Some prayer requests

Please be in prayer for the following:

1. The satellite ministry in Tarariras, Uruguay. The building being used now is owned by the Mormon Bishop and when he comes to town there can be no meetings. It would be best to find a new building.
2. Dr. David Cummins, Baptist World Mission Deputation Director, will be here for two weeks and will have a very full schedule preaching and teaching Baptist history. Please pray for souls to be saved and believers to grow. Pray for his health and strength as well as that of Mrs. Cummins who will be here with him. The Cummins will leave from here to go to Brazil for a couple of weeks.
3. Anniversary Sunday for La Iglesia Bautista Fundamental will be January 14th. The baptism service at the river is a tremendous opportunity to be a witness for Christ as the church members stand along the shore singing hymns and passing out tracts to passers by. Those being baptized are from both satellite mininstries in El General and Tarariras, as well as the mother church in El Real.
4. Betina recently had brain surgery to remove a mass. This is her second such surgery, the last one was just three years ago. She was sent home from the hospital in Montevideo less than a week after her surgery. Pray for a full recovery.
5. It would be good for us to get a vehicle soon please pray God will lead us to the right van. The Perez' have graciously loaned us their car. Right now the container and immigration have taken up a lot of our O&P fund which leaves us short of the amount we need for a van.

We trust you all will have a Happy New Year following the Lord's will for your lives.

They said it couldn't happen....

but God must really want to encourage us, because today at our front door a man came knocking. Now this was not just any ordinary man this was a delivery man. And not just any delivery man, mind you, would cause me to write this post, but a delivery man of BOXES from the USA. Can you believe it?!

I could hardly contain myself when I opened my front door and saw this nice man standing at the door with a BOX, from the USA, just for us. Well, actually, a box of Christmas presents for the little ones.

The amazing thing is that the box only took 2 weeks to make it to us and it doesn't appear to have been opened by customs. Thank you, Bethany Hills Baptist, for taking a BIG risk in sending this box to us. And thank you, Lord, for this special surprise!!!

Fireworks, family dinners, and BBQ, to someone from the USA these things remind us of the 4th of July. To Uruguayans they are traditions of Christmas. Over and over again I had to remind myself that we really were at the end of December instead of the beginning of July. I'm told by other missionaries who live in the Southern Hemisphere or climates which are warm year round that we will adapt. I even had a friend from Cambodia write to tell me that this year they were drinking Hot Cocoa and wearing coats...in the 60's. It's a little hard to believe that Christmas in the summer will become normal but even North Carolina had some heat this year. So I guess I can't rule it out.

Christmas Eve was really nice. Archie and Ruth Perez invited us over for a traditional Uruguayan Christmas, which they celebrate on Christmas Eve. Archie joked that we were the only ones in the country opening our presents on Christmas morning. Below are some pictures and explanations of our Christmas. Enjoy.

The Perez' oldest son Mark was the asado (BBQ) chef and he did great. Notice it's not like our BBQ. They light the wood and once they have coals they move them under the meat and cook it very slowly, usually several hours. We ate about 9 pm, much earlier than the typical midnight meal. The meal was served with beats, salad, and cornbread, green beans, macaroni and cheese (our North American contribution) and mashed potatos, brownies, cake (for Adeline) and the Asado (Beef, Chicken and Sausage). The meat is covered with a wonderful sauce called Chimmichurri. Those of you who have eaten with us have already tried a version of this.

Simeon REALLY enjoys the chocolate candy bars here. This was his before dinner treat.

The little children put on a play about the Christmas story. Bethany was Mary, David Perez was Joseph, Isabel an Angel, Nehemiah, Adeline and Priscilla Perez were Wiseman, and Simeon was a Shepherd. They did a great job too.

Our Christmas Card

Stormy Weather

Last Saturday night, and again last night, Uruguay experienced unseasonable rough weather. Saturday nights storm packed winds of over 90 miles per hour. Here in Uruguay, at least in Colonia, it is not at all unusual for people to be out late into the night. Most head out for dinner after 10 pm. As a result several were caught outside when the storm hit. We actually woke up to people screaming before we realized there was a storm. Brandon looked out the window and saw a man on a bike riding very fast up the road and not hardly peddling. Thankfully, we live in a nice strong concrete house. The only thing affected was our yard with a lot of tree debre.

Since attempting to get our container I have experienced some storms in my heart. I so badly want my things. After three years of deputation and living out of suitcases, I'm so ready to be home, that's difficult with no belongings. North Americans have the saying, "Home is where your heart is." As a believer I've been reminded that my home is anywhere Jesus would have me to be. I'm holding on to that as I wait on beauracracy to find it's way through all the red tape. I really don't have any idea how people who don't know the Lord can move as we just have. I'm finding a new dependence on God here. One that has been there but needs strengthening. God is constantly reminding me to believe in Him, trust in Him for He is my God.

I know our container will get here when God is ready for it to arrive. And it will be just like Christmas as I open up boxes I packed away three years ago and look again at family pictures. And I'm sure I'll wonder as I pull some items out of their safe keeping what in the world I was thinking packing that silly little thing and shipping it thousands of miles.

The Before

The Master Bedroom after cracks had been plastered.

The Kitchen, under the wallpaper and plaster was a nice tile

This is the dining room wall where they had a carpet glued. We had to remove the adhesive then sand and plaster then sand again. The boys room was the same way.

Gabriel Chauvie sanding the wall.

Our arrival on the field

The sign made for our arrival...Welcome to Uruguay family Borrmann

Debbie and Ruth Perez. We all wore the yellow Uruguay Bound t-shirts for easy identification in the airports.

Andrea and Bethany Perez and Sabrina, one of the teens, with Isabel.

A couple of our Urugauyan (pronounced ur oo gwash in, I think that's the phonetics of it anyway) prayer warriors, Senoras Ema and Norma, with Kaitlin.

The bus that took us home to Colonia del Sacramento. The guys were filling the "basement" with our 22 checked bags, plus 15 carry on and personal bags. Now imagine all that plus seven children, we were a sight to behold.

Promised Pictures Part One

Our very first Uruguayan sunset the night we arrived.















The Ladies Christmas meeting.

Language Barriers

I keep wondering how much the people we deal with on a daily basis must be laughing as they recount our coming into their stores to order things. The other day we visited the brand new mall in town. Though it's only about a tenth of the size of a regular stateside mall and about half a Super Wal Mart, it's great!

There is a grocery store attached to the mall which we've already visited a couple times. Our friends, the Baltzersens, wanted some goodies from the bakery. Trying to get a price was near to impossible; we knew how to ask the price of things but, they spoke so quickly and I'm not so good yet with numbers higher than 19. The girls finally put the prices up on their scale. We all got a good laugh about that one.

Culture shock is already hitting. It's hard to get used to standing in line for everything. In the grocery store you must visit the deli counter, the meat counter and the bakery counter - separately. The fruit and veggies also must be weighed and ticketed right there in that section. A visit to the paint store takes at least 30 minutes, never mind that what we needed we just took off the shelf.

Perhaps when our Spanish gets better things will move more rapidly. I was able to recognize many things that Pastor Archie had preached on during the Sunday services. So for that I'm thankful. My goal is to, very soon, be able to have a meaningful conversation with some of the ladies here. Right now my communication is extremely limited and consists mostly of smiles.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for this immersion way of language learning. The longer we are here the more I realize I wouldn't learn half of what I'm learning now in a classroom. I'm a hands on learner and I'm very goal oriented. Motivation is a major factor here. I'm motivated to be able to share the Gospel...clearly.

Yesterday, we took our friends, the Baltzersens, to the airport. Boy, will we miss them considerably. It was a blessing to have this transition time with them. Thanks Bill and Judy for serving the Lord, though briefly, here with us in Uruguay. We are looking forward to your next family vacation down here. :-)

A short update

Just wanted to let you all know I haven't forgotten about the pictures. I should have them up in a couple days when we have high speed internet. Things are going great. We've been working on painting the house and doing some renovations wet tried to put a linoleum floor down. Let's just say, we should've went for the tile to begin with.

I'll be back in a couple days with some photos. Thanks for praying.