A Visit with the Schafers

We have just ended a 9 day visit with our friends, Kent & Jenny Schafer. Jenny was a college friend of ours, and she and her husband are now missionaries with New Tribes Mission. They will be leaving in about a month to go to Portugal for a year of language study. Once they have a year of Portuguese under their belts they will head for Mozambique, Africa. There they will (Lord willing) eventually move in with and bring the gospel to an unreached tribe in Northern Mozambique. Our Church supports them, so they were wanting to come and spend some time here getting to know the people of NCC a little better. They stayed with us twice last fall, and this will be their last visit with us for four years (when they expect to be home again on furlough).
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We had such a wonderful time with them! It was a busy week, but they are delightful guests and it's always awesome see their heart for Christ and their desire to bring the gospel to the lost.
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I must mention that my kids were completely nuts! Experiences like this are always humbling for me. My girls LOVE the Schafers and wanted to spend every waking minute with them. Unfortunately, the first few days that they were here, they were really busy and the girls barely saw them. So, when they did see them they shifted right into silly mode. Meg and Julie in particular! If you have kids you certainly know what I mean . . . constant giggling . . . constant "Mr. Schafer! Mrs. Schafer! Look at this!" Etc . . . It was really rather irritating (to me anyway . . Kent and Jenny just laughed at them.) If you ever want to see how rude and inappropriate your kids can really be, just have guests over for a couple days . . . here are a few choice morsels:
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Meg still doesn't close the door when she goes potty. Granted, she just turned four, has 3 sisters and sometimes still needs help wiping her bottom . . . but she didn't understand why Mr. Schafer didn't want to stand in the bathroom and talk to her! Imagine that!
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Julie is fascinated with bodily functions . . . yes, burping and farting in particular! (Who needs boys when you have Meg & Julie!?) Her "silly mode" usually involved pretending to burp or fart, then exclaiming, "I tooted!" followed by and annoying giggle. I know, such a little lady!
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When Julie was first starting to talk (well over a year ago!) she would call Megan "Gegan." It has been ages since she has actually called her that, but poor Mr. & Mrs. Schafer heard that over and over again! "Hey Mr. Schafer! Julie says Gegan!" hee hee hee! or "Misser Schafer! I say Megan Gegan!" Ha Ha Ha! All this time I was wondering why children don't come with a mute button!
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Then there's my particular favorite! While we were at Grant's Farm on Saturday Megan saw a man with a prosthetic leg and proceeded to shout, "Look, he doesn't have a leg!" Ahhh . . . Megan!
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I could go on and on! As the week passed by they seemed to mellow out . . . but let's just say that I am now very aware of some areas that I need to work on with my girls! But as Bruce Keller so eloquently put it . . . "That's why we have company"
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Here are a few highlights from our week:
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Jenny playing the piano while Meg "accompanies" her
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Jenny teaching Emma to play Chopsticks
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Kent reading to the littles . . . they could have done this all week long!
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Action shot! Julie jumping into the Geldmeier's pool
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Meg enjoying the water. (A big step for her - she's deathly afraid of the water!)
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Ali in the pool
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Emma in the pool - wearing floaties after a scare when she realized that she couldn't touch in the middle
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The whole group: Mr. Geldmeier, Emma, Kent, Julie, Me, Jenny, Meg & Ali
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Our group at Grant's farm.
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Like I said, it was a busy week, but a great one. I almost cried when we said goodbye. We look forward to another visit in 4 years!