Oregon Coast

Heidi and I had the opportunity to enjoy a couple of nights on the Oregon coast. Carrie and Thomas stayed with my brother Mike and his family. On our first day at the beach we were driving through Seaside, Oregon and spotted our son James having a picnic with his two friends. Judging by the looks on their faces, they were surprised to see us and no doubt spent the next hour looking under the seats for tracking devices.

We spent most of our two days hiking. We enjoyed Crescent beach and Indian Beach.

Indian beach was a special treat for me because during my childhood we had a family gathering there every year to celebrate my aunt's birthday.

On one of the beaches we spotted a bench in a prime location.

Of course we had to climb up and try it out.

Here is a picture as evidence that we made it to the bench.

And here is the view from our bench.

On the second day, Heidi wanted to climb a mountain, but the trail wasn't marked very well and thanks to my great sense of direction, we ended up on a very nice cliff face.

When we got to the point where we were leaving fingernail marks on bits of rock and small shrubs Heidi decided that her mountain top experience had been fulfilled. I call this picture, Don't Jump Heidi.

This is the view from Heidi's viewpoint. We had a great time and enjoyed a visit with my brother Mike's family on the way home.

Summer Hummer

Every summer Westwood Baptist, one of our supporting churches, puts on a vacation Bible school program. Would you believe 900 children attend and that it takes 300 volunteers keep everything running?

The Bamford family made helping at Summer Hummer part of our time in the United States. Thomas and Jonathan got up every morning and were in the kitchen by 6:15 to prepare a pancake breakfast for the volunteers and their children.

Then, just before 9, Heidi, Carrie, and 900 campers showed up. Heidi spent her days helping with crafts, which earned her the title, "The Bead Lady." Jonathan helped with games, crafts and the afternoon water slide. Carrie was a counselor for a girls group.

And Thomas went from kitchen duty to being an assistant counselor for a boys group.

Which included learning to insist on good behavior.

Which apparently caused no hard feelings.

On Friday night the children invited their parents to see them sing their songs. Jonathan helped cook hamburgers and hot dogs for the crowd.

We enjoyed getting to work side by side with our friends at Westwood Baptist and we enjoyed our opportunity to help with Summer Hummer. We are proud of how hard Carrie and Thomas worked to make Summer Hummer a great experience.

James's News

Congratulations to James and the class of 2010

We are very proud of James and his accomplishments during his high school years at Faith Academy. He enjoyed playing soccer and rugby and spent a lot of time working with Mr. French, his art teacher. During his last year, James took a college level art course. Below is one of his paintings.
Our main purpose in returning to the United States for the summer was to get James settled. He had hoped to go to College of the Ozarks to study art, but that college has a full enrollment and he is on a very long waiting list. We are thankful that God has blessed him with a great Plan B. Last week he moved to Oregon. Someone donated a van for him to use, he got a job at Fred Meyer, he has a place to stay, and he was accepted as a resident student at Portland Community College. He is also blessed to have some of his friends from Faith Academy, Manila living near him.
Charles is currently living in Idaho and working a manufacturing job. He had a long weekend so he flew up to spend the weekend with us. We haven't gotten the whole family together in one place for a photo in a long time, so when we went down to Oregon to celebrate James's 18th birthday, we had one taken.

Some people say we haven't changed, but I think they must be kidding. This is what our family looked like just before our first time on home assignment in 1998.

A bit of news about Thomas

It is hard to believe that our youngest son is going to graduate from 8th grade in a few weeks and become a high school student. Thomas enjoys school and has been very busy lately. Last week he had a display in the science fair and a school retreat.

He also turned 14. Happy Birthday! Thomas!

For his birthday we took him to a local swimming pool. One of the treats he enjoyed that day was a halo-halo. Below is a picture of James standing near a giant halo-halo.

Halo-halos are canned milk on shaved ice with lots of extra goodies like jello bits, beans, and oat flakes. Below is a close up. The purple lump in the background is something like sweet potato ice cream. Yum yum! or maybe I should say Yam yam.
It has been very hot here. Extremely hot. We are melting! It is hot enough to make you wish you could go to the store and buy halo-halo every day. For the most part we practice self control. Lord willing, we will head for the USA next month. We will miss bean ice cream, but will probably be able to adjust to chocolate or strawberry if we are able to adjust to the sub 90 degree weather they have there.

One of my hobbies

In my mind, a hobby is something you work at but don’t really consider work. It is something you do to amuse yourself after regular work hours. If that is the case, I guess I should consider plumbing one of my hobbies. Last week was my big translation check with our consultant. We worked long days going verse by verse through 33 chapters. We finished by the end of the week, and by Sunday afternoon I finally had a chance to relax. I was just wondering what I could do when I heard a strange noise outside and went to investigate. It turned out that the pressurized water tank had sprung a leak. Sometimes hobbies have a way of demanding attention and this was one of those cases. Being serious about my hobby I took a few minutes to consider my options: Duct tape probably wouldn’t hold. I didn’t have any rubber to wrap around the tank. I decided to go to town for some epoxy.

I did a beautiful job of mixing the glue and patching the tank. Everything would have been fine if the water pressure hadn’t pushed my patch right off the tank. Fortunately, one of my missionary friends who also plumbs as a hobby saw my problem and offered a bit of help.

“Super glue,” he said, “You have to start with super glue and then put the epoxy over the top of that.” Together we went to the store and purchased the super glue and applied it and the epoxy to the tank. People who enjoy hobbies enjoy spending time with other people who enjoy the same hobby. This was definitely an enjoyable experience for me. Thanks, David! This time the patch worked beautifully. No air or water could escape the tank. This was proven the next morning when the tank exploded.
For some strange reason, the folk there didn’t call me to help plumb the new tank. Perhaps they wanted a professional.

What's New

The day after we finished the translation check, Heidi and Carrie arrived especially so that they could see the three Isnag language helpers. They are all much loved friends of Carrie's and she hasn't been able to see them for a long time. They have had a wonderful time together.

I went outside last night and was surprised to see the frogs tempting the dogs by sitting on the rice in their food bowls. I've never thought of frogs as brave creatures before, but I might just change my mind.

On the other hand, foolish might be a better word.

Consultant check

I am thanking God that all the details for my week of translation checking worked out. Ginny, my translation consultant, came from the United States, Vicky, our co-worker in the Isnag work, came from our support center 4 hours south of here. I came from Manila, and Pearly, Romilyn, and Florence, my Isnag language helpers came from our village.

They all met me in a city in Northern Luzon where we have worked for a week checking over the 33 chapters I have translated. The check went very well and it won't take too long before I'll be able to start publishing them for the Southern Isnag to use.

Thank you to all of you who have prayed.

At one point we did have a big concern come up. I didn't know it, but on one day during the week we were translation checking, the government had a program for people to get set up with an ATM card. The ladies who were working with me wanted to run down to the place during their lunch break and get their cards. When I arrived there I was surprised to see so many of my Isnag friends. I know almost everyone in this picture.

It was very enjoyable to spend an hour visiting with them while the language helpers collected their cards.

(The "bus" taking our friends back to the mountains)

Our co-villagers headed home and we headed back to work. The next day we received a urgent message saying that one of the guys hadn't returned home and was likely lost in the "big" city we were in. Could I please help. We did do some checking with the police, but fortunately our prayers were answered and the fellow turned up safe and sound. He had gotten off the bus early to stop by and visit a distant relative. On other days the power went out and other things happened too, but we were able to press on and finish the translation check a day early.