Missionary-Blogs 10

What a day!

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon and Jenny) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:27:00 -0800

Ok! Another post about life in Guatemala.

Today we had an appointment in Guatemala City at 10am, and it is normally a 3 1/2 hour drive with no traffic. We were all loaded and in the car at 5am. By 5:10, we were driving away from the house. So far so good! We had planned on encountering some traffic entering the city during the morning rush hour. GirlM has the croup, but is hanging in so far.

About 50 minutes into the trip (the kids had not gone back to sleep) GirlM gets car sick and throws up. Luckily, she had not yet eaten breakfast, so it wasn't too nasty.

We have to stop so the pregnant lady can go to the bathroom. This particular potty consisted of a very small toilet with no seat and no way to flush. It cost the equivalent of 12 cents to use it. It was totally dark. The good thing was that the door locked, so at least I felt a measure of safety. And there was a rooster crowing right outside of the door to keep me company. The floor was wet with I don't want to know what, so I rolled my pant legs up over my knees before pulling my pants down so that they didn't drag on the ground.

I guess I paid the money so that someone could come after me and flush. Pretty gross, but is was better than trying to go on the side of the road. I just am very thankful that we had our own TP so that I could cover the seat before sitting down, and very, very thankful that we had hand sanitizer in the car.

On our way again we drive another 1 1/2 hours to find ourselves at a road block. Now, here in this beautiful country, there are VERY few alternate routes. There are basically two ways to get to the City from Xela: The coast road, and the mountain road. They both branch off at Xela, and the only road that connects them is filled with bandits and the US embassy has discouraged its use. The road block was because of a demonstration and had rocks in the road, a little violence, and burning tires. We waited there for over an hour, and then after some prayer and fasting (we didn't really fast) decided to try to find an alternate route through the mountains to a town farther down on the same highway. But not before giving GirlM some medicine for her climbing fever and apparently sore throat.

We had to backtrack for about 20 minutes and then ended up on a really, really curvy mountain road covered in pot holes. Ok...we drive for another 30 minutes before BoyD gets carsick and vomits. He had eaten breakfast. So I am turned around in the car "catching" the vomit in his blankie getting a little splattered in the process. No problem, except that I start feeling very motion sick from having to be turned around until Brandon found a safe place to pull over.

We get the boy cleaned up and give him a chance to empty his bladder on the side of the road. I get peed on as I am trying to help him. Sigh.

Back on the road, but pretty soon I have to start driving because I can't shake the nausea. We drive on road that consists of series after series of hairpin turns, bridges wide enough for one and a half cars, and pot holes, until we come to another road block. These demonstrators know what they are doing, and are effective at keeping honest folks from traveling in their country. We wait there long enough for Brandon to talk to some cops. We find out that the blockade is indefinite. There were no plans to open it up. By this time, it is around 11:30 in the morning, we have missed our appointment and the immigration lawyer is trying to find us another appointment.

So...we turn back around. We go back through the curvy road to get back on the highway. We finally eat lunch at about 12:30, and make it home by 3:30. GirlM slept a little in the car after she threw up, and BoyD had been awake the whole time.

We all took a nap when we got home. So we are going to try this again on Friday. Pray for us! :)

I'm going to bed.

Good news and bad news about the strike...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:16:14 -0800

A two-day truce has been called. Sure was nice to actually take the boys to school, and see taxis and combis running. Many were busy cleaning up the streets, with all the accumulating garbage and broken glass. The strike may start again on Wednesday (supposedly stronger) if the meeting does not go well tomorrow. The people still demand the stepping down of the province president, and he still refuses to step down. We will see what happens tomorrow. We will be stocking up with lots of food however.

It was nice to leave the house, and go on a little hike with the boys. We will miss these mountains as we leave them in just over a month.

Collecting acorns on a mountain hike is a rock-solid guarantee for Nathan:

One humorous anecdote from our pastor’s meeting: Before the truce was announced, we met to formulate some type of press release regarding our views as the fraternity of pastors of Abancay. It was to be generally a call to peace, honesty and justice. The hours dragged on as everyone had their own ideas of what to include, and what not to include in such a delicate statement. In recent days, with thousands of people marching in the streets and in the main plaza, we knew we had to be careful with what we said, not “inclinando” to one side or the other. So one passage we discussed was Proverbs 8, with such appropriate words like “I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence, I possess knowledge and discretion…I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech” (v. 12, 13b,c). These ideas seemed to have good potential. One pastor wanted to look at the whole passage, and asked again what the reference was. He was told erroneously and accidentally that it was Proverbs 7:12, which reads, “…now in the street, now in the squares, at every corner she lurks.” Oh my, was it hilarious! Just what a press release should NEVER say in the midst of near rioting… It was really good to break the tension of going back-and-forth. Thank you Lord!

Maia at three.

Jake Knotts — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:16:00 -0800

Last Marathon

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:20:31 -0800

Today I drive to Seattle for my last marathon speaking tour. I share two times on Sunday, stay with friends overnight, speak two times on Monday plus have a meeting Monday morning and dinner out with friends in the evening. After that, I have just one more church on the 29th. So after Monday I will have completed 14 of my 15 speaking engagements for the month. I enjoy sharing in the churches and seeing friends! But now I'm ready to relax the rest of my "vacation." Well, the week of vacation that's left! J

A Week From Today...

noreply@blogger.com (Tammy) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:30:00 -0800

... I'll be off to the airport. Can't take my car & can't get there in time for the early morning flight on public transport, so I'm going to stay at a hotel at the airport. OFF... for the better part of SEVEN WHOLE MONTHS. Ugh. This is my longest stint "out of the country." Now- I'm looking forward to traveling and speaking in churches in the States & seeing friends & family... but it's still 7 months away from my life here. It's a long time. Pray for me, ok?

Talent Shows ~ Jungle Style

Jungle Mom — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:24:00 -0800

We've got talent!

Written by my oldest daughter, Jackie of Keepin' Sane with Littles

Missionary familes have a lot of talent. If you've ever been at a missions conference before you know what I'm talking about. Mr. Missionary stands up and introduces his large family. They are imaculatly dressed and perfectly behaved. Mr. Missionary calls Mrs. Missionary and all the Little Missionaries up to the platform where they sing a song. Oh, but they dont just sing a song because every single one of their children (all eleven of them) can play a different instrument, and play it well. They sing with harmony, and then, after the song, because it wasn't cute enough, the Youngest Missionary (about six months old or so) recites Psalm 23. Most missionary families are like that, great voices, and amazing music abilities.

Then there was the Vernoy family. We all have decent voices....sometimes. Depends on what mood we're in I guess. As for playing instruments? Dream on. We were too busy reading books to learn an instrument, plus we lived in the Amazon and there's a shortage of piano teachers out there. Not to mention pianos.

So, in many missions conferences we sat and watched yet another amazingly talented Super Missionary family sing lovely songs in multiple languages. Then it was our turn to do something. But what?

It's not that we didn't have talent! Oh, we have talent. We even held talent shows in the jungle...the Indians loved them! They were usually held on weekends, when our house was especially full. They would start crowding in, thumbing through our old National Geographic magazines, and then some brave soul would ask my sister, Jewel, if she could do a one handed cartwheel. Always eager to please, Jewel begin to tumble about the living room which would bring on a chorus of "ooh's" and "aahs." Not to be outdone, Jayde would impersonate Patsy Cline, Elvis Presley, or do the split on the cement floor. The split was always a great big hit. Indians are strong, and muscular, but not flexible AT ALL. Flexibilty is something everyone in my family is blessed with, and the Indians were always impressed. I would sit with my legs crossed "indian style" and then walk on my knees, or put lay flat on the floor, face down, with my legs behind my head. This made quite an impression. The talent show was only getting started! When my mom's turn came she would raise one eyebrow, or while standing with one foot pointed forward, twist the other foot completly back. I share that talent as well, but would let her preform it since I already had so many others. :-) Joshua always added a colorful piece to the show with his accurate impersanation of the village witch doctor, which always brought lots of laughs. My Dad was the biggest hit when he would stand in a doorway, his back towards the barefoot audience, and hug himself with his arms. They thought that was hilarous!

We would continue with our antics, my hog calls, Jewel shimming up the center pole of the house, Jayde throwing her legs over her arms and walking on her hands (it's really hard to explain,you have to see it) Yes, our talent shows were very cool. The coolest thing going on in that village anway.

As "cool" as we thought we were, we just didn't think churches would appreciate our kind of talent during their conferences. I can picture it now. The pastor gets behind the pulpit, "Why, thank you Super Missionary Family for that lovely rendition of Amazing Grace in five langues,with twelve different instruments. Truly a blessing. And now, our next family, the Vernoys, will be doing their hog calls, and their youngest will finish off by swinging from the rafters while singing 'Crazy' in her Patsy Cline voice."

Hmm...doens't seem very likely. What usually happened was my dad would stand up, introduce and say, "We just dont' sing...but we have some stories we could tell you!" Or, as one missionary friend put it, "I would sing a special for you, but it would probably be more special if I didn't!"

Next ministry update

noreply@blogger.com (theag_news) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:06:00 -0800

Andrew flew over to Edinburgh to meet with the church leaders at Carrubbers to talk through a little more of a job description for the new ministry in January. First he met with the pastoral team to talk about how to move forward in the church plant and then with the directors (elders) to give a form of strategy for the year ahead. Praise God that He is going ahead of us through the rest of the team there who are building the bridges into the community. We are of course excited that we will be working with George and Marie MacRaild who are Andrew's brother's inlaws and missionaries with Biblical Ministries Worldwide. It now looks as though we have a moving week of 19th to 23rd January to move to Scotland.

This week we are looking forward to a de-brief with the OMS homeland staff. We have been so grateful for all their support during our time with OMS International.

Sunday Funny

Jungle Mom — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 08:03:00 -0800

Going over our church finances I found a receipt from a local paint store signed by someone named Christian. I wasn't aware of anyone buying paint, so I called the store to point out its mistake.
"I'm sorry," I told the manager, "but there are no Christians here at First Baptist Church."

Spinning plates

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 09:52:28 -0800

It has been an interesting couple of months trying to balance family, work and being a disciple. As you know, we have 3 kids in primary school. We also own a business now that is taking about 6 days a week of my time, a couple days a week of Carol’s time and even the kids help out from time to time. We also are part of the leadership of Mosaic, a church here. My week went like this:

Monday – Saturday: work 9am-3pm, kids/family 3pm-8pm, work @ home 8-10pm a 2-3 nights a week.
Sunday: try to catch up on life, Sabbath and Mosaic meets 1-530pm (this includes set up.

In between we each have a bible study that meets for 2-2.5 hours and have a weekly staff meeting for 2.5 hours. We also prepare for a kids ministry lesson, meet with folk in the church or network with others Christians in the West End.

I know every elder in a church faces this but is this the walk with Christ we are to have? I’m beginning to think not and have become more deliberate with my time – yes to family & people, no to non-essentials (i.e. I leave the shop when I need to and trust that God will provide and that my hard work thru the day has been enough).

I’d be interested in hearing other solutions about how people handle their life, work, ministry commitments.

Thoughts of God

Jungle Mom — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:51:00 -0800

With all the distractions of modern life, I often find my mind and thoughts to be filled with so many random, even meaningless preoccupations. This has been my own case of late. The last couple of days the following lines of a poem written by the great missionary to India, Amy Carmichael, have been in my mind;

Missionary-Blogs 10

What a day!

Good news and bad news about the strike...

Maia at three.

Last Marathon

A Week From Today...

Talent Shows ~ Jungle Style

Next ministry update

Sunday Funny

Spinning plates

Thoughts of God

Think through me, thoughts of God,

My Father, Quiet me,

Till in Thy Holy presence, hushed,

I think Thy thoughts with Thee.

Amy Carmichael