It’s the beginning of November, and for a Michigan family, the weather can’t be much better than what we’re experiencing in Grapevine, Texas…blue sky, sunshine, and low 70’s! The kids play outside in shorts. Ben and I run in shorts and short-sleeve shirts, and in the evenings it cools to a Michigan fall-like temperature. It’s the best of both worlds.
We just finished our first ten weeks of school, and it has been a great school year thus far. The kids are studying ancient history and zoology combined this year which is great for all of us. Christian is in 6th grade and is loving pre-algebra (I love it too!). Elizabeth is in 3rd grade and has really excelled at and enjoyed her new language arts program. She’s devouring books and will tell you her favorite one she’s read so far this year is “Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill”. We are also studying Jewish feasts throughout the school year, so it’s been incredible learning about the significance of these Old Testament feasts and the truths we can learn from them today.
Christian turned twelve on October 26. He’s an amazing young man, and we’re thrilled he will be joining us when we take our team to El Salvador on a mission trip in November. For his birthday, we gave him a sturdy backpack suitable for his overseas trip. In the picture you can see that our dog Tex helped with the backpack delivery! Just yesterday Christian’s U.S. Passport arrived in the mail…how exciting! We had a full day of travel on his actual birthday, but the day was filled with many birthday phone calls and culminated with dinner with our friends the Loveings at Christian’s choice of restaurants: Buffalo Wild Wings.
Our team girls are in the middle of a fitness challenge which has been a tremendous motivator to consistently be exercising. I purchased some long-overdue running shoes and have been getting back into running which has been challenging yet exciting. Slow and steady, right!?!
Already this year, we’ve been in five different states and seven different cities, so there’s been much to see and do. While in Pearland, TX we were given tickets to NASA’s Space Center Houston which was incredible. We viewed the Mission Control Center for the Apollo space missions, famous for “Houston, we have a problem,” toured the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility, and got up close with the Saturn V Rocket. It was a great day together as a family.
We did pick up some uninvited house guests in Laurel, Mississippi that we unfortunately kept with us all the way through our time in Pearland, TX and on to Waller, Texas…fire ants! As you can imagine, they’re a tremendous nuisance which required a late night emptying and spraying of our bedroom closet (prompted by a during-the-revival service discovery that Ben literally had ants in his pants!) and the basement of the trailer and kitchen pantry to all be emptied and sprayed. But that just gave me an opportunity to reorganize the pantry…when you’re given lemons, make lemonade, right? After the spraying, Ben vacuumed up hundreds of dead ants from the floor of our closet (see picture), and the ant problem now thankfully seems to be under control.
It has been wonderful being back on the road with the team, traveling as a family, doing life just the way God has designed for us. We are full of joy to be able to do what we do…all for the glory of God!
Serving Him Together,
Jennifer for the Slenk Family
2 comments:
Well hello there!!! We've been waiting for news from the road. So glad to hear you are all doing well. Happy belated birthday Christian! We are very sorry to have missed seeing Ben with ants in his pants...we're thinking that would have been an amusing sight. When will you be traveling to El Salvador? We'd love to be praying for you while you are there (and for Elizabeth while you are gone). Please keep the updates coming...they help us to feel a part of your ministry and connected to you as well as remind us to pray for you all.
hugs from the Tarnow fam.
wow. I never heard about that ant fiasco. :)
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