God Opens Doors

Just a Few Days

In just a few days, we will be heading to the States.  Five days to be exact.  We are busy painting and packing.  Tomorrow we will make our last trip to Tacna before we leave.  The boys have to get their braces adjusted and I have one last filling which needs to be changed.  We are so blessed to be able to have fillings replaced for about $30!  The young lady who we go to has changed all of my 25+ year old fillings but one.  The others I had replaced without anesthesia.  It was uncomfortable, but I wanted to see if I could really do it.  The last one is the worst...I will get anesthesia for it.  I couldn't stand for to be cleaned on our last trip.  Having dental work overseas is not always cut and dry. You have to be concerned with hygiene and whether or not the person is really licensed.  You definitely go to someone who is recommended.   

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday we will be finishing up cleaning and moving our things.  Tuesday we will head out in the afternoon.  We would appreciate your prayers as we being traveling.  We will travel from Arica - Santaigo - Miami - Dallas - Jackson.  Please pray for on-time flights, rest, and that all of our luggage will arrive with us.  Most of our suitcases are full with homeschool material.  We wouldn't want to have to replace it!

Thank you for praying for us!

Happy Birthday

I have to wish my sweet beloved a Happy Birthday.  Tomorrow Randy will be 45 years old.  You know you are hitting a mile stone when your mother-in-law (my mom to him) says, "He'll be how old?" The roads haven't always been smooth, but having you with me to climb the rocky paths makes life more interesting.  Happy Birthday.  Have a great day!

Sounds of Arica

It is amazing how one can connect with the sounds where they are living.  I just think about Costa Rica and I can hear the sounds the birds made early in the morning.  The constant crowing of chickens and the galloping of horses.  In Arica, the sounds are very different.  

• Cars constantly speeding. 
• Our door to door vendors shouting out the myriad of items they are selling from clorox to toilet paper to the man who wants to buy things that do not work anymore.
• The egg man.  My favorite!  He is one of the many who comes through with his van and a loud speaker announcing what he has and the price.
• Pigeons.  While there are not many birds here, we do have pigeons.
• Dogs barking.
• The gas truck coming through with their musical jingle.  If the jingle is not playing they tap the outside of the gas cylinder so you know they are coming.
• The bell on the garbage truck.  They come three days a week and ring the bell to let you know they are close.  (You are not supposed to put your garbage out early and no one has garbage cans!)
• The screaming and horn blowing when Chile's soccer team makes a goal.  You just couldn't imagine.  Our neighbors go crazy.

Random...

I thought I would post some of our photos which do not normally make it on the blog or in a slide presentation for fun.  We are pretty serious around here, but, we like to laugh too.  It keeps us balanced.

This photo is of the infamous 'widow maker'.  It provides instant heat in the shower.  Few people actually use these in Peru and the ones who do barely have warm water.  You can see the electrical wires in the shower touching the pipe.  It made me nervous when Randy and Garrett talked about feeling shocking sensations when they touched the handles.  I decided to forego the shower.  

Having two teenagers in the house makes everything interesting.  It is tiring when your kids just don't want their picture taken.  Garrett was complaining that the sun was too bright.  Tyler was sporting his sleep shirt he found at a second hand store here to describe his feelings about Algebra 2.  He didn't want to show his hair either.

This is one of our favorite places to eat in Tacna.  They serve the best chicken.  Four people can eat for like $9 - and - it is a feast, huge salad, huge plate of fries, a whole chicken, and drinks!  (You can't eat like that in Chile for this price!) No picture of the fries...

 The Mosque in Peru -

 Tyler holding a starfish.

I would call this...a man and his dog.  The kids always want to take the dog...but...daddy has to keep up with him!

 

This sweet, Leonora, is from the Tacna church.  She sells meat daily in one of the open markets.

Last, but not least, Ronny ate this in Tacna.  It's called Cuy - aka...fried ginea pig.

We are busy packing up!  Our house here in Chile is rented and we decided it would be best to let it go since we will be out of the country for five months.  A sweet friend actually offered to let us put our things in a storage building behind her house instead of paying rent.  The Lord takes care of everything!  Packing has gotten very easy; it seems too strange.  We have worked hard to on scale down the stuff we own and we can see what a blessing it is to have less stuff.  We try to buy essentials and not buy the things we really don't need. 

Our small group of teens are full of drama.  It takes a lot of patience to minister to middle schoolers!  Despite what we see, we keep praying the Word will take hold in their hearts.  No one is too hard for Jesus.