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!