New Year 2012

Thank goodness, we went back to work this week! I think we’d had enough of unstructured time! On Monday, the mail was gathered from the post office – it had been more than 10 days since anyone had gone! And we got 2 new Christmas cards in the (snail) mail! It’s a bigger blessing than most people would realize since we’re so far from home. It’s easy to feel forgotten, even when we know that we’re not, when we don’t get much email, much less physical expressions of caring. Thanks again to Bud & Julie Rager, Pastor Rich & Tawnya Hadley, and friends (and twins) Melissa Steele and Mary Steele!

New experience this week:

After almost 3 months since my perm and last haircut, I asked the advice of a lady named Dany, who lives and works on the seminary grounds. She contacted Maria, who lives there too, as her husband recently graduated from the Seminary. When Patricia heard about it (she and her husband live and work here in the Regional Office compound), she asked if she could come too. I made those arrangements (by a translated conversation on Facebook) and Dan drove us there where we got very good haircuts in Maria’s kitchen. And she charged us each 20 pesos (less than $5)!

Kitchen successes this week, all “from scratch”:

lemon vinaigrette

baking mix (because I haven’t seen any Bisquick here yet!)

ham and spinach quiche

chocolate banana bread

pizza dough

Dan’s been working on security cameras and their software for the compound. We started with 2 so that we could learn by working with them and verify features and functions.  Good plan... and, boy, have we learned a few things!  This is going to take awhile but this kind of project is rewarding and fun (in a weird, techie kind of way). Oh, and then there is the fact that, in Argentina, there are no returns on these kind of purchases.

I don’t think we’d mentioned that an in-ground pool was started the Monday before Christmas! The goal of the compound property is to become more event-centered, so a pool will be an asset as part of a  retreat experience. We hope to be able to enjoy it too, in a few weeks, when it’s finished!

There is a lot more to life here than the sights we get to see and the work God has put us here to do.

Here are a few of our prayers and praises you can join us in;

• Praying for our co-worker Thea, as she’s in the States for a few more days for some medical tests.
• Praying for the Wilmar and Jessica Rojas family, missionaries to Argentina, in the States for deputation, who will speak in our home church on the 18^th.
• Praying for Rev. Cindy Downey, missionary, professor, and dean of students at the Seminary here, in the States for deputation.
• Praying for Carlos and Robin Radi family, missionaries to Argentina, in the States for deputation.
• Praying for our friends Rev. J.D. and Teresa Sailors as they begin a new pastorate in Vivian, Lousiana.

Lia and Levi Mullen

Claire Yen Hanna Sailor

We’re also rejoicing with two young families as God's timing has recently brought great joy to their lives;

- Chuck and Marsha Sailors, ministry workers in Kansas City, as they begin their new life with daughter, Claire Yen Hanna, from Vietnam – a 5-year journey!

- Joel and Sarah Mullen, missionaries in Italy, as they begin their new life with son Levi from Ethiopia and daughter Lia from China - a 6 year journey!

Next week, we’ll Skype with some of our mission coaching candidates and daughter Erica. We also need to take a day-trip to Uruguay to satisfy the Argentine government requirements for visitors – we can’t stay longer than 3 months on a visitor’s visa. So we’ll enjoy an over-and-back boat ride and tour of the city of Colonia in Uruguay on Thursday! And we’ll get back into Spanish language study!