The Roberts Family

September, 2005

Dear Friends and Family,

I am writing this newsletter while Scott is in China. That means that I can say whatever I want to say, and he is not here to edit it. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. It has been a very full, very busy summer for Team Roberts, and I will attempt to bring you up to date on some of our many activities.

We've had some great guests on the past couple months. Neal and Danette Childs and their family, whom we have known and loved for many years, live in Niger, Africa, where they are planting churches and schools. Neal and Scott talk missions and ministry, Danette and I talk marriage, kids, and education, and our children all have fun together. We actually got to see them twice this summer; both visits were really fun and special.

Scott's mom came and spent a couple weeks with us in July, and we kept her pretty busy. Between shuttling kids to various events, helping cook, and playing Bridge, she didn't have much time to herself. Mom is a total blessing to all of us, and right now she is in China, along with Scott and Jessica.

Jessica had all kinds of challenges getting to China this year, the worst of which was the loss of her passport by the US Postal Service. With only a week to go before their scheduled departure, we had to try to get her a new passport and Chinese visa. Wow! It was an extremely hectic and costly process. Thankfully, the new passport arrived in six days, and the old one (now invalid) arrived about two weeks later.

Both Jessica and Andrew engaged in some artistic pursuits this summer. They each attended an age-appropriate session of Hands On Clay, where kids spend a morning at the park creating beautiful and interesting pottery pieces, both free form and on a potter's wheel. The curly hair Andrew put on his "self-sculpture" is really something!

Then there was the Children's Theater Workshop, again in two sessions, divided by ages. Jessica had a nice role in a funny "infomercial" about a script cleaner - a product that supposedly can clean all the blood, violence, and gore out of some great scripts, including Shakespeare's. Andrew had a grand total of two short lines in a play based on an Appalachian folk tale. He was a donkey, and we thought his hee-hawing was excellent.

Josiah spent a fun week at Camp Lookout, the local free Christian camp, and he had a wonderful time. He enjoyed his counselor, and with this being his third year there, he was comfortable with the familiar but zany camp routine. He came home very excited and thankful for the experience.

Josiah has also completed the work for all 20 of the Webelo Scout activity badges! He has worked really hard on them this summer, and it looks like sometime this fall, he will be given a pile of belt loops, pins, and badges to show for his efforts. We are in the process of trying to decide whether he will continue in Scouts, but he has surely done a fine job on what we required - that he finish Webelos well.

This summer, Josiah joined Jessica as a member of AIM (Action Impact Missions), a youth discipleship program for homeschoolers that focuses on developing Christian leaders by giving young people serious responsibility at an early age. They use mime as a main outreach tool, and Josiah and Jessica have both made great progress this summer. It is truly amazing what these kids can do. Their presentations of the gospel are really first-rate! More importantly the character development we see in them makes it worth all the time and driving involved. We are very thankful to be able to carpool with some friends - about 13 kids altogether! - which helps my sanity a lot.

We took a family camping trip to Buffalo Point (on the Buffalo River near Yellville, AR) in June and had a memorable time. When we arrived, there were no campsites available. We'll need to reserve one next time. After driving around dejectedly and praying fervently, a family that had a site reserved suddenly pulled out. They had had a death in the family and we were able to use their site. It was a fun time, but boy, was it ever hot; 102 degrees that Thursday! Some of us were non-swimmers for a few days, but when we finally hit the water we did not want to get out.

I learned some neat science facts on that trip. For example, did you know that if you stick your entire head under a water faucet when the temp is over 100, your hair will be completely dry and your scalp will resuming sweating in approximately 3.7 minutes? Or how about this? If you don't want to chop the potatoes and onions at the campsite, you can do it in advance at home, put them in a ziploc, and freeze them. However, when you take them out of the cooler three days later, they will be totally (and I do mean totally) black. Our final night, it POURED down rain just as Scott flopped the steaks on the grill. I had just pulled out said potatoes and onions and was wondering what on earth to do with them. I stayed in the camper and tried (but failed) to make them edible. While the wind whipped, the rain came down in sheets, and the campsite flooded, Scott valiantly remained with the meat. Now that it's been well over three weeks, we're bonded, and we memorably refer to our meal that night as, "rubber steak and black potatoes." We ate it, but we all wish we hadn't.

The big kids attended a week-long tennis clinic, which they didn't want to do, but which Scott required. We don't require a lot in the realm of "PE," but Scott wanted them to learn something about a sport they could play as adults. It was hot, but they didn't complain (too much), and I think Josiah actually got something out of it. He seems to have a knack for tennis, as well as volleyball and maybe even soccer.

Katie has been working along very well on her new Sonlight In Depth American History course. She is also doing a companion Language Arts course that requires a lot of writing, so she has chosen to put her work online. As the proud mom, I will say that I think her current events reports are very good, and I am glad she remembered enough about her Biology module on invertebrates to write a limerick about them. You can view her various writings at http://www.teamroberts.org/kids/katie/sonlight. She still dislikes Geometry, although she is maintaining a 92% average in it, and she truly hates Biology, but she has a 95% average there. We are very proud of her work and her diligence. As we all know, it's hard to make oneself do things one is not interested in, but doing those things well and with a good attitude is even more of an accomplishment.

Katie will be joining AIM this fall, as well. She, who would rather die than be on a stage of any kind for any reason, will be their first "non-presenting" member. She will participate fully in the Bible studies and character development, but she will not be doing mime. Instead, she will work behind the scenes, running sound, helping with props, organizing people and things, and possibly helping with paperwork and computer stuff.

While Scott and Jessica are ministering to the underground church in China, Katie, the boys and I have had a pretty relaxing few weeks. Among other things, we had a fun visit with my parents in North Little Rock, AR. After a couple days, the boys and I came home, but Katie stayed on for some one-on-one time with her grandparents. We later met halfway to pick her up. I don't think she wanted to come home. Home involves chores, academics, getting up on time, brothers, and (drum roll, please). . . driving! Katie is an excellent driver, but she doesn't like to drive. Therefore, I have to require her to do it, to get practice.

That's a lot like life. There are things we don't particularly like, but which God requires of us, if we are to reach our full potential. Then, of course, there are the things we like a lot - like hearing from all of you, our precious friends and family!

We love you, and you are special to us!

Scott, Patty, Katie, Jessica, Josiah, and Andrew