Yes, I am still alive!~

We have been in the US for almost 2 months now. Although we have internet connection, I rarely have any time to my self, which is when I normally blog.

We have had a great time so far. We love visiting the churches and seeing the sights. We are now about 2 hours south of Chicago. We made a quick visit this morning to the Lincoln presidential museum, which was wonderful.

We just moved into our motorhome two days ago. It is great, but the gas mileage is horrible!
We will just have to pray that God will provide!

Praise to the Lord

For He is good.

The Customs papers have arrived. All is Done. All is Finished. We only had to pay 560 dollars.


So, within one week, we received Neil's visa and the Customs paperwork, all done.

I cannot tell you what a relief this is.


We are overjoyed.

Lesson to be learned. When you want to ship a container, talk to the experts first. Not your buddy. Lesson over.

Its here!

The fat lady is singing.´
Neil has his visa in his hand.
We are on our way.
Hurrah

Thank you, Lord

Drive-by posting

I really shouldn't take the time to do this, as we are so pressed for time.
However:
Neil was told that they OK'd his visa, but it will take about 3 weeks to get it. It ain't over until the fat lady sings. No singing until the visa is HERE!

New missionaries, the Reyes family arrived last week. They will be staying with us until we leave, and satying in our house while we are gone. We are so glad that they are here.

I am on overload due to all that must be done before furlough. Please pray for me.
I am hoping that we will get almost everything done before we go so taht we can take a few days off on arrival to enjoy the US.

By the way, what do y0u like to see in a missionary display, and what do you like to see in a missionary presentation? Do you like them long, or short? What do people really like to know about missionaries?

Thanks for the imput.

Another update

Well, container issue, not done, but looking good.
Visa issue; we have an appointment for an interview on Monday. We leave for Santiago tomorrow night after church.

The Reyes family arrived on Thursday. They will be living with us until we leave and they will be staying in our house while we are gone. There are 9 of us in the house now, so, Lord bless us!

I miss blogging regularly but I am still here. I am so sorry that I do not comment enough. I read all your blogs and I love them.

Also, to all my missionary friends headed to the US, hope to see you around while you are on furlough!

God bless, Y'all!

Good-ish news

As you may know, we have been waiting for over 2 years for our stuff to be liberated from Customs. We have jumped through all the hoops time and again.
Tuesday, we found out that the paperwork had finally gone through. All we needed to do now was pay. But now they say that we need an agent, (more money) and they said that we were trying to liberate too much. So now we have to pay. We don't know how much. Could be 500 dollars, could be 3000. We won't know until goes there tomorrow, which means an overnight bus ride to Santiago and a 2 hour bus ride to Valparaiso.

Please pray for us. We are a tad stressed.

The things I hear

For World Cup, Neil got our TV hooked up to the cable.
Our cable is international, so we get commercials from everywhere. Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Uruguay, Argentina, the list goes on and on.

So, we were watching a commercial about a fabric softener that keeps smelling good.....for months!
That was their pitch. You didn't have to wash things for months because they still smelled good.
My goodness. There in really nothing I'd like to leave unwashed for months, no matter how good it smelled!

Grace

Grace is a word thats been getting a lot of use. Most Christians use it, and we don't all use it the same way. Over the years, I have heard a lot of talk about grace, but people, christians, are behaving worse than ever. Its as though bad behavior is no longer bad. It seems that "grace" has made bad not so bad.
I was taught that grace was "unmerited favor". In that case, my bad is still bad. Its horrible. I am ashamed of it. But, when I turn from it, grace takes me up. Jesus died for all my horrible sin, and covered me with grace. Its not grace unless you need it. I need it.

These things only happen to us!

A new family started attending our church. Dad, Mom and two boys. They seemed nice, they had a charismatic background, but weren't attending church. They seemed nice enough, but the lady was kinda strange. She hated the fact that we didn't have women preachers, since her Mama was a preacher. She insisted on calling me the "Pastora" even though she was corrected often, and by everybody. But that wasn't enough. When we had a big preachers conference, with Bro Bill Smith as the speaker, she got up to give a testimony that lasted 10 minutes....and the she broke out into song! We were so embarrased. She was well behaved for a while, but then just last June, during the visit of our sending pastor, she got up again to give testimony. Not in her seat, no, she had to go forward. Unfortunately, Neil was in the baptistry, about to baptize when she started her show. You see, she had just come out a few weeks prior, of a major operation to remove a tumor from her liver. She was so thankful to the Lord for healing her that she promised God to go to seven different churches to give testimony. Not only did she give testimony for another 10 minutes, she lifted up her shirt to reveal her scar, and all of her chunky midsection! The church was packed with about 175 people. I was sitting at the piano, wanting the earth to open up and swallow me......or her. Our pastor later joked with us about our "Flasher"
To end, she recently told one of our deacons that they weren't coming anymore, that no one was going to change her mind about women pastors. Too bad. Well, not really. I don't have enough energy to deal with her!

Health

I am greatly blesed to enjoy good health. However, being in the ministry, we are often surrounded with sickness. So many people have different views about health and wellness, but I feel that God has a lot to say about it.

Interestingly, our sending pastor recently finished a series on health that I found fascinating and biblical. I invite you to listen

No, I havent fallen of the face of the earth.......

We've just been enormously busy.
I keep telling my hubby that I am on the verge of.....I don't know what I am on the verge of, but I am almost there! I am trying to weed out any unecessary things. So far, all I have been able to cut our is choir. I am not happy about that because I like choir. Oh well.


I also had bloggers block. I don't just like writing about what's going on, and I don't like to blog about issues I have blogged about before... So I needed something new and didn't have it.

I toyed with the idea or quitting, but I need you all too much. Many of you I know in person, and I love the interaction. So there, I am not quitting.

We are making plans for our furlough. I hope to see as many of you as possible. Please pray that my husband will be able to get meetings is all the right places!

Yet another great weekend

Well, not all of it was great. Our kid's Bible club was down again. We only had 25 kids. There are so many other things diverting their attention on Saturday, but mostly soccer. Catholicism is supposedly the main religion here, but the truth is that Soccer is King. They worship at the soccer field.

Sunday was better. We had 165 people on Sunday. That was so wonderful-. We also had 3 people make professions of faith in Christ. The Lord has added many to his family lately. We are all doing our best to ground the new believers in their faith. Please pray for Vivian, Christian, Luz and Marcelo, Manuel, Miriam, Nicole and Jocelyn. There are several others in the dicipleship program, but I cannot remember all their names.

We have a Couple's dinner planned for this Saturday night. We have games, teaching about marriage and a dinner. They love it! We have several couples invited who are not yet married, but living together. We are praying that the Lord will convict them, and give them a desire to make things right. We have had several couples get married. They know us really well down at the Justice of the peace.

Please pray also for two of our young people who decided that they like each other. The problem is that they do not have the guidance that they need and are headed for trouble fast. We do our best to plead and warn, but it seems that they are not listening. It breaks my heart to see them headed for a lifetime of problems.

Ah, the life of a missionary....

I want to win this one!

One of my favorite authors on the family is Voddie Baucham. His daughter Jasmine is having a giveaway of Bro. Baucham's DVD series on "What he must be if he want to marry my daughter"
I have not had a chance to read this book, but I did read "Family Driven Faith" and I liked it very much.
And since I have two daughters, this is very relevant to me.

A story of redemption

Sometimes God redeems twice.

Denise had been coming to our church since she was about 9 years old. We loved her and her family. Denise learned to play the piano, by ear.. She is the only Chilean I know who can play hymns, gosple style. She just watched me, then she would imitate. Amazing!
Her parents always has problems, and a few years ago they sepated. This caused extreme emotional trauma, and soon none of the 4 kids were coming to church. It was sad to run into them on the street, and see the changes in them. We soon found out that Denise was playing the keyboard in rock band.

2008. Denise and her mom show up at my house. We spoke briefly. I invited them to come and talk anytime, but they never returned. Soon we found out that Denise was pregnant. Her mother kicked her out of the house, so she moved in with the baby's father and his family. One day last year, Denise showed up with her baby at church. She seemed distant and a bit defiant, but she was there. It was on-again-off-again for a while. Then she started inviting her boyfriend. He came occasionaly. Very nice, not your typical rock band drummer.
Two weeks ago, Denise came to me a told me that she was ready to make things right. But as long as she is living in sin, there is not much she can do. So we have been praying for Christian, her boyfriend, to be saved. For the past month they have come to all the services, including Wednesdays.

Well, yesterday morning, after a great sermon by a visiting preacher, Christian came forward to be saved!!!!!!! We were all so excited because not only is God saving someone, he is redeeming a bad situation. From the ashes of sin, he will raise up a Christian family. We are thrilled.

Quake victims

Neil and I were invited to a special event where a mission church was formally establishing ftheir new pastor. The night before there was a dinner fellowship for several pastors. We attended both. (first over-nighter without the baby...woohoo!)
Also attending the events were the pastors and their wives who were most affected by the earthquake. First, Juan and Monica, who lost their parsonage and church building. They are basically OK, but are overwhelmed with work. Their church is small, and Juan doesn't have help. His wife is 2 months pregnant and she has been helping to remove the rubble and help with reconstruction, not a good thing for a pregnant mommy. They need help.

The other, Gary and Loreto are better....and worse. Their kitchen has been rebuilt and their appliances replaced. But they seem jittery and unsettled. Their city was harder hit. The aftershocks still happen. Financially, they seem OK. Emotionaly, they seem to be not so good.

Would you pray with me for them? We are helping both families financially and with physical labor, but only the healing power of the Holy Spirit can soothe their souls.

Thank you

Prayer

Everybody has their own beliefs about prayer. Some say that prayer is just about agreeing with God and his will. Even Henry Blackabee believes this. He tells a story about the year he bought his son a blue bike, and then gently coaxed his son into wanting and asking for a blue bike.

This sounds good and extremely respectful of the sovereignty of God. I mean, God has everything under control and planned out. And as this sounds good, I would believe it whole-heartedly.

But then there are other Scriptures to consider. My favorite is Luke 18:1-8. This is a story about a widow who pleads with an unjust judge to help her. He does not agree with her nor does he want to help her, but finally does because she bugs him to death. Jesus told us to pray like that widow. Why would God want us to pray like that?

Another favorite is the story about the man who begs for bread from his friend for his guest late at night. The friend does not want to help, but does because of the insistance of the man. Jesus said we are to pray like that. Pray as though we were trying to change God's mind. Sounds blasphemous, doesn't it?

This post is not meant to teach anything, but rather air out my questions about prayer.. Do I just pray "Thy will be done"? or do I pray for what I want or need as though it depended on my insistance? Seems to my like Scripture says to do both.

The first ladies Bible study of the year

It went great! We started a few weeks late due to several factors. But that's OK, we aren't on a schedule or anything. We didn't know how many to expect. I made 25 lesson pages. We ended up with 34, which was amazing. It was a great night. Mom taught on Psalm 77. The lesson addressed anger and depression, something that is very common here. I missed some of it because I had to check on Vanessa who has been a bit sick for the past two days.

The interesting thing is that two of our leaders were in a bit of a problem. One of them went to the other and basically told her off. Nothing with substance, but she was hurt and offended. I counseled her to forget it. God is so good. The offender apologized to the offended yesterday morning. So all better. I like it when they can solve their problems on their own.

So today we head out to Mafil for Bible study there. We are not expecting many, most of the ladies told us that they would not be there. We may just end up visiting. It is slow going in Mafil. Thankfully, we are not paid on a per-person basis. We just do our part and God does the hard part, which is not hard for God.

Back to Work!

We did have a busy summer, but now the real work has started. Back to Ladies Bible study, Kids club, homeschooling (with a toddler, toddling), visitation, dicipleship, cooking, cleaning, laundry. Makes me want to be a hermit!



We are also getting ready for furlough starting in September. There is so much to do. I really need to get back to Flylady, as she seems to help me get some structure in my life.



Anyway....



I have been greatly blessed reading all my favorite blogs. I love to hear what the Lord is doing in all your lives and ministries. I have also been challenged. I am trying to figure our how to be tolerant without compromising my convictions. Many people in my world consider any type of tolerance to be compromise. But I don't think that is so. I have found that you can find Scripture to support apparently opposing views, so some degree of tolerance is required. I mean, what if I'm wrong? Oh the horror! Of course I don't think I'm wrong.....
I have also come to see the importance of letting the Holy Spirit do his work of correcting the views of others. I have to remember that God doesn't need my help.


On a different note, Vanessa has now learned to give kisses, after all this time. We love her kisses! But, the little flirt will kiss just about anyone, even blowing kisses to perfect strangers!

An update

Boring title, no?
Anyway, Neil's trip went really well, although not without difficulty. The van broke down twice on the first day. What made it worse, is that the cities where they were headed had an early curfew. They arrived at the first city after curfew. Neil spoke to the policeman, and explained the situation. He was sympathetic and gave them safe passage. It helped that the church van has the church name written in large letters on it.
They went to Talca, where the church building had crumbled. Then on to Constitucion, where part of the pastor'sm house had fallen down the hill. They went back to Talca for a few days to help remove tons of rubble. Neil was on the rood when a 7.2 earthquake hit. It was rather unsettling, to say the least. The folk up there are quite jittery, understandably.
On the last day they headed to Hualpen, near Concepcion, another of the hardest-hit areas. It was incredibly hard to drive around town. Last stop was Santa Juana, where a new missionary and his wife live. The wife was home alone during the quake because her husband was a our church. Their family in Mexico was afraid that they had died. Thank God, none of us or any of our friends died.
Neil was so exhausted. He said, "we are going on a vacation!" So, here we are, in Argentina, for a few days of R and R. Well, its about as much R and R that you can get taking care of a toddler in a two story cabin. Vanessa has been fascinated by the stairs. We have been frustrated trying to keep her off them!

Our church has had an attendance explosion since the earthquake. In the last three Sundays, we've had 164, a record,,170 the next week, another record, and last week 182, another record.
Its nice to finally be in a reaping season than a sowing season.

Here in Argentina, Ronnie celebrated his 11th birthday. We took him ice-skating. They love that. Vanessa just squealed with delight to see her siblings skating. I can't figure out why she found that so exciting!

Its been an interesting month. To say the least.

Earthquake relief and Blessings

There's nothing like an 8.8 earthquake to shake up a town! We had 170 people today in church! Yay!!!! We had never had 170, ever. We have also had people saved at almost every service.
We are so sad for all those who died without Christ, but we are thrilled for those who have put their trust in Christ!

Neil and a group from our Church is heading out tomorrow morning with a vanload of food and supplies for the quake victims. They will go to 5 different churches, each with different needs. Our Church has given almost 2000 dollars in food and supplies. We collected diapers, milk, cleaning supplies, noodles, beans and rice, sugar, tea and coffee. One man got his company to donate a large, 1000 liter tank to haul water. They are taking it empty, and will fill it in Chillan before heading to the disaster area. We would appreciate your prayers for their safety.
The kids and I will hold down the fort here. I will keep the kids busy with schoolwork. I am sure they will be thrilled.

God bless

We are OK!

Well, I had intended to write about the seminar we hosted with Preacher Smith, but early Saturday morning, our world shook us up! Around 3:45 am. we awoke to a huge earthquake. It lasted a good long time, long enough for Neil to go get our two big kids who were sleeping in a tent outside. I got the baby. We just stood around in doorways waiting for it to end. OUr lights were out. For all of Saturday we just tried to contact people. Our Church people, our fellow missionaries, our families. Preacher Smith and missionary Dave Disney were here for the seminar. Peggy Disney was alone in Santiago, on the 9th floor of their building. It took a while for Dave to be able to contact her. Their appartment was greatly damaged in the quake. I fell so bad because she was alone. She was able to contace Mrs Smith in Oklahoma City. The bad thing is that they can't leave because the airport in Santiago is closed indefinitely. They may try to set out by car tomorrow. We don't know.

We had been without electricity until 3 pm today. I had been able to update my facebook page on Hubby's iphone, but even that services has been spotty.

We are fine and our house is fine. Mom's house was harder hit because she lives on a hill. She lost most of her china, dishes, mirrors, light fixtures etc. But apparently, there has been no structural damage to her house, the camp and pool. PTL.

Chile is a mess! We can no longer buy gas. I don't know how long it will be before stores are restocked. Many, many dead. We had 3 professions of salvation this morning! I pray that they will all stay sensitive to the Holy Spirit, that some good will come out of all this bad.
I also pray for the return of the Lord!

Thank you all for your concern and prayers,

Rhonda

Youth Camp!

In between camps we took Bro. Eldred to the famous Ojos de Caburga, an area were the river forms the most beautiful pools.

Youth camp was all about jewels and treasure. God call those who fear Him and who talk to their friends about Him as jewels. We had 4 teams, the diamonds, the emeralds, the rubies and the saffires.


Youth camp is always a time for goofy games. I didn't take pictures of the one that included pliers and nose hair. Aren't you glad about that?


Mom re-did my hat in keeping with the theme. This is my "no-makeup" look. Awful, don't you think?





Here's Mom with all the treasure. We gave out "gold" coins instead of points. Worked like a charm. You win, you get coins. You lose, you pay coins.

I found the Malachi passage to be a special blessing. It reminds us that God is listening. He is keeping a record of all that is said and done. He views us a his treasure. Fearing Him and serving Him is soooooo worth it!

Camp photos, Are you ready?

Here is Yours Truly with DH and the Fruit hat. Good thing is that he had one too! A sunrise shot. Not bad huh?

Pastor Eldred, our guest speaker and supporting pastor, Neil, Me, and Mom.

Have I mentioned yet that it rained? This hat came in very handy!

See the fruit of the Spirit? All attached to the Vine.

More to come!

One down, one to go.

Family camp is over, and it was one of the best to date. We had around 70. all included.

I will go into detail and post pictures, later.

I am working feverishly to finish the devotional booklets. Its not my fault, I am just the typist. The author, who shall remain nameless, just finished them tonight. I am printing page 5 of 6. The toner in our laser printer just emptied when it should be full. I switched to the inkjet, which is slower.

We have some great stories from family camp, but they will have to wait until next week.

Please pray that this week will go smoothly and that the Holy Spirit will move greatly.
Please pray that I will not go crazy!

Tomorrow's the Big Day!

Camp 2010 is officially underway. Of course the devil is doing his best to hamper all efforts. As I write, my printers are giving me fits.
We are looking forward to a great year.

On a side note, we had 161 people in Church yesterday. That's a new record. It was a special occasion, we had a baptism. We had many visitors come see their friends and loved ones get baptized. One visitor, a pentecostal, told me that she didn't like our church at all! She said that the preaching was OK, but that the music was sorely lacking. Oh well, you can't please everyone!

Among those baptized was an 85 year-old man. It took forever to get him up the stairs to the baptistry, down the ladder into the baptistry and the up the ladder again, and down the stairs.
It took more time to baptize him than the other 12 all together! Well, its never to late to get baptized.

We hope all who have been working hard to bring visitors continue, and that people will continue to be saved and grow in the Lord.

Camp!

Only 11 more days!

Its going to start getting wild around here. Neil is writing the devotional booklets, which I will type and print. Mom is doing all the decorating and another gazillion things that need to be done. We shop for the food next week. Our special speaker arrives from Cal. next Friday.

I am looking for a theme song for the family camp. We are doing "The Fruit of the Spirit" Each family will be a different fruit. Mom made me a fruit hat á la Carmen Miranda. Its a good thing I am not afraid to look silly! Two years ago, she put Neil in a black vest and hat, a sherriff's star and a fake mustache. It was a hoot.

Youth camp will be the following week. The theme is "A Special Treasure" I already have a theme song for that. Mom is going to do a treasure hunt.

I've got a bunch of stuff to print up.



If I don't post soon, you'll know why!

"Attempt great things for God,

Expect great things from God!" I hope I got that quite right, I might have gotten it backwards. It is from William Carey, missionary to India.

The Lord has blessed our church greatly, but in the past two years, we fell into a rut, attendance -wise. We hovered around 100. We won new people, but lost others. Six weeks ago, the Preacher got all the SS teachers and leaders together and made a challenge. We wanted to get to 150 by September, 2010. He laid out a visitation schedule and we got to work. Almost immediately we began to see progress. We averaged 120 for about 4 weeks.

Yesterday was the best so far. Nothing special, no give-aways. (we never do that) Just hard work. God sent 148 people to our Church yesterday. Yea!!!!!

Now, we no longer are expceting 150 from God. We're kicking it up to 170!