raining

So i´m here in Quemchi, listening to the hard rain... again. The rain pants, rain coat, and big rubber boots i bought before coming have definitely been one of the best physical investments i´ve made.
Last night we went over to Ana and Carlos´s (along with Paolina &her daughters and Juan Carlos) house for a food ¨pichanga,¨ i think it´s called, to watch the Under 20 WORLD CUP Chile vs. Argentina, see pictures from their vacation, and show pictures we took of Paolina´s daughter at her school winter show. It was raining... again. We had a really wonderful time with them, and i hope they are being blessed by the friendship we are forming. As i pray for this family, God is really giving me His love for them. They are really such neat people.
2 nights ago Maria (age 15) and Denis (age 13) came over to the cabaña to dance to my dance workout videos with me. (Travis stayed in the other room and studied.) Then, we all had a late dinner together, goofed off a little while longer, and the girls left. It had been raining the whole evening... again. During my time with these girls, the realization hit me - i´m old. As we were talking and it was getting later and later and later, i kept thinking, ¨These girls need to get home!! It´s a school night!!!¨ And just during different coversations about boys and dating and all that, i thought to myself, ¨wow... i´ve turned into a real fuddy-duddy...¨
But, then, as i was praying and thinking about my mentor Andie, well... she was kind of a fuddy-duddy sometimes, too. BUT, she impacted my life so so greatly that the fact that maybe she wasn´t COOL (what i thought of as ¨cool¨) all the time didn´t matter. She was the first person ever to have commissioned me in the Lord´s work. And so... maybe i am a fuddy-duddy, fome, at times to these girls, but i just pray that i would love them and guide them towards Christ as Andie loved and guided me. May these girls know and love God, and may i get to be a part of commissioning them.
lovingly

rainbows and redemption

There are so many illustrations of God’s redemptive nature here in the creation we’re surrounded by.

Obviously, there are the rainbows that we see frequently – out of storms comes something beautiful… God’s redemption.

And the weather always gives you something nice… if it is freezing outside, the sun is shining. If it is raining and storming, it’s a bit warmer… God’s redemption.

But even take something small and simple… oyster shells. On the outside, well – they’re just ugly and black and bumpy. But, on the INSIDE, they are iridescent polished beauty… God’s redemption.

Here, i am daily reminded in nature and in my own walk with the Lord, and can say as the psalmist said,

“with Him is abundant redemption!” (Ps. 130:7, NKJV)
amen

kneeling for Nayahue

Well, it’s been pretty frigid here lately. We’re grateful we have a small cabin to try to keep warm as opposed to a big, spacious house. To the right is a picture of our little wood stove.

We got back earlier this week from a week-long trip to the village of Nayahue on the island of Butachauques. Things didn’t go quite as

expected, although i’m not really sure just what expectations i had. We went to teach in the school and have English and Bible classes with the children there. Also, we were to meet and visit with people. We arrived Tuesday afternoon. We taught Wednesday and Thursday, but the children ended up not having school on Friday OR Monday. Friday i played with a couple of the girls. Saturday, we had a make-shift English and Bible class in a small little empty house by the soccer field with some of the children. Monday, a couple of the girls came over and we colored Bible coloring pages after talking about Jesus and who He is.

We didn’t meet and visit a whole lot of people. We tried to make ourselves available, but this time of year, people generally just stay inside their homes, so when walking around, we didn’t see many people.

It was a challenging week. There is no plumbing or shower or running water and there is no electricity. But these things are just a physical challenge, and i didn’t mind them too greatly. It was the spiritual challenge… it was not having much to do all day, and at night sitting and watching 4 hours of t.v. with the family (families all use generators to watch television). But, this shouldn’t be a spiritual challenge…
Travis and i processed when we got back home. We can point out all the different things that weren’t right or that made it a challenge to serve there, but ultimately, the issue was that we didn’t bathe it in prayer as we ought to have. Oh, we prayed before going. And we prayed every morning we were there,
But did we intercede?
Were our hearts burning for Nayahue and the people there?

Were our knees sore from kneeling?

We repented of this negligence and we are learning. Praise God for His grace and His renewed opportunities for all of us, His humble and weak children!

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But we did enjoy our time with the believers there, and hopefully Tito and Sara will be coming to visit us and stay at our cabin for a couple days this month.
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