Today was a great day! I started the day off by helping to get the kids up and ready for school - packing their bags, making their breakfast, helping to get them dressed, etc. Then Jonny and I prayed for Mommy, Nate & Aliana - that they would have a good day at school, be good, healthy, etc.
Jonny and I walked to the bus stop, caught a bus downtown, walked to the DHL office and mailed our tax return off to the US. It had been done electronically, but the return never came. We started calling, checking, asking questions and found out that there had been an error on our return and it was rejected - but no one ever was told. Soooooo frustrating! We had been waiting and waiting for that money. We really need the money. We found out that it was now too late to e-file over again. We are in a jam. God knows and will work it out.
So, we got the return fixed, printed out and signed. Today we shot it off to the US as fast as we can. They will process it and then snail mail a paper check to my mother-in-law. She will eventually find it in our mail and deposit it for us. It could take a couple of months, but at least we know and have dealt with it now. It will be great to have it.
Also, Heather worked long and hard on processing a bunch of backlogged medical reimbursement receipts. She got that all finished today, I got them all photocopied and stapled together, and packaged up. Tomorrow they will go in the mail. That will be some more money in our pocket - eventually. Good to know that it is coming.
I also lost my wallet last week. I have been searching high and low for it, retracing my steps, talking to everyone about it, turned the house upside down looking for it, etc. but could not find it. I monitored all of my credit accounts and no weird activity was going on, so I was not too worried. Today though, I finally had time to call all the financial institutions to cancel those cards and issue new ones. It will be a pain to live without them for a time, but at least it is in motion now. It will be great to have that all wrapped up.
And the biggest victory of all - we had no idea how we were going to pay for repairs to the engine on our STL SUV - so we had looked at all the options we knew of, prayed and fasted, and at the urging of our awesome Area Directors, we carefully filled out some on line forms and wrote some e-mails to the powers that be in order to find some funds. I sent them on Sunday night in order to have them waiting for people when they arrived in the office Monday morning. I was wanting to speed the process along as best as I could, but I had no idea that I would hear back to fast. I got e-mails back first thing in the morning! And they were positive. : )
Turns out that STL already had money set aside for repairs to the vehicle. None of us knew about it, but it was there! So, the funds are already in process. We should have them in a day or 2. I texted the mechanic to let them know to go ahead with the repairs. I can't tell you how jacked up I was!
There were lots of other things packed into the day, but over all, it was a day of great news, great victories, and great amounts of work getting done.
Well, tomorrow is another day and there is a ton of work yet to be done.
I have to get to sleep now.
Peace and happiness everyone -
Good night!
Monday, December 5, 2011
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Important E-Requests
Today was a good day. A long day, but a good day. Poor Heather, she got bit on the foot by some sort of ant and two of her toes are all sworn up. She is great pain whenever she tries to walk. So, I stayed home today and tried to clean up the house, take care of the kids, and spend quality time with her. I took Jonny out for a short walk to the corner store to buy some soda to have a little fun at lunch. (I really needed a Pepsi. The kids love to "need" some too. : )
There was one really important job I needed to get finished before the work week started. I had to e-mail in a special request to Speed-The-Light, my Area Director, & my District Youth Director for help with funds to repair our STL SUV. It is not an easy thing for me to ask for help, especially not financial help. I hate it. Yet, I know that I have to swallow my pride and do what I must - for my family, for ministry here in Argentina.
So, I filled in the on line form, prayerfully and carefully wrote out the e-mails to everyone involved, double and triple checked them, and then sent them off with a prayer. We don't have the personal or business funds we need to repair the STL vehicle right now. We could still use reimbursement from the first set of repairs. We could use the funds quickly. We not only need to make the repairs, but we also have to travel to Chile after the start of the year - in just over a month - to go to a huge biannual missionary meeting. It is going to be expensive travel as it is a loooooong ways away, but it is required attendance. We have to go.
So, we are praying that God brings in the funds, some way, some how.
I would love for it to come through STL, but I don't know if it is possible. At least not fast enough.
We will see what God will do & then give Him the Thanks & Praise. : )
We'll keep you in the loop.
Good night and God bless -
Paz, bendiciones, y salud a todos -
There was one really important job I needed to get finished before the work week started. I had to e-mail in a special request to Speed-The-Light, my Area Director, & my District Youth Director for help with funds to repair our STL SUV. It is not an easy thing for me to ask for help, especially not financial help. I hate it. Yet, I know that I have to swallow my pride and do what I must - for my family, for ministry here in Argentina.
So, I filled in the on line form, prayerfully and carefully wrote out the e-mails to everyone involved, double and triple checked them, and then sent them off with a prayer. We don't have the personal or business funds we need to repair the STL vehicle right now. We could still use reimbursement from the first set of repairs. We could use the funds quickly. We not only need to make the repairs, but we also have to travel to Chile after the start of the year - in just over a month - to go to a huge biannual missionary meeting. It is going to be expensive travel as it is a loooooong ways away, but it is required attendance. We have to go.
So, we are praying that God brings in the funds, some way, some how.
I would love for it to come through STL, but I don't know if it is possible. At least not fast enough.
We will see what God will do & then give Him the Thanks & Praise. : )
We'll keep you in the loop.
Good night and God bless -
Paz, bendiciones, y salud a todos -
Saturday, December 3, 2011
2 Miracle Day
Today was a 2 miracle day! (Was certainly more than that, but these were just the obvious ones. : )
I am not going to give a full run-down on the day but I will highlight the 2 miracles.
The day started off slowly. The kids got up before I did, in fact they crawled into bed with us. Always fun to have tired little people piling into a small bed and jockeying for position until I finally get up to make it easier on everyone. It always starts off so sweet, but it gets way too crowded by the time the last one arrives. : )
I had to head downtown to take care of a whole list of important errands as quickly as possible before stores closed for siesta and the window of opportunity was over. It was a lot of ground to cover and I was moving as fast as I could without getting too sweaty.
All of a sudden, I felt the Holy Spirit tell me to double-check a little hidden pocket in my sling bag. I use it to hide important paperwork. Well, as I flipped the bag over my shoulder to take a better look, I discovered that it was wide open! I had opened it to take some stuff out at the house, gotten distracted and forgotten that it was open, walked all over town, ridden in a bus and a cab - and only now found out that it was hanging wide open - with our passports in it! Yikes! Thank you God that everything was still inside of it!!!
Then later that day at the church after teaching our English class I was chatting with students and cleaning up when suddenly I heard a thump followed by screaming. Aliana had been playing with some kids and running when she slipped by accident and landed right on her head. She was really hurt and screaming loud. I scooped her up and starting praying for her. I kept it up, periodically looking her over and seeing how she was doing, until she was finally all better. I just knew in my spirit that it was what I was supposed to do. God wanted to show His power and do a great work in her little life. I felt that in that moment, not only was she being healed (God taking care of her immediate need) but also that the moment was being burned into her (in the future she would be the one praying for the healing of others and having complete faith in God for it as she had experienced it so clearly herself).
She still has a nasty looking mark on the side of her forehead ( I think it is a "See That!" from God to remind us that Yes, she really should have been hurt badly) but she is in no pain, no swelling, and as far as we can tell no other side affects from the event. God is Good!!! : )
Well, it is late and I really need to get some sleep.
Good night all.
Have a great day & see what miracles God will do in & through your life today -
He really is cool!
Paz, salud, y milagros a todos -
I am not going to give a full run-down on the day but I will highlight the 2 miracles.
The day started off slowly. The kids got up before I did, in fact they crawled into bed with us. Always fun to have tired little people piling into a small bed and jockeying for position until I finally get up to make it easier on everyone. It always starts off so sweet, but it gets way too crowded by the time the last one arrives. : )
I had to head downtown to take care of a whole list of important errands as quickly as possible before stores closed for siesta and the window of opportunity was over. It was a lot of ground to cover and I was moving as fast as I could without getting too sweaty.
All of a sudden, I felt the Holy Spirit tell me to double-check a little hidden pocket in my sling bag. I use it to hide important paperwork. Well, as I flipped the bag over my shoulder to take a better look, I discovered that it was wide open! I had opened it to take some stuff out at the house, gotten distracted and forgotten that it was open, walked all over town, ridden in a bus and a cab - and only now found out that it was hanging wide open - with our passports in it! Yikes! Thank you God that everything was still inside of it!!!
Then later that day at the church after teaching our English class I was chatting with students and cleaning up when suddenly I heard a thump followed by screaming. Aliana had been playing with some kids and running when she slipped by accident and landed right on her head. She was really hurt and screaming loud. I scooped her up and starting praying for her. I kept it up, periodically looking her over and seeing how she was doing, until she was finally all better. I just knew in my spirit that it was what I was supposed to do. God wanted to show His power and do a great work in her little life. I felt that in that moment, not only was she being healed (God taking care of her immediate need) but also that the moment was being burned into her (in the future she would be the one praying for the healing of others and having complete faith in God for it as she had experienced it so clearly herself).
She still has a nasty looking mark on the side of her forehead ( I think it is a "See That!" from God to remind us that Yes, she really should have been hurt badly) but she is in no pain, no swelling, and as far as we can tell no other side affects from the event. God is Good!!! : )
Well, it is late and I really need to get some sleep.
Good night all.
Have a great day & see what miracles God will do in & through your life today -
He really is cool!
Paz, salud, y milagros a todos -
Tough Day
Well, I was able to get up early this morning for the first time in a long time and get some intercession done. Felt great! - Albeit, I was totally drained at school with Nate today and trying not to fall asleep.
Oh, forgot - we were late to school as I had a very important and complicated e-mail to get sent, in order to take care of some crucial matters before time runs out. It was great to have it finished, but stressful trying to make sure I got it right in Spanish and knowing that it was going to make us late for school.
As school, I had to jump right in with Nate and help him make up a test that he missed yesterday in Social Sciences. I was worried. This is not an easy subject for him. He did great though and then immediately had to go do a music special assembly. He did great again. Played the triangle (one of only 3 in the whole school). I was so proud of him. - Then I rushed downstairs to watch Aliana in her first ever Science Fair. She also did a fantastic job. : ) She modeled an experiment on how sodium bicarbonate mixed with vinegar makes a chemical reaction that produces and invisible gas which can inflate a balloon. It was cute and fun.
Then we came home for lunch and the "fun" slowly began. I had a great talk with my Area Director about trying to pull in some money for getting our STL SUV repaired. I followed it up with trying to reach the IRS and figure out where in the world our tax refund is. It is a good amount and we are banking on it to be able to get a lot of important things done - like pay for the repairs to our STL SUV. It is way over due, but I thought "No prob. It it is just a little glitch and we'll quickly have it." - Well 2 hours later, waiting on hold, talking to different people, calling back to clarify our course of action...it is not going to be a quick fix.
Turns out, our return that was filed electronically was Rejected! I don't know why no one was notified of it. One of the SSN's was wrong and that kicked it out of the system. Now it is too late to refile electronically and we have to do it all snail mail, from Argentina! It is going to take 2 months or longer to get our money and we really need it NOW. Not sure what God is going to do on this. We really need Him to do something.
Then we wrestled with what to do now. I tried not to panic as we had that money earmarked for a lot of things coming up very soon and now we don't have it. On top of that, we are broke. Paying for the first round of repairs, having to rent vehicles to go do ministry, etc have tapped us out. We walked all over town tonight trying to run off some of the kids' energy and to find a cash machine that would take Heather's card. Thank You Lord, we finally found one. Now we just need to survive another 8 days until pay day and figure out how we are going to do all we have to do without that tax return.
I still have a lot of tough issues to resolve so your prayers are greatly encouraged.
I know that God will work it out and we will see His intervention in this. It is just frustrating to find ourselves back in the place of needing it again. Grrr.
Lots more frustrations and struggles than I can fit into this one journal entry. It is now past midnight and I am very tired. I'm going to bed because tomorrow is going to make for one busy day. Lots more imperative stuff to wrap up quick.
Love you all.
God bless and give you an easier path -
Paz, amor, y favor del Senor
Oh, forgot - we were late to school as I had a very important and complicated e-mail to get sent, in order to take care of some crucial matters before time runs out. It was great to have it finished, but stressful trying to make sure I got it right in Spanish and knowing that it was going to make us late for school.
As school, I had to jump right in with Nate and help him make up a test that he missed yesterday in Social Sciences. I was worried. This is not an easy subject for him. He did great though and then immediately had to go do a music special assembly. He did great again. Played the triangle (one of only 3 in the whole school). I was so proud of him. - Then I rushed downstairs to watch Aliana in her first ever Science Fair. She also did a fantastic job. : ) She modeled an experiment on how sodium bicarbonate mixed with vinegar makes a chemical reaction that produces and invisible gas which can inflate a balloon. It was cute and fun.
Then we came home for lunch and the "fun" slowly began. I had a great talk with my Area Director about trying to pull in some money for getting our STL SUV repaired. I followed it up with trying to reach the IRS and figure out where in the world our tax refund is. It is a good amount and we are banking on it to be able to get a lot of important things done - like pay for the repairs to our STL SUV. It is way over due, but I thought "No prob. It it is just a little glitch and we'll quickly have it." - Well 2 hours later, waiting on hold, talking to different people, calling back to clarify our course of action...it is not going to be a quick fix.
Turns out, our return that was filed electronically was Rejected! I don't know why no one was notified of it. One of the SSN's was wrong and that kicked it out of the system. Now it is too late to refile electronically and we have to do it all snail mail, from Argentina! It is going to take 2 months or longer to get our money and we really need it NOW. Not sure what God is going to do on this. We really need Him to do something.
Then we wrestled with what to do now. I tried not to panic as we had that money earmarked for a lot of things coming up very soon and now we don't have it. On top of that, we are broke. Paying for the first round of repairs, having to rent vehicles to go do ministry, etc have tapped us out. We walked all over town tonight trying to run off some of the kids' energy and to find a cash machine that would take Heather's card. Thank You Lord, we finally found one. Now we just need to survive another 8 days until pay day and figure out how we are going to do all we have to do without that tax return.
I still have a lot of tough issues to resolve so your prayers are greatly encouraged.
I know that God will work it out and we will see His intervention in this. It is just frustrating to find ourselves back in the place of needing it again. Grrr.
Lots more frustrations and struggles than I can fit into this one journal entry. It is now past midnight and I am very tired. I'm going to bed because tomorrow is going to make for one busy day. Lots more imperative stuff to wrap up quick.
Love you all.
God bless and give you an easier path -
Paz, amor, y favor del Senor
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Stomach Virus
Today was not a Red Letter Day. It is not full of colorful dealings with interesting people in a far away land. Well, it is true we are living in a far away land, unless you are from Argentina. But, the rest is also true. Nothing to write home about.
I was sick. I have been, but I thought I was almost over it. Last night I slept in a pool of my own sweat, again. I could not wake up this morning and was freezing cold. Poor Heather had to keep the kids off of me. Not easy as the house is small. : )
I did not get up until after 10 am. By that time Heather had put up the Christmas tree (it kept the kids occupied). But once that it was up, they could not wait any longer. I HAD to get up and see it! It was truly beautiful.
So, I got up, saw the tree, and starting milling around a bit. As the day wore on I slowly felt a little better and starting to get some catching up done on line. I actually ended up getting a lot done...in between wresting with Jonny, watching Nate play his favorite new computer game (Journey of Moses), and Aliana showing me her newest drawings.
It was a good day, all things considered. I did not enjoy the stomach cramps the diarrhea, etc. But, all in all it was a good day.
Well, I need to get some sleep. I have to get over this and start feeling better. I have a lot of work to get done and it needs to get done soon. I need to get back into the rhythm of getting up early and interceding like crazy for Jujuy and NW Argentina - a place that truly needs to be touched by the power and mercy of God.
Good night all
Pray for health and strength for us.
Peace and life
Chau & Dios los bendiga mucho
I was sick. I have been, but I thought I was almost over it. Last night I slept in a pool of my own sweat, again. I could not wake up this morning and was freezing cold. Poor Heather had to keep the kids off of me. Not easy as the house is small. : )
I did not get up until after 10 am. By that time Heather had put up the Christmas tree (it kept the kids occupied). But once that it was up, they could not wait any longer. I HAD to get up and see it! It was truly beautiful.
So, I got up, saw the tree, and starting milling around a bit. As the day wore on I slowly felt a little better and starting to get some catching up done on line. I actually ended up getting a lot done...in between wresting with Jonny, watching Nate play his favorite new computer game (Journey of Moses), and Aliana showing me her newest drawings.
It was a good day, all things considered. I did not enjoy the stomach cramps the diarrhea, etc. But, all in all it was a good day.
Well, I need to get some sleep. I have to get over this and start feeling better. I have a lot of work to get done and it needs to get done soon. I need to get back into the rhythm of getting up early and interceding like crazy for Jujuy and NW Argentina - a place that truly needs to be touched by the power and mercy of God.
Good night all
Pray for health and strength for us.
Peace and life
Chau & Dios los bendiga mucho
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Christmas Tree!
"It's the most wonderful time of the year!" - I love that song. I love almost all Christmas songs and I really love the holidays. While it is true that I live for summer time - camps, VBS, missions trips, retreats, etc. And then the fall means school starting back up, getting ministry back into a groove, getting on to the campus, festivals and outreaches. Gotta love it.
Finally winter approaches, things get cold and it is time to slow down, move indoors and enjoy the company of family and friends through the holidays. The food, the fun, the times of reflecting and thanking God - well, that was all in North America. We now live in South America and the seasons are reversed. It is heating up and going into summer here - my internal clock is busy looking for camps, VBS, mission trips, etc. It is truly hard to get into the "spirit" right now since my internal clock is so thrown off. : )
But, my wife - she is on target. She has been wanting to get a Christmas Tree for weeks. Finally, the time has come. We walked downtown tonight to a beautiful store that I had seen and went shopping for our artificial tree. (Heather is allergic to most things that grow so a real tree is out of the picture.)
We wrestled with the how tall, what color, how much to spend questions for quite awhile, took a vote and finally decided on a white tree. Never had one before but man is it beautiful. I can't wait to get it up, get it decorated and get some pictures of them to put on line. The kids are seriously jacked about it. They wanted to set it up immediately but we arrived home after their bedtime so they will have to wait for tomorrow. Besides, it is still November and we have a rule - 1 holiday at a time. I need to finish celebrating Thanksgiving in November & officially on December 1st - I can move to Christmas! So, tomorrow we set up the tree!
Long, busy, filled up day. Lots of other stuff that will not make it into this on line journal report. But, it's all good.
Have a great day.
God bless -
May you have a wonderful end of November/ start of December
Paz, favor, y amor de Dios -
Finally winter approaches, things get cold and it is time to slow down, move indoors and enjoy the company of family and friends through the holidays. The food, the fun, the times of reflecting and thanking God - well, that was all in North America. We now live in South America and the seasons are reversed. It is heating up and going into summer here - my internal clock is busy looking for camps, VBS, mission trips, etc. It is truly hard to get into the "spirit" right now since my internal clock is so thrown off. : )
But, my wife - she is on target. She has been wanting to get a Christmas Tree for weeks. Finally, the time has come. We walked downtown tonight to a beautiful store that I had seen and went shopping for our artificial tree. (Heather is allergic to most things that grow so a real tree is out of the picture.)
We wrestled with the how tall, what color, how much to spend questions for quite awhile, took a vote and finally decided on a white tree. Never had one before but man is it beautiful. I can't wait to get it up, get it decorated and get some pictures of them to put on line. The kids are seriously jacked about it. They wanted to set it up immediately but we arrived home after their bedtime so they will have to wait for tomorrow. Besides, it is still November and we have a rule - 1 holiday at a time. I need to finish celebrating Thanksgiving in November & officially on December 1st - I can move to Christmas! So, tomorrow we set up the tree! Long, busy, filled up day. Lots of other stuff that will not make it into this on line journal report. But, it's all good.
Have a great day.
God bless -
May you have a wonderful end of November/ start of December
Paz, favor, y amor de Dios -
Practice
Today was a good day. It started off slow as I was still recovering from some minor illness. I slept HARD last night and could still hardly get out of bed this morning. It was one of those nights where you wake up in a pool of sweat and wish that your bed was larger so you had a clean, new, dry place to pass back out. I was really tired for most of the day.
Things went alright with Nate at school today and then at home with the family this afternoon. I went to a prayer meeting this afternoon as well, but it was one of those times where you do things out of obedience and not so much out of a desire. All I wanted to do was to go back to sleep. At the prayer meeting, I struggled to stay awake and on focus. It is good training because those times always will come.
On the way home I looked high and low for some little cards that we have to buy to recharge our cell phones with more minutes, but to no avail. The places that were open during siesta (roughly 2 - 5:30 pm) did not have any available and the places I normally am able to find them were not open. I will keep on looking. : )
Then it was time to prep. I attend a leadership training class at the church we are tied in to, as I think it is good to...
* Always keep on learning
* Learn how the Argentine church does leadership training
* Identify with and get to better know those who might be planting an annex of the church in the future
Anyhow, last week we had finished the last part of the current study. Pastor asked me to start prepping some material to teach for 4+ weeks. But, he said that this week would be prayer and just a short teaching on something unrelated. Then we would start the series in December.
Well, I had prayed, felt I had heard a topic from the Lord, and was prepping. Prepping in another language always takes far longer than you think it will. Long story short, I did not finish as early as I hoped I would and was frantically working right up to the last moment to finish the study, print notes, and head out the door.
God helped me to catch an available taxi so that I could arrive on time...and then I quickly realized that plans had changed and I would not be speaking tonight at all. Instead it was a leadership planning meeting to prepare for Christmas and New Year's Eve. I was both bummed and relieved at the same time.
I hated that I had worked so hard and frantically to finish preparing something good only to not present it, but I knew that...
* God is in charge and He had a reason for everything
* It is good material that will go in a file and be instantly ready for a future date when there is no time to prep
* And that it was good practice to have to work hard and prepare something like that on short-notice in a busy week.
It's all good! I got home about 11:30 pm, caught up quickly on-line and now will be headed to bed a little after midnight. Good day. : )
Have a good day all & Keep on Practicing -
You want to be ready to play when you get sent into the game. : )
God bless you all & lead you in great ways.
Paz, poder, favor en el Senor -
Things went alright with Nate at school today and then at home with the family this afternoon. I went to a prayer meeting this afternoon as well, but it was one of those times where you do things out of obedience and not so much out of a desire. All I wanted to do was to go back to sleep. At the prayer meeting, I struggled to stay awake and on focus. It is good training because those times always will come.
On the way home I looked high and low for some little cards that we have to buy to recharge our cell phones with more minutes, but to no avail. The places that were open during siesta (roughly 2 - 5:30 pm) did not have any available and the places I normally am able to find them were not open. I will keep on looking. : )
Then it was time to prep. I attend a leadership training class at the church we are tied in to, as I think it is good to...
* Always keep on learning
* Learn how the Argentine church does leadership training
* Identify with and get to better know those who might be planting an annex of the church in the future
Anyhow, last week we had finished the last part of the current study. Pastor asked me to start prepping some material to teach for 4+ weeks. But, he said that this week would be prayer and just a short teaching on something unrelated. Then we would start the series in December.
Well, I had prayed, felt I had heard a topic from the Lord, and was prepping. Prepping in another language always takes far longer than you think it will. Long story short, I did not finish as early as I hoped I would and was frantically working right up to the last moment to finish the study, print notes, and head out the door.
God helped me to catch an available taxi so that I could arrive on time...and then I quickly realized that plans had changed and I would not be speaking tonight at all. Instead it was a leadership planning meeting to prepare for Christmas and New Year's Eve. I was both bummed and relieved at the same time.
I hated that I had worked so hard and frantically to finish preparing something good only to not present it, but I knew that...
* God is in charge and He had a reason for everything
* It is good material that will go in a file and be instantly ready for a future date when there is no time to prep
* And that it was good practice to have to work hard and prepare something like that on short-notice in a busy week.
It's all good! I got home about 11:30 pm, caught up quickly on-line and now will be headed to bed a little after midnight. Good day. : )
Have a good day all & Keep on Practicing -
You want to be ready to play when you get sent into the game. : )
God bless you all & lead you in great ways.
Paz, poder, favor en el Senor -
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Area Pastor's Meeting
Man, I am so tired! I am exhausted and have a fairly big headache. I would love to just go to sleep...BUT, I know I need to get back into the rhythm of doing my online journaling. So...here was my day. : )
It was a late night last night. After church I didn't get to bed until 1 am. So, when my alarm went off at 5 am...it was hard to get up. I almost fell asleep in the shower. : )
I managed to get cleaned up, get dressed, kiss the fam goodbye (in their sleep) and walk out to the bus stop. Noooooo! I JUST missed the bus. I had to wait another 15-20 minutes for the next one. I rode it across town and walked the last several blocks to the out of town bus terminal. I checked to see who had the first bus out, bought my ticket, and jumped on. I was so tired I fell asleep. Thankfully God woke me up in the right town and I got off the bus. Otherwise I might have ended up in Bolivia and had to take a different bus back. ha!
Once in town I had no idea where to go. I had accidentally deleted a text with the address of the place we were meeting. I texted a couple of people and did not hear back. I walked around and prayed for a bit regarding what I should do next. I looked for other pastors who might be coming in on a bus in order to follow them. No such luck.
I was marveling at the fact that I was so at peace. A few months ago I would have been pretty nervous and stressed out - all alone in a strange place, don't know anyone, am lost, don't know what to do, can hardly understand people, etc. Now, I was totally at ease. I relaxed, prayed, watched and waited. Finally I felt the best thing to do was to strike out on my own and start asking for directions. Most people did not know where the place was and I got some mixed signals. I prayed and started walking in the direction I felt led by God to go in. I wondered about it at first, but then found myself in the right place. Yea God!
The meeting went great, as always. These pastors truly love God and love each other. They are a tight knit group who truly care for one another. They always ask about people when they don't show up and express their love and concerns for them. It is pretty cool. They love to chat, hang out, and socialize. Fun for them, hard for me.
I am still learning the language and the culture so these times are exhausting mentally and physically. I have to focus all my energy on listening to each person, giving them answers that make sense, etc. I am always studying the culture, trying to learn all those subtle little things that one inherently has picked up in their own culture. It is also mentally exhausting. It has to be done carefully so that you don't just sit back and watch without interacting (a huge no-no in Argentine culture) and so that you don't seem like a crazy stalker. lol.
We had a good time of drinking mate as everyone arrived and swatting away flies. They were EVERYWHERE! I have never seen so many flies. Turns out the area has a sugar cane factory and all that juicy sugary processing mess is like heaven to flies. I had to keep moving them away from my drink and my food plate.
Once everyone had arrived and had a chance to catch up we had a great service. This is an important time for these guys to be ministered to, instead of having to minister to others. Great times of refreshing. Missionary Ralph Hiatt brought an AWESOME message on how as humans we are always looking to make ourselves bigger, better, more famous, etc. BUT that Jesus LEFT all that behind to come to earth and model being a servant for us. Ouch! So flies in the face of our human nature!
After a fantastic time of prayer around the altar, we moved things around and had lunch. Mountains of meat - that is usually what an Argentine lunch is, and was today as well. Yum, yum! There was also some veggies, but mostly meat. : )
I was struggling to focus and stay awake after lunch. It was so hard to listen, concentrate and give good answers. Finally people started leaving so I took my leave as well. I caught the first bus home - totally fell sleep. I must be a bit under the weather as I sweat profusely in my sleep! I feel bad for the next person who has to sit in that seat on the bus. Wow!
As I arrived in Jujuy I was welcome by a big storm rolling in. It was raining. ...Have I ever told you how much I hate the rain. ...I walked through it for about a mile, no umbrella. As it got worse I had to sneak along the store fronts to stay dry; drier; dry as possible. I finally ducked into the mall (one of the only places open since today is a holiday) to stay dry and to run a couple of errands. Then, it really started to pour! The wind picked up and parts of buildings were flying off. I was happy to get inside!
I got my errands finished, got a bite to eat and waited outside to flag a cab. Getting a cab in the rain is not easy. Thankfully, after not too long a cab stopped to drop someone off. I was able to catch it and start home. - So weird seeing the streets filled with moving water - they looked like streams instead of streets.
Finally, made it home and got to spend some time with the fam. What a nice relief to a long day. Need to get sleep as tomorrow (Tuesday) is the biggest day of the week in my schedule.
Good night all.
God bless you and do cool things in and through you -
Paz, poder, bendiciones -
It was a late night last night. After church I didn't get to bed until 1 am. So, when my alarm went off at 5 am...it was hard to get up. I almost fell asleep in the shower. : )
I managed to get cleaned up, get dressed, kiss the fam goodbye (in their sleep) and walk out to the bus stop. Noooooo! I JUST missed the bus. I had to wait another 15-20 minutes for the next one. I rode it across town and walked the last several blocks to the out of town bus terminal. I checked to see who had the first bus out, bought my ticket, and jumped on. I was so tired I fell asleep. Thankfully God woke me up in the right town and I got off the bus. Otherwise I might have ended up in Bolivia and had to take a different bus back. ha!
Once in town I had no idea where to go. I had accidentally deleted a text with the address of the place we were meeting. I texted a couple of people and did not hear back. I walked around and prayed for a bit regarding what I should do next. I looked for other pastors who might be coming in on a bus in order to follow them. No such luck.
I was marveling at the fact that I was so at peace. A few months ago I would have been pretty nervous and stressed out - all alone in a strange place, don't know anyone, am lost, don't know what to do, can hardly understand people, etc. Now, I was totally at ease. I relaxed, prayed, watched and waited. Finally I felt the best thing to do was to strike out on my own and start asking for directions. Most people did not know where the place was and I got some mixed signals. I prayed and started walking in the direction I felt led by God to go in. I wondered about it at first, but then found myself in the right place. Yea God!
The meeting went great, as always. These pastors truly love God and love each other. They are a tight knit group who truly care for one another. They always ask about people when they don't show up and express their love and concerns for them. It is pretty cool. They love to chat, hang out, and socialize. Fun for them, hard for me.
I am still learning the language and the culture so these times are exhausting mentally and physically. I have to focus all my energy on listening to each person, giving them answers that make sense, etc. I am always studying the culture, trying to learn all those subtle little things that one inherently has picked up in their own culture. It is also mentally exhausting. It has to be done carefully so that you don't just sit back and watch without interacting (a huge no-no in Argentine culture) and so that you don't seem like a crazy stalker. lol.
We had a good time of drinking mate as everyone arrived and swatting away flies. They were EVERYWHERE! I have never seen so many flies. Turns out the area has a sugar cane factory and all that juicy sugary processing mess is like heaven to flies. I had to keep moving them away from my drink and my food plate.
Once everyone had arrived and had a chance to catch up we had a great service. This is an important time for these guys to be ministered to, instead of having to minister to others. Great times of refreshing. Missionary Ralph Hiatt brought an AWESOME message on how as humans we are always looking to make ourselves bigger, better, more famous, etc. BUT that Jesus LEFT all that behind to come to earth and model being a servant for us. Ouch! So flies in the face of our human nature!
After a fantastic time of prayer around the altar, we moved things around and had lunch. Mountains of meat - that is usually what an Argentine lunch is, and was today as well. Yum, yum! There was also some veggies, but mostly meat. : )
I was struggling to focus and stay awake after lunch. It was so hard to listen, concentrate and give good answers. Finally people started leaving so I took my leave as well. I caught the first bus home - totally fell sleep. I must be a bit under the weather as I sweat profusely in my sleep! I feel bad for the next person who has to sit in that seat on the bus. Wow!
As I arrived in Jujuy I was welcome by a big storm rolling in. It was raining. ...Have I ever told you how much I hate the rain. ...I walked through it for about a mile, no umbrella. As it got worse I had to sneak along the store fronts to stay dry; drier; dry as possible. I finally ducked into the mall (one of the only places open since today is a holiday) to stay dry and to run a couple of errands. Then, it really started to pour! The wind picked up and parts of buildings were flying off. I was happy to get inside!
I got my errands finished, got a bite to eat and waited outside to flag a cab. Getting a cab in the rain is not easy. Thankfully, after not too long a cab stopped to drop someone off. I was able to catch it and start home. - So weird seeing the streets filled with moving water - they looked like streams instead of streets.
Finally, made it home and got to spend some time with the fam. What a nice relief to a long day. Need to get sleep as tomorrow (Tuesday) is the biggest day of the week in my schedule.
Good night all.
God bless you and do cool things in and through you -
Paz, poder, bendiciones -
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Obey Obey Obey
Alto De La Sierra - a little town of 2 -3 thousand in the Chaco Salteno - an area of land very difficult to live in and even harder to get in and out of during the rainy season. It is located near the boarders of Salta & Formosa, Argentina & not to far from the border of Paraguay. It is a huge area that has been given the name "The Impenetrable."
The area is made up almost entirely of clay - little soil that is good for growing crops and almost no rocks. Everything that does grow there is unfriendly and covered in thorns - cactus of different shapes and sizes, small trees, and lots of scrubby bushes - all covered with thorns.
When it does rain, it turns all of the clay to an incredibly slippery, deep, nasty mud. It is nearly impossible to travel. At first you can only make it through with a 4-wheel drive, then only on dirt bike and finally only by horseback. Even on foot it is incredibly treacherous.
Well, a couple of weeks back I had to help a pastor return to his family out there. I had promised it to him months earlier. Our STL SUV had finally been repaired and I felt confident that everything would go great. Then...the car broke down again...right before the trip. I would have to rent a car to get him home and do a few days of ministry there.
Even though the weather reports looked like it was going to rain (just starting into the rainy season) my pastor friend assured me that it would be fine and I should only rent a 2-wheel drive. (4-wheel drive vehicles are extremely expensive to rent!) But, the Holy Spirit was eating at me - I needed to rent a 4 by 4!
I looked and called and checked with several places. I could only find 1 that was available when I needed it - 1! (Coincidence? I think not.) There were a number of difficulties in trying to get it rented, paid for, picked up, etc. I spend half of the Sunday evening service outside on the phone trying to work it all out. But, I knew it had to be done. it is ALWAYS better to obey, than to wish you had! : )
I only got a couple of hours of sleep because my pastor friend wanted me to do some ministry while I was out there and I had lots of prep to finish. I had started preparing much earlier, but there were snags in the production and everything had to finalized in the last second. I got about 2 hours of sleep and then hit the road at 6 am.
The first 4 hours of the drive were cake - all on paved roads. We stopped at the last big town to fill up, get some food and drinks (you don't want to be stuck in the mud, stranded and dehydrating) and to load up some supplies for the church and then we hit the road again. It was already raining. My friend assured me that it would be dry farther out.
When we hit the end of the pavement, I was so happy to have the 4-wheel drive. It was already muddy and slippery and even with the 4 high running our Ford Ranger Super Duty was sliding around. A while later the road dried and out and we made good time. My pastor friend did an "I told you so" on me & I started to wonder why the Holy Spirit had impressed upon me so hard to rent a much more expensive vehicle. But...it did not take long to figure out why.
We came to the largest town in the middle of the Chaco and it looked like it was partially flooded. At the edge of the town is a high dyke designed to protect the town from flooding of the nearby creek. Good thing it was there. As we crested it, we could look out for a quite a ways and saw that the road looked more like a lake than a road. It had rained, and hard. The last 40+ kilometers to Alto de la Sierra were very nerve-raking. There were times when we had to find an alternate route around expansive areas of deep water covering the path. Other areas, we had no choice but to go 4-low and slog our way through. We pounded through deep ruts, often dragging bottom, at times starting to get ourselves sideways - not a good thing. In many areas, the "ditches" are a deep muddy siding and your only hope to follow the path, (sermon illustration there!) hope you can make it, and pray you don't end up in the even deeper mud and water on the shoulder of the road.
One time we hit a deep trench - hardest part about water is you can't see how deep the holes might be & it is always a crap-shoot on which way to go or even if you should go - and we hit so hard that it killed the motor. I prayed there was no damage and thanks be to God, it started right back up and after some effort we managed to get ourselves out. Whew! What is normally an 8 hour drive turned into a 12 hour drive, but we made it!
I was a little concerned about getting even more rain and not being able to make it back out. Not sure what the rental company would say - I did not want to have to pay for additional days as the price was so steep per day. Thankfully the sun and wind did their job and we were able to make it back out on schedule. : )
I will tell you more about the time there tomorrow, or later on today. We'll see. But after such a long travel day the pastor said, "Let's not do any ministry today. Let's just rest up." (It was in Spanish of course) Music to my ears. I got a good sleep that night and it was a good thing too as ministry turned out to be a lot more work than I had envisioned. lol. Doesn't it often turn out that way?
Fill you in on the fun in the next journal entry.
Take care, God bless, and ALWAYS remember to OBEY!!!
You'll be sorry if you don't. : )
Paz, bendiciones y favor del Senor -
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Last Day in Jujuy With Our Area Directors
Today was a good day. I woke up to Jonny coming in to get into bed with us. Then not too much later Nate as well. I finally got out of bed to make more room. : ) I got breakfast going & starting getting the kids ready for the day. Finally, Aliana got up. Man was she tired this morning! lol.
I took Ali to school and dropped her off. Got her there just in time to get ready to leave to go see the play "The Wizard of Oz," in Spanish of course, with the rest of her class. I think she had a good time. Only trouble is that her friend did not sit by her on the bus...there or on the way back again. That makes for BIG kindergarten drama...if you are a kindergarten age girl. Wow. Anyways, we got it sorted out it later. : )
Heather took the J man downtown to hang out with our Area Directors one last time. They walked around downtown, found a cool coffee shop, got some joe, and chatted awhile. In the meanwhile, I was at home frantically trying to clean up before they came over to the house. We had gone to bed exhausted the night before and had not cleaned up yet. It was a liiiiiiittle messy.
After doing the dishes, laundry, cleaning up, going back to the school to pick up Ali and sort out her emotional distress, etc, etc & taking care of Nate while getting ready to go myself - and then the Ellis' showed up.
We talked for a bit while I prepped some yerba mate to take on the road. After all, my AD grew up in Argentina and I had yet to offer him any. Ouch! We took some pictures (I hope they don't show up on line) with the kids and then had to get going to the airport.
While I was taking our AD's to the airport, with Jonny & Nate, Heather was at home prepping to lead worship at the Women's Ministry. The trip went well. N & J were pretty goofy on the way over. I think they did not want to see Uncle Dave & Aunt Carol go home. : ) We got there fine, got them dropped off and said our good-byes (too quickly for me, but what can you do - when you've got to go, you've got to go) and headed for home.
Then it was party time. We stopped at a YPF and got drinks & snacks. I cranked up the music they liked on the way home and it all went great on the trip home! Good times : )
We got home just in time to give Heather the car so she could drive to the women's meeting. She was thrilled! No having to lug her heavy guitar and case across town, on foot, up hill, both ways. : )
She and AJ headed to the group while the guys and I stayed at home. We did dinner, watched a Veggie Tale, took baths, and fought going to bed. Well, I didn't fight going to bed - the kids did.
Finally Heather and AJ got home, got a snack and got the little one to bed. Then Heather and I locked up and jumped in to bed...and watched a great episode of Psych. Gotta love Shawn and Gus. : )
Well, that was not a "normal" day, but there you have it. Tomorrow is a huuuuuuuge day - getting ready to preach in 2 Bible Colleges and hit the road on Saturday for a very long drive - to Cordoba and then to Buenos Aires. I had better get some sleep. Starting to feel a bit under the weather. : (
Have a great day -
God bless
Paz, prosperidad y evita la destruction que va a venir - ja ja
I took Ali to school and dropped her off. Got her there just in time to get ready to leave to go see the play "The Wizard of Oz," in Spanish of course, with the rest of her class. I think she had a good time. Only trouble is that her friend did not sit by her on the bus...there or on the way back again. That makes for BIG kindergarten drama...if you are a kindergarten age girl. Wow. Anyways, we got it sorted out it later. : )
Heather took the J man downtown to hang out with our Area Directors one last time. They walked around downtown, found a cool coffee shop, got some joe, and chatted awhile. In the meanwhile, I was at home frantically trying to clean up before they came over to the house. We had gone to bed exhausted the night before and had not cleaned up yet. It was a liiiiiiittle messy.
After doing the dishes, laundry, cleaning up, going back to the school to pick up Ali and sort out her emotional distress, etc, etc & taking care of Nate while getting ready to go myself - and then the Ellis' showed up.
We talked for a bit while I prepped some yerba mate to take on the road. After all, my AD grew up in Argentina and I had yet to offer him any. Ouch! We took some pictures (I hope they don't show up on line) with the kids and then had to get going to the airport.
While I was taking our AD's to the airport, with Jonny & Nate, Heather was at home prepping to lead worship at the Women's Ministry. The trip went well. N & J were pretty goofy on the way over. I think they did not want to see Uncle Dave & Aunt Carol go home. : ) We got there fine, got them dropped off and said our good-byes (too quickly for me, but what can you do - when you've got to go, you've got to go) and headed for home.
Then it was party time. We stopped at a YPF and got drinks & snacks. I cranked up the music they liked on the way home and it all went great on the trip home! Good times : )
We got home just in time to give Heather the car so she could drive to the women's meeting. She was thrilled! No having to lug her heavy guitar and case across town, on foot, up hill, both ways. : )
She and AJ headed to the group while the guys and I stayed at home. We did dinner, watched a Veggie Tale, took baths, and fought going to bed. Well, I didn't fight going to bed - the kids did.
Finally Heather and AJ got home, got a snack and got the little one to bed. Then Heather and I locked up and jumped in to bed...and watched a great episode of Psych. Gotta love Shawn and Gus. : )
Well, that was not a "normal" day, but there you have it. Tomorrow is a huuuuuuuge day - getting ready to preach in 2 Bible Colleges and hit the road on Saturday for a very long drive - to Cordoba and then to Buenos Aires. I had better get some sleep. Starting to feel a bit under the weather. : (
Have a great day -
God bless
Paz, prosperidad y evita la destruction que va a venir - ja ja
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Google Map It
Hi Guys -Sorry I had not written anything in the last couple of days. It has been very busy here in Jujuy, Argentina. Even now, I am mildly sick and it is nearly 11 pm (I really need to get some sleep!) but I am trying to get into the rhythm of posting in this on-line journal every day - so - here goes.
I had a hard time getting up this morning. Our beloved Area Directors, Dave & Carol Ellis, are visiting us all the way out in Jujuy for the first time. Not only that, it is their first time ever to make it to this part of Argentina. So we are catching up with them, talking about all of the things we need to take care of in the short-term, sharing dreams and vision for the future, and showing them around. It is great fun and we are thrilled to have them here but it is also a lot of work and takes us out of our normal routine. I thrive in routine so it is double tough in that regard. Thankfully they are great friends and incredibly gracious people. : )
This morning I got up about 7:30 am (way later than I wanted, yet I could hardly get going). I got a little to eat, checked out some things on line as fast as I could, took a shower and prepped the car for the longest, hardest road test yet since it got out of the shop a few days ago. Then at 10 am we went to the hotel to pick up our AD's and show them a little bit of our amazing province.
Jujuy is divided into 4 main geographic areas - the Yungla (very wet, low lying, tropical climate), the valley (little higher, much drier and a little cooler - where we live in San Salvador de Jujyuy, the capital of our province), the Quebrada (climbing mountainous terrain, getting much drier and a cooler still) and the Puna (high mountain desert - and I do mean high!)
They had already seen a little bit of the Yungla & the Valley so now it was time to go for the other 2. We headed north on route 9 and visited many little towns along the Quebrada de Humahuaca, including but not limited to: Volcan, Purmamarca, Tilcara, & Humahuaca. It is a beautiful drive and quickly you go from the valley floor (4,100 ft) to over 8,000 ft in just 1 hour. The landscape changes rapidly and dries out greatly. To us, it is a thing of pure beauty. In Humauaca, Pastor Dave was so excited. It was a place he had often read about in Argentina's history, but had never seen. We drove around quite a bit and he snapped lots of pictures. : )Then we doubled back and went over the mountains on Route 52, winding, and winding, and winding, up, up, up until in 1 more hour we topped out at 13, 700 ft. What an incredible view. The road is extremely steep and I wish the STL SUV had 1 more gear between 1st & 2nd. We ran too high of RPM's in 1st gear, but could not keep our speed up in 2nd gear and had to keep bouncing back and forth between them. The good news - the vehicle ran great under a very heavy strain!
Once you start down the west side you come to a huge salt flat, Salinas Grandes. We drove across a large section of the flats, got out and took pictures, found some harvest pools and stuck our hands in (the water was ice cold even though the temp outside was nice), and licked our fingers afterwards (very salty!). The cool part was that if you wiped your hand on your shirt you could see the salt residue on it after it dried! After a time we reversed our direction and headed for home. We stopped in Purmamarca to look around, let the kids run and play a bit and to buy some local crafts. In the central square of the town, it is completely surrounded by people selling their stuff. It is a huge amount of stuff for such a little place! Beautiful stuff thought. Heather bought 2 Andean blankets & a scarf to use for display when we return to the US. So cool looking.
Finally we returned to San Salvador de Jujuy, everyone trying to get their ears to pop. Our AD's were kind enough to treat us to dinner at Mostaza - a Burger King knock off in our little mall and to pay for the kids to play for a time afterwards in the arcade. They had a blast and are very grateful to them. : )
Finally we dropped them off at their hotel, headed home, and worked on getting the kids to sleep. Tomorrow is another big day.
Love you all
God bless you and give you a great night
If God gives you the chance to climb the high mountains in your life and (literally) get above the clouds - take it! There is nothing like it. : )
Paz, favor, poder en el EspÃritu Santo -
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Energized
Today it was cloudy and cool in Jujuy. Most unusual for this time of year. I shouldn't be by this point in my life, but I never fail to be amazed at how much the weather affects me. I HATE cloudy, especially when it is mixed with cold - absolutely without a doubt when it is added in with moisture. Rain sucks. I don't see it any other way. Well, we needed to road test our STL SUV anyway (just got it back from being in the shop for a long time) so we prepped the fam & jumped in. We headed north - the road that directions only goes one way - up, up, up! The nice thing is that in just about an hour you climb almost 4,000 feet in elevation and pop out - ABOVE the clouds!
It is an amazing truth that no matter HOW cloudy, rainy, dreary, stormy, (fill in the blank with any other depressing "y" word) it is - the sun is STILL shining! Yes! : ) Nothing can stop it!
Well, once again I lived the truth of this. We got up to Purmamarca and it was so sunny and beautiful. : ) I was instantly energized - happy, smiling, in a good mood. Amazing the affect that the sun has on me. As we drove I enjoyed the stark, barren, wind blown landscape. To many people the desert is a horrible place. To me, it is incredibly beautiful. So are the people who live there.
They are strong and unmovable. They live in the harshest of environments. They have to make do with the least of resources. They live in the sun, soaking it in. They are dry, overly tanned, possibly leather skinned, and tough. Yet, they are beautiful...just as is the land they live in. Others can't stand to live there. I can't stand not to.
As I was driving along, big smile on my face, so thrilled with the emotional boost from the sunshine - I started thinking of how The Son (Jesus) has the same affect on me. Every time I come out of the dark, cold, dreary spiritual environs and into the light and warmth of His presence, the Son of the living God - it has the same affect on me as physical sunlight. Amazingly wonderful. Emotionally uplifting. Like laying out pool side in your trunks with your shades on in the summertime. : )
Good night all.
Spend lots of time in the SON Light - it won't give you cancer - in fact, it might just heal you of it. lol.
Paz, favor y vida nueva en la luz de Jesus -
Full Day
Today was a very full day!
It started in the middle of the night when I had to put Jonny back to bed. He had had a bad dream and wanted me to lay down with him until he fell asleep. We both did. When I finally woke up and started to go back to my own bed, I realized that Aliana had traded places with me. I felt it was easier to sleep in her bed than to try and move her back. (That beautiful little girl is full of lead! Carrying her at 3 am is not fun. : )
Then at 6:45 am Aliana decided she couldn't sleep anymore and came back to her bed to get me up. She needed company. I did my best to keep her quiet so that the other kids could continue sleeping - a DVD, breakfast, drink, etc. In the meantime I was sipping Yerba Mate in the kitchen and doing my best to start my day off talking with my Heavenly Father. Thankfully He puts up with me when I am really tired and can hardly put 2 coherent thoughts together. : )
When the other kids got up I took care of them as well, trying let Heather get all the sleep she could. When she got up, I started working on receipts and reports. Ugh. Also hard to do in the early AM but I made good progress.
I then headed out shopping and running errands. Tomorrow the whole county shuts down for elections. I had a lot to get done.
Afterwards we prepped to teach our 2nd English class, taught the class, went to the Kids Club Outreach, raced home for dinner, and then went to a special Saturday Night Service. It rocked, but I did not get home until after 1 am. Now I am trying to catch up on line.
Boy, am I going to pay for this tomorrow, no, later today actually. : )
Battery is dying so I have to go.
Love you all and God bless
Paz, prosperidad, and santidad -
It started in the middle of the night when I had to put Jonny back to bed. He had had a bad dream and wanted me to lay down with him until he fell asleep. We both did. When I finally woke up and started to go back to my own bed, I realized that Aliana had traded places with me. I felt it was easier to sleep in her bed than to try and move her back. (That beautiful little girl is full of lead! Carrying her at 3 am is not fun. : )
Then at 6:45 am Aliana decided she couldn't sleep anymore and came back to her bed to get me up. She needed company. I did my best to keep her quiet so that the other kids could continue sleeping - a DVD, breakfast, drink, etc. In the meantime I was sipping Yerba Mate in the kitchen and doing my best to start my day off talking with my Heavenly Father. Thankfully He puts up with me when I am really tired and can hardly put 2 coherent thoughts together. : )
When the other kids got up I took care of them as well, trying let Heather get all the sleep she could. When she got up, I started working on receipts and reports. Ugh. Also hard to do in the early AM but I made good progress.
I then headed out shopping and running errands. Tomorrow the whole county shuts down for elections. I had a lot to get done.
Afterwards we prepped to teach our 2nd English class, taught the class, went to the Kids Club Outreach, raced home for dinner, and then went to a special Saturday Night Service. It rocked, but I did not get home until after 1 am. Now I am trying to catch up on line.
Boy, am I going to pay for this tomorrow, no, later today actually. : )
Battery is dying so I have to go.
Love you all and God bless
Paz, prosperidad, and santidad -
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
The Wait Is Nearly Over : )
After 3 months of saving up money to fix our STL SUV (didn't want to get it into a shop and find out it was going to cost a fortune to fix it & we didn't have the money to do it) and then more than a month of it being in the shop - I think we are finally going to get our vehicle back tomorrow. Yeah! : )It has been quite the wait. I thought the first part of it was a long wait. 3 months of having to stare at it each day; sitting in our front yard. We had to squeeze past it to get in and out of the front gate...every single time we came to and from the house. It was a little like having it rubbed in your face.
I still remember the day when the mechanic's shop came to tow it in to their business. We were so elated! We thought we would have it back within a week. Well...about 6 months later...we may be finally getting it back. Ha Ha. I thought it was tough seeing it in the driveway every day. It was even tougher not being able to see it, wondering if we were ever going to see it again.
Why the long wait? Well, there is no dealership for our car here in Jujuy (Hyundai Terracan), or within several provinces reach. In fact, almost every part that needed to be ordered had to come from Buenos Aires. It takes several days to find the parts, then several days to get them. Once a repair was made, it seemed to lead to the next piece of the puzzle. My mechanic friend was quite frustrated by it. One day he told me, "Your car is full of surprises." I don't think he meant that in a good way.
Things may have been able to have been finished faster, but there were set backs. One time, the company in BA sent the wrong parts. 3 days to get here, 3 days to go back, 3 more days to get the right ones. Then there was also the fact that one part could not be found in Argentina at all. (Seems there are some supply issues. Something about tariffs, tit-for-tat, etc.)
Anyways - long story short - I think it will be done tomorrow! I will keep you informed. : )
Good night all and God bless -
Yeah, Yeah. I know I have not written every day. I'll keep working on it.
Paz, favor, y bendiciones -
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Back to Business
Well, I still don't know that I'm at 100% but I am fairly well back to business! All this week (minus Monday) I have been able to get up just after 5 am, get a shower (although this morning I nearly fell asleep under the warm water) and walked the 20 minutes + to and from the church for 6 am prayer. (It wasn't easy though. Felt like an uphill walk, both ways, each day : ) Then I would come home, get a drink and get Nate & AJ out the door and to school. There I would hang with Nate, doing a little translating for him, helping him to stay on task in class, and keeping him from getting into any kind of trouble. While doing so, I sneak in all the reading and study time that I can in free bursts of minutes. Sometimes, I can really crank out a lot of work. It's like having your own office to work in (still need one of those), only filled with a bunch of crazy 2nd graders.
We get out and head home for lunch at 1 pm. My time with Heather! She puts on a video for the kids and gives them something to eat. Then we get something to eat ourselves and watch great TV shows on line like Psych & Star Wars the Clone Wars. 40 minutes of peace. Sort of. There are usually more than a few little interruptions. That happens with young kids. lol.
The afternoons have been filled with cranking out work, lots of internet keeping up to date, and running errands. Occasionally I take care of the kids for Heather so she can get things done. And when running errands, I quite often have a kid in tow. It gives us quality time together and gives Heather a little slack.
In the evenings there is more work, events, etc. And finally late at night, a little more quality time with Heather and possibly some very late night work while Heather tries to get a little more sleep than I. After we go to bed, there is a good chance of having to get up with one of the kids anywhere from 1 to too many times during the night. : )
Then the alarm goes off at 5 am, after 4 hours of sleep and we do it all over again. No, I am not back to 100% but I am close. A month ago, I could not have done this even once and not been sick the next day. Now I am pushing nearly a week of this and only just now starting to get run down. I hope to get a few extra hours of sleep tonight. : )
Good night all & God bless
- Remember to get your rest and eat your veggies.
Paz, unción, y presencia del Señora -
Monday, October 10, 2011
Snake!
So, while I was gone to Mendoza for the Argentine General Council, the family had a little excitement. You can follow the link to watch the video of it that Heather made. Apparently, it was quite the show around here. : )
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=09efd9475bfb955a&id=9EFD9475BFB955A!119#cid=09EFD9475BFB955A&id=9EFD9475BFB955A!120
They do make fun of me in the video, but that's alright. Indian Jones was a man's man and he hated those things too! I am in good company. lol.
Now...to figure out how to keep them out of the house. We had a smaller one before. If they keep getting bigger, we are going to have issues. : )
Good night all and God bless -
Paz, proteccion, y que Dios mate cada una de ellas -
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=09efd9475bfb955a&id=9EFD9475BFB955A!119#cid=09EFD9475BFB955A&id=9EFD9475BFB955A!120
They do make fun of me in the video, but that's alright. Indian Jones was a man's man and he hated those things too! I am in good company. lol.
Now...to figure out how to keep them out of the house. We had a smaller one before. If they keep getting bigger, we are going to have issues. : )
Good night all and God bless -
Paz, proteccion, y que Dios mate cada una de ellas -
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Giant Pastries
In Mendoza I got to save money over staying in a hotel by staying in the home of fellow missionary Dallas Hinds. Poor Dallas, he just recently moved in after being in Buenos Aires for a couple of years and isn't even unpacked. There were boxes everywhere. Made it hard going up and down the stairs. lol. He was an incredibly gracious host and 3 of us had a great time there. He's also an excellent cook. If you get the chance to hang out with Dallas in Mendoza, take it! - God bless you Bro for your great hospitality.
In his neighborhood he introduced me to the most incredible bakery. I should have taken a picture of the place. It not only had all of the usual Argentine pastries, but they had some very unique creations as well. Thankfully I did not enter the bakery (Panaderia as it is called in Castellano) until my last morning there, right before I left to head home. Otherwise I might have gained a lot of weight. : )
Below is a picture of one of their creations - The Palmera. Usually these are found all over Argentina in 2 different sizes: small & very small. This panaderia had those as well, but then they also carried the largest ones I have ever seen. I brought home 5 of them on the bus, one for each person in the family. They take up almost the entire surface of a dinner plate! They're about 7 inches across.
The best part, they were good too. Sometimes when you buy the abnormal variety of something you like, it turns out to be a disappointment. Not so with these. : )
Just one of those cool little things about being in a different part of the world or getting outside of the usual routine.
Have a good one & God bless -
- Remember to get outside of your usual routine and find something cool in your life
Paz, bendiciones y el amor de Dios en tu vida -
In his neighborhood he introduced me to the most incredible bakery. I should have taken a picture of the place. It not only had all of the usual Argentine pastries, but they had some very unique creations as well. Thankfully I did not enter the bakery (Panaderia as it is called in Castellano) until my last morning there, right before I left to head home. Otherwise I might have gained a lot of weight. : )
Below is a picture of one of their creations - The Palmera. Usually these are found all over Argentina in 2 different sizes: small & very small. This panaderia had those as well, but then they also carried the largest ones I have ever seen. I brought home 5 of them on the bus, one for each person in the family. They take up almost the entire surface of a dinner plate! They're about 7 inches across.
The best part, they were good too. Sometimes when you buy the abnormal variety of something you like, it turns out to be a disappointment. Not so with these. : )
Just one of those cool little things about being in a different part of the world or getting outside of the usual routine.
Have a good one & God bless -
- Remember to get outside of your usual routine and find something cool in your life
Paz, bendiciones y el amor de Dios en tu vida -
City of Mendoza, Mendoza, Argentina
The capital city of Mendoza in the province of Mendoza, Argentina is an incredibly beautiful city! Located on the far west side of Argentina, about right in the middle of the country, north to south, it lies near the base of some of the highest peaks in the Andes Mountains. It is the Cuyo Region of Argentina. It is a high desert, very arid, and big time wine country. In many ways, I felt right at home. All of the surrounding countryside reminds me alot of eastern Washington! : ) 
It was developed in great part, so I hear, by my beloved German ancestors. Always the far-ahead thinking and mechanically inclined, the city is well laid out. It has huge drainage channels running through the city. Why? After all, it is in a desert region. Why would it need all that drainage?
My sources say that it is because it is located at the base of the mountains, and when the water sheds off of the mountains or when the rains do come, they don't mess around. Those wise German engineers decided to prepare for the worst. : ) They also built incredibly wide avenues (so the traffic really zips along) and even wider sidewalks (probably so you don't get killed by the speeding traffic). It is a huge and beautiful city, and of all the cities I have seen in Argentina, it probably is more like the capital of Buenos Aires than any other.
I have to give it to the city planners for another thing - there are trees EVERYWHERE! Seriously. The city is committed to them. They have cut holes out of the sidewalks on nearly every single street, best I can tell, and have long rows of big beautiful shade trees growing. It really makes it a spectacular city. Lush and green in an otherwise arid land, lots of fresh air, and great shade for all those hot days. It truly is incredible to see. 
The one draw back that I could find: little mini-canal-gutters everywhere. Some of them are covered but many are not. While walking around the city, one truly has to pay attention to where they are going! Once I was trying to cross a wide and busy intersection to get to the convention center where the General Council was taking place. I had to jump back as cars came shooting around the corner - only problem, no where to jump back to! I had drifted down hill a few feet and was no longer next to the little sidewalk "bridge" over the gutter. Instead I had to carefully balance on a narrow curb - between speeding traffic and a 2 1/2 foot drop into the gutter. It was exhilarating, but I wondered how many poor old ladies had broken hips or more falling into those things all over town. In some places, there is not even curbing. Drivers have to be careful not to drop a wheel in! 
All in all though, it is a beautiful city and I could be totally happy living there.
Of course, Jujuy rocks and I have NO plans on living anywhere else! : )
Have a great day & God bless -
- Don't let the "gutters" where you live take your eyes off of all of the great things that are there as well.
Flourish where God has planted you.
Paz, favor, y poder de Dios sean con todos -
Argentina General Council
Well, it only took a 23 hour bus ride to get there, (and another 23 hour ride back) but I had a great time at my first ever (for me - 64th for them) Argentina General Council. : )Sorry I have not written in awhile. I said from the start that this is not my strong point, but I will work hard at being more regular.
Anyways, had a great time! Got to ride down to Mendoza, Argentina on a chartered bus (the national office here underwrites the cost to help all the pastors be able to make it) with all of the local pastors from Jujuy and Salta provinces. It was a huge, beautiful double decker bus and the ride was far more easy to endure than I had imagined. I got in lots of prayer, thinking time, talking with Pastors, and as much sleep as I could pull off. - honestly, I can't sleep very well sitting up. On the way home I was so in need of prayer that I didn't care what anyone might think and just laid down on the floor. It worked pretty well, albeit I was a little dirty. lol.
The Council was amazing. They had 4 different speakers: our Superintendent, + those of Peru, Columbia and Spain. Each was excellent and had a totally different style of presenting God's Word so it really kept it fresh and easy to follow. Excellent messages all!
My favorite part by far was the altar time & preservice prayer times. There is nothing like spending sweet, refreshing, powerful times in Father God's presence. Forgetting about all others but Him and pressing in close to Him. Yes! What an incredible burden He has placed in our hearts for Jujuy as well. At times it was almost overwhelming. But that will need to be a subject for another night. It is now midnight and I really need to get to sleep. : )
My back held up great and I have no misconceptions about why. I know it was your lifting me up before God that gave me the aid I needed. Should have killed me, but instead hardly bothered me. Thank you so much!
Continue to pray for us and for Jujuy! The need here is so great that it is truly mindboggling and we are looking to God for answers on where to work and how to move forward in it.
God night and God bless
- Find your place where you can be strengthened by God's presence and by the unity among His followers before going back out into the fray -
Paz y poder en su Espiritu Santo -
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Day of the Student
Today, September 21 is The Day of the Student - or - Student's Day as we would say in English. It is a holiday here in Argentina & is done in conjunction with Spring Day - 1st day of Spring. This of course is the opposite of all of our friends in the Northern Hemisphere who are celebrating the beginning of Fall. Since we are on the bottom side of the planet, we are moving out of winter and into spring, while those of you in the north are leaving summer behind and moving into fall. What an interesting world we live in. Anyways, as I said, it is a holiday here in Argentina. There is no school but most of the parents still have to work. Not sure how families sort that out. : ) This is also sort of a festive week. Aliana's class had a party yesterday and she came home with a bag of candy and a a balloon. She was pretty psyched!
Nate's class will have a party on Friday.
(The caption of the picture is a saying from Aristotle:
The true disciple is the one that surpasses the teacher.)
The International Student's Day is November 17th, but every county chooses their own date. I think Argentina already celebrated a Spring Day holiday and decided to combine the two.
Have a great day & God bless -
Paz y amor del Señor -
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Strong Willed
Ha. Funny how God does things.
I have been working night and day to prepare a teaching series on Authority. Specifically, it is based on the book "Under Cover" by John Bevere. The book talks about how there are 2 different types/levels of authority in our lives: 1. The Direct Authority of God & 2. His Delegated Authorities in our lives. In fact, Scripture makes it very clear that ALL authority is established by God.
All sin, for instance, simply put, is not following God's directives to us, not staying under the covering of His provision & protection through our obedience to Him. When we choose a way other than His, we willfully step outside of His covering and are own our own. It opens us up to all sorts of deception from the enemy of our souls, problems, difficulties, etc. In short, it is a mess. The more we do it, the messier it gets.
Sometimes it is so much easier to SAY than to DO.
I have 2 different projects/ desires that I have been working on.
Earlier this week, an authority over me advised me to pull back on 1 of them.
He was doing it for my own good, looking out for my best interest and that of my family.
Then just tonight a different authority shut down the second one.
Neither of them truly came right out and said, "NO" as much as not right now, we'll have to reschedule. It would be better that way.
But, since it is MY desire, it was hard to catch on that they were gently telling me "No/ Wait."
It is better for me if you just S-P-E-L-L I-T O-U-T for me. : )
I am a pretty direct person and I get it best when people speak directly to me.
Kindly, but direct.
Anyway, funny how God helps us to learn firsthand what He wants us to teach.
I want with all my heart to press forward and push on anyways.
I can do it! It will be okay! It's all good!
BUT, the authorities that God has graciously placed over me for my protection and blessing think otherwise. God gives THEM the grace to match the position He has placed them in. He has not given ME that grace, because I am NOT in THEIR position. : )
If I listen and obey, I stay under God's covering of protection and blessing.
If I listen and obey, things will go much easier for me and my family.
If I listen and obey, and "get it" first hand then I can help train others how to do it even when you yearn not to.
If I don't listen and obey - well, it's not going to be pretty. You get the picture.
Nothing sucks worse than a "Teacher" who only knows how from a book, who does not do it their-self, and has to say to everyone else trying to do it..."Do As I Say, Not As I Do."
Yeah, I don't want to be "That Guy." lol.
So, as difficult as it is, I will slow down, pull back, and temporarily redirect my focus and efforts elsewhere - and be ready when I do get the "Green Light" from my authorities over me. : )
Good night all & God bless -
May we all be good at teaching, and because we actually KNOW it from experience -
Paz, poder, y gracia en el Espiritu Santo -
I have been working night and day to prepare a teaching series on Authority. Specifically, it is based on the book "Under Cover" by John Bevere. The book talks about how there are 2 different types/levels of authority in our lives: 1. The Direct Authority of God & 2. His Delegated Authorities in our lives. In fact, Scripture makes it very clear that ALL authority is established by God.
All sin, for instance, simply put, is not following God's directives to us, not staying under the covering of His provision & protection through our obedience to Him. When we choose a way other than His, we willfully step outside of His covering and are own our own. It opens us up to all sorts of deception from the enemy of our souls, problems, difficulties, etc. In short, it is a mess. The more we do it, the messier it gets.
Sometimes it is so much easier to SAY than to DO.
I have 2 different projects/ desires that I have been working on.
Earlier this week, an authority over me advised me to pull back on 1 of them.
He was doing it for my own good, looking out for my best interest and that of my family.
Then just tonight a different authority shut down the second one.
Neither of them truly came right out and said, "NO" as much as not right now, we'll have to reschedule. It would be better that way.
But, since it is MY desire, it was hard to catch on that they were gently telling me "No/ Wait."
It is better for me if you just S-P-E-L-L I-T O-U-T for me. : )
I am a pretty direct person and I get it best when people speak directly to me.
Kindly, but direct.
Anyway, funny how God helps us to learn firsthand what He wants us to teach.
I want with all my heart to press forward and push on anyways.
I can do it! It will be okay! It's all good!
BUT, the authorities that God has graciously placed over me for my protection and blessing think otherwise. God gives THEM the grace to match the position He has placed them in. He has not given ME that grace, because I am NOT in THEIR position. : )
If I listen and obey, I stay under God's covering of protection and blessing.
If I listen and obey, things will go much easier for me and my family.
If I listen and obey, and "get it" first hand then I can help train others how to do it even when you yearn not to.
If I don't listen and obey - well, it's not going to be pretty. You get the picture.
Nothing sucks worse than a "Teacher" who only knows how from a book, who does not do it their-self, and has to say to everyone else trying to do it..."Do As I Say, Not As I Do."
Yeah, I don't want to be "That Guy." lol.
So, as difficult as it is, I will slow down, pull back, and temporarily redirect my focus and efforts elsewhere - and be ready when I do get the "Green Light" from my authorities over me. : )
Good night all & God bless -
May we all be good at teaching, and because we actually KNOW it from experience -
Paz, poder, y gracia en el Espiritu Santo -
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Copy Books
This of course is a struggle if your child does not write anything down! Then when they go home, there is no text book to look through or study. If you don't write it down, you don't have it! Nate has 1 "text book" that he purchased. Really, it is more of a workbook and covers all of his classes (and I imagine all of Argentina's plan for what a 2nd grade curriculum is) math, language, social & natural sciences, etc. He also has a couple of homework workbooks. They are also tied to the curriculum.
Would it work in the US to not have schools flip the bill for buying all those books & to put it on the students to write it down? Don't know, but I am sure it would be a lot cheaper. It might help their writing skills also.
One additional thought - glue is in big demand here. Why, because if a note needs to be sent home, it is photocopied, passed out to all the students, and they glue it into their notebooks! This also happens for teaching subjects that have too much material to be written down easily. So often, there are all sorts of little pictures, maps, images, and short articles that are glued into the notebooks. Sometimes they are too big to fit, so they have to be folded. Makes for some funny looking notebooks.
But, if you are used to it, I guess it just looks normal. ; )
Good night and God bless -
Paz y amor del Senor -
Monday, September 12, 2011
Spiritual Laws In Effect
Satan is a created being. He does nothing original. What he does do is copy everything that God created. That includes his use of Spiritual Laws.
I was talking with a pastor here in Jujuy today about the need to get more Argentine Church Planters moving up to join the team in Jujuy. There are only 4 A/G churches for 700,000 people in the entire province. Even if you include all protestant churches, I have not been able to find even 31 so far in the capital - the number of different "Barrios"/ neighborhoods that we have here - at about an average of 10,000 per barrio. Not even 1 church for every 10,000 people! Incredible!
Anyway, he was talking about how Jujuy is such a spiritually difficult place. It is a center for occult activity, animistic religions from the ancestral past of the area, etc. There is a lot of "brujeria"/ witchcraft here. He was sharing a recent success story with me about a young lady who recently got into a right relationship with God and God is transforming the entire family. They are all steeped in witchcraft and occultic practices. This very girl had done astral projection and other similar occultic practices. These are not your local high school kids "thinking" they are cool and trying have a little coven. They are serious and the real deal.
She talked about how they took very seriously the power of the spiritual realm & how they worked hard at their version of spiritual disciplines, such as fasting and prayer, to grow in their dark side of spiritual power. The pastor and I talked about how so many Christians are just content to be in God's family, but aren't necessarily taking His Mission seriously. So many don't LIVE to follow His will, and do His will to advance His Kingdom, His purposes, but rather just want for God to bless them and theirs.
What the "dark side" has is a cheap copy of the original. But they tend to take it so much more seriously than most followers of Jesus do. Somehow we have to ramp it up, to get people focused of God's agenda and being a very active, no, FULLY committed, part of it. Then we will see true progress being made in reaching the lost and God transforming peoples' hurting and broken lives here in a spiritually dark place like Jujuy.
I see a lot more fasting & intercession in my future! : )
Good night all & God bless -
Join the team - get serious about being part of God's team & accomplishing His mission...and not just your own -
Paz y poder en el Espiritu de Dios -
I was talking with a pastor here in Jujuy today about the need to get more Argentine Church Planters moving up to join the team in Jujuy. There are only 4 A/G churches for 700,000 people in the entire province. Even if you include all protestant churches, I have not been able to find even 31 so far in the capital - the number of different "Barrios"/ neighborhoods that we have here - at about an average of 10,000 per barrio. Not even 1 church for every 10,000 people! Incredible!
She talked about how they took very seriously the power of the spiritual realm & how they worked hard at their version of spiritual disciplines, such as fasting and prayer, to grow in their dark side of spiritual power. The pastor and I talked about how so many Christians are just content to be in God's family, but aren't necessarily taking His Mission seriously. So many don't LIVE to follow His will, and do His will to advance His Kingdom, His purposes, but rather just want for God to bless them and theirs.
What the "dark side" has is a cheap copy of the original. But they tend to take it so much more seriously than most followers of Jesus do. Somehow we have to ramp it up, to get people focused of God's agenda and being a very active, no, FULLY committed, part of it. Then we will see true progress being made in reaching the lost and God transforming peoples' hurting and broken lives here in a spiritually dark place like Jujuy.
I see a lot more fasting & intercession in my future! : )
Good night all & God bless -
Join the team - get serious about being part of God's team & accomplishing His mission...and not just your own -
Paz y poder en el Espiritu de Dios -
I Should Have Known Better : )
I should have known better. : )
I went to my first Quinceanera (Sp?) here in Argentina the other night. For those of you not familiar with Latin Culture, it is an old school event that still happens today. Much like the "Sweet 16" Birthday for girls in the US, this is for a girl's 15th birthday party. Back in the day, it was a "coming out party" for the young ladies. It was probably a much bigger deal back in the day when life was hard, life spans were short, people grew up fast and got married way earlier than these day.
Anyway, in some cultures, like in Mexican culture for instance, it is a REALLY big deal. Some families will spend as much money on it as a wedding! Some of the girls will even buy wedding gowns to wear for their party! Yeah. It's that big.
Being new in Argentina, and this being my first one here, I was not sure just how important it is here. It was a big deal, although no where near as big as in Mexican Families.
What I should have known better about was the time frame. Some things in Latin Culture are very on time - getting to work on time, getting to school on time, starting a church service on time, etc. But, most social events...well, time is definitely NOT the priority, the event is.
The event was supposed to start at 8:30 PM. I was stressing because I was trying to get a bunch of important errands done and help Heather out with some things at home. I was running "late." (That is such a North American mindset. : ) - I arrived at the church at 9 pm - a full 1/2 "late." Well, there were not too many people there. No one was in a hurry to get started. I wasn't even sure it was still happening anymore.
It was. lol. It didn't really get started until about 10:30 pm & I ended up being one of the first to leave at about 1 am. Lol. Silly me. I should have known better by now.
Good Night all
Good bless &...be careful to remember what you should already know by now -
Paz y favor del Padre -
I went to my first Quinceanera (Sp?) here in Argentina the other night. For those of you not familiar with Latin Culture, it is an old school event that still happens today. Much like the "Sweet 16" Birthday for girls in the US, this is for a girl's 15th birthday party. Back in the day, it was a "coming out party" for the young ladies. It was probably a much bigger deal back in the day when life was hard, life spans were short, people grew up fast and got married way earlier than these day.
Anyway, in some cultures, like in Mexican culture for instance, it is a REALLY big deal. Some families will spend as much money on it as a wedding! Some of the girls will even buy wedding gowns to wear for their party! Yeah. It's that big.
Being new in Argentina, and this being my first one here, I was not sure just how important it is here. It was a big deal, although no where near as big as in Mexican Families.
What I should have known better about was the time frame. Some things in Latin Culture are very on time - getting to work on time, getting to school on time, starting a church service on time, etc. But, most social events...well, time is definitely NOT the priority, the event is.
The event was supposed to start at 8:30 PM. I was stressing because I was trying to get a bunch of important errands done and help Heather out with some things at home. I was running "late." (That is such a North American mindset. : ) - I arrived at the church at 9 pm - a full 1/2 "late." Well, there were not too many people there. No one was in a hurry to get started. I wasn't even sure it was still happening anymore.
It was. lol. It didn't really get started until about 10:30 pm & I ended up being one of the first to leave at about 1 am. Lol. Silly me. I should have known better by now.
Good Night all
Good bless &...be careful to remember what you should already know by now -
Paz y favor del Padre -
Friday, September 9, 2011
Feliz Dia Del Maestro -
Today, well, September 11th really, is the national day of honoring teachers here in Argentina. Since the 11th is on a Sunday this year, the celebration fell on a Friday. It was incredible!
There was not school today, but instead a big assembly for the teachers. It ran for about 1 1/2 hours. It was full of the history of National Teachers Day, balloons, music, dramas, poems and more. There was a lot of clapping, cheering, and presents for the teachers. It was a big deal!
How cool to see them honored like that. They do work really hard and teaching a bunch of wild kids is certainly not the easiest job in the world. Ha. I know that from first-hand experience!
I wondered why it is such a big deal here and not so much in other parts of the world. I think that it has to do with it's history here. The day is celebrated on the same day as the memorial of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (the anniversary of his death).
Who was he? He was an early educator here in Argentina. He had a tremendous passion for education, did a great deal to shape the growth of schools here in the country, AND later became the nation's 7th president. THAT could have a lot to do with it. : )
While president of Argentina from 1868 to 1874, Sarmiento championed intelligent thought—including education for children and women—and democracy for Latin America. He also took advantage of the opportunity to modernize and develop train systems, a postal system, and a comprehensive education system. He spent many years in ministerial roles on the federal and state levels where he traveled abroad and examined other education systems.
One of those crazy things that happened more often back in the day:
His parents had 15 children! 9 of them died. He is the only boy who made it to adulthood and lived to be 77. (He must have been 1 tough old dude)
His influence is still being felt so many years later and he is a highly honored historical figure in Argentina & Chile.
Happy Argentine Teachers' Appreciation Day everyone!
God bless & have a good one.
Paz y favor del Senor -
There was not school today, but instead a big assembly for the teachers. It ran for about 1 1/2 hours. It was full of the history of National Teachers Day, balloons, music, dramas, poems and more. There was a lot of clapping, cheering, and presents for the teachers. It was a big deal!
How cool to see them honored like that. They do work really hard and teaching a bunch of wild kids is certainly not the easiest job in the world. Ha. I know that from first-hand experience!
I wondered why it is such a big deal here and not so much in other parts of the world. I think that it has to do with it's history here. The day is celebrated on the same day as the memorial of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (the anniversary of his death).
Who was he? He was an early educator here in Argentina. He had a tremendous passion for education, did a great deal to shape the growth of schools here in the country, AND later became the nation's 7th president. THAT could have a lot to do with it. : )
One of those crazy things that happened more often back in the day:
His parents had 15 children! 9 of them died. He is the only boy who made it to adulthood and lived to be 77. (He must have been 1 tough old dude)
His influence is still being felt so many years later and he is a highly honored historical figure in Argentina & Chile.
Happy Argentine Teachers' Appreciation Day everyone!
God bless & have a good one.
Paz y favor del Senor -
Monday, September 5, 2011
Lessons From My Daughter
I took Aliana with me to church last night. Heather and the boys were sick (still sick - this is getting very annoying) so they stayed home and went to bed early. AJ and I had a great time at church! We got there late and our "usual" seats were taken. It forced us to sit in a different spot and we got to see things from a slightly different perspective.
Right as we were walking up to the church a car rolled past and gave us a friendly honk. Aliana yelled out, "My Friend!" She hardly knows the girl, but I was happy to see how excited she was to be making connections. Even with a very limited vocabulary, it does not deter her from trying to play and communicate. - I have a lot to learn from her. : )
After service we walked home around 10 pm. Poor little thing. She was freezing. I had a light jacket for her but she was still cold. I told off my windbreaker and wrapped her up in it. Even though it was late I knew we needed pick something up to eat. I knew the boys would be asleep but that Heather would be waiting up for us. I also knew she would be hoping we were bringing home food. : )
Our gas supply has run out and we haven't been able to get more yet. Therefore, the only cooking we can do is in the microwave. Thus, bringing home dinner is a welcome idea to break up our limited options. Ha.
I saw that the only place that was open near where we live is a little pizza shop. Interesting side note about these guys - they sell their pizza by the "meter." I ordered a 1/2 meter of Hawaiian for us. : ) - It comes in square cut pieces rather than a round pie. Different. I like different.
Anyways, as we sat and waited for the pizza to cook, Aliana had a dolly out and was telling me, no, educating me, all about babies. It was quite the lesson! She was very serious and was a little frustrated with me at first as she thought that I was not taking her lesson as seriously as I should have. I straightened up and let her teach. : )
She taught me about how babies can't do anything when they are newly born and we have to take good care of them. She talked about how we have to be so gentle and careful with them. She walked me through the proper way to hold them, feed them, watch out for them, etc. It was quite informative, albeit a little off in places. Actually, for not having any "baby hours" logged, I was very surprised by how much she knew. It was fun to watch and listen to. I suppose that God is already prepping her to be a great mommy one day. (I hope that day is still a very looooooong ways off though!.)
It made me think about several things -
- I thought of all the parallels between taking care of a new born baby and taking care of a "new believer."
- I thought about how she was so serious and dedicated to taking care of her baby and even to "teach" her own daddy how to do it right. I should have the same willingness to "teach" even when I worry I am not yet an expert in a given area
- I thought about her great attitude and conduct, even though things were not the norm this night, far from it, and how much that messes with me at times. I hope I can cope and flow as well as she did.
- I thought about what a champ she was to keep doing well, even though it was way past her bedtime and I could see on her face how tired she was. May I do as well when I am tired and drained.
- Etc, etc.
When we finally got the pizza and went home, she was rewarded for her great behavior and attitude not only by being able to stay up late eating pizza, while her siblings were in bed, but she got to watch cartoons with us on our bed on mom's computer! That is big stuff when you are 5!
In the end, when it was time to go to bed, of course, she tried to resist a little - but when it was time for the fun to stop, she went with it and did not ruin the night by not knowing when enough is enough.
Yes, there are so many things I learn every day from my wonderful, energetic, kind, sweet-hearted little girl.
I hope that I can put them into effect one day as well as she does.
Good night all and God bless -
Learn from those around you, even if you "know" more than they do. : )
Paz y poder en el Espiritu Santo -
Right as we were walking up to the church a car rolled past and gave us a friendly honk. Aliana yelled out, "My Friend!" She hardly knows the girl, but I was happy to see how excited she was to be making connections. Even with a very limited vocabulary, it does not deter her from trying to play and communicate. - I have a lot to learn from her. : )
After service we walked home around 10 pm. Poor little thing. She was freezing. I had a light jacket for her but she was still cold. I told off my windbreaker and wrapped her up in it. Even though it was late I knew we needed pick something up to eat. I knew the boys would be asleep but that Heather would be waiting up for us. I also knew she would be hoping we were bringing home food. : )
Our gas supply has run out and we haven't been able to get more yet. Therefore, the only cooking we can do is in the microwave. Thus, bringing home dinner is a welcome idea to break up our limited options. Ha.
I saw that the only place that was open near where we live is a little pizza shop. Interesting side note about these guys - they sell their pizza by the "meter." I ordered a 1/2 meter of Hawaiian for us. : ) - It comes in square cut pieces rather than a round pie. Different. I like different.
Anyways, as we sat and waited for the pizza to cook, Aliana had a dolly out and was telling me, no, educating me, all about babies. It was quite the lesson! She was very serious and was a little frustrated with me at first as she thought that I was not taking her lesson as seriously as I should have. I straightened up and let her teach. : )
She taught me about how babies can't do anything when they are newly born and we have to take good care of them. She talked about how we have to be so gentle and careful with them. She walked me through the proper way to hold them, feed them, watch out for them, etc. It was quite informative, albeit a little off in places. Actually, for not having any "baby hours" logged, I was very surprised by how much she knew. It was fun to watch and listen to. I suppose that God is already prepping her to be a great mommy one day. (I hope that day is still a very looooooong ways off though!.)
It made me think about several things -
- I thought of all the parallels between taking care of a new born baby and taking care of a "new believer."
- I thought about how she was so serious and dedicated to taking care of her baby and even to "teach" her own daddy how to do it right. I should have the same willingness to "teach" even when I worry I am not yet an expert in a given area
- I thought about her great attitude and conduct, even though things were not the norm this night, far from it, and how much that messes with me at times. I hope I can cope and flow as well as she did.
- I thought about what a champ she was to keep doing well, even though it was way past her bedtime and I could see on her face how tired she was. May I do as well when I am tired and drained.
- Etc, etc.
When we finally got the pizza and went home, she was rewarded for her great behavior and attitude not only by being able to stay up late eating pizza, while her siblings were in bed, but she got to watch cartoons with us on our bed on mom's computer! That is big stuff when you are 5!
In the end, when it was time to go to bed, of course, she tried to resist a little - but when it was time for the fun to stop, she went with it and did not ruin the night by not knowing when enough is enough.
Yes, there are so many things I learn every day from my wonderful, energetic, kind, sweet-hearted little girl.
I hope that I can put them into effect one day as well as she does.
Good night all and God bless -
Learn from those around you, even if you "know" more than they do. : )
Paz y poder en el Espiritu Santo -
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Washing Machine Fixed!
Anyhow, since it is still under warranty, I returned to Changomas (Walmart) with all my paperwork in hand to see what they would do to fix our washer. They looked through their records and referred us to a local repair shop in town that they contract repairs for appliances out through. I was bummed. I thought they would deal with it directly. Now I had to track down a new place, talk to new people, try to work things out all over again. Oh well. I went to the address...closed for siesta. Sigh.
It is way across town from us so I had to go back that night to try again. Thankfully I had a simple and clear conversation with the owner, drew a map of how to find our house, and left him all our contact info. The very next day one of his employees came out to look at the machine. As expected, it was a very simple problem - a tiny piece of plastic that was part of the door handle assembly (front loading machine - we had to buy this style to fit in the alcove made for the washer - has a counter over the top of it so a top loader could not function. lol.) broke and since the door can not properly shut - the machine could not run.
Incredible. This beautiful and fine functioning machine was brought to it's knees by a teeny, tiny piece of plastic. I am sure it could not have cost more than a few pennies. But, without it, the door latch can not catch, so the computer in the machine will not let the washer function...at all. Argh! What a frustration!
The repairman said that they did not carry that exact part and would need to order it. He hoped to have it by the end of the week. Then he could bring it out and repair it in a jiffy.
A week went by. ...Then another. ...I went to visit the shop and the owner immediately recognized me, called me by name (a perk of being just about the only gringo in the area) and let me know they were still waiting for the part to arrive. Unfortunately, they had no idea when it would arrive.
In the meantime we had to take all our laundry to a service to have it done. (Coin op's don't hardly exist here.) So now we had the added work of having to bag up all the laundry for 5 people, ride the bus across town to the closest laundry service, pay someone else to do our laundry, then pay to go pick it up and bring it home. Argh 2!
The one nice thing - we know the laundry shop people from when we were living in a hotel and hunting for a home to rent when we first came to Jujuy. It was nice to reconnect and continue building relationship with them. They are not just workers - they are friends. We spent a lot of time talking with them, praying for them, witnessing to them as best as we could. I loved that part of it.
Well, finally, after 1 month - the part arrived from Buenos Aires! (The only place that almost everything in the country comes from.) The repairman came out, replaced the part, tested the machine and our beautiful little washer is now up and running again! - Now we just need to continue to find a way to drop in and keep reaching out to our friends at the laundry service.
It is SO NICE to be able to do our own laundry at home again! We are working hard on getting linens and everything else that we were holding off on to save money, washed and put back.
Amazing though how a tiny little plastic part can humble such a big, beautiful, intricate machine.
I wonder how many things are like that in our own lives. How one little thing can bring the rest of our life to a grinding halt.
Jesus said, "It is the little foxes that spoil the vine."
Guard yourself and keep your life running. Don't let a little thing sideline you for such an extended period of time.
Good night and God bless -
Paz y amor de Dios -
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