God Opens Doors

Market & Veggies

I left the house today at 6:45 a.m.  As I ventured out to a local market, the scene was very different from what we were used to in Chile.  In Chile, it was hard to find any place open before 10:00 a.m.  In Arica, the streets were densely populated early mornings except for school children.  Here in Tacna, the streets are full of people beginning around 4:30 a.m.!  Now, I haven’t left the house that early, but the people we know who have businesses leave for work at that hour.  Yolanda, the missionary here, has been telling us about a food market we needed to go to.  We actually went there one day, however, it was around 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon and Yolanda advised us to go early in the morning, thus my leaving the house this morning.  (She is very sweet to help us find the places that are the cheapest to buy our food.) 

Other than pastries or bread, it is difficult to find pre-cooked food – well just about impossible.  It is scratch or nothing so I have to be on top of the grocery list because everything has to be prepared!!  From my homemade tomato sauce to baking from scratch, I have to be organized in order not to spend all my time in the kitchen.  As our date for moving gets closer and the mission base is established, time becomes more precious as we have several opportunities in an area close to the base where we will be working.  This is a picture of what I bought today:

 The cost of this mess of veggies is really unbelievable.  While some things are expensive here, veggies are not! 

This is what I paid: spinach, 71¢, eggplant 51¢, tomatoes $2.13 – 6 pounds worth, green beans 88¢ - 2 pounds worth, parsley 17¢, mandarins 71¢ (forgive the misspelling in the picture!), carrots 53¢ - 2 pounds worth, I already used some of the before the picture.  A bargain just about anywhere!  OH, and I forgot to include the potatoes in the picture – 8 pounds of those were only $1.42.

I can remember the sound of my mother’s pressure cooker growing up.  It is a familiar sound around here too.  All those years of watching my grandmothers and mother, peel and snap beans are paying off.  The Lord intricately prepares our lives in such a way that He doesn’t let one detail in our lives go unused.  Although I didn’t like snapping and shelling beans, and even if I most likely tried to get out of doing the work, I learned some very valuable things, which I use to now serve my family and others. 

 

Jail

We had a great visit on Thursday.  I met E.  She is a lady who is about 50 years old.  We talked a lot as she seems very lonely.  E. is in jail for 15 years.  Some years ago, she was suicidal and murdered her daughters of 4 and 8 years old.  E. is very broken and I ask that you pray for her.  People are not very forgiving of a crime like this especially involving children.  She believes she is forgiven, but the ladies around her aren´t so forgiving.

I also met C.  She is very young, only 18 years old.  It was the first time she has visited the jail Bible study.  C. has one daughter with her, who is almost two years old and one in the womb...she is seven months pregnant!  C. is shy ... pray with us believing Jesus for her salvation.

Randy is preaching tonight..please remember him in your prayers and Tyler will be coordinating the music.

Cow Stomach and Headlines

We just got through eating at a typical Peruvian restaurant today.  Randy ordered what the waiter recommended.  What arrived was obviously duck, rice with cilantro, and potatoes with cow stomach.  Now, we can buy just about ANY part of the cow here and stomach, (which we have seen in Chile and other places), is a favorite of most people.  Surprisingly, Randy liked it and he ate it all!  Tyler said he likes it too.  I am not sure I will add it to our menu any time soon.  However, our life is always full of surprises so I would never say never!  

The headlines today in Tacna, Peru:

• A newborn infant abandoned here in the city ...  makes us more determined to get moving on our residency papers.  Pray for favor as we begin this process tomorrow.  
• A bus on Friday evening leaving out of Tacna with 45 passengers was robbed.  The robbers stole about 80,000 Peruvian soles, phones, and other personal items.  
• A young mother, 32 years old, was buried after committing suicide.
• Tacna has around 185,000 tourists yearly.

 

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I caught some type of virus over the weekend.  Nothing like fever and stomach problems to make your day!  Praise the Lord we keep a good supply of Cipro on hand for emergencies like these.  It started on Saturday and by Monday, Randy insisted I begin taking it.  I am so glad I did because I was fever free by Tuesday.

We are beginning our residency process here.  We took our photos earlier and will pick them up in a few minutes.  Our first step is towards our temporary visa, then after two years (according to what the law says today) we can begin working on permanent status.  Please pray for a speedy process.

Our vehicle is in Chile.  Please pray it sells quickly.  However, we have to wait until we have residency before we can purchase another one here so we do have time to spare.  You just cannot be in a hurry here for things to happen overnight.  They rarely do! 

Randy preached on Sunday evening.  I will be going to the jail tomorrow afternnon to visit again with the ladies there.  They have a weekly service on Thursday afternoons.  We get to have 2 hours with them, so we sing and teach and pray with them. 

Well, once again my internet time is up.  Stay tuned....thanks for praying!!!!!

A View From Our Lens

Thought we would give you a quick view from our lens..of course, we´re moving soon, but, this is where we are planted for a few more weeks...

Our temporary dwelling.

 
Roof top where we hang our clothes. I know this is a real exiciting picture, but missionaries have to wash and dry clothes too! 

View from the roof...

Our nosey Dokey...he is all tail.

This is where the neighbors dump their garbage. It is on the empty lot beside our house.  This is where the garbage collectors collect garbage at 2:30 a.m. during the week.
 

Another roof top view.
  
I know this blog post was really exciting!  The Lord is doing much in us and around us.  We are excited to be serving Him and can´t wait to get to the new house and set up our first mission´s base. 

Earth Shaking

We had literally an earth shaking experience last night.  We were all winding down around 9:40 p.m.  Randy had just went upstairs to talk to Garrett.  Garrett was hanging out on the roof (which is the boys favorite place at night).  Randy had been up there about 10 seconds when the floor began shaking.  Prior to this earthquake, the strongest one we had experienced was a 5.5.  It lasted about 30 seconds which felt like 30 minutes!  The local radio stations said it registered a 6.5...the USGS registered it at 6.2...we just know it was strong!  Randy and Garrett´s view were different from Tyler´s and mine.  They saw transformers exploding and everything go black.  We were expecting to be out of power until the next day, praise the Lord it was back on in our area in about 10 minutes.  Other than a few small tremors, it was quiet until around 1:30 a.m.  Another earthquake hit and it lasted about 18 seconds.  We think it was at least a 5 although the USGS didn´t register it.  It happened!  I was so thankful for Randy´s impression to go up to the roof with Garrett - that would have been very scary to be alone.  Jesus is always sensitive to our needs!

Awareness of the spiritual always rises when something like this occurs.  Pray with us that we will be the mind of Christ while we are out and about!

Adventures in Missions

We are changing houses at the end of this month.  Long story short, we have found one which will better serve as a mission base.  This is what we went through to sign the contract last Friday.

·   We were scheduled to meet with the owners at the Notary’s office at 11:15 a.m.  The wife, Lydia, was there, but, the husband was running late.

·   He arrived at 11:50 a.m.  Upon our inspection of the contract, we noticed Randy’s middle name was spelled wrong.  In South America, if a name is misspelled it can cause major problems so we knew it had to be fixed.  Lucio (the owner) said he would go and have it fixed and return in 10 minutes.

·   Lucio returned at 12:30 p.m. – by then the notary had closed.  We set out on foot to go to a different notary.  Upon arrival, I noticed the secretary kept looking at the numbers on the contract.  When the contract was rewritten with the correct name, they transposed our passport numbers and my passport number was placed for both Randy and me!

·   Off we went to get this corrected.  When we returned, the secretary told Lucio he needed more than just the deed to the property to get the rental agreement signed, he needed a utility bill.  Deep sigh.

·   Lucio and Lydia left to get the bill.  We waited another 30 minutes for their return.  Once they arrived, we were then told by the secretary at the Notary’s office that we needed a form called ‘permission to sign a contract’ from immigrations since we are foreigners. 

·   We had heard of this, but, we didn’t need it when we signed our first contract.  So, off we went to find a Notary who would not ask for this information.*  The next office we went to the Notary was not in. 

·   Finally, we arrived at our last stop.  After an hour of waiting, we received our rental agreement notarized.  At almost 5:00 p.m., we were finally finished for the day.

*We talked with immigrations about this form and they said it is only needed when you are signing something serious like buying property or a car.

And this is what it is like to do business in another country.  For us it is one more adventure in missions.  Patience must be learned in order to endure.  It gave us a lot of time to talk and minister to Lydia.  No delay is a coincidental and if we look at it like an adventure instead of a burden of inconvenience – we will endure.