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!
