Ok. My original intent was for this to be an on-line journal - not just a straight up blog. Up until now we did not have internet access in the home so my posts were very scattered, and unfortunately, more like a blog than a journal. BUT, now that we have internet access at home I desire to change that! Here is the first of what I hope to be more a daily glimpse into our life, ministry and experiences here in Jujuy, Argentina.
5:25 am - Alarm goes off. I quickly fumbled around to turn it off as fast as I could so as to not disturb Heather. As I laid there thinking about the day ahead, I promptly fell back asleep. (It was a late night the night before. Did not get home until about midnight & did not fall asleep until about 1 am or later.)
5:30 am - 2nd alarm goes off. Ha ha. Yes, the backup is often needed. I turn it off and force myself out of bed. I need some hot tea. My throat is very dry and sore.
5:35 am - sucked down the tea and a miniature loaf of dry Argentine bread to stop the bite of hunger.
5:45 am - I finished getting dressed for the cold and head out the door to the 6 am prayer meeting at our church. It is about a 20-25 minute walk and it is cold this morning. Even though it is the pressing for the end of June & my thoughts are on summer in the states, we are now adjusting to life in the Southern Hemisphere and here - it is the start of winter. The temps are about 40 degrees and I am soooo glad that I brought my huge, black, fake fur trimmed parka to Argentina. I got it to do itineration in Alaska during their winter and man is it saving me from freezing here now. : )
6:10 am - Arrive at the church and start praying. This morning, mostly since it is very cold, it is only Pastor Sauad and myself. Argentine prayer style is very humble before God. Everyone kneels down and buries their head in a seat and starts to pray. The floors are all of cold tile or concrete so they are very small but tough "pillows" lying around that are used to kneel on to spare your knees. This is SO not my style of prayer, but for the sake of not offending or over-distracting, I am learning it.
This morning is tough. I am very tired and my throat still sore so praying at all, let alone out-loud is not easy. I press on anyway for several reasons:
* I need to. The resistance makes us stronger & spiritual warfare requires strength.
* I want to be an encouragement to Pastor Sauad. Being the only other person there, I want to add to the chorus of prayer to help push him forward.
* God deserves and desires my time and effort. What parent doesn't love to see their little one working hard along side of them and making a difference in the world?
* Jujuy needs it. This place NEEDS a major and impacting of God. These precious people are worth my fighting for them in spiritual realms in order to see spiritual breakthroughs!
All of these things keep me moving forward in intercession, through the tiredness, through the pain.
7:05 am - head for home to make sure Nate is up and getting ready for school. It is another cold 20 + minute walk. He has just gotten up (like his dad, not a morning person) and looks 1/2 dead still. He is sitting on our bed, munching Strawberry Frosted Flakes (dry), getting dressed, drinking some juice, and playing a game on the computer. This keeps him away from the little 2 so that they don't wake up, and helps to get him awake and ready for the day.
7:40 am - With a lot of persuasion, I get Nate out the door and we walk about 10 minutes to his school. He both loves and dreads school. He is a social butterfly (have no idea where he gets that from) and so loves to be around the other kids. But, this is his first time doing school all in Spanish and he is the only gringo in the entire school. He sticks out bad and he knows it. He hates not knowing what all is going on. At the same time he has his fill of Spanish at school and trying to help him learn more at home is like pulling teeth right now. Fortunately, most of the school loves their strange little gringo kid and his teacher is fantastic with him. He excels in English class (go figure) and in math (universal language). He struggles in the rest and we work lots with him on his homework. He has to learn it first in English and then in Spanish. It is a lot of work for him but man is he a smart kid. : )
8:00 am - I give him a hug and a final encouragement to be good and then head out the door for home. Once at home I try to catch up with Heather for a moment before the younger 2 get up and going.
8:15 am - I call the local gas company to try and get a new cylinder of gas delivered to the house. We are not on a gas line, so we have to have it delivered. Our 1st tank lasted us just under a month. This 2nd one lasted us 44 days so we are feeling good about learning how to conserve it. We ran out over the weekend and then Monday was a holiday so we called on Tuesday to get some more. It never showed up. So, after 3 days of no hot water and no cooking (gas stove/ oven) we are really ready to get it here. I go through the whole deal on the phone of our name and giving directions (we live in a new neighborhood with goofy addresses and no one can ever find us) and then come to find out at the end of a long conversation that the company does not have any tanks our size and I have to call back tomorrow... - What?!
Argentina is such a beautiful country with such beautiful people. Times like this make me not want to say that they are a 1st World county through. In the capital of Buenos Aires, yes, but way out here in the NW - no. How do we not have a registered account with them?
How do they not know our address and we have to explain it to them every single time?
How do they not have enough cylinders of gas?
etc.
Well, we try again tomorrow. IN THE MEANTIME - after a few days with no shower - it is time to get clean! So, I have a small electric water heater we use to quickly heat water for tea, yerba mate, etc. It only heats 1.2 liters at a time so it is a slow process (about an hour or so) but we use it to make a warm, shallow bath. : ) The tub is incredibly short and small, but it works. : ) An hour and a half later, Heather gets to take a bath. : ) - Our world is never dull.
9:30 am - The cable company calls us back and says that their techs can't find the house. (Like I said, nothing new.) So I get dressed up warm again and walk out about 5 minutes to the main road, find them and lead them back in to our little home. Thankfully, they know what they are doing and putting cable into the home is not too big a deal. 1 1/2 hours later we have TV & Internet Access in the home for the first time in nearly 3 months! Yeah! It was a long slow process of looking at different options, deciding on this one and then waiting for 11 days, and 3 visits to the office, to finally get it installed after we had already paid for it. : ) They were very kind and gracious and we finally have internet in the house!
TV? Well, we don't yet have a TV, but the only way to get the internet is to bundle it with the TV. So, for now we are paying for TV service that we don't even get to use. I guess it will motivate us to break down and buy one. Ha! At least the service is much cheaper than in the states so I don't feel too bad about it. And, it REALLY beats having to go out and try to find a connection to the internet elsewhere. Yeah!!!
Well, this only gets us to about noon, but I am really tired for now and need to hit the sack.
I am not even going to check for errors (after all, it is a journal, not a blog, so who cares. : )
Good night all.
I'll try to fill you in a little bit more on life here tomorrow.
God bless -
No comments:
Post a Comment