Tuesday, November 29, 2011

IndieWire


Hey All!
As some of you may or may not know, we are currently in the process of trying to raise money for a documentary on the town of Dichato, and the residents who are still without permanent housing nearly two years after the tsunami of Feb 2010 took their homes. You can go to our Kickstarter page HERE to learn more, and also to donate if you feel like helping us in making this dream a reality.

Currently, we are being featured on IndieWire Magazine's Project of the Month competition, and have the opportunity to talk to the Sundance Film Institute if we win. This could help push our project to the next level, get us some great contacts, and be an awesome encouragement to the project.

The documentary is called Espera Dichato, the voting is HERE, and we have until Friday morning to vote. Please tell your friends, neighbors, anyone with Facebook (as it's a Facebook poll) to vote! Thanks so much for your help, we are truly blessed to even be in the running.

Have a great day!
Missy and Jordan

Friday, November 18, 2011

Food and a Friend

Now that it's November, there are more and more signs of the up and coming summer....

There is street construction EVERYWHERE. Tome is getting ready for tourist season.

The main road through town.

Hanging my laundry the other day I came out to find a friend in my laundry basket.

These little guys are super cute, and the cat has fun attempting (and failing) to hunt them.

We had a super-special-summer dinner the other night - homemade hamburgers, corn on the cob, and iced tea.

Complete with strawberry shortcake!

Hope you all are enjoying the coziness of fall up there in the northern hemisphere!
Jordan and Missy

Thursday, November 17, 2011

More Kids Min

We had a great turn out for Kids Ministry this weekend, it was a bit of chaos but everyone came out with more of an understanding of who the Holy Spirit is! I think we also made a convincing case as to why the Sunday School needs its own room, we were more than a little bit noisy. 

Here was the craft of the day, a Holy Spirit suncatcher

Everyone was very creative this week with their craft

With our last few minutes, a few of the youth girls did some face painting


Our verse of the week is:
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.   -Romans 15:13

God bless you today,
Missy

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Marriage Group Retreat


Last weekend our marriage group had a retreat at a house just outside of town. The theme was prayer, and we had a great time of fellowship with music, lots of food, and awesome prayer as couples and as a group.

"Los Gordos" some great friends of ours

Pastor Luciano leading worship


The women preparing the meal


Delicious food

Food and fellowship

It was also Oswaldo's birthday that day, and his wife made an AMAZING cake

Little ones

Playing under the table

We had a great time! 
Blessings today,
Missy

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Strawberry Time

It's spring, and that means strawberries!

Right now, at the outdoor market, they are a whole $1 a pound. Delicious!

So red!

Preparing the berries

Ready to freeze the extras!

Have a great Tuesday,
Missy

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Lately I've been making cookies like a crazy person... for Pactoween, Alpha every Saturday, and to satisfy the extreme sweet tooth both J and I have. Busting out 100 cookies a week for Alpha has challenged me to find some good recipes that don't use a lot of ingredients, and that yield a high amount of cookies. One of my current favorites (which the 50+ people at Alpha have also given rave reviews for) is this one. It's chocolaty, doesn't use a ton of ingredients, and I can make about 90 cookies per batch.

To make evenly-sized cookies I use a teaspoon measure


My other current go-to for our home is this one. IT. IS. AMAZING. But, it takes a long time to put together, including some overnight time in the fridge, so with this recipe I will make a batch, roll out the balls, and then stick them in the freezer to pull out small batches at a time. This was an idea I got from my pastor's wife -- thanks Heidi!! -- and it has worked super well for us. I can pull out 2 cookies for an after-lunch dessert for J and I to satisfy that sweet craving without gorging, a few when we have unexpected guests over, or when we take a meal to a neighbor. It's awesome! And, I usually can get a good 50 cookies out of the batch, which means it lasts at least around 2 weeks. The bonus is that it is seriously the best cookie ever, so even after being frozen for a week it comes out perfect and chewy and crispy --- pure amazing-ness.

Batter

Sifting cake flour

Spooning out the dough

The cookie balls getting ready to go in the freezer (I first freeze them on a flat surface than stick them in a plastic freezer bag so as to not take up space)

Just the other day we had a few pastors over for dinner, and one of them was joking to the others about how I must have won Jordan over using my awesome cookies. Jordan, of course, then explained that I could barely cook when we got married! My cover was blown! But seriously, follow this recipe to a tee and you will impress everyone with your culinary skills (Or at least your cookie-making skills).

Blessings!
Missy

PS - Have you guys seen this recipe?? Very tempting to try, but I'd need a really good reason to do it...

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Fabulous Kids Craft

Hey All!
So I was teaching on the Holy Spirit last week at Sunday school, and I found this awesome craft here. I tweaked it a little bit and added some color, and it turned out really cool!



Basically all you do is draw outlines of the kids' hands, cut them out, draw an outline of a dove, cut it out...than connect the two with some ribbon and you've got yourself a dove that can fly!

Doves in action

There were just girls this week, and since only one of my usual older kids was at church, she was a sport and we had a mixed class with the little ones. The trick is to attach the ribbon just right, so that the wings can "flap" with the air as you move it up and down. If you want me to explain further just leave a comment and I'll send you a video of how to do it or something. 


Happy Wednesday!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Pactoween

Last week we were super busy with the four day weekend for Reformation Day (Día Nacional de las Iglesias Evangélicas y Protestantes) on October 31st and All Saints Day on November 1st. As an alternative activity to Halloween, our church hosts an overnight for the youth that is filled with games, food, and devotionals. This was our second year participating in "Pactoween" (a play on the church's denomination which is Del Pacto) and we had a great time. Missy was in charge of all the food, and though we were pretty busy making all the purchases leading up the event, we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.





Everyone arrived Monday afternoon and we played games and took Once (the Chilean light evening meal) then had a small devotional and played a Swedish night game. Then we made a big bonfire and everyone brought snacks to share while our friend Pastor Cesar spoke. We didn't stay up there overnight, but we left late and returned early so as to have the breakfast ready.

We had a devotional time in the morning, followed by a talk by Pastor Luciano, then lunch and a rally -- which is one of those games where you have groups and go to different stations to perform activities -- followed by some soccer and Once.







Long few days, but really great to hang out with the youth for an extended period of time outside of church. And the predio (the camp we stayed at) is just plain fun!



Hope you had a great 31st, it's springtime here so it didn't feel too much like Halloween, but we enjoyed it all the same!

Blessings,
Missy and Jordan

Monday, November 7, 2011

Krister

In thinking back upon the last year we have spent as missionaries in Chile, we were reflecting on just how many amazing people we have met through this experience. We have met so many who speak two, three, four different languages; people who are full-time career missionaries; people living "outside the norm" by following the call the Lord has placed on their lives; people simply living for Jesus every day. It has been amazing to take off the lenses of an American, and instead see the world a bit from the perspective of other missionaries, as well as the Chileans...and Swedish...and Mexicans...and Argentinians, Ecuadorians, etc. that we've met.

We celebrated the church's 12th anniversary this Sunday, and had the pleasure of having a man from Sweden over for dinner. This man doesn't just speak his native Swedish, and flawless Spanish, but English, and French as well. It was amazing to hear about his life, where the Lord has led him, and what the Lord has done through him that has impacted thousands of people.

Krister and Luciano

His name is Krister, and he started Acts 29 - I posted about it here - and it truly is an amazing program that has cross-culturally connected so many people and shared the gospel in awesome ways. They currently have programs in Chile, Ecuador, Sweden, Spain, the Congo, and Mexico - and are working on expanding it even more.

He has lived and traveled practically all over the world, and even just sitting down to a meal with him for a few hours was such an encouragement to us, in how he spoke about Jesus, the Bible, and life. We are very thankful to have met him, so if you think of it be praying for Acts 29 and Krister and his wife.

So many amazing people have been interwoven into this missionary journey we are on, and it is such an encouragement to see how the Lord is working all over the world!

Blessings to you today,
Jordan and Missy