A cake and a wedding

We are having Sandra's baby shower tonight. I, the non-crafty type decided to spread my wings outside my comfort zone with a diaper cake! I hadn't done one before, but it was easy!

Last week, we headed down to the Civil Registry to witness the marriage of Eduardo and Nancy, a new couple in our church. They have been together for over five years, but wanted to make things right before God and country. Here am I, along with Mom and Pati, who dubbed us "Charlie's Angels"

And here's the happy couple!

Weddings and babies, it just doesn't get any better than that! How are we doing Bro. Voddie?

Truth is truth...

whether you believe it or not.

I was recently reminded that not all Americans believe in my God. That is quite true. But here's what I believe. God is God whether you believe in Him or not. He is not just my God, He is THE God. He is not just a deity figure that we have chosen, out of our primitve need to "worship" something. He is the Creator, the Almighty. He has made a beautiful that we still have not managed to mess up completely. He keeps us alive. He keeps meteors from smashing into us. He even steps in sometimes and rescues us from ourselves.


No one can see gravity, but you'd be foolish to walk aff the edge of a cliff. And, what's that you are breathing? And how did it get here? And what keeps it here?

This is not to open a discussion, its just my affirmation of some of what I believe about God.
If you choose to not believe in God, that is your choice. But don't say that you weren't warned!

Looking Back, Money Managing

Michele posted some vintage videos that are quite interesting. I had seen this one a while back, and although it seems corny now, the advice is sound. To top it off, its fun to watch! It is incredible seeing how much things have changed in the past 60 years.

You think I'd be used to this by now

I know that most of you are enjoying a long, warm summer. Lucky you. Its winter here. Cold, dark, damp winter. And because we are so far south, winter is long. You think that I would be used to this by now, but I obviously am not, or it wouldn't phase me at all.

Note to self.
Wardrobe planning: Buy winter clothes.
I have a pretty evenly distributed wardrobe, but the truth is that the weather here is most definitely not evenly distributed. Its cold most of the time. Even in the dead of summer, I have to wear a sweater over my summery dresses.

Note to future missionaries. Check Accuweather before you confirm your calling!

The seasons of life

It is so important to recognize your season,and I'm not talking about your colors! (although I am a Winter)
I am thinking about the newlywed season, the new mama season, the older mama season, etc. Having a baby in the house after 10 years brings you back to the new mama season really fast. Its been over a year since I slept through the night, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. But, this second time around, I realize that it is indeed just a season, and soon will be over. Vanessa turned 8 months old yesterday. She will be a toddler before I am ready for it!
The sad thing is that I see some of the first time mommies at church discouraged and tired. They don't even want to think about another baby because they are so ready to be done with this season.
It really helps to understand that seasons do end, for better or for worse. I'll be glad if I live this season to the fullest. Both the baby season and the teenager season. I am cautious but not afraid. And when its all over, there will be new seasons, the granny season and the "empty nest"season. All these seasons are beautiful in their own way. Do you know that I would hate to live in a tropical area with discernable seasons? I love the Fall. I see the stark beauty of Winter. I see the new life of Spring. I try to tolerate Summer's heat. But the truth is that you can't have one without another. They, like the seasons of our lives were given to us by a wise and loving God.

I had to post this for posterity!

Vanessa's court Jester from Rhonda Arias on Vimeo.

We're done!

All's over but the shouting (and decorating) Here's how it looked before. Here's a shot of my former dining area and front door.

Here's the new area along with the new paint and window

we switched the living and dining areas. I also got new "carpet" (not to be confused with American carpet) but very nice for us. We also replaced the ceiling. It looks great. The color on the walls is Red Tomato by Sherwin Williams.

On the other wall is Honey Blush, also by SW. I want to paint a Scripture as a border, but we haven't decided on a verse.

For Kristina, the bride

The day of your wedding is coming up soon, and I know that you and your family must be terribly excited and working feverishly to get it all done it time. Godly weddings are beautiful to witness, and I am sure that yours will be very special to behold. However, soon you will find that you married a human being with faults and "issues" that you might not have seen before. Also, you may become aware of faults and issues in yourself that you didn't realize you had. So, as a wedding gift, allow me to share 15 years worth of experience. I won't be writing of my (our) strengths, but of my weakness that I am (we are) overcoming.








1 Allow you husband to be human, to make mistakes.


I often tried to "protect" and "help" my husband by telling him about his mistakes. This is not my job, unless he specifically asks for it. This is the job of the Holy Spirit. Yes, you may suffer the consequences of his mistakes, but you must trust God to protect you. You will find yourself in a heap of trouble if you try to "help" the Holy Spirit do His work. Of course, you are probably reading this, thinking, "What on earth is she talking about? Josh is a great guy, and his faults are miniscule" If that is so, Praise the Lord!





2. Focus on your position as Help Meet. He is not there to help you in your ministry, you are there to help him to fulfill his vision. Serve God by serving Josh graciously.


3. Be pleasant. During a Christian courtship, a couple rarely spends a great deal of time together. So, you can be pleasant the whole time. When you start to live with someone, 24 hours a day, its hard to maintain a pleasant demeanor all the time. However, its extremely important to be pleasant and smiley.



4. Spend the time you have before the babies come making yourself into an expert homemaker. This means housekeeping, cooking and home economy. Also, prepare yourself spiritually and practically for motherhood. Read good books and websites, but learn to not waste your time. Also remember that being a good wife and mother is a life-long process, start soon and never quit learning and improving.


These are just a few things I am working on.




May your journey be a fabulous one! It is my prayer that people will look at you two and rejoice at seeing a marriage the way God intended. Blessings!

Dangerous Jobs!

I'll have to say that I think that the music industry might just be one of the most dangerous out there. So many "musicians" and "singers" have died young, the latest being of course, pop music's "king". Elvis died young, and so many others. If I was in the music industry, I'd watch out!
Of course music itself is not the problem. Look at all the older folks on the Gaither reunion videos. There's quite a bit of gray and toupee! Hmmm....must be the kind of music. Yeah, that must be it! Rick Warren and others would have us believe that all music is amoral, neither good or bad. But it seems that its only the "bad" music industry that is deadly. And the "badder" the music, the more dangerous. Fr'instance, there seem to be a lot of rappers in trouble all the time.

Christian parents wanted to please their teenagers and let them listen to whatever their flesh wants to. Now grown up, these people are mourning a profane, godless man. I shudder to think about where he is today.

Don't get angry when your pastor preaches against wordly music! He's raising a much-needed warning flag.

All or nothing

That's what the Christian life is all about to me. Of course, we must be balanced, but not when it comes to love for the Lord. Then its all-out, nothing held back devotion. When we are sold-out for the Lord, He gives us the wisdom we need to find the balance we need.

The sad thing is when I see people I love trying to love God half-heartedly. They want to please God at Church and then live with a worldly world-view at home. This leads to all sorts of conflicts. I have a dear friend at church who is going through a terrible time. When she is honestly looking to please the Lord, she comes to me for counsel and advice. When she's not interested in what God has to say, she is friendly and nice, but doesn't seek counsel from me or anyone else who's able to guide her. The horrible thing is that she is suffering. I can see it in her face and I know she feels defeated. Please pray for my friend, that she would give in to God and let her suffering count for something good!

Have you ever seen anything so cute?

I didn't think so

New Vanessa pix

Please bear with this proud mama and shutterbug sister!

Why I read the Bible the way I do

I have a One year Bible. It is divided into an Old Testament reading, a New Testament reading, a Psalm or a portion of a Psalm and one or two Proverbs, per day. I have used this Bible several years for my personal reading, and it has always been a blessing. I was raised in a Christian home, and I have been in Church all my life, but there are a few gaps in my Bible knowledge, mostly concerning chronology and order. Reading the Bible systematically, year after year has greatly improved my understanding of order. I have had several "lightbulb moments" over the years. Yesterday, I had another one.
Yesterday, I read the story of Elijah, Ahab, and Naboth. I had always wondered why Ahab was so upset about a simple piece of land. Well, come to find out, in the preceding chapter, Ahab defeats Ben-hadad, spares his life, and then gets a dressing down from God for not destroying Ben-hadad. So, going into the chapter about the vinyard, Ahab was already in a bad mood. And when Naboth refuses to sell him his vinyard, he completely over-reacts, with deadly consequences. Now I get it! Hurrah for my One Year Bible!

This and That

Its been another wacky week in the Arias household. The remodeling project is still underway, hopefully soon to be done. I am ready to get my living and dining room back. I am so pleased to have more space. We have lots of people over for this and that, so we need a place to put them!

We had a great weekend, inspite of rain and cold. We had a dinner to celebrate the church's 13th anniversary. We had about 90 in attendance. We were going to have meat and potato salad. One of my ladies put BEETS in with the potatoes. YUCK! It turned the salad pink. Obviously, we had tons of salad left over. We had a great time of food and fellowship. Sunday went well too. We had a few visitors. We have a new couple, Eduardo and Nancy. They were both saved two weeks ago. They are going to get married, and then get baptized. We are happy for them.

We had a good ladies meeting today, with 22 in attendance. We even had a visitor, a young woman named Andrea.

Between the housework, baby, homeschooling and churchwork, I am a bit overwhelmed. Add to that, I have been battling a nasty cough. Its not bad during the day, but nighttime is a different story.

We finally received the last letter need to present our paperwork to Customs to have our stuff released. Neil mailed the paperwork this morning. Please pray that things will go quickly now.

Blessings and peace!

Remodeling update

Here's another picture of Vanessa in case you needed a Venessa fix! Here they are removing the wall.

Here are the two windows. I am so happy because now I have another window to paint at Christmas!

Another look at the new space.

You might be asking yourself, where is all of Rhonda's furniture? How nice of you to notice! Its all over the house! The couch is in Eileen's room, the dining room table is in Ronnie's and the recliner is in Vanessa's.

And Chile won again! We are now in 2nd place, after beating Bolivia 4-0. They are so excited here! I just wish that I liked soccer! Anyway, JulieMom, are you up for some visitors from Chile next year?

Chile won!

I am by no means a soccer fan, but, Chile beat Paraguay, in Asuncion! That is absolutely incredible. Paraguay had been undefeated. Everyone will be happy tomorrow. Am I sorry that I did not watch the game? Nope. But for my husbands sake, I am glad they won.

What I do when I cannot blog, Part 2

And if that weren't enough, its Kids Club day!!! Yay! We had to hurry our guests because, unlike most latin Amercan endeavors, we are punctual. We had to make a few adjustments, but all went well. We had 44 children and 10 workers. Here Sandra is telling the story of the life of Hudson Taylor

Here, the younger kids have their game time.

Here are the big kids playing Hot Potato. That's Eileen in green in the back and Ronnie here in the front in red.

Here's more of the story-verse-singing-Gospel time.I am so tired my eyes are crossing. I can't go to bed until Neil gets here. They all went to watch the big Chile vs. Paraguay soccer game. We are sooooo going to lose! Paraguay is in first place and they are playing in Asuncion. What a bummer!

What do you think of our lovely orange chairs? There's a 30 year old story behind them!

Have a wonderful Lord's day! Rest if you can. Thank God that you can still worship freely.

Do you know what my favorite piece of advice is? Go to church expecting God to speak to you! Expect a blessing and you'll get one!

Peace from Above

Things I do when I cannot blog! Part 1

Well, here's some photos of the construction going on at my house. Look at the left side of the photo. That whole area is going to be knocked out and pushed out about another meter.

Here's what it looks like from the outside.

So, then, another workman came from a church in another city to build us a inside door for the church. He is staying with us also. Here's what he is building.

Then, to top it all off, we're having a group from another church in another city come a do a soul winning seminar. We thought that it was a small group, but their pastor thought more was better and came with 22 people! In the interest of decorum, I will say no more!

Here we have set up tables in our dining room to feed them all. We got most of our women to come and cook and clean. I am so grateful for my ladies, they are all hard workers and rarely shirk their duty.

Encouragement

Don't you just love to be around encouraging people? I find that the blogs I like best to visit are the most encouraging ones. I must say, however, that I would probably have to admit that my blog isn't exactly an encouraging one.

So, how can I encourage you today? Let me start by encouraging you to spend some time in the Scripture. Today I read 2 Samuel. We are now at the end of King David's life. Even with all of his sins and shortcomings, he loved God and His word. I also read Acts 2. WOW! Its so wonderful to read how that God made Jesus Lord and Christ. Amen, glory hallelujah!

We live in uncertain times. If you are a believer, this is just another sign of the times, and I for one, am thrilled at the thought of sudden Rapture! All this hullabaloo about the economy and flu is all just another sign. May I encourage you to witness to and pray for your lost loved ones? Don't be weary in praying for them! God is faithful!!!!!

If you are in ministry, be encouraged! You are privileged! Be faithful, as this is the requirement for servants. If you are faithful, then you have succeeded! And know that you are not alone in your efforts. God loves having you in his service!

Blessings and peace to you all!

Heeeeere's Vanessa at 6 months!

I have never ever seen such a pink-and-white baby!