Slaughtering and butchering cattle

Last Saturday we slaughtered and quartered some cows they had here on campus. Anyhow, you can see some pictures below.

Here we are quartering the cow to put it in the cooler

Enjoying the snow while it lasted -- and hanging out

Hope you enjoy pictures from our time enjoying the snow this last weekend. Classes have been good this week. Jada might have something the matter with her eye, she has "eye buggers" galore.

On Friday we are going to get some allergy testing in St. Louis on our way to North Carolina for Christmas.

The local radio station, Spirit FM did a food drive for the Missionary Training Center so we have been blessed with literally tons of food.

On Saturday I helped butcher cows, what a gross experience. Anyhow, I will post pictures when I get some back. I did not take any with my camera...but others did. I have a request out for some of the pictures. All for now!

James and Jada Preparing for their first tubing run. :)

As you can see it doesn't take much snow here to impress :)

Emmanuel and Elena both enjoyed eating some snow off of the picnic table

Jada sitting in Uncle Grady's lap and taking his cards during a game of settlers

James and Jada on their own personal "ski lift" back up the hill in front of our house. Emmanuel was kind enough to run down the hill and carry the tube back up for me since my arms were occupied.
James and Jada enjoying the snow
Emmanuel and Elena posing for a picture with on of our neighbors

Updates to our other site

This is a picture of the twins at the Westbrook Summer campout in 2006

So, I took some time and posted a brief note about our last day of phonetics for the semester. You can check it out at Phonetics

I will also include a random picture that has nothing to do with this post. :)

What's going on in class?

Oh to be so warm again. This is James with one of our neighbors when we were playing in the leaves

All of the toys the kids have....and we had a large empty box for about a week. It was a HIT with the kids

We just wrapped up a section on Husband and Wife relationships. We went through a video series called love and Respect. It was a great class!

This part of the semester we have been studying phonetics as well. This has been kind of interspersed with our other classes. We start again tommorow. This is not an official definition of phonetics, but as I understand it. It is a tool for learning other languages and there is a phonetic alphabet where each symbol makes only one sound...unlike english for example where the same letter can make different sounds depending on what word it is used in, or where it is used in the word. There are many sounds and skills that are used in other languages that we DO NOT use in english. unaspirated consonants at the beginning and end of words and fund stuff like that. So, we are doing mouth and speech aparatus gymnastics to try to make sounds we don't make in english. So we regularly embarass ourselves trying to mimic the sound the teacher is making and explaining to us. I intend to post a video I took in class of us mimicing our teacher. Pretty funny stuff.

Thanksgiving in Wisconsin etc

I should always add an etc to the end of my post title since I generally jump subjects several times during one post.

I have recently added a news article about classes to our NTM website and updated the prayer request section of our NTM site as well. Click here and you can click on pray for prayer requests, and news to see the article Jenny wrote.

We really enjoyed our time in Wisconsin. We were able to see so many people it is almost unbelievable. We had a pizza get together and were able to see many of our friends from Wisconsin that night. Jenny's sister Misty was able to stay with us for the weekend which was GREAT to have time with her. Lee and Lisa allowed us to stay in their home while we were in Wisconsin. It is such a blessing to stay somewhere that you feel TOTALLY at home!

We were able to share thanksgiving with Chris and Rebecca. The kids had great times together playing and hanging out. I even got to chop some firewood with Chris for old times sake. :) We did not get much sleep, but it sure was awesome to be able to spend time with and catch up with so many people. Casey and Jenny came over and we played settlers until all hours of the night...and even made a late night pizza run.

Jenny and Misty got to spend some time together shopping. :)

We are in the final weeks of our semester and are excited about spending Christmas break with Jenny's parents in North Carolina.


Family Christmas Picture we took

We got a chance to hang out with Doug and Sonch and the family which was totally awesome!


Elena, Hannah and Elena

Bugs in Missouri and other stuff

For more pictures visit http://www.ntm.org/jonathan_roundy and click on the photo link. I have uploaded a new album of photos called Family and friends from wisconsin. You can use the link on the right to get to our site with the pictures on it.

This is a scorpion that Jenny found in our house. It was kind of scary to find. I guess it has been a while since we were around a lot of bugs. In Venezuela we had scorpions, tarantulas, and all kinds of other criters. I guess it has been a while.

Classes are going well, it is hard to believe it is almost thanksgiving. We are still trying to figure out what our thanksgiving plans will be. We are just finishing up a class on cross-cultural communication. It is basically a class to help us understand what cultural baggage we have, how to enter another culture as a learner, and learning how to move into another culture. This is to help us as we move to other countries. It is also to help us understand the difference between culture and Biblical values. Sometimes it can be difficult for us to tell the difference.

We are also taking phonetics right now. This is to help us prepare for learning another language, making and hearing new sounds. We are in small groups and we embarass ourselves quite regularly trying to make some new sound. We have a great teacher who encourages us though, and helps us with the new sounds. We are also learning new...symbols I guess. Phonetics has a symbol for every sound so that you can write down whatever sounds you hear. This is helpful when learning a language that has no written form yet.

Outreach is going pretty well. I am really being stretched. It seems that each week I get quite nervous before going on outreach to the county jail. We go there and either teach a lesson in the library or go into the pods with the inmates and talk with them about life and about the Lord. It has been amazing to see God at work. I have been trying to email out prayer requests each week and report on how things went. Anyhow, it has been stretching and it has been awesome to see God really work out the details. Just this week I was able to hang out in the pods and talk with a guy by the name of David. God really seems to be at work in his heart. Please pray for him. I will not be back to the jail until the week after thanksgiving.

All for now

New heading picture on our blog!

We are so blessed to be receiving our missionary training here at the Missionary Training Center in missouri. It is such a beautiful campus. This photo was taken by one of the staff here at MTC. It is a view of our campus from the other side of the lake. Anyhow, enjoy the new heading on our blog, courtesy of Kirk.

Visit to HaHa Tonka State Park and Venezuelan Get Together!

Jenny and Jada at Haha Tonka State Park. Jenny is sporting her new hairstyle as of Friday. I think it looks great!







Venezolano get together...
We had a great time hanging out. This was the die hard crowd that stayed after most everyone had gone home and played Seafarer's of Catan. We had a great time! There were so many people at the get together. Alkires, Joe and Jackie Bruce, Ric and Sharon Bruce, Sam Bruce, it was held at Bob and Judy White's house, Bryson and Mindy White, Rebecca Huffman, Us of course, Millers, Kloths, Grady and John Burkhalter, Sarah...we had a nice crowd. We enjoyed Arepas...jenny and I found some apple soda at the store here that is kind of like manzaha Hit. Anyhow..enjoy the pictures!




The kids really enjoyed making funny faces for the camera. It was great to see Grady, John and Sarah! John's face reminds me so much of Jenny's dad, John Burkhalter

James and Jada enjoying their favorite part of the morning

Thought you would enjoy their favorite part of childcare. :) I am not sure if there is anyone in the world who enjoys eating more than they do. :)

We are so blessed with the childcare program here at school. The kids truely enjoy themselves and are excited about going to "class".

Normal, IL what a great time

Andrew and I looking our best :)

So...we had a great time in with our friends in Normal, IL. It was such a blessing to be able to catch up a little bit. Andrew and I have not seen each other for a long time, he was thinking maybe 12 years. However long, it has been a long time. It was great to talk about our times growing up in Venezuela, boarding school etc.

We were so welcomed in their home, there aren't to many things like stopping somewhere you have never been before and feeling totally at home! We had already eaten some dinner, but when we got there they had a spread prepared...so I couldn't say no...we enjoyed a second supper. Jada couldn't stop eating baked potatoe with green beans on it.

What a blessing to break our trip basically in half...it made it more like a vacation and less like a "road trip". On the way up we were even able to spend a little time at a rest area that had a play set for the kids to hang out.

Jenny and the Kids outside playing in our "rock box"

They have pea gravel here that is used in the kids parks and for putting between the flat stone to make patios and stuff. Anyhow, we realized that the sand really just gets everywhere on the kids...so we put pea gravel in instead. So...it isn't really a sandbox anymore. :)

Sickness continues to "plague" us. I, Jonathan, was sick over the weekend...not violently ill or anything...but sick none the less. When I got home from chapel this morning Elena vomitted...so unless she gets better by the end of the day we will need to stay home again tommorow. The kids are so cute, they are always asking when they are going to go back to class. We feel so blessed that they enjoy their class so much. :)

We went to Calvary Chapel again this weekend. It was a great time and we had opportunity to meet quite a number of people. We have found our church home. :) How awesome!! We are excited to continue to get to know more of the folks from Calvary Chapel and seek to be a blessing.

Classes, Field Fair, Health, So much to learn....

So..about the picture...it has nothing to do with my blog post...but she is cute isn't she?

So we are at the close of a great week here at the Missionary Training Center in Missouri. We had regular classes on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I am so overwhelmed with what I don't know and need to learn. We are only a few weeks into classes and my head is already spinning. I was actually quite anxious about it...but then the Lord was faithful to remind me that I can rest in Him to help me learn and do the work in my life that He wants to be done. I probably won't remember everything I am learning...but I have a MIGHTY, ALL POWER FUL, LOVING, MERCFUL, GRACIOUS......heavenly Father who will be with me all the way through the training....when we arrive on foreign soil...when I am afraid....when I am doubting. Pretty fun to just sit and think about actually.

Thursday and Friday were our Field Fair...an opportunity to hear what God is doing around the Globe and what some of the needs are on the fields represented. This year there were 16 fields represented. What an awesome time. Again this week we are wrestling with health issues. PRAISE the Lord sickness did not set in until mid morning on Friday! Elena is not feeling well and Jada is throwing up. Jada seems as happy and chipper as can be...but she sure isn't holding much down. Anyhow...thank you for praying for our health and please don't stop. We are grateful that this happened at the end of the week so we can recover on the weekend and hopefully be back in class on Monday.

What is God doing in Africa?

Jada with my Aunt Marilyn

We were so blessed this week to hear from some of the NTM leadership about what is going on in Africa. God is really doing some awesome stuff there...as I am confident He is in the rest of the world as well.

One of the main things that is exciting is to see how New Tribes is partnering with the African Church to reach Africa...rather than just going in to Africa, setting up shop and "doing our programs".

I am sitting here trying to think about how to write down what I experienced today hearing about the ministry in Africa...and I am at a loss. It may be because we have just started a composition class which is all about proper writing, communicating effectively, etc. Anyhow...maybe more on this topic later.

EMMANUEL'S BIRTHDAY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

We are so excited to be celebrating Emmanuel's 5th birthday today! What a blessing he is! Today at they childcare program they gave him a gift and had a balloon over his place in class. I thought that was pretty cool. These ladies are watching a TON of kids and yet they take the time to pay individual attention to kids on their birthdays.

Last night Jenny asked emmanuel what he wanted to eat for his special birthday meal, the first thing he said was PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY of course. Then with some more prodding he asked for tacos. So, you can see in the picture he is enjoying his birthday meal today at lunch. On saturday hopefully Grady will be here and emmanuel's cousin John to celebrate with a "real party". We will have tacos at that meal.

Never too late for a cute picture

So, when we were packing to move to Missouri, Jenny took a great picture of the kids in boxes....so...but I was too busy to or missed how cute the picture was to post it. So enjoy!



Today a staff family took us out on the lake, that was so much fun just to be out with the kids and with friends. We went out on a pontoon boat to some cliffs that you can jump off of. I didn't jump from very high, but we did have a good time just hanging out.

Tonight was staff open house, so we could go around and see the different staff families in their homes...so that was a fun time too. We played cities and nights last night with the Whites and Settlers of Catan tonight with the Kloth's.

Next week we have a seminar all week on World Views by George Walker. I am looking forward to the teaching.

I had better get off to bed, one of the major adjustments we are trying to make is getting to bed earlier and not staying up so late. So... off to bed I go.

Oreintation Tommorow

So, we are settled in, have had a good two weeks here getting to know the place, getting some routines in place with the kids, and our family is becoming comfortable with life as it has been for two weeks. Now, tommorow we make another move to upset the applecart. We are starting oreintation for classes and classes this week. We are excited and nervous all at the same time.

Also tommorow, we get our NTM email address. :) So that will be awesome. One of the staff couples invited us for lunch tommorow! Awesome, Awesome Awesome! It will be our first day of classes and we will normally be taking care of lunch ourselves for the family, but what an utter blessing to NOT have to worry about that our first day of class.

On Saturday the kids got to see their classrooms and meet the childcare staff.

This last weekend Jenny's parents were here visiting from North Carolina, it was so awesome to see them and for the kids to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa. We went to the lake a few times swimming together.



Jenny's brother was here to and their cousin John. The kids really love their Uncle Grady. It wasn't an uncommon site to see Grady on the floor with all if not most of the kids piled on top of him. I tried to catch it on camera, but off course that didn't work out. I will post a few pictures from the weekend though.



We visited Calvary Chapel again today and the message was really thought provoking. We are still going to look for an African American Church in the area, but who knows what the Lord has planned.

Jenny has been working feverishly to get our pictures and decorations on the walls and has really turned our new "house" into a HOME. Elena has been thanking the Lord each day in her prayers for our new house. It is such a blessing for us to see our children settling in and feeling comfortable. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS!

New Neighbors

This week is the week when most of the students arrive for the next semester. Everyone in our building is moved in...and in the proccess of getting settled. Our building has one staff family and there are three student families in our building. We are all here for our first semester in this building. The staff family that lives here has worked really hard to make the outside look nice. They have been building so many buildings and doing so much construction that growing grass is no small task. We have a nice lawn out front that has to be watered regularly to keep it alive. I guess they had to plant it more than once for it to take hold. We have beautiful flowers between the sidewalk and the building and of course, as I have mentioned the accomodations inside are just amazing.

Since we have been here for a little bit, Jenny has been blessing our neighbors with some of her good cooking while they are getting settled in. All of the families in our building have young children, so that is fun. We have a really nice playground down the hill from our house as well. :)

We have truely been overwhelmed with the welcome we have felt as a family from the staff and our fellow students. A number of missionaries who have served in Venezuela and are now working here have stopped by to say hello, and it has been wonderful to catch up with them. Tonight we went for dinner to Bob and Judy White's house. Their daughter Cora and her husband and 2 children, who I went to Bible School with and their Son Bryson and his wife Mindy and their 4 children were there. So we had 10 children 5 years old and under. Great time hanging out and connecting.

This weekend Jenny's parents come to hang out with us and see our new digs. So that is awesome.

We kind of have a routine in place at this point, but we don't know exactly how it will need to change when classes start. I am sure that the Lord has that detail ironed out.

Thank you so much for your prayers, there is no way we could do this alone!

Pictures of our new place

Here are some pictures to show what he downstairs of our new place looks like. Jenny has done such and awesome job of organizing our new household. Can you believe how nice this place is?

Today we visited Calvary Chapel Lake of the Ozarks. It felt kind of wierd to be looking for a Church to attend. Some of the other new students are starting to show up. It has been fun meeting new people. I also found out that my campus ministry will be working with the IT (Computer group)...which I am sure you guessed I am excited about. We had Grant and his wife and three children over to play games last night. They have 3 month old twin girls and a 3 year old daughter. It was cool just to hang out. They were the ones that told us about Calvary Chapel.

Another cool connection that happened today was that at church I ran into a staff family from the missionary training center, the Parkers, and she shared with me that they came on a short term missions trip to the Tribal village that I grew up in when I was a little boy. Talk about a small world. We have felt so welcomed by the other students and staff, it has been great! Well, enough of my rambling. :)

This is an attempt at a 360 degree view of the downstairs.


Living Room and part of dining room



Dining room and Kitchen



The other side of the kitchen, dining, and living room area

Arrived in Missouri 11:30 P.M. August 6th

We had some time on Saturday to go the State Fair with Misty... We had such a nice time. The State Fair has been kind of a tradition for us for the last few years of our time in Wisconsin. We didn't realize until Saturday that we would have time to make it to the Fair. Nice to spend time with Misty before moving away.



Elena, Emmanuel, James and Jada received REALLY nice gifts from our Church. The children's ministry made our family their project for the summer. The put together backpacks full of nice stuff for the kids to help them adjust to our new home, Sheets of their favorite characters etc. It was such a blessing and has really been fun for the kids as you can see all over Elena's Face.



This is a picture of Jenny and James in our main living area in our new place. As you can see we have our work cut out for us. Actually now that I am finally posting this picture at the end of the day, Jenny has made major progress in the kitchen, dining, living room area. She figured it would be best to get those areas cleared out first.



This is a picture of James having his first breakfast at our new house here in Missouri. He was so cute sitting in his chair under the island in the kitchen just chowing down on cheerios. :)

The staff here are so freindly. A few have stopped by to see how we are doing, make sure we have food and all of that stuff. We are invited out for Lunch tommorow already. :) That should be fun. It is a family we actually knew from Venezuela who are on staff here in Missouri starting this year.

The kids and I walked down by the lake already, saw the childcare building...from the outside...and checked out some of the playgrounds. The campus is pretty large.

Please pray for us as we continue to work on getting settled in. It is a bit challenging working on hanging out with our kids as well as trying to get unpacked and all of that good stuff. Thank you so much for your prayers.

Moved to Missouri

The moving Truck in front of what our kids refer to as our "blue house"

There really isn't a significant amount of blue on our house, but that is still how they refer to it. On Monday we did the final cleaning and had our final walk through. We took the older two through the house and had them say goodbye to each room as we walked through them with our Land Lord. It was excited to have the "cleaning" task completed, but kind of sad and final to move from our awesome house.

On Thursday night we went to a camp out that Doug and Sonch hosted for the youth homegroup that we were invovled in last year. Friday morning they came over to the house to help us again with loading the truck and getting started on cleaning out the house. On Monday Jenny V and Misty came over and helped us with our final cleaning, it was so nice to have them there to help us complete the task.

Today my replacement at work started, so I was working on training her today, and will probably be working on that for the rest of my time as an employee of Watertornics.

God has been so gracious to us to put so many people around us who are willing to lend a hand, loan us things, drive to Missouri with us and help us unload....and on and on!

Well enought ramblings for now.