Hi
Just letting you know that Evangeline Charlotte Clare arrived on the 15th March. She weighed 7lbs 6ozs (3300grams).
Jacqueline and Evie came home early from Hospital and since last Monday we have been trying to adjust to another little person in the house... (ongoing)
Please pray for us as we continue to settle back into Melbourne and life here in Australia (we are finding it really hard), as Jacqueline battles hormones and lost of sleep.... This pass week two of children have suffered from nasty virus' ... please pray for healing and protection for the other children who have not been sick yet and recovery for the ones that are still not 100%.
Thanks always for your prayers and support.
The Jenyns
Hi there...
We really need need to write to you all and let you know how we are, what happened in the last few days in Bangladesh, where we are living and how the children are....
However because the kids are just about to come home any minute I'll let you know that;
Our new address is 62 Gardiner St Berwick 3806 (email address is the same) mobile number is 0400288138.
We have settled well into a beautiful home with a great backyard (including pesky possums) and the kids are doing so well in school settling in. They have all made new friends and started their support work in the context of their classrooms. Their are times where the kids have had tears about Grace and what they have left behind, but on the whole they are doing very well and I am so proud of them all.
Anthony and I are battling on, we haven't had much time to reflect or process our departure in Bangladesh due to unpacking our home, getting kids into school and other family issues... so their are times of heighten stress and emotion during a day where things do get a bit too much and we don't have the resilience to cope.
Our last few days were quiet stressful In Dhaka. As I sit here, it seems such a long time ago. I was recovering from asthma and there was a chance that our health insurance wasn't going to let me fly on the booked day. However we were able to leave on the 22nd as planed, but it was certainly a rushed departure. The last 24hrs we had the Symbiosis truck arrived and load all the furniture and household goods to take them to the new training centre. Right before our eyes we saw our home of four years dismantled and emptied. It was traumatic to say the least. The plan was that the truck was to come after we left...... our home the morning we left at 7am was swarming with people loading a second load, at the same time that we were trying to get out the door. In the end, Anthony and I didn't close the door reflectively but in "quick jump in the car we'll running late"!!!!!
We had a chance to say some goodbyes in the last week to our national staff, but it was no way what we had hoped and planned. Because I had got sick we couldn't go to Mymemsingh and our goodbyes were done over the phone. We are still quite disappointed about this.
Now, the car has pulled in and the kids are climbing out of the car... better go, will chat soon.
blessings
jacqueline and Anthony
Well, we had so many intentions in how to finish here in Bangladesh and in some ways we have been able to achieve these plans, however sometimes you just get thrown a curve ball which changes plans.
A little while a go we thought we had two weeks to get through the list. we had a farewell dinner with the teachers, met up friends for dinner, pack... and slowly the list was being ticked off.... and then we were planning to see some more friends, be at the school for the the last day of assembly, go to Mymemsingh to see Anthony's staff and say goodbye.... but these things never happened. Last Tuesday night I suffer a severe Asthma attack which left me in the ICU and hospital for four days. It has been really disappointing to not have some important closure on two of the most prominent parts of life here - Grace International School and and the work done in rural in Bangladesh. As you can imagine all of sudden we have under a week (now just two days) to get so much done... we almost feel out of control!!!!
We have really valued those that have prayed for us over the past week knowing what was happening with my health, however can I ask that you continue to pray for each member of the family. Especially Anthony and Emmie as they are struggling with severe colds (Emmie asthma). I am improving but still struggling with energy.
As we move so close to the departure gate, we just want to mention the support of our team members in country and the privileged that it has been to work with them . Also it has been a wonderful opportunity and honor to work along side the Bangladeshi staff. Though what we see and know here in Bangladesh (extreme poverty) has been hard to deal with (compared to the developed world), we have been encouraged by the advancements of people that we have been working with and their daily situation. You too can be please to know that with your partnership this has been achieved.
We have learnt so much as family and it will always be a favorite (though challenging) chapter in our family history.
Anthony and I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas and we'll be in contact with you via this page in the New Year.
Here is our New Postal Address: 62 Gardiner St Berwick 3806,
As you may have read in the previous entry, that Ant had one more training session..... well....... he has added some more things to the list like another 2 training sessions, fitting a new oxygen system to the fisheries truck, and spending more time with the trainers + a meeting with head of Aus Aid in Bangladesh all in this week and then..... he says he will be winding up!!!!
Please pray that this week goes well and that Anthony can move through all the work that needs completing for him to feel a sense of finish and completion!!!!
Also that as we start our goodbyes (just over three weeks until we leave) that we can work through the ups and downs of the departure from Bangladesh. It is isn't easy as the friends and community are like our family and the chances are that we won't see most of these people again and that is heavy going.
Can we ask that you pray for our initial time home (first few days/weeks and then months) that we will manage emotions, enjoy being home and work through constructively the grief of leaving Bangladesh a place where we have called home for over 4 years.
We so appreciate your support and prayers and we'll update this page just before we leave.
Blessings... Ant and Jac
Do you ever get the feeling that life is being wound up faster than you can keep up with? it A little while ago Anthony and I had a quite few months until we left Bangladesh and started the process of sorting, throwing, and packing our house up.
This Sunday a shipping company is coming to collect or 3 cubic meters. It has been quite involved to get all those 10 boxes packed and to decide what to take home and what to leave or give away. It also has been interesting and at times intense as we sought for all the paper work to allow our goods to leave the country. It certainly isn't straightforward and the whole process has quite a few conditions that we weren't aware of until we started the packing and dealings with the agents. However we are nearly there and after Sunday our goods will be sailing on a container ship inside a plywood box!!! Please pray that the whole process- the pick up from our home, the transport to Chittagong the sea port in BNG, the trip on the boat and arrival in Melbourne and customs(and the delivery to our new home) will go smoothly and that we will see it all arrive safely. I know that it is only worldly stuff, but sometimes there is an attachment and sense of home that comes with our "worldly belongings".
One other thing that is making time fly is that Anthony and I are dealing with life and work here in Bangladesh as well as preparing certain things for our new start in Australia. It is difficult at times, to deal with both as we certainly feeling a sense of grief at leaving and place where we have called home.
Anthony's work program is certainly now starting to wind down. He has only one more training day to finish and to spend time with the Bangladeshi trainers to make sure that they feel confident and have a clear idea on the training material. Anthony over the past few weeks has done quite a few cricket matches in the local area where he has been working (Gazipur). They would love a lot more matches/tournaments however there isn't much time left (just 5 weeks).
This month we have had my Dad out for a two week visit. It has been great to have him here and I would say that his time has been varied (with Eid festival, helping with live stock training, cricket tournaments, watching dance recitals, packing boxes for me etc). We really loved having him and the kids even though they will see him in a few weeks time were quite teary and flat once he left.
I think that is all for now... talk soon Jac and Ant
We are endeavoring in-spite how busy it is at the moment to keep this bog site up to date. Anthony and I are finding ourselves very much in between places- still living in Dhaka(working, running a house, doing therapy with the kids) and living each day and making preparations for next year.
We have just on eight weeks until we leave and so much is happening. Anthony is working on finishing training for the Prawn students and completing some major units with the second batch of fisheries students and also In the next two weeks with help of my father (who is coming to visit) will run vegetable and livestock training. In the next four weeks we will have had all our personal belonging packed and sent to Melbourne via a freight company... and have sorted through four years of living here. I have found that despite where you are when it comes to down sizing your belongings it is always painful and hard decisions have to be made. Next week we will have a table at Grace International school community sale and hopefully sell quite a bit of stuff. Like our garage sale in Kerang before we left in 2007, a lot of these items would not have been sold if we weren't moving. So I'll brace myself and say "its only stuff"!!!!!!!
One wonderful answer to prayer is that we have found a house in Berwick, close to the school and kids activities. What's even more exciting is that we have dreamed of having a backyard for so long and this property has a large yard!!! Isabelle is already dreaming of what to call her rabbit, Sammy and Reuben are talking about cricket and football matches and Lucy wants a cubby (we will have to see?/?!!!)
Thanks for looking at our site, and remembering us in your prayers. We'll keep you posted on the training and other developments. Blessings Ant and Jac
Hi everyone, sorry about the long gap in communication this past month. It has been crazy busy but productive. We have managed to squeeze another engine rebuild in before we go home and that went well but again required alot of investigating before settling on the best work shop for the job. I was frustrated by the fact that the vehicle damaged was our newest addition to the mission fleet, but as we found out later, the modern electronic management systems on these diesel engines are not doing well in the harsh Bengali environment. With poor quality oil and diesel only available its not a matter of if but when we rebuild our diesel engines. I am looking forward to Mr Barnden coming as our fleet manager, he has a wealth of mechanical knowledge and the experience in Bangladesh to keep our fleet sweet.
Training has been a field that we ploughed heavily this month, with new students being registered and handing over the heavy in country admin to the training team at the SRMC office. We are excited as this week we begin training in the new centre in Mymensingh with the cert 1 folk starting their theory sessions and intro, We have also another 7 students doing cert 1 with prawn training as well which began at the begining of June 2011 and will pick up again at the prawn site this Wednesday 5/10/11. It has been a real honour to train the young Bengali students and watch them develop exsisting skills and gain new skills in competency based fisheries/ prawns training.
The prawns that we so amazingly spawned and hatched back in May/ June 2011 unfortunately died only 12 days from the target set. Mr Alamin and I were very down about the end result but were quickly encouraged by our team leader Dr Morris Lee who was pleased that we still reached 4 of the 5 project targets that he set;
# We actually built a prawn hatchery from scratch using local materials and a hatching system that the local people understood.
# We maintained breeding prawns in the hatchery with out loss using minimal electricity.
# We managed by the grace of God to develop the prawn eggs for 8 days using very simple methods
# We then as a team managed to spawn the eggs and keep the baby prawns alive for 20 of the 32 days required in the trial.
# Unfortunately the baby prawns died at day 20 and we fell short of the target, but the training environment was super for the village folk and our cert 1 students.
However it is our hope that the initial research and effort by our RIGP team will enable future production of prawns by our fisheries program and our project group members, I just want to thank those people and communities that supported this research and Im very confident that many people will be blessed by the foundation work you kindly invested in, particularly the rural poor of Bangladesh. TAKE CARE AND GOD BLESS, anthony jenyns and tribe.
Sometimes when you start out on a journey you have no idea what you might expect along the way. These surprises can be either struggles and hardships or they can be unexpected joys and delights. Such a Journey that Anthony and I have been on these past four years has certainly contain both types of "surprises'. As we start the process of leaving we are reflecting on aspects of our time here. At times we are overwhelmed with the sense of 'finish' and the finale of our time here and have a real sense of "grief" of a season which is finished and there are other times where we try to convince ourselves that a new season is coming (return to Australia) and we should look forward to it. We also are looking back and feel humbled at the work that has been completed in partnership with the local staff, and so many people experiencing (ripple affect) a more sustainable way to produce fish/income for their families/communities
Early last week we told the children that we will be leaving Bangladesh. Some of the children this was not what they wanted to hear. For others as they have thought about it, they have expressed varying emotions. Grace International is one aspect that the children (Ant and I ) will miss so much, please pray for the children as Grace is the only school(so far) that they have known and where they have been loved and celebrated as unique and special kids.
Anthony is doing OK, but busy preparing material for the second group of students and preparing training material for prawn production. He has been home each night, which we are all lapping up!!! What a treat!!!!
Thanks for looking our blog site, the journey is nearly over and we have been so thankful for your prayers and interest in us a family. Blessings Jacqueline
HI all
just a quick note to share the below links to short clips of the Prawn hatchery and the training that happened late June.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tMtSPD6Fqs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNTx9D7Uq34&feat...
We have been back for a week and it seems like we have been here for ages... the time has gone so slowly... the kids are now back at school and finally we are getting reasonable sleep after adjusting to the time change (the kids aren't getting up at 2am!!- now it is 5.30am which is much better!!!) The kids have started the new school year really well, its the most normal and stable part of our existence here.. and one that the kids really need and so do we as parents!!.
Thanks for remembering Anthony and I, as we have a few issues(working through deep tiredness, transition in finishing here in a few months, and altered work requirements ect) to contend with in and also with new developments regarding the learning difficulties of our children.
Any way, we'll catch up some more later on... enjoy the clips
Ant and Jac
Location: Melbourne
What a ride, we had a much needed rest in Thailand and now Australia. The children have had very intensive testing and therapy especially our Samson. We have been very thankful for the Speech Pathologists who have made themselves available over a short time here in Australia, it is busy and at times hard but the kids especially Samson are responding very well to the programs used in Australia and Bangladesh.
Jac and I have had time with GIA preparing our last 5 months and some much needed council on how to finish the work well. As our team tell us God took you out and he can bring you home. It has been an up and down time as we introduced a crawling Emerald to Grandparents and said good bye to our boss Mark Holt who moved to Indonesia this month. We are now preparing to return and finish in Bangladesh and this has produced a melting pot of emotions, as Jac and I begin to consider the next 5 months and life in Australia ahead.
Bangladesh has been a time of contribution but above all a time of service and in that some very sharp learning curves. We have seen already how that has shaped us and we will carry this experience with us into the new chapters ahead. Thank you so much for upholding us during the busy months of May & June 2011 as we pushed through and had a great break in Thailand.
God Bless Big Ant
