i have been praying and praying for a country i have never been to… for a country i took little notice of until now… i have posted almost daily on my Facebook about Ukraine and any news article i come across, asking people to pray with me.
i have been praying for Ukraine… why? Because Heath – my beloved Heath who is now with his forever family, he who introduced me into the world of special needs orphans, is from there. Because i now know friends who are living there, supporting their new Ukrainian friends on the ground. Because God moved my heart to.
Please pray along with me as this country works towards peace and a democratic, and just government.
Thank you.
syc
How to begin? My heart is full to bursting with emotion, yet I feel almost embarrassed to write. We are Ukrainian babies. We’ve only lived here for a little over 3 months. We only just started falling in love with Ukraine and her people in 2010. What do we know of Ukraine?
There are missionaries who have lived here for decades. They’ve given years and years of their lives to the Ukrainian people. They’ve loved Ukraine for almost as long as I’ve been alive. What do we know of Ukraine compared to them? Not much.
Then there are the Ukrainian people themselves. So many lived through the fall of the Soviet Union, were present when Ukraine found it’s independence, had their hopes built by the Orange Revolution, then hopes dashed when things did not improve- but only got worse.
They know what it is to expect corruption. They know what…
i will read almost anything, in English (German takes me too long and Mandarin is too hard now that i’ve left it behind decades ago), with the exception of very theoretical stuff like Chaos Theory.
When i did History, Geography and Literature in school, subjects where research is important, i was in heaven! i also enjoyed reading all of the research i had to do for my thesis when i was at university.
So now that i’m writing a novel, it seems strange that i’m a little reluctant to do some research. It’s not the having to do all the reading that is making me hesitant, it’s the time it takes and how easily distracted i get following one link to the next to the next and beyond BUT…
… research is important!
i have just finished listing my scenes and “interviewing” all of my major characters and think i’m ready to start writing proper. However, there were a few points which came up in the “interviews” which should really be researched on. They are not major plot points but they relate directly to the characters involved and could very well influence things like dialogue.
Then i read Do the Write Thing and now i have decided i should do the research!
Because who knows, it just might be my novel which unexpectedly blows Dan Brown out of the literary waters and (i’m) suddenly swamped with speaking or blogging requests*, i don’t wanna be caught out on a few poorly researched points…
So anyone knows how to put a few more hours into the very short 24 we have been given a day so i can get all these research done? 😉
Do you research details of the story you are writing? Do you like doing research? How do you do your research? Internet? Go old-school – at the library?
Today is the last day of 2013! Thank you for reading and being with us in spirit through 2013.
So here’s our annual summary of the year for us (our Christmas letter)… click on the links to see specific posts about specific events!
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HiHi
How are you? We hope this finds you well and enjoying this Christmas season with family and friends, remembering that it is the Christ who has made celebrating Christmas possible.
2013 has been a year of stepping up to changes.
Sandra is into her second year of advocating and fundraising for special needs orphans. Many of you who are FB friends with her or read our blog would already have heard much about this ministry. Well, the Lord has given her a more focussed area to pray for and work with; Asia. She has been helping to highlight families who are adopting from Asia as well as Asian special needs orphans. This year also saw the first 2 orphans she prayed and advocated for home with forever families and it truly warms the heart and spurs her on to continue, even though there are times when it seems her efforts has made little difference but the Lord knows and the Lord works in His time and in His ways.
She is no longer involved with Day Association for Women as a team member because the Bern team closed this Spring. But she stayed on as a web content update person for the association in general. The weekly BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) in Bern has also closed this June.
Both of which has opened the door and freed up time to pursue yet another orphan related project. Sandra is setting up a social enterprise, selling handmade crafts where 50% of the sale price would go to special needs orphans. The hope is to have the online shop open in early 2014. So stay tune for that news!
Tobias is in the 3rd grade this school year. He has more time in school now, 5 mornings and 3 afternoons. It also means that the work has become more challenging but he still enjoys school and looks forward to going each day.
He continues going for Judo trainings on Mondays with his best friend. And recently took part in his 2nd internal competition. This year there were much tougher opponents, although fewer of them. He still managed a 3rd place and we are very proud of him.
His passion for playing the violin has grown and this year he has been motivated to try songs he has heard, either on the radio or on YouTube. So Sandra spends a fair amount of time searching for scores to certain songs for him to play. They both played in a Christmas recital recently and their teacher has a few more concerts planned in the next few months.
Walter has had to travel quite a lot this year and mostly to different parts in Africa. He came back in November and fell really sick. We thank God that he made a fairly quick recovery after a week of being ill. Just in time to make the trip back to Singapore in the first week of December to help his parents move into a smaller flat. And of course, when he is here, he continues to lead worship at church.
Travels for us this year consist of the usual; our trip to Singapore to see family and friends and enjoy food we miss so much, and our ski trips – this year we did 2 trips instead of 1 week-long one. Which was great as we got to see / experience a new place – Saanenmoser and enjoy an old favourite, Wengen.
We did not do a farmstay this year but did a number of day trips instead during the Autumn school holidays (Week01, Week02, Week03), this enabled Walter to join us on at least one occasion which is great!
Last year we related the sad news that we lost one of our Gerbils, Nox and this year Puddles passed away (likely of old age issues) early November. We were much sadden and had considered for a while whether or not we would have more pets.
We very recently decided, after much persuasion by Tobias, that we would but because of some strict rules here, we found out that actually the cage we have was a bit small for Gerbils and so took a recommendation to adopt some little mice instead. So we welcome Patch, Patches, Ruby and Sam into our home.
Us having fun at the Singapore Discovery Center in July 2013.
Well, that wraps up 2013 for us.
How was the year for you? Do write and let us know.
Wishing you a Blessed Christmas and a Fulfilling 2014,
With love,
walter, sandra and tobias
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As i look forward to 2014, i’m excited to see how the hopes planted in 2013 will come to fruition in 2014.
Hoping that 2014 will be a year filled with much hope and fulfillment!
trippingdifferently 