THE GAME PLAN

Ok, so here´s the plan.....

Today is Christmas Eve....David´s family are all having supper at his parent´s house

Tomorrow night my parents are flying into Maracaibo

Saturday night is our matrimonio civil (in VZ culture, a lawyer comes to your house for you to sign the wedding papers, there are drinks and snacks, everyone gets all dressed up, it´s a big deal)

and SUNDAY THE 27TH IS THE CHURCH WEDDING!!!!

and I am just trying to stay calm and making to do lists like crazy so I won´t forget anything. :)

wedding food!

We are going to have traditional Venezuelan Christmas food at the reception, hallaca (pronounced aye-YA-kuh), bread, and ensalada (salad).Hallaca is kind of like a tamale…in the inside there is a mix of chicken, veggies, chick peas, a few raisins, sauce (which is a little bit spicy), and more. It is covered by a cornmealish outer layer and wrapped in leaves similar to the leaves of a plantain tree to cook. David´s mom has been making these little by little this week for the wedding, which means I get to eat them every day. hehehe I found this website with some info on hallacas...

http://www.ivu.org/recipes/latinam/hallacas.html

We will also have a wedding cake (just like American culture) and some other sweets, like pineapple and papaya cooked with sugar and placed in a mini pie crust. We are also going to have American chocolate on the tables- Reeses (David´s favorite) and Dove dark chocolate (my fav).

finished table decorations

Inside Scoop on the wedding

So for those of you who won´t be here for the wedding, I thought I would give you an inside scoop on the ceremony. Our ¨cortejo¨ (court) will be:

Kathleen (maid of honor) and Hebert (her hubbie)
Moises (David´s cousin) and his girlfriend, Valeria
Mariexis (David´s cousin) and her boyfriend, Gustavo
Alfredo and his wife Audia, who is pregnant and due in Feb! (close friends)
Alejandro and Ised (also good friends)

Our flower girl will be Emily and ring bearer Kairo- I have mentioned them in previous posts.
For my bouquet, I am going to have calla lilies. I have always liked these flowers especially after seeing them in many Diego Rivera paintings.

My bridesmaids are going to wear black dresses and carry white roses. One good thing about getting married in December is that the church is already decorated! Lucky, the decorations in the church match the decorations we are going to have in the reception- red poinsettias and gold christmasy decorations.

the only snow in venezuela

A deep breath before a very interesting week

Merry Christmas everyone! Wow, I think that is actually the first time this year I have said Merry Christmas. Weird. Hopefully you are somewhere warm and enjoying the snow. It is hard for me to believe that there is actually snow somewhere when it is so hot here. And I also cannot believe that in only 5 days my parents are coming on Christmas and in one week is the wedding!!!!!!!! This past month has seemed like a blur. Thankfully all the wedding stuff has been coming together ¨poco a poco¨ (little by little). We still have a pretty hefty to do list, but I know this is inevitable the week before the wedding. :)

This past week has been a challenging one. Wedding planning stress, culture shock, and missing my family, friends, and home have all been very difficult. But I know that this is a process. And I know that God is teaching me. I am so thankful for His patience and love with me. I am also thankful that He has given me many solid friends here who are so encouraging. And I am especially thankful for David, who has been so supportive and loving. He just brought me an avocado sandwich and chocolate milk yummmmmmmmmmm

And I am super excited that the Biggerstaffs are coming to Venezuela soon! I was tempted to type that the Rednecks are coming to Venezuela, but I decided not to. Speaking of Rednecks, Braulio, the missionary, has become OBSESSED with everything in the culture of the south (of the US), especially the concept of a ¨ redneck¨. The other day we went about an hour at his house watching youtube videos from O, Brother Where Art Thou, Beverly Hillbillies, Johnny Cash, and other Bluegrass videos… He has become obsessed with bluegrass music, so I think he will get along good with Dad. And Dad can also educate him a bit about the definition of a ¨redneck¨hehehehehe

Yesterday, I went to Kathleen´s house for a ¨bachelorette party¨. It was SO good to see her and catch up on things. I am so thankful to have an American friend in the same city! We had salad to eat. This was a special treat for me because rarely do the Venezuelans have a traditional salad like we eat in the US. We made some Christmas decorations (paper snowflakes). The first one I made came out looking like it has a piranha’s mouth in the center…see for yourself! Luckily the other ones turned out a little better...

And more Casigua...

In the back of the jeep, Pastor
Leonardo and his wife on the left

A cow in the road....reminds me of Vale!

Almost everyone en Casigua uses a ¨moto¨ instead of a car

This is supposedly the only fruit with an external seed, which is where the stem would normally be

And this is its tree

More pictures from Casigua

A tree that looks like a fan..

















David and I on the way to Casigua



















While completing as assignment on the board, we were surprised with a picture...Can you tell by my face that it´s early in the morning?

Enjoying the Scenery

On the way to Casigua..
The trip to Casigua was off to a good start, I was enjoying the drive because it´s more out in the country rather than the big city and traffic. On the way there, a rock broke the windshield of Braulio´s jeep so we enjoyed the wind in our face on the way there!
Casigua is a really cute little town and I loved how everything is so colorful there, from the flowers to the houses. So, here are some pictures I took. Here´s a bit of color and sunshine for all you in cold places…

Linguistics in a Snuggie

One morning the AC was broken where we had class so we ended up going to the room where I slept to have class. I brought a leopard print snuggie (courtesy of a certain few college friends) which suddenly became the topic of interest. Here´s Braulio in my snuggie with my other American necessities, a water bottle and English linguistics book. So, if the snuggie craze hits South America, now we know why.

Kotufa (Popcorn) the Rabbit

This is for some of my friends who I won´t name who love small rodent pets. One of the families who fed us had a pet rabbit. A rather large albino rabbit that eats cheese and comes when you call its name. So, here is Kotufa the rabbit.

Casigua!

Hi everyone! Sorry it has taken me a while to post...I have my regular internet back now :) We are back in Maracaibo. So now I will write more about our time in Casigua. Like I wrote earlier, the other couple who took the class was Pastor Leonardo (Pastor of a church in Casigua) and his wife, Dorita. We were really blessed by this family and the members of his church. I have never met people so generous and hospitable in my life. We (Braulio, Jacqueline, Emily, Luzmarina-the professor, David, and I) stayed with different families in the town. We ate most of our meals with families from the church and they always served us so graciously. It was very humbling for me. They served the very best they had then after the meal we would talk for a while. Some families also gave David and I house gifts- mugs, sheets, towels, etc. Very sweet!!!

The picture above was taken on Sunday morning when we went to Pastor Leonardo´s church. On the left is Luzmarina, then me, David, Braulio and Jaqueline and Emily in the front.


On Sunday, Luzmarina, David and I taught Sunday School to the youth age class. It was a blessing for us to talk to them and get to know them! We were able to share with them our testimonies and about missions. Pray for them, that they will continue to seek God and seek His will for their lives. Here is a picture of some of the youth and also a picture of David and I with Emely, one of Pastor Leonard´s daughters. I was glad to get to know her, she is 16 and reminds me a lot of me at that age. Pastor Leonardo and his wife are applying to CILTA as well, I´m hoping we will all be able to go together!!




Braulio and I accidentally dressed as twins...

almost done

hello everyone!
just thought i´d write a quick update while i have internet...everything is still good here...david and i are both mentally exhausted, but today is the last day...we just have to make it through today and do well on the final exam tonight. i am reminded of how exam week felt in college! but thanks to God all our of our grades have been really good so far! thanks for your prayers! we are planning on leaving to go back to Maracaibo tomorrow...and i plan on sleeping for about 3 days :) i will upload pictures from this week soon! :)

back to the books!

So, we are here in Casigua el Cubo and it has been interesting! (More details and pictures later...) Everything is going good so far...There are only 4 people taking the phonetics class, David and I and another couple. The other couple is Leonardo and Maria, the pastor and pastor´s wife in this town and they are training to go to work in another indigenous people group in Venezuela. It has been fun to be around other missionaries who are studying linguistics! Braulio, Jacqueline, and Emily are also here and have been coming to the classes and helping out a lot. I am learning a lot. We are doing about 6 or 7 hours of class a day, but it hasn´t been too bad since we get a break in the afternoons. The class has been challenging, and we´ll just say very ¨humbling¨ for me since I am the only one who isn´t a native Spanish speaker. But there are some parts of phonetics where I have an advantage since I am a native English speaker, so it is good that we can help each other out! So now, I´m just trying to fit as much phonetics in my head as I can...and learning lots of sounds...

Different families from the church where Leonardo preaches have ¨adopted¨us for the week and offered for us to stay with them. Luzmarina (the professor) and I are staying with one family. I have been overwhelmed with everyone´s generousity here. For lunch, we have been going to different families from the church homes and it has been humbling to see their generousity. Most of the houses here are middle-class, but yesterday we had lunch in one house that was obviously more lower class. However, this family served us a huge lunch and had such servant´s hearts! They were a blessing to me. After we eat, we stay for an hour and so and talk (which is normal VZ culture), which is fun! For breakfast and supper, we have either been fed by a family or gone to a restaurant. Last night we had pizza. I´m also getting to try some new foods, although it´s similar to the Maracaibo diet.

It is a very cute, colorful town. The houses are small, and lots of bright colors. There are also lots of palm grees and flowers of all colors. I will put up some pictures soon. It´s hard for me to believe that it´s December being here!

Before coming here, Braulio told me it was hotter here than Maracaibo, which gets up to 115 F, and I didn´t believe him. But our first day here, when I opened the door to go outside, it seriously felt like an oven. Hot and humid tropical climate! But thankfully it has been a bit cooler since the first few days. Well, at least with some clouds! Thankfully there is AC in the houses and where our classes are


The plan is that we will finish our classes Tuesday night. It will take less than 2 weeks since we are doing more hours a day than originally planned...but plans often change in South America...

More coming soon...

Good News!!!!!

I have been accepted to CILTA (the Wycliffe school in Lima, Peru), where I will study linguistics and Bible translation! I´m so thankful and excited...this is like a dream for me!! Classes start in March so we will probably leave to go in February!
David nor the other missionaries (Braulio, Jacqueline, and Beatriz) have heard yet, but we are hoping and praying that we will all be able to go together as a team!!

Also, David and I will be going to a city 6 hours away from Maracaibo tomorrow to take a 2 week long linguistic course that is a prerequesite to entering CILTA. It will be pretty intense, with 40 hours of class, so it will be a challenge for me, but thankfully most of it I have already studied. So it will be a really good review before Peru and it will be very helpful to review all the linguistic vocab in Spanish! It is crazy that we have to do this course now, since we are getting married in a month, but this is the only time it´s offered! So we´ll get back and have a little over a week before the wedding...that should make for a very interesting week! :)

Meet Pastor José

David and I spent last weekend with Pastor Jose and his family. Pastor Jose will be the pastor of our wedding. He is very special to me...I met him my second summer 2007, when the church group I came with worked with his church. We have kept in touch over the years and I have been able to visit and work with his church and especially the kids, every summer. Also, Pastor Jose and his church, Renacer en Cristo Iglesia Bautista (Rebirth in Christ Baptist Church) has adopted us as missionaries of their church and they are supporting us. They have been very encouraging for us as we are starting out as missionaries! Last weekend, we visited his church, which is about 30 minutes to an hour outside of the city, in a very poor area, which is similar to a dump. My first time in this community God really changed my heart because I remember when our bus pulled up that morning (we were going to do a carnival for the kids there), only a few kids came, and they were obviously very porr, half-naked, hungry, and dirty. Their houses are like pieces of random stuff thrown together and it is literally a small dump. One work permeated all of my thinking- HOPELESS. How could anything good ever come from this place? But when our bus came back into this same community that night to continue to interact with the people and have a service led by Pastor Jose, tons of people from the community, children and adults, were waiting for us. And it overwhelmed me.

Over the years, I have seen extreme poverty in Venezuela, and other Latin American countries, and it is something that you won´t see in the US. But something I have learned is that although my heart breaks to see people..children..living in such conditions, I realize that the real tragedy is that way too many of these people have never heard the Gospel or had access to the Word. God used our team that summer to work through the local church Renacer in Cristo to reach out into this community and distribute food, and make contacts with people. Over the years I have seen how this church has continued to work in and love on this community. And everytime we visit the church, which is actually more like a large hut made out of wood and palm tree leaves, I see more and more people from the local community coming to the church and being discipled. I am so thankful to God for letting me see this, how He is at work.

So, back to the present...last weekend, we visited the church and Pastor José and his wife, Angelica, gave us premarital counseling. It was a great time of talking about God´s plan for marriage and them sharing their experiences and advice. We went to Paseo de Lago, which is like a big park around Lake Maracaibo, which is the largest lake in the world, and we sat in the shade. I like it there because of the nice breeze and shade! So, here´s some pictures I took at the lake! of David and I and Pasor José and Angelica!

I´m also going to post a picture of Pastor Jose´s son, Kairoel (nickname, Cairo, pronounced like the one in Egypt)...he will be our ring bearer! The picture of his 3 sons, and Kairoel is the oldest one!

Thanksgiving on the equator

Well, yesterday was Thanksgiving, and even though it was hard to believe since it way up in the 90s here, I did miss my family a lot. It was much harder than I anticipated, but I know that it is God´s will that I am here now, and this is a sacrifice I have to make, even though a very difficult one. I was reminded of how thankful I am for each of them!

Kathleen and I decided to make a Thanksgiving feast. (For those who don´t know, I have known Kathleen ever since we took dance classes together when we were 5 and after being college roomates all four years, we became like sisters. She is also a missionary in Venezuela and working with missions in a church here). Between the two of us, and help from David (I am very thankful that he can cook!!!), we made mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, green beans, slaw, fried chicken, sweet tea, and arepas (had to have a little something Venezuelan). Not the traditional Thanksgiving food, but I still enjoyed eating some American food and spending time with Kathleen!!! Here are some pictures from our dinner, of David and I and Kathleen and her husband, Hebert.



Kathleen also make a chocolate mocha cake, which was amazing. I love chocolate cake, and they don´t eat as many sweets here as in the US, so it was a nice treat! It was good for my soul!!

A Taste of the South...

So, if you don´t already know, I really like food. Thankfully, I like Venezuelan food a lot, they use a lot of lime, cilantro, garlic, rice, chicken, black beans, arepas (like the ¨tortilla¨ of Venezuela), veggies- onion, corn, and tomato, and fruit (pineapple, mango, passionfruit, bananas, plantains, and much more)...

But despite all of this, there are some staples of the American (specifically Southern) diet that aren´t so readily available here. So, I bring them with me. Sweet tea, Slim Jims (One of David´s new favorites), peanut butter, Reeses, etc. Oh, and Duke´s mayonaisse. They have mayo, but not Duke´s...so I thought I´d bring it for them to try. And it was a hit. The sweet tea was also a hit, and is really good with fresh limes! There´s some other southern dishes that I want to make too, like deviled eggs, biscuits and gravy, and no-bake chocolate peanut butter cookies (known to some of us as ¨cow patties¨)...any more ideas??

So here´s my stash of American food....thought ya´ll might find this entertaining :)

happy thanksgiving everyone!!!

here´s a thanksgiving card for everyone :) love and miss ya´ll! please eat some pumpkin pie for me!
http://www1.bluemountain.com/display.pd?path=104941&prodnum=3154969

The Gideons come to Venezuela

Last week we got the opportunity to help with a group of Gideons who came to Venezuela. Over the past few weeks, they worked in 3 different cities in VZ: Caracas, Maracaibo, and Barquisimeto. I interpreted for one specific person, a man named Norm from Maryland. We, with some other Venezuelans from local churches went to different places in the city, such as schools- public, private, elementary and high school, to give out small New Testaments. In the elementary schools, we were able to go in and share with the children. At other schools, we gave them out at students were leaving or going in. Many of the teachers were eager to receive the New Testaments and start having Bible study in their classroom! We were also able to go to a Military Base. We had a contact with the Chaplain on base, who led us around all over the base. I was so surprised to see how polite the soldiers were. No one rejected the New Testaments and many asked for more for fellow soldiers or family. The last night the Gideons hosted a dinner in appreciation for the local pastors, and the picture I posted above is of David, Norm, and I at the dinner. I heard many amazing testimonies about how God has used the Gideon´s ministry, and I am so thankful that God allowed me to work with them. During these last few weeks over 600,000 New Testaments were given out in Venezuela, and 250,000 of those being in Maracaibo!!! Pray that God will use His word in these New Testaments to transform the lives and hearts of those who received them!

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55:9-11

table arrangements before...

FIESTA!!!

Last Saturday was Emily´s 5th birthday and David and I were invited :) (For those who don´t know, Emily is the daughter of the missionary family in the Sierra. Emily and her brother, Aleko, are Yukpa and were adopted by the missionaries.) Emily reminds me a lot of my cousin Tatum- adorable...and very smart!! It was just as much a party for the adults as the kids, with lots of food and loud music (which is always the norm in Maracaibo, no matter the day). I met Jaqueline´s Dad, who reminded me of my dad because he is always joking about something. When he found out I was from the US, he started speaking in his version of English, which sounded something like chiiii shhhhaaaa shhiiiii chhhh. This reminded me of when Dad hears someone speaking another language when we are in public and he starts to quote unquote speak that language. Now I know how they feel! hahahaha

They also had a piñata (which I never before realized how dangerous this can be- lots of small children and someone swinging with a stick), but luckily there were no injuries, just lots of children with lots of sugar.

In retrospect

Ok, so first, I will try to catch ya´ll up on what has been going on the past 2 weeks (wow…I can´t believe I´ve already been here that long!)…

Bienvenidos a Maracaibo!! (Welcome to Maracaibo!!)

I arrived on a Tuesday night, thankfully after a good and quick day of travel. David and his parents, Braulio, Jaqueline, Emily, and Aleko (missionary family from the Sierra) came to pick me up from the airport! David had roses and chocolate for me! hehehehe Later Kathleen and Hebert (her husband) came to visit and we all visited for a while. It was so good to see everyone!

One of our first jobs was to tie the ribbons on our invitations (which I was able to have printed in the US thanks to my Uncle Gene!) and get the envelopes ready. According to Venezuelan culture, you don´t mail the invitations, but you give them out personally. At first, I thought, Oh heavens, this is going to take forever!!!…but actually, it has been kind of neat, to be able to see people and catch up with them. For some of the invitations, we have gone to visit the people (no call first, just drop in!). Such a visit guarantees you at least a snack and drink and usually a meal. So this is also a good way to try lots of food! hehehe

We are also trying to get as much wedding stuff done early as possible, like getting food ingredients and drinks. We are also going to make the floral arrangements for the tables in the reception so we bought the stuff for that yesterday (see picture above)…..stay tuned for the finished product!!

Hello everyone!

Hey ya´ll!!
So…I decided to try out a blog, at least for the next few months to keep all you family and friends in the States up to date on ministry stuff and wedding stuff (and probably some funny stories and interesting VZ facts). I´ll try to update it at least every few days and that way, you can check it whenever you want.