Patty's Blog * Katie's Blog * Jessica's Blog

Team Roberts

December, 2007

Dear Friends and Family,

Merry Christmas to you and yours! We hope this special season will bring you great joy, and that your focus (and ours) will always be on why we celebrate Christmas; not just on the many details of how we do it.

MUCH has happened since we last wrote in April; in this letter, I'll hit some of the highlights. However, if you really want to know what's going on in our family more frequently than every seven months (ha!), please check out our blogs at the sites listed above.

Scott has continued to burn the candle at both ends - and sometimes in the middle - as he leads our family, works fulltime for ANPAC 75% of the year, leads Mission China on a daily basis, spends 25% of the year in China, takes private Chinese language lessons, plays softball (in season), plays basketball (year round), and still makes time for dates with his "Wife of Youth" and family night games with the kids (most of which he wins). He is a remarkable man! He took us all on a great camping trip to our favorite spot on the Buffalo River in June, where among other adventures, we went tubing in a thunderstorm, saw a family of mink, cooked dinner in the rain, and swam with a family of river otters.

Recent months have seen Katie (17) involved in one of three main activities: academics (where she's trying to complete two or three years' worth of demanding upper-level course-work all in one year), Action Impact Missions (AIM) leadership (where she does everything from directing to filing to planning to choreography to Bible studies to mentoring to, to, to. . . ), or college prep stuff (which includes writing many essays to enter into many contests, as well as college applications, more essays, visits, etc.). Actually, we don't see Katie all that much. Even when she's home, she usually in her room writing an essay. To tell the truth, I am fairly sure that she could write an essay on any historical or political topic in her sleep.

One of the essay contests Katie won netted her an all-expense-paid trip to Washington DC, sponsored by our local electrical cooperative. It was a real eye-opener for her; not D.C. itself, as she's been there before, but the lifestyle, priorities, and attitudes of non-Christian teens and adults. Wow. Katie also joined the Springfield Writer's Guild and is learning some tips and techniques that will polish her writing skills and help her get published one of these days. Her biography of Elijah Lovejoy is finished and has been bloodied (attacked with red ink) by Yours Truly. Maybe sometime soon Katie will be able to clean it up and submit it to someone.

Last, but certainly not least, Katie spent nearly six weeks this fall traveling with AIM on their East Coast Mission Trip. She was one of the student leaders and had quite a bit of responsibility. It was fun, stressful, exhausting, exciting, and sometimes very frustrating. They ministered in nine states, leading workshops, holding Bibles studies, doing service projects, and presenting evangelistic and patriotic mimes. While the team was doing a Christian mime presentation in front of the Lincoln Memorial, Katie was confronted not once, but twice by Washington policemen (concerning where and how the team's sound system was set up). She handled it all like a pro and God's show went on. Whew!

Jessica's (16) most recent claim to fame is a driver's license - for which we had to wait three hours. She is an excellent driver, but there were many test-takers ahead of her and only two testers to handle them all. We were both REALLY glad to leave the license bureau. Jessica still volunteers two or three times a month in our church's Kinderchurch, where she helps lead the four- and five-year-olds. The kids just love her and she loves them, too, most of the time. After a few sessions of working with Katie cleaning condos on Saturdays in Branson, Jessica was offered a job babysitting the two children next door to us every Friday and Saturday night. Now she walks to work, spends several hours playing and teaching the children the Bible (their family is not Christian, but the kids are now!), and is paid very well for the privilege. I am glad both our girls have had at least a little taste of manual labor, and I'm thankful that God has blessed Jessica with this new opportunity.

In July, Jessica and her mentor, Jenny, spent three weeks in China leading AIM workshops, complete with Bible studies and mime presentations. It was blistering hot (no AC), intensely challenging at times, and very rewarding for Jessica. With the help of their Chinese friend, Ruth, who also translated for them, they were able to spend one week doing all the necessary prep work and then two weeks traveling, teaching, and training youth in the underground church in creative techniques for sharing their faith. In fact, as I write this, those same young people Jessica worked with in China are preparing some Christmas mimes to present in the coming weeks! Her work is bearing fruit.

Josiah (13) shaves, sounds like Scott when he answers the phone, and wears a size 12.5 shoe. 'Nuff said. We clearly have two men in the house now. Josiah has done some camping with the Boys Scouts and he's steadily working to advance his rank. We decided to spare him braces, and he's glad. His academics (especially his 10th!!! grade science) are going well, and I'm glad. He handled all the mowing this summer, although Andrew did begin to "help" with the push mower near the end of the season. Josiah continues to love things that move, make noise, light up, and/or are electronic. This means that at any time, we are liable to hear an explosion, see a mess, or find our computers reconfigured. However, more and more his incredible amount of testosterone is focused in areas that do NOT involve fighting with his brother, and this is a good thing.

Josiah is also seriously committed to his serving in AIM, and he is diligent with the Bible studies and always ready to help. He is one of the "big guys" on the team now, and since he's been doing mime for almost three years, he is gradually getting to play some of the more significant roles in their presentations. He has played God (which he says is not too hard) and he can do a pretty good Jesus (which is evidently much more difficult). With Katie and Jessica, he spent many hours during Veteran's Week either in white face doing presentations, serving food to vets, doing set up and clean up, or arranging 1000 chairs for a "hoe-down." The three of them marched in the Veteran's Day Parade, carrying American flags and a banner that said, "Thank You Soldiers." I was SO proud and happy!

The three big kids, with their friend, Aaron (17) coughed up some major bucks and made a trip to California this fall, to attend the wedding of their good friends and AIM mentors, Andrew and Jenny. They drove to Tulsa on Thursday, spent the night with friends of ours there, and flew at 6:00 AM Friday to San Diego. They were able to spend a couple days helping a lot with prep and set-up. The wedding Sunday afternoon was lovely, the reception was fun, and they returned on Monday. It was the first time we had sent them all off on a trip together, and it was a great success. Aaron and Josiah hit it off, and Josiah recently began meeting with Aaron for some mentoring and accountability. We're really thankful for so many godly role models in our kids' lives.

Andrew (8) has finally found his calling. He will be a piano-playing, gymnastic chef. He started taking a weekly gymnastics class in July, and it is clearly something at which he excels. After only five weeks, he was moved to a more advanced class. His current goals are to be able to do a back handspring on the gym floor and a cartwheel on the balance beam (set on the ground). Once he masters those, he will be able to move to a "pre-team" class. Andrew also started piano lessons in September, and he can already play about a dozen simple but recognizable Christmas songs! He loves his teacher, Mrs. Walker (who also teaches Jessica and me), and works like crazy to get in as many practice minutes as possible.

This summer Andrew had his first week of camp at nearby Camp Lookout, a Christian camp that our older kids also attended. He was very, very nervous about going, but he truly had THE time of his life. Now he can't wait to go back, and some days we can't wait, either. He also attended Hands on Clay, where he made several lovely items, including a green mug we use for our pencils, and an absolutely classic brown teapot that I will always treasure. This was the third summer that Andrew participated in the Children's Theater Workshop, where he played the part of a funny farmer in their presentation of (a spoof of) "Little Red Riding Hood." The boy is clearly a natural on stage.

We were also blessed this year to have visits from our friends, the Childs family (from West Africa) and Scott's sister, Kristy, who was also home on furlough from Africa. Scott and I spent a lovely long weekend on Mt. Nebo (in Arkansas) in celebration of our 20th anniversary in September. A few weeks later, we made a trip together to China, where we co-led a marriage seminar for some couples in the underground church there. Scott's mom - WHAT a trooper she is - came and stayed with our children for twelve days. Although I didn't get to see her this time 9, she was a great blessing, chauffeur, educator, chef, and entertainer while we were away.

In my spare time, I (Patty) have been growing the most delicious container tomatoes - and we still have some ripening on the windowsill - playing with my digital camera and tripod, practicing the piano, and blogging. I really do enjoy blogging, and the nice thing about our rather unconventional family is that it gives me plenty of blog fodder.

You, our friends and family, are precious to us. We thank God for you, and we always enjoy hearing from you.

Merry Christmas, and Happy Birthday, Jesus!

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