I have Returned!

Not from a trip but from neglecting this blog!  My life kind of took a tailspin last fall as Jim was leaving for another trip to the Solomon Islands.  I wrote a family letter to email personally to our many friends in January but here it is mid February and only a few have actually gotten it so I thought I would include it here. 

Mudge Family Update

  

          
  My parents Dody and Russ Barton
I continue to care for my parents, especially helping my mother care for my father. This has increased over the last few months as his abilities mentally and physically have declined.
Last September, as Jim was preparing for his trip to Munda, my father began having more and more trouble using his prosthetic leg and a walker to exercise. One day he fell and although not seriously injured physically, he became very fearful and weak, no longer even able to get in and out of bed or the wheelchair on his own.   The day Jim left for 7 weeks in the Solomons, my mother and I used a hydraulic patient lift for the first time. It was a blessing for us physically and for Dad, who was no longer so afraid every time he needed to get up.  With the lift and help from a short term in-home physical therapist, Dad regained enough strength to sit, stand, and even begin walking with his walker by the time Jim got home in mid November. We celebrated both ‘returns’ with a Thanksgiving meal at my sister Ginny’s house. Unfortunately Dad has slowly regressed again and my mother and I are needed to meet most of his care including dressing and bathroom.  
     I am blessed that both of my parents are usually positive and cheerful, trusting God in their weaknesses.  Dad loves to listen to old-time gospel songs and eagerly awaits Sundays to go to church.  

Jeffrey and Emily

     Jeffrey is about a year from finishing his graduate studies in Library Science and Information Services at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN.  He is mostly interested in the technology side of getting and dispensing information.   Talking to him challenges us to keep up with technology innovations.

       Emily finished her work with the Red Cross last June, then flew here to Washington to get her first-ever car and drive back to Indiana where she began Law School at Indiana University in July.  The reputation of law school being hard is justified.  Since law is a completely new field of study, Emily finds the studies challenging. She is looking into various internship opportunities for this summer.  

            With Jeffrey and Emily both in academic schedules, they were able to enjoy a long Christmas break.  For almost 3 weeks we got to enjoy their company and to see what great young adults they have become.  Jeffrey loves to cook and volunteered to help with cooking most days during his stay with us.  Emily was a great help too as we shared many fun activities; attending a Live Nativity, climbing a local mountain, visiting Leavenworth (a Bavarian-theme tourist town in the Cascade Mountains), playing board games, and just spending time talking.  Of course I loved the day Emily and I spent shopping for clothes too!  

            The biggest blessing for us is to see that Jeffrey and Emily continue to walk with God and seek to put Him first in their lives.  I see their characters maturing and reflecting Christ-likeness. That is more important to us than their ‘accomplishments’.

Jim

            It seems like Jim just got home from the Solomons and now he is ready to go again.  His adjustment from November’s hot and humid tropics to cold and dry eastern Washington was difficult, made more so by a 2 week+ cold/flu he brought home with him.   He passed it on to me so my pre-Christmas baking and sending cards did not happen.  But the house was decorated and there were more than enough gifts under the tree.   Although at our age we tend to pick out what we like for the other to give us for Christmas, Jim and I did have a surprise gift.  We received a BBQ grill from my sister, Ginny,  and her husband, Mark, which we tried out within the week, despite the cold.   We are looking forward to using it in the summer!

63 years

        My parents, Russ and Dody Barton, celebrated 63 years of marriage on Sunday September 18th.  Although my dad had a drastic deline in his ability to move himself the last 3 weeks, Jim and I decided to do all we could to help make this anniversary special.  Due to our commitments at the church in Mattawa, Mom and Dad were not able to attend their church here in the TriCities.  Once they get to church there are a couple of faithful men who help dad in and out of the car and church but my mother is not able to get him in and out of the car here at the house by herself.  So part of our plan to make their day special was to get them to church to see friends and hear the preaching. 

     On the way home we stopped at a local chinese restaurant for Dad's favorite dish - Shrimp in Lobster Sauce and other yummy dishes we got from the buffet bar to take home with us.  A small detour to the Dairy Queen allowed us to finish off the meal with an ice cream cake.  My dad is known for having to have a dish of vanilla ice cream every night so this was a treat for him.

My sister's card probably expressed our feelings about their anniversary best.
            In a couple's little everyday choices,  
           in the grace and love and support they give each other,
           they honor God and will always shine as a beautiful light to the world.

We see in my parents marriage the everyday choices to love and support each other and honor God and it certainly does shine as a beautiful light in our world.

 Mom and Dad - Thanks for the example of a good marriage and blessings for 63 years of loving God and each other.

Teaching Sunday School

After the summer off, I again began teaching the younger Sunday School class.  This year we have started with basically the siblings of 2 families. 

Jasime has been coming for a couple of years now and just started 2nd grade. Her "little" brother is Johnny, who just started kindergarten and our SS program. 

Jacob Cruz is also in 2nd grade.  His younger sister, Sarah will turn 4 next month but is learning her letters and does quite well with the crafts even if her attention span isn't quite equal to the older ones.  Their older sister, Ada, is in 5th grade and very happy to learn more about God.  She helps as my assistant teacher when I need an extra hand (or voice).  Ada is in my class since we don't have any other upper elementary kids at the moment. They all moved up to Junior High and more teen topics in class.

And then there is Jaide.  It is amazing I got a photo of her by herself and quiet!   She is 2 and her mom helps with the Junior and High School group.  We do not have a nursery program and so Jaide tends to roam between the classes enjoying whatever toys are out and getting lots of attention from the older kids.

Please pray for the children in the Sunday School program.  Most have difficult family lives and yet God has given us the opportunity to share His love and salvation with them.  Pray I would communicate clearly and that these little ones would grow in wisdom and knowledge of Christ.

Mattawa Communities Day

   When we were living in the Solomon Islands, I would hear about Mattawa Communitites Day from my sister Ginny and my parents.  Held in the town park, the church and individual members would join businesses and other organizations for a festive day - kind of local fair for Mattawa and surrounding rural communities.  After moving to Mattawa in 2005, Communities Day activities were either not held or we missed it due to traveling.  So when Mattawa decided to restart the event and one of our church members volunteered to organize the booths, I was excited that I would get to be involved. 

   August 27th  was a hot day that began with a parade down the main road through Mattawa. The vehicles ranged from a balloon festooned 3 wheel bicycle and old classic cars to highly decorated floats and even huge combine driven by a young woman.

  The current Miss Washington was there promoting her platform of education for the poor. Once at the park there were dancing horses, booths from various school and business organizations, and of course food stalls selling typical fair food. 

   Our church, Saddle Mountain Bible Church, put up 2 booths side by side. Jim helped some of the other men put up plastic sheeting for one end.

    One was for adults to sit around and listen to Christian music, have a cookie, and talk - hopefully about spiritual things.  The other was for the children to hear Bible stories. In between them was a cooler with free water for all who were thristy.  Displayed near the cooler was John 7: 37-38, "...Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, 'If anyone is thristy, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me,as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.' "    The men, including my brother-in -law, Mark, pictured below, had some meaningful conversations. 

  The plan was for the children to have a different story presentation every 20 minutes or so.  We had a couple of flannelgraph Bible stories, a missionary story from Africa and one about a Japanese POW in WWII, the Wordless book, and a presentation using a giant Evangicube. 

What we didn't plan, was the constant loud music blaring from the bandstand.  I told my story twice but even shouting I am not sure anyone past the front row heard me.  Since I was the one with the camera, I didn't get any photos of me but below are a couple of the other women doing their presentations. 

 

   My sister, Ginny shared the Evangicube with a small group toward the end of the afternoon.  The young boy on the far left in the photos had heard the gospel for the first time via the Evangicube earlier.  He came back later and ended up explaining it himself to another boy.  Ginny gave him a Bible and we pray God will continue to help him mature in his faith.

 



 Pray for all those young and old that heard the stories and talked about spiritual things during the Mattawa Communities Day.  And pray that our small congregation would be a light in the community every day of the year. 

How does our garden grow??

         Back in May, Jim and I cleaned out an old garden area of the yard and planted our first "real" garden here in the USA.  We had one that lasted one season at our Munda house when Jeffrey and Emily were small by carting soil from the bush to cover over the coral base left over from World War II.  Another attempt at a garden was at our Honiara house in 2000 which was planted just before we were evacuated due to the ethnic conflict and didn't get back for 14 months. We never saw the "fruit of our labor" for that garden. 

So it has been exciting to see this empty ground fill up with plants

and produce.

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 We enjoyed fresh peas and a couple of peppers and currently have an abundance of summer squash and cucumbers. We are waiting for more of  the tomatoes to ripen.   It is always nice to find people without a garden to share with and I even found a recipe for a summer squash coffee cake/ bread. 

Healing Heart

Many of you have asked about how my mother is after her open heart surgery on June 15th.  We are still working on a prayer letter to help update everyone but I thought I ought to fill in at least those of you who read this blog.

God answered the many prayers for Mom.  First there was the the heart catherization done a week before surgery.  It showed no blockage of her arteries ("clean as a whistle" was the phrase the doctor used) which meant the surgery would only be to replace her failing valve.
Then the surgery itself went well and the many tubes and wires that are necessary afterwards began coming out within a couple of hours.  She spent about 24 hours in ICU before being moved to a room on the cardiac floor where she continued to amaze all the doctor and staff with her progress.  Although we had been told most patients took 7-10 days in the hospital to be sure they were strong enough to be sent home, Mom was discharged in only 4 days.  A week after surgery I took the photo below while mom sat at the dinner table.
She tires quickly but continues to improve each day.  Now, a month later, it is only because of concern for the sterum bone to heal properly ( they say 12 weeks of no lifting, pushing, or twisting) that she has any restrictions.
We thank you for praying for her surgery and recovery and praise God for His healing. 

Thanks too for praying for Jim and I as we cared for both mom and dad during this last month. Jim has been wonderful to do most of the physically demanding work of my father's care. The first two weeks were challenging but things get easier every day.

Happy Birthday Jim

Yes today, for a few minutes more here in Pasco, Washington, it is Jim's birthday. Most of the celebration happened earlier this week though as we got to spend a couple of days in Spokane.

On Tuesday we enjoyed a restaurant meal (a treat for me even if it wasn't my birthday!), a walk through various specialty gardens in a park south of the city, and a night in a nice motel near the Riverfront Park of downtown Spokane. The weather was gorgeous, unlike the rest of the country which seems to be having either too hot or too wet weather.
Wednesday wasn't so gorgeous as it was raining when we began the day of seeing all there is to do at Riverfront Park itself.  Fortunately our plan was to begin with 2 IMAX shows.  The first was on Spokane World's Fair in 1974 - did we really dress and drive like that when I graduated from college??! and the second was about the Lewis and Clark expedition.  A couple of games of mini golf and lunch in the same building allowed the weather to clear up which made the walking tour of the open areas like the Spokane Falls more enjoyable.

 Along way Jim noticed in one lookout that there were metal disks in the pavement that honored the Christian leaders of Spokane's early developement.  I was most taken with the first one, an native American who understood the importance of translation and difficulty of living and understanding two cultures both of which conflict many times with God's Kingdom.

 It was very relaxing day which ended with a ride on the 100 year old Looff Carrousel.

Birthdays are great times to remember God's many blessings to us and thank Him for all He is doing in our lives. So one last time today I will say HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JIM !!