Churches, Pirates, Pentecostals & Rattlesnakes

Lelilani Avril turned two years old this month! Lolo & Lola brought a shiny red Radio Flyer tricycle.

Life has been busy and fun these last several weeks… although I must confess that I have really missed writing here in my blog.  My schedule has kept me away, as I have traveled nearly 5,000 miles since my last post–working hard to put together my leadership teams in all four corners of the state for this great church planting effort I am directing over the next year.  I am more than halfway finished with mobilizing nearly 300 very accomplished and experienced leaders, who have already been a great joy to work with.  Joyce and the kids have been able to join me a bit in my travels–which is always especially fun, and never boring…

We call Rhys our "little engineer"... You can often find him in his room around midnight, out of bed, building cities.

Most recently the whole crew came with me from the mountains to the peninsula to the capital and back again–for my three meetings and an overnight, all within less than 24 hours.  Of course, Joyce always gets resourceful on these trips, and finds numerous Craig’s List sellers with essential family items.  We came home 48 hours ago with a car full of baby gates, pirate ships, and some other odds and ends–all paid for in cash, garnered from neighborhoods up and down Interstate 64 through this great cyber-yard-sale called Craig’s List.  I think our home is mostly furnished by Craig–whoever he is.

"Daddy's home!!!" - one of my favorite moments of the day.

Meanwhile, along with the three munchkin Norpinos in the back of the SUV, the fourth one is quickly filling up the space in the front seat with Mama.  Today marks 31 weeks in the womb (according to the docs–but what do they know? i’m pretty sure we’re around 33+ weeks), and Joyce is definitely feeling it.  By this time–four births in five years–she is quite an expert at this pregnancy thing, and she is doing wonderfully.  For comfort, we’re thrilled to have a chiropractor covered by insurance, and the prenatal chiropractor specialist just down the street has quickly become a best friend.  According to the 31-week-writeup I get in my email, lil’ Emma Jayne is now nearly 3.5 pounds–equivalent to four navel oranges (these authors have not seen the awesome oranges that grace a Schoonmaker kitchen!).  Emma is moving a WHOLE LOT, putting on a show every time Joyce and I sit down to catch up on Jed Bartlett’s life during our evening West Wing marathons (love that series!).

Dr. George Wood, General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God, stopped to chat with me at my exhibit in Orlando, earlier this summer.

Education matters also punctuate the landscape of our lives these days.  Summer session in the doctoral program ended yesterday for Daddy, and with it my class, “Prophetic Leadership and Redemptive Focus.”  In 48 hours, the Fall semester begins, and I am enrolled full time in “Vision, Mobilization and Management.”  I was so honored to hear a couple of weeks ago that I was again awarded a very generous scholarship for this year–a real answer to prayer for us.  I was also excited to hear that I was invited to come and teach in the Potomac School of Ministry for the 2009-2010 school year.  I am so pleased to contribute there–as the mission is something I really believe in; I will be teaching these aspiring Assemblies of God ministers in the area of Pentecostal Doctrine.  I’m also going to be teaching for three months, come Autumn, for the United Methodist Church in 20 workshops across the state, training thousands of pastors and leaders in the area of church finance.  During the holidays and in the spring, I have been asked to conduct a series of classes–one series in Charlottesville, and one seminar weekend in Virginia Beach–that focuses on families and parenting, specifically for parents of adolescents.  These seminars and classes aim to help equip the parent or leader that asks, “How can I keep my kids on track with the Lord, even after they leave home?”

Lukas's Naptime Creation: Taking my Incan chess/checkers set, he created this scene of the lost getting saved, as Jesus took off their "burdens" (black checkers to left). No kidding!

Much more interesting than my educational stuff, however, is the first year of my oldest son’s ventures into the academy!  Lukas Connor, our four-year-old, begins his first year of classical education–just two days from now (read a great article on classical education by Dr. Bauer of The College of William & Mary, and another write-up by Dr. Peter Kreeft at Boston College).  We’re really pleased to be joining dozens of other friends here in Charlottesville for the new school year in this marvelous, ancient classroom approach.  Lukas reports to class at 9am on Monday morning, a convenient 10 miles from our house, where he will meet his classmates, spend his first hours with his tutor, and begin his journey!  He is responsible to deliver his first public speaking performance on Monday morning, a three-minute speech that he has been working on with Joyce.  Throughout the Fall, he will be focused on nine subject areas: Language Arts, Mathematics, History, Geography, Science, Latin, Religion, Art, and Music.

That's Benjamin Rhys, who has a love/hate relationship with the "TickleBug."

It’s hard to believe that my little boy is almost five already.  Along with this rite of passage of entering school, he also turns five in less than a month.  He and I have been talking for nearly a year about our Daddy-Son camping trip that we will be taking into the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Luke and I will be overnight together in a tent somewhere in the Shenandoah (probably up on Powell or Lewis Mountain) on his fifth birthday, and he is so excited–pretty convinced that we’ll need guns to fend off the black bears and rattlers (of course, he is right–both do exist up there!).  He also keeps mentioning the bow and arrow, and knives, that we need to bring with us for some sort of conquest.

Lolo & Lola with Leilani Avril on her 2nd birthday (Dover-Foxcroft Farmhouse, Charlottesville, Va.).

Well, there’s lots more to say… I’ll save it for another time.  Would love to hear from any of my readers, to hear the update in your world.  We miss all of you in Virginia Beach, Williamsburg, Alaska, Kansas City, Cape Cod, Missouri, and all over.  So glad we’ve had so many cousins and friends move into the general mid-Atlantic area as of late… Welcome, Shane & Bree, Paul & Ashley, Heather & Spencer, Myson & Megan, Ben & Sarah!  Hope to see you all soon!

Our little girl is officially a toddler--where did time go? (Dover-Foxcroft Farmhouse, Charlottesville, Va.)

~ by Adrian Schoonmaker on August 22, 2009.