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 - 

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 -

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 -

Obey Obey Obey

It has been too long since I have written in my on-line journal.  (I told you from the start that this is not a strength for me.  : )  But, I must fight through and learn how to schedule time to do this each day.  Many people have commented to that I need to be writing down everything and keeping a record for myself, family, posterity, etc - of all of the amazing experiences we live through as missionaries.  So, back into the saddle I go.  : )

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 -