Have you hugged your missionary today?

Here's a sampling of new shirts the Danforths will be sporting this year...shirts that mean, "We love ya and missed ya" from buddies back here in Iowa.

The ever classic Monty Python, "Just a flesh wound" shirt will be sported by Sam and Sawyer.

This super-snazzy Franglais shirt will be seen on Anna/Mme D.

 

Boundary Waters...

Sam set off for the Boundary Waters (Canadian boarder) last night with a group of friends and
soon-to-be new friends.  They drove all night and arrived this morning to rent their canoes.  Today, they'll canoe to the camping spot of their choice and spend the next 4 days catching their food :)  They will be going through the book of Jonah together.  Praying for deep fellowship and a plain old good time!

Gotta make room in the van for those survival backpacks!

Where to take your out of town friends...

Where would YOU take your out of town friends if they visited the Cedar Valley?  Well, today, our friend Biz got to scratch off "Waterloo Petting Zoo" and "Walk the Tracks" from her list :)

Sonrise Children's Zoo

Heading to the railroad tracks in Cedar Falls.

Sawyer learns important MK skills :) 

Aww!  We stumbled across this at the river. 

Earnestly loved...

We have been warmly welcomed back into our home church and are feeling a bit overwhelmed by the love that dominates this body of Christ.  We prayed for our home church during our year away and we are refreshed to return and see how God is building up our church in faith and numbers.  They also prayed for us and we are delighted to share with them how powerful last year was in our lives.  These are exciting times in our church body and it is good to be home and reconnect!

Welcome Home party at the Borkowitz's!

1 Peter 1:22 "Love one another earnestly from a pure heart."

Aunt Biz!

Our friend and match-maker from high school, Biz, came to visit from Quebec!  She has since graduated to "Aunt Biz" status for our kids :)

Home New Sweet Home...

Back in Iowa, 10p.m. Friday night.  Elaina and Sawyer scrambled over to the front door to see what our new home looked like on the inside.  We were PLEASANTLY surprised!  This place is set aside by dear friends of ours to be "home" for missionaries for days, weeks, or in our case, months.  Home Sweet New Home until January!

Jubilant Song...

"Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music!"

-Psalm 98:4

These little fingers dancing on their fiddle strings will be missed. 

Dots on their noses...

"No dots on their noses!  No dots on their noses!", experts shriek to our young parent minds.  No dots on their noses, no scrapes on their knees.  Protection is key!  Add years to the lives of your children!  Add fences and kneepads and hats with wide visors!  Get results!  Results.  Results.  Yes, results of pasty white skin... perfect, untouched skin.  Results of beautiful, unbashed knees.  Results of no dots on their noses.  And the stories our children will tell?  Stories of protection and fences and life behind these.  When their dust turns to dust, will they be met with the dirt they have loved?  The dirt they have claimed under their nails from mud pies and worm farms?  When their dust turns to dust, will they have laughed and told stories of this scar and that?  Of these dots on their noses from running wild and free in their sun-splashed yards?  "This world is scary!", expert voices ring in our brains.

"This world is your playground", God wishes me to hear.  Dots on their noses.  Skins on their kneeses.  Mud pie in their nailses.

How much easier for my generation of parents to say, "Stay inside awhile, play a game, grab a remote, read a book.", than the harder to swallow, "Go.  Go play and get dirty.  Get messy and goopey.  Get dots on your noses and scars on your knees.  These may wear on your body and tear on your cells.  Better a short life lived hard and exhilaratingly.  Better a life bursting with adventures to tell!  Those dots on your noses are smiles on my face.  Those scars on your knees are stories worth telling."

So that when they meet their Creator face to face for the first time, they are bubbling with excitement, "Wow, God, thanks for that life, for that place!  I explored every inch, dug holes, and jumped high!  I loved that earthplayground you made!  Did you watch me?!  Did you see?!  I used up my body on all those adventures, now please give me a new one, I hear the adventures here are even better!  I used my old one all up, so I'll need a sturdier, hardier one this time around.  I need some new knees and a nose for all the new dots I'll get on the adventures that I hear are crazy up here!".

Life with few fences...a hard one for me, the parent, to swallow.  But dots on their noses and skins on their knees...are worth sending them out and biting my lip knowing that God watches in delight as His children play hard in this land He has made.

The "Nooo waaaay" Moment...

Dear Any Friends Who May Also Be Packing,
You HAVE to get these space-bag-things.  They are SO AWESOME!
From,
A Fellow Packing Nerd

Stick your blankets or towels in.

Hook up your vacuum.

Watch the bag shrink to a crazy small size.

Booya!  You just saved space.

A balcony dance with Daddy...

Taking time for the God-gifts in life amidst the packing and moving.  Sam and Elaina found their own dance balcony at a friend's wedding last night :)

Let the packing begin...

Here we go...

Ugh, where to begin?!