Thursday, March 31, 2011

Sharing a Meal

A ministry that Jordan and I have truly enjoyed since we arrived is simply having people over to our house for lunch or Once (more to come on Once). Having a space to entertain is such a blessing, and we have had a chance to get to know many people in the church and community by sharing a meal with them.
A few weeks ago, when Jordan's mom was here, we had our Pastor and his wife over for lunch.
Here is that day in pictures:
Juice and Bowls

Cooking

Checking out the soup

Imac, ready to help out if I need a taster

Jordan and his beard just before he cut it 

Busy busy kitchen

Bubbling beets!

Getting a group picture

Still working with the cammy
almost...

There it is!

 All in all, close friends, good food, and fabulous conversation in not one, but TWO languages!
Blessings,
Missy

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Chilean Food 101

Thought you all might be interested in some of the food that they eat down here in Chile. Though it's not too different from anything you've eaten up there in the states..they definitely don't have a Mexican/Chinese/Thai/Italian restaurant on every corner (or even in every city) so in that sense, there isn't as big of a mix of food like we find in the melting pot of restaurants in the United States.



They do, however, have a Pizza Hut at the mall in Concepcion...a place that I have been known to go every so often just to eat mozzarella cheese and taste something from home. Keep this one on the dl though will you? It isn't a pretty picture when I am face-full of carbo-loading goodness! :)

First thing on the docket is zapallo! (Since I already had this in my kitchen to take some pictures of). This is one of the staples of Chilean soups. Yes - Chileans make a lot of soup, and it is delicious! Usually they will put a bunch of things in their soups, from beans to potatoes to carrots and noodles, most things you probably put in your soups....


The one addition that they have hear is this beautiful squash that they chop into little squares of flavorful goodness. Now, you may be saying - Missy, I ALWAYS use squash in my soups, this isn't really a Chilean thing - then whoops, I guess I had just never had squash in my soup before arriving here and having it at nearly every lunch we go to!


Anyway, back to zapallo...I looked up the name of this particular squash and it is called Crown Prince and they are HUGE! So, usually they are cut into big chunks and sold at the market for about 40 cents a chunk.

Here's a picture of the chunk I bought today:

Cut up for a soup:

And of course there is no picture of the soup because Jordan and I downed it like crazy people, it was soo good! And seriously, the added pop of the squash is fabulous!

So, now that you've had your first introduction to some Chilean food, I hope to continue this as a sort of series or something.

Have a great day,
Missy

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Prayer for Chiki D



Our dear dear friend, Denis, has been in the hospital for a little over a week now. We thought we'd blog this prayer request so that anyone who sees this can be praying for our "Chilean grandmother." She is a fabulous woman, but unfortunately has been hospitalized with fluid in her lungs. She has recooperated greatly from when she was initially sent to the hosptal, but she still needs more tests so that they can understand how to fix the problem. Thanks to all of you who have some time to pray for her...we thought we'd put up some pictures of her so you could get to know our Chiki-D!


This is from when we all went to see Harry Potter, Chiki may have fallen asleep for some of the movie, but she reassured us she was "just listening"...we had a good time teasing her about her sudden ability to speak English because the movie was spoken in English with Spanish subtitles :)


This is from one of the times Denis came over for lunch at our house - shortly after Rudy and Ida (her grandson and his wife) left for Sweden.


This is Paty, Denis's daughter. Paty has been our Chilean mom since we arrived, always having us over for her delicious cooking. It's always a super fun-filled day when we hang out at their house, we usually spend Sundays with them.


This is Pancha, Denis, and Ida at the mall. Same trip to see Harry Potter. Everyone is eating Swedish candy that Pancha brought back from Sweden- YUM!


This is at Thanksgiving, Rudy made sure he was awarded Best-Dressed for this particular party. It was a good day...we taught the Chileans about the gluttony that is our fantastic holiday.


This was taken last February when Missy came down with a group from Capstone. Two of the students stayed at Paty's house, and from this picture you can get an idea of just how cute our little Chiki is!


We love you Chiki, get better soon!
Jordan and Missy
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Thursday, March 24, 2011

Carol's Visit: Women's Night


Carol, Jordan's mom, was able to host a Women's Night during her time with us this fall, and it was a great success! We had many of the women of the church come together for a night at our Pastor's house, where Carol was able to share her testimony and encourage our church family.

We had great conversation and prayer as well


The women sharing a bit about their lives
The nerve-racking part for me was the translating - yes, I was official translator for the night, and though it was a HUGE challenge, it was also a huge blessing to practice translating, and to come alongside Carol to help enable her to share her story with the women.

We also had chocolate mint cookies a la Carol, which the women LOVED!
The women ended the night praying for Carol, very cool time for all of us to share. It is amazing to come together and realize that many of the struggles we face and victories we have in faith are not limited to countries or language, but rather cross all borders and barriers. God is doing great things all over our world.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8

Happy Thursday!
- Missy
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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Carol's Visit: Married Group Dinner

A few weeks ago, we had the chance to go out to dinner with our married group to celebrate Valentines Day. We spent the evening at a restuarant in Dichato.
Some close friends, Alejandro and Paloma
Pastor Luciano and his wife, Alejandra
Me (no I'm not alone..Jordan is taking the picture)
A "parrilla" which basically means a big bowl of meat with burning coals underneath to keep it warm. It includes chicken, blood sausage, chorizo, intestines (chitterlings I believe is correct?), beef, with some potatoes hidden underneath. Not really our thing..but everyone else loved it!
Carol with Luciano and Ale
The whole gang after the feast, most of our married group was able to attend.
(I know I'm not looking at the camera, but oh well!)

Have a great Tuesday!
-Missy (and Jordan!)
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Monday, March 21, 2011

Carol's Visit: At the Market



Jordan's mom, Carol, recently had the opportunity to come down here for a visit, and we had a blast showing her around! One of our first few days with her we stopped by the outdoor market that is held in Tome every Tuesday and Friday. We will have to get more pictures, because these just don't do the market justice - what with all the stands and kilos upon kilos of fresh fruit and veggies.


$400 el kilo, meaning about 80 cents for 2.2 pounds of apples, pretty good deal considering they are also super fresh!


Picking out the perfect head of lettuce.


One cool thing about Chile, because it is such a long country each region has it's own climate, so the country can grow just about any fruit/vegetable you can think of. It's nice when you can look at all the little stickers they put on the fruit and they say "grown in Chile"
... or at least the Spanish translation of that :)

Blessings!
Missy
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Tuesday, March 15, 2011

30 Days More



Today we were approved for 30 day visas, as we have yet to get all the paperwork together for our semi-permanent missionary visas. Thankfully, the man at the foreign embassy office was feeling full of grace today and even gave us a few days extra because we pleaded our case with him.

To explain further, for all of you out there that don't know, you can only apply for a tourist visa once in Chile. Yes, maybe you already knew that, but we unfortunately didn't. That said, we went into the visa office yesterday planning to simply renew our visas another 90 days, so that the church here could get all the paperwork done for our extended stay as missionaries. Welp, we were quickly informed we couldn't just ask for more time, but again - very gracefully - the man told us we could have 30 days (No More!) to get our act (and paperwork) together. Of course, we waited until the EXACT day that our old visas expired, so we definitely would have had to high-tail it out of the country for a few days had we not been given this temporary visa. Living on the edge is just our style I guess.

So, now here we are, thankful that we didn't have to leave for Argentina for a few days, but also praying that the church documents don't take too long to get together.

Hope your Tuesday has been a blast!

Blessings,
Missy and Jordan

Monday, March 14, 2011

Safe and Sound/Youth Dramas


Hey everyone, first off - we are all safe and sound after the tsunami alert - nothing really happened here, thank the Lord! May Japan and the Japanese people be in your prayers these next few weeks, I know we have talked to many Chileans who have said that the first few weeks after something like that are really difficult with all of the aftershocks that continue to occur.

On another note, the kids have been doing some really cool dramas at Saturday night youth group, they did this one last week - you should really check it out if you haven't seen it already. It is so cool to see our youth really growing in their faith and challenging themselves and others.

You guys rock!

Blessings,
Jordan and Missy

Friday, March 11, 2011

Bath Time for the Pup

Just some pics of the lovely little Imac... getting a bath

Jordan decided it was high time to give her a bath again, she gets so dirty so fast!

...maybe because she enjoys laying in the dirt too much

drying off

enjoying her post-bath treat

Blessings!
Missy
-


Thursday, March 10, 2011

Prayer Night Buzz



Last week we had about 20 people at the prayer night we hold at our house each week --
20 people!!


It has been such a blessing to see this prayer time grow since we began having it our house in October. What was once us and 2 or 3 others has become a large gathering for fellowship, Biblical conversations, and prayer.


The Lord has been doing amazing things during these weekly meetings, and we are so excited to continue to be a part of it.

The church here has been moved to pray, and it is so cool.

May you also have some good prayer time this week!

- Jordan and Missy