How toTurn a Plain White Bath Towel into a Swan for Your Bathroom

We are staying at a beautiful resort at Cayo Coco.

Our room has a spacious balcony looking out to the resort.

In the morning right after breakfast, we headed out to the beach.

After swimming in the ocean, I came back to my room to change from my swim suit into something dry.

The cleaning lady was cleaning our room at the time.

I saw a beautiful towel shaped into the form of a swan sitting on the bathroom counter.

I always wanted to learn how to do this.

I asked the cleaning lady to show me how she did her magic with the towel.

She was glad to show me.
1. First she took a bath towel and held it at the mid point
2.  Then she took each side of the towel and rolled the towel inward towards the middle point.

3. She twisted the towel into two long strands.

4. She then put the rolled towel on the counter with the wider ends sitting down.





5. She bent the upper slimmer end into the shape of a swan.

6. Voila! A white swam was made!






The cleaning lady made it look so easy to turn a bath towel into a swam.  I loved it!

I will practise this at home and decorate my bathroom with some beautiful towel swans!






I loved it! I need to practise folding so that I could turn a plain white bath towel into a beautiful swan!

R.T.
Cayo Coco
Cuba

Creating Fond Memories with My Best Friend in Cayo Coco

Main lobby of the our resort in Cayo Coco

This Cuban holiday has been a new experience as there were a few first for me.

The resort where we are staying is spacious peaceful and beautiful!

Cuba is famous for its spectacular beaches!

First, I am not a sun worshiper therefore it is very unusual of me to spend a sun and sand holiday in a tropical country.

A beautiful  beach at  Cayo Coco, Cuba

Secondly, I always enjoy doing our own things with my husband who is interested in cultures, people and activity based holidays.








We always plan our own itinerary and try to learn about the country/ city we are visiting,

But this time, Lillian and I have spent a fair amount of time at the resort and laying around on the beach,

Lillian loves swimming in the ocean.

Lillian enjoys swimming in the ocean whereas I feel more comfortable in a swimming pool.

She persuaded me successfully this time to try swimming in the warm water of the Caribbean Ocean!

At 30 plus degrees, the Cuban ocean water was warm like bath water!

The water was warm,  just like bath tub water. The sand was soft to the touch caressing the bottom of my tired feet.

It was my first time swimming in the ocean!

Best of all, the water near the beach was shallow for a big area therefore we could wade out to the ocean for a fairly long distance; it was only waist deep.

What a great feeling it was swimming in the warm ocean water!

Lillian and I have a lot of fun together!

 
Lillian,  my best friend, has recounted to me many times about her childhood experience of spending time in the Adriatic Sea.

I started to understand what she was talking about and appreciate her fond memories about her childhood experience in Europe.

Enjoying a Cuban holiday with my best friend!

Spending time with my girl friend on a holiday was just as fun as vacationing with my family.

This is my first time on a holiday with a girl friend, and I like it!
 
R.T.
Cayo Coco
Cuba

A Short 3 Day Holiday at Cayo Coco, Cuba

I took a trip at the last minute with my friend via sunwing holiday

We went to Cuba for the first time last January and we fell in love with the people, the climate and the country.

Toronto - view from the sky

When my girl friend suggested that we should get away for a three day holiday for some relaxation time. I accepted it without a moment of hesitation. I was with a Sun Wing holiday before and I liked it.

On our way to a Cuban holiday!

It is unusual for me to go on a holiday for just a few days with such little planning. But what the heck! Carpe diem, seize the moment. So off we went!

My husband dropped me off at the Yorkmills Subway and in no time I got to Lillian's place. Together we took the Airport Express at Union Station for $12.00 and arrived at the Pearson Airport in 20 minutes!

Spectacular scenery above the clouds enroute to Cuba

We will have some girls time together for this week in Cuba

The flight to Cayo Coco took only three hours and fifteen minutes. We arrived at our hotel at 9:30pm and even made it to dinner. How about that!

The front garden of our hotel in Cayo Coco, Cuba

One of the guest units at the Memories Caribe Resort, Cayo Coco, Cuba

Lillian and I talked until 3a.m. in the morning for our first night spending a holiday
together.

We look forward to relaxing for the next few days on a beach at a beautiful Cuban resort at Cayo Coco!

R.T
Cayo Coco
Cuba

Bible Story Skits - A Hit with Children at VBS

August, 2017




Though I wanted to spend as much time with J. as possible while he was home for his holiday, we had to leave for Waterloo to run the leadership training and the kids' summer camp.

We had 14 youth leaders this year helping with VBS camp for kids

The youth leadership camp was for two days only this year. I prepared most of the materials for the participants who were number fourteen strong this year. After 2 days, I felt tired and hated the thought of leaving J. at home.

But as we opened the camp the following week, I was energized by the two dozen more so children.

The third generation of our youth leaders are rising up fast!

We have been running this summer camp for a number of years; the children have returned year after year!!!










 Little three year old Angela is ten years old this year and she asked me when she would be her turn to become a leader!

It's important to have well structured free time for campers at VBS.

As past years, we did many different activities each day.

We started with Learning Centre activities in the small classroom, followed by singing in the sanctuary.

Our VBS was held at the World Outreach Ministries site

We did our games and sports in the morning after singing when the temperatures were milder.

Presenting bible stories in skits were well received by campers in our VBS

A short break followed and it was bible story time presented to the children in a drama style by the youth leaders. The concepts of the bible story being reinforced in a craft activity right after.

A guessing game was popular with kids.

After lunch, the children had a theme lesson. Since this is Canada's 150, we used the theme Canada 150.

 The leaders divided themselves and presented a different region of Canada each day to the children who evidently enjoyed learning about something unique of each province.

I did a mini survey with the children and asked them which activity they enjoyed the most. To my surprise, most said the bible story time.

After learning about this, the leaders really took their task seriously and worked hard on preparing and rehearsing their bible skits.








 We took the stories from 1 Samuel and the children learned about David's forgiveness of Saul.

Face painting was popular with kids too!

The vacation bible school concluded with a fun fair on Friday.

Parents were invited to our VBS Sunday Service

The Sunday after our VBS camp is always a special program held on that day designated as a VBS Sunday.

We invited parents of the children to  come and did a VBS presentation for them.

It was nice to see a good turn out of parents! Praise God for another successful and safe VBS camp!

R.T.
Director
VBS
Waterloo, Ontario
Canada

Celebrating with Family Together for a Milestone Birthday

My beloved celebrated his milestone birthday recently.

My husband celebrated his milestone birthday in the first week of August.


Our grown children made a special effort to come home and celebrated his birthday at the end of July.







However, my husband is a low key person; he didn't want any big party nor bring any attention to himself.

All he wanted was our immediate family together to have a nice dinner to mark this special birthday.

So we had a small, intimate family dinner in a Markham restaurant recommended by my brother.

The last time our family got together was the Christmas of 2013. So our time spent together was very precious to us.

The Rex is always a favorite place for us.

After dinner, we went to my husband's favourite place for a drink and some jazz music in downtown Toronto.

Some father and son time together!

J. arrived home a few days before we came back from our trip to China. Though we had planned to spend an extra two weeks to do some sightseeing overseas, we changed our plan at the last minute due to J.'s sudden change in his schedule. I was glad that by the time we got home, he got quite a bit done for what he wanted to do in Toronto.

J. and his childhood friend at home for dinner

E. attended Stephen' W.\s wedding and was busy for a couple of days. It was so good having him home for a few days and J. home for a couple of weeks so that I could make them some healthy homemade good food.


J. was anxious to see his friends and cousins and he asked me if we could arrange some dinner parties and invited them. I did.

J. invited his friends home for a poker game at home.

So, Doug, Don and Florence came for one dinner, followed by Fred, Deb and Ben. Our last dinner party was for J's young cousins.

J. even invited his old university pals for a poker game. The house was filled with young people and laughter.




It was like when the kids were in their teens again! We just love having our grown children around.
Distance makes the hearts grow fonder! Rosie commented that J. is more mature and happier. Praise God for His blessings on our children!

R.T.
A Happy & blessed Mom
Toronto

My First Experience Being on the Seat of Encouragement

View from our Nanning Hotel

We were back to Nanning and it was good to spend a couple of days after our intensive two week teaching assignment in Guangxi,


Esther introduced a meaningful activity on the second day of our stay in Nanning . It was called the Seat of Encouragement.
All the members met with their own team and focus on one team member at a time and share with his/ her what they thought about that person.

Our team members in Nanning, China.

Esther started by passing an object to the person was the next person to be spoken about. After this person received all the positive feedback, he/ she would pass the object to the next person and the whole process started again.

Some of my other team members

For example, when it was my turn on the Seat of Encouragement, every member on my team spoke about my strengths and what they appreciated of me most during our two weeks experience.















It was quite a change to hear such positive comments from everybody. Instead of being on the receiving end of getting complaints from others, we were getting praises and some very positive feedback from team members.

It was such a different and uplifting experience.
We loved being on the Seat of Encouragement!

R.T.
Nanning, China