Here they are a few years ago:
They died one day apart from each other, on August 31 and September 1, 2009. Please go to our photo gallery (link at right) to see 2 photo albums in their memory, under the grouping “2009″.
Danny has graduated from high school! We were so happy to have all the grandparents and also Kirsten to help us celebrate.
The boys finished 7th in their division of 15 cayucos, beaten only by the 5 veteran teams and one other team they were neck to neck with the whole time.
Here are some blasts from the past to set the mood:
Kirsten and her crew preparing for the first part of the race
Danny is taking part this year in the annual Ocean-to-Ocean Cayuco race. A cayuco is a canoe, made in the fashion of the indigenous canoes. Some are wood, some are fiberglass and other materials. They are crewed by 4 people and the race has several categories, male/female/co-ed, sorted by age. (more…)
Saturday, December 15, was Laura’s 10th birthday, which she celebrated in style. We have had great fun with Laura over these 10 years and we’re thankful for her belated but welcome arrival in our family! (more…)
November 3 was Panama’s 104th birthday and to celebrate, we all got a 4-day weekend. Nov. 3 is their Independence Day (from Colombia, in 1903) and Nov. 4 is Flag Day. In honor of that, Chaz and Helga climbed up Ancon Hill (”Cerro Ancon”), a mountain near the city and canal which houses the Canal Administration building. At the top of the hill, after a gentle climb of about 25 minutes, one is rewarded with a gorgeous view of the canal and surrounding area. Above it all flies the proud Panamanian flag. (more…)
Thousands of Panamanians streamed toward Paraiso, a small town along the Canal, to celebrate a double ceremony: the beginning of the expansion and the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Torrijos-Carter treaty. Go here to see a video of the Panama Canal Railway going alongside all the cars. (more…)
Chaz recently returned from a brief trip to Michigan for a Mortensen family reunion. Someone unearthed this and passed it on to him. We are starting to feel old as we contemplate this c. 1988 photo. Are there many of you reading this who remember receiving this card?
Danny returned home safely from Peru last week, glad for the adventures he had and the opportunities for ministry. Soon we will post his report and more pictures.
The youth group flew into Guayaquil, Ecuador, then took an 11-hour bus ride to Mancora, Peru. See the upper left quadrant of the map.
Here’s an excerpt from our latest email update from Peru:
“They had another good day of ministry yesterday. Christian and Gerardo did a great job speaking, although Gerardo was a little sick. He is feeling better now. Today there were 55 kids. They were excited about that.
“This afternoon they continued with the youth and more kids showed up there too. They are doing a mini-Crossfire type program [Crossfire is the name of the youth group at our local church]. Danny and Lina shared their testimonies. Then our youth taught them two Crossfire songs and the local kids taught ours two of their songs…. Tonight Mark will teach on 1 Corinthians 10:31-33.
“Prayer requests:
Thursday Alejandro & Andrea will teach on love - sportsmanship and teamwork.
Mark is almost back to normal. Thanks for your prayers.
That God would speak through our kids and to our kids as they interact with the people in town.”
The month of May is busy for everyone with end-of-the-year school functions and so on. For one example, the first weekend of the month Danny performed in a school play, took the SAT the next morning, and sang in a talent show his youth group put on that night to raise funds for their summer mission trip (see post below). It was also Missions Month in one of the churches we participate in, and we participated A LOT! One thing we did as a family was to take the children’s group from the church to an Embera village for a day of fun and interacting with the children there.
Bienvenido has recently completed drafting the book of Acts. That is another milestone and we are grateful for his hard work and his willing spirit to devote so much time to this work. He is a great asset to the translation project. See his picture below.
Cornelio, an Embera we mentioned in an earlier post, came to help during two different weeks on the second revision of the Gospel of John. We finally finished last Thursday and he is beginning the back-translation in Spanish for our consultant.
In a post from December we mentioned PAAM. A meeting is being held May 28 to formalize PAAM as an official government-recognized organization. Representatives from denominations, independent churches and other organizations will be present in order to commit to being member organizations of PAAM. We will elect board members as well.
Dear friends,
The youth group at our church here in Panama City is going on a mission trip this summer to Peru. Danny will be a part of this mission trip. They will be doing a vacation Bible school, concerts, sports clinics, medical help and any physical labor that is needed. We have posted a video of the youth pastor explaining the trip:
The entire youth group put on a talent show two weeks ago to raise money for the trip. Here is Danny’s solo/duet, accompanied by Jeff Penn, one of the youth leaders who will be going on the trip also.  (note - the lighting was very poor and the video was digitally lightened, then compressed to upload to YouTube. This is to explain the inferior quality of the video as well as the audio. But it still gives you a good idea of how it sounded).
Go here
The youth still need to raise more money for their trip. If you’d like to help out with this, please let us know so we can tell you how.
Some of you have asked about Kirsten’s Glee Club tour. Here is the information.
Monday April 30
10 am concert at Cass Tech High school (Detroit)
Monday April 30
7 pm concert at Berea United Methodist Church, Cleveland OH
Tuesday May 1
Penn State - 7 pm concert with their Men’s Glee Club
Wednesday May 2
7 pm concert at Villanova University chapel with Temple University children’s choir
Philadelphia, PA
If you have more questions, please see the link at right to the Glee Club’s website.
There are some new videos on our Dropshots website. See link on the right.
Also news on John Mortensen’s newly-released CD, along with the Demerits, playing traditional Irish music. See new link on the right.
…besides translation, that is? Chaz plays basketball and soccer when he can, with men from a local church. He continues his involvement with PAAM, the Panamanian mission organization that is starting up, and in leadership at our church in Gamboa. (more…)
We had a really great visit with Kirsten a couple weeks ago. She was only here a week but we packed in a lot of family time and activities, including a weekend at the beach. She visited us at work and school, saw some local friends, rested and studied. We got in some local food and shopping as well.
Now Kirsten is back in Ann Arbor, staying busy with studies, job and Glee Club. She’s working on summer plans, which include Glee Club tour, summer classes, a second job and further RA training before she starts that job in September.
Helga returned last week from moving Kirsten in to her new dorm at the University of Michigan. They started in Midland with a very full car:
Ready to go!
After a long day of driving, unloading, unpacking, furniture-moving and sorting, she was moved in and is now nicely settled.
She has started classes and her work study job, in the Alumni Association office. Her mailing address is: 6110 Bush House, South Quad/600 E. Madison/Ann Arbor, MI 48109. So far, so good!
This was the last message we received, on Saturday:
“Good morning! We are up bright and early as we prepare to take the boat back over the lake. Friday was a great last day. The house is almost complete and during the vbs many of our kids had the opportunity to share Christ with the Sutuheel children. Liza gave a great message about Jesus as the good shepherd. We had another great time of teaching with Dave - from Nehemiah - on God’s will for our lives.
Many kids shared great things God has been speaking to them. Be sure to ask your kids what God has showed and taught them this week. Don’t accept short answers. Maybe God wants to tell you something too. We will have our final night in Guatemala City and we will see you all at 7pm Sunday night.”
Danny did arrive safe and sound on Sunday night, tired but very happy that he had gone.
