Autumn in April, 2013

This month has absolutely flown by, just as we knew it would! Just like in the States, autumn fluctuates; some days are quite chilly and some days are warm again. In the States, we’d call it Indian Summer. Here, it’s veranito, (little summer).

EASTER IN THE AUTUMN!

Holy Week, the week leading up to and including Easter Sunday, was a blend of many different experiences, but in a totally unique way for us this year!  Especially since we're from North America, it feels unusual to us to be celebrating Easter in the autumn!

It was also a special privilege for us to be invited to participate in the music of the Easter service. There were several rehearsals over the last couple of months and 5 more this week, including Easter morning, before the service started. The piece we were doing was one called "Let This Mind Be In You" - in Spanish, "Tengan Este Sentir" (Have This Feeling). Nico, our excellent leader, had studied music and participated in a large choir that sang this piece at Mount Vernon Nazarene University. He translated the lyrics to Spanish and drafted his church friends to join him. It's interesting that choirs are rare in Argentina. Sure, there's a worship team in most churches, but choirs singing vocal arrangements are truly unique! There were 14 of us (from Peru, Brazil, United States, and Argentina) singing 4 parts. Initially we were to perform this song a cappela (without accompaniment) but, on Wednesday, we were introduced to the fellow who would play a simpler version of the written music, and it made all the difference in this challenging piece.

Fall 2013 begins

It has surely been the end of summer here in Argentina with the weather fluctuating between crisp or pleasantly warm, gray or sunny.

Rehearsals for the Easter choir music are getting more serious each week, as we have the words memorized and now must become better at listening to each other and watching our director Nico for direction in volume and phrasing. Even with its challenges, this situation is an answer to prayer, a way for us to connect personally with others in our local church, Altos del Pilar (Pilar Heights Church of the Nazarene). We're enjoying these closer friendships!

We've been involved in a ministry called Missions Coaching for the last couple of years. We attended a weekend of training to be able to be, as a couple, a source of encouragement, support and a sounding board for people who are on track to be missionaries. Of our current missions candidates, we have a young woman who's finishing her master's degree while working in retail management, another young woman who is already a volunteer missionary in Europe, and a young man who has lots of options ahead of him as he decides what career path to follow. We enjoy all these relationships as we Skype with them, usually once a month, from wherever we are! They have all expressed appreciation about having a non-family member to talk things over with – and be accountable to – who understands their passion for missions. We’re accountable too, to our coach in Kansas City, former missionary Hal Frye. Technology has certainly made these relationships possible and we're grateful to God for the opportunity to be a part of these lives!

With cooler weather, I've tried some new recipes (it had been just too hot to bake in our house) so we've enjoyed Baked Blueberry Coconut Oatmeal, English muffin bread, Lemon Cream Scones, and Mocha Chocolate Chip Blondies – yummy stuff! And it felt cool enough for Dan to finally turn on the hot-water heating system, with tubes under the tile floors. A repairman had even been hired by the Regional Office to come and make sure it was working properly. But, one Sunday morning, after I had cooked breakfast, we no longer had hot water (for showers OR to heat the house)! Dan thought at first that the water heater had a problem. We notified Liliana, our boss, while she was already on her way to church. She called Pablo, the head maintenance guy for the Regional Office, who came over and showed us that the propane tank was empty! It had served our house and our next-door neighbors for months and we hadn't given a thought to checking it! Naturally, we started thinking of ways to cope with the problem, especially since we had heard stories of the gas company taking a week – or more – to schedule a time for refilling the tank! We ended up staying in our house that night with an electric heater borrowed from Cindy after the evening church service, but were given a wonderful room with a kitchen at the lodge on the Regional Office grounds on Monday! Amazingly Liliana was able to convince the gas company that this was an emergency, so they refilled the tank on Tuesday morning so we could return home!

Dan has been working on our federal and state tax returns and submitted them online – what a blessing it is to be able to complete this task remotely!

We've been fighting colds the last couple of weeks (initially thinking that we just had some mild fall allergies), but we're both getting a little better each day. It's a good thing, too, since we want to be“at full voice” to sing on Easter Sunday.

Lately, Dan and I have been needed to run errands with Seyda, the Peruvian lady in charge of events for the Regional Office grounds during this time – what fun! We've been to hardware stores, discount food stores, small vegetable markets, and office supply stores. We've made some funny memories with her, especially the day the truck didn't want to restart. Since we were in a small parking lot, Dan asked Seyda and me to get behind and push the truck so he could “pop the clutch” and get it going, but that didn't work. Seyda made a phone call, then had Dan open the hood so she could pound on the battery; after that, it started and we could continue with our errands! Seyda is patient as we speak Spanish slowly with her. She’s generous too; she always thanks us for our help and has even treated us to lunch or Ice Cream!

One Saturday, we were treated to an afternoon at Temaiken Zoo with Cindy and “Lilita” (Liliana Reza, our newest missionary here) and a few others. The weather cooperated and we enjoyed the animals and ice cream on the way home! Another recent blessing was an evening for couples at the Altos church. We enjoyed a Christian movie called “Not Easily Broken” (American, dubbed in Spanish, with English sub-titles!), hotdogs and popcorn, and a discussion about the values in the movie with the other couples!

Our work in the Regional Office seems more intense now, as we strive to keep up our responsibilities and identify, technologically, how much of the same work we can do from our home near St. Louis, Missouri, after we return at the end of April.

Again, most days I'm just in awe that God has actually given us the opportunity to live and work in Argentina, enjoying the culture and the wonderful people here!  On both ends of the spectrum, we continue to be incredibly blessed by the people AND by technology!

February – Both summer and autumn!

February is part of summer here in Argentina with kids out of school and families in and out of church as they take vacations. Some days are incredibly hot and we feel it especially when we walk out of our air-conditioned office and head for our un-air-conditioned house with all the windows open. Even the cleaning lady for our building says, “Hay como un horno afuero!” (It’s like an oven outside!)  When there are no retreats or camps on the Regional Office grounds, we gladly enjoy a couple of hours at the pool…

We took an enjoyable 3-hour boat ride to Montevideo, Uruguay, to comply with the laws of being here on a visitor’s visa (must not stay more than 90 days at a time). The 3-hour boat ride (each way across the bay) was enjoyable, as was the bus tour, the shopping area, and delicious meals at a chic restaurant!  

Routine and surprise...

It seems that nothing has been routine for several weeks - with the holidays, filling in for coworkers on vacation, enjoying a retreat with visiting church leaders, not to mention a sweet new missionary! While all those things are interesting and fun, it’s good to get back to a regular schedule of expectations! That is, until my computer died!

My faithful notebook computer just quit, without warning. Dan’s diagnosis is that it shorted out inside somewhere. The good news is that my-husband-the-computer-guy has been able to retriever all my files from its hard drive! The bad news is that I’m going to have to wait until we return to the States to replace it. (This was the computer that I carried with me everywhere for work AND personal files AND communication!) More good news, though – Dan was able to piece together 2 computers for me to use, one in each office that I work in! And, since I can still read email at our house on my Kindle, life will go on!

Since I always have a good time creating something new in the kitchen, it was fun to make Pumpkin Overnight French Toast and have Cindy and Liliana (we sometimes call her ‘Lilita’ to distinguish her from the other Liliana, our boss) over for breakfast one Sunday morning. (Sundays still feel strange here when we don’t have a service until evening.) We talked the entire morning, thoroughly enjoying the company and conversation!

On Monday, we watched some of the Presidential Inauguration on Dan’s iPad when we went home for lunch, and watched the rest from the Internet news during dinner. As I get older, I think I’m more aware and more interested in current news and world events.

This week had very fluctuating weather – hot one day, then cold and windy and rainy the next! We were able to use the pool on a hot day and I baked banana bread on a cooler day! One hot day turned out to be an Argentine holiday and Cindy invited us to use the pool at the seminary. Work time has settled into something more predictable for me, although Dan is always busy with something computer-related and is never idle!

The next Monday, I took a plate of banana bread to the construction guys working on the new duplex on the Regional Office grounds that we’re hoping to live in soon! Most weeks, they work 6 days, and we are enjoying watching the progress!

We were contacted by Nicolas, an Argentine friend we met here, a few years ago, when we were here with Extreme Nazarene Ministries. Nico was a high school student then and subsequently attended Mount Vernon Nazarene University. He has a degree in music and, at Christmas, he assembled and led a choir singing “O Holy Night” at the Altos church. He has gathered the group again (choirs are very rare here) to sing a special piece for Easter and has asked us to join them too. We’re thrilled, as we’ve missed singing in a choir! Electronically, he sent us the sheet music and recordings of the song to become familiar with it. Our first rehearsal with the group was fun, as well as hard work. We’ll be singing in Spanish, of course, and it will be a capella and memorized! It’s so good to be included and connect with this church family!

God provides the social interaction we’ve been craving, as well as all the physical things we need! He continues to amaze us how he cares for our every need.

Happy New Year 2013!!

The New Year has started off with several new experiences, people and many opportunities to see His hand at work...

We celebrated New Year’s Eve in a small town in the Tres Rios (Three Rivers) delta area of Argentina with Jorge and Irma Julca and their family as well as Cindy and Dany.  All are missionary friends here. The Julcas and Dany are from Peru (Jorge is the seminary president here) and Cindy Downy is from the US. 

We set out Sunday morning with Jorge and Cindy driving 2 cars to the town of Gualeguaychú (say GWAL-eh-gwy-CHEW), about 2.5 hours northeast of Pilar, through the river delta area.  The fields reminded us of Illinois – corn and soybeans – except for the standing water in many of them.  On the far side of this cute river town was Termas de Gualeguaychú , a popular resort with a small hotel, a camping area, and quite a few “bungalows” (slept 6) and other small houses (for 4 people).  It also had several swimming pools and, under roofs, their heated pools!  The Julcas were very resourceful, bringing some food in a cooler (like Dany’s homemade chicken salad and homemade pocket bread), buying some food to cook there, and eating out for some meals! 

Christmas 2012

December 17-29, 2012

Monday evening, I baked banana bread especially for our friend Robin! She will turn 39 on Tuesday and we had fun at her well-attended birthday party the previous Saturday night, as her husband Carlos cooked chorizo sausages and made choripan, spicy sandwiches on crusty bread… Mmmm!

We’ve been anticipating the arrival of Josh Williams and his wife Brandi for some time so, Wednesday morning, we got to use work time to go to Jumbo and get a few things to stock their fridge for breakfasts. And, while we thought someone else would actually pick them up at the airport, plans changed and we got the assignment. We didn’t mind at all, as we’re excited to welcome them for their short visit! Josh wanted to show Brandi so much of the Argentina that he’s experienced in the past, so we were in for lots of fun in these few days!

Transitions…

Week of December 3 - 9 , 2012

The spring weather here is turning blustery, raining in waves for entire days, then it turns hot. The mosquitos are showing up and they’re hungry! We saw just one firefly one evening…

Wednesday, the Internet was out. It’s then that we realize just how dependent we are! Evenings, I kept trying to bake – cookie dough, apple empanadas, but the oven just won’t stay on… re-lighting several times is just too fruitless! Carlos Camacho, one of the maintenance men, came over twice, finally tweaking the valve and thermal coupler, until the oven will stay lit. It runs really hot (we have an oven thermometer left to us by Thea when she returned to the States), so I’ve got to really pay attention when something is baking! When the internet returned Janet did some Christmas shopping online to get the kids and grandkids gift certificates.

We brought fewer clothes this year (in their place we’d packed work clothes, for the Work and Witness project, that we wore and left in Costa Rica), so our Saturday project was finding a couple of shirts for Dan. We were successful in a cute shop in downtown Pilar!

Sunday night’s service at Iglesia Altos del Pilar was an awesome production called “Sorpresa en el altillo” (Surprise in the Attic)! This church has a very dedicated bunch of young adults who work hard at their theater productions. They are all good actors and their dedication is evident in the quality of the plays. It was also an evening to honor the end of the Sunday School year and all who had completed their course of study. Two adult classes even got certificates for finishing their levels of Master’s Plan  Discipleship study. The best part for us is that we understand so much more of what’s happening this year!

Settling in... spending time with friends, old and new.

The Monday after (American) Thanksgiving Day was an Argentine holiday, so we’d had quite a long weekend! Dan had reconnected in an online conversation with Ireneo (say “ear-ih-NAY-o), our Bolivian friend who is the technology guy for the Seminary. (We had enjoyed a wonderful Saturday with him and his wife Graciela and their son Josué (Spanish version of Joseph, say “ho-SWAY”) earlier in the year and, when they brought all the parts of a typical Bolivian meal and cooked it in our  house in the Regional Office compound. Hearing that we’d had some Spanish study and needed to practice, he took our need seriously, saying, “OK, when?”

First days back and Thanksgiving!

We’ve been in Argentina for 10 days and, in some ways, it’s as if we were just here. In other ways, of course, it’s been 6 months and things have changed.

Our new temporary home.

We’re now living in Casa#1, a huge house with 4 bedrooms and 2 baths, lots more than we need, but it was the only thing available until some new housing is finished on the Regional Office grounds. Our small, gated neighborhood is behind the RO and about a half block away down a dirt road. There are 4 identical houses and we’re there by ourselves for a short time. We understand that 3 families will move in December 1. The compound is secure; besides the lock and chain on the gate and barbed wire topping all the fencing, there are workers mowing and working on the houses during the week and there is an overnight guard each night.