Civilization

These past couple months our family had the blessing of staying in a very nice home in the South Carolina piedmont (foothills).  The friend of friends made the home available to us.  It certainly was nice to have the space to spread out - Extreme Homemaker style!  The Lord really amazes us with the special ways He cares for our needs and beyond.

Since the house was out in the foothills and on Lake Keowee we enjoyed the beautiful scenery.  A golf course hole was also near the house so we had many laughs at the golfers expense.  No doubt we could not have golfed any better.

Today we "moved out" of that house into a mission house nearby and we are once again enjoying the favor of the Lord.  He is always so good to us!!!  And with that move we are back in civilization, and all it's glorious modern technological advances.  AKA, internet!  You should be hearing more from me again. Hopefully that's a good thing.

Gantt Street

Our relationship as missionaries with Gantt Street began several years ago during Bible College.  Scott had stayed faithful to the course of school but he still had about a 1 1/2 of studies to go because he was limited by finances and no regular work.  

That particular summer he had felt it was necessary to do some summer school even though that meant he wouldn't have money saved up for the fall semester.  Though there was some trepidation over this we always had the money when we needed it, and so, believed it would be no different that time.  Little did we know that Scott was about to become the beneficiary of a scholarship.  

Not only did this scholarship come from Gantt Street but a commitment to prayer.  We added them to our prayer letter list (Yes, we even sent those out in Bible college.) and they saw first hand the blessing their gift was to us.  

Six years ago we were in their missions conference and were blessed again.  I'm not sure when they picked us for support but they have been faithful to our family.  They have encouraged us in word and in prayer.  So it was a blessing to be back "home" with them this past Sunday.  And just like family everyone remarked about how much our children had grown.   

Our presentation was not shown because we had a hard time with the sound.  Something about their system being wireless.  (Don't ask me, I just put the display up. :-)  So they listened to a brief 5 minute report from Scott.  Then later Scott gave the DVD to Pastor so he could see the presentation later.  

Back in God's Country

We ended our cross country trek in our southern home-state of North Carolina.  (We have lots of home states).  After a day of travel through rain we were blessed to have the sky clear up just as we got into NC.  After driving for the day we ended our trip at our second home church, Emmanuel Baptist.  Where we were members and served the Lord during Bible College.   

We were invited to go to the youth service.  I had a hard time not crying.  It is so great to see the teens doing well and serving the Lord.  The best part was knowing that there are now a lot of public school kids, whom we prayed for the Lord to bring to the church during our time at Emmanuel. 

Brandon playing four square.

Upstairs for the preaching service!  Wow, this brings back great memories!   Brandon and Kaitlin will be able to attend the mid-winter retreat.  They are, to say the least, very excited about being able to be a part of Emmanuel's youth group any chance they get.

It was really great to see everyone after the service.  We are looking forward to Sunday morning's service.

Coast to Coast...well almost!

For those who may be curious I thought I would quickly recap our furlough travels: we have traveled through/in Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois,Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina since we arrived in the States a few weeks ago.

In February we will be in Charleston South Carolina and then we'll be able to claim the coast to coast status.  At any rate we did travel full circle.  On Monday night we ended up staying at a hotel by the Kansas City Airport and that is where we ended our travel back to the USA.

After having the opportunity to ride, at 70 mph, in a heated vehicle, across portions of the Oregon and Mormon trails I gained a new respect for my ancestors who traveled across the United States to make a new life in California.  We stopped at Fort Kearney for the kids to get an idea of Pioneer life.  It was closed.  So we drove around the outside.

Since we couldn't get in, and there was nothing to read, I'm not sure if this is the actual restored fort or a remake.  It looked neat though.

After stopping for the night in Kansas City we headed to my sisters house for a short but very sweet visit. 

My sister, Brenda, and the kids.

As you can see the kids were getting a little tired of taking pictures.  Before this we attempted about 40 shots of a family picture.  Then the shot above with Brenda and the kids.  During the family picture Brenda was trying to use the self timer but it was actually video.  We couldn't figure out why it wouldn't snap the shot.   I can hardly wait to see it.  LOL.  So for posterity sake of what we do to our kids with trying to get that "perfect" shot I have posted the above photo.

 

All the cousins, minus my nephew Travis who is in Navy A school in Florida.   The two in the upper right are my niece Chelsea and my nephew Garrett.  I was there when Garrett was born and declared I would NEVER have children.  HAHA!

We were having a discussion about me being taller.  I LOVE our faces!!!  

We do much better with our discussions now than when we were kids.  Haha.

Please keep praying for my sister to be able to get the treatments she needs, and if the Lord is willing, that He would heal her of Graves Disease.  

Over the Meadows...

and through the woods from grandmothers house we went.

After a very long day of travel on Friday...that could have been shorter if we took a different route, I'm told...we arrived in Fernley, Nevada.  Our time here thus far has been full of blessings and we are so encouraged in the Lord!  I plan to write more after we have tonight's service because I'm hoping to add pictures when I blog about our meeting here.. 

I wanted to thank you all for praying for travel mercies for us.  We had an uneventful trip...those are good when you're traveling with a family of 10 in the winter.  It was dark when we drove through the Donner Pass though so the kids weren't able to really see anything.  I'm hoping to drive into Reno before we leave so the kids can see the Sierras.  It would be good if the fog would lift before then. 

There is snow on the ground and the kids had a blast playing in it yesterday morning.  Our older kids went bowling with friends here.  Later Scott and I had a double date with the pastor and his wife, who are friends of our from Bible College.  It sure was great to go out and have fellowship with adults....in English!  However, it did make me miss our double dates in Uruguay with our friends Daniel and Amparo Lopez. 

Our First Furlough Meeting

This is on the way to Phoenix.  Are these mountains gorgeous?!  I have always missed seeing snow topped mountains.  Nehemiah kept saying that he was going to climb these. The next picture shows the grade out of the mountain.  And then the difference in landscape.

The Bowmans are a sweet couple.  And we really enjoyed our stay with them.  They have a grand piano in the living room and Kaitlin and Beth played a few songs during our stay.  Peanuts and Snoopy were their dogs and are probably missing all the extra attention right now.  The picture below is the house across the street from where we stayed.

Our first furlough meeting went very well.  Considering all the problems we had getting our presentation done the fact that I was able to show something was a relief.  There were a few technical glitches - the projector was projecting everything in purple and the sound cut in and out a few times.  I finally have the sound balanced out and I believe the presentation is ready to burn to a DVD.

 The church has both their meetings in the morning and so we were able to have lunch with the Pastor and his family and a man in the church, then we headed off to Lake Havasu City, via the University of Phoenix stadium, to spend some time with my Aunt and Uncle and cousins.   

"Mommy, I have to...."

Aren't those the words that every mother cringes to hear when traveling on a LONG trip?!  Maybe it is because we have 8 kids but it seems like I hear this every 20 minutes.  Especially today.  Simeon was literally telling me he had to go potty all day.  I hope he doesn't have something going on.  I do know that at least one time he played in the bathroom instead of using it.  He got to "water" a tree on the side of the road for that mistake. 

On this trip out west we've capitalized on the eating out experiences.  Yesterday we had burgers and Pizza.  Today we had waffles and real bagels for the first time in 3 years.  Our crazy kids didn't care for the waffles at all.  For lunch we had On the Border.  We can share plates between several kids because the chips will fill them up.  And tonight we got KFC chicken plus a bunch of sides.  Scott didn't have to pay for the sides at all because they were closing and they were going to throw them away.

We have been traveling on the 40 through Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico....with a little side trip on old Route 66 looking for a bathroom.  This morning at breakfast we met an older couple who are traveling the same route as we are.  They started in Manhatten, New York and they are also headed to Los Angeles for Christmas.  We were able to chat a little bit and I gave her a Christmas tract.  I am praying we meet up with them again. 

I'm off I need to eat my free KFC and get to bed!

Pre Christmas Blessings

There is always a measure of unease when we visit a new church.  And there is always a feeling of not wanting to be a burden.  So when we booked our stay with this church after picking up our van I was a little unsure of what to expect.  If you have read my previous posts you know that the folks here have made up feel extremely welcome here!

Yesterday we were privileged to spend the Sunday services here.  The bus kids had a special program in the morning service and it was so neat to see that our children had been included into the program.  Though our kids didn't know most of the songs they had costumes and looked adorable.

Simeon was a riot!  He had a look of fear and uncertainty on his face yet at the same time was trying to smile and be cheerful.  He would make eye contact with us and he would beam then he would look at the rest of the church and that expression would set in. 

Isabel just stood there with her arms crossed and a pleasant look on her face.  Nehemiah was a wise man.  Adeline and Bethany were angels.

After the service we enjoyed a Chili luncheon.  Brandon jumped right in as a waiter/server.  And I was able to help get some of the bus kids their food.

One of the best parts has been the fellowship...for all of us.  Our older kids recruited some of the teens here into making a new Confused Entertainment production.  From the little clips I've seen I think it will be very good.  I was able to answer lots of questions about Uruguay for Pastor Kaighens daughter who feels called to a Spanish speaking country.

We trust this time that we have been a blessing to the people here in some small measure.  And we are so thankful for more prayer warriors for us and our beloved country of Uruguay.

The Weather Outside is Frightful

Though it's not quite a winter wonderland outside it is definitely a cold blustery day.  The weather reported the temperature at 7 degrees F but it feels like -7.  BRRRR!  Thankfully the church we are staying at has a game room with carpet ball, foosball, ping-pong and a Wii in their youth room or we would be dealing with some very bored kiddos. 

The kids have loved the time to play all these games together but it sure is cold in the church with the heat turned down.  We took a thermometer into the youth room and it was 48 degrees in there.  It's hard to believe we survived cold like that throughout the winter time in Uruguay.

Last night was our first American service as a family and it was wonderful!  Pastor Kaighen here at Grace Baptist gave Scott the opportunity to share our ministry and even had a Q & A time, then he took up a love offering for us!  We still don't have a presentation but had it been done we would have been able to share that as well.  Keep in mind we are just here to pick up our rental van, we did not have a meeting set up.

It was so nice to sing in English, here the preaching in English without an interpretor and not on my iPod.  Later I bowed my head in prayer with two other ladies with no fear of mispronunciations.  And no need to think about how I would conjugate a verb or choose the correct word.  The people in this church have been so welcoming to our family.  They have provided food and meals for us.  The teens have included our teens.  The children have made friends.  And the nursery workers were patient with little Silas' Spanish and English even though his mommy (aka Me) forgot to tell them that he usually asks for things in Spanish.

It is clear to me that the Lord desires to encourage us.  He is reminding us of those years of Bible College when things were tight financially.  Our dependence upon God was strengthened during those years of not having a job while attending college.  As we prayed over everything we put into our shopping cart we learned that God had things in mind for us.  If we didn't pray and bought something on a whim we usually had a duplicate waiting for us in an anonymous bag of groceries left for us in our van.  (Although I'm sure in this case our kids would gladly accept duplicates of the things we need and the things we would like.)

I will admit it is very hard to wait on the Lord right now.  We have some definite needs and I know He will provide as He always has.  But I find myself wondering how can we do well what must be done at, what seems to me to be, the last minute.  Ah, yes, God is once again working in the 11th hour and no doubt in a way much unlike what I have planned.  And I need to trust that His will is best and His timing too!  And I need to trust that He is at work in the hearts of those who are also expecting us to do our best and that they will be understanding of our current limitations.

VAMOSH!

Today we took the whole family to WalMart!  It was an educational trip!  Really!  Who knew that you could buy all those electronics for so cheap.  For example a Wii for $200.00 is $600.00 in Uruguay.  Food, clothing and diapers are cheaper. 

The store is as big as we remeber them to be but it was hard to get the size across to the kids.  Silas' little mouth was hanging open and his expression was stunned.  After about an hour he had enough and began saying, "Vamosh!"  We tried really hard to look normal (as normal as you can look with 8 kids tailing behind you) and Silas is speaking Spanish.  Too funny!  That got more looks than the size of our family.

It definitely has been fun to eat all those things we haven't had in 3 years.  If we don't get fat we'll have stomach aches. 

Speaking of stomach aches...Isabel complained a lot on the flights about her stomach hurting but she was referring to her abdomen.  The last flight she was absolutely miserable.  Scott was at the back of the plane with some of the kids while I was a few seats forward.  I finally took her back to him because I thought she was going to be sick.  The flight attendant said it was probably gas.  But the last two days she's still complaining.  So i any has ever dealt with this before you advice would be appreciated. 

I also have another prayer request that I would like to keep as a partial unspoken.  There is a very specific need we have but do not have the means to meet it at this point in time.  Please be in prayer that we would see God provide for this need.

Cardboard Houses

We all were extremely exhausted after a total of 33.5 hours of traveling yesterday.  It is fun to say that we traveled in planes, trains, and buses.  And here we are in our home country and loving every minute of it, so far.  It was hard to believe, though, that we were back in the USA while we were in Miami.  Literally every one of the airport workers we came across spoke Spanish.  And when they spoke to each other they spoke Spanish...it was kind of fun to have the ability to eavesdrop when they think we don't. 

As we drove the hour from the airport in Kansas City to the church that is housing us here in Missiouri we were enthralled by the possibilities of all the stores and restaurants.  Mexican food was screaming our name.  So when one of the families asked Scott what we would like for dinner we asked for Taco Bell.  And we get to go there for lunch today!!!

 

Another family did some grocery shopping for us.  A tremendous blessing from the Lord!!!  They felt bad for buying us so much cereal for breakfast.  They were quickly reassured that the cereal and Pop Tarts are a welcome treat!  The kids can't get over the size and type of the milk containers.  I can't forget the square cheese!  And Egg Nog!!!

The sound of the central heat kicking in through the night will take a little getting used to.  Silas had a look of shock on his face to hear it the first few times it started up.  Nehemiah still thinks it's the sound of rain.  But it sure is nice to have every room of the house nice and warm especially since it's close to freezing here.  We're expecting snow tomorrow!!!

This morning while I was in the shower Simeon knocked on the wall.  And it, of course, had a hollow knocking sound.  He looked at Scott and said, "Daddy, this house is cardboard."

The kids discovered the dish washer.  You can imagine their joy to know their chore, at least while we're here is limited to rinsing and placing the dirty dishes into the machine.  The funny thing about this is that the younger kids thought that once the dishes go in they automatically come out clean.  Simeon was thirsty and pulled a dirty cup out and was shocked that it was still dirty.

And for some reason the kids are lined up to take baths in the real bathtub. :-)  Believe me I'll be taking advantage of every bathtub I come across in these great United States! 

I'm sure the longer we are back in the states the unfamilair will become familair (again).  And these blogs will change.  I hope you are enjoying our blessings, experiences, and funnies, of furlough as much as we are. 

Back in the States

Shortly after 5 this morning we touched down in Miami.  The trip so far has been pretty good.  Very long but uneventful. 
The flight over the Andes was absolutely spectacular!  And the kids all enjoyed the individual screens with games during the flight from Chile to the USA, until they all passed out from exhaustion.  I actually got some sleep too!

Now we are waiting for the next connection to Atlanta and from there we head to Kansas City.  While we are waiting we decided to have some Pizza for breakfast.  And it was fantastic!

Some culture shock has already hit - self flushing toilets, being able to speak English in public, Spanish spoken by all the airport workers, our favorite sodas and candies are available, books are sold in English, and favorite restaurants. 

The connection here in the airport is very slow I've tried to upload pictures but can't.  I have a lot of them.  Several people met us at the bus terminal to say goodbye.  Then we crossed paths with others in the terminal in Montevideo and at the airport. 

I would write more too but after 24 hours of travel I'm just too tired.  I keep having to delete things because I'm hitting all the wrong keys. 

Vamos. Go.

Silas, was running around the house this morning saying screaming "VAMOS.  GO."  Poor guy must think we're going to leave without him.  He's calmed down now that everyone is sitting around.  The anxiety is clear in the whines of the littlest of our children.  And on the other hand the excitement is evident as everyone talks about seeing family, shopping at WalMart, eating Taco Bell. :-) 

So that pretty much sums up our last morning here before beginning furlough.  We have a ton of bags ready and we are all ready; each of us are wearing our Uruguay tourist shirts.  This is so we can quickly identify any lost children...or grown-ups. ha.  It is also so we can have our beloved Uruguay close to our hearts. 

Without question we'll miss Uruguay this next year!  This is our home and we love it and the people!!!  Our prayer is that God will use us during our time of furlough for the cause of Christ here in Uruguay.  We also pray He will use us on our trip back to the States. 

With 31+ hours of travel ahead of us (we are all already exhausted) your prayers for travel mercies during our flights and layovers are coveted.    Plus, I woke up this morning with a headache and twitching, tingling and numbness in my left hand and it still has not gone away.  I assume it is nothing more than I slept wrong last night.


Well, I need to close now as people are beginning to arrive to say goodbye to us.  We'll see you in a few days.

Phew! This is hard.

Today Scott and I stopped by the hogar (home) of Abuela Paulina and Juana to say our farewells.  It was hard to see her sad to see us leave.  She's been such a blessing to us we will miss her greatly.  But we are thankful to have her as our prayer warrior. 

Tonight was our last official service here in Colonia del Sacramento, UY.  I did great through the night.  Really.  It wasn't that I wasn't thinking of leaving because I was asked to say goodbye to the kids in Niños del Rey. 

As we were waiting for the prayer meeting to end Sebastian said his farewell to me, since I did great through that I thought, "Phew, this is going better than I thought it would." 

Then I entered the main building and finished passing out pictures to the ladies from the despedida.  It finally hit me when Silvia stood at the back of the church called out my name and with tears in her eyes, waved and promptly left. 

Just after that the mom of one of Kaitlin's friends who normally doesn't come to church came tonight to say goodbye.  As she was saying her farewell she gave me the biggest hug and I just lost it.  It brings tears to my eyes all over again to recall it.

Friday night's baby shower will probably be very hard to get through.  And I can't even begin to think about Saturday!

Furlough 2010 Prayer Cards

After a few weeks of work, several changes, some advice, and even more changes we have the final version of our furlough 2010 prayer card. I also made a version of the front in Spanish to give to the people here.


The conversation around here focuses on our furlough as the kids (and their parents) talk about seeing family, and eating in favorite restaurants and shopping at Wal Mart!

Scott has booked about half of our furlough meetings and he has been so pleased with how the Lord is working it all out. Thankfully, we have an additional 3 deputation meetings booked to present our ministry.

Please continue to be in prayer for these last 3 months before we head back to the States. I keep running into road blocks with our presentation. And I still need to work on our display. I have started winnowing out things we don't need to keep so we have less to pack up (clothes, books, etc.) before we leave. We are thankful for close family friends who will stay in our home while we are in the States. They will guard our things and care for our dog, Hoss.

As always we are thankful for and covet your prayers!

Another First...Furlough

I keep feeling like I'm neglecting the blog, I guess because I am. Does it help if I've been busy with other things? Well, I'll not offer a bunch of excuses but I will update you on what's happening.

Right now I am working on our presentation for furlough! That's right, furlough! Can you believe it? I can't! Granted, that's because our first furlough is 10 mos earlier than originally planned. It was a necessity. As we began praying and planning furlough with the original dates, we realized that several of our cedulas (residency cards) would need renewal while we were gone! We were told by a lady in immigration that if we were not here to renew the cards we very likely would lose our residency status.

So we began looking at dates and our choices were to stay here until we could renew our cards before leaving, or go, and return, before we needed to renew our cards. Several things were considered in making our final decision.

First, Brandon will be starting college in the fall of 2010. We would really like to be in the States with him when he starts school at Ambassador.

Second, we would like to start a new church plant sooner rather than later. We could start one once the Perez family returns from their furlough but then that would mean we would have to leave it shortly after it was planted. Not a good idea.

Finally, our residency, which has already been mentioned.

One of the drawbacks to going home on furlough sooner was that we were lacking in funds for passage back to the States. Though we have been putting money into our passage account since arriving on the field, our first furlough was originally thought to be after 4 years on the field, thus the amount we had budgeted came up short because we were short a year.

We took all of this before our home-church pastor and his advice was to take an early furlough and make our supporting churches aware of the additional need for passage funds. Thankfully, our travel agent was able to find round trip tickets that were good for a year. This actually cut the cost of our tickets nearly in half. Within a few days the Lord has met the additional need for funds and we should be able to buy the tickets Monday.

Once Scott knew that he could purchase the tickets, which was this week, he began making phone calls to our supporting churches to book meetings. It has really been a blessing to him to make these phone calls. He has told me that the secretaries and pastors he has spoken with have been a tremendous encouragement. They have told him they were expecting his phone call. And many have asked about my health.

I know our missionary friends will probably disagree with us, because I'm sure they feel the same way, but we have the BEST supporting churches! Each one has involved themselves in our lives in so many different ways. Visits, packages, cards, notes, letters and phone calls are all among the ways that God has blessed us through our supporters. We are REALLY looking forward to being back with all of them and sharing what God has done in our lives during our first term. And sharing the future we believe God has planned for us here in Uruguay.

I know this has been a lengthy post, but I would like to close with some prayer requests:
~That God would use us to burden hearts for missions and that we could have supporting church visit us here in Uruguay with missions teams.
~We need someone to stay in our house while we are gone.
~Brandon is finishing up high school.
~For us to be in every supporting church.
~To have new churches to present our ministry in.
~For the planning of furlough meetings.
~Brandon and Kaitlin will be applying for the CIT training at the Wilds for next summer.
~For our trip to California to be with family for Christmas, our first Christmas with family in 4 years.