Farnsworth Forum

Here is a picture of the Farnsworth Family Singers during the Christmas program in chapel that we performed. The von Trapps have nothing to fear, but it was great fun. Joel and Amelia were the main attraction! Thanks for your patience in waiting for this entry. Not having internet at the house has been quite a challenge. The semester finished well, and now we are enjoying our break. We had an Open House for the students and staff of PIBC to show everyone our new place, and we have enjoyed the many Christmas activities. Last night we went to see the Christmas lights with Joel and Amelia. It does not FEEL like Christmas with temperatures in the 80s, but we thank God for the gift of His Son so many years ago to offer us love and life and hope. Thanks for your partnership and friendship to us. We can not express in words how much you mean to us. Feliz Navidad and God bless you at Christmas and always from Ned, Marisol, Joel and Amelia Farnsworth!

This is a picture taken Fall 2006 of a coconut that we were getting ready to plant. It was soon to become "Joel's Little Coconut Tree." Here is a picture of the coconut tree one year later. Notice how Joel has grown, and Daddy and son are both wearing their "Wizard of Oz" T-shirts. Can you believe both Amelia and Joel love Oz almost as much as Daddy? Joel can sing "Over the Rainbow"; so can Amelia. It is so funny to hear her do it. But my favorite song to hear her sing is "Jesus Loves Me."

Amelia loves Cinderella. She even borrowed the video from the PIBC library yesterday, and we have the DVD at home. Here is little "Ella" (as she says it) in her blue dress.

We made homemade pizza the other night, and it turned out very well, at least as good as Pizza Hut's. Joel's smile says it all.

This semester Mac has been my student teacher in English 100. His minor at PIBC is Teaching English as a Second Language, and he will graduate later this month. Please pray for his future plans. He will return home to his island of Yap for a visit and then he wants to return to Thailand to teach. He was part of TESL missions trip this past summer. He will be missed, at least by this skinny English teacher. I've enjoyed working with him. He has been a great leader and role model for all of our students, not just in my English class. God bless you, Mac!

Come to Guam and visit our fruit orchard! We have three banana trees. Guam local bananas was smaller and slighly sweeter than bananas in the USA. We pay 98 cents a pound for them here, and we have missed the cheap Ecuadorian bananas. Now we shall see if we have our own bananas. Marisol is overjoyed to have a papaya tree. It reminds her of Ecuador. We have at least five kalamansi trees where we live. Kalamansi is kind of a cross between orange and lemon. It makes wonderful juice. Here Joel and Amelia are helping to make kalamansi juice without making too much of a mess. Joel is a wonderful help. Amelia seems more interested in her baby.

We invited our student helpers from our moving day with a fish dinner on Monday night. We had a wonderful time. Thanks again to Ethel, Johanna, Neinei, Jayvina, Jonathan, Mark, Benny, and Sonny! Jonathan especially enjoyed the three milk cake which he graciously grinded the fresh coconut for. Sonny thought his joy was hilarious!

Hi there, and Happy Belated Thanksgiving. These pictures are out of order, and I am sorry about that. Joel is thankful for good friends like Micah, who came to play with him on Thanksgiving afternoon. They had lots of fun. Marisol and I are thankful for our little "cutie pies" Amelia (who is shown enjoying her turkey drumstick a la King Henry VIII). . . . . . .and Joel (eating his cinnamin Jello salad courtesy of Mrs. Joyce Owen). We are all thankful for our PIBC family. . . . . .and for God's abundant provision of food always. And we are thankful for you, our faithful blog readers and prayer warriors. Thanks, and God bless you, everyone!

Last Monday Ned took down the swingset from our apartment. It was raining, and Ned isn't much of a Handy Man. But it is now done, and the children are enjoying playing on their swingset in the new house. In fact, as you can see from the picture, they are loving it.

Amelia now knows the names of the Disney Princesses, along with most of the little girls on the planet, I suppose. Cinderella is "Rella," Snow White is "White," and Sleeping Beauty is "Beauty." Here is a picture of two PIBC beauties, Amelia (of course I am an unbiased father!) and our Library Assistant, Stella Fatag from Yap. She is not only beautiful on the outside, but she has a heart that is filled with love for the Lord and her neighbors. She sent us this picture, and we wanted to share it with you.

Last weekend we held our annual PIBC Spiritual Emphasis Retreat at Rios Beach in southern Guam. The first thing Marisol, Joel and Amelia did was check out the beach. Instead of oversaturating the students with more group Bible sessions, Melissa prepared a prayer journal for them with Bible passages, and we sent them off by themselves for two hours of quiet time. I was so proud of the students to see them spend time alone with God. Solitude is not really a part of Micronesian culture, which is community based. While the students were off by themselves, Delight, Hiob and Evelyn were busy cooking hamburgers and hotdogs. Even Joel got into the action by helping to keep our cooks stocked with food. This is a quiet moment of Mamá with her niños Joel and Amelia. The kids are wearing the official Spiritual Emphasis Retreat Tshirts, which cost $5. I think they turned out really well. This is American football Guam style!!! Too bad our president Dave Owen wasn't back from his PIBC staff...

Here is a collage of pictures from our recent move. We moved today and had wonderful weather, a respite from all the rain we've been having. God is so good. Thanks for all of your prayers. The children seem to be happy in their new surroundings. Amelia has kept us entertained with her everlasting cuteness. Sorry, Daddy Bragging going on here! Amelia and Joel are checking out the new windows at the house where we now live. The kids are sitting on Amelia's bed waiting for their parents to finish unpacking some things. They have been so patient throughout this whole process. Joel has wanted to help move things. Amelia, too! Bless their little hearts. We asked some of the guys to help us today to move the "BIG" things, like this sofa, for example. Thank to Mamu (from Bangladesh), Jonathan (Chuuk), Sonny (Yap), Benny (Marshall Islands), and Mark (Chuuk). Jayvina is a good friend to Joel and Amelia and helped us today as well. She's also a great packer an...

Last week we enjoyed seeing the Pacific Gate unit of Covenant Players twice, once at Joel's Awana Club on Halloween and the other time at the chapel of PIBC. For those of you who have seen the Players, you know what a treat we enjoyed twice, without the trick. Last year I also saw them in action during their annual stay in Guam at Christmas time. This professional Christian drama troupe deploys different drama teams to different areas of the world, performing the timeless plays written by their late founder, Charles Tanner. I heartily recommend them. For more information, check out their website at www.covenantplayers.org .

Recently we had the privilege of hosting a Liebenzell Mission-sponsored German tour group on campus. Here our students are greeting them in their various native languages. Notice Marisol in the red shirt representing Ecuador. Other countries represented are China, the Philippines, Chuuk, Yap, Palau, Pohnpei, the Marshall Islands, the United States and Bangladesh. Currently we also have students from Japan and Korea, but they did not attend the program. As usual, the students sang with their beautiful harmonies. Even Joel and his Palauan friends Micah and Ganya joined in. It was a great evening together!

Every other Monday the PIBC students have a work day for two hours from 8:00-10:00 am. They clean up the campus inside the buildings and out. We help sometimes, even though it's my day off. I must admit that I did not help today. Saturday I drove the van all day, transporting the students back and forth to the Lutheran Church for a fundraising carwash. And yesterday was an even longer day: one of the vans had a flat tire in the morning when we were trying to leave for church; then the other van broke down when I was going to pick up the students from church. I spent all afternoon going back to the van to wait for the tow truck and then I accompanied him to the mechanic's. I took today to rest and pack for our upcoming move. Here is a picture from a previous work day. Joel posed with his friend Breechlyn or NeiNei who watches him and Amelia during our classes on Wednesday and Friday mornings. Not only does she serve as one of the two female Resident Assistants at PIBC, She also...