Honduras 2019

Hello again Friends and Family!

We are so thankful for your help in making our trip to Honduras possible!  We had a really good week, and we're so thankful for your prayer and support!

This trip was very special because we were returning to spend time with dear friends!  We always feel so welcome and loved when we go to La Providencia, and this time was no exception.  It was like a big family reunion!  

There are currently three families who live at La Providencia.  Instead of institutional care, orphaned children are placed with a mother and father who commit to raise them as their own.  Please pray for the Honduran lawmakers as they are the ones who determine a child's reunification, continued foster care, or adoption.  Please pray for God to protect all of these children and give wisdom to those who must decide what is best for the children.  

We always love spending time with the Salgado family.

The Amaya family is such an encouragement to us.

Here is Beth with one of the children from the Rios family (the newest family at LP).

We also got to spend time with other friends who work at La Providencia. In this picture are the wife and children of LP's national directory, Henry.  Ellen Ferguson, top left, is a friend from our home church who now lives in Honduras and works at another Christian school nearby.  

This beautiful girl is the baby that our friend Katharine is currently caring for.  In addition to working at La Providencia, Katharine also does emergency foster care.

Heath, Ethan and Jesse had a great time catching up with their friends in the construction/maintenance department.

​The girls and I enjoyed seeing all the students we got to know a few years ago.​

We also got to help out with several projects while we were there.  Beth, Erin, and all 5 kids worked all week on organizing and cataloging all the supplies in the school supply room.  ​

Heath and Ethan and Jesse built book shelves and helped with repairs.  

 And we all helped with food preparation . . . from cleaning banana leaves for use in wrapping tamales, to "assisting" chickens in their process from farm to kitchen.

We also helped with art, music, and Bible classes, and even Awana!

It was very special to spend time with our friend Oneida.  She is a single mom whose daughter attends La Providencia.  Her house was recently destroyed by flooding, and she is living with her sister while saving up money to build a new house.  In the picture you can see the mud bricks that are being prepared for building.  Her prayer is to get a loan that will enable her to put a good-quality roof on so that the bricks won't get destroyed when the rainy season starts.  Spending time with her is always humbling, because she demonstrates such strong trust in God, that no matter what He is in control.  I've never heard her complain, though her circumstances (financial and otherwise) are so much harder than anything I've experienced.  Please join us in prayer that God will provide for her housing and continue to give her strength and joy, and that we would have that same strong faith!

As always, we learned more about caring for orphaned and vulnerable children by hearing about La Providencia's next-step plans.  A major prayer request for them is the decision and ability to continue adding a grade each year to the school.  The oldest students are now in 9th grade, and 10th grade is a completely different level in Honduras.  High school grades have additional requirements and need more financial resources than the younger grades do, and it will be very difficult to add high school.  However, if they don't add 10th grade next year, it's likely that up to half of the current 9th graders will just drop out of school and never finish.  Please be in prayer for wisdom and provision for this important work!  Pray for La Providencia's leaders to have wisdom and unity in figuring out the best ways to help children.

Thank you again for your prayer, encouragement, and/or financial support.  This trip wouldn't have been possible without you, and it means so much to us to have each one of you working with us in this ministry!  For more information about La Providencia, you can visit the website at www.providenceworld.com/la-providencia, or ask us if you have any more questions about the ministry or our time there.  We appreciate you very much, and pray that God will bless you and keep you always close to Him.

In Christ,

~Heath, Erin, Ethan, Jesse, Tabitha, & Rayanna

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March Newsletter

The Runkles Family at  LA PROVIDENCIA (Siguatepeque, Honduras)

A Full February!

A Visit from our Home Church! During the second week of February, we were blessed to have a team from our very own church (Mountain View Community) here to help!  It was great to see some familiar faces, and meet a new one too.  Everyone was eager to help and learn about La Providencia.  Their time and effort and encouragement mean so much to us!  Thank you to all of you who were came, and to all of you who had a part in sending the team.   House #3 is Almost Ready! Finishing touches are being put on the new house, and the new couple should be moving in later this month!  Heath enjoyed having the extra help from the Mountain View team, and the house is looking great!  We're looking forward to welcoming the new family soon!  Please be in prayer for them as they settle in.   A Musical Treat! Youth Orchestra of the Americas put on a concert here in Siguatepeque last month.  Even with only a few days' notice, we had several La Providencia students that were able to come.  It was perfect timing because all the music classes have been learning about the various instruments of the orchestra over the last few months, and they got to see them in real life!  For most of them, this was the first time they'd ever seen a live orchestra, and most of them really enjoyed it.  Erin was very excited to be able to be with her students for this special experience! Oneida's Birthday! Oneida is a local lady who comes to clean our house three times each week, and her birthday was on Valentine's Day.  We had fun giving her a little surprise to celebrate, but the birthday isn't really the point.  The point is what a blessing it has been to know her!  I (Erin) never thought I would hire a housekeeper, but I'm so glad we did.  Not just because she keeps our house decent (which would be nearly impossible with the schedule we have this year), but because it has been a pleasure to get to know her!  She is funny and friendly, and she shares our faith in Christ.  Getting to know her and her daughters, see their home, and hear their story has also helped us really understand what life is like for the majority of people in the area, and see La Providencia doing what it's here to do.  Her younger daughter is receiving a free, Christian, bilingual education, including lunch five days a week.  They see Christ's love in action as La Providencia not only blesses families like theirs, but also provides families for children who have none.  Life is not easy for them in any way, but there is hope through Christ and through His people serving in this community.  For us, she is an example of joy, contentment, and perseverance through difficulty.  As wonderful as it is to have a clean house, her friendship and what we've learned from her are of infinitely more value! COMING UP . . . -Exams for the students March 14-17 -new family moves in sometime in March -next visa-renewal trip March 18-24 PRAISES . . . -great visit from Mountain View team -good health for our family -3rd home is almost move-in ready PRAYER REQUESTS . . . -wisdom in parenting, spiritual blessing for our children -wisdom and unity for Providence staff in planning for next year -for the new family and the children they will be welcoming

Jesse's Baptism

Jesse was baptized today!  We are so happy to see him growing in  his faith, and to see his heart that is sensitive to the Lord.  We're looking forward to seeing him mature as a Christian and pray that he will always walk close with the Lord.

Bound for Honduras!

Well, life has a way of passing by day after day, even when I haven't finished my to-do list.  I've been meaning to post on here for quite some time about our plans for a orphan-care mission trip to Honduras, but I just haven't gotten around to it.  So, taking the easy way out, I'm just posting our support letter and update letter below.  If you've already read those you can skip this post.  

December 2013

Dear Friends & Family,

We are excited to tell you about the ministry we've been serving in this past year and a mission trip that we are participating in this spring! We hope that you will be a part of the ministry too--by praying for us and/or contributing financially if you are able.

About a year and a half ago, we started planning an orphan ministry with some other people in our church. It's been encouraging to see that God is moving in other people's hearts as well as our own! Several families within our church have told us that God was leading them to be involved in orphan care, and we have witnessed His perfect timing as He brought us together in this ministry.

The ministry is known as Abba's Hands & Heart and is part of Mountain View Community Church. So far as a ministry, we have all been excited to establish a fund for adopting families and walk with two families through their adoption journey. We've also gotten to share in the excitement of two other families who hosted orphans from Latvia in their home last summer. We're looking forward to getting involved in the foster care system locally. And we've been so blessed to find friends and prayer partners who share a passion for orphaned children.

Along with the rest of the AHH leadership team, we want to provide an international mission trip opportunity for our church, specifically for ministry to orphans. Before taking a team though, our church leaders have asked us to go as a small group to “test the waters” and discern if this location would be a good fit for a larger team from our church. So this spring, March 1^st-8^th, four of us will be traveling to Honduras. The trip is being coordinated by Visiting Orphans, a ministry who plans trips specifically for the purpose of ministering to orphans. While in Honduras we will be helping out at a couple different orphanages.

One is a Christian organization called La Providencia. This ministry is unique in that, rather than a large institution, children are placed into homes of about 8 children with a “mom” and a “dad.” They are provided with education, health care, and loving Christian house parents. We will also spend some of the days helping at a state-run orphanage. These are the institutional buildings that most people think of when they hear of an orphanage. We are excited to go and help these children and their caretakers however we are needed. Some of the things we might do include playing games with the kids, cleaning rooms, helping with a building project, rocking babies, making music with the children, doing laundry, or whatever else is needed.

Our hope is that this will indeed be a good fit for our church so that we can return with a team next year and continue to serve the same community for years to come. We also hope that you will join with us in praying for God to lead us and be glorified in every aspect of this ministry—before, during, and after the trip!

If you are interested in receiving updates about the trip, or if we can count on you to pray for us, please let us know at erin.runkles@gmail.com. If you are interested in contributing financially toward the $2200 cost of the trip (preferably by early January) please visit www.visitingorphans.org and click on “donate”, or send a check to Visiting Orphans; 449 Metroplex Drive; Nashville, TN 37211. On a separate paper (not on the check), write Mountain View Honduras Trip—Heath & Erin Runkles.

Thank you for reading this and for keeping us in your thoughts and prayer. We appreciate it very much. Have a wonderful Christmas!

God bless,

Heath & Erin Runkles

Feb 1, 2014
Greetings Friends!

Thank you all so much for your prayer and/or financial support of our upcoming trip to Honduras.  We are so thankful for each one of you!

We just wanted to send a brief update as we continue to get ready for the trip.  One big praise we have is that all of the money needed for our expenses has been provided!  Any future donations will help the rest of the team, and after that be given directly to the orphanage we'll be working with.  Praise the Lord for His provision!

Another exciting thing is that my (Erin's) mom will be coming to stay with our kids while we're gone.  Since my parents live in Nebraska they don't get to see the kids very often, so this will be a very special time for Grandma and the grandkids.  

Over the past several weeks we've been completing a Bible study and having discussions with the rest of our team.  It's been a good study on discipleship that will help us as we serve in Honduras as well as at home in our regular lives.  With our team, we're also working on planning for activities to do with the kids when we're there.  This is the most uncomfortable part of the planning because we don't know exactly how things will go.  Our coordinator at Visiting Orphans keeps saying, "Plan well but be flexible!"  We should have teaching, crafts, stories, games, etc. to do with the kids for about 3 hours each day, but be prepared if the staff wants us to do something totally different instead.  We need to be ready for anything!  I (Erin) love to plan, but this will definitely be good practice in the flexibility part for me.  

Besides actual ministry to the kids and caretakers there, we also have the responsibility of deciding whether or not to recommend this as a larger-team trip for our church orphan ministry for next year.  This feels like a huge decision, so please pray for wisdom and unity for the four of us to see how God leads.  

Of course, prayer for safety is appreciated as well, especially since Honduras isn't the safest of locations, and we are both going and leaving our kids home.  

Thank you so much for your prayer and support.  We'll plan to send one more update before we leave (March 1st).  God bless you and your families, and thank you so much for joining us in this ministry to orphans!

In Him,

Heath & Erin Runkles

Summer Ends

Well, my last post was entitled "Summer Begins," so as you can see I haven't kept up with blogging much lately.  I should have had more time over the summer, but I guess I was in "summer mode," meaning "lazy mode."  So I'll try to summarize the highlights of our summer.

For the last week and a half of June we hosted another chaperon from Latvia.  Her name is Lana, and we had a fun time with her.  A couple other families in our church hosted her after us, and two families in our church hosted Latvian orphans for 5 weeks.  (One family is even hoping to adopt the kids they hosted!)  It's been really neat to see God moving in people's hearts in many different ways regarding orphan care.  Everyone has a different niche, but God can use all of us somewhere!  Here are pictures of the host families and kids and of Lana with our family.

After Lana left we went to Gettysburg for a 150th Anniversary Civil War re-enactment.  It was a miserable day!  I guess if you're really into this stuff and you want to camp out and pretend you're really in the war it might be cool.  But for a family with young kids, walking around in miserable sweltering heat while trying to find a place you could actually see the battle was NOT FUN!  For hard-core civil war buffs maybe, but it was definitely not user friendly.    

July brought about a trip to Cincinnati.  Just Tabitha and I went.  She had testing done on her kidneys and bladder, showing good results from her last surgery.  We were thankful for that, and we also had a really good time visiting with our friends, the Fronduti's.  The only trouble on that trip was when the van tire blew out on the highway in West Virginia.  I was able to pull over without any major trouble, and a kindly West Virginian neighbor stopped and changed it for me.  

After we got home the older 3 had swimming lessons, which is always a fun time.  Next year Rayanna will be able to do it too, which should be good since she's tired of being just a spectator!

My sister Carrie came to visit for a few days since she had a conference out our way.  Well, kind of "out our way."  7 hours and $50 in tolls made me vow to never go to New Jersey to pick anyone up again!  It was great to see her though (and she did pay for the tolls).  Don't worry...you're worth every bit of hassle, L'il Sis.  =)  

August was a month of sadness and joy.  Sadly, one of our pastors and his family had to leave the church for personal reasons.  We will miss them and their ministry very much, and our church family is definitely grieving the loss.   In happier news, some other friends from church welcomed home their daughter Mihret from Ethiopia!  The kids and I got to go to the airport with some other friends to welcome them.  What a special time!  

I held a music camp for the first time this summer.  It was called Music Olympics.  I had 11 kids (including mine) for 2 hours a day for 4 days.  It was fun, but definitely exhausting!  Maybe a year from now I'll have recuperated enough to do it again.  :)

We started school on August 19th:  fourth grade, second grade, kindergarten, and preschool.  Rayanna is thrilled to be doing school with the big kids and gets quite upset if I don't have enough work planned for her.  Tabitha is learning to read and doing really well with it!  Jesse is excited about our study of space this year.  And Ethan is showing a lot of maturity in planning his work and being responsible to get it done.  Four days out of the first week were good; one was not so good, and I was ready to quit!  But overall, the first two weeks have gone well, and I'm hopeful that we'll have a good year.  The kids even spent time playing make-believe together one day (WITHOUT fighting!), which is something I haven't seen them do in ages!

Now it's Labor Day weekend, the unofficial end of summer.  I'd like to say that we're ending summer with an exciting anniversary trip to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC.  That was the plan, but, as you'll see in the next post, our plans don't always work out.  All in all though, it's been a good summer.  We even had several weeks of gorgeous weather, for which I was very thankful!  Today it's back to 90-some-horrible degrees and nasty humidity, but oh well.  I'm ready to start another school year and count down the days until fall weather!  

Resting in the Arms of Jesus

Please pray for this sweet family, the Olssons.  They go the our church, and we've met them a few times through the orphan ministry, since they've adopted from Ethiopia and are almost completed with their second Ethiopian adoption.  On Saturday a terrible tragedy occurred:  their precious 2-year-old daughter was killed when she was hit by an SUV in a parking lot.

This week has been exhausting and heart-wrenching for our whole church family.  Heath and I don't know them very well, but it's just such a sad tragedy and has been a heavy weight for all of us.  I can't even imagine the extent of their pain, and I'm so glad that our church and community are supporting them.  I think there were over 300 people at her funeral today!

It's so hard to understand why God would let this happen.  Only a week after getting home from meeting their new daughter in Ethiopia (whom they're hoping to bring home in July), they lost the daughter they adopted only a year and a half ago.  It seems so senseless, but we trust that God is good, that he holds little Marra Freh in His arms now, and that He is close to the brokenhearted.  Their family has been an amazing reflection of God's grace and strength already.  They've reached out to and forgiven the woman who was driving, they focused the funeral on inviting people to know Christ and to consider adoption, and they've been so full of His grace and peace and have been a blessing to others, even as they grieve so deeply.

Please pray for them if you think of it.  And hug your loved ones a little extra today.

Comfort Zone Departing in: 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .

An event has rather suddenly presented itself, and our family is about to be out of our comfort zone in a week's time.  We're not even going anywhere!  But to be honest this is more out of my comfort zone than travelling to foreign countries, eating strange food, adopting children, or even public speaking (which I thought was the most out-of-my-comfort-zone-thing I'd ever do).  So . . . here's the story . . .

As some of you know, we spent last spring/summer working with other people in our church to start an orphan ministry.  It was officially launched last month and named Abba's Hands & Heart, and we've been very excited to see 50+ people who are interested in getting involved!

One of the mission opportunities we're planning to promote is orphan hosting.  Through New Horizons, we're hoping to have several families in our church host orphans for a month next summer.  While some of them may end up being adopted, the main purpose is just to show them the love of a family, introduce them to Christ, and let them know that someone cares.  So even if they never get adopted, they can carry that hope back home with them.  And of course, it would also be thrilling if some of them DO get adopted, either by their host families or someone else who meets them while they're here.

This organization coordinates trips from Ukraine, Latvia, and China.  The first trip from China is actually over Chinese New Year 2013.  Since we just started working on this recently, it was too late to get our church involved for the hosting over Christmas or Chinese New Year, so we're planning to be involved this summer.  It also costs $2950 per child, which the host family has to pay in order to have them.  So waiting until summer will allow more people to save up and be able to afford it too.

Meanwhile, I filled out the pre-application for hosting a chaperone.  You don't have to pay anything to do that, and we thought it'd be a good way to get some experience so we can promote it to other people at church.  I didn't think we'd be picked because Maryland wasn't on the list for needed host homes.  However, DC was on the list, and evidently we're close enough!  I got an email a few nights ago saying they still needed homes for 2 of their chaperones, a man from Ukraine and a lady from Latvia for 3 weeks.  I was so excited!  I talked to Heath about it, and he was excited, and we wrote her back and said we'd take the lady from Latvia!  How exciting!  We're going to be indirectly involved in helping these orphans, and we'll be practicing hospitality in a big way, and we'll be learning about Latvia, and  . . . yay!  So exciting!

The next day I realized what I'd really signed up for.  Not that I didn't know it before, but I had neglected to compare our action with my personality.  Me....someone who wouldn't even want to spend 3 weeks living with a good friend, let alone a stranger!  Me....an introvert who--more than money, pleasure, fame, excitement--just craves alone time!  Me...who already feels challenged to find enough time with my husband and kids.  Me...who speaks no Latvian and had to look it up even to find out what language they speak in Latvia.   Me...who cherishes intimate family time, especially on Christmas morning!  What have I done?!?!

Last night going to bed, I was really stressing out about this.  I was thinking....Lord, send me to a foreign country for 3 weeks instead!  Leaving my comfort zone is actually a lot easier than having my comfort zone invaded!  But this morning, as I prayed about it, an amazing thing happened.  That "peace that surpasses all understanding" enveloped me.  Even imagining the worst-case scenario of a really annoying person or a lot of really awkward times, or complete inability to communicate, or no alone time the whole 3 weeks....even imagining all that, it's only a few weeks of my life.  I can handle giving that up, for the benefit of the kids coming.  What if even one of those children gets adopted, or one of those children receives Christ, or even just goes back home feeling like somebody loves them . . . wouldn't I give up three weeks of my personal preferences for that?  Wouldn't I allow my comfort zone to be "invaded" for the benefits that may come?  And suddenly the anxiety was gone.  I'm back to feeling excited!  Yes, it may be as bad as my imagination designed last night, but it also might be a wonderful, enriching experience that I would've been sorry to miss!  And the best part is I feel God's smile.  I know He wants us to be hospitable, and I know that doesn't just mean having my best friends over for dinner.  I feel content, knowing that God will carry me through whatever this experience entails, and that He usually goes above and beyond what I can imagine, and that He always does great and glorious things!

Keep us in your prayers, if you would.  And please pray for this lady, the other chaperones, and the children who will be coming.  And if anyone else is interested in hosting (either this lady for part of the time, or the Ukrainian gentleman for some or all of the time), let me know ASAP!  The only requirements are that you be a Christian, and that the guest has their own bedroom.  Oh, and if you happen to speak Latvian or just like meeting new people, come by our house frequently!!  :)

Abba's Hands & Heart

Something exciting is happening at our church this Sunday!  We are unveiling a new ministry called "Abba's Hands & Heart."  It's purpose is:  sharing God's love through orphan care, adoption assistance, and foster care support.  

Back when Heath and I were in the adoption process (for Tabitha I think), I read a book called "Launching an Orphans Ministry in Your Church."  I thought it had some great ideas, and I daydreamed about how exciting it would be to have something like that at our church.  But, being in the midst of the adoption process, our efforts were focused on that.  I remember thinking that someday, once we were finished adopting, that would be a neat thing to do.

So, fast forward to last spring.  Rayanna had been home with us for several months, and we had no plans for more adoption.  (In other words, no excuses for why we couldn't start a ministry like this.)  I started talking to Heath about it, and he was excited about the idea and agreed we should take action!  We talked to two of our pastors about it last March.  Then, from May up until last week, we had a series of meetings with other interested people from our church.  

It's been amazing to see God put the group together.  We asked a big list of people we thought might be interested.  Some were adoptive parents; some were not.  And in a couple of the cases, they've shared how God had been stirring in their hearts to do something in this area, but they weren't sure what.  We had no idea what was going on in their hearts--we'd only asked them because they were people who loved God and loved children, and had helped us with our adoptions.  But to hear how God set up the timing, and led us to share with them, and to see how perfectly they fill a need in this planning group....it's all been amazing to see!  We had been expecting to get two or three interested families, but it turned out to be about 10!

After all these meetings and all the months of talking and praying and planning, we are ready to launch!  This Sunday (Orphan Sunday) will be the big day.  Our group will be sharing the ministry with the church body and inviting them to join us in helping orphans!  We'll be sharing some opportunities for right now, as well as some ideas we have for later.  Some of the opportunities we have right now are orphan sponsorships, hosting an orphan for a month, financial support for families who are hosting or in the adoption process, and encouragement to consider adoption or foster care.  We also want to be a strong support network for families who are adopting or doing foster care, helping them through the challenges and the adjustments.  

Please keep this ministry in prayer.  Pray that God uses our church to glorify Himself and do great things in the lives of His most vulnerable children.  And, on a very practical note, pray that our church building has power restored by Sunday!  

We hope to have a website for the ministry pretty soon, and I'll share that link once we have it.  Thanks for your support!

Updates

I realize I've been slacking on my blogging lately.  I guess nothing too interesting has happened and/or I haven't had time or energy to write!  But, lest my family and friends die from curiosity as to what's been happening in our home, here are some brief updates on various topics.

Taxes--I must beg the pardon of the dear IRS whom I complained about so much in my last post.  They are sending us a very nice refund this year, due in large part to us adopting and having a mortgage.  So, thank you dear IRS folk for giving us back so much of our own money.  Much obliged.

Weather--I don't know about the rest of the country, but Maryland forgot to have winter this year.  We did have snow once . . . in October.  And we had flurries a few times.  But most of the "winter" was in the 50's, with the occasional 70-degree day thrown in for good measure.  And now, March 15th (which is technically still winter), it was 82 degrees.  Yup.  Can't wait to see what this does for this year's stink bug population.

Rayanna--Still our sweet baby, Rayanna is quickly moving out of babyhood and into toddlerdom.  While I'd still say she's an easy child over all, she is leaving behind her "perfect angel" status and warming up for the terrible 2's.  She's learned to have an opinion and to make it known very forcefully.  (In some circles, this might be called a tantrum, but certainly our perfect angel wouldn't do THAT!)  She's also getting very curious.  "Hmmmm.....what happens if I take all the DVD's out of the cabinet and spread them around the room?  Again?  How about for the 5th time today?"  "What happens if I climb up on the back of the couch and stand up?"  "What happens if I weasel my way onto the chair and then up into the middle of the dining room table?  How much more fun would that be if there's a full glass of water waiting for me there?"  "What is this nifty discovery called my screaming voice?  It's so fun!"  "What will Daddy and Mommy do THIS time when I spit this yucky food out of my mouth and refuse to eat anything but french fries?"  So, yeah, she's becoming much more like most children her age.  It's wonderful that she's learning so much, but it sure makes things more challenging!


Tabitha--We got our insurance summary for 2011, with a page for each person.  I didn't even get a page because I had no doctor visits at all.  The men in the family each had a couple things, Rayanna had several visits plus her eye surgery.  And then there's Tabitha!  Tabitha had a 4-page list with a grand total of $266,000. Praise the Lord for good insurance, that's all I have to say!  This year should hopefully be much less dramatic.  She is going to have a p-flap surgery done in June, here at Hopkins.  That's to fix her velopharyngeal dysfunction of course.  What?  You don't know what that means?  Well, it has nothing to do with her other ailments.  This is the little thingy in the back of your throat that's supposed to force the air out of your mouth instead of your nose when you talk.  Hers doesn't work, so this is supposed to fix that, so she won't grow up talking like "The Nanny."  =)  She also has another trip to Cincinnati in June, but just for testing.  And at some point she'll have kidney surgery there, but that's not for awhile yet.

Jesse--Jesse is a happy little guy.  He's doing great in kindergarten, excelling in his Kindermusik class, and ready to start weekly soccer this spring.  Nothing really new for him.  He continues to make us laugh and keep life fun.  :)


Ethan--Ethan is growing up too fast!  His hands and feet are almost as big as mine!  He's leaving his years of shyness behind and becoming very sociable.  He's taking piano lessons from me this year, and doing well with 2nd grade, but he's always eager to get school done so he can go outside and work on his building projects.

Heath--Heath is almost done with another remodeling project.  He used up some wasted space in our house to give us a much bigger mudroom/storage area, and it looks really great!  I can't wait to organize all the junk that was piled up in there and have enough space to find what I need!  I love being married to a builder!  :)


Me--Not much new.  Homeschooling, teaching piano, wife-ing, mom-ing, same 'ol same 'ol.  But every day is  a one-time opportunity, and each day is full of blessings . . .  if I'm awake enough to notice them!  That's a big "if."  I seem to be perpetually tired and can't find enough time to do all that needs (or I want) to get done!  Next weekend, my friend Kelly and I are going to an adoptive mom's retreat.  I'm really looking forward to the refreshment and encouragement, and some really nice grown-up girl time.  :)

Church--Heath and I have gotten permission from our church leaders to start making plans for having an orphans ministry through our church!  We don't know at all what it will entail yet, but we've just felt that God has given us a passion in that area, and we need to do something with it!  So pray for us as we seek God's direction in that.  Pray that He will send the right people to join in the effort and show us what He wants our church to do specifically.  (And if you go to MVCC and would like to be a part of it, please let us know!)


So that sums up life at the Runkles' for now.  Until next time . . .

Who, ME?!?!?

A couple of months ago I was asked by a lady at our church if I would consider speaking at our women's Christmas brunch.  She had read my blog and thought I had something to share.  As I read her email, I was already planning my response:  "No way!  You've got the wrong person!  I could NEVER do that!"  You see, I was the girl who would be physically sick the night before I had to give a speech in high school.  I was the one who hardly talked in casual conversation, let alone in front of people!  I've also been a very private person (until I started this blog anyway), and can share in writing much easier than by speaking.  But when I got to the end of the email, she said, "Now before you say 'no,' would you at least pray about it?"  So I was stuck.  What was I going to do, refuse to pray about it?  So I said I would pray, and I did.  And I felt that God was leading me to say yes, and to share what He's been teaching me through all our ordeals with Tabitha.  Never would I have imagined myself to volunteer for anything like that, but I was actually kind of excited to share!

Over the next several weeks as I put my thoughts together to share what God has been teaching me, I learned so much more! Preparing to speak was a real learning experience and a chance to grow closer to the Lord.  When the day arrived I was indeed nervous, but not nearly as much as I expected to be.  I'm really bad at estimates, but if I had to guess I'd say there were close to 100 women there, and I would've expected myself to at least be sick to my stomach if not pass out all together!  But it went OK, and I wasn't nearly as terrified as I thought I'd be.  I was really thankful for all the people praying for me and that God answered my request to survive the ordeal.  =)  I did survive.  I'm really glad it's over!  But I'm also glad I did it.  God increased my trust in Him through it, and I've had a few women tell me that what I shared helped them in some way.  I'm amazed that God would use a non-speaker, shy, flawed person like me in that way!

I was going to post the video here, but it won't work.  So I guess if you want to see it you'll have to visit me in person.  =)

Sunday

This morning we got to attend church!  We'd never been to church in China before, so I was really glad we got to do this.  It was a Chinese/English service, so most of it was translated for us.  The songs were not, but one of them was "As the Deer."  The rest were in Chinese.  I couldn't understand the words, but it was very beautiful.  The pastor spoke about prayer and how its purpose is not to achieve our own will, but God's.  After that a lady gave her testimony.  It's always neat to see Christianity outside of America and be reminded of how big the Church really is.  It's not confined to our country or our traditions, but encompasses people of every nation.  When we all get to woship the Lord together in heaven, won't it be wonderful?!?! 

For lunch we went to a Thai restaurant.  I'd never had Thai food before.  The noodles were very strange.  Wide, flat and slimy.  But they tasted really good!  This afternoon we rested in the hotel room and then walked around a bit and had dinner.  I don't remember having so much down time when we were here two years ago, but Heath says we did.  I guess I spent most of the time sick in bed, so it's all a blur.  We still have 2 full days here, and the only appointment is the consulate appointment first thing tomorrow morning.  I think we're going to be pretty bored!  And walking around the shops is dangerous because I keep buying stuff! 

Heath's feeling better.  But now I have a sore throat, so I hope I'm not getting sick!  Rayanna continues to develop her personality.  We don't know what she was like before we met her, so it's hard to tell if this is her normal personality that was just suppressed during the first few stressful days of meeting us, or if she never had much expression and is suddenly developing it quickly just from the change in her environment.  Either way, she is super cute!  Today we've had to coerce her to eat again.  Yesterday was the only day she's really been hungry and drinking full bottles.  Today she's uninterested again and cries if we try to make her drink her bottle.  But if she's hungry she doesn't act it--she seems very happy.  She hardly fusses and is pretty content as long as we're holding her.  She's getting much harder to hold though!  She's getting more and more squirmy, climbing all over us.  You'd think she'd want to get down and play around, but she doesn't.  Just loves to be held.  I'm really glad she's feeling secure with us though, so all the holding must be working.  She's actually played on the bed a few times today, sitting next to us instead of on us, so I think we're making progress! 

I'm starting to really miss the big kids.  I've been doing really well being apart (and actually enjoying this "vacation" from them), but it's been long enough, and I'm ready to see them!  I'm very thankful to be able to see them every day on skype though.  It's amazing that we can be completely on the other side of the world and see them in real time, live!  Everything seems to be going well there.  I know Mommom & Granddad are probably very tired, but I think they'll make it!  ;-)  The kids seem to be handling it pretty well too.  But I can't wait until we're all together again.

Well, that's all for today. 

New Home for MVCC!

I just realized I never posted about our new church building! Our church (Mountain View Community Church) started meeting in our new building last month, and today was the "Grand Opening." I know it's just a building and not the most important part of a church, but after 13 years of meeting in a high school it sure is nice to have a place of our own. Here are some pictures I took on our last Sunday meeting at the school:

(the kids posing in their old "nursery", where they all started their church days. They look thrilled, don't they?)

Heath and the rest of the praise team during

rehearsal on our last day at the school.

And here are a few shots taken inside our new building!

practicing in the new auditorium

the lobby

(Coffee bar built by Heath. Pretty nice, huh?) =)

We're all very thankful for our new "home" and looking forward to the many ways God will use this building for His glory!