So, we had a TOTALLY fun evening last night. I get a skype blurb from Alex Busskohl (although Jerry Federle would like credit for letting them know!) :) and it says 'Hey, Matt Lauer is in Laos somewhere talking live......' after asking a couple questions I realize he is literally around the corner from us. I yell for Dave who had just pulled in from taking the boys swimming and tell him to hurry and see if he is still at the That Luang (huge temple) and he takes off with boys in tow. ( I was sick that I had to stay for a mtg that never ended up happening)...
Dave calls a few minutes later saying sure enough, Matt was broadcasting 60 ft. in front of him and they were going to stick around watch. SSSOOOO cool!
I jump back on skype and tell my brother Jon and Alex to call friends and family and let them know the boys were there -in case- they happened to get to be on or in the background etc... No more than 3 minutes later, Matt actually mentions live that there are loads of tourists in Laos, but also US folks who live here. He has time to say hi to a few and Nathaniel is one of them! He just said his name and that he was from Norfolk, Ne. but he and DAve were ON!! Dave said there were several people in a line there, but that when he saw Dave with all the boys he scooted past the rest and came to them- hehehe
Anyway, David got about 4 pics of Matt and then the batteries died. Sigh. He did go up to Matt later, shake his hand and talk for a second, but he didnt think of getting a pic of him and the boys until later! oh well.
Once I realized my mtg. wasnt happening I jumped in the car with Olivia and went myself. They were just finishing up and getting ready to leave, so I just watched, but it was sooo fun to see the crew of NBC and all the behind the scenes guys. It was a great experience for the kids and they were totally thrilled with having that happen to them!
We also think it was a brilliant opportunity for Laos to be 'discovered'. I would challenge everyone to go to the Today show webpage and watch the little blurbs they did on Laos and its people while here. It is very well done of course and will give you a beautiful insight into the country. Unfortunately, Nathaniels milli-second of fame isnt on as it was not done in the first hour of the broadcast.
Olivia is always in the middle of the group during our worship time with hands raised. Her favorite thing is worship and she doesnt budge when the 'Mighty to Save' dvd is on...
We just had a great bon fire a couple weeks ago, but as the Mekong had started to rise, we had to move it to our house.. so Dave and the men proceeded to dig a hole in our front yard for the bonfire. We roasted hot dogs but decided we couldnt invest in $8. marshmellows. Oh well.. we played games (Limbo above) and sang when it got dark... sweet
Jaap-Jan, Anamai, Meri, and Charissa helping paint the 'Women at Risk' house last Sat. WE had a blast serving this way and the kids got the WHOLE HOUSE painted in 3 hours!!! Great job guys. They partied after by painting handprints on each others calves when we were done... seafoam green.. yuck!
Great fun last night at Candlelight schools end of term bbq! The kids engage with the students and we played games, ate and sang. Many of these kids continue on to higher classes and we see them often. Here is David with some of his students. Mee is in black and Omala in red. They have been over several times.