More camping photos

Worship for 2 or 3 hours is always a good thing

Here is Cole the cole miner.

Beautiful morning sun.

Marcela eats with her mouth open!!!

Canoeing... much fun, but definitely the hardest thing we did on the trip. I realized that I have issues with not being in control...

This was the view from the lookout tower on the very end of our trip. It reminded me of some places in the Lord of the Rings books.

Camping trip pictures

Here are some pictures from the camping trip we took a couple of weeks ago with the young adults in the church. Yes, there's hardly any pictures of girls, but that's Matt's fault. These are his pictures. I'm getting some more soon, so I'll be able to post some more soon.
Dominick and Anthony being silly waiting to go into the park.

The boys took a nature hike in the daytime. The girls hadn't arrived yet, because we were attending the ladies Christmas tea at the church first. So, here are the guys in their band pose.

We've found spiderman's identity. He couldn't resist jumping up on the fallen tree when in the natural surroundings...

Erin and Patrick. Pure silliness.

Here's the yummy camping recipe we discovered. Heap a generous helping of good old dirt in a giant pot of beans. Let sit engulfed in flames for a few minutes or so, then carefully remove most of the dirt. It's good to leave a little in there for flavor and texture. Yum...

Erin, Jada, and Jared cooking some hot dogs the primitive way, you know, like the cavemen cooked their hot dogs.

It got pretty windy in the night. It cracked me up when I saw that all the chairs were neatly tipped over in a nice straight row from the wind in the night.

Jeff, having some morning coffee. He really needed it because I think he slept only about an hour or two in the night.

Robin is getting ready to make breakfast. Luckily the stove didn't catch on fire again.

God blessed us with a beautiful rainbow. There were 2 of them right beside each other. You could see the whole thing, from end to end. It was awesome. Thanks, Lord, for not flooding the earth again.

Merry Christmas

Tonight, we are having a big Christmas eve service. We are going to have 2 services, because we are expecting too many people to fit for 1 service. We have all been preparing the worship and a Christmas pageant with the kids for almost 2 months. Whew! I am excited and a little nervous. We learned so many new songs, I hope I remember them all!

We've been so busy lately, that I almost forgot all about Christmas dinner! Luckily the grocery store was still open today, and I could get something for us to eat tomorrow night. We almost had to eat chinese for Christmas (the food, not the people...)

Merry Christmas to all my family in the states and in Peru. We love you all very much.

Lo siento que no tengo sufficiente tiempo para escribir todo en espanol. !Feliz Navidad a todos!

Last Sunday

Last Sunday we did an outreach to a poor Guatamalan community in Lake Worth. Most of them did not speak any English. We brought toys and clothes to hand out for the children for Christmas. We went to a little convenient store where there are typically a lot of people that hang out there. They did not know we were coming. The police came by one time, and were very nice. Praise the Lord, because we weren't really supposed to be doing that sort of thing there. We ended up with a pretty large crowd. Some of us were doing some one on one street witnessing, some of us were handing out items, and some of us were playing some worship songs. I tried to speak to the crowd in spanish over by where we were playing worship, and I got nervous and felt stupid when no one responded to my questions. I probably wasn't making very much sense to them. Ha! I guess I still have a lot to learn (duh!)

Alcance Outreach

There were a lot of people wanting toys and clothes for their children for Christmas. It was a little chaotic.

Dominick and I decided to go play some worship in spanish. (Actually it was Dawn's idea!) Chris was playing drum somewhere behind the tree there, too.
Hi Greg!
After a little while, the owners of the store asked us to go around to the back, we were creating too much of a crowd. But, we just set up in the back and continued what we were doing.

Marcelo spoke to the people at the end a little bit in spanish (I don't really know what he said). This guy came and wanted to pray with him.

The best part was hearing about Patty's talk with one of the guys there. Apparently, he knew the Lord some time ago, but had strayed away. He had recently found his wife with his brother together and wanted to kill them. He had actually already tried unsucessfully, and was soon going to try again. He felt that he could not be forgiven for what he was trying to do. He broke down talking to Patty. Robin said he was bawling. She talked to him a lot and in the end, he prayed with her to receive Christ.

Praise the Lord! It was all worth it just to reach that guy.

My goofy son

Liam at his finest!

Fotos

We are making some repairs to our house so that we can try to sell it in January. Here's Robin and Kelly working on our bathroom. Thanks, Kelly (and Jim, too!) Estamos hecho reparaciones en nuestra casa para venderlo en enero. Aqui esta Robin y Kelly trabajando en nuestro bano.
Gracias, Kelly (y Jim, tambien!)

Camping trip

(I didn't take any pictures of the trip, but I'll try to get some from the others to post soon.)

Last weekend, we took the transitions group camping. That's the young adult ministry we lead in the church. We only went for one night, but it was awesome. Our stove caught on fire while cooking dinner. We threw dirt on it to put it out, and got it in the beans. After digging out most of the dirt, we ate the beans anyway. They were only a little gritty... That night we had worship for about 2 1/2 hrs, which was awesome. Then we roasted marshmallows and hung out til about 2 in the morning. Some went to bed, and some of us went on a nature hike for about an hour. It was really cool to lay down on the path and look at the stars without light pollution. Luckily, we didn't run into any alligators, which was a very real concern. The next morning, after breakfast was all cleaned up, we had church service under a canopy. That was pretty cool. Then we had to breakdown our camp (one of the tents had broken from all the wind). After that, we went over to the river, had lunch, and got ready to go canoeing. I had no idea how hard that was going to be. Most of us got pretty good at going back and forth running into the mangroves... But, we learned a lot. Teamwork. Trust. To let go of our expectations, and enjoy our surroundings, enjoy our time together, even if you don't get very far away from where you started. Relationships are much more important than the task at hand. But, I just can't help being a little competitive... Lastly, we went up to a lookout point where you could see to the ocean on one side, and out over all the natural lands in the park on the other side. I had no idea how big it was. It was cool to see so much nature in one place. God's creation sure is amazing.

News

We have had a lot going on in the last month, or so. We've been working on the house trying to get it ready to sell in January. We put in a new bathtub, tiles, and sink in the bathroom. Thanks Kelly and Jim for all their help. Praise the Lord, we have a lot of help.

We recently got to visit with Shane and Cary Treadway, missionaries in Peru. It was nice talking about what their vision is for reaching the unreached people in the Carumas valley in Peru. They are going to be moving there in the spring. They were living in another area of Peru previously.

Last weekend our church had a ladies tea. It was very nice and elegant as always. I love to worship the Lord in all different kinds of ways, and when a bunch of ladies get together, it's usually in a very nice and sweet way. We had a great worship team, thanks Joy, Jada, Erin, Cassy, Kaulana, and Marianne. (Way to go Marianne, that was her first time up in front of everybody!) It was probably my last ladies event to lead worship for. So, that's a little sad for me. But, there are many good things in store.

We are preparing for a big Christmas eve service. It's going to be mostly songs and some kids things. The worship is going to tell the story of Christmas in an outreach sort of way. We are working very hard on getting the songs sounding really good. I can't wait.

This coming Sunday, we are doing an outreach to a local Guatamalan community in Lake Worth. We are going to hand out some clothing, some toys, and possibly do songs in spanish for the kids and adults. We are hoping to do the lollipop drama, it's so much fun to do! Pray for this outreach, that we don't get run out by the police. They are starting to not let churches do these sorts of things. They don't want the poor people to gather in the parks, and they don't want anything religious to be represented in the public places. We are not sure what will happen, but we are still going to go. Pray for favor in the eyes of the authorities.

We have gotten to see Brian and Betty Vander Kodde these last few days. Last night they showed a video of what's going on in Peru. I've seen it a couple of times before, but this time, I started to cry a little. I think I'm getting emotional about going to Peru. We are planning on leaving in about 7 more months, which really isn't very long. I have been feeling a little sad to leave the ministries we are involved in here, because I love everyone so much. But, seeing the video reminded me of the love I have for the people in Peru. It's very hard to want to go and to want to stay at the same time. Ultimately, we will do what the Lord calls us to do, and I know that will be the best for us.

Last week we had another garage sale at Doug's house. There were about 9 different families that contributed to the sale. Not to mention the 2 families that helped out by watching our kids the whole time. Thanks, everybody. I am always amazed at how the body of Christ works. So many different people all helping out together can really accomplish big things. Praise God! La semana pasada tuvimos otra venta de yarda a la casa de Doug. Habia 9 familias que den por la venta. Y tambien, habia 2 familias que ayudaron con nuestros ninos durante la venta. Gracias a todos. Siempre estoy pasmado con el cuerpo de Cristo. Muchas personas trabajando juntos pueden realizar cosas grandes. !Gloria a Dios!

Tomorrow we are getting together with Brian and Betty VanderKodde and their kids. They are missionaries in Lima, Peru that we are going to work with for our first 2 years in Peru. They are on furlough in the U.S. with their 3 kids. My daughter is excited to meet them, she's been drawing a picture for them as a present, and counting the days until they come. It will be very good to talk with them and plan our coming to Peru. We are planning on leaving for Peru as full time missionaries in June, 2007, a little more than 7 months from now. Manana vamos a visitar con Brian y Betty y sus ninos. Mi hija esta emocionada conocerlos, ha estado dibujando una pictura por ellos por un regalo. Ella esta contando los dias hasta vienen. Va a estar muy bien hablar con ellos y hacer planos con cuando vamos a llegar en Peru. Queremos salir por Peru en junio, 2007, un poquito mas que 7 meses de ahora.

News Noticias

Today we had a marriage conference at the church. There were some great testimonies. We had a lot of laughs, too. Thanks everybody for helping out with all the kids!! Hoy tuvimos una conferencia por los matrimonios a la iglesia. Hay unos testimonios buenos. Nos divertimos, y reimos mucho tambien. !Gracias a todos por ayudando con todos los ninos!


Yesterday was Kilaine's birthday. She turned 5. We had just the family over. It was a nice time. Ayer fue el cumpleanos de Kilaine. Cumplio 5 anos. Nuestro familia vino a casa. Fue un buen rato.

We are continuing to get the house ready to sell in January. Last week we had a new door put on in our kitchen. We haven't finished it yet, you can still see outside! Estamos continuando hacer lista la casa por veniendo en enero. La semana pasada, pusimos un nueva puerta en la cocina. Ya no terminado, !todavia puede ver afuera!

Getting ready Haciendo preparaciones

We have been getting ready for Peru. We're almost done with our informational brochure that tells about our mission to Peru. Yay! The kids had fun going and getting their passports done. And it's exciting to sell some of our furniture and things. We're having another yard sale on Oct. 21 at Doug's house (he went with us to Peru last summer). Thanks Doug! The other major thing we are working on is getting our house ready to sell. We want to put it on the market in January. Hopefully it will sell pretty quickly (by April). Then, we intend to do the bulk of our support raising from Jan. to around April. There is a missionary training school that lasts 3 weeks in Mexico that we intend to go to also. It's from April 22 to May 11. (That's why we want the house to be already sold). We are planning to leave for Lima, Peru sometime in June.

Brian and Betty Vander Kodde will be here soon on furlough. They are the missionaries in Peru that we are going to serve with. We are going to get to visit with them and talk about us serving in Peru. I'm really excited to see them.

Our regular ministries are continuing well. We will begin to step down from some of them around January in order to spend more time studying spanish and doing other things to get ready to move to Peru.

Hemos estado haciendo preparaciones por mudandose a Peru. Casi terminamos con nuestro papel informacional sobre nuestro mision en Peru. !Yupi! Los ninos tuve divertido haciendo sus pasaportes. Y esta emocionado vendiendo nuestro mueble y otras cosas. Tuvimos otro vende en el 21 de octubre a la casa de Doug (el fue con nosotros a Peru el verano pasado). !Gracias, Doug! Tambien, estamos trabajando en nuestra casa para que sea listo por vendiendolo. Comenzamos a venderlo en enero. Esperamos que venda pronto (antes de abril). Luego, levantamos fondos de enero hasta abril. Hay una escuela misionera en Mexico por 3 semanas, de abril 22 hasta mayo 11, que queremos asistir. (Por eso queremos la casa sea vendido antes de abril.) Hacimos planes salir por Lima, Peru en junio.

Brian y Betty Vander Kodde estaran aqui pronto por furlough (no se que palabra en espanol). Ellos son los misioneros en Peru que quien estaremos trabajar. Visitaremos con ellos y hablamos sobre los planes por Peru. Estoy muy emocionada verlos.

Nuestro ministerios regulares esta continuando bien. Dejamos de trabajar unos do los ministerios en enero para que pasemos mas tiempo estudiando espanol y haciendo otras cosas para sea listo mudarse a Peru.

...Whew! That was hard!...

Peru trip

Here is the story of our missions trip to Peru. Sorry it took so long (a month and a half) to write. I was having trouble getting the pictures onto the blog. Aqui esta la cuenta de nuestro viaje misionero. Lo siento que yo tome tanto tiempo (un mes y media) para escribirlo. Yo estaba teniendo dificultad poniendo las fotos en el blog.

Day of Departure -Thursday

Thursday we left for Peru. We met at the church around 10 in the morning, but we didn't arrive in Peru until around midnight or so. We were so excited! En jueves, salimos por Peru. Nos reunimos a la iglesia a las 10 en la manana, mas o menos, pero no llegamos a Peru hasta aproximadamente medianoche. !Estabamos muy emocionado! I got sick on the plane. Fun... Yo estaba enferma en el avion. Divertido...

Day 1 -Friday

Friday... our first day in Peru. We started out by working on the church building in Surco. I cleaned all of the bathrooms. Yippie! El viernes, nuestro primer dia en Peru. Comenzaron con trabajando en la iglesia en Surco. Yo limpie todos los banos. !Yupi!
This is Surco. Este es Surco.
Jose, Doug, Bobby, and Joseph went to a ladies house to replace her roof. It was a good day of helping out. Jose, Doug, Bobby, y Joseph fueron a una casa de una senora de la iglesia para componer su techo. Estaba un buen dia de ayudando.

That night we made chocotejas, a chocolate that the church is selling to raise money so they can take a missions trip to Ayacucho. Esa noche, hicimos chocotejas, una chocolate que la iglesia esta vendiendo para levantar fondos para hacer un viaje misionero a Ayacucho.

Day 2 -Saturday

On Saturday, we went out on the streets and sold chocotejas en the morning. That was an adventure! In the afternoon, we went to Villa Maria to do an outreach. We did worship, dramas, testimonies, and teachings for kids and adults. There was a team there from Oregon also. They did their ministries, too. It was definitely a group effort! That night, we set up the church back in Surco for the service the next morning. En sabado, en la manana, ibamos en las calles y vendimos chocotejas. !Que una aventura! En la tarde, ibamos a Villa Maria para hacer un alcance. Hicimos muchos ministerios; musica, mimos, testimonios, y estudios para ninos y adultos. Habia un grupo de Oregon alla tambien. !Definitamente estaba un efuerzo del grupo! Esa noche, arreglamos la iglesia en Surco para el servicio la proxima manana.
Me and Luz. Luz y yo

Day 3 -Sunday

On Sunday, I helped out with the worship team for the church service. I love singing worhip songs in spanish! En domingo, yo ayude con las alabanzas por el servicio. !Me encanta cantando alabanzas en espanol!

In the afternoon, we all went to Santa Rosa de Villa, outside of Puente Piedra to have another church service. I taught the youth kids with Americo and David. Matt & Cole helped out with a drama, too. Cole shared a great story about "poofies" in the cake to illustrate sin. En la tarde, fuimos a Santa Rosa de Villa, afuera de Puente Piedra para tener otro servicio de la iglesia. Yo ensene los jovenes con Americo y David. Matt y Cole ayudaron con un mimo tambien. Cole dijo una cuenta sobre poofies en la arroz con leche para ilustrar pecado.

Some of the other guys taught the little kids. This is where we spent most of our trip last year, building a church, which they are now using part of it for the youth to meet. Unos de los otros hombres ensenaron los ninos. Este es el lugar donde constuimos un edificio por la iglesia el ano pasado. Ahora, estan usando parte del edificio por los jovenes.
The little girl in the middle is Liset. She lives next to the house they rent to have the church in. She is the sweetest little thing! Last year, my daughter sent her favorite toy to give to a little girl in Peru. Liset is the one that received the toy. We have a picture of her in my daughter's room holding the toy. Kilaine always says that she is her best friend. So cute! La nina en el medio se llamada Liset. Ella vive al lado de la casa que alquilen para tener la iglesia. !Ella esta tan bonita! El ano pasado, mi hija mando su juguete favorite para dar a una nina en Peru. Liset recibio la juguete. En el dormitorio de mi hija tenemos una foto de Liset con la juguete. Siempre Kilaine esta diciendo que Liset este su amigo buena. !Tan linda!

Day 4 -Monday

Monday was our free day. We went to 2 museums in the morning. Martes estaba nuestro dia libre. Ibamos a 2 museos en la manana. A class studying english stopped us to ask questions in english. Robin even sang them the national anthem. Una clase estudiando ingles, nos paran para hacernos unas preguntas en ingles. Robin los canto una cancion de nuestro paiz. Then, we had anticuchos for lunch (that's beef heart on a stick). That night, I went to visit some friends. Luego, tomamos anticucho por almuerzo. Esa noche, iba a visitar unas amigas.

Everyone else stayed at the church to make more chocotejas. I'm sure that's Americo giving Cole a hard time. Much fun. Los otros se quedaron a la iglesia para hacer mas chocotejas. Estoy seguro de que Americo estaba molestando a Cole. Mucho divertido.

Day 5 -Tuesday

On Tuesday, we took a bus in the morning for 2 hours to serve with Pastor Jaime Inga in San Vicente, Canete. He does an outreach in Playa Hermosa with the kids every Tuesday. We played with the kids, did a drama and some crafts. En lunes, llevamos un autobus in la manana por 2 horas para servir con Pastor Jaime Inga en San Vicente, Canete. El va a Playa Hermosa cada lunes para ensenar la biblia a los ninos. Jugabamos con los ninos, hicimos un mimo, y una manualidad. Robin did a teaching with a puppet. Robin enseno las ninos con una tetera.
That night, back in San Vicente, we went out on the street to do an evangelistic outreach. I prayed with 2 girls, Erica & Faviola, to receive the Lord that night. Pray for them, that they will truly be seeking the Lord. Esa noche, despues regresando en San Vicente, ibamos en la calle para hacer mas ministeros. Yo ore con 2 chicas, Erica y Faviola, que reciban el Senor esa noche. Ora por ellos, que buscen verdaderamente por el Senor.