Bonus Blessings

There are many things about being here onboard the Africa Mercy that are almost too good to be true -- daily and weekly reminders that our God is a good God who loves to give His children good gifts.  Bonus blessings.  One of the bonus blessings that we are experiencing are the activities that are available for our children here on the ship.  There are individuals on board who generously give of their time and talent to teach our children extra curricular activities - at no cost to us.  There are karate lessons and piano lessons and ballet class and craft nights and hand chimes and running club and other things that we're not even aware of yet!  Our lives could easily get filled to jam packed with the activities that are available!   But we don't want our lives filled for the sake of full...we want our lives and schedules to honor God. So, just like we did when we lived in Columbus, we're asking God to orchestrate our schedules.  Right now Eli is participating in Karate and the girls will both be taking Ballet classes (Emma's is more like "creative movement"...I don't know how much ballet a two year old can soak in). 

 

Thought we'd share a few pictures and Eli's thoughts/captions on his first karate lesson:

 

 

"Mr. Peter teaches my karate class. We learn punches for self-defense. I like it. I have friends in my class - Rhys, Jacob and Matthew. My stomach was sore after we did push-ups.  In this picture we are learning our fists. You roll up your four fingers (not your thumb) and then you put your thumb in front of your two longest fingers (not inside)."

"In this picture I'm learning my sitting stance. You sit criss cross apple sauce...kind of."

"I'm doing the attention stance."

"Open leg stance." 

 Closing thoughts from Eli:  "I am going to enjoy karate because it is so fun! I like my karate outfit, too.  And I like that we don't have to wear shoes.  That's always nice. Hope you like the pictures!"   

Surely there will be more to come (like pictures from Caroline and Emma's dance classes! They start those next week!)