{"id":808,"date":"2013-03-30T13:40:39","date_gmt":"2013-03-30T17:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chuck-shannon-talbot\/?p=808"},"modified":"2013-03-30T14:05:02","modified_gmt":"2013-03-30T18:05:02","slug":"808","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chuck-shannon-talbot\/2013\/03\/30\/808\/","title":{"rendered":"What have I been doing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cWhat have you been doing?!\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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You may be wondering what I am doing as you look at the picture of me in my hammock.\u00a0 I\u2019ll explain in just a moment.\u00a0 How many times have I asked my kids that same question lately? \u00a0It seems like too many to count.\u00a0 Why, you may ask?\u00a0 It\u2019s just one of the many responsibilities I\u2019ve taken on over the past month and a half.\u00a0 Let me explain.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As the New Year began I started to make a list of all the things I needed to do.\u00a0 It was a good thing that work with Steve Dyce was slowing down (due to the winter season) because as I made the list, it got longer and longer. \u00a0For example, prior to Christmas we had been doing a lot of travelling, particularly on the weekends to share with churches about our ministry amongst the Ga\u2019dang people in the Philippines.\u00a0 Now I needed to follow up with all those churches and the individuals we met there by e-mailing them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I also attended a 1 week course at the NTM home office in Durham, ON about Partnership Development.\u00a0 It equipped us to be able to develop, maintain and grow the relationships we have with our ministry partners.\u00a0 Several other day trips were also made to Durham to have work done on our van, taxes, and even our computers.\u00a0 We are very thankful for those whom the Lord has gifted with these abilities and are willing to use those talents to serve Him by ministering to us.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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One of our supporting churches requested a short video presentation of our work with the Ga\u2019dang people.\u00a0 The challenge for me was to describe this group of people and how the Lord is using us to be a part of bringing the Gospel to them in 3-5 minutes.\u00a0 I managed to do it, and it is now available for anyone to view.<\/p>\n

Here it is, just click the link below:<\/p>\n

Talbot video 2013<\/a><\/p>\n

Also on my list of things to do was reviewing all of the language files I collected while in the tribe last term.\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t looked at any of them since returning to Canada but knew I needed to get familiar with the Ga\u2019dang language again before returning to the tribe later this year.\u00a0 So I began the process of\u00a0organizing\u00a0all my sound and picture files and\u00a0memorizing\u00a0them, etc.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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After Beatrice was born in February, we planned for me to stay home and take on most of the jobs of running our home so Shannon could focus on resting after the birth.\u00a0 So I\u2019ve took on the role of Dad and Mom in many respects for the past 6 weeks, and not just in cooking and cleaning.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a list of some of my \u2018hats\u2019 I\u2019ve been wearing lately:\u00a0 chief cook and bottle washer, house cleaner (manager mostly),\u00a0chauffeur\u00a0 home school teacher and principal, bather of little ones, laundry man, waiter, baby burper and bum changer, etc. etc\u2026\u00a0 not to mention ministry correspondence and reviewing Ga\u2019dang language in my spare time.\u00a0 Busy?\u00a0 Yes!\u00a0 But that\u2019s ok, I am what I need to be by the grace of God, right?\u00a0 I am thankful He gives me the strength and wisdom to fill the roles He calls me to do, and reminds me of that fact when I feel like I\u2019m really not capable of doing it all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Now, about the picture of me in the hammock.\u00a0 In our house in the village, we have several hammocks set up, which provide a great place to not just relax, but also to study, entertain visitors, occupy babies\u2026 and the list goes on.\u00a0 So when we came back to Canada I made sure we packed at least one of them to bring back and found a place to hang it.\u00a0 In the house we are staying, there is a nice sun room, which provided an ideal place for me to string up my hammock.\u00a0 Being a sun room, it was great during the summer months as it usually was the sunniest and warmest room in the house, just like being in the Philippines.\u00a0 Perfect.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As the months passed so did the summer months, and the warmth of the sun.\u00a0 By winter the sun room became too cold to spend time in and I was no longer able to spend time in my beloved hammock.\u00a0 I looked forward to the day when the sun room would once again be warm enough to enjoy being in my hammock once again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As many of you know, our beautiful baby Beatrice arrived in February and we began the process of getting her paperwork in order to be able to return to the Philippines.\u00a0 Our expectation was that it could likely take up to 3 months to complete it all, in which case we decided to not book return tickets to the Philippines until we had all the necessary papers in hand.\u00a0 To our great surprise though, the Lord pushed everything through and we had it all done in just 4 \u00bd weeks!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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What else was there to do?\u00a0 After confirming with our home church leadership, we lost no time in getting ticket price quotes and then booking our tickets.\u00a0 That\u2019s right, we\u2019re heading back!\u00a0 The time has finally come and our home assignment has an end in sight.\u00a0 On May 22, we will be saying our final good byes to everyone on this side of the world and returning to the work the Lord has graciously called us to of bringing the Gospel message to the Ga\u2019dang people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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So, as the weather slowly begins to warm up on us here, we are beginning the process of finishing up things here in Canada in preparation for our return to the Philippines.\u00a0 This morning I couldn\u2019t take it anymore and despite the cold, I hung up my hammock and climbed into it to relax momentarily and reflect on all that the Lord has done for us over this past year while home in Canada.\u00a0 We are grateful for all the opportunities we have had to share about the Lord\u2019s work amongst the Ga\u2019dang people.\u00a0 Now we look forward to continuing to be a part of that once again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  \u201cWhat have you been doing?!\u201d You may be wondering what I am doing as you look at the picture of me in my hammock.\u00a0 I\u2019ll explain in just a moment.\u00a0 How many times have I asked my kids that same question lately? \u00a0It seems like too many to count.\u00a0 Why, you may ask?\u00a0 It\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-808","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ministry","7":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chuck-shannon-talbot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chuck-shannon-talbot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chuck-shannon-talbot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chuck-shannon-talbot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chuck-shannon-talbot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chuck-shannon-talbot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chuck-shannon-talbot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chuck-shannon-talbot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/chuck-shannon-talbot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}