NTM

We are so blessed by the team that we are with here in Oklahoma for the Cherokee Practicum.  This last Thursday night the singles and marrieds without children sent all of us parents WITH children on a date night.  What a great time.  The kids were well cared for and had a great time while Jenny and I had a chance to get out JUST THE TWO OF US.  We went to the East Buffet and to see a movie.  It was AWESOME!  Here is a pic of us before going out and the nice surprise we came home to.

Heading out for DATE NIGHTRoses, Chocolates and a nice note from our TEAM

Roses, Chocolates and a nice note from our TEAM

Praise the Lord, He has blessed us with a WONDERFUL place to stay when we move to Wisconsin in early November.  This is obviously one of the things that we are concerned about as a family thinking about moving… a place to move into. He continues to provide for us, and come through over and over again…and yet so many times we are surprised when He does.  Like our housing situation for Wisconsin: we were unsure of how it would all work out, and the Lord allowed us to rent a place in the SAME neighborhood where we lived before leaving for training with New Tribes.  We will actually be like 3 blocks from where we used to live.  What a treat for us as a family experiencing so much transition and new living situations to be able to move somewhere familiar.  On top of that the Lord worked it out so we are blessed with AMAZING rent for the area, a lower security deposit, flexible term on the lease so that we can move on to French study as soon as we are ready, 3 bedrooms, and the list goes on.

I will post some pictures of our new place when we get settled.

Chrokee Nation Celebration Powwow

Elena at the Powwow looking over the back of the bleechers

We attended a part of a powwow, a cornstalk shoot, and an ani Keetoowah dance this weekend.  There annual celebration of the Cherokee nation was this weekend and so we were able to join in and get to learn a little bit more about their culture.

We ended up learning that the Cherokee don’t have much to do with Powwow’s that is more to do with the plains Indians…but we did have an “Indian taco” that night which was served on Cherokee Fry bread…  It was still a neat experience for us to be able to attend the Powwow.

This morning the boys and I went to a cornstalk shoot together.  They shoot at a stack of cornstalks and you get points based on the number of stalks you penetrate with your arrow.  For the younger ages there is a time limit, and for the older groups were games to 50 points.

We were able to attend the Ani Keetowah dance with our language helper and his wife.  That was a good time to be with our helper and develop our relationship with him.  After the festivities we went out to dinner with him and his wife.

We arrived in Oklahoma and started setting up our “house” here for the next 7 weeks.  Hope you enjoy the pictures of us setting up our house here.  We told the kids we would be living in a “fort” for the next 7 weeks.  They really like their room a lot.

We are pretty well settled in now and getting into our routine here more and more each day.  Thank you so much for praying for us.

Van backed up to the wing of the building we are staying in

Our room started out with 8 bunk beds setup for summer camps

The beginnings of setting up bunks and mattresses to make the kids room

Kids Room. You can see their beds and part of our "closet"

in bed in their "fort" they will be sleeping in for the next 7 weeks

A closet to the right and the door to Jenny's and my room

our Living room and our makeshift couch

We used bunk ladders and later put boards on top to make a shelf

Jenny having story time on the couch one of the first nights

The slab where all of the kids LOVE to play