Back in Singapore

We are back in Singapore, after finishing our furlough with a trip to Mackinaw City and a few last visits with family and friends.

On Mackinac Island

Get-together with friends at Lawrence Park in Zeeland

Getting ready to set up one more tent for a camp-out 

with the Lanning cousins in Grandpa & Grandma's backyard

We drove down to Chicago on Monday, August 4, to fly out of O'Hare Airport.  My inlaws came with us, which was very helpful since we had much more luggage going back than coming!  That included two years' worth of homeschooling books for four kids, a little bit of food that is hard to come by here, and a lot of clothes for the next two years, since they are much cheaper and easier to find in the U.S.!

Our flights back went well.  After a night in San Francisco, we had an 11 hour and 10 minutes long flight to Seoul, South Korea, then another 5 hours and 35 minutes to Singapore.

In the Seoul airport--I just paid 4300 for four donuts, and I can't 

read the receipt and have no idea what the exchange rate is! :-)

We arrived in Singapore about 1:00 a.m. Thursday and were greeted at the airport by about 20 people from church.  We came back to a few changes in the neighborhood.  The most noticeable one was the installation of new "contraptions" (for lack of a better term!) for hanging laundry.  Before, each flat had little holes below the windows, where the ends of long poles with laundry hanging on them would be inserted.  Now instead of just holes, there are these contraptions where the laundry poles are inserted into slots at either end. It seems to be a safer way to hang the poles!

Also, progress has been made on installing new elevators in the buildings around here.

Flags are hanging for the August 9 National Day.

We also came back to find Ghost Month in full swing.  (You can read more about that here.) We smell burning often, as extra offerings are made to people's ancestors.

A lot of trash on normally clean streets, all from the papers people are burning

Offerings set up outside the nearest wet market (intended 

for the ghosts that are supposedly wandering around this month)

Once again we are thankful for God's grace in saving us and His saints in Singapore from the kind of fear that Ghost Month represents.  We look forward to worshiping Him with His people tomorrow.