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
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