to see them again.

But right after they left, we got news that our friend Grace formerly from Cali now from NY was gonna come and visit us for the weekend!  It was so short, but we had lots of fun.  Saturday night we took a trip with some people from the hospital to go and watch gigantic leatherback turtles come on shore and lay their eggs.  Supposedly Trinidad is one of only 2 places where this happens so it’s a pretty big thing.  The reason we never did this before is because it’s soooo far away.  It took us over 3 hours to get there with half of the distance being winding crazy roads.  And the turtles only come out at night so we didn’t get back home until 4 am!  It was crazy but so worth it.  Check out these pictures.

This is a picture I took of a picture.  They specifically told us not to take pictures with flash when we got outside so I THOUGHT I wouldn’t get any good pictures.

But check this baby out!  This is a picture that I took.  Accidentally!  I promise.  I turned my flash off not realizing that if you turn the camera off and on again the flash turns back on automatically.  So I pointed my camera into the dark and took this picture and much to my surprise the flash came on!  But luckily nobody noticed cause i didn’t get in trouble and I got this nice shot!  I know that if Ray is reading this he’s thinking that’s classic Fred.  But i promise you I didn’t know!

Here are the eggs.  It’s really cool.  You can see them drop.  And these turtles are literally all over the beach.  It was kind of strange at first, but really really cool.

On Sunday we headed out to the beach and spent most of the day there.  

Bake and Shark.  One thing you must eat if you come to Trinidad.  Of course we just eat the bake and veggies, but it’s still good.

  

Joshua absolutely loves the beach!

Joshua wanted to drive home.

It was sad to say goodbye after such a short weekend, but Grace says she’ll be back.  Next up...Jane’s mom and sister come next week!  And I have planned a weekend trip to Tobago.  Can’t wait.  Anybody else want to visit?  We’d love to have you.  We’re starting to get good at this.

Baby #2 is on its way!

We are happy, no... thrilled to announce that Baby #2 is on its way!  Today, we were able to see its lil’ feet, arms, head, and most amazing of all... hear its heartbeat.  It brought overwhelming tears to my eyes.  And I was once again reminded of the wonderful miracle of life and how the Lord has blessed each one of us with it.  God is so good, isn’t He?  

I’m 8 weeks 2 days into the pregnancy.  Yes, I know it’s a little early to be announcing already.  But I seem to have my dad’s genes when it comes to holding secrets in and so I spilt the beans to a few friends.  And now the news is out.  The EDD is Dec 3.  I’ve been feeling very fatigued the past few weeks and slightly nauseous with most foods and have been forcing myself to eat.  But other than that, no morning sickness so I can’t complain.  

This morning, I was sitting on the couch and Joshua came and put his hand on my belly and said “baby” and then kissed it.  It was the cutest thing!  =)  

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers!  We had a scare when we couldn’t see the fetus in the gestational sac at our last two visits and had petitioned a few of you for prayers.  Thank you for sharing this milestone with us!  We will keep you all updated!

Move Completed!

I just wanted to let you know that the move to our new website has been completed.  The only thing is that you have to click read more to see the full blog and pictures if there are any.  I really don't like that part, but what can you do, right?  

www.fredandjane.com

We're Moving!!!

Not what you think though.  I'm in the process of relocating our blog.  Our new site is still under mad construction, but I'm hoping to post a new blog by the end of the week.  So...the next time you check our blog make sure you leave out the typepad and just use www.fredandjane.com and that'll take you to our new blog.  I know we are way way way overdue, but I think this new site will make it much easier for us to keep you updated.  We hope.

So remember, www.fredandjane.com  no more fredandjane.typepad.com  alright?  come check us out!

An Answer to Prayer

The past couple of days I've been feeling so fatigued and been wanting to nap all the time.  So today I decided to do something about it and go to the gym.  I haven't been exercise very much, or I'll just say at all, since Joshua was born so I thought it was about time to put myself into action again. 

So I changed into my workout attire with my towel, water bottle, and health fliers in hand and headed out the door.  On the way to my car I stopped to say "Hello" to a neighbor of mine, Lima, who was sitting by the pool.  Now let me pause and digress...

Starting February 1, our local church, Diego Martin SDA, will be holding a series of meetings on health and evangelism to lead up to a crusade.  Fred and I have agreed to open our home to hold the evangelism portion of the series and I have been praying this past week for the Holy Spirit to work on the hearts of our neighbors, especially Lima's, that they might attend these meetings. 

I had just finished putting the final touches on the fliers for the health series and was on my way to drop them off at Sister Sealy's house when I ran into Lima.  As we chatted briefly about the weather and how our day went, Lima began to share about her past drug addiction and suicide attempts and unfolded her desire to live a healthier life and place her trust in God.  What a perfect opportunity to share about God and His love and to hand her the very flier that was just waiting to be given.  God truly is good and listens to every prayer.  As Lima looked over the flier she displayed a look of excitement and interest.  I'm looking forward to seeing her at our meetings.

Meetings will be held February 1-13.  Please keep the Abundant Living health seminars and New Beginnings evangelism series in your prayers.

-Jane

I'm Alive!

Yes I am alive!  I have been sick though for the last couple of days and consequently haven't been able to go to work!  I don't know what's worse....being sick or having to go to work.  I think I'd have to say work on this one since I'm not completely bed ridden or in constant pain.  It's been nice staying home and not having to wake up at 6:15 in the morning and go to work by myself.  And have the excuse to take a 3 hour nap whenever I feel like it.  Anyways...man it's been a long time since I've written anything and not really sure if I even have anything worth writing about, but just felt like I should since I've had so much time on my hands.

I've been listening to a series of sermons on audioverse called Faith and Finances in the End Times by Ed Reid this week and thought I might suggest it to anyone who would be interested in learning biblical principles of money management.  He talks about everything from student loans, tithing, to retirement.  He's kind of all over the place with his presentations and uses the phrases "incredible" and "very very interesting" literally for every statement that he makes, but he's really easy to listen to and has a lot of good/interesting information.  Listen to it.  If anything you'll get a good laugh every time you hear him say "this is very very interesting." 

I just found out that my parents got their car stolen two days ago from YMCA.  Pretty shocking to say the least.  Apparently my parents never lock their lockers when they go to work out even though they keep their keys in there.  I was just glad to know that they were safe and unharmed.  Reminded me of the verse found in Matthew that says something like "do not store for yourselves treasures on earth...where thieves break in and steal...instead store for yourselves treasures in heaven."  it's nice to know that this world is not my home.  incidentally, Ed Reid talks about how to store treasure in Heaven in his series.  Listen to it.

Isn't it weird how people keep telling us that it's sooo dangerous here in Trinidad, but things like this happen to people back home in the US?  I don't want to downplay the dangers of Trinidad, last week three kids were found with bags over there heads and necks slit open literally like one block away from the hospital.  It didn't help that we knew one of the little boys, he was the son of a guy that comes to the hospital every week selling fresh fish, and he was only 13 years old.  But we live in a crazy world and we need to be careful wherever we are.  Even in good old Chattanooga Tennessee.

Joshua is starting to kind of walk.  He can only take like 5 to 10 steps by himself, but he can walk and walk if you hold is hand.  I know...he's late, but give the guy a break...he mastered the art of crawling so early that he didn't want to move on so quickly.  But he's been wanting to walk everywhere now that he's discovered a new way of transportation.  I can't imagine how it's going to be when he doesn't need my hand to walk around.  It's a good thing Jane bought this doggie backpack with a leash on it.  I have a feeling we're going to need that thing everytime we go out. 

Here are a few recent pics of our little cutie pie.  I love this guy to death.

 

 

 

-Fred

p.s.  hopefully i'll be able to keep this blogging thing going again.  but we'll see.

p.s.s.  if you listen to the Ed Reid series, you have to start with Creator of Heaven and Earth and go backwards to Rewards of Financial Faithfulness.  that's the order of the presentations.  Listen to it.  I think you'll enjoy it.

I'm home!

After a month and a half of being away in TN and CA, we are now back in Trinidad.  We got in late last night at 1 AM (or should I say early this morning) after a delayed flight and missing baggage.  A quick inspection of the house found dead insects on our dusty floors and cobwebs but an otherwise intact and clean home.  While we were away, I would periodically worry that rainstorms would bring water in through our leaky walls.  But I was glad to find that that was not the case.  Although, a cockroach did await me as I jumped into the shower and Fred found six worms in the toilet (ugh!), I was happy to be home.  

This morning Joshua woke up in his own room in his own crib perhaps a little confused as to his whereabouts.  But after I nursed him in his rocking chair he looked up at the IPOD dock (which he loves to look at and play with) and smiled and then he turned and smiled at me as if to say, "I'm home!" =)  

It was so nice be back in the States and to see loved ones again.  But it sure is nice to be home again.  While talking to Dr. Nick, the director of the missions department at LLUSD, we shared how we were looking forward to going back home after a long furlough.  And he responded with, "Now that's the sign of a true missionary."  Although our home in Trinidad may be thousands of miles away from family and friends, from where we were born... home is still home.  

-Jane

Thoughts to destiny

Here's a quote that I ran across recently:

"Thoughts lead to feelings, feelings go forth into actions, actions form habits, habits decide character, character fixes our destiny."

One of the books that I'm reading is entitled "Shepherding a Child's Heart" by Tedd Tripp.  It talks about how we as parents have been given the grave responsibility in caring for our children and leading them to give their hearts to God.  But I realized that before I can lead my child to submit his will to God, I first must submit.  As thoughts lead to feelings, feelings must not go forth into actions unless they are in harmony with God.  That's a challenge that I give to you.  Let's guard the avenues to our hearts and have good thoughts, feelings, actions, habits, character, and destiny. 

"Finally, brethren, whatsover things are true,  whatsoever things are honest,  whatsoever things are just,  whatsoever things are pure,  whatsoever things are lovely,  whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."  Philippians 4:8

I've been watching an Amazing Facts program called "Raising Kids for Heaven" on 3ABN at 9 pm every evening and have been especially blessed by Cinda Osterman, an educational consultant.  If you can find any of her material on Christian parenting, I would recommend it. 

Fred and I took Joshua for his first dip in the pool.  At first he was afraid to be in unknown waters, but near the end he loosened up and enjoyed himself.  Good times!

-Jane