Mark and Jessica Spangler

Yes, that is right, Josephine is a chick. I was walking home with a friend from bible study and as we got to her house I could see she was selling firewood. It is always nice to support our friends so I texted Mark to see if we needed any. So, he brought the truck and the kids to her house. We were happy to have more firewood since we have been trying to keep the bees away. Well, one thing led to another and my friend gave my children a
chick. Yes, a chick! Like a chick who needs it’s mother chick. I tried to talk her out of it but when everyone turned to dad he just shrugged and said, “why not?” Hahahaha! Ok, fine why not? So, off we drove up our precarious road with firewood and a chick. Thankfully, that night instead of unloading the firewood Mark ran straight to the shed and made a chicken wire lid to a tub already outfitted for chicks. So, dear Josephine cannot get out of the tub and wonder the house as our other chicks have done. Well, no worries, it has been a few days and she is happy as a clam. We brought her a friend from our coop who has a bum leg and needs rest. They keep each other company and warm. We are happy to have this addition to our little flock.
This is what happens when we take the lid off.

Our family took a trip to Yaounde recently. We passed several vehicles that had rolled and thought it strange during this dry season. I guess I expected it more in the wet season but the roads aren’t muddy right now. Then I had to laugh and take a picture. I’m sure one can now figure out why so many rolling vehicles. This is a common sight and there are much higher packed luggage racks. Don’t swerve! Things that make you go hmmm.

Besides have the crazy bees around today we had a fun birthday with Micah. Several friends came over to either wish him a happy birthday or play! I made a cake and even chocolate ice cream. Yumm! Happy birthday bud!

Here are the pictures of the hive on our roof

Now the hive is in the tree

Some friends came to visit for New Years and so us ladies decided to go for a hike. We decided to look for a trail and, well, never found one. What we did find was a bunch of African wilderness on a steep mountainside just on the other side of a nice tall hedge surrounding some farmland in our back yard. We kept hiking and grabbing onto tall grasses, trees, and vines to keep from sliding backwards. Common things said on the hike were, “I think I see a path up ahead” “should go back?” “I don’t think I could hike down what we’ve come up.”. So, we pressed on and on. An hour and a half later we ended up spotting something down in the valley that we recognized and knew we’d hit a path before fall off a cliff onto the road, so we just kept creeping and sliding down holding onto anything we could, until we made it to a slick slanted slope before the path. Then we walked, or slid along this slope until we reached “stairs” that we’re nothing more than flat slots for each foot carved out of the dirt. Hahaha, we laughed and had fun the whole way. We joked of dying and getting eaten by wild beasts but, we made it home alive! We were covered in brush and seeds. The chickens were out when we got home and started pecking the seeds off our pants. Hahahaha! So, here are some pictures to remember our New Years day hike.

Showing off our seed covered pants

We inhaled so much dirt we were covered and our noses blew out brown for a while!

I decided to buy trail running shoes instead of running shoes and hiking boots and they worked out great! Any running in this town is trail running!

My sweater was just balled up at the ends from all the stickers!

Here is our Christmas tree this year! Brought to you by the Spanglers.

New beanie for Caleb

Play dough and Zoe is wearing her new beanie

Zoe sleeping in her tinker bell outfit

Donuts!!!!!

Caleb and Micah got parts to make sling shots

Zoe twirling in her new tinker bell outfit

Ali got new jammie pants

A Sunset in dry season. Beautiful and reminds me a tiny bit of home.

Kids choir at church Christmas Eve

At friends singing happy birthday to Jesus!

Each week the kids practice and sing a few songs. Ali has joined this group and the kids asked her to teach them a new song. The video doesn’t do it justice but it is fun! They sure know how to rock a song!

This was a picture from a road by our house of the soccer field just after soccer and before devotion. Since this picture the number of kids has more than doubled.

Groups doing drills

The younger kids

I could go on and on with pictures. We have been serving along side of our church in this outreach ministry. It has been great getting to know the other leaders in our church. There are so many kids that come to play each Saturday, that it can be a challenge because we don’t have enough leaders. BUT, we are praying that these children will understand and learn about God’s love and the good news of Jesus Christ through the devotions afterwards.

A man at our church makes the most amazing carvings out of wood. Mark thought he’d ask him to make a huge carved painting so we could add hooks and hang our coats in our front room. So, after many weeks he finished and here it is. It is a bad picture but a great African scene.