Mark and Jessica Spangler

The high schoolers put on a carnival each year to raise money for their school. We were so glad we were in town to enjoy the fun and games. It was a small piece of our own culture right here in Africa.

Caleb bobbing for Tampico, a frozen fruit juice in a bag

Micah when he was done bobbing for Tampico

Zoe and Ali in a noodle slurping contest

Doing the cake walk in the heat. We thought we had good odds since we had six places, but we didn’t win after all.

Micah arm wrestling for candy

You would think with summer time I’d have more time to blog. Hahaha, I guess summer proved to be busy after all. Lets just hope I wasn’t too busy to take pictures! Let me see what I can find 🙂

Here is a good one. Sometimes when we are staying in a “guest house” away from home our kids have to share a bed. I took this one because it really made me laugh. Life as an MK.

Here is Ali and two of her friends singing and dancing to an African song they learned in the NW of Cameroon. They performed it at a family night in April in front of all the SIL families in town.

Our friend stepped on this little guy and he attacked his shoe. The spider then limped off to find cover in some nearby foliage. When I took the first picture he started hoping and making noises. He also showed is what looked like fangs! Whew! These pics are for my sweat niece.

I had to share this picture cause it made me laugh so hard. I almost didn’t notice.

That’s right I have a few small trees in the yard! Whew whoo!

I am using my meat tenderizers to open them and I’ll roast them on the cookie sheet. I didn’t get a ton this year but I’m happy non the less. Time to put the love in it!

Well, here are a few pictures of an Operation Christmas Child event that Mark flew boxes in for.

Loading up boxes in the truck to drive across town to the helipad.

Unloading at the helipad and loading in the helicopter.

A full load.

Notice the white pod on the side of the helicopter. It can carry extra packages. There is one that can fit on either side.

The children receiving the boxes.

This is a picture of a missionary sharing the gift of Jesus to the kids in a public school and the man next to her is translating.

So, all in all the picture make this all look a lot more glamorous than it was in real life. There were so many kids and it was a bit chaotic. But, the cool part is that this village is truly the “ends of the earth” and hundreds of children along with teachers and other onlookers were given the gospel message in their own language. We can only hope and pray that is somehow made a difference in their lives and hearts.

This is just another cool thing Mark gets to be a part of. We thought you might enjoy seeing pictures because I know many of you pack up boxes each year so that kids all over the world can receive them in Christ’s name.

We had a dear teacher, Carolyn come to our house for just over two weeks and teach the kids. It was such a fun time for everyone. They did lots of fun art projects to go along with what they were learning. She fit right in to our family and even our church. She even came along to bible study, Sunday school and the church dig each week.

This picture is taken next to our home, on our driveway.

This one is taken on the side of our house on some stairs carved out of the rocky mountain that our house is built on.

We were traveling for hours along bumpy, windy, slow moving roads and I looked back to check the kid out. This is what I saw. It made me laugh as I’m sure it made you laugh.

Now, even though some of you are gasping right now because she unbuckled the top of her car seat harness, she apparently felt safer. Hahaha.

These next few pictures are in response to people on Facebook who always post pictures of what they are eating and where the are eating and who they are eating with. All of which usually makes me cry. After you are overseas for a while you begin to miss certain foods and for me the blueberry has been greatly missed. Each day between 3-4pm on Facebook people begin posting pictures of their blueberry breakfasts. I cry. I happened upon a kilo of frozen blueberries at a grocery store in Yaounde. I cried, checked the price, cried again and my dear husband lovingly told me to toss them in the cart cause we are buying them. I cry again. So, last night for dinner we ate crepes with blueberry and plain yogurt filling topped with whipped cream, hand whisked by Mark Spangler’s muscles. I was so happy that I took photos and told everyone how happy I was the entire dinner.

Caleb shoved the entire crepe in his mouth in one fell swoop.

So, we also had blueberry pancakes for breakfast too 🙂

Last but not least. There is just something romantic about sleeping under a mosquito net. I know all you who have actually slept under a mosquito net would argue with me if you could actually comment on this blog. I however would like to live in a state of romance with these dust collectors.

Here are a few of the creatures or plants found at any given moment in our yard.
First of all, our banana trees! You don’t see these in Arizona!

Here is a close up of some of our fruit. These have been growing for several months already.

Next, a huge creepy crawly.

The first time I saw one curled up I thought it was a baby snake!

Next up, our chickens. These two gals are the suspects of the eggs we are getting. I’m guessing it is the brown one on the right…

Mark took this picture of the sky and I thought I’d share it with the world.