When we found out we were coming to Paraguay, I added it to my google news reader, and occasionally I find some good stories. Here are two, one about the poor of Asuncion and one about the new President. I would be interested in hearing what you think about either. The first one especially I thought was interesting. We haven't been to that area yet, but I'm interested to see what it's like downtown.
Also, incase I hadn't mentioned this, there is an open and standing invitation to anyone who thinks they may like to visit us here in Asuncion. We have pleanty of space and time to have visitors (especially in November and December) so if you're interested, talk to us. Just a warning, it will probably cost you around $2000 for plane tickets, but we'll take real good care of you once you get hear. Also you'll need a yellow fever vaccine and a Tourist Visa. But like I said, let us know! We'd love some company!
The kids are asleep (they actually went to bed with NO FUSS tonight! Amazing!) and I'm doing a little pre-bed blogging while Sarah skypes her family. Good times good times.
PEACE
Ted
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
A Few Random Stories...
-We rode the bus for the first time by ourselves... it was nice being able to get around town independantly, but it´s still a little new to us, I still can´t get my balance while trying to pay and accelerate.
-Yesterday our busdriver had a picture of Che Geuvera painted inside the bus above the windsheild. I don´t know if that should make me feel safer or not...
-We went to the grocery store to get a few things, but we didn´t find some of them Apparently Brown Sugar isn´t something they cook with around here. Nor are Chocolate chips. Oh well...
-The check-out lady asked me if I had a 1,000 g. coin to make the change even, and I didn´t understand her, so naturally I said "sorry?" which of course cleared things right up... she just nodded like "Ohhhh I see..." and gave me a then counted out my heaping handfull of coins.
-We made chocolate chip cookies with the kids! It was a lot of fun, and they turned out well! I think baking cookies is also something they don´t do much around here, the kids didn´t understand what we were doing untill they came out of the oven. I tried to tell Pri we were making Chocolate chip cookies and she said "like oreos?"
-A friend and coworker at the Church in Fernando de la Mora invited me to sit and have tea with him. The tea here is interesting, if you don´t know what I´m talking about I´ll have to take some pictures. But while most places in the world you fill your cup with water and then add a little tea, here in Paraguay you fill a cup with TEA, Yerba Mate specifically, and then you add a gulp of water and drink the whole cup at once through a kind of metal straw that has a flat spoon like filter on the end. The result is a couple of guys taking turns slurping down super-strong herbal tea (it´s served cold here) and then filling the cup for the next guy. The whole process is called something that sounds like "Tare-a-day" I askes Oswaldo to write it down for me so I could see how it was spelled and he took my pen and wrote exacty: TREL So that may be how it´s spelled, I don´t know. But I´m a little skeptical.
-As an apendix to that last story, I asked Oswaldo if TREL was unique to Paraguay. He told me that they drink it in Brazil too, and that in Bolivia they drink it but they mix in Cocaine, which he then told me tastes pretty bad. Good to know.
-The library organizing is coming along well. Yesterday I scrubbed the floor back to front, and today there was already a thin layer of dust... crazyness. These are some pictures of the Library and the office... The books need to be sorted by subject, labeled with call numbers, and organized on shelves, which should all be done in a few days. We got through maybe a third of the work today... we put in a solid 6 hours.
-I think I have some South American relative of the chigger living in several regions of my skin. Not a lot of fun... we´re going to have to buy some nail polish (or insert your home remedy here)
-Lastly, the kids have been SHOCKINGLY well behaved while their parents are away. This is a picture of Paraguayan version of Batman, Boxman. (Joel invented this bad boy tonight... he hasn´t broken anything yet but I have a feeling it´s coming...)
-Yesterday our busdriver had a picture of Che Geuvera painted inside the bus above the windsheild. I don´t know if that should make me feel safer or not...
-We went to the grocery store to get a few things, but we didn´t find some of them Apparently Brown Sugar isn´t something they cook with around here. Nor are Chocolate chips. Oh well...
-The check-out lady asked me if I had a 1,000 g. coin to make the change even, and I didn´t understand her, so naturally I said "sorry?" which of course cleared things right up... she just nodded like "Ohhhh I see..." and gave me a then counted out my heaping handfull of coins.
-We made chocolate chip cookies with the kids! It was a lot of fun, and they turned out well! I think baking cookies is also something they don´t do much around here, the kids didn´t understand what we were doing untill they came out of the oven. I tried to tell Pri we were making Chocolate chip cookies and she said "like oreos?"
-A friend and coworker at the Church in Fernando de la Mora invited me to sit and have tea with him. The tea here is interesting, if you don´t know what I´m talking about I´ll have to take some pictures. But while most places in the world you fill your cup with water and then add a little tea, here in Paraguay you fill a cup with TEA, Yerba Mate specifically, and then you add a gulp of water and drink the whole cup at once through a kind of metal straw that has a flat spoon like filter on the end. The result is a couple of guys taking turns slurping down super-strong herbal tea (it´s served cold here) and then filling the cup for the next guy. The whole process is called something that sounds like "Tare-a-day" I askes Oswaldo to write it down for me so I could see how it was spelled and he took my pen and wrote exacty: TREL So that may be how it´s spelled, I don´t know. But I´m a little skeptical.
-As an apendix to that last story, I asked Oswaldo if TREL was unique to Paraguay. He told me that they drink it in Brazil too, and that in Bolivia they drink it but they mix in Cocaine, which he then told me tastes pretty bad. Good to know.
-The library organizing is coming along well. Yesterday I scrubbed the floor back to front, and today there was already a thin layer of dust... crazyness. These are some pictures of the Library and the office... The books need to be sorted by subject, labeled with call numbers, and organized on shelves, which should all be done in a few days. We got through maybe a third of the work today... we put in a solid 6 hours.
-I think I have some South American relative of the chigger living in several regions of my skin. Not a lot of fun... we´re going to have to buy some nail polish (or insert your home remedy here)
-Lastly, the kids have been SHOCKINGLY well behaved while their parents are away. This is a picture of Paraguayan version of Batman, Boxman. (Joel invented this bad boy tonight... he hasn´t broken anything yet but I have a feeling it´s coming...)
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Some Pictures for You!
Happy Sunday! A couple of quick things today...
-Here are some pictures we've been taking, of the Saturday afternoon kids program at Fernando de la Mora,
which is actually a lot of fun. I think some of the boys are amused by my name... "ted" doesn't translate well into spanish... but we have a good time.
Also we've been doing a lot of cooking, which is fun!
Here's me and Pricila making "Pollo Milonasa" we're not sure how to spell it, but we do know that we like it a lot!
Lastly, please be praying for us about next week. We just found out that when Christian gets back from his trip tonight he's leaving for another week WITH Flavia, leaving the kids here with us alone, for the most part. Flavia has been making lots of food to put in the freezer for us to warm up, and they have a lady coming to help get the kids ready for school and things like that, but we're still really unsure about some of the details of the week, and of course we can't talk to Flavia about it much beacuse we don't have the spanish skills yet, and Christian won't be back untill late tonight. Needless to say we're going to need to learn a lot in the next day or two!
That's it for now! Thanks again for your prayers, your love, and your support, and of course your comments and emails have been wonderful! My computer is still broken (as you can see
here) so we're still only getting half as much emailing and replying done as we would like. But next week we will be able to use Flavia's computer since she'll be gone! But anyway, thanks to everyone who's commented, it's GREAT to hear from you!
peace
Ted and Sarah
-Here are some pictures we've been taking, of the Saturday afternoon kids program at Fernando de la Mora,
which is actually a lot of fun. I think some of the boys are amused by my name... "ted" doesn't translate well into spanish... but we have a good time.
Also we've been doing a lot of cooking, which is fun!
Here's me and Pricila making "Pollo Milonasa" we're not sure how to spell it, but we do know that we like it a lot!
Lastly, please be praying for us about next week. We just found out that when Christian gets back from his trip tonight he's leaving for another week WITH Flavia, leaving the kids here with us alone, for the most part. Flavia has been making lots of food to put in the freezer for us to warm up, and they have a lady coming to help get the kids ready for school and things like that, but we're still really unsure about some of the details of the week, and of course we can't talk to Flavia about it much beacuse we don't have the spanish skills yet, and Christian won't be back untill late tonight. Needless to say we're going to need to learn a lot in the next day or two!
That's it for now! Thanks again for your prayers, your love, and your support, and of course your comments and emails have been wonderful! My computer is still broken (as you can see
here) so we're still only getting half as much emailing and replying done as we would like. But next week we will be able to use Flavia's computer since she'll be gone! But anyway, thanks to everyone who's commented, it's GREAT to hear from you!peace
Ted and Sarah
Friday, August 22, 2008
Walking the Streets of Asuncion
Buen noches! ,
We just wanted to let everyone know about the past couple of exciting days. We have been venturing out on our own the last couple of days walking around the streets of Asuncion. Flavia sent us on an errand yesterday - to go to the pool place about a mile from the house and purchase the Chloro (chemical) needed for the pool in the backyard. She drew us a map on a piece of paper and wrote down exactly what we needed because we were a little nervous about getting there and then not being able to understand what was going on. So.. when she drew the map it looked like it was only a couple of blocks from the house so about halfway there we thought that we were lost or something but we kept on walking anyway. We made it there - we were able to say "necesitamos dos packetas de Chloro" pay for the products and make it home no problem. Ted had been a little worried but we made it and it gave us a little more confidence to go out on our own and try do things.
So.. after that first trip we decided today to walk to Shopping del Sol, which is a mall about 1 mile and 1/2 from the house. There a good number of people who walk around here and there are sidewalks, something that Kansas City didn't really have, so it wasn't a bad walk at all. We weren't really planning on purchasing anything in the mall - just walking around and looking at what was there. There were a lot of stores in the mall - and kind of high end ones at that. We walked in one department store and looked at the prices of things and strangely enough they were all priced in US dollars and were pretty expensive at that. Unfortunately the value of the dollar keeps going down here in Paraguay and the price of items keeps going up. Some friends of ours (Larry & Sharon Carr.. more about them later) told us that when they first came here ~ 18 years ago the dollar was 7000 guaranies but now the dollar is only 3900 or at least that is what we got about a week and a half ago. Things are not really cheap here anymore, as I have heard they used to be.
Anyway.. we did go to the supermarket right next to the mall, actually there was an entrance from the mall into the store. We got some cleaning products and chocolate. One strange thing that we noticed as we were walking around the store was that there were women standing around holding products in their hands and trying to get you to buy them. We were looking at sponges and this lady would not leave us alone with the sponge that she had - we kept saying "no" without ever really knowing what she was saying. We got to the checkout and the checkout girl kept saying something to us but we really didn't know what. So we just said "lo siento, no intiendo" (i'm sorry, i don't understand) and got our stuff and our change and we left. Who knows what she thought of us.
This afternoon we got to do some hanging out with Larry and Sharon Carr, the missionaries that I mentioned earlier, who are here with World Gospel Mission and have been for the past 18 or some years. They were saying how they have seen a lot of Nazarene missionaries come and go, but they've been here throughout it all. I think that there is something to be said for staying with a community long term - building relationships, going through ups and downs, commitment. Anyway - they took us to a great little restaurant that sold these wraps that had a chicken/beef meat, vegetables, and mayo. I can't remember what they are called though. It was a really neat place, plus they had some amazing smoothies called Tooty Fruities. The meat was on these huge skewers, probably about 3 feet long, and then they scraped some off whenever a sandwich was needed. It was really amazingly good! Then we played some Phase 10 and got to meet some of the WGM missionaries. It was nice to speak English with some people, since we have been speaking mostly Spanish this week with Flavia and the kids. Although, speaking Spanish with them has definitely given us a little more confidence and knowledge.
So.. that is the end to our last couple of days and we are about ready to call it a night. Or at least I am planning on doing some reading while Ted is still trying to fix his mangled mess of a computer. The sad part to our two day adventure is that we forgot to bring our camera to all of these places. Ahh! We will try and be a little better about this during the next few days. There are always neat things to take pictures of.
God be with you! Peace!
We just wanted to let everyone know about the past couple of exciting days. We have been venturing out on our own the last couple of days walking around the streets of Asuncion. Flavia sent us on an errand yesterday - to go to the pool place about a mile from the house and purchase the Chloro (chemical) needed for the pool in the backyard. She drew us a map on a piece of paper and wrote down exactly what we needed because we were a little nervous about getting there and then not being able to understand what was going on. So.. when she drew the map it looked like it was only a couple of blocks from the house so about halfway there we thought that we were lost or something but we kept on walking anyway. We made it there - we were able to say "necesitamos dos packetas de Chloro" pay for the products and make it home no problem. Ted had been a little worried but we made it and it gave us a little more confidence to go out on our own and try do things.
So.. after that first trip we decided today to walk to Shopping del Sol, which is a mall about 1 mile and 1/2 from the house. There a good number of people who walk around here and there are sidewalks, something that Kansas City didn't really have, so it wasn't a bad walk at all. We weren't really planning on purchasing anything in the mall - just walking around and looking at what was there. There were a lot of stores in the mall - and kind of high end ones at that. We walked in one department store and looked at the prices of things and strangely enough they were all priced in US dollars and were pretty expensive at that. Unfortunately the value of the dollar keeps going down here in Paraguay and the price of items keeps going up. Some friends of ours (Larry & Sharon Carr.. more about them later) told us that when they first came here ~ 18 years ago the dollar was 7000 guaranies but now the dollar is only 3900 or at least that is what we got about a week and a half ago. Things are not really cheap here anymore, as I have heard they used to be.
Anyway.. we did go to the supermarket right next to the mall, actually there was an entrance from the mall into the store. We got some cleaning products and chocolate. One strange thing that we noticed as we were walking around the store was that there were women standing around holding products in their hands and trying to get you to buy them. We were looking at sponges and this lady would not leave us alone with the sponge that she had - we kept saying "no" without ever really knowing what she was saying. We got to the checkout and the checkout girl kept saying something to us but we really didn't know what. So we just said "lo siento, no intiendo" (i'm sorry, i don't understand) and got our stuff and our change and we left. Who knows what she thought of us.
This afternoon we got to do some hanging out with Larry and Sharon Carr, the missionaries that I mentioned earlier, who are here with World Gospel Mission and have been for the past 18 or some years. They were saying how they have seen a lot of Nazarene missionaries come and go, but they've been here throughout it all. I think that there is something to be said for staying with a community long term - building relationships, going through ups and downs, commitment. Anyway - they took us to a great little restaurant that sold these wraps that had a chicken/beef meat, vegetables, and mayo. I can't remember what they are called though. It was a really neat place, plus they had some amazing smoothies called Tooty Fruities. The meat was on these huge skewers, probably about 3 feet long, and then they scraped some off whenever a sandwich was needed. It was really amazingly good! Then we played some Phase 10 and got to meet some of the WGM missionaries. It was nice to speak English with some people, since we have been speaking mostly Spanish this week with Flavia and the kids. Although, speaking Spanish with them has definitely given us a little more confidence and knowledge.
So.. that is the end to our last couple of days and we are about ready to call it a night. Or at least I am planning on doing some reading while Ted is still trying to fix his mangled mess of a computer. The sad part to our two day adventure is that we forgot to bring our camera to all of these places. Ahh! We will try and be a little better about this during the next few days. There are always neat things to take pictures of.
God be with you! Peace!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
a day late...
OK so I didn't quite get those things posted last night like Sarah said I would... what else is new. However, I do have some good stuff for you today. First off, here are some pictures of us hanging out playing "el Juego de la VIDA" with the Venturas.
Very nice. By the way, the winner, coming in at just over a million (guaranies, of course, which isn't all that much) ME! Yay!OK, down to business. (having some trouble with GoogleMaps, but when I get it worked out I'll post the actual images. for now, just a link that may be broken) This is a map (I hope) of where we live in Asuncion. We haven't explored much by ourselves, but we did walk down Lilio a little. This afternoon we're going to Fernando de la Mora, where the office and the church are. When I'm there I'll firgure out the address and put a link to that later. For now, this is all I've got! Gracias! Hasta Luego!
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
New Links!
Hola!
This is just a quick post to let our faithful readers know that we have a couple of new links for you guys to check out. The first is a blog that I (Sarah) am doing for NTS, so you can look at that if you would like. The second is the link to the blog that is updated by the Ventura family. This blog is in Spanish; however, we are going to be working with them in the future to try and translate some of their posts in English as well. Anyway, just giving you guys some more reading if you would like. Later on today Ted is going to post a few pictures and a map of where we are and where we have been going. Right now we have to get some work done before our big lunch. Around here people eat a big lunch, which we don't mind one bit.
This is just a quick post to let our faithful readers know that we have a couple of new links for you guys to check out. The first is a blog that I (Sarah) am doing for NTS, so you can look at that if you would like. The second is the link to the blog that is updated by the Ventura family. This blog is in Spanish; however, we are going to be working with them in the future to try and translate some of their posts in English as well. Anyway, just giving you guys some more reading if you would like. Later on today Ted is going to post a few pictures and a map of where we are and where we have been going. Right now we have to get some work done before our big lunch. Around here people eat a big lunch, which we don't mind one bit.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Shopping, etc!
Today is a national holiday here, so we spent the day hanging out and shopping! We walked down to the mall, walked around to several stores, and then went for fast food! I had a W hopper from burger king! It was good, although the sodas are much smaller here, which if you've ever seen the movie "Supersize Me" you'll know why. Anyway, it's been a lot of fun getting to know the Venturas and hanging out with the kids! We went to a park today, which was very interesting- we had to show our passports to get in! There were security guards everywhere too, as there are all over the city. Every house here has a huge fence around it, and some even have razor wire and electric fences! They are serious about their security here!
Tomorrow is another holiday, the Day of the Children, and so to celebrate Flavia bought the kids some "Blocky"s, which are like legos. Here are some pictures we took today. We're on our way to see Batman (in English, of course...) so we'll write more later!
This is Joel, (pronounced hoel) and his Dad, Christian, and his Mom, Flavia. And down there is Pricilla, she's 6 and she's really funny. I don't think they quite know what to do with non-spanish speaking people. Last night Pricilla got out a game for Sarah to play... it involved one person reading half of a verse of scripture (in spanish) and the other person trying to say the second half from memory... yeah Sarah didn't do great at that one, but Pricilla can't really read yet so she still had an advantage. I was playing chess with Joel, which worked ok, but then he got out this game with different trivia questions, and I was having a really hard time. Although part of the reason could have been that, as I found out after about 10 minutes of struggling through it, the whole game was in PORTUGUESE! No wonder I wasn't doing great...
OK now we are all going to the MOVIES! I hope the popcorn is good here. Our tickets were only about $5 US each, or 40,000 guaranies...
We'll write more later! Tomorrow we're going to play some games with all the kids at the church, so we'll put some pictures up of all that!
PEACE!
Ted and Sarah
Tomorrow is another holiday, the Day of the Children, and so to celebrate Flavia bought the kids some "Blocky"s, which are like legos. Here are some pictures we took today. We're on our way to see Batman (in English, of course...) so we'll write more later!
This is Joel, (pronounced hoel) and his Dad, Christian, and his Mom, Flavia. And down there is Pricilla, she's 6 and she's really funny. I don't think they quite know what to do with non-spanish speaking people. Last night Pricilla got out a game for Sarah to play... it involved one person reading half of a verse of scripture (in spanish) and the other person trying to say the second half from memory... yeah Sarah didn't do great at that one, but Pricilla can't really read yet so she still had an advantage. I was playing chess with Joel, which worked ok, but then he got out this game with different trivia questions, and I was having a really hard time. Although part of the reason could have been that, as I found out after about 10 minutes of struggling through it, the whole game was in PORTUGUESE! No wonder I wasn't doing great...
OK now we are all going to the MOVIES! I hope the popcorn is good here. Our tickets were only about $5 US each, or 40,000 guaranies...We'll write more later! Tomorrow we're going to play some games with all the kids at the church, so we'll put some pictures up of all that!
PEACE!
Ted and Sarah
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Millionaries!
Well, we're here! We got in last night and had a great meal with the Ventura family and some friends, a shower and good night's sleep. This morning it's sunny and we got to see some of the town. We drove to the Fernando Mora area 
where the office is. We learned a lot already, like that the red octagonal signs that sey "PERA" don't mean you actually have to STOP. Good to know. Anyway, we left our camera back here, so we'll have to post pictures next time we go over there. For now, here are some pictures of where we're staying... I think we'll call it "el cabana" ... Anyway it's actually a little building in the fenced in backyard of the ventura's house, in thi picture you can see it in the back, just past the pool (yeah that's right, the pool. It's winter here, but they're getting it ready because it will be warm enough, Christian says, in september.) This is a picture
a little closer of just el cabana. We just finishd lunch and Sarah is reading her Spanish textbook outside in the sun by the pool. I came in to the kitchen to upload the photos because the WiFi signal is a little sketchy in el cabana. SO far we've eaten with the Ventura family twice- last night we had t-bone steaks and mashed potatoes, and today for lunch: beef ribs and potato salad. They're way into meat here. And I'm OK with that. Although we decided we're going to start setting a place at the dinner table for our dictionary, because we get a little lost in all the conversation. 
This is a picture of the inside of el cabano, which is still a little disheveled but for the most part I think we have things where we want them. The outlets here are a little different, so we had to find the best one to use with the computer, which meant a little rearranging.
Earlier while we were out with Christian we shopped around a little for a place to exchange our US dollars, for which we got quite a lot of Guaranies (although not nearly as many as we would have even a year or two ago)
we exchanged $350 US, for which we became millionares in Guaranies- about 1.7 million, actually. The rate is about 4000 Guaranies to a dollar, which means even the smallest bill we got was a 5000 guaranie bill, which I guess is worth about a buck and a quarter. On our way to Fernando Mora after getting our million guaranies Christian said "now your are milionaries" and I'm not sure if he intended to make a pun on "missionaries" and "millionares" or if he just got the english word wrong, but I thought it was a good one. I think I'm going to go join Sarah in the sun and do some reading. We'll post more later... this afternoon we're going with Flavia to the grocery store so we can "show her what we like." We tried to tell her we're not picky, but we still can't find the spanish word for "picky". or "frisbee" ... I tried explaining frisbee golf today... I don't think they got it. Oh well.
where the office is. We learned a lot already, like that the red octagonal signs that sey "PERA" don't mean you actually have to STOP. Good to know. Anyway, we left our camera back here, so we'll have to post pictures next time we go over there. For now, here are some pictures of where we're staying... I think we'll call it "el cabana" ... Anyway it's actually a little building in the fenced in backyard of the ventura's house, in thi picture you can see it in the back, just past the pool (yeah that's right, the pool. It's winter here, but they're getting it ready because it will be warm enough, Christian says, in september.) This is a picture
a little closer of just el cabana. We just finishd lunch and Sarah is reading her Spanish textbook outside in the sun by the pool. I came in to the kitchen to upload the photos because the WiFi signal is a little sketchy in el cabana. SO far we've eaten with the Ventura family twice- last night we had t-bone steaks and mashed potatoes, and today for lunch: beef ribs and potato salad. They're way into meat here. And I'm OK with that. Although we decided we're going to start setting a place at the dinner table for our dictionary, because we get a little lost in all the conversation. 
This is a picture of the inside of el cabano, which is still a little disheveled but for the most part I think we have things where we want them. The outlets here are a little different, so we had to find the best one to use with the computer, which meant a little rearranging.
Earlier while we were out with Christian we shopped around a little for a place to exchange our US dollars, for which we got quite a lot of Guaranies (although not nearly as many as we would have even a year or two ago)
we exchanged $350 US, for which we became millionares in Guaranies- about 1.7 million, actually. The rate is about 4000 Guaranies to a dollar, which means even the smallest bill we got was a 5000 guaranie bill, which I guess is worth about a buck and a quarter. On our way to Fernando Mora after getting our million guaranies Christian said "now your are milionaries" and I'm not sure if he intended to make a pun on "missionaries" and "millionares" or if he just got the english word wrong, but I thought it was a good one. I think I'm going to go join Sarah in the sun and do some reading. We'll post more later... this afternoon we're going with Flavia to the grocery store so we can "show her what we like." We tried to tell her we're not picky, but we still can't find the spanish word for "picky". or "frisbee" ... I tried explaining frisbee golf today... I don't think they got it. Oh well.
Monday, August 4, 2008
One Week
In one week from today, we leave the US. In one week from tomorrow we arrive in Paraguay. It's easy to just say "we're getting really excited" so instead I would like to share a few stories of the past few days that show a little more what we're feeling right now.
A little more than a week ago we were getting ready for our trip to Seattle and we hit a minor hic-up: we didn't have plane tickets. We thought we were going to be able to get standby passes to fly on a local Kansas City airline, but it turns out all the flights for last weekend were completely overbooked and no standby passes were being offered. So with 8 days left until our flight, we hit the web bargain sites. At first we found tickets for 6 or 7 hundred dollars each one way, which was totally out of the question, but eventually after a little more searching it looked like $230 each was the best we could do. That was way more money than I wanted to spend, so after about 2 hours of searching thursday night I went to bed. Friday morning I got up, searched a little more, and reluctantly bought the "cheapest" tickets, which totaled $500. We were both frustrated by the chain of events leading to this unexpected cost, but we had too much to do to dwell on it. Then on our way to work we remembered we hadn't checked our mail the day before, so we stopped by the box and amidst the junk mail found a card from some friends at St Luke. As Sarah opened it in the car I flippantly remarked "I hope there's a check for $500 in there" and guess what. Inside the card was a personal check written to us for exactly $500. Our tickets were covered, and the check was in the mail box even before we knew we needed it. When we tell this story people respond a variety of ways, but the most common is "what an answer to prayer." I like to tell people that's not quite the case because When the check arrived in our mailbox we didn't even know we needed it yet, and in the half-hour between buying the tickets and picking up the check we hadn't really even had a chance to pray about it. What it is safe to say, I think, is that yes, God wants us where we're headed, and GOD will make it happen.
In fact, God has been making things happen all over the place. As we were preparing to leave for Seattle we discussed the amount of U.S. dollars we needed to bring with us in cash form. We decided on a number and withdrew it in twenties. Then over the next 24 hours we received almost the same amount again in gifts of cash from friends- every single dollar if it in twenties. Needless to say arriving in Seattle we had more twenties then I've ever seen in one place in my life. God has prepared us well financially.
God is also preparing us in other ways. We had a great time of worship on Sunday which, in addition to Sunday school conversations and worship with Kent Nazarene, also included a Barbecue with some folks from Kent and an all-Spanish service on Sunday afternoon. We knew there was a Spanish-speaking service at Kent, so we decided I would be a good warm up exercise to go and listen, and see how much we could understand. What I didn't anticipate was the level of energy, excitement and passion that this service was filled with, and the extent to which I was a participant in giving Glory to God, not just a spectator in the back row. We understood most of the songs, but only because they were on the projector screen- if we had to understand what they were singing we would never have figured it out at all. We also managed to get the scripture readings (Hechos, Juan, and Matteo, respectively) and most of the major points of the sermon. One thing that really surprised us was communion, which was received a little differently. Instead of sitting in our seats, the whole congregation gathered around one of four tables in the sanctuary. Then as the pastor spoke and prayed there was an attendant at each table who passed the elements to each person. What we didn't understand at all (it was probably explained but we didn't know some of the key words here) was the reason for having four elements. In addition to the standard bread and juice there was also a bowl of sliced radishes and a bowl of whole green grapes. We ate all four, but it wasn't until later that the reasons were explained to us. As it seems, the radishes were meant to remind us of the suffering of Christ, in a similar way to the bitter herbs at a Passover Seder meal. The grapes were meant to remind us of Christ body being whole and then (as we bite it) being broken, spilling blood. Very interesting, I thought, and I wish I could have understood more of that part of the service.
So this week is "learn Spanish like crazy" week and we're really going to try to put some effort into it. I would like to be able to get some basic ideas like future and past tenses, verb conjugations, and of course work on vocabulary as much as possible. But we're feeling pretty good about things right now, and having met Christian and Flavia last week at a wedding helps a lot too. They are some awesome people and they're going to make our time there so much better. Dios Bendigamos! I have no idea if that's correct!
A little more than a week ago we were getting ready for our trip to Seattle and we hit a minor hic-up: we didn't have plane tickets. We thought we were going to be able to get standby passes to fly on a local Kansas City airline, but it turns out all the flights for last weekend were completely overbooked and no standby passes were being offered. So with 8 days left until our flight, we hit the web bargain sites. At first we found tickets for 6 or 7 hundred dollars each one way, which was totally out of the question, but eventually after a little more searching it looked like $230 each was the best we could do. That was way more money than I wanted to spend, so after about 2 hours of searching thursday night I went to bed. Friday morning I got up, searched a little more, and reluctantly bought the "cheapest" tickets, which totaled $500. We were both frustrated by the chain of events leading to this unexpected cost, but we had too much to do to dwell on it. Then on our way to work we remembered we hadn't checked our mail the day before, so we stopped by the box and amidst the junk mail found a card from some friends at St Luke. As Sarah opened it in the car I flippantly remarked "I hope there's a check for $500 in there" and guess what. Inside the card was a personal check written to us for exactly $500. Our tickets were covered, and the check was in the mail box even before we knew we needed it. When we tell this story people respond a variety of ways, but the most common is "what an answer to prayer." I like to tell people that's not quite the case because When the check arrived in our mailbox we didn't even know we needed it yet, and in the half-hour between buying the tickets and picking up the check we hadn't really even had a chance to pray about it. What it is safe to say, I think, is that yes, God wants us where we're headed, and GOD will make it happen.
In fact, God has been making things happen all over the place. As we were preparing to leave for Seattle we discussed the amount of U.S. dollars we needed to bring with us in cash form. We decided on a number and withdrew it in twenties. Then over the next 24 hours we received almost the same amount again in gifts of cash from friends- every single dollar if it in twenties. Needless to say arriving in Seattle we had more twenties then I've ever seen in one place in my life. God has prepared us well financially.
God is also preparing us in other ways. We had a great time of worship on Sunday which, in addition to Sunday school conversations and worship with Kent Nazarene, also included a Barbecue with some folks from Kent and an all-Spanish service on Sunday afternoon. We knew there was a Spanish-speaking service at Kent, so we decided I would be a good warm up exercise to go and listen, and see how much we could understand. What I didn't anticipate was the level of energy, excitement and passion that this service was filled with, and the extent to which I was a participant in giving Glory to God, not just a spectator in the back row. We understood most of the songs, but only because they were on the projector screen- if we had to understand what they were singing we would never have figured it out at all. We also managed to get the scripture readings (Hechos, Juan, and Matteo, respectively) and most of the major points of the sermon. One thing that really surprised us was communion, which was received a little differently. Instead of sitting in our seats, the whole congregation gathered around one of four tables in the sanctuary. Then as the pastor spoke and prayed there was an attendant at each table who passed the elements to each person. What we didn't understand at all (it was probably explained but we didn't know some of the key words here) was the reason for having four elements. In addition to the standard bread and juice there was also a bowl of sliced radishes and a bowl of whole green grapes. We ate all four, but it wasn't until later that the reasons were explained to us. As it seems, the radishes were meant to remind us of the suffering of Christ, in a similar way to the bitter herbs at a Passover Seder meal. The grapes were meant to remind us of Christ body being whole and then (as we bite it) being broken, spilling blood. Very interesting, I thought, and I wish I could have understood more of that part of the service.
So this week is "learn Spanish like crazy" week and we're really going to try to put some effort into it. I would like to be able to get some basic ideas like future and past tenses, verb conjugations, and of course work on vocabulary as much as possible. But we're feeling pretty good about things right now, and having met Christian and Flavia last week at a wedding helps a lot too. They are some awesome people and they're going to make our time there so much better. Dios Bendigamos! I have no idea if that's correct!
Saturday, August 2, 2008
First leg of the trip
Well, we've officially moved out of our appartment and we are now, so to speak, living out of suitcases. Actually we don't have suitcases so much as nylon bags, and we're not living out of them so much as we're living in Sarah's parent's loft where they live in Kent, Washington (just outside of Seattle) for about 10 days. We leave for Paraguay on August 11th, and after 36 more hours of traveling, we'll arrive on the 12th.
We've had a crazy few weeks, getting everything finished at home. VBS was last week, and it went well although it left us both pretty drained. We had fun, but it was tough trying to move, pack, and run VBS all at the same time.
We did have the opportunity to meet Christian and Flavia, who we'll be working with (and living with) in Asuncion, so that was really exciting. They seem like awesome people and they were really excited to meet us too. So that makes the trip seem a little less daunting, but at the same time it makes it a lot more real; it's not just a cool idea anymore, it's an actual reality that is just days away.
It's a reality that couldn't have been possible on our own. I'll write more about that later, but now I have some pictures I want to share of our trip so far.
This was on our way up to the place we were going hiking today. We started off at about 300 feet of elevation, and by the time we got to the top we were around 5,800. We drove up through the cascades and stopped at a place called Paradise, a little less than half way up the side of Mount Rainer.
This is the best view we had of the mountain all day. It was supposed to be clear but of course that was in Seattle and we were about 2 hours away, plus about a mile up, and it was cloudy and cool. As we drove up, I was really excited to see snow off in the distance... little did I know...
We hiked about a mile and a half, and probably about two thirds of it looked like this. COVERED in snow. there was a paved path for use to follow, but most of it was still completely covered. In August. In Washington. That means it's summer time. Crazyness.
Here we are back at the bottom. So cute! Fun times. More stories and maybe a few more pictures later! Leave a comment and let us know what you think!!
We've had a crazy few weeks, getting everything finished at home. VBS was last week, and it went well although it left us both pretty drained. We had fun, but it was tough trying to move, pack, and run VBS all at the same time.
We did have the opportunity to meet Christian and Flavia, who we'll be working with (and living with) in Asuncion, so that was really exciting. They seem like awesome people and they were really excited to meet us too. So that makes the trip seem a little less daunting, but at the same time it makes it a lot more real; it's not just a cool idea anymore, it's an actual reality that is just days away.
It's a reality that couldn't have been possible on our own. I'll write more about that later, but now I have some pictures I want to share of our trip so far.
This was on our way up to the place we were going hiking today. We started off at about 300 feet of elevation, and by the time we got to the top we were around 5,800. We drove up through the cascades and stopped at a place called Paradise, a little less than half way up the side of Mount Rainer.
This is the best view we had of the mountain all day. It was supposed to be clear but of course that was in Seattle and we were about 2 hours away, plus about a mile up, and it was cloudy and cool. As we drove up, I was really excited to see snow off in the distance... little did I know...
We hiked about a mile and a half, and probably about two thirds of it looked like this. COVERED in snow. there was a paved path for use to follow, but most of it was still completely covered. In August. In Washington. That means it's summer time. Crazyness.
Here we are back at the bottom. So cute! Fun times. More stories and maybe a few more pictures later! Leave a comment and let us know what you think!!
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