Pictures of the container being unloaded

Hey, that's a container on the back of the truck. Don't be fooled though, that's not our container, it's the "moving truck".
Cecilia and Elida wait patiently while I look down our list of boxes to attempt to tell them where the boxes they have are supposed to go. It's a lot harder than it looks. I should have studied the spanish words for the different rooms in a house. If you look below you'll see that I wasn't communicating very well.

There were several men - Julio, Gabriel, Heber, Sebastian, Marco, Pablo, Archie, David and Juan Carlos; as well as several women - Elida, Rebekah, Norma, Cecelia, Andrea, Cristina, Ruth, and several teen girls who came to help unload the container. What a blessing to have all their help. Not only did they unload but they helped set up beds and move furniture around. The ladies helped me begin unpacking boxes too. We have a wonderful church family here in Colonia.
Ruth Perez is enjoying playing "Showers of Blessing" on her accordian graciously given to her by a family at Faith Baptist of Warren, Michigan; the Perez' sending church.

Mount Ever Rest! This is what beds are made for, right? That's what these bunch of monkeys thought. Simeon is not about to be left out of the fun as he skillfully climbs behind his big brother Nehemiah. Isabel sets aside all her feminine charm to hang out with the guys. Scary thing is she probably thought to climb the beds in the first place.
Our guachito (I sure hope that's a word, you know they add ito/ita onto words for little people, I'm just trying out my Spanish, we'll see if anyone corrects me) anyway, this rocking horse was Brandon's when he was Simeon's age. Thanks Uncle Fred and Aunt Gail, guess you never imagined this horsie would make it all the way to South America.

Home is where the heart is...

and everything else. There's not much else I can say about our container arrival than Glory to God. It's wonderful to have our things. The house is much quieter now and finally is feeling like home. Many of the rooms are taking shape even though I've spent countless hours organizing our "storage" space which for right now is two walls of the downstairs bedroom/playroom/guestroom/laundry area. Now that I have that done I can focus more on the stuff to put away here. And let me tell you after living my entire life with lots of closets and storage space this is going to take some getting used to. I'll be posting some pics later as right now I can barely think straight. Thanks to all who have prayed for this time on our lives. It's been a great joy.

What an ordeal

I sent out a very excited and hopeful email yesterday to our email list, I should have known things rarely happen simply for us. Add to that Uruguayan importation procedures which seem to have no rhyme or reason and you have the mixture for an ordeal. Boy, oh boy, do I wish I could post pictures of our nearly cramped and disarrayed home because it is finally full of boxes and furniture. But alas I sit here writing a post while my husband and Archie are still in Las Piedras at the camp.

All is not bad though, I got a text message from Scott this morning at 9 am that he could see the container. Then a phone call at about 10 am that the customs inspectors had arrived cleared the container and had left. A truck was supposed to be at the camp to unload the container directly on to. However, they have to unload onto the ground because who knows where the truck is. Most misisonaries have their container taken directly to their homes to be unloaded, but I did already mention the importation procedures, didn't I?

It is now about 11 am and I'm trying very hard to wait patiently for our things to be filling our home this afternoon. Is there a crown for patience? At any rate we are certainly gaining a good foundation for Godliness in our lives. (1 Peter 1:6) Hopefully, I'll be posting some pictures of the house soon. You do know I have to sew curtains and get things in order before that will happen. It could be a couple weeks before those pics get posted. Ha, now you all get to gain a good foundation for Godliness too. In the meantime, I will post some pics of the arrival of our things. Maybe tomorrow. (smile)

Maybe today...

...we will get our container. At least we are one step closer than yesterday! Today Scott headed into the capitol to post our bond for the release of the container. The way we understand it, once the bond is posted it takes about 4-5 days for approval and release of the container. The bond is a guarentee that we are seeking legal residency and will not sell our goods once they are released. Once the government gives us legal residency we have been told we will get our bond back.

Scott had to open an account here in order to post the bond, which actually was less an ordeal than expected. Apparantly it's next to impossible for a foreigner to get a bank account here. Just one more proof that we are exactly where God wants us.

Last Sunday, Dr. Cummins asked the people here to pray before every meal that God would work a miracle and allow for our container to be released before the end of the week, so he could preach in the Big Tent. It's still possible, if they will release our container today or tomorrow we could have the tent for Sunday services. Keep praying!