A friends pictures...

Elyse is our neighbor and fellow student. She takes beautiful pictures and is sharing them on a blog. So, if you are curious what our part of Australia looks like this time of year, check it out...

http://elysianeyes.blogspot.com/



I love this time of year. I love fall. God is so great, His creation is so beautiful. I get such a bittersweet felling though, as the last of the leaves fall.

Tania

> > >

> > > Pictures...

In case you have been keeping your eye out for pictures, we updated the family album link with some pics from Mother's Day. What a wonderful refreshing day! > > > The link is over to the right =)



> > >

It has been a while!

Tools for Analyzing the World's Languages
Houghton and Jim at the board working out their grammar homework...

Hello all!

It has been a busy few weeks. We have had visitors the last two weekends in a row. First was BMW general director, Paul Seger, and his wife Joan. They came to share some things with us and generally just be an encouragement. Then last week our area director and his wife came (they have asked us not to post names on the 'net due to work in restricted areas). We are back into the regular swing of things now, you know... classes, homework, and more classes. It was nice to have visitors and we were blessed by their encouragement, especially in the area of prayer.

The kids have been doing 'inter-school sport' and having lots of fun doing it. Josh qualified to represent the school at the district cross-country event. He and his friends have been spending a couple hours after school every day in 'training'.

Grace is trying out for the school play which will be put on in September, 'The Wizard of Oz'. As a young girl of 13, drama is right up her alley. =)

Oh, and, as many of you already know, we recently celebrated Gracie's 13th birthday. Thank you to those of you that took time to share a special note of encouragement with her. I had a friend take pictures of the party and I hope to get a few minutes to get them uploaded for you to see this weekend.

Well, before this gets toooo long I should wrap it up. One last piece of awesome news though... we had been secretly praying for the use of a car and the Lord has provided!!! We are so grateful! Not only that we now have wheels, but also for the laughter that it provides... If you guys have ever wondered how small of a car Jim could fit into... we have learned the answer. Just wait, I will get a picture of that up soon too. Seriously, we are just happy to have the freedom to be able to run to the store when we need to and to maybe get to see a little more of the area while we are here.

OK, signing off for now.

Tania for the crew


> > >

Just saying hello...

Hello everyone! We are having a great mid-semester break. True, much of our time is spent on assignments, but we have gotten out a little bit. Last week we spent a day in the Dandenongs with the Richards and Thulesens. It was nice to get away from the campus for a little while, very refreshing. Josh has been having fun playing 'pirates' with Jesiah and Zoe, and both Josh and Grace have been busy working on a 'clubhouse' with the other kids on the grounds.

Here are a few pics, and just for fun, we've posted the video of the kids' reaction after Jim shaved his beard off. He has had one for almost nine years! ...ever since he left the military.

Josh and Si on the way to Dandenong National Park. It was a great day in spite of our party getting separated along the way (we were in two cars). All of us were excited when we actually ran into each other again after a couple of hours apart!

Pirates Si, Josh, and Zoe

Who doesn't need a good tickle every now and then?

Here is the video of the kids' reaction...

> > >

Dark Cloud With a Silver Lining

It was a dark and stormy day…the unwilling participants ventured into the dreaded lair of the GRAMMAR TEACHER. Little did they know, which was apparent by the test they were so fiendishly tricked into taking. Their only hope – that God would show mercy on them and their fellow captives in the linguistically diverse places they all would find themselves. Tragically, they all passed and would be forever relegated to developing formal generative grammars for peoples the world over, tortured by phrase structure rules, nightmares of verbal subcategories and plagued by cold sweats from fear of morphological infixes.(Sounds worse than Malaria or Dengue Fever!)

Totally just kidding… we love grammar – believe it or not.

Today we are officially starting a two-week mid-semester break. (yeeeeaaah!) The Richards' parents are coming for a visit during this time, and we are looking forward to seeing them. Familiar faces in unfamiliar places go a long way towards renewing one's spirit. There are a lot of activities in Melbourne, many of which are free with a student i.d. card, which we hope to take advantage of. Please keep sending the wonderful emails of encouragement and know that you are always in our prayers.

I am writing some very exciting articles which we will be getting to you soon - whether in print or blog format - so be looking for those over the next couple of weeks.

for His glory-
Jim


> > >

Our new email address...

jim.n.tania@gmail.com

Be sure and make a note of it and add us to your 'approved senders' list!


> > >

Australia Wildlife

I dont know the names of most of these things but they are interesting pictures anyway. These are from an afternoon at Australia's Dandenong National Park. I went for a walk there with a couple other girls last Friday after class.

this is a small kangaroo type thing about the size of a small dog. I have asked around but still dont know what it is called...

Austrailia's famous Kookaburra Bird...

the forest was full of tall straight trees and these big tree fern things...

this is a Liar Bird (about the size of a chicken), evidently they copy the sounds of other birds...

We also saw Black Cockatoos but they took off before I could get a picture. That will have to do for now. Must get to bed, morning comes early.

Love,
Tania


> > >