Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Fall is Here

Hello all,
We are currently enjoying the fall down here in Tome, which is a mix of hot days and cold nights and cold days with hot nights, along with a handful of earthquake tremors with varying degrees of strength. Here are a few photos I snapped today of the animals, our little family down here in Chile. I really believe we have gotten so close to these guys simply because in a land where Spanish language reigns, we can speak to them in any language and feel their love.

Have a great Tuesday!

-Missy


My little Bible study buddy

Bright morning sun, I'm going to miss this come winter

She sees the leash and knows whats coming!

We've got a lot of evergreens around, but some dead leaves are making there way in here and there

After our run on the beach, refreshed and ready for more

Our curious cat

Monday, March 26, 2012

Missions Monday

Hey All!
Better late than never....today's "Mission Monday" is simply being grateful for the people God has put into our lives that are also serving away from their native country, specifically Petter!

Petter and Alejandro

Petter is the brother of our dear dear friend Ida, and hails from Sweden. He is currently serving in Ecuador with his wife and son. We had the opportunity to meet him last week before he headed home, and hear him preach on Saturday and Sunday.

It is just amazing the amount of people we have met, and how they have encouraged us down here. Also amazing, when you meet someone and you have the option of choosing which language you are going to converse with that person in. In Petter's case, I was all for going English, but instead we had our conversation in Spanish (he is one of those awesome Sweds that knows Swedish, English, and Spanish) because that's what suited him at the time. Seriously it is experiences like this that I have to pinch myself and think - how awesome is it to be fluent in not just one but two different languages!?! It's been a long journey, and we are continuing to study, but being fluent in Spanish no longer is some far-off pipe dream.


Anyway, may God bless Petter and his work in Ecuador, it was awesome to meet him and get to know a little bit of his story of serving the Lord abroad!

Blessings,
Missy

Friday, March 23, 2012

Sharing at Youth Group...eek!




Last Saturday I was given the opportunity to share the short devotional teaching that we always have before the main lesson. It was exciting in that I was able to share about purpose, and praying over the Lord's purpose in our lives; it was nerve-racking because it was the first time doing a teaching in Spanish in front of more than ten people. Needless to say, I was nervous, but all thanks to God it turned out alright and our youth group is awesome down here so they were really encouraging.





Always great to see how the Lord is growing both Jordan and I, and I think that this was just another opportunity to be challenged and to grow through it!




Have a blessed Friday,
Missy

PS - for those of you waiting for the sock pattern, it is coming!! I'm trying to write it down in the least-complicated manner I can, and I'm thinking about throwing in some How-To videos. Stay posted!

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

What Jordan's Been Up To...

Well lately you guys haven't seen much of Jordan on this here blog, but that's simply because he can now officially add "roof construction" to his resume.


The past week and a half he's been building a roof at our Pastor's Christian Preuniversity. (What's a Preuniversity? Basically a year long SAT prep school that most Chileans take after high school.) The roof is covering one of the classrooms in the Preuniversity building that previously suffered from MANY leaks and poor ventilation. It's a praise to the Lord that our pastor now has enough students to fill this classroom, which was just used as a study area last year, but it has meant a great deal of work for J.

Basic structure up, with the beginnings of what will be the siding

Covered roof, now on to closing up the sides

He always amazes me with his ability to come up with designs in his head, and truly make some awesome structures! (See: Our wood shelter, our fence, my kitchen table, etc.) It's also a bonus that here you don't need permits for anything, allowing for a lot less red tape and paperwork to go through to build something like this (don't get me wrong, there are some definitely questionable structures around here, that could use some permit action!) And for all of you contractors out there going eek! that is barely waterproof and up to code! I say to you one word: money! I know that Jordan would have much preferred to have built this with all new material and much more solidly, but he did what he could with the funds he had to work with from the PreU, another way this man astounds me, his ability to always find a way to make it work even when he doesn't have much to work with.


I wish I had gotten some pictures of before he put up the paper and roofing, but alas I forgot my camera that day!

I'll try to get more photos up once it is completely finished

Anyway, next time you see the man you should give Jordan a pat on the back for all his hard labor down here in Chile - or at least I will!

Blessings,
Missy

Thursday, March 15, 2012

2nd Annual Pijamada


Well a little over a week ago I hosted a "end of summer" sleepover for the girls in the youth group, we did the same last year. Though in the end no one actually was able to sleepover, everyone stayed late and we spent a lot of time getting to know each other.

Last year we hung out, ate, watched movies, and played games. This year I switched it up a bit and had more prayer and sharing time.

I shared my testimony, along with two of the other leaders in the youth group, and some Bible verses about women. It is awesome to see how much God loves women, how they were able to serve Him while he was on the earth, and how His mercy and grace for us is never-ending.

Oh how He loves us!


I gave each girl a card with a name of God on it along with a corresponding verse, and then we prayed over these names, understanding a bit more the depth of God's character.

We then lit candles, played some worship music, and the leaders and I washed the girls' feet and prayed for each of them. Some of then shared their testimony, and we were able to pray over the new creation they are in the Lord.

Bookmarks with an important reminder

We ended the night very late, but feeling much more connected as a group and as daughters of God. It was awesome, and a huge blessing to be able to get to know more girls from the youth group in a deeper way. I will definitely be doing this again in the future!

Some verses we looked at that night:
Luke 7:36-50 -- Jesus' feet washed by a sinful woman
Luke 8:1-3 -- writes of how women were also helping Jesus' ministry.
Luke 8:40-56 -- Jesus healing the bleeding woman, calling her daughter, and raising a girl from the dead.
2 Corinthians 5:17 -- we are all new creations in Christ when we accept him is our Savior!

Have a great Thursday!

Missy

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Missions Monday

Every week we try to listen to a sermon in English on our day off...usually because we are both so busy on Sunday mornings working with the Media and Kids Ministries we miss the preaching. That, and it is always nice to get some English down here! 

We've usually found ourselves listening to older sermons by Ron Mehl, which are always very encouraging and entertaining. What an amazing man he was. 

Awhile back he talked about how each day can have a prayer "theme" with Monday's theme being Missions. 


In our preparation for coming down here to serve we both read a handful of biographies of missionaries. Finding so much encouragement from them we are always looking for other missionary books - and the one we've most currently picked up is about Hudson Taylor - sent down by J's dad. I had seen a one-man play about the life of Hudson Taylor a few years ago, and remember being so amazed at what the Lord did through him. Reading his life story now in more depth has only deepened my respect for this man and how the Lord used him in China. So amazing to think about the obstacles men and women faced not so long ago to spread the gospel. Of course this made me think more about our missionaries all over the world, and how so many suffer and are still very seriously risking their lives to share Christ. 

Sometimes it can get lonely down here in Chile, or sometimes we just wish our house didn't have rats or leaks, but when it comes down to it, we aren't really suffering. We were sent to a country where it is legal and safe to practice Christianity, and people are very open to hearing the Gospel. We haven't faced harassment or  arrest or death when we share our faith. We have it pretty easy in the big scheme of things. 


All this to say, maybe you too can begin to remember Missions Mondays, and pray for those men and women around the world who have left the comfort of their homes and stepped out in faith to follow God's calling. Pray for those, too, who are supporting missions from home. As the Great Commission reminds us, we are all called to be missionaries, so pray for those who are called to support missions financially, those who are witnessing to people in their own towns, and those faithful who are prayer warriors for the mission field. 

Jordan and I understand now that a "missionary" is so much more than one who simply travels to another country to share Jesus. There are so many that God calls together just to send one person abroad. Yet another reminder of how important the body of Christ is in the church.

If you are interested in missionary biographies some of the books I would recommend include:

- Brushko (All time favorite about a boy going into the jungle of South America to reach out to a native tribe)
- End of the Spear (Another REALLY good one about a son returning with his family to the Ecuadorian tribe where his father was killed while serving as a missionary pilot. I haven't seen the movie, but the book is worth reading first!)
-Peace Child (Another book about a young family living with a very dangerous native tribe in New Guinea)

Those should keep you busy for awhile, let me know if you have any other reading suggestions!

Blessings today, 
Missy (and Jordan!)

Monday, March 12, 2012

Jordan's Birthday

Well last week we celebrated Jordan's 26th birthday, so I tried my hand at making an angel food cake as per his request. Though I didn't have the proper pan, I just halved the recipe so that it fit into what I had. It ended up a little more dense than real angel food, but still tasted great - especially with some chocolate buttercream frosting!






Turned out alright with what I had to work with! BTW I used the recipe from here, comes with a handy video as well!

(Side-note, we also had sourdough pancakes for breakfast! It's been great to see my sourdough starter's flavor getting better and better with time)



Blessings,
Missy


Saturday, March 10, 2012

Knitting Projects

Hey All,
It's been awhile, we've been a bit busy but we hope to keep the updates rollin'! I thought I would share some of my current knitting successes - socks!







For gifts and for us, down here no one can have too many warm socks for the winter!

Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend, blessings!
Missy

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Missy Rockclimbing


she is pretty good!