Thank you for praying for Walter as he continues transitioning into his new role as middle school principal. It has been fairly smooth, just busy. He spends hours each day replying to emails and in meetings, but he schedules time to be in the halls and lounge to be with staff and students.
At the beginning of the school year, Walter, as the middle school principal, spends a lot of time emailing and meeting with each staff member individually, discussing his or her classroom management plans and yearly goals. Walter also attended an administrators’ retreat, working on next year’s school calendar.
Friendships are important in middle school so we schedule events to promote and provide avenues for them to develop. We had a big event on August 15 called the Barkada Bash. (Barkada is a Filipino word for friendship group.) Then this week is Friendship Week. We dress up crazy each day with a field day on Friday, playing crazy games.
Cheryl and Abby enjoyed the High School Retreat on August 21-23. They enjoyed the crazy games, free time, and being challenged from God’s Word morning and evening. Cheryl went as the school nurse and Abby simply as a freshman.
We are in the process of applying for our visa to stay here in the Philippines. Last Wednesday we went to immigrations to do our fingerprinting and pictures. Please pray that our visa is approved before the end of October when Walter has to travel out of the country for an administrators’ conference.
We praise God that our van in the US sold. We didn’t get as much as we hoped, but were encouraged that the couple gave an additional gift for us as missionaries. We have purchased a car here in the Philippines and the paperwork on it is finally finished. It is a 2003 Honda CR-V, and we are thankful that it is in great shape with low mileage and seems to be a very nice car.
Our children in the US have started school now. Ashley and Juliana are playing volleyball again and had their first game. Juliana is still looking for a job. Paul is busy with his youth group in addition to classes and his security job. Ben is teaching elementary PE. Jessica has a good job as a nurse in a hospital in Kansas City and Bekah is working at a grocery store and has been offered a manager’s position that she hopes to get next month.
It is exciting to see how God has set the course for this school year and more exciting to see what God will do in and through us.
Thank you for your prayers!
In Christ,
Walter and Cheryl