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.