Reinharts Road

Time flys when...

2012-02-12T18:56:00.000-06:00

¿De dónde las dos últimas semanas a ir? Where did the last two weeks go?

I’m sure we ate 42 meals, handled 6-8 loads of laundry, each had 4 Spanish classes and did lots of homework, worked in the offices, went to the big grocery store twice and walked to the local tienda 4 times… it just flew by!

The first week was full of details to be worked out before the second week’s SAM (South AMerica) Regional meetings. Leaders from all over South America were coming for strategy meetings and I (Janet) had to keep a schedule of their flights and the trips to the airport for their “comings” and their “goings.” The spreadsheet for the airport runs changed several times each day, but we finally made it; they’ve all flown back to their home countries!

Dan continues to deal with software and hardware issues around the compound as well as being the go-to guy for issues on any of the leaders computers as Josh, the IT director for the region (from his home in Idaho), asks him to be his hands here.

All in all, it was a great opportunity to at least meet some of the Godly leaders from across the region we have been hearing from and working with remotely over the past several months.

In the midst of all that, Thea was exhausted, coping with her new medically-necessary diet and the fatigue of her illness. I decided to help with the cooking to save her energy for other things. I spent all one Sunday (then Monday evening) boiling potatoes, baking eggs, cooking rice, making banana pancakes and baking cheese scones – all with ingredients cleared by her doctor and the book she bought - “Living WELL with Gastroparesis!”

Neo stays out of the rain.

There were several rainy days too, so now we’re dealing with the growing population of mosquitos and looking at a forescast in the 90s for the next week. The nice part is that quickly after the rains pass, the humidity leaves also and we are back to the more pleasant dry heat.

God is good! He’s held up the families of two friends, Dawn and Anna Melva; both had serious surgeries in this time. Both friends are expected to do very well, with ample time for recovery. Thea has decided to return to the States for her health and to work remotely as she is able. We continue to pray for our friends in the States on deputation tours, and for their safe return to the Field – we miss them!

In other news, with the opportunity to spend some time with Dr. Christian Sarmiento (our Regional Director) while he was here lead to conversations about the future, we have been asked and agreed to continue in a working relationship with the offices here doing much of the same kind of support functions, only remotely. With our commitments to the US Bible Quiz events and possible global training needs, our next several months are already filling up but there are still many ways we can be useful to God's work here in South America.

Youth Congress this week

2012-01-29T16:21:00.000-06:00

Last Sunday evening, at the end ofSunday worship, we noticed that the church was particularly full –lots of chairs had to be set up in the back. We realized that thecrowd must be due to the youth conference starting here (across thestreet at the Bruno Radi Convention Center on the Seminariogrounds) on Tuesday. Right away, Daniele and Rafa, 2 young people wehad met here almost 4 years ago, ran up to us and we knew just whothey were! When we met, they were in a group of Brazilian teensserving at Extreme ’08 with us! We had immediately connected with Dani,even though we could barely communicate with her. She had declaredthat we were another set of grandparents to her and that she wantedto come home with us in our suitcase!

A few months later, Danhad been invited to give some Bible Quiz training at a youthconference in Campinas, Brazil, and this same group of teens wasthere also! So we were able to meet Dani’s parents and reconnectwith her and some of the other youth. It was a very special time! Andnow, a group of 15 of them are here with their youth pastor, adynamic woman named AnnaMaria, for this 2012 Argentina Congreso deJovenes! I’m so excited to see what this group will do (theyhave quite a repertoire of dramas!) and how all the young people willbe challenged this week.

Monday night, Dan had 2 conference callmeetings scheduled, for 10 pm and 11 pm. The wind came up outside andthe electricity flickered 5 times! Then we had to wait for theInternet to come back on! Thunder and heavy rain followed, but theelectricity stayed on so the internet phone calls were not interrupted. It’s really a blessingthat this kind of communication is possible and that we can takeadvantage of it!

With Ricardo, the office driver, on vacation this week Dangot to be the driver Wednesday morning for Mirna’s trip to themoney exchange. And I went along to play with Luana whileher mama was busy. It was a fun change-of-pace from the office!

Dan is working on the security camerasstill, with much to “tweak” using the recording software and cameraplacement…

Wednesday night, we drove to the seminary for the scheduled 10:00PM JNI (NYI) Congreso service,but the worship began at 11:15 and would probably last 2 or 3 hours. We enjoyed the band’s first song, then decided we had better justgo back home… we just can’t stay up that late when we must workin the morning; maybe Friday evening!

Friday evening was THE night to be atthe Congreso! It was Fiesta night with Argentinefolklórico – lots of gaucho music and traditional gauchodancing!! It was wonderful! Janet helped with at the literature salestable with some of her coworkers, and we enjoyed the culture! We gothome around 2 AM and slept in on Saturday!

We’ve slacked off a bit on walking 6times around the compound this week, but are keeping up with ourSpanish classes and homework!

Praying especially this week for Thea,adjusting to a limited diet with the resulting limited energy, and for our friend,Dawn, who’s having surgery for a brain tumor on Tuesday…

Another week of full schedules and urgent prayers, but God is Faithful.

The value of friends.

2012-01-22T16:17:00.000-06:00

This week seemed like what is becoming a typical work week now that things are getting back to normal, post holidays. But as we reflect on the things to share from this time, we see a common thread of friendship and valued co-workers giving and receiving as the Body of Christ within the compound (Regional Office campo).

German (say “hair-MAHN”), one ofour coworkers in Communications, and his wife have seen us walkinglaps around the compound. He gave us a challenge one morning afterdevotions, that we should speak only Spanish when we walk! Buenidea! We tried it and think it was really beneficial! Itforced me, at least, to think of verbs to use with the nouns I knowpretty well, things we see on the way, and forced us to practiceconversation, which is exactly what we want to be able to do!

Tuesday was the big day of fumigacion! A company came in the afternoon to spray each house and each officefor bugs and we had to vacate all those places for 2 hours. We hadto leave work early! But Neo suffered the most! He had to be put outof the house and didn’t like that one bit! He stays inside whenpeople are around outside, and here was some guy tromping around andmaking noise and bad smells! We left the compound in the truck,offering rides to Graciela and Ines, on our way to Jumbo to getgroceries, a good way to kill time waiting for the “all clear” togo back home. Ines invited us to her home for mate (MAH-tay,their herb tea), so we went there for a while after groceries. Sheserved mate and showed us photos of her daughters’ quincinieras(sort of “coming out” parties, as fancy as any weddingreception, for 15-year-old girls), and we could identify lots ofpeople we know from church, as well as some of the missionaries! Hownice it was, as she said, to get together outside of work! Neo waswaiting very close to the door when we returned, anxious to get backinside!

We wereespecially excited Wednesday – not that we could be there – thatWilmar and Jessica Rojas were traveling to our home church in St.Louis to speak that night! And they would stay in our home, sincethere’s lots of room and daughter Erica is there to make them feelat home! Jessica sent greetings to us from our church friends andsaid that they did, indeed, feel very welcome. The boys seemed toenjoy the toys in our living room too and Erica fixed them a nicebreakfast before they “hit the road” again!

Thea returned Thursday, exhausted andstill not feeling well, as she’s adapting to her newmedically-necessary eating schedule. She’s also concerned aboutcatching up and keeping up with her office responsibilities when shehas so little energy. We’re trying to be sensitive to her needs andproviding rides for church and shopping, as well as supporting her in any way we can.

We’ve increased our leccionesespañol to a more regular schedule and, therefore, have moretarea (homework) to do! But it’s paying off; we’relearning more and it’s “sticking” better!

Once again we are reminded how, even in the simple things, God is faithful.

Day trip to Colonia, Uruguay

2012-01-15T12:00:00.000-06:00

This week marks our halfway point inour 6-month time here! It also means that, according to Argentinelaws, that we must renew our 3-month visa. And to do that, we mustleave the country for any period of time and have our passportsstamped somewhere else before returning! In order not to incur toomuch expense (some countries have entry and/or exit fees), we decidedto take a day trip to Uruguay on the Buquebus, a large and luxuriousferry. Dan made the arrangements online and bought our tickets,which included a tour of Colonia, Uruguay, where we’d spend theday.

On Thursday, we got up early and wereready when Ricardo (the Regional Office driver) picked us up promptlyat 6:15 to drive us to downtown Buenos Aires to the Buquebus station. We got there early (because, going any later, we might have been atthe mercy of morning traffic) so we asked about the boardingprocedures before heading to the coffee shop for café con lecheand medialunas (“half-moon” croissants). We watched linesof people who were there to catch the earlier, faster ferry thatwould cross the Rio Plata (River Plate) in about an hour. (Wewent through Customs, getting our passport stamped by Uruguayanofficials even before we went!) We boarded the ship Eladia Isabela little later, along with several hundred others (and quite a fewcars on the lowest level) and found seats in the large room for“First Class” passengers for our 3-hour trip. After numerousannouncements in Spanish and English, we “set sail” at about9:30. Our area was on the second passenger level (with reclining,comfortable seats and lots of leg room) and there were 2 more levelsabove that – the more expensive seats, and the upper deck which wasopen and included a snack bar and lots of benches for enjoying thewindy trip!

Through lots of large windows too, we watched BuenosAires get smaller across the brown water (the “muddy Mississippi”pales in comparison)! This boat included a large duty-free gift shop,snack bars on every level, TV monitors with music shows andadvertisements, video game rooms with PlayStation and otherentertainment, and a salsa dance show with a contest for passengers.The contest was very funny (no, we didn’t participate)! Ourtickets also included lunch so we turned in our lunch coupons for hamand cheese sandwiches, a water bottle, and a cookie. The trip wasreally fairly smooth; we only needed “sea legs” for a short whileas the boat rolled a little before we arrived at the port of Colonia,Uruguay. We actually walked several blocks thrucovered walkways from the boat to the station, where we all wentthrough Customs, having our backpacks and purses x-rayed. Next stopwas the desk for bus tours. It turned out that we were the only oneswho needed a city tour in English, so we were taken by bus to thedowntown area and given a quick description of the town andinstructions on when to be back at that corner. We were then left toenjoy the town by ourselves for a couple of hours.

Colonia is aquaint tourist town influenced heavily by Spanish and Portuguesecontrol in the past. We walked to the marina and window-shopped inthe cute shops on the main street and side streets. When our guidereturned, she walked us through the historic district where welearned about the different architectures (Spanish roofs are flat,while Portuguese roofs were slanted) and how the fort was damaged andwhen Uruguay earned their independence (August 25, 1825). Our guideis a native of Colonia and it was evident in her descriptions. Wetoured another hour or so on the bus as well, seeing the unusedbull-fighting arena and more tourist areas with beaches. She wascareful to explain that the water here is brown because of high ironcontent, not because of the pollution like the Argentine side of theriver!
You can see many more photos of this neat little town in the slideshow we have place on the right sidebar.

Dinner was a single order of a nativedish to share called chivitos. We had asked our guide whatwas something typical of the area and she suggested this huge plateof (from the bottom, up) green salad with tomatoes and palmitos,potato/carrot/pea salad, French fries, ham, steak, cheese sauce, and afried egg! And the two of us couldn’t finish it! Fortunately,this little restaurant was right across the street from our buscorner so, when we finally paid la cuenta (the bill), wealmost had to roll ourselves over to the bus to return to theBuquebus station and get in line to go through Customs to return toArgentina!

The ride back to Buenos Aires wassmooth; I slept for a while. Dan had gone up to the top deck to takephotos, so we went back up together to watch the lights of BuenosAires get closer and closer. How beautiful, but difficult to capturewith a camera! We called Ricardo, who was parked near the Buquebusstation, and figured out how to meet up with him for our ride back toPilar. It had been a long day for him also, as we got back homebefore midnight!

Still praying forour missionary friends who are on deputation tours in the States! The rest of our week was pretty routine as we take the various tasksas they come, try to concentrate on our language studies in theevenings and watch the progress on the campo pool.

New Year 2012

2012-01-08T19:56:00.001-06:00

Thank goodness, we went back to work this week! I think we’d had enough of unstructured time! On Monday, the mail was gathered from the post office – it had been more than 10 days since anyone had gone! And we got 2 new Christmas cards in the (snail) mail! It’s a bigger blessing than most people would realize since we’re so far from home. It’s easy to feel forgotten, even when we know that we’re not, when we don’t get much email, much less physical expressions of caring. Thanks again to Bud & Julie Rager, Pastor Rich & Tawnya Hadley, and friends (and twins) Melissa Steele and Mary Steele!

New experience this week:

After almost 3 months since my perm and last haircut, I asked the advice of a lady named Dany, who lives and works on the seminary grounds. She contacted Maria, who lives there too, as her husband recently graduated from the Seminary. When Patricia heard about it (she and her husband live and work here in the Regional Office compound), she asked if she could come too. I made those arrangements (by a translated conversation on Facebook) and Dan drove us there where we got very good haircuts in Maria’s kitchen. And she charged us each 20 pesos (less than $5)!

Kitchen successes this week, all “from scratch”:

lemon vinaigrette

baking mix (because I haven’t seen any Bisquick here yet!)

ham and spinach quiche

chocolate banana bread

pizza dough

Dan’s been working on security cameras and their software for the compound. We started with 2 so that we could learn by working with them and verify features and functions. Good plan... and, boy, have we learned a few things! This is going to take awhile but this kind of project is rewarding and fun (in a weird, techie kind of way). Oh, and then there is the fact that, in Argentina, there are no returns on these kind of purchases.

I don’t think we’d mentioned that an in-ground pool was started the Monday before Christmas! The goal of the compound property is to become more event-centered, so a pool will be an asset as part of a retreat experience. We hope to be able to enjoy it too, in a few weeks, when it’s finished!

There is a lot more to life here than the sights we get to see and the work God has put us here to do.

Here are a few of our prayers and praises you can join us in;

Praying for our co-worker Thea, as she’s in the States for a few more days for some medical tests.
Praying for the Wilmar and Jessica Rojas family, missionaries to Argentina, in the States for deputation, who will speak in our home church on the 18^th.
Praying for Rev. Cindy Downey, missionary, professor, and dean of students at the Seminary here, in the States for deputation.
Praying for Carlos and Robin Radi family, missionaries to Argentina, in the States for deputation.
Praying for our friends Rev. J.D. and Teresa Sailors as they begin a new pastorate in Vivian, Lousiana.

Lia and Levi Mullen

Claire Yen Hanna Sailor

We’re also rejoicing with two young families as God's timing has recently brought great joy to their lives;

- Chuck and Marsha Sailors, ministry workers in Kansas City, as they begin their new life with daughter, Claire Yen Hanna, from Vietnam – a 5-year journey!

- Joel and Sarah Mullen, missionaries in Italy, as they begin their new life with son Levi from Ethiopia and daughter Lia from China - a 6 year journey!

Next week, we’ll Skype with some of our mission coaching candidates and daughter Erica. We also need to take a day-trip to Uruguay to satisfy the Argentine government requirements for visitors – we can’t stay longer than 3 months on a visitor’s visa. So we’ll enjoy an over-and-back boat ride and tour of the city of Colonia in Uruguay on Thursday! And we’ll get back into Spanish language study!

Wrapping up 2011, Welcoming 2012

2012-01-01T19:45:00.000-06:00

HappyNew Year!! This has been a different week, closing out a very different year!

Fairwarning… this one’s long! Out of the office, and on the go, it’smuch more fun to describe our outings than talk about wrestling withsome equipment, software or spreadsheet in the office…

It’sbeen some time since we both had time off between Christmas and theNew Year! And with offices closed this week, everyone except us andThea have “flown the coop!” Monday the 26^thwas the first day of the small job I’ve been asked to do eachmorning this week – feeding the 2 goldfish in the tank in the CILPbuilding where I work in the afternoons. After doing that, we filledour time relaxing around the house but, since we had been graciouslygranted permission to use a vehicle, we just had to use it! So wedecided to explore Derqui, the town past where we live. It’s smalland, I think, a typical Argentine town; nothing too memorable, but atleast we’ve seen it!

OnTuesday, December 27, we decided to take a longer drive to see theBasilica of the Virgin of Lujan, less than an hour away. First,though, we spent the morning taking down our borrowed-from-CindyChristmas tree and stowing the ornaments and the few decorations we’dput on our living room shelves and walls. We had an early lunch, asked Thea to go along, andheaded out. This was in a different direction than we’d seen before anda different countryside – horse farms, polo clubs, small towns onthe way. Dan checked Google Earth and brought our GPS with the location already entered, so wehad no problem finding the church, even with some roadwork going onin Lujan.

What did happen though, as Dan gathered up his camera, GPS and water bottle, he locked the keys in the truck! Wanting tosolve the problem sooner rather than later, Dan poked around thetruck to see if there was any other way to get in. To help, I walkeda few steps to a nearby restaurant with workers outside by theirpatio tables. Dan needed a piece of wire so, after I looked up thatword in my trusty diccionario,I asked a man for a piece of wire and actually explained that ourllaves(keys, say “SHA-vehs” in Argentina!) were inside our vehicle. Hewent into the restaurant, called LaBendicion (TheBlessing!) and came back out in a few minutes with some wire. Itwasn’t real heavy wire, but Dan folded it a few times to makesomething strong enough to shove inside the truck door. But it didn’twork. The man who supplied the wire suggested that there was a locksmith around the corner! As Thea and Iheaded in that direction, he said it was 5blocks around thecorner… We started walking and saw nothing for blocks! Almostready to give up, I ask for a cerrajeria(locksmith shop, a word I was pleased that I already knew) and was told that it was a half-block to the left fromthe corner!

It was funny as we tried to explain our problem(especially since I did know the make and model but not the year ofthe truck) and where the truck was. But the men understood and toldus to get into the car across the street with one younger fellow who put his tools in the trunk. They’d alreadytold us it would be 200 pesos (almost $50 US) to help us and Iexplained that mi esposotiene los pesos (myhusband has the money)! I called Dan by cell phone to make sure hestill needed help and to make sure he understood how much it wouldcost. The fellow had no trouble prying the door a little and poppingthe lock – success! We thanked him and paid him and got those keysout of the truck! Then we were finally ready to tour the Basilica!

It’sa beautiful old cathedral, large and very ornate. Gorgeousstained-glass windows were all around, high up, but lots of work wasgoing on, with sections sealed off and scaffolding. We took photosand walked around quietly, as quite a few other people were. Ithink, though, that this was a small crowd, since many people arevisiting family for this week and not sight-seeing. Of course, whenwe were finished, we had to eat at LaBendicion before we wentback home! Thea had a meal, while Dan and I had helado(ice cream, a slice of one of the favorites here, Neopolitan). Noone can say we don’t have adventures! (and God heard and answered each of our prayers.)

Wednesday, we took it easy in the morning, then decided to exploreTortuga Open Mall, a shopping area toward Buenos Aires, but fartherthan known bus routes. It is definitely great to “have wheels.” It’s a very nice, upscale mall with an impressive variety of stores– department stores, luggage, computers, children’s wear,kitchen, clothing, sports equipment, movie theaters, food court, andnice restaurants. After a couple of hours of walking around, wedecided we’ll have to go back for a movie one day soon!

Thursday,we checked with Thea about her plans for the day. She needed to dosome laundry and the washer for the apartments was busy, so weoffered to let her use our washer and dryer. Since she’s goingback to the States for a few days for a medical consultation andleaving for the airport about 6:00 pm, we invited her to join us fordinner later. In the meantime, we planned to find another shoppingarea we’d been told about, west of Pilar. It’s really quiteclose and we found it with no trouble. It’s called PaseoChampagnat and, althoughit’s smaller than Tortugas, it’s quite new and very nice! It hasa medical center and a health club, among other things, on its upperfloor. There’s a good variety of stores on the ground level –bookstore, artisanal pasta, appliances, designer shoes, along withthe usual upscale clothing stores, pretty classy. Two stores evencarry yarn, so I’ll have to get back there someday soon, when Ifinish the summer sweater I’m working on. One of the “anchor”stores is another Carrefour (and we were going to get groceries onour way back anyway), so I dug out my grocery list and we shopped. Ireally liked this store, as it seems to be set up more like stores inthe States (or maybe I’m just getting used to the stores here!) sowe’ll shop here again! We made it back home just in time to heatup some leftovers to enjoy with Thea before her ride to the airport.Now we’re really alone here in the compound!

Forour Friday outing, we’d chosen a museum to visit in Buenos Aires (all by ourselves),out of many that look very interesting. We noted the hours, put theaddress in the GPS, and headed down the PanAmerican Highway, about 50 Kilometers, afterlunch. With the trusty GPS, we arrived at the MuseoNacional de Belles Artesand found a parking place on the street, only 2 blocks away andwalked through 2 parks to arrive at our destination. We couldn’tget in the first door we tried, so we went around the building andwent into an office area. I searched my brain and asked, “Museoes abierto?” (is themuseum open) and the gentleman behind the reception desk said, “Themuseum is closed” – in English! So we found out that all themuseums are closed this week between Christmas and New Year’s –nuts!!

Notto worry, we have a GPS! We did (at least Dan did) some more driving in BA city as we admired the European architecture and how large thecity is (the metro area is home to 13 million people, thatsone-third the entire population of the country of Argentina). Pretty soon, we came upon a 4-story mall called AltoPalermo, with aStarbuck’s!! The coffeeand medialunes(croissants) were just what we needed to give us the energy to hitevery floor of the mall and not buy anything!

We'rereally excited about Saturday night. One of my afternooncoworkers, Graciela, and her husband Juan Carlos (who is a pastor andworks as a guard here too) have invited us to their home foran asado(meat cook-out) and the midnight fireworks that everyone says willmake the Christmas Eve ones look small!! Graciela doesn't speaka lot of English, but she corrects my attempts at Spanish (which Ireally do appreciate) and we tease each other all the time! I'mnot sure how we do it, but it’s fun and it's great to have herfriendship. (Since we didn't get invited anywhere for Christmas Eve,I was thrilled when she asked if we had plans for the 31st and thendeclared that we were coming to their house!) They have 3 kids (ages10-16). Her husband Juan Carlos has a little more English, but we will try to use as much Spanish as possible. The learning curve has beensteep and difficult but, compared to a few weeks ago, I’ve gainedlots in understanding andspeaking!

Saturdaymorning, we drove to the little markets we usually walk to and boughtlarge bottles of gaseosos(soda) to contribute to the dinner, then went to Jumbo to get a fewmore things. It may not have been the smartest timing (everyone elsewas getting groceries for their NYE dinners too), but it didn’ttake too long before we were home having lunch. I baked someavena-chocolategalletinas (oatmealchocolate chip cookies) to take too! We relaxed, showered andchanged, and waited for 8:30 to arrive so we could go visit JuanCarlos and Graciela! They live less than a mile away and Juan Carloshad drawn a map for us! After greeting them and their children, wewere taken to the back yard to watch Juan be the asador.He’s actually from Peru, while Graciela is from BA, and I think heenjoys Argentine food and customs even more than she does! The meatwas delicious, along with a potato-carrot-pea salad and an atunrollando (tuna saladrolled in pastry sheet).

When the dishes were cleared, a game ofdominoes was perfect – just numbers and colors to match! Their 2sons were much more interested in PlayStation, so off they went,leaving the 4 adults and 10-year-old Antonela to play. We played 2games and soon it was midnight!! The noisy fireworks started intheir barrio(neighborhood); that wasthe cue for a New Year’s kiss, then we headed outside to watch whatthe neighbors were doing and set some off too! An hour or so later,we landed back in the kitchen to talk. My brain wore out about 2a.m., trying to cope with 2 languages and we got home around 2:30.What a great evening of Christian fellowship!

Sunday,1 January 2012, the first day of the newyear, the weather was beautiful, so we walked around the compound (6times around gets us just over a mile)after a breakfast of pancakes. We didn’t want more than a saladfor lunch, after that big meal the previous night! We had planned ahead totalk with our children by computer using Google-Plus so we could all video call together. With 5 locations, 2 East coast, 2 mid-west and Argentina, it worked well and was quite anexperience!

Then it was time for church. The service took on a different tone as the first of the new year. We were lead by song and scripture to Remember what God has done, Look forward to the new year under His leading and be ready to Do what He leads us into. It was beautiful as the spontaneous testimonies of remembering didn't seem to want to end as more and more people were reminded of what they wanted to thank God for.

It has been a different year, but with God's loving guidance the differences are opportunities for blessings and growth. We praise HIM for all He has done and look forward to all the new year will bring!

UP IN THE SKY (storms, fireworks, butterflies)

2011-12-26T17:10:00.000-06:00

This was Christmas week so, in addition to walking through the events of the week, we will include some photos of the signs of the holiday season here.

Monday morning at staff devotions, wefound out that, on Saturday, Liliana had 3 broken ribs as a result ofa handyman falling from a ladder in her home, on top of her! Shecame into the office late, wearing a brace to hold her together asshe heals, and she is very sore. Since it’s the last week of thisworking year, though, she must be here; lots of accounting and year-endpayroll to accomplish! We’ll pray daily for her swift recovery, butwe know it will take time.

On a higher note, we were blessed in a BIG way when Dan was granted permission to use one of the regional vehicles when it is not otherwise needed. With the prospect of the compound being virtually empty over the holiday season, it is hard to explain what this means to us, but to all those who helped make this possible, thank you!

That evening, with keys to the Toe-sho-tah(that’s how they say Toyota) HiLux truck, we drove to Carrefour tostock up on the weekly groceries, keeping in mind that more peoplewould be shopping for their holiday meals later in the week!

Tuesday, Dan spent part of his morningin a Skype Spanish lesson, and I kept tabs on Marcy’s Facebookcommunications while in the Finance office. Marcy and John’s son,Tucker, had a cyst surgically removed from inside his mouth (underthe tongue, behind the chin area). By the end of our morning, thesurgery was over and he was in Recovery. It was great, later in theevening, to see a photo of him at home, wearing a special shirt we’dordered for him. The shirt read, “Eat. Sleep. Nintendo DS.” Marcy quoted Tucker as saying, “It’s perfect!” (Makes agrandma proud!)

Wednesday evening, there were lots ofhigh winds and lightning, a tormenta (storm), and Neo ishiding! He just can’t stand the extra noise!

Friday, we woke to cool-but-niceweather but, by afternoon, it was actually cold and later a cold rainfell. Not a lot to do in the office today, but we understand, andit’s actually starting to feel festive. The church Christmas dinner is thisevening, so we peeked in to see the set-up in gym (part of the CILPbuilding) – it looks great with tables set and decorations on thewalls.

In the quincho (an open pavilion on the other side ofthe park from our house), a couple of asadors (grillers) werecooking those 50 chickens that were delivered last week! The only wall in the quincho is theback wall, and it’s all grill! They know just how to feed thehard-wood coals and distribute them for slow, smoky cooking. We tooka picture of the two guys working and tried to tell them how good itsmelled – amazing! I don’t know if we can wait for the 9 PMstart of this party!

We went home and Skype-called Dan’s UncleDavid; it was great to surprise him and to catch up! Finally it wastime to change clothes and walk over for the party. A bit awkwardly,we waited near the wall for a while, trying to figure out if weshould just claim a seat, or wait to see if anyone would ask us to sitwith them. We finally chose a table where we could see the “stage”area, as we’d been asked by Thea to take some photos while shesang, as part of the entertainment for the evening. Some othersjoined us, but we didn’t make much conversation.

The evening wasvery nice as we enjoyed empanadas as a first course, withgrilled chicken and a salad as the second course – delicious! Theentertainment was varied; beside Thea, there were a girl who did atoe dance, film clips of last year’s Christmas play ("A Gaucho's Christmas"), and a group of theyoung people with a new Christmas song. At the end of theevening, Pastor Hernan played his guitar and taught us all a newsong, “Su Nombre Es” (His Name Is), using the text fromIsaiah 9:6. That’s a great song and I hope we sing it again soon;I’ll have to write it down! It was around 1:00 AM when we walked afew meters back home, giving Argentine cheek-kisses and saying FelizNavidad to all we passed…

Saturday, Christmas Eve, we slept in and fixed a nicebreakfast, then reviewed our Christmas list regarding orderinganything more over Internet. (All the shopping, except some giftcards, had actually been done before we came here in October!) Dancalled both sisters, Denise and Diane, and caught up with them andtheir families. It was good to connect! I spent time in the kitchenbaking cinnamon bread, chicken breasts, and a large turkey breastwe’d found at Carrefour! It was a pretty day, so we did a littlesitting outside in the sun, enjoying all things in the sky - the sunand the orange butterflies and lots of dragonflies now! Neo joined us so we spent some time brushing him (it’s summer and he’s shedding).

The evening was spent looking at emails and Facebook as we waited to experience the first moments of Christmas at midnight that we have heard so much about. Since we don’t have TV, I’vealso read several free-downloaded Christian fiction books on theKindle software on my notebook computer.

Cracks and pops during the earlyevening were the precursors of the noises to come… and, atmidnight, they did! All at once, fireworks started ALL around,outside the compound. We rushed out to enjoy all the celebrating! Wecould hear and see fireworks all around the compound, so we walked tothe front, near the gate, closer to the barrios(neighborhoods) across the street. It’s hard to imagine if youhaven’t experienced this; in the States, we see fireworks generallyfrom a distance. And they’re noisy, but high in the sky. These wereall around and seemed to not be far up in the air. There were big, splashyones, all colors and so much noise!
Here a link to a video of what we heard and saw...Mid-Night sounds of Christmas
I think my favorites were thelanterns that had small fires inside – looked just like thelanterns from the movie “Tangled”! (Thea told us later that, at the Christmas Eve gathering she'd gone to, after thefireworks was a large meal, then everyone went out to visit otherpeople. After lots of stops – there was a lot of traffic too, shesaid she was finally back in her apartment at 4:00 AM!)

Christmas Day, I fixed a nicebreakfast, and we relaxed in back yard, read, and watched thebutterflies and dragonflies some more. Gorgeous weather with blue sky,feathered clouds… I prepared some plates with cinnamon bread and wewalked up to the guard house to share with Juan, the guy stuck withChristmas Day duty. He seemed quite surprised and appreciative! Wetook another plate to the only family still here, my coworker Mirnaand her husband and daughter Luana. The only reason they’re hereon Christmas is that Luana has bronchiolitis; they can’t expose heryoung cousin to this illness. Later, we found Pablo (the oldestemployee here, who lives in the back corner of the compound) and madesure he had some cinnamon bread slices too. It was nice to Skypewith Derick and Nola late morning. Later in the afternoon, we caughtup with Marcy and her family before they went to their Christmas Daycelebration with John’s side of the family.

We invited Thea over for dinner (turkeyand broccoli tetrazzini), and she supplied the cookies and ice creamfor dessert, before we used the truck to go to church. It’s beenstrange for us not to hear Christmas music at church during Advent.(In our house, though, we’ve been listening to Joy FM online and reallyenjoying all the traditional and contemporary songs we love.) Thiswas a nice service, just not what we’re used to! Thea sang with theband, leading us in 4 verses of Silent Night, in Spanish, of course,and that was fun! It’s always easier (for us) to sing a song forwhich we already know the melody even when the words are different. We Skyped with Monica and her kids (and Darin was there too) after wegot home. The kids were blurs across the computer screen most ofthe time since they were still pretty “wound up” from Christmasevents and having just returned home from their dad’s house!

Well, it was a very differentChristmas, emotionally tough, but looking up has been the key togetting through it! God is with us, as always, through theemotional ups and downs, as we encountered so many things this week,UP in the sky!

Christmas Letter 2011

2011-12-22T11:27:00.002-06:00

Christmas2011

Merry Christmas to all our familyand friends! We pray that in this season you will understand andknow more of the ‘Reason for the Season’ – Jesus Christ!

This has been a DIFFERENTyear for us in several ways!

It was different initially in thatwe spent the first entire winter in 5 years at home in Columbia,Illinois – and it was cold!! The getting-away-in-the-winterpattern was never our plan but I guess we’d gotten spoiled! InApril, my 18½-year-old cat, Dickens, passed away. She’d been sucha faithful companion, but had developed hypothyroid. We haven’treplaced her with another pet yet; that will happen eventually, Iimagine.

Dan is still very active in hisrole as Bible Quiz Trainer for our denominational global youthministry. He was fortunate to have been asked to participate at theregional quiz event at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego(and I was fortunate enough to get to go along!), so we enjoyed somebeautiful spring weather there at the end of May. Early in June, wedrove to Louisville, KY, to volunteer at the 2011 NYC (Nazarene YouthConference). We enjoy the varied aspects of volunteering at theseevents which are life-changing for several thousand teens.

In early July, since I had neverbeen to Washington DC (but Dan had been stationed there as a Marine,a long time ago!), we drove there to spend a few days on our way toour first all-family vacation at Marcy’s! DC is awesome and westayed just a block from the White House. It was incredibly hotthen, but we really enjoyed the landmarks and especially 2 of the 19Smithsonian museums. Driving on to Marcy and John’s home inFairhaven, MA, was fun too, as we took a detour to take a few photosof Lady Liberty in New York Harbor. Monica and her kids flew out, asdid Erica, then Darin. Derick and Nola drove up from North Carolina.At Marcy’s, we all enjoyed a beach, Plymouth Rock, and lots ofgreat food and time together. Morgan’s softball team was excellentthis year and we had fun being the grandparents whose presence seemedto help them win!

A couple of weeks later, Caitlyn &Dylan spent a week with us before school started. We look forward tothis week each summer and we plan fun things to eat and interestingoutings to enjoy different sights around St Louis. This summer, wetoured Cahokia Mounds, rode bikes, went peach-picking (which turnedinto blackberry-pickingand peach-buyingbefore going out to lunch in Alton, IL).

In September, after a couple ofyears talking about it, we celebrated our 15^thwedding anniversary in Hawaii! Maui was absolutely gorgeous! Dandid the driving, as we toured the northern coast (Road to Hana) anddrove up Haleakala Volcano. We enjoyed lots of good food, somebeaches, and a sunset dinner cruise.

Our “empty nest” isDIFFERENT now too!

I finally have retired from JoyFM!It was a good time to go, after 8 years. With this decision, alongwith the awareness that God always has a plan, we asked Erica ifshe’d like to move in with us and take care of the house when weare gone. Without hesitating, she said, “Sure!” She moved innear the end of July, with her cat Phantom, and is enjoying the lowerlevel of our home. She keeps busy with her job and her friends; theyenjoy movies and hockey games and girls-out-nights! We are reallyenjoying having her around and she doesn't seem to mind the lowerliving costs.

And, now our life is reallyDIFFERENT, we’re in Argentina! We learned of a volunteeropportunity – the SAM (South America) Region was looking for avolunteer couple to spend 2 years at the Regional Office. They neededaccounting and administrative help. We asked about a shorter periodof time and did they need computer skills too – and we have beenhere since mid-October! We have met some great new missionaryfriends! Unfortunately many have gone back to the U.S. for Christmasand Home Assignment (to raise support). Learning to get along withlimited Spanish knowledge – very DIFFERENT - has proved morechallenging than we imagined, but we’re learning! Thanksgiving inArgentina was DIFFERENT but lots of fun with a dinner with 20missionaries; we had turkey and everyone fixed traditional dishes! Christmas will be really DIFFERENT in the warm weather and away fromhome. Argentines celebrate here on the 24^thending with midnight (all night) fireworks. We’ll spend ChristmasDay Skyping, I think!

You can catch up on more of ourArgentine experiences on our blog: http://ReinhartsRoad.blogspot.com.You can also ‘subscribe’ and get emails when updates are posted… We’ll spend 6 months here, returning 2 days after Easter 2012 tobe available for duties at U.S. Bible Quiz events in the spring andsummer.

Yes our year has beenDIFFERENT and we would love hearing about yours!

We have pretty good Internetservice here, so please let us know what’s keeping you busy! Sendus an email and/or let’s plan a Skype time to talk face-to-face! We wish you the best in the upcoming year and hope that you’llsomeday consider volunteering, using your learned and God-givenskills to benefit others!

Blessings to you!

Dan & Janet Reinhart

Blessings to you!

Dan & Janet Reinhart

Reinhart47@aol.com

JanetM52@aol.com

Pre-Holiday activities

2011-12-18T13:35:00.000-06:00

Sunday, December 18, 2011

This week, we were not looking forwardto an-even-quieter compound. Carlos & Robin Radi and their 3girls left on Monday for their 3-month Home Assignment. And Sarah, onTuesday, started to distribute the things she would not be takinghome; she’s going back to Ohio to stay. While we wish she wassticking around, we benefited greatly with additional baking dishesand foodstuffs. Wednesday, she added more things for us to use andsome to store for the next missionary… She has been here for 4years, this stint, and has been a wealth of information about livinghere in Pilar! It will be so strange not having her next door andavailable to ask advice… she’s nuts about Argentina!

Most of the tech team flew home Mondayevening, except Josh and his dad Freddy. So we had them over fordinner on Wednesday night. I made a chicken shepherd’s pie, toppedwith homemade mashed potatoes (in one of my new glass casseroledishes, courtesy of Sarah). They were willing to take us to thegrocery store after dinner, since they had a truck to use, and we didjust that, right after we enjoyed a cup of Chocolate Almendras(choco-almond) ice cream at Dolce Pilar! When we got back, I bakedsome cookies (made the oatmeal-Craisin-chocolate chip dough earlier)and we had some decaf. What a nice evening with 2 nice guys… makethat 3 nice guys!

Dan and Thea have been working on aproject to gather accurate address information to send Christmascards from the Regional Director to General and Regional leaders,friends (in both South America and the US) and districtsuperintendents around the SAM Region. Friday was a particularlycrazy day for them as they fought with the data, formatting issuesand lots of other details. Only God held things together!

Earlier Friday afternoon, Patricia hadasked if we’d be home in the evening. (She and her husband Germanare filling in for Carlos and Noemi, the facilities managers whoare spending Christmas vacation with their family in the States.) Patricia and her family were going out for the evening and agentleman from the church we attend was scheduled to deliver 50chickens to the compound for the church’s Cena de Navidad(Christmas banquet – next Friday)! She and I had walked around thecompound in the afternoon, inspecting which freezers we might use (inplaces not being rented or lived in just now), so I was ready with alist and some keys! The guard at the gatehouse was instructed todirect the man to our A-frame house and, with windows open anyway, weheard the car outside around 10:00 pm. I introduced them to miesposo (my husband) and we started off to fill the first freezer!It was funny how we managed to communicate with our limited Spanish,as we helped unload 50 fresh chickens (in plastic bags, ready tobake) from the back of their small car into 3 different freezers! Wehad fun, though, with Señor Coehlo, his esposa(wife)and little nieto(grandson). As they were ready to leave, we all washed our hands andI gave them some cookies for their ride home. It’s littleexperiences like this that bring us some new friends!

Saturday, Dan continued to work on theChristmas card data, finally getting it to a point where we calledThea to come over and take a look at it. She came over and visitedfor a couple of hours. She’s been here 2 weeks longer than we haveand has much more experience with Spanish. It’s good to comparenotes! She’s involved in a Bible study here and she spends time onher computer in conversation with her parents and with her boyfriendback in the States. We’ve always got each other, but it’s easy toforget that she might get lonely here.

This week is the first of severalSundays during the summer break from school and, therefore, SundaySchool as well. So there’s nothing until evening… weird Sunday! But this is Promotion Sunday, so the service will have lots of extramusic and fun. In the meantime, we puttered around the house; Danput up his new (from Sarah) hammock and we spent some time in the sunin the back yard.

Inside, when Dan was working on his computer, hedidn’t even notice that I made empanadas for lunch – until hestarted smelling the dough baking! A little after 6:30, we walkedout to the bus stop with Thea and watched as a red bus stopped justpast where we were waiting (we usually get on a blue public bus). Itwas our church bus!! We ran to get on and continued the rest of theroute through a nearby neighborhood to pick up more people. (Thea hadjust said she wasn’t sure if she had enough change to pay for thebus ride home, and then we got a free ride!) The Bus Ministry kids’parents have been invited to this service too. The church filled upquickly and Dan went up to the balcony to take some photos. Lots ofchurch workers were honored and there was cake for everyone at theend of the service! We were really hungry for dinner by then, though,so we skipped the cake and caught a public bus for home!

Tech Team week

2011-12-11T19:45:00.000-06:00

Sunday, December 11, 2011
Monday, Dan headed off for the bus before I started out for the Regional Office. He spent the day with the “techies”. I collected time cards and tried to enter stamped times in a spreadsheet I made for more accurate record-keeping. The ribbon in the machine is totally worn out, so I had to read the indentations! I hope I asked the right person about getting a replacement; this has been going on for some time! At home, we skyped with Erica (missionary candidate) and then with Erica (daughter)! This was a long and full day! It’s great to see the missionary candidates’ progress as they work through the process of God’s call and getting ‘ready to go’! And it was great to catch up with our youngest, who is keeping everything in order at the house and screening mail and bills for us. She’s got a busy life too with work and friends and church.

Tuesday, Dan stayed at the Regional Office while the tech team returned to the computer stores in Buenos Aries for supplies. Tuesday evening we got to use that tech team truck to get groceries at the Carrefour. It was kind of neat to be on our own for a little while, not dependent on public transportation or others with cars!

Wednesday is this week’s Friday! The Argentines celebrate Anunciacion Day and, since it fell on a Thursday this year, Friday is a day off too! With the tech team here, though, Dan will certainly be working! Cindy, on of the long term missionaries here, is leaving for 4 months in the States – her Home Assignment – and we’ve agreed to cat-sit! She brought Neo over in the afternoon. He’s 11 and totally black. She brought LOTS of stuff for him: his purple blanket, toys, tons of food and cat litter! He’s stayed in this house before, but it’s been a while, so he’ll take his time getting used to us and the house noises… Not sure, but we think he spent the first night under our bed! We are also keeping Cindy's Christmas decorations from sitting idle while she is gone. She loaned them to us to use.

Thursday, Dan headed off for the bus early again (but fewer buses run on holidays and Sundays) to spend the day doing techie stuff at the seminary and new office space! I’d planned to do a couple of loads of laundry, so I started those, but Neo doesn’t like the washer or dryer noises! He hid at the top of the stairs most of the day, until those noises were done! I spent time knitting (finished Sarah’s scarf so she can be a little warmer back in Ohio), practicing Spanish with Rosetta Stone, catching up the blog and email, and continuing to hold up my end of Words With Friends games on Facebook. The water guy came early today and I was glad I had some pesos to pay him!
Dan called mid-day with news that there will be a potluck at 8 p.m. at the Seminary grounds, so I found an easy apple cake recipe online to bake and take. After a few tries, I got the oven going (Dan’s had the knack before now)! In the mid-eighties today, it really was awfully warm to be baking, on top of the dryer heat (not vented to the outside!), but the fans help! We have wall air-conditioners upstairs, but haven’t used them much yet.

The potluck was GREAT!

In a different culture, we really live for the fellowship times! The potluck included a young couple from Bolivia and their little boy, the Peruvian seminary president and his family, 2 more Peruvian ladies, 6 techies from United States and us! We had a wonderful dinner of baked meat, baked sliced potatoes, beet salad, green salad, and 2 apple desserts – how delicious! Dan had picked me up so we didn’t have to take the apple cake on the bus but, not wanting anyone to have to drive us back home, we were content to take the bus home with an empty cake pan!

Friday, the tech team came to us! They spent the day testing the network circuits at the Regional Office and CILP buildings, then untangling and labeling the wiring cabinets.

We’d been invited to join Josh and Freddy and the rest of the guys for a tourism day on Saturday, with Sarah as our guide. It was arranged for Ricardo to drive us and we headed for Buenos Aires! What Ricardo had found out was that this was also Inauguration Day for Christina Scioli (the very popular new President of Argentina) and some of the streets were blocked off. Sarah told us what she knew about the government buildings that we saw the backs of, but we didn’t take the route that had been planned. We heard that there were other South American countries’ presidents in town for the ceremonies and we saw groups of people carrying flags to represent their part of Argentina – even some from Pilar!
When we did stop, touring La Boca was a fun way to spend the middle of the day – shopping, walking the cobblestone streets, and admiring the brightly painted buildings! There are quite a number of artisans with booths selling their paintings and other crafts. We had split into 2 groups, but met back up for empanadas at an outdoor restaurant that featured tango dancers and gaucho couples too (traditional folk dancers who were in costume and excellent)! Live singers with guitars really made that time special! The dancers try to get audience members to join them for photos, and they pass their hat for tips – and they’re successful with both!

The next stop was that La Recoleta Cemetery area where the rich and famous of Buenos Aires are buried including Eva Peron. It's also a large commercial and tourist shopping area. (For more photos of the day look at the slideshow on the right labeled "La Boca y Recoleta 2011".

This Sunday was the last morning Sunday School for the “summer” as school is out and it’s more difficult to get the bus ministry kids to come. So Sunday school will resume in late February again! During the evening service, Sarah was honored as a vital part of the Sunday School ministry. She is a volunteer missionary that is leaving after several years of service here. She had made Iglesia Altos de Pilar her home church; we know she is going to miss it a great deal!

Neo is getting used to us after the first few days spending his time sitting on the tile floor, front paws tucked under in front. If you know cats at all, you know that he was not relaxed; he was ready to move fast if he had to. When he wasn’t in a spot on the ground floor, with views in more than one direction, he was under the built-in shelves at the top of our stairs, so he could see who was coming from that way. After the first couple of nights under our bed, he curled up on the floor beside our bed each night! By Sunday afternoon, he climbed up on the couch next to me while I was reading and actually curled up and put his head down – finally relaxed! We let him go outside a couple of times for a few minutes each time. He’s used to being an indoor-outdoor cat, but we don’t want him to forget where’s he’s living for now! He’ll get to spend more time outside as the days go on! It’s nice having a cat around!

New Friends and more...

2011-12-04T19:08:00.000-06:00

Sunday, 4 December, 2011

It’s almost impossible to conceive,for a girl who’s lived most of her life in Illinois, that thiscan be December, wearing tees and capris and fighting off mosquitos…

Monday was an Argentine holiday, so wedidn’t go to work and we had scheduled an online language lesson,recommended by some missionary friends who know Spanish well, Joeland Pam Tooley! We’re working with people at the Nazarene Seminaryin Costa Rica to experience CALL (computer-assisted languagelearning) by Skype. We spent almost 2 hours with a neat lady namedGaby, getting to know each other so she can know at what levels we are in ourSpanish comprehension. It was a answer to prayer. A little later, we Skyped with our MissionsCoaching leader, Hal, and caught up with him.

The Rojas Family

That evening, we walked down to seeWilmar and Jessica Rojas and their 2 boys. They’ll be leaving in afew days for Home Assignment, based in Austin, Texas. I had askedJessica when she could teach me how to make corn tortillas and sheoffered to have us over! We hope that our Missouri District friendswill get to know them too; they are fun, generous and dedicated!

Tuesday, Josh Williams andhis dad Freddy arrived – the first of a Work and Witness techteam coming for a time of running network wiring and computer software upgrades at the seminary and preparations for a move, in a few months, of the SAM Regional Officeto the seminary grounds.

Janet loves shopping but . . .

Josh is the IT director for this region and works out of his home in Idaho. It was great to meet them, after emails. Dan will be working with them over the next twoweeks! Wednesday, I worked ahead in publication shipments and wasinvited to join the guys on Thursday to visit a 3-story shopping areain downtown Buenos Aires – it’s all computer stores!! Not beingas interested as the guys in computer stuff, I followed them aroundand people-watched until we took an afternoon coffee break on FloridaStreet, a very famous shopping area. The coffee and medialunes(Argentine croissants) were wonderful and it was great to be off ourfeet for a little while! Josh walked us down a couple of blocks ofFlorida Street (it’s pedestrian traffic only) and we saw more sidestreets full of huge malls and shops. We’ve got to go backsometime soon!

The ride back to Pilar was even more interesting for Janet as she was trapped in the back seat with network rack we purchased for the team to install.

Saturday morning, we rode with Josh“downtown” to Pilar Computacion, a store he was familiar withfrom his missionary time here a few years ago.We made a stop formedialunes at Panaderia del abuelo (Grandpa’s Bakery), then on toJumbo for groceries. Three more computer guys will arrive Sundaymorning for a week of work!

Sunday morning, we took the bus toEscuela Domenical (Sunday School) where the lesson was aboutthe body of Christ and how we all need to work together for a healthychurch. We got in small groups and made different parts of a body outof a sheet of newspaper, then taped them up on a board to see what aweird body it would look like if we were in charge instead of God! Thea suggested going out for lunch afterwards, so we walked to aparrilla (grill) near the Seminary and ordered, then (notreally surprisingly) Josh and all his techies joined us for whatturned out to be a 3 hour lunch!

Sunday afternoon was spent reading,knitting, resting, listening to Pastor Rick’s (back home) sermon from lastweek… until it was time to get back on the bus for church. I’vegot to be honest; just the thought of Sundays lately can bedepressing. It’s the hardest day of the week becausewe’re at church where we’d really like to be enjoying the serviceand getting to know the people. But we can’tbecause of the language barrier. It seemed like fewer people weregreeting us and even trying to make any contact. This week I wasdetermined to stay focused and understand the service as much as possible. During thegreeting time, several ladies made a point to give me really goodhugs and it was encouraging. Toward the end of the two-hour service,we had communion. God is good!

Thanksgiving Week 2011

2011-11-27T15:05:00.000-06:00

27 November 2011
New week, new adventures! It’s a standing policy that for the offices here to close, it must be a holiday celebrated in this country – completely understandable! So we’ll work each day this week, as usual, but we’re planning a big Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday evening! All the missionaries are invited, even if they aren’t from the States! There will be a turkey and we’ll all ‘potluck’ the other dishes. I’m excited! It will still be an unusual Thanksgiving, but fun! (Anyway, there’s an Argentine holiday next Monday, so we’ll get a day off then!)

Monday night, Sarah, Thea, Dan, and I took the public bus to the Seminary asado/graduation party in the Convention Center (arriving too early, as usual!). The seating area had been transformed to a dining area, with long tables already set with tablecloths, candles floating in bowls, table settings… and a buffet table set with traditional foods, starting with empanadas (me gusta, I love these!). The salads were interesting and all very tasty – lettuce salad, potato salad with carrots, beet salad with hard-boiled egg. Things really got going when the asador, the grill-man, started making trips past our tables with different kinds and cuts of meat! First there was the chorizo sausage, then beef ribs (demonstrated by pointing to his own ribs for those of us that are still language challenged!), and more large chunks – all delicious and too much! On top of that, there was graduation cake!

When we couldn’t eat any more, some of the older graduates took microphones for talent displays (voice and guitar), then awards for the “most likely to __” with photos of those nominated on a large screen. There was even a couples contest in which we got to participate too! We excused ourselves a little after 10:30 (still tired from last night!), rode the bus home, and slept soundly…

Tuesday was a pretty ordinary work day with occasional additions being made to my grocery shopping list for Carrefour (15% off on Tuesdays), for extra Thanksgiving cooking! Carlos Fernandez is so gracious to include us in his weekly trips to this large store! He always has a list for the meal preparation for the weekend guests in La Posada and for the conference attendees almost every weekend. The other advantage, beside the good prices and Tuesday discount, is that, in his car, we have more room for groceries than just-what-we-can-carry-on-the-bus from the Jumbo! Since we’ve been there a few times now, we know the store better each time, so we’re getting speedier! And we even saw, but didn’t buy, some frozen turkeys! Maybe next time! After the discount, we had spent 284 pesos –sounds like a lot, but that’s about $70 US.

Wednesday, the Internet stopped working mid-morning! We had electricity and a network signal, so the phone company was called. Their apparent message was, “We’ll check it out and let you know.”
We’ve been so well connected to the U.S. news and family and friends, it seemed really strange not be able to access the Internet – we’re dependent! Lack of Internet stopped almost everything! There were no DHL shipments scheduled, no transportation requests, no answering emails… but there was time to file and organize papers on the desk, catch up on writing blog entries!

The phone company had promised a technician by 5 p.m. When that didn’t happen, Sarah called several more times and we delayed our walk to La Esperanza for a few needed groceries. Around 6:30 Sarah stopped at our house; she had given up for the day, so we walked down the road and purchased our fruit. We’d planned on getting a little meat for the weekend (after the Thanksgiving meal), but they said,”Mañana” when I asked about pork chops and chicken breasts! They were sold out for the day.

Back home, I thawed some frozen fish and we had fish tacos! Maybe this is unusual, but I enjoy accomplishing a different kind of meal out of what we have on hand! After cleaning that up, I returned to cooking butternut squash, one item I can find here that’s most like pumpkin, so I could use it to make Paula Deen’s Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake for a get-together at Radi’s on Friday night (assuming we can get to the Internet before then!!). There’s plenty, so I’ll have some ready to make pumpkin pancakes on a Saturday morning breakfast – mmm! As soon as that was finished, I started in on oatmeal cookies with peanuts, the dessert I’d share Thursday night. And that took all evening, till after 10 p.m., when we had some decaf and snitched a couple of the cookies!

Still no Internet on Thursday! During staff devotions, one of the Argentine staff laughingly accused “the (North) Americans” of sabotaging the Internet to get some time off work for Thanksgiving! Thea took the public bus up to one of the restaurants at Las Palmas so she could get online. During my morning job, I spent lots more time interacting with little Luana, who now has a particular noise she makes when she wants my attention! She’ll be 1 on December 12; one of these days she’ll be walking over to my desk and calling out my name! In the afternoon, DHL shipments of literature to other countries can’t wait another day, so I learned how to fill out their forms by hand, instead of online, so we can keep up with Nazarene literature orders. Noemi had to call them for a pick-up today; good thing the phones haven’t been affected!

It’s neat that Noemi keeps thinking of new things for Dan and me to do, especially to make the compound’s facilities more marketable – more photos on the website, of course, but more things like adding more online ‘key words’ for people to find the La Posada website, check-in cards for guests so a client database can be developed for mailings and better contacts.

We gathered slowly on Thursday evening (maybe we’re becoming a little Argentine), using the Work and Witness dining room – 20 of us brought food and gave thanks for God’s blessings! (As soon as we were ready to start, the phone company showed up to work on the Internet outage, so Dan and Sarah had to leave the dinner for a short time to assist them!) We did have turkey, along with chicken, mashed potatoes, bread stuffing, green bean casserole, rice and broccoli, veggies and dip, bread, brownies, apple pie and cookies!! Of course, we all ate too much, but it was so good! Dan had brought our Wii over along with Wilmar & Jessica’s projector, so we had some fun trying games afterward!

And the Internet is back in service!!!

Friday was a catch-up day, as we’d lost time on tasks that required Internet. We worked until after 5 p.m., then hurried home so I could make Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake and cheese grits for a Gringo Thanksgiving party at Carlos and Robyn Radi’s home. They provided asado meat and baked chicken and we ate until we were uncomfortable again! There were about 15 of us. What a great evening of fellowship and teasing and playing! The Radis’ Wii was set up and the kids were ready to play! The adults stayed at the cleared-off tables and played Farkle (we had brought the dice and printed rules). We finally called it a night at midnight and walked across the park to our house. Morning would come too soon, even on a Saturday!

The Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake was a hit as Robyn praised it on facebook the next morning as she had some with her morning Coffee. Janet also converted several of our co-workers who had never tasted Pumpkin and are now begging for the recipe.

GS visit & Seminary Graduation

2011-11-20T11:08:00.000-06:00

Sunday, 20 November 2011
This past week had several ups and downs for me, as are to be expected, but the ‘downs’ are still… downs. We’re both experiencing more expectations by our co-workers, as they gain confidence in our skills and our reliability. That’s definitely gratifying. Some travel arrangements for dignitaries had to be changed, which created adjustments for many people here. Adjustments and flexibility are just facts of life!

We ‘Skyped’ twice this week, once with Salazars, a couple with whom we have a missions-coaching relationship, and with daughter Erica. The Salazars are wonderful, dedicated people; it’s great getting to know them! Erica caught us up on the mail at home and was so excited about her evening plans – she had won the opportunity to ride on the Zamboni at the St. Louis Blues Hockey game that night! And it was so fun to see her photos shared on Facebook the next morning!

Tuesday night, all the missionaries (some U.S., some Peruvian, one Nicaraguan, some Argentine) from the Regional Office and Seminary were invited to a special dinner with General Superintendent, David Graves, and his wife Sharon! How wonderful it was to spend a little time with them! They are genuine and personable! They’ve been traveling all over South America, attending many District Assemblies with Regional Director Christian Sarmiento and his wife Margit. Christian translated Dr. Graves’ message of hope and encouragement for the Spanish-speaking missionaries. The fellowship was great and we so enjoyed the special dinner of appetizers, salad with chicken, pasta, and ice cream (3 flavors!).

In contrast, Thursday, I felt very discouraged, like I would never learn enough Spanish and not really be useful here… unrealistic expectations, of course, but real feelings.

Saturday, Dan and I had decided that we needed to take the bus to downtown Pilar; we had not been there since the very first weekend we arrived, 5 weeks ago! We knew that the ride would cost 2 pesos (about 50 cents) and we had our bus passes ready. We got off when several others did, not sure if it was the same stop that we had used when with our guides the first time, but that was OK. We walked to the Plaza first, the park in the center of town, to get our bearings and so we’d be sure of where it was (for the bus stop for the ride back!). We just walked down different blocks, remembering some places we’d seen before, and located the ‘health food’ store to get more corn meal and some dried-fruit-and-nut mix. Found a yarn store and tucked away that information for another day, when I run out of the yarn I brought with me for knitting. It’s a relatively large area, blocks and blocks of different kinds of stores. One interesting thing – we passed several larger stores with salesmen standing around or helping customers look at washers and dryers, cell phones, electronics and such. They looked very much like stores in the States. The funny part is, though, that those stores always have several motorcycles for sale in the front window – not exactly what you expect to see in an appliance and electronics store!

Getting pretty hungry, we chose one empanada store and bought 4 different kinds to share at home for lunch, waited for the right bus, then rode home. The empanadas were wonderful!

Sunday was the big day at the Seminario Teologico Nazareno get correct spelling and accents – graduation! Cindy Downey, as Dean of Students, had asked if we would help at the event. They usually use students to help at special events, but this was for the students, so the missionaries were helping! So we took the bus to the Bruno Radi Convention Center, arriving early to help (we are still just silly gringos!)… the 6:00 pm start time was just a suggestion, as usual! No one arrives ‘on time’ in this culture! (Even the printed programs that we were to distribute to attendees included only the date, not a time!). The arena had been very nicely decorated with cap-and-gown cut-outs, lots of flower arrangements, and curtains to make the space the right size (it can hold over 2000 and we were expecting 300 or so). The tech crew was ready with lights, sound, music, and cameras for recording the entire event! There were 39 graduates who had earned various degrees and their families were there to help celebrate; everyone was dressed up and excited! The ‘officials’ arrived and the chairs filled up – and, about 6:40, the music started and the graduates filed in!

We took photos and enjoyed the encouraging message from General Superintendent David Graves (“How will you live your life?”) before sneaking out for our next responsibility, helping fill plates with sandwiches and cake. I cut all 4 bakery cakes into 80 pieces each and had lots of help from Jessica and Thea and Dan and some local ladies! We filled cups with soda and arranged LOTS of plates on tables already decorated, just outside the curtains surrounding the audience. When the ceremony was over, the crowd flocked to the tables for refreshments and we spent some time refilling the tables as needed and cleaning off tables later… what fun! It was great to be a part of this special event! Our tired feet helped us get back to the bus stop outside the Seminary and back home… even being that tired, it was hard for me to get to sleep, replaying the evening and all its conversations in my head! On top of that, as thanks for helping, we’ve been invited to their final graduation party tomorrow night – an asado!!

Interesting week

2011-11-13T09:50:00.000-06:00

Sunday, 13 November 2011

This has been an interesting week! It seems like more of my office skills are being used now, while still copying documents and scheduling literature orders to be shipped.

We had a bad storm Tuesday night with LOTS of rain and heavy winds! Usually I enjoy a listening to a little rain on the roof but, with the outside of this house being MOSTLY roof, the auditory enjoyment was a little lost when it sounded like the wind was going to REMOVE the roof! We lost power at about 4:30 a.m. We got up as usual anyway (to Dan’s phone alarm) and showered and fixed breakfast, thankful that the hot water heater and the stove are NOT electric!! After morning staff devotions, the power came back on – AND the Internet, just in time for all of us to get on our computers and work!

It’s actually fun to go grocery shopping here, but it takes lots longer than at home. When we go to the Jumbo, for instance, after the guard opens the big security gate for us, we walk across the street from our compound to the bus stop. When we see a bus coming comes, it must be flagged down (arm outstretched) or the driver won’t stop. We get on, telling the driver how much we will spend according to where we plan to get off (uno cinquenta usually, which is 1 peso + 50 centavos) and each insert a prepaid bus pass into a machine that deducts that amount from the total left. Cash (coins) is OK too! We ride the bus to the stop at the large intersection where the Seminary is; we have to be paying attention, getting up and lurching (there are plenty of speed bumps and uneven pavement) to the back of the bus to press the buzzer that notifies the driver we want to get off at the next stop. Then we walk a block getting around the corner to a place where we can cross this very busy street, hike across the Easy (like Home Depot) parking lot, through the entire shopping center (it’s beautiful, all open-air with palms and planters and fountains) to the big grocery store on the opposite end! We’re acquainted with the store now, but still search for things we haven’t purchased before; they’re not always where we expect them to be! Fortunately, this store takes credit cards, so we don’t have to rely on having enough cash on hand.

But we do have to be careful how much we buy, because we’ve got to carry it all back on the bus! Reverse all the previous instructions and we’re finally back at the Alpina, our A-frame home, ready to put the groceries away and fix some dinner!

Saturday is getting to be our outing day – and it’s been so much fun to spend a day with Cindy Downey! She’s still working on getting gifts for folks at home and wanted to get some things from the zoo gift shop and, besides, it had been a while since she’d been at this zoo, so she invited us to go too! Bioparque Temaikèn is in Escobar, a short drive from Pilar. We drove past quite a few gated communities (locally they’re called “countries” since they might have their own country club inside the walls too).
Once there, we could see from the cars in the huge parking lot and the line at the ticket counter that there would be many families enjoying this wonderful zoo! It’s quite large and very well-manicured, hosting many different animals and birds. We took our time, all day, and tried to see everything from the farm to the zebras and all the birds in the aviaries. There are over a dozen places to get something to eat, so we had empanadas, chips, and Cokes at a picnic table at about 2:30 p.m. And Cindy insisted (I’ll blame her!) on following that with some Munchie’s ice cream before we went on to more exhibits. We took lots of photos as you can see in the sidebar slideshow. If you want to see more, look here online, clicking English at the top of the webpage… http://www.temaiken.com.ar/en/sec_bioparque.php

What a fun day! That evening, there was a school choir staying in the compound (they’d had an early evening performance). I’d been asked to take some photos, for the website, of the dining hall when they were there. Having had permission granted (from the parents and leaders) to take the photos, Dan and I went over at the appropriate time and did that, after greeting the kitchen workers and getting them to pose for us too!

Sunday morning, we took the bus to the Seminary intersection with Sarah and Thea to walk a half-block to Altos de Pilar for Sunday School. There’s worship time for the children and youth – almost an hour of singing along with a skit. Then a few more adults show up and the class time begins. We’re still understanding only a little of what’s spoken, but we can usually follow along with our Bibles and get a general idea of the topic. I’m not embarrassed at all to get out my Spanish-English dictionary and figure out what’s going on! People are very friendly (Argentine cheek-kissing, and all) and we’ve heard that they’re actually concerned about us and how we’re getting along. We’re hoping to gain more Spanish so we can have some personal conversations and better develop relationships with some of our new friends. The unfortunate thing is that, during January through March, there will be no Sunday School due their summer break from school and the heat of summer (no AC) – only the evening worship service.

Exploring with friends

2011-11-05T13:19:00.000-05:00

Saturday 5 November 2011

Thursday evening we had stayed up later than usual, Dan on his computer and me on mine, catching up on our journal for the blog. Friday morning I woke up crying! But quickly I figured out why – while I had spent the previous evening journaling our adventures, I really wanted to tell all this to my mother – and I can’t. She died in a car accident 12 years ago. She would have been fascinated to hear all about our travels – all the people and the customs and the fun little bits of information. She would have enjoyed the adjustments I’m making as I shop for food and cook, all the other details that she always delighted in.

The rest of Friday was certainly better, as we had Thea join us for some homemade soup for lunch. And Friday evening, we were invited by Sarah and Cindy to join them at Jorge & Irma Julca’s home on the campus of Semario Nazareno for a movie! We rode the bus with Sarah to the Seminary, walked to Cindy’s apartment, then across campus to the home of the Seminary President! We met his wife and daughters and several others who were getting together for snacks and conversation and watching the movie “Unknown” – what suspense! It’s an excellent movie and, fortunately for us, it was in English with Spanish sub-titles. Jorge even gave us a ride home well after midnight!

After sleeping in on Saturday and enjoying a leisurely breakfast (my first attempt at French toast here), Cindy called and asked if we’d like to go to Buenos Aires for the day! I guess that was a silly question! We changed clothes in about 5 minutes and met Cindy outside our front door, ready for a day of sightseeing! It’s probably a 45 minute drive and we came in through the port area of Buenos Aires. The mouth of this fresh watter port is actually 60 kilometers wide (40 miles!) and is a very busy center of commerce.

First stop was Teatro Colón, a very famous opera house with what is reported to be the most perfect acoustics in the world! No microphones are needed! We were allowed to take only a few photos – what an awesome place! We had an English-speaking guide, a personable young man who was very well-informed about this spectacular theater that’s over 100 years old and the product of 3 different architects! It reminded me somewhat of the Fabulous Fox Theatre in St Louis, with all its grand details. We got to sit in the VIP and President’s boxes, enjoy the stained glass windows and mirrors and chandeliers, and examine the beautiful imported marble staircases… As we left, I was wishing we had tickets for a performance there! (You can read more about it, if you like, at http://www.teatrocolon.org.ar/en/index.php?id=historia !)

From there, we got back in Cindy’s car for the short distance to the Recoleta neighborhood – SO much to see and do here and we’ve only got the afternoon. And we really needed some lunch! Sarah had a place in mind, so we walked a couple of blocks to Restaurante Puerto Montt (which turned out to be right next door to a tiny restaurant where Dan and I had shared a Argentine pizza 4 years ago when we were here with Extreme Nazarene Ministries!). Dan and I decided to share a pineapple and ham pizza and, when it came, we were surprised to see that the pineapple rings on top had cherries in the middle – just like pineapple upside-down cake! Eating out in Argentina is a process; it’s not fast! The waiters take time to let you read the menu and decide, everything is cooked to order, and it takes some time to get them to bring you a bill! Anyway, it’s very enjoyable!

Right across the street is the huge cemetery where Eva Peron is buried (and lots of other people too, of course). We’d been there before, and, since Sarah and Cindy had lists of expected purchases (they needed to shop for gifts to take to the States, for Christmas and for Cindy’s home assignment tour), we walked past the walls and barred gates to the Craftsmen’s Fair! It reminds me of a large art fair back home, with rows of tented stands selling jewelry, leather goods, pottery, carvings, hand-knitted items, clothing, toys – fascinating! It’s easy to want one of everything! I’ll have to get a leather purse before we go home. Dan bought a hand-painted mug from an artist who enjoyed practicing his English with us. The rest of the green space in this huge park was also very well used that day, with people just enjoying the warm weather of Spring! Here’s a website where you can see more of Recoleta! http://www.ohbuenosaires.com/english/buenosairesrecoleta.htm

As the afternoon dwindled, the air became cooler and a little windy. As we left that area, we drove past a large sculpture called Floris Generica – it’s an enormous flower made of stainless steel and aluminum, each petal weighing about 4 tons! Its petals actually move during the day, reacting to the daylight! Maybe another day we can get to the National Museum of Beaux Arts…

A day full of sights and fresh air wore us out – we slept well that night!

Settling in... our first 3 weeks

2011-11-04T20:10:00.000-05:00

SAM Region Logo

Our current tasks... here is a brief description of our assignments here followed by some of the details of our first 3 weeks as we are settling in.

Dan: I am being kept busy with a variety of projects that are using my IT background and related skills. The details aren't important but I am enjoying the diversity of work from sorting through equipment to detailing out of some hand drawn building plans in preparation for some office moves next year, to cleaning up and revising a web site. Of course this all has to begin with learning about whats here, who to work with and how things are done as well as finding and learning or relearning hardware and software tools to make the job easier. Call me crazy but God knows this is the sort of stuff I enjoy and He does promise to give us the desires of our heart...

Gate House sign

Janet: I have 2 job locations and numerous assignments! In the mornings, I work under the head of Finances for the South America Regional Office. There have been staff reductions, due to economic situations in the church here as well as all over the world, so the people here are really stretched and overloaded. So far, I’m helping with balancing accounts and reviewing regional income and expense records for accountability and accuracy. I’ve also seen the reports of the offerings of the people of the Nazarene Districts of South America. We don’t stop to think about it, but – just like us in the States – they give to special offerings like Alabaster and World Evangelism Fund and they support their seminary in Quito, Ecuador, as well as their LINKS missionaries!

Luana - 10 Months old

The head of Finance is a beautiful and bright woman named Liliana. She’s completely dedicated to her job, her church and her family. She leads devotions for the staff each morning. Upstairs from Liliana’s office, I share an office with Mirna, who lives in this compound too with her husband and their 10-month-old baby girl, Luana. Luana comes to work often and has her own little corner with playpen and toys. It’s not uncommon for the youngest missionary children to spend time in the offices of their parents!


ICL offices

In the afternoons, I work with Carlos and Noemi, a couple who have spent their lives in pastoral service! They are currently heading the International Center for Leadership, one of the larger buildings here, and have an incredible list of responsibilities! They handle all the South America publications (from printing to shipping all over the continent). They lead the staffing for all the building and property maintenance for the compound. And they direct all aspects of holding conferences, receptions, and other events here (almost every weekend!) – planning, housing, food, clean-up. Those are just the big categories! They’ve asked me to help with record-keeping for all the buildings and vehicles and document income and expenses for the lodge and other buildings that are maintained and rented out. I’ll be arranging the shipping of Nazarene publications to other countries. I’ll handle timecards and payroll for the gatehouse guards, and create calendars for organizing the schedules of the drivers – all in a combination of Spanish and English! Noemi has asked Dan and me to update their website (www.LaPosadaDePilar.com.ar) so that it will be more appealing to church groups looking for a retreat location. I’m even going to take some new photos to add to it.
Saturday 22 October 2011

Thea, Sarah, Cindy & Janet

We sure had funtoday! Cindy Downey, missionary and Dean of Students at the SemarioNazareno, took us (and Sarah and Thea) to Tigre today – fieldtrip!! Tigre (say TEE-gray, with a rolled r, of course) is a townabout 45 minutes from Pilar, on a river off the bay that is inlandfrom Buenos Aires. It’s a hub of commerce and shopping and dining,quite a destination for some fun! We got there a little early forthe usual Argentine lunch time but, since we were hungry, we weresome of the first guests in an open-air restaurant. Cindy and Sarahhave been here before; we ordered our Cokes and steak sandwiches(beef is a staple here; I read that Argentines eat an average of 139pound of beef each year – wow!). We shared the large portion ofFrench fries too; it’s a good thing we were going to spend theafternoon walking and shopping!

Tigre market street (one of many)

It would have been hard to imagine thediversity of shops, even if someone had told us before we got there! An incredible variety of goods is offered, from lamps and furniture,children’s toys and home goods (one place reminded me of Crate andBarrel), to clothing and wooden objects, mugs and mate(MAH-tay, their national herb tea), fruit and garden plants.Mid-afternoon, we just had to try a treat – a pastry with dulcede leche (“DOOL-say day LAY-chay” = caramelized milk)filling, dipped in chocolate… oh, my goodness!

And, late afternoon, we really neededto sit a while and drink a café con leche (with milk)… What a fun day! It wasa real treat to have an indulgent day, just enjoying this uniqueplace!

Monday 24 October 2011
This evening, after we arrived home from work, we walked the ¼-mile down the road to the closest tiendas, the small local stores. La Esperanza has a produce section and a meat department. And there’s no self-service here; you ask for exactly how many apples or carrots or ears of corn that you want. You just don’t walk into the small produce department – the produce guy gets them for you. (This is great practice, as we have to use Spanish food words and Spanish numbers!) These items are bagged up and weighed and you are handed a small slip of paper with the total bill written on it. You take your produce to the meat department and ask there for pork chops or chicken breasts or steak or ground beef (a kilo, or half kilo) and they weigh and bag those too! The lady at the register has been smiling as she listened to me struggle with the Spanish. She added the numbers together, on paper – then puts in the total. We pay in cash, say Gracias(thanks) and Ciao(good-by), and walk back home!

Tuesday 25 October 2011
Carlos has graciously offered to take us to a different grocery story this evening. He says that this place has better prices than Jumbo and, on Tuesdays, there is an additional 15% discount. Did I say that the Jumbo grocery store was like a Super Wal-Mart? It‘s not quite as big as this Carrefour store! This store even sells appliances, clothing, home goods… that’s before you ever get to the cleaning supplies, personal sundries, and a huge variety of groceries! Feels a lot more like shopping at home, even though we’re reading Spanish names of things! The spices were a challenge, not something I had even tried to look up. I’ll go next time with a translated list!

Friday 28 October 2011
Weekdays have settled into somewhat of a routine and there is certainly some comfort in that, given that we’re away from home, in a different culture, with different work, different language, different shopping and cooking, different church services… Routine gives some, well, routine to the vast array of different things in our lives these days.
We get up and shower, fix breakfast and clean up the little kitchen. We walk to work and begin the day in the lobby of our office building with staff devotions. Liliana’s compassionate voice reads from scripture, then from the book of petitions – prayers that have been asked from the staff for their friends and family. As she reads each one, people respond as to the status of each need; as prayers are answered, she crosses them off and says, “Gracias a Dios” (Thanks to God). It’s a great way to start the morning, although we don’t have the language skills to understand all the requests. After someone closes that time in prayer, we greet one another with Argentine cheek-kisses and go to our offices to begin our work. We work with some pretty special people, all dedicated to their work and their families and friends, and to God.
At 12:30 or so, we walk home for an hour of lunch preparation, eating, and cleaning up. Then it’s back to work until 5:00.
As our confidence grows and our business skills are used, we are depended upon for a little more. It’s gratifying to be accepted and counted on. And it’s very special to be able to have these experiences with my best friend!

Saturday 29 October 2011
Parts of this past weekend were so fun! And parts were just kinda hard!
Friday evening, we decided to invite our 3 lady missionary friends over, make popcorn, and listen to the World Series game on ESPN Radio online. The invitation got reversed, however, and we took our popcorn over to the seminary, to Cindy Downey’s apartment and got to actually see the Cardinals win on Direct TV! That was the terrific, fun part!
Saturday, Dan spent the morning re-learning some video editing software to polish up the recording we made Friday morning to send to our church for our first Sunday morning update! I had made pancakes for breakfast and caught up with emails and current Facebook news, but needed to get up and move around after a while! So we decided to walk around the compound; it probably takes 4 or 5 times around to make a mile! But, on the first round, we noticed that our friends German and Patricia were moving from house #5 to house #1, so we offered to help for a while. They speak some English, so we tried to practice Spanish too. We learned some new words (piso is floor and techo is ceiling) and enjoyed their company until they needed to take a break for lunch! We also needed to have lunch and finish that video, so we excused ourselves and did just that. Later, we walked some more laps around the compound!

Sunday 30 October 2011

Bus stop just outside the gate.

Sunday church services were hard to handle this week. After catching the public bus to attend the church that is near the Seminary compound, we spent 2 hours in the morning, listening to things we couldn’t understand because they were explaining a community event that was planned in a couple of weeks. Intellectually, we totally understand that we can’t pick up a new language in just 2 weeks. But, emotionally, it’s difficult to be so limited in our understanding. These are such nice people that we want to get to know! And Sunday evening was two more hours of the same as they were promoting the community project and asking for volunteers to help.
After we got home, the thing that saved Sunday night was an email from our friend Edna – a note full of news and love and missing us. It was just what I needed! It sure is great to have friends!

What's our home like here?

Another friend from South County church wrote me an email this week and asked if our house is modern. Well, I guess, not really, not compared to what we’re used to! We're really enjoying this house but I guess most would feel like it's more like a cabin in the States. The floors are all tile (as are most floors we've encountered outside the US) except there's an unexpected, low-pile, green carpet upstairs in the bedrooms. The walls, since it's an A-frame, are slanted (except for the first 4 feet) and covered in pine planks. And, since the outer walls are slanted, there are lots of odd storage shelves all over the place. That in itself is great, though, as there’s a place to put everything. There's a whole wall of shelf storage in the living room! In the front bedroom, we have a built-in wardrobe for our hanging clothes and a dresser and a double bed. In the back bedroom, there's a closet with shelves, then more shelves other places, and plenty of room for 2 single beds! So we can have visitors!  In the living/dining room/office, there’s a loveseat, 2 comfy chairs, a desk with chair, and a table with 4 chairs. This gives us plenty of room to read, work on computers, eat, and knit. We have our Wii connected to a borrowed TV but really haven't had any time to use it yet. We aren't willing to pay for DirecTV here, so it's pretty quiet! We sometimes listen to JoyFM online in the mornings and at supper have started listening to MSNBC online to keep up with the new in the states and world
Our little bathroom is all tiled, includes a shower (in the slanty part), toilet, sink, mirror and a couple of shelves - totally adequate! Dan did install a small mirror in the laundry room for me for make-up. The laundry room includes a window and the back door with a big window, so there's lots of morning sunlight for that job!  The kitchen is definitely interesting! There’s a small double-sink in the a gorgeous black-and-white granite counter top, but it's quite small. We borrowed a microwave from another house (no one's living there now) and a computer desk (from the same house) to put it on and for more kitchen work space. The bottled-water-guy comes around every Thursday afternoon so we can buy water for the dispenser on our counter. [Don't drink the water!] :)
We were provided with towels, blankets, pillows, sheets, plates, cups, glasses, basic cutlery, 3 pans, and a few cooking utensils.

The stove is gas and we have to turn a handle on the wall, then push in the correct burner knob, then light that burner with a match. That probably wasn't unusual a few years (decades?) ago in the U.S., but I've never needed to operate a stove that way! I'm a pro now, though, but I'll leave the oven-lighting to Dan. He lit it for me last night so I could make banana bread - my favorite version, to use up a couple of softer bananas. (I had Erica scan that cookbook page and email it to me!!) Without my Kitchen-Aid mixer, I had to stir it all by hand! And, I only have one baking dish that we bought the first weekend we were here, so the banana bread turned out to be an 8x8 cake instead! Since the oven doesn't have any measurable controls, there's no way to tell what the temperature is! But I kept checking on it and it turned out fine - yummy! We took some to Thea (the young missionary who got here 2 weeks before us) at lunch time today, and then shared some with my smaller bunch of work-mates this afternoon. They all enjoyed it and a co-worker named Graciela asked for the recipe - en español, por favor! Thankfully, it's easy to find a translator tool on the Internet, so I was able to find Spanish words for all the terms I didn't know!  

This toaster is much cheaper than electric.

Oh, and rather than describe our toaster, I'll take a photo tomorrow and have Dan post it here! Maybe you've seen one like it, but I never had!  
I'm REALLY grateful that I brought my favorite wooden spoon, a whisk, 3 hotpads, 2 dishtowels, silicone spatula, peanut butter, steak seasoning, some Tupperware containers, and a few Ziplocs. Zipper bags are few-and-far-between and expensive. I think that people here, like in many other countries, simply cook what they need when they need it and don't have so many leftovers. (Now, as for me, I love to have leftovers to create something new out of again!) We brought a French-press for morning coffee, so we didn’t have to buy a coffee-maker. It works great!   We walked to the little tiendas (markets) after work tonight and bought some more produce and juice and homemade bread. Even if things aren't terribly modern here, it's really fun to enjoy the differences in the culture!

Arriving in Argentina

2011-10-23T19:22:00.000-05:00

Friday 14 Oct 2011

Our Flight

We made it! A very nice, bilingual lady was willing to swap seats on the plane so we could sit together on the 10-hour flight. We were served a nice dinner (chicken, veggies, pasta) and a breakfast of egg-biscuit, yogurt, juice and coffee. We landed in Buenos Aires just a little later than scheduled; a tailwind helped make up for a late start from Atlanta. Having sat in the back of the plane (last ones off!), it took some time to get through Customs and retrieve our luggage, but Thea Hansen was there to meet us – how good it was to see a smiling and familiar (from Skyping) face! She had arrived 2 hours earlier with driver Ricardo (who we remembered from our participation with Extreme Nazarene Ministries here almost 4 years ago). Our ride to Pilar took over an hour but some of the highway ride looked familiar. Ricardo happened to mention coffee and, finding out that there was a new Starbucks at Las Palmas (the shopping center closest to where we’re staying), we decided to get revived before we actually got to our new home.

Regional Campound (Campo)

Ricardo pulled up to our house in the Officina Nazareno (the compound where we’ll live and work) – it’s very cute, two-bedroom, A-frame house called the “Alpina” – and we brought all our bags in, leaving Thea to go back to work. Quite a few people had gotten together to clean the house and stock our refrigerator with breakfast and lunch groceries for the next couple of days, so I made lunch in the middle of our settling in (ham and cheese sandwiches, banana, apple juice). Amazingly, it really didn’t take long for our things to find a logical place to be! And, of course, I started making a list of the groceries and other things I’d like to acquire… We’d had thoughts about taking showers, but the gas for the hot water heater hadn’t been started yet so that could wait!
This gated compound is full of a wonderful assortment of houses, 2 office buildings, and a hotel. We walked over to the Regional Office building to find Thea and be introduced to others we’ll be working with. First, we ran into Sarah Leiendecker, an American missionary who we’d met before. We met a few others and asked about getting some help with hot water. It wasn’t long before Pedro showed up to get the hot water heater started up! So I worked on my lists and Dan worked on computer set-up in the house.

Home Sweet Home

We made plans to go to Jumbo (say “ZHOOM-bo”), the large grocery store at Las Palmas, with Thea and Sarah (they each have an apartment in the 4-plex next door to us) – as soon as we could get a couple of quick showers! Thea had purchased bus passes for us, so we were ready for public transportation! After meeting the guard at the gate of our compound, Sarah and Thea schooled us on what we should know, as we crossed the road to the bus stop to head east. The ride wasn’t long; soon we were at the large intersection at the Semario Nazareno. Our first stop was inside the seminary, walking around the campus where we’d most recently worked on the Bruno Radi Convention Center! There’d been more changes in the last 4 years and it looked great! We met Cindy Downey, an American missionary who teaches there and is dean of students, then crossed the road to Las Palmas.

The Jumbo store is great, with almost as much variety as a Super Wal-Mart! We walked through, getting lots of tips from Sarah on the contents of each aisle, whether the prices were best here or at a local market. Checking out was easy, as they take credit cards! Since we each had several bags to carry, we opted to use a taxi (instead of the bus) back to the compound – only 20 pesos (about $5) for any number of people! After sorting out the bags from the trunk, we paid and went home to put away our groceries, agreeing to meet again in a few minutes to ride the bus east to a parrillo (say “pa-REE-sho”, but roll that R!) – it means “grill”, for dinner. It was before 9:00PM on a Friday, after all, so we had the little restaurant all to ourselves, since Argentines eat dinner quite late! The girls ordered a grilled meat dinner to share, so Dan & I decided on the plato de dia (that night’s “special”) – filet y mixto which turned out to be 2 huge-but-thin, breaded and seasoned fish filets and a side of mashed potato/squash. We each ate about half of the huge meal and will finish off the rest another day!

Back home, we checked our email and went to bed about midnight, sleeping VERY soundly!! God is SO good; He got us through our first very long and satisfying day!

Saturday 15 October 2012
Our first night was great, we slept like rocks… until there was a knock on the door at 9 a.m.! We had discovered, before we went to bed, that we couldn’t get the pilot lights lit on either our stove or our wall heater, so I’d left messages on the Internet and Post-Its on their doors for Sarah and Thea about that problem. This morning then, Carlos arrived to save the day, as we really wanted to heat water for coffee! Carlos is so helpful (we laughed when he said the switch on the heater is “kaput” but he could get it started anyway). Breakfast was coffee, juice, and yogurt with cereal – just enough! As soon as Sarah and Thea were available, we were ready to go shopping again, this time in downtown Pilar. We took the bus farther than before, left past the big intersection at the seminary. We followed Sarah past a wide variety of stores, bought more bus passes, and found a kitchen store where we bought placemats, knives, baking pans, a whisk… then headed off to find wonderful “health food store” where we bought oatmeal in bulk and corn meal and popcorn! Next was the plastic store – it has everything you could possibly need for your home! We bought a dish drainer, waste basket, hangers, storage containers, pitcher… we are SO set now!

In the center of town is a plaza, a pretty green and shady park, with the main bus stop at one end. With instructions from the girls as to the proper fare for this length of trip (dos pesos), we were ready to ride back to the compound.

Back at our A-frame, Alpina, it was great fun to find places for all our new plastic and kitchen things! Now we can hang up our clothes! (It’s the little things in life…) And we have plans to go out for dinner with our new boss, Dr Christian Sarmiento, and Thea.

We met Thea outside her apartment and we walked to Dr Sarmiento’s house. He was ready, so we got in his car and we rode to a very popular restaurant, Siga la Vaca (Follow the Cow!). I’ll bet you can guess that it’s a beef buffet! The grill room, with 3 asadors (barbecue cooks), is full of meat and smoke and steam and, after choosing your table, you can go the counter of the grill and ask for anything they’re cooking! We chose some meat and ate it, then went back for more – their chicken is great too! We were brought some French fries, then checked out the salad bar! And, after all that, we found out that dessert is included too (*groan*)! I tried the flan and Dan had some almond cake… mmmm! We had talked constantly, getting to know one another, which just confirmed our idea that Christian is a wonderful leader! We’ll see more of him on Monday!

Sunday, 16 October 2011
It’s Mother’s Day in Argentina! We’re attending Iglesia Altos del Pilar today ; Sunday School is at 10:30 and is the only morning service. The Worship service is later in the evening. Meeting Sarah and Thea, we walk outside the compound, cross the road carefully (pedestrians aren’t highly regarded here, even though most people do not have cars) to the bus stop. Two other ladies who are going to the same place join us (they know Sarah, so there’s cheek-kissing all around) and we take the route toward the Seminario. The church is just a half-block off this main road and we’ve arrived 5 minutes early ( very few people are here yet!). Children and teens begin arriving, though, so we entered the large sanctuary for a time of energetic singing led by an enthusiastic woman and a worship team of young girls! We’ll learn the songs soon, as they’re repeated, but for now it’s just fun to watch all the people!

After a while, the teens were encouraged to sit with the younger ones nearer the front of the sanctuary; there’s a time of prayer before everyone is dismissed to their classes.

We were pleasantly surprised to see someone we know!! Christian Ventura is a good friend from international NYI events and he’s here! He works in a local company and it was his wife, Flavia, who was leading worship. She’s a kindergarten teacher and they have a new baby, child #3! It’s so good to know we have more friends here!

More adults also arrived for the adult class led by Pastor Herna'n Massacesi. Visitors are always recognized, so we were introduced and Christian was so helpful in translating the main ideas of the lesson. We’ve noticed that we recognize only a word or two at a time, of course, but (we’re told) we should notice more understanding in a few weeks. Some folks brought their own thermos of hot water, cup, and mate (say “MAH-tay”; we’ll tell you more about that later). Tea was passed out and there was a time of personal sharing. It was neat to see that men and women were comfortable to share their concerns and ask for prayer. We were all asked to pray for the upcoming national elections, to be held next Sunday (so there would be no Sunday School next week), that God’s will would be accomplished.

We also know another couple who live in the compound and also go to church at Altos. German and Patricia work in communications (we met them when they did the same in Costa Rica) and, besides offering us a ride in their car, invited us to have lunch with them! After helping Patricia with the salad while the guys went to pick up some fried chicken, we enjoyed our meal in their home right across the compound from our house. What fun it was to share a meal and conversation with them!

Upon returning home, we caught up with email, and got ready for church service at 6:30! Anticipating a long service, we made sure to have a snack before leaving. The girls have dressed up for church (as did we), so we caught the bus for the evening service. The band was ready, the people began to arrive, and the songs began! It was great to have the words projected on the front wall (just like in the States, except in Espanol), so we recognized some of the words. We did know one of the songs and will certainly learn the rest soon!

Pastor is a very good speaker, personable and enthusiastic. We’d been warned that he would introduce us to everyone at the beginning of the service! Sarah was helpful in writing down for us the main points of his message. At the end of the service and praying, all the mothers were asked to stand, and come forward, lining up in front of the platform. We were each given a long-stemmed rose and, at the end, the entire congregation filed past all of us, kissing right cheeks, and speaking blessings. Naturally, the church was slow to empty but, as most had left and some young men obviously wanted to spend some time with Sarah and Thea, we told them we could navigate the bus ride back home by ourselves.

Arriving home, it was 9:00pm and time for dinner! Even though it was late, I decided to (actually!) cook some rice and fry one of the thin steaks we had purchased at Jumbo. So far, I have 2 borrowed saucepans and 1 small aluminum frying pan but, so far, it’s enough. We ate, caught up with a little more email, and then went to bed, anticipating a full day tomorrow – our first day at work!

Monday Morning Sunrise...

God's Plan - 2011

2011-10-02T22:43:00.003-05:00

While it's just been a short time since Janet resigned from working at Joy FM, our local Christian radio station, God's certainly been working "behind" the scenes! We communicated to the Mission Mobilization office that we were more available, and soon we were told of an opportunity that could use both our sets of business skills!

After a few electronic communications to clarify the assignment and schedules, we've finalized the details for travel. In only 2 weeks we'll be on the ground in Pilar, Argentina (just outside Buenos Aires), for an-almost-6-month stay!
These kind of assignments are subject to change but the going-in expectations are for us to be helping with Bookkeeping, Office Admin and IT assistance. We will essentially become part of the South America (SAM) Regional Office staff while there and may continue some of that relationship remotely when we return home next spring. The region's leadership is also very interested in our helping to re-introduce the Bible Quiz Ministry here. It has a rich past but has not been active for several years as a regional ministry.

We are again depending on God's direction through this whole process and will look forward to the prayer support of our friends! We will also appreciate any monetary support from individuals or churches desiring to help with our insurance, living, and transportation costs. Anyone wishing to assist us financially should write the checks to 'General Treasury Services' with Reinhart, Argentina, and Mission Corps in the memo line.

Those checks can be sent to:

Global Treasury Services
Church of the Nazarene
PO Box 843116
Kansas City MO 64184-3116

Web (electronic) Donations can be done at: http://web.nazarene.org/goto/djreinhart

It's not difficult to imagine all the lists and emails and phone calls that we're making to pull together what we need to know and pack and do in this time! Nerves and excitement are certainly intermingled with the gratitude that God can use us at this time in our lives! Knowing that a house is ready for our arrival (and since we've been to Pilar on 2 previous trips with Extreme Nazarene Missions in June 2007 and January 2008), there is a level of comfort.

We'll keep you informed of our experiences in several ways - by email, on our Facebook pages, on the Missouri District Missions page, and this blog. We covet your prayers and we look forward to hearing from all our friends and family! Please keep us up-to-date by email, as we should have good Internet access!

Christmas Letter 2010

2010-12-24T19:17:00.001-06:00

December 2010

Dear Friends and Family,

Merry Christmas!!

We’re so grateful for another full and rich year! We love living in the metro St. Louis area!

Dan continues to represent the Nazarene Youth International (NYI) as Global Bible Quiz Trainer and is leading a small group from our church in a interesting book study. Janet still enjoys working at JoyFM (go to www.joyfmonline.org to listen) and we both enjoy the “percs” of Christian music radio – Christian concerts and terrific co-workers. Dan spends a fair amount of time volunteering his computer skills there as well!

As participants in Mission Corps (Nazarene volunteer missions), we were privileged to serve in Manila, Philippines for 3 months (mid-January – mid-April). We worked on the campus of Asia Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary – Dan in the computer center and Janet with the regional accounting staff. We lived in a house in a nearby community and made some life-long Filipino and missionary friends. We got to eat fresh mangos every day and lots of other wonderful foods! What an awesome experience! If you care to read more details, please see our blog – http://reinhartsroad.blogspot.com/.

Back in the States, we helped staff numerous Bible quizzes, including the national tournament in July at Mt. Vernon Nazarene University. In June, Dan did Bible Quiz training in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras! Also in July, Janet was chosen as Juror #13 (didn’t get to participate in the verdict) in a Federal Court trial – SO interesting! Later that month, it was fun to give Monica a break as Caitlyn (10) and Dylan (8) visited us for a week. Dan took them to the St. Louis Zoo and we toured the Fitz’s root beer plant. Erica joined us for a day at historic Fort Chartres, along the Mississippi River, a little south of where we live. We caught 1 show (Titanic) at The Muny this summer, and saw Wicked at the Fox Theatre (we love to go to musical theatre, since that’s where we met!)!

In August, we participated in a Caribbean youth convention in Jamaica, and stayed a few days extra to enjoy Montego Bay beaches after the event – SO fun!

In November, Janet’s doctor surgically removed a cyst found during a routine exam. It was benign and she’s healed quite nicely! We spent Thanksgiving at Monica’s and even participated in a 1-mile Turkey Trot. We see Erica often, as she’s the one who lives closest – she keeps busy with her cooking job at a senior living facility and with her cat Phantom. We have fun together, especially when we cook!

Over all, again this year, we have found that Dan’s “retirement” and Janet’s part-time work are not any sort of “kicking back and taking it easy.” But we would not want it any other way. We are blessed!

Please let us hear from you! We thank God for our friends and enjoy hearing about what you’re up to! We’re having lots of fun connecting with friends on Facebook and love to get e-mail as well as “snail mail.”

We pray for God’s blessings and direction in our lives and yours for the year ahead!

Love,
Dan & Janet

It's been awhile...

2010-07-01T18:00:00.002-05:00

Yes, we have not done a very good job of keeping these posts updated.

In June, as we were getting adjusted to being back home, Janet had to spend a lot of time back in the office at JOYFM. I (Dan) had a training tour to do in Central America without my special assistant (Janet). In 10 days I did Bible quiz training in 7 locations in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. If you would like to see a video report of the trip use this link - Central MAC Training

Shopping, APRC Fun Day, & Palm Sunday

2010-03-30T18:16:00.061-05:00

22 – 28 March, 2010

At lunch on Monday, Greg was telling us about the small Cokes that seem to be a Filipino favorite – they're called sakto, because it's “exact-o” the right size! It's less than 7 ounces and a cute little bottle but, often, Americans like to have 2, not just one...

We'd made plans to attend this month's American Women's Club of the Philippines Bazaar and asked Keith to come with us. It's held at the World Trade Center, a large convention center, and the hall is packed with vendors of all sorts – food, clothing, furniture, paintings, jewelry, baskets, quilts, shoes, woven goods, carved wood, coconut shell items. Starting a little later to avoid the early morning traffic, we arrived before 11 and started the hunt for gifts to take home. Food vendors feed the hungry shoppers (we had fried rice and pork skewers) and, by 1:30, we were pleased with our purchases, which included a string of lights for our screened porch made out of coconut shells! With much of the afternoon left, we decided to continue shopping at Greenhills Mall and shopped for and purchased pearls! After mango shakes and California rolls at Teriyaki Boy, we were ready to head for home... a successful shopping outing!

I fixed a light supper of tuna salad on crackers with fruit before heading back out to Faith Academy for Ballroom Dance class! We watched some dance competition video (beautiful!), then tried to learn Viennese Waltz and Mambo Line Dance. But, after a day of shopping, it was a little tough on the feet!

What a rewarding time we had at the Taylors' home Wednesday evening for missionary prayer night. Daniel led the group in praying for each family individually, after talking about praises and concerns. Our missionary friends are serious prayer warriors! All of us are facing transitions in our lives (all going back to the States during 2010 for some length of time) and it's a blessing to have prayer covering the changes and blessings we anticipate!

Thursday, we were all excited about Friday, the day of the APRC Outing! The rest of the staff had a morning meeting to discuss some new personnel matters; after a while, they asked Dan and me to join them to clarify the details for Friday!

Thursday night was a short one, as Dan and I got up at 3:15 AM Friday morning to get our gear in the car that we'd gathered the night before. We picked up Olive along the way and got to campus at 4:20... the others arrived soon after, along with the food that Grace Tia had prepared... Nanding, our driver, finally got the bus moving before 5 AM – we were on our way!

Part way, we stopped at one of the nice Filipino rest stops, complete with gas station and quite a few restaurants. Someone broke out the breakfasts – Grace had fixed each of us a styrofoam container with 2 large pancakes, 2 hotdogs, and a 2-egg omelet! By then, Dan and I just had to have some coffee too, so we walked over to the Starbucks and got a couple of “Americanos” to go.

Back on the road, the scenery was great! We saw lots of rugged hills with rice crops and cows and goats in valleys between, people walking in the fields; everything was green.

Clark Air Force base was here; it's still a shipping port and trucking point, with a small airport. Up the hill we traveled to TreeTop Adventures for our morning activities! Gathering in their covered deck in the forest, we received our “training” from “Dudez” who explained what we could expect. After that, we were outfitted with harnesses and helmets and got Dudez to use our cameras for group photos.

Going 3 at a time (Joey joined us; he's a fun guy who's on the night shift in the Call Center), we went up the stairs to the first metal deck in a tree. There were expert guides in each tree stand who hooked us onto the railing before hooking our harnesses into the seats that ride together from tree to tree. It was quite tame (I think we'd been expecting zipline speeds) and peaceful riding in the seats and enjoying the forest.

We took turns being in the front seat and read the signs on the trees, learning the names and uses of each. The Lupang trees were the most interesting, as their seeds - from pods – could be ground and made into a caffeine-free coffee, and their root structure was really awesome (as we saw later and took lots of photos beside them).

When our ride was over, but our coworkers were still finishing, Dan and I decided to try the “Silver Surfer”, another ride for just 2 at a time. (It was fun, but definitely not speedy or scary.) When all of us had turned in our harnesses and helmets, we assembled in a gathering area on the floor of the forest (where we'd have lunch later) for their “10% Survival Training” where we learned about a bamboo vine that holds water for drinking, how to make things out of bamboo to eat with and cook with (and making fire with it too, after quite a few tries). Another guide was brought in to take us “trekking” on a walk in the forest/jungle; this was really interesting and fun, as we were told about the trees and bugs and took photos...

When we returned to our gathering area, out came all the containers of lunch that had been prepared for us by Grace and her helpers! We had rice, pork adobo, eggplant parmesan, banana bread – and there was lots left over! When we'd eaten and cleaned up, Dan led us in a time of devotions until it started to sprinkle! So we prayed together, then grabbed all the coolers and containers to return to the Coaster bus!

It was a short ride to All Hands Beach Resort where it continued to sprinkle on us for a while longer before giving way to just clouds and gray water. All Hands has very cute cottages for rent and nipa huts for eating together. We brought the coolers to 2 huts and went into the shower rooms to change clothes. Some changed into shorts and t-shirts for swimming; others wore swimsuits, and we tested the water – cold! But after plunging in, it was easy to adjust to.

The beach was black sand with a layer of light sand on top, with lots of rocks and only a few pieces of shells. But the sun came out and Dan and I got out the sun screen and snorkel gear to paddle around with. We shared it too, as others wanted to give it a try. It was fun to stop for a snack after a while – green mango slices with shrimp paste is a great combination that you must try! A couple of watermelons were cut up and distributed too; feels like summer! Dan rented a 2-person kayak too, since that was something we'd been wanting to try! By 4:30, we were being urged to shower and change so we could go to Puregold Duty-Free store, a warehouse food store that had just opened that day! Much like Sam's Club, there was a great variety of food, housewares, school supplies, and clothing. We all enjoyed the time there, but needed to get some dinner and get back on the road to Manila! So we went across the street and, finding that there was enough left in the outing budget to cover dinner, we all ordered a meal from either ChowKing or Reyes BBQ (we got the barbecue) and enjoyed it outside!

Nanding is a very good driver and, after a stop similar to our morning break, we finally arrived back on campus a little after 11:30. The trip back had us all talking, snacking, and there was even some singing. What a great day with our coworkers! We were back home and in bed as soon as we could be – a little after midnight!

Saturday morning, we were committed to attend an NYI event, a District Literary Festival at Metro Manila First Church, so there was no chance to sleep in this day! We arrived around 9 AM and were treated like visiting royalty!
Dan was called up the platform to tell a little about us, then the schedule was given for the day – and we attended a round of Bible Quizzing with five 2-person teams, 1 from each zone. They wrote their answers on small blackboards and showed their knowledge of scripture within some of Paul's letters. Going back upstairs (sanctuary on second floor, school on ground floor), we watched 3 zones perform in their “speech choir” - an interpretive reading of Genesis 1. One was definitely outstanding, having memorized the chapter and acted it out with great props!

We were asked to judge 5 drawings, artwork that would be used for this year's Metro Manila NYI theme. Some of the groups had brought their own lunches; we were treated with lunch from McDonald's after some great conversation time in the pastor's office, talking with Pastor Sid and Pastora Carol (who we'd met last fall in BQM training). At 1 PM, the awards ceremony started and, to our surprise, we were asked to be the ones to hand out the medals, in all categories! What fun, as we posed for photos with each group as well! True to their promise, the day's activities were over at 2 PM, and we were asked if we could take 7 girls back to our subdivision so they'd be closer to home – no problem!!

We had thought maybe we'd do some shopping that afternoon, but both of us were still tired from 2 short nights of sleep, so we took a nap. That really helped! Then, we drove to SM Taytay where (we'd forgotten) there was a huge sale going on, so it was really crowded and loud music was playing in each store and in the halls! We did wander around for a while, purchased a couple of shirts for Dan, then went to the Hypermarket for a few groceries. Running into our Indian friend Girish (adult pastor, student at APNTS with his wife and 2 children) at the store, we offered him a ride back to campus so he didn't need to pay for a jeepney.

After heating up some leftover fried rice around 8:30, we went to bed early!

Sunday morning, after having tried last night to get good directions to (Pastora Carol's) 'Glorious Church', we picked up Bev (APNTS Dean of Students) and Elis (a female pastor from Papua New Guinea currently a student at APNTS) to go too. It was Glorious's youth group that won first place in the speech choir competition yesterday and it was great to see them repeat the performance for their congregation as part of the worship service! We sang several worship songs that we knew and it was especially fun to sing “How Great Thou Art” in Tagalog (words provided)! Carol's sermon about Palm Sunday was mostly in Tagalog too, but with enough English for us to understand the different spin she used - about being used by God, as even an ordinary colt/donkey was used for God's purposes. Everyone wanted to greet us afterward (even after the great greeting time during the service), even the children! They're a very friendly congregation! After taking Elis back to campus, we took Bev with us to French Bakery at SM Taytay (still very crowded with that sale!) and we all enjoyed a delicious Quiche Lorraine with corn soup and a salad.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty quiet. Pastor Orlan arrived for the Sunday afternoon youth group time, but no one came this week (probably too many family things going on with the Palm Sunday services), so he left as well.

We have only 2 weeks left here...

Evenings of fellowship and a Sunday Wedding

2010-03-22T03:35:00.001-05:00

March 15 – 21, 2010

Not that I've been feeling anxious, but Judy's turn at staff devotions on Monday morning were calming, as we pored over 4 scriptures telling us not to be anxious or worried. “Cast all your cares...” It's a blessing to be part of this group of Christians who work hard, accept us as we are, and are willing to share their concerns with us and with each other.

We were excited that “the girls” would be coming to our house for dinner tonight! Dan took me home from work a little early so I could finish preparing our meal, then he went back to give them a ride so they didn't have to take public transportation to get there – Judy, Olive, Faith, Marnie and her husband Mitch. Some had been to this house before (when other missionaries lived here), but all were glad to see how nice it looks after having 5 feet of mud in it less than 6 months ago after Typhoon Ondoy!

I had prepared a shepherd's pie, this time with ground beef, and served it along with cheese grits (and, of course, rice). I think they all enjoyed both, seeing as they all went back for seconds and asked lots of questions about how to prepare the cornmeal grits! We cleaned off the table after a while and went into the sunroom for some Wii games! What a riot! Everyone participated and we all laughed and shouted encouragement to the one playing! Back at the table later, we all enjoyed chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream before they decided it was time to start for home (being a week night!)... We all piled into the car and took them back, close to the campus.

I left Celia a note on Tuesday morning before we left for work, thanking her for the hard work she put in during last Thursday's cleaning. I wanted to make sure she knew that we noticed her extra effort to make things nice! We got to see her when we got home; she was finishing putting away our laundry upstairs. After hugs, we talked a little and sent her on her way home (no, you don't have to stay and put away my breakfast dishes!) to her family.

Dan spent Wednesday and Thursday evenings on our tax return, grateful that most of our records are in the computer and we don't have to rely on paper. My chore was filling out the medical insurance forms from Dan's 2 visits to doctors here.

Also this week, we're sitting in (with Danny, Olive, and Faith) on the interview process for a new payroll software that will integrate with the accounting program. Thursday morning, one fellow demonstrated his company's product and, Friday morning, another company rep demonstrated her company's product. There may be a third product to look at before a decision is made.

Thursday evening, on our way into the subdivision, we were stopped at the security gate and told we needed to get a 2010 sticker. We agreed and asked in the Field Office Friday morning about the details. All we had to do was ask and, a few hours later, Tata(the Field office worker) had purchased and installed the stickers that the car needs...

Only 2 weeks until APNTS graduation, students are working hard on their final papers and exams...

Our friend, Joel Arro, his wife Nona and kids Sean (almost 7) and Hanna (almost 3) came over for dinner Friday evening. They didn't realize they'd be the first Filipinos to try our chicken horseshoe sandwiches! They enjoyed them; the kids decided to sit at our little kiddie table when they weren't investigating the rest of the house!

We started up the Wii and all took turns playing the games – Sean and Nona are great bowlers!! We enjoyed banana splits, then Joel prayed for us before they left for home. These are special friends God has placed in our lives through a interesting set of circumstances over the last few years.

Saturday, it was just hot!! Init! (“Heat” or “It's hot!” in Tagalog.) Dan worked on our tax return almost all day, sitting at his computer. I cooked pancakes for breakfast, read a book, heated some leftovers for lunch, until – finally – he had to take a break. Having dripped all day in our windows-open house, we each showered, again, and took the eveing off to go visit Tiendesitas, an open-air shopping and dining place in Pasig... The Saturday evening traffic really was a challenge, taking 25 minutes to just go the first couple of kilometers, but we finally got there and started walking around. There are quite a few little store-front restaurants and several large areas with tables and chairs. You order what you want from any place(s) and eat wherever you want. It was too hot to eat a large meal, but the mango-pineapple shakes were really refreshing! Walking around the stores, we meandered through a clothing area, an area of antiques, and some excellent little stores that handled native wood items – we'll come back here soon (for gifts for people at home) ... On the way back, we tried to avoid the congestion of Ortigas Avenue, but after some frustrating turns (and a tour of an area we'd never seen before!), we ended up back on Ortigas and home safely around 9:30.

Sunday was the day we'd been waiting for all week! Danny, our boss at APRC, and his wife Weng, had invited us to join them at the wedding of one of his male cousins! Dan offered to drive, as we have a GPS, so we picked them up early (along with Charles, Richie, and Miriam - 2 nephews and a niece), and headed to the C-5 and south to Batangas! Breakfast was on the way, at a McDonald's in a very nice rest area, and we arrived in the town of Malvar with plenty of time. It was about a 2 hour drive.

Others in Danny's family had started out even earlier and they'd been in contact by cell phone. There was already 1 wedding going on in Immaculate Conception Church, so we watched from outside through the open windows, while some of the nieces' and nephews' hair and outfits were completed for the ceremony at 11.

We met Danny's mother and sister, the groom's sister, their children.... you get the picture – all very warm and welcoming people! You'll just have to see the photos! After the first wedding was done, we watched a young man run up the aisle with a (truly!) red carpet that he arranged on the platform and a much longer one down the aisle; several other people fussed with the flower arrangements on tall, white, wrought iron stands and added bolts of white tulle, draped all the way from front to back! Sparrows flew around inside and light came through the stained glass windows – what a memorable location!

(here is the link to all the wedding photos we took http://picasaweb.google.com/ReinhartsRoad/PhilippineWedding?feat=directlink)

Finally the ceremony began and we stood to watch the parents being seated, the 10 bridesmaids (in aqua dresses with fuschia sashes), groomsmen, 8 flower girls with aqua dresses and fancy hair ornaments (and make-up: eye shadow and blush and lisptick!), the “little bride and little groom”, 3 ring-bearer boys, and maybe 10 sponsor couples all escorted to their seats in the front rows! (Sponsors are rather like godparents, with financial and emotional support required for the couple.)

The bride came down the aisle with her parents until the “official hand-off”, as Danny called it! The ceremony included lots of standing and sitting, a small choir of teens with beautiful clear voices, the ring exchange, candle lighting, the bride and groom greeting their sponsors (with a handshake that ends with the elder one's hand being brought to the bride or groom's forehead in respect), the children walking around the church, and lots of photos at the end.

Danny's family even insisted that we be included in the his-side-of-the-family photos! (They'll just have to say we were the American cousins!)

When all that was finished, we got back in the car and drove a few blocks to a subdivision with a park and gazebo set up for the reception! It was decorated with lots of aqua and fuschia fabric draped artfully; tables all set with plates, glasses and food; and chairs with pink fabric covers. The food was catered (several meat dishes, rice, flan, buko with fruit) and there was an MC orchestrating the ceremonial greetings, toasting, cake-cutting, speeches, bouquet/garter traditions followed by kissing (quite funny).

The sponsors were given gifts, then all the guests were given gifts as well! We received a statue of the Mayon Volcano that included the church that was buried up-to-its- steeple in lava (it's near Legaspi, where the groom's family is from, and we've seen it; Nancy Detalo took us there last September!) and a small photo of the bride and groom!

The trip home seemed short, although we stopped for ice cream at Tiendesitas (the kids didn't mind waking up from their naps in the back)!

Hope I can sleep tonight after all that sensory overload! What a delightful day! We'll never forget how much fun this was or how kind it was of Danny and Weng to include us in this rich experience!

March 8 – 14, 2010

2010-03-15T23:06:00.023-05:00

We already knew that this would be a busy week! Monday morning's staff devotions were my responsibility this week, having been “drafted” by Faith, who keeps asking others to take her turn! Anyway, since I was sharing my testimony, Faith said she'd choose and lead the music and bring a snack to share! We enjoyed suman, the Korean sticky-rice wrapped in leaf strips, sprinkling them with a little brown sugar (it's granulated sugar that's brown, not like the brown sugar in the States that includes molasses). God demonstrated his leading as all the songs Faith chose fit perfectly with the Scripture topic I used for my testimony.

After work, we went home to eat a quick supper before running out to SM Taytay mall. I'd decided that I just had to have a haircut; it's been 8 weeks since the last trim and I'd fought with the long bangs in my eyes all weekend at the beach. Dan decided to browse the mall while I was in David's, a chain of salons. Even after looking through 3 magazines, I didn't see anything to show the stylist, so I just had to rely on verbal instructions and hope he/she understood! A young man took me to the back of the shop for my shampoo; I feel relaxed just thinking about the head-rubbing! When he directed me to the chair for my cut, I was a little concerned that he looked awfully young to be the stylist, but no – she wasn't ready, so he gave me a shoulder massage while I was waiting. (This is a great service! I wish it would catch on in the States!) Ms Helda was finally ready and I gave her a brief description of what I wanted and she started in. I tried to make light conversation, but she was all business (or perhaps didn't speak real good English) and didn't even smile. The young guy was given instructions on drying my hair (at least he asked me a few questions about how I wanted that), then she came back for a little more trimming and thinning. I was done! Dan was done walking around the mall, so I paid for my cut (165 pesos, less than $4.00!) and we headed off for groceries...

Tuesday night we got to Ballroom Dancing class right on time and really enjoyed the waltz review and then learning the Samba! It's a little dramatic, but fun! We thought this was the last of a 6-week class, but it will continue (after it skips a week for a school break)!

We left our passports with the Field Office this week; time to extend our visas. It seems, though, that the Philippine government has changed its requirements (again, we hear) and we'll need to each get an I-card, more expensive paperwork, to remain in the country past our first 59 days visa... until April 12.

Wednesday evening, a few of us met at Greg & Terri's home for missionary prayer night. Even though we'd been on retreat together last weekend, it was still good to bring our concerns together and to God. The fellowship among this group is a real blessing. Dan and I picked up a mocha roll cake at Fortune Bakery on our way, so we could all celebrate Naomi Phillips' birthday together along with Melissa's cookies and Terri's coffee.

Thursday morning we tried a new Filipino favorite, Champorado. It's a chocolate rice cereal that comes in a packed of 5 servings (also available to order at ChowKing!); you cook it on the stove with water and sugar, served with a little milk on top. Not bad! It also seemed like we had an aviary this morning – the couple of sparrows who always chirp and chatter outside our dining room window had multiplied into quite a group of entertainers!

At APNTS, the Philippine District Superintendents were again on campus for training and meetings. David Phillips (the Field Strategy Coordinator) was aware that some of them needed to hear about Bible Quizzing so we were invited to have dinner with them at 6 p.m., in the dining hall, along with Keith Killen and David. When everyone assembled, at nearly 7, we enjoyed a great dinner of salad and pork strips in a mustard sauce, with rice, followed by ice cream and turon (bananas in lumpia wrappers, fried with brown sugar) - delicious! But then they had to hurry off to a meeting, so Dan will have to connect with them another day!

What a neat surprise we found when we got home! Our helper, Celia, had re-done a dried-up flower arrangement we'd had on a small table in our entryway, with flowers and plants from our yard – absolutely beautiful! We haven't seen her this week at all (leaving before she arrives and getting home after her work is finished), so I had left her a note thanking her for working so hard for us. I had also mentioned that we were having a dinner on Friday... And she also added some plants in vegetable cans on the window ledge over the kitchen sink – adorable! We are blessed to have such a good helper.

The last few days, we'd been getting up to a gray sky – unusual for this time of year, their dry summer season. The weather has been getting hotter...

Friday, we were pretty excited about the missionary potluck scheduled at Camden House (our place) for that evening! We'd chosen a brunch theme, because I'd been wanting to make cheese grits and they're perfect with other brunch items. The plan was to leave work an hour early to get home and finish preparing the grits and some French toast strips. But plans change, as we arrived at the office, Naomi Phillips invited me to join her (and Terri and JoAn) in a shopping trip to Greenhills with Toni Porter (Mrs “GS Jerry Porter”) - and her friend Vicky, who are here for a month while Toni teaches a Spiritual Formation class. I got permission to skip work and joined the ladies... And on the way, the gray skies gave way to RAIN – for an hour or so! It's the only significant rain we have seen in the last 2 months.

Greenhills is really a fun shopping experience, with everything - international clothing chains, restaurants, local and imported goods. Toni and Vicky were excited to choose things for friends at home, almost overwhelmed by the quantity of so much stuff! We had a great meal at Teriyaki Boy (yummy Crunchy Salmon Salad, with a mango shake – no surprise) and I was home by 2:30, with lots of time to cook and prepare for the evening party! I texted Dan to let him know that I was home and hadn't spent even 1 centavo (Toni even paid for lunch); I think he was duly impressed.

Everyone started to show up at around 6 and we had such a great variety of food – 3 different egg casseroles, watermelon and other fruits, scones, and Daniel Pape made waffles! In attendance were the Taylors, 5 Papes, Toni and Vicky, JoAn and Bob, Rovina, and Bev. We talked and ate, talked some more. Daniel continued to make waffles; the kids played games on the Wii... I think everyone had a great time!

Saturday morning was the rescheduled time for Dan to go to the campus to share about Bible Quizzing with 10 of the District Superintendents from around the Philippines. I'll let him tell you about it -

It was a good meeting as Dr Rigsby from the regional office was there to spend the day teaching principles and sharing methods of discipleship that can be used by all Christians. These were excellent tools and challenges. I look forward to getting some of his materials to see it more in depth. The topic of the day went very well with the emphasis we put on using Bible Quizzing as a tool for discipleship. I shared briefly about BQM and my availability to them in the next month. One DS spoke to me later and there is a real possibility of helping with a youth camp later this month on his district. He felt that my being here was God planned and I agreed. I am anxious to here from his youth leaders about this.

Before noon, I was already creating a brown rice salad (from leftovers, of course, adding shredded carrots, pea pods, canned chicken breast), when JoAn texted me and asked if we wanted to meet her and Robert for lunch at Wendy's at Santa Lucia Mall. Since we were planning to go there after lunch anyway, we said, “Great!” and put the salad in the fridge for another time!

We got to the mall early, so we wandered around for a while – it's huge! We met the Donahues at Wendy's and spent the next 3 hours eating, talking, and enjoying getting better acquainted. They won't be going on Home Assignment this year, but JoAn will travel to the States to help her daughter at the birth of the next granddaughter in early July! They've been here for over 10 years!

Dan's sinus problems while here have settled in his right ear and are limiting his hearing – he's finally gotten really tired of it so he wanted to get some help at The Medical City Clinic at Santa Lucia. We entered the clinic, full of patients, took a number, found the last 2 seats, and wondered how long this visit might take! But, an hour later, we'd seen Dr de Leon and had 2 prescriptions to fill! It seems that fluid has built up behind Dan's ear drum and he needs an antibiotic and continued decongestant to get it cleared up before we get on the plane to go home.

Back inside the mall, there was a mass wedding going on! All the shoppers were watching the cordoned-off area filled with seated brides (in cute white dresses) and grooms (in suits with red boutonnieres) -– wish I'd taken a photo! Wish I'd counted the couples too – maybe 100! There was a small string combo, and a speaker, hopefully giving them a great uplifting message about the blessings of married life!

We didn't watch for very long, as it was past 5 PM and we still had to get groceries! The Santa Lucia grocery store has a huge variety of stuff and we were able to get everything on my list. We hefted the 7 bags back through the mall and the department store to where we'd parked before lunch. It was already dark and we headed home through lots of Saturday night traffic. We heated up leftovers from the fridge... I guess it was a long day as Dan fell asleep on the couch around 9:00...

Again this Sunday, we attended church service at ICF on campus and Sunday School following. It's so interesting to hear from the members who are doing outreach in their neighborhoods and subdivisions. When Bible studies didn't seem to work, they shifted to “Scripture Search” groups and lots of people are attending!

Dan and I had a quiet afternoon at home; he spent some time under the hood of the car, still trying to locate the problem that's keeping the aircon fan from working in the front of the car... The youth group came, used the backyard (they must have been doing some really fun games too!) and left... Dan had offered to take me out for dinner at Mocha Blends, so I looked to see who might be on Facebook to invite to go along and found Keith. He was glad to get away from some intense paperwork for a while. We enjoyed the company and had some excellent sandwiches – they have such a variety on their menu!! We will be back...

Back at home, I baked a devil's food chocolate cake for Monday night – some of our office co-workers are coming over for dinner!!

MISSIONARY RETREAT!

2010-03-08T07:05:00.105-06:00

Friday morning, we were scheduled to be on campus for only the morning, as Dan needed to be part of a conference call scheduled from the States about the national quiz to be held at Mt. Vernon Nazarene University in July. The call ran a little long, so we arrived late for lunch in the canteen, and ate a quick lunch almost by ourselves! We drove home to Camden to finish packing what we would need for a weekend at the beach and returned to APNTS. The rest arrived in bunches for the next few minutes and soon were ready to leave in the Coaster Bus. Having left before the weekend rush of traffic and with Greg Taylor driving, we made good time down the C-5 and the SLEX; through Santa Rosa and Tagaytay, we recognized this path as the way we'd taken by ourselves a couple of weeks ago. Past the sugar cane refinery, though, we turned left/southwest this time and continued, watching the sun set as we followed it to the west coast of this big island. Twenty of us arrived at Coral Beach Club Resort after dark (2 more arrived the next morning) and checked into 8 rooms in record time.

Greg's detailed planning had included a dinner ready for us at tables on the patio. We enjoyed a vegetable soup followed by a beef dish, sweet and sour fish, greens, lots of rice... and ice cream! This resort is right on the beach; we could see floating bamboo rafts with huts in the shallow water at low tide and there was an occasional wader with a headlamp looking for shallow water night sea life. Our room is quite nice with a king-sized bed and huge marble-tiled shower; we slept well!

Straight out of our room to the beach in the morning, we found that those rafts – balsas - were painted in bright colors and all had benches and other seats, and were each tied with a long rope to a re-bar anchor on the shore. The low morning sun created great reflexions on the water and Dan took a few photos right away. We ate all of our meals outside; we ordered from a broad breakfast menu (Dan and I both got the “American” breakfast and enjoyed our eggs, toast, jam and, literally, about 8 pieces of bacon, along with mango juice and coffee. (I could SO live here!) In this relaxed atmosphere, there was plenty of time to talk with our colleagues as we ate our meals. The staff all spoke English and were very attentive to whatever we needed.

As there were no group plans for the morning, Dan and I quizzed Dee, who had already been out snorkeling, about what to see out there and what direction, then got Keith to come along with us to enjoy the water! It was quite shallow for a long way, then dropped off enough to see some different coral and small beautiful fish. We spent at least an hour in the water, including our moseying back to the shore where a bunch of young local boys wanted to ask Keith lots of questions (mostly “How old are you?” and “Where are you from?”).

After a shower, we gathered in groups to order lunch (what a life, right?). Dan and I knew it would be best to share something, so we ordered a salad and Shrimp Gumbal – delicious, reminding us of a thick shrimp gumbo, with bell peppers and a spicy sauce over rice.
It was quite enough for us before our planned group activity of Jet-skiing from one of the balsas! Two Jet-skis were rented and Dan and I were aboard for the first run! My first time, I urged Dan to start slowly... but,oh, well! We sped around the cove for a few minutes before relinquishing it for others to have a turn. Everyone who wanted to try had several turns, all had photos taken. On our second and third runs Dan progressively got used to the equipment and said he was proud of me for hanging on tight and not screaming when he got it up to full throttle; it really was great fun!

After another shower, I met Lydia Kim at the resort's salon, Spa Bella, for pedicures! We had such a great time of conversation while we got our toenails trimmed and painted!

It was a special sunset that many of us enjoyed together, as God painted the sky and a few clouds with blues, pinks, and purples while the orange sun dipped past the ocean horizon. He did a great job with that one!

Earlier in the day, we had noticed that there were several long tables put together in the grassy area between the pool and the fence, reserved for a group for dinner and were excited to find out that it was indeed for us! It was easy to get hungry for dinner after so much time in the fresh air and in/on the water! The cooks prepared our meal outside, as we hovered close, waiting to be called! Our meal included salad, beef kabobs, fish steaks, pork, chicken legs, shrimp, baked potatoes, rice AND Pavlova for dessert (not to mention another mango shake)! At the end of our meal, we were each given a packet of cards printed with an individual's name from our group, along with a pen. Our assignment was to give each team member some written encouragement and/or scripture; those cards would be sorted the next day and given to us to keep, knowing our team members had written something special, just for us!

As our dinner was winding down, the resort staff had been asked to prepare a bonfire on the beach for us for a worship service. When we were assembled, seated on chairs and blankets, Daniel led us in several songs with his guitar, as Filipinos watched and listened from a ways away. Mitch gave us a devotional message about Moses... we were grouped in threes for prayer, as about one-third of us will be transitioning, either back to the States, or to another mission field. To be prayed for specifically in that setting was awe-inspiring, to know that God orchestrated the people and the circumstances just for that moment. It was awesome to be in the company of these godly people, and especially to have Lydia and her son pray for me and God's future plans for us, along with the growth of JoyFM (Lydia also understands the impact that radio can have on its listeners – yes!)!

A bunch of us walked south along the beach again, enjoying each others' company and conversation, as the natives watched us! When we returned to the resort, Dan and I went back to our room to fill out the cards to encourage our friends. After all the time we'd spent outside, it would have been easy to stop early, but we kept on until we were finished, then slept hard until morning.

Sunday morning, we got up early, dressed quickly, and headed right outside to the patio to order breakfast. This time, it was two huge pancakes for Dan, eggs and hash browns for me, a bowl of meusli to share, along with the usual brewed coffee and mango juice! This resort has an excellent variety of dishes that should please natives and foreigners alike – delicious food! Gathering our snorkeling gear and towels, we collected on the beach to be “ferried out” by pedal-boat and banca (sp??) to the larger touring boat that would carry us to our morning destination. (It was really fun to see the ship captain ask a question of David Phillips in English and be answered in Tagalog!)

A little less than 2 hours later, we finally arrived at Fortune Island; we had watched it slowly becoming larger on the horizon, but enjoyed the leisure pace of this boat with lots of conversation and playing with Herman, a large, purple, hermit crab in a shell that the boat captain had found to entertain the kids - and the rest of us! The boat crew dropped anchor a ways from the shore as the boat has a deep hull and the coral bottom would soon be less than 2 meters, too shallow to get any closer. One of the boat's crew swam to shore with a rope tie line while another thru down the anchor. We “had church” there in the boat, floating on the aqua and emerald waters off a white-sand shore – a place too beautiful for words! David Phillips shared a short message with us and we passed around a cup of grape juice and a plate of crackers for a communion celebration and prayer.

This small island was once home to a lovely resort, but now was abandoned with an empty pool and cottages without walls or roofs. There were stairways and paths in the hillside constructed from cemented coral; David and Naomi hiked up with us to the cliff-top where Greek columns and statues(!) had been erected, to see an incredible view of blue ocean. The concrete structures had been left to decay when the island owner made it impossible for the developers to continue running the resort.

After the hike, we made our way back down to the beach, into the water, to pull ourselves (via the blue rope) back to our boat to don more sunscreen, then our fins and masks for snorkeling. Dan had already been in the water a few minutes before I got in and he pointed out a starfish under where he was, so I fitted my goggles and airway, then located the bright blue starfish! Then I paddled off in search of other interesting sights. The coral here was differently shaped from what we'd seen the day before, and I was also rewarded with seeing a squid, as well as purple coral and quite a few different varieties of colorful fish. The time in the water was not long enough, but we had to get everyone back on the boat for our 90-minute return trip to Coral Beach Club for the lunch that would be waiting!

We had ordered our lunches at breakfast-time, and again Dan and I had decided to share one of the resort's generous selections, chicken pesto on spaghetti. Even though we were about an hour later than we were expected back at the resort, everything was ready for us, and delicious (and I still haven't had enough mango shakes yet)! After showers and packing up, we all loaded the Coaster Bus and headed for Taytay. Lots of scenery and conversation later, we arrived back at APNTS around 7:30 pm. Time to pick up a few groceries, get home to Camden House, unpack, read some e-mail and drop into bed!

It certainly seemed as though we'd been gone longer than 50 hours... God had outdone Himself with this perfect weekend of relaxation, recreation and encouragement.

March 1 – 7, 2010

2010-03-05T06:56:00.027-06:00

Tuesday morning, during our morning devotions Dan noted that God had directly addressed a question he had been thinking about while in the shower a few minutes earlier. It was the issue of questioning whether his work here was useful. The devotional writer made it clear that the issue is the Lord's responsibility not ours. We are simply to do be obedient. God is so good at answering our smallest prayer.

At the office we had joint devotions with Nazarene regional partners in Singapore via teleconference. What a privilege it is to spend time with our leaders there and share our prayer concerns. It's amazing to consider just how big our church is around the world, but just how small the world is, as we get to know more people in it! I get so excited, learning about what's happening in other locations, the ministries and people involved!

Tuesday evening's dance class was great fun; we're really learning how to work together! Four couples, with the instructors, reviewed the ChaCha and added some steps after learning the Swing – how cool is that?! One more week to go in the class! Still had to cook some chicken when we got home, so that Wednesday's shepherd's pie would go together more quickly...

Wednesday, we were allowed to leave work early to finish preparing for our guests, our IT coworkers! Danny and his wife Weng, their nephew Charles, DJ and girlfriend Rose, and Arlene arrived just as it was getting dark. We started in on the shepherds (or maybe “farmer” pie), rice, and iced tea; played on the Wii; created and devoured banana splits; and played more games on the Wii, until finally ending the evening a little after 10... what a great time!

Public Transportation

Thursday morning, I had texted the salon in our subdivision, making an appointment for right after work. Dan dropped me off and they were surprised that I was on time – 5:30 means any time after 5:30, really. It's really a cute shop with lots of cool details like smooth black stones on the floor of the shower in the CR, and relaxing music playing for the massage clients! Anyway, I was finished in no time and texted Dan to come back and get me and I parked myself on a chair at a table on the cute patio with lots of potted plants inside the fence. I texted again and one of the shopgirls came out and asked if I was waiting for my husband. Yes, he'll be here soon. More texting... Ma'am, do you want some juice? No, thank you so much; I'm fine. More texting... no response. I tried an actual phone call but “That service is not allowed.” After 20 minutes with no response, I walked across the street and started watching for transportation and hailed an older guy with a pedi-cab, a bicycle with a side-car! I told him where I lived and kept texting, finally getting a response of “I'm coming!” I had to respond, “NO! I'm on my way!” while smoothly riding like a queen over the speed bumps toward our street in the back of the neighborhood! When my driver got to our street, I told him he could stop, that he didn't have to come down our block which is still VERY bumpy since it was flooded last fall! Too bad, though, because Dan was waiting with his camera at our gate and I could have had a photo to remember my arrival by tri-bike! Dan had realized after he was home for a while that his phone wasn't turned ON!! At least he was sorry about the phone and proud of me that I'd made my own way home!

Devotions and another 'Adventure'

2010-03-01T23:54:00.006-06:00

February 22 – 28, 2010

Our co-workers in the APRC listened silently as Dan led devotions Monday morning, shared one of the stories of how his son Derick was used by God while an inmate in a state prison. They were touched by how God worked in response to Derick's prayers, and how Dan's life was affected as well, even though not one of them is a parent yet. We continue to be amazed at how God is using these experiences to help others understand how He can work in unimaginable ways and places. So many illustrations are available from those difficult years, only Heaven knows the possible results as long as we are faithful in sharing.

The next morning, Dan left for the office while I finished getting ready to be picked up for a monthly bazaar sponsored by the American Embassy Women's Auxiliary at the World Trade Center near Mall of Asia. Terri drove me, Johanna, and Naomi through lots of traffic to the other side of Metro Manila for this extraordinary sale of Filipiana. With an entry fee of 100 pesos, the variety of goods was incredible in this large exhibition hall: wood furniture, ceramic goods, glass, dishware, coconut products, hats, bags, candles, overruns of well-known brands of clothing, quilts, woven goods, jewelry, and lunch! We had a great day!

Ballroom dancing was different this Tuesday night, mostly attended by high school students from Faith Academy preparing for their very first dance at their school. It was a review for us, but much-needed (at least for me), as we brushed up on our waltz steps and Cha cha!

Wednesday started out busy for me, with a quick examination of the first draft of a budget for APRC. Olive had started with last year's figures and projected some small increases. Then we had Danny (who wasn't looking forward to this discussion at all!) sit with us as we all discussed each line item, what should fit in each account designation, and what the projected expenses might be for this fiscal year. All I did was facilitate, asking questions to draw out their ideas and help them try to think of everything that might be needed. And it was a really productive 2 hours before we went to the canteen a few minutes early for lunch! Feeling useful!

Dan's been canvassing opinions at lunchtime from the guys with recent/good haircuts. He's really wanting and needing a haircut, especially with the weather warming up. So, right after work on Thursday, we drove up Manila East Road to the SM Taytay mall and headed for the recommended barber shop, NewsBarbers. I'm glad I stayed to watch, as the barber asked what he needed, then took his time giving Dan got a precision haircut, as well as a head massage, for 100 pesos (just over $2)! (I did get distracted for a while, though, to watch a small boy get his haircut; he behaved so well!) From there, we went down 2 levels and had dinner at French Baker before going back through the walkway over the road (this mall is on both sides of the road) to Hypermarket for groceries. Home around 9:30 – successful evening!

Friday already (and halfway into our 13-week stay), we're starting to feel the pressure of making sure we get enough accomplished in the days and weeks remaining.

One of the APNTS students had been wanting to wash our car, for the extra spending money, and our car was definitely ready after last week adventure! He brought the keys back at lunchtime after cleaning the outside and the inside (mentioning how much of the beach we had brought back with us!) and we paid him P150 (less than $3.50, but he only asked for P130!). The car looked great, that was the good news. At the end of the day, when Dan tried to start the car, it didn't! Analysis: not the battery, since the lights and horn work... and probably not the starter because it wasn't even trying to turn? Many people had already left for home for the weekend, but Jarrett (American grad student) showed up on his way back to his dorm and suggested we check to see if Eric, the architect and campus general manager, was still in his office. He was and helped locate the 2 grounds maintenance guys who might be able to help. Long story short, they worked on it, texted Nanding, the man who had rehabbed the car after it was flooded during Ondoy (at the Camden House), and he agreed to come to our house on Saturday! The teamwork – Bayanihan – is awesome here! We got the car going (downhill jump start!) and went home, with Dan backing the car up on the ramp in our driveway, just in case! Whew!

Saturday morning, we'd had every intention of starting out early to attend a zone youth event, a scholastic competition that would include some Bible quizzing. But our plans would have to be on hold until we had reliable transportation! How cool is it to have a mechanic make a house call!! Nanding came early to assess the car problem, left to buy the solenoid, replaced it (twice actually, since the first one didn't work properly) and left when it seemed to start as it should... Encouraged, Dan texted DJ that we would come in a while and we ate the peanut butter sandwiches I had prepared the night before (that we would have taken with us to the youth event!). After lunch, we got ready to go but, when Dan went to start the car, it didn't. He texted Kuya Nanding about this and he returned again. This time it was determined that a new starter relay and further wiring check was needed. Since Dan felt confident that he could get it started by push or screwdriver hot wiring, it was agreed that Nanding would spend more time on the car Monday on campus.

We finally started out at 2 pm and, with DJ's texted directions, we made it the Agape Nazarene Church just in time for their first zone Bible Quiz! It was great fun to see six 4-person teams jump with their answers to Bible Quiz questions on the book of Luke! After 3 10-question rounds, we watched them take a general-Philippine-knowledge quiz too.

The young people had a great time! And the car jump-started just fine so we could get home (parking again backed up on the ramp) for a creative dinner of Springfield, Illinois inspired, taco-burger-horseshoes and a quiet evening at home! Dan was very tempted to post a facebook status musing about eating Mexican flavored Horseshoes in Manila while we thought about friends having another cold day back in Illinois.

We Skyped with Erica twice this weekend, so good to connect with her and know what's going on with our mail and at our house in the States. We were sad to hear that because the weather there had turned a little warmer the large snowman our neighbors built last week has melted.

We made it to the APNTS campus with no trouble (after a downhill-jump-start) for church at ICF, joining Pastor Jason and the congregation for familiar worship songs and a continuation of study of the book of Mark and discipleship. And afterward, during Sunday School, quite a few people shared their own experiences of following God's direction, even when we're not sure it's His leading!

There were several Filipino District Superintendents attending this service; they and others will be on the APNTS campus during the next week for a translation project and for a training module.

We were glad to get an invitation to lunch from the Phillipses to join them and 2 of the D.S.es, along with Keith; enjoyed a delicious lunch at TokyoTokyo at SM Taytay! We'd been talking all week of visiting Market!Market!, a large mall, and found that Keith and Jarrett were interested too, so after lunch we left the campus with them (screwdriver safely aboard) for this shopping experience!

This mall is huge – 5 floors of shopping (clothing, shoes, furniture, computers, phones, jewelry, everything) and all kinds of restaurants – anything you could possible need! And I finally found corn meal, something I'd hoped to buy so I can make cheese grits while we're here! It was in the large grocery store on a lower level! (I think the guys even enjoyed it – better variety than any other grocery we've seen!) In less than 3 hours, we covered all five levels, then browsed outside in the flower and produce market for a while. It was an adventure – and we all made it home OK!

February 15 – 21, 2010

2010-02-22T06:33:00.001-06:00

Our devotion time, with our APRC coworkers on Monday, included a good discussion on things in our lives that are good, but that take too much of our time/money/attention from our relationship with God. It was led by Herald, who had arrived at work in the IT department with a cute girl's wig on! He left it on until we were finished with our singing, devotion, discussion and prayer, then whipped it off as we all said, “Amen!” – he'd had a haircut, shaved down to about 1/8”! Since Herald is a soft-spoken guy, it was twice as funny as if someone else had done it! This was an added object lesson of reducing the stress in his life.

Herald Uncovered

In addition, it seems that the snack budget has not been spent in IT, so they decided to use the money on pizza for lunch and, even though I work with the girls in the other building, I got included too! With just a few pesos contributed by each of 6 of us, we got 2 Pizza Hut pizzas to share! They tasted particularly good, as we hadn't had any pizza in quite a while, since before we left the States... mmmm!

We hurried home after work and I started on a quick supper, shepherd's pie, since we'd invited Greg, Terri and Zach Taylor over for dinner. They brought a beautiful and delicious salad to share too, so we had a great meal together. When we were finished gabbing, we started playing on the Wii, trying the bowling and baseball and boxing and golf... what a fun evening! I shared our kids' photos on Facebook; we'd talked about them enough, thought we ought to show some pictures too!

Tuesday night's Ballroom Dancing class was well attended, with more steps added to the foxtrot after we learned the chacha and the mambo. I think we did reasonably well and I hope we review all of them next time so we don't forget the waltz moves! It's really fun talking with the other participants, missionary parents of kids at Faith Academy. They are such interesting people with years of living in the Philippines and other places around the world.

Dan worked on a video Wednesday that will be shown this weekend at the Sterling Invitational Bible Quiz Tournament. We're missing it this year, so Dan will be sending a video, for offering time, detailing the progress that was made in 2009 to spread BQM (Bible Quiz Ministry). I took the day off from APRC since I'd been invited to shop with Terri and Melissa at S&R – a Sam's Club spin-off here (with real Members Mark brands). There we can get things we're more accustomed to in the States, including Grape Nuts, Bisquick, and frozen fries (three of the things on my list)! We ate a quick lunch there and arrived home early afternoon. By that time, the little headache I'd started the day with had grown considerably and nothing I took seemed to change it; lying down didn't help either. When Dan came home, he said I felt warm, so I guess I was running a low fever. Ibuprofen took care of the rest of the pain later after we ate leftovers from the fridge, but we decided against joining the missionary prayer meeting in favor of rest. By morning, another Ibuprofen took care of the residual pain and we went to work.

At the end of Thursday, we stopped at the Phillipses' home to borrow the Zanes' snorkel equipment, as we'd planned to find a place to use it this weekend. In the process, we gained a dinner invitation for the Friday evening!

flowering vine at the Phillips home

The weekday lunches in the cafeteria are always a treat! It seems like there's always something new being prepared and everything that we've tried has been good. Friday's new dish included shredded banana flowers, pork, coconut milk and red chiles. With rice, it was great! The kitchen crew always has 3 or 4 choices ready for us, along with rice, and sometimes include a dessert, like cookies or a sticky rice “brownie”.

Lasagna was just out of the oven Friday night when we arrived for dinner at David & Naomi Phillips' home. Keith Killen (in the Philippines, from Ohio, for a 4^th time to help facilitate APNTS Board of Trustee s meetings) was already there and the 5 of us polished off the pasta, green beans, and iced tea before dessert of coffee and homemade cookies! We value these evenings where we learn so much about our friends and their fascinating lives, hopes and dreams, and future plans. Before the evening was over we had each been prayed with and for. It's a privilege to know these godly individuals!

These always entertain Janet's inner child.

We were up early Saturday to finally hit the road to find a beach; after all, we're living on an island in the Pacific! The early start was more to beat the Manila traffic than out of concern for the distance. We traveled south on the C-5, one of Manila's main arteries, then south on the SLEX through Santa Rosa until we got to Tagaytay (say “tuh-GUY-tie”) City, our breakfast destination. After a delicious breakfast at ChowKing, we headed west toward the coast. Our GPS came in handy more than once, even though all roads weren't on the map...
We could see the ocean from the road, but many private neighborhoods prevented access. We checked out one place with a tiny public beach, but decided on Munting Buhangin (“tiny sand”) Beach Camp, which had a line of cars waiting to get in, a group of people traveling together to spend the day. The process turned out to be: fill out a form for the guard, drive dowwwnnnn a bumpy road to a parking area. Park and walk down lots of concrete steps to the beach area – registration building and “cabins” to stay in, restaurant, canopy-coverd picnic tables for groups to rent, a shower building, and quite a few nipa huts for eating or staying in, including a couple of tree houses for groups to camp in! We paid our 170 pesos each for the day to swim and enjoy the beach.

Back up the hill, we got our gear (we had waited to see if we wanted to stay before dragging the duffel bag around) and went back down all those steps. We changed into swimsuits and walked into the ocean! It's great to float in the ocean where the salt water helps keep you on top! There were mild waves and we saw tiny jelly fish; boat owners were waiting for groups to hire them for trips to nearby island beach trips.
We enjoyed the water for a while, then went to the restaurant, complete with wood booths and dirt floor, for our lunch – shared some pancit (rice noodles with vegetables and meat) and Cokes – delicious! Dan decided to rest on his beach towel while I searched for pretty shells. A couple asked me to take their photo on the beach, as did a group of 5 young people. It was a popular place! But not crowded at all.

We got back in the water with snorkel masks for a while (not much to see though, so we'll try that again somewhere else soon), until we decided we'd better shower and get on the road, as we wanted to get back to Tagaytay before dark, to see the lake there that surrounds the Taal (say “tah-ahl”) volcano! Now this part of the trip was an adventure all by itself. Dan had seen another way back to Tagaytay on the GPS that would take us closer to the lake so he wanted to try it. At first it was just another nice two lane through the countryside, then it became a bit more rural. Soon it became one of those ridge top roads (down on both sides) with an occasional house in denser groves and very curvy. The pavement disappeared many times, leaving us to bounce along on a bumpy single car wide dirt path, but the GPS kept showing we were on the right road!
After 22 km of the “ride” we did arrive at the lake! From that level, we could see any rustic raftlike building – SO unique!

The sun was going down, as we hurried up the only road to the city. This 2 lane street zig-zagged more times than we could count, Dan said they were so tight that they made the switchbacks of Colorado look very tame.
We did get a sunset photo as we climbed the old crater rim wall (by car), but the lake view itself was still too hazy for photos. Dinner was a shared meal at Teriyaki Boy, before the 90 minute drive back to Manila. We were home by 9:30 and enjoyed a slice of buko (young coconut) pie purchased on the way back before going to bed. What a full day!

Sunday morning, I opened the Bisquick and made pancakes, just like in the States! They're one of our comfort foods, accompanied by pineapple juice and coffee, melon and mango... Mmmm! We attended ICF on the APNTS campus and really enjoyed the music and Pastor Jason's message on “getting it” - what Jesus and the Holy Spirit try to show us. And it was great to hear the topic expanded in the Sunday School time after the service.

We'd already promised Keith that he could go grocery shopping with us after church at SM Taytay (he'll be here until April 12, like we will) so we joined the Phillipses at the “French Bakery” for a wonderful lunch – and lots more conversation before getting the shopping done.

We relaxed the rest of this lazy afternoon, punctuated with teenagers laughing, doing Bible study and singing praise and worship songs... and I think we'll each have another slice of buko pie before we go to bed!

Mangadang umaga (beautiful morning)!

2010-02-15T02:32:00.039-06:00

February 8 - 14, 2010

One of Dan’s coworkers, DJ, led devotions Monday morning. We all had a good laugh over his topic title because “Distraction” sounded, with soft Filipino vowels, like “destruction” to me and Dan! So DJ exaggerated his pronunciation so we’d be sure it was “DistRACtion” he was talking about. And Faith is so sweet! She remembered that I had mentioned last week that I love popcorn, so she brought some microwave popcorn and made it for the devotion time snack!

When the meeting broke up, one of the other ladies asked for a few minutes of my time, as she wanted to talk. I was privileged to listen as she explained a problem outside of work that was affecting her personally. I asked some questions, listened, and prayed with her for a while. How cool it is to be trusted enough to be confided in - and be used by God!

Super Bowl -er- Monday Night Football...

It was tough avoiding all the reports on the outcome of the Super Bowl, but I did it! (Dan accidentally saw a headline online, but didn’t tell!) We took our veggies and ranch dressing to share at the Taylors’ home and thoroughly enjoyed watching the entire (recorded) game, sans commercials (so it only took a couple of hours instead of 4 or more!) with about 20 other football fans! Zach invited some of his buddies from school too and we all watched outside in their yard, at the base of a palm tree, under the stars - in short sleeves and sandals!! It really felt funny enjoying football and being warm, but not bundled up!

On Tuesdays, Celia often arrives before we leave for work, but today we left her a note about the laundry and left 36 pesos for her to hire a trike to transport her and our laundry to the Kims’ home and back. Celia is great! Our laundry was all done and folded and put away when we got home!

We hurried home from work to eat a quick dinner before driving over to Faith Academy for our second Ballroom Dancing class! There was lots of review on both directions of the box-step waltz and the foxtrot, and we both were much better than last week! It was so much easier this time and we were able to enjoy working together.

Wednesday morning, Dan had a conference call scheduled with Global NYI leaders that were meeting in the US, so he was up early and on his computer in a small office room in our home. I listened to his report of all the progress in a number of world areas and was so proud of him and pleased at the spread of Bible Quizzing! We are so privileged to be able to serve God in these ways - more than we ever dreamed! So we arrived at APRC later than usual… I’m always amused at the conversations I hear around me. Mostly in Tagalog, it’s always interspersed with lots of English words (vacation, absent, timesheet, policy, important information). And since the Spanish ruled this country for several hundred years, I hear other words that I can recognize because they sound just like Spanish words I know (although I know they’re spelled differently). Kumusta, said out loud, sounds just like the Spanish “Como esta” (how are you?)

Trabaho = work, para = for, pero = but, meryenda = snack.

Thursday was a shopping day for me and Terri! I got permission to skip work because this was the only way I was going to be able to get anything for Dan for Valentine’s Day (since I don’t drive a stick shift and, even if I did, this traffic takes some special skills!). We went to Mega Mall - and it is! It’s huge and has everything you could want! We shopped and enjoyed roasted vegetable soup and Greek salads for lunch!

Friday was my (Dan's) turn to lead devotions for the combined IT workers in the compound. Having just learned of this on Thursday, I felt lead to share the meaning of the verse that has defined our last few years, Romans 8:14-16 in the Message. "The amazing previlege we have to live in such a close relationship with God that we can approach Him with such child-like trust and excitement asking "What's next Papa".

Saturday night, there was a party scheduled in our backyard, sponsored by the Cainta Church of the Nazarene! (This is the church that sponsors the new church plant youth group that meets in our back lot every Sunday afternoon.) The 10 rented tables and 30 chairs for the evening’s banquet arrived in the morning during an NYI council meeting in the yard…

This week, Dan had worked on the strings of white lights that were attached under the carport awning until finally 3 strings were working! Around 4 p.m., some of the organizing committee arrived to begin set-up and decorating. The area was absolutely transformed into a fancy dinner party with red tablecloths and hanging hearts! Since it gets dark around 6 p.m., it was quite festive in a short time! More lights were strung over the tables in the yard and a sound system arrived for the guitarist and emcee and singers. We mingled and took pictures; met some new people and enjoyed talking with everyone! Food arrived from Isaw Haus by motor-tricycle; I don’t know how that guy managed 10 large round trays of food, even in a side-cart! (a neighborhood cat, thinking it smelled pretty good too, walked right in and sniffed around before it was chased out). When everything was in place, we sang worship songs of love to our God, who makes all magical evenings happen! Pastora Carol gave us a wonderful message about love and commitment.

After the message, each table of 4 received their tray of pancit bihol with lumpia and barbecued pork (kabobs), along with a liter of punch to share. (DELICIOUS) We also had 2 different desserts and candy! Then the games started! There were a couple of word games - making 5-letter words out of the letters in VALENTINES DAY and unscrambling Valentine-type words (like February, love, red roses, etc.). There was a game like The Newlywed Game, with 5 wives writing down answers to questions, and their husbands doing the same - hoping to match! (We got 2 of five with the winner getting 3 of 5!) I think the most fun game was when a wife was blind-folded and expected to identify her husband from a line-up of 3 husbands, just by smelling their shirts OR touching one of their hands OR their noses OR their hair (my turn, and I easily identified Dan from this one!).

This party was well-planned and so much fun!! What a blessing to be included and to spend time with so many wonderful people! As Dan was asked to do the closing prayer, he made sure to express our sincere appreciation for being included and how we enjoyed the opportunity to get to know so many of them better than we normally would.

Sunday morning, we re-joined this great group of Nazarenes in their “church”, a borrowed garage. Everyone just pitches in when they arrive, arranging chairs, podium, keyboard, computer with projector, sound system and guitar. Church starts when everything is ready! I counted at least 2 dozen in attendance not counting the children being taught outside.

Sunday afternoon, Dan had made arrangements to purchase a power supply for our Wii that would work with the electricity here. We had an address, but never would have found it without the GPS. It was actually comical 4 hours later, when we returned home, having driven through areas we’ve never seen before and almost got a ticket for “swerving!” Dan kept a friendly demeanor with the policewoman who, at first, thought Dan’s driver’s license was expired, then decided to downgrade the offense to “obstruction” (as it didn’t carry such a large fine), then dropped the whole thing altogether “because you are so nice!” What’s really funny is that you can’t drive here without swerving and constantly changing lanes to avoid whatever’s going on in front of your vehicle!! Needless to say, it was an adventure!

It's February already...

2010-02-08T00:39:00.002-06:00

Monday, 1 February 2010

It’s February already?!

After a few days of trying to coordinate schedules, Olive and Faith and I finally found a time after lunch to just begin recreating the October financial records, but were stopped shortly into the process since all the basic lists are not ready for us to complete even 1 transaction. But it’s OK, really. Olive must now coordinate the necessary information so it can be loaded into our program. Now that we’re ready to begin is truly the right time to clarify this. We’ll try again in a few days once the developers know which things we need.

Tuesday, 2 February 2010

Work is slow for both Dan and me today. He’s finished his initial floor plans and I’m waiting for filled-in information in the Accounting program. We did, however, have a good meeting with Olive and Faith this afternoon about their needs and wants in a payroll processing program.

Maybe the day went slowly too, because I was anticipating Dan’s Valentine’s Day gift to me starting tonight -- six weeks of Ballroom Dancing lessons at Faith Academy with Greg & Terri - and Zach came too! We left right at 5 p.m. and decided that, since fast food was all we’d have time for, we’d stop at the Jollibee on our way home for burgers & fries. Jollibees are very much like McDonald’s, even though you see those here too. After a quick stop at home to change into shoes that would work better than sandals, we drove to the school to join the class at 6:30. Right away we met Maria Bell, one of the instructors. The other one is Dennis, a Korean man who has taught and coached award-winning dancers! For 90 minutes (with 7 or 8 couples, some we recognized as being rugby parents), they walked us through a box-step waltz (learned both clockwise and counter-clockwise, so we don’t get dizzy) and the American foxtrot, which was easier. It was fun, if a little frustrating, as we tried to coordinate our efforts! Afterwards, when we asked the Taylors where we should all go for ice cream, they led us to Ice Monster, a tiny place with wonderful shakes of all kinds of tropical flavors - a great treat! (Filipino shakes are based on finely-shaved ice, not ice cream, so they’re not as thick and heavy as we’re used to; but that‘s good, they’re more refreshing!)

Wednesday, 3 February 2010

There’s a funny saying here that Danny M keeps using when things are getting too complicated! Instead of saying something like, “That’s giving me a headache,” they laugh and say, “I’m getting a nose-bleed” or “My nose is bleeding!” And you may see on Facebook where Dan is called ‘Kuya Dan’ or I’m called ‘Ate Janet.’ Kuya (say KOO-yah) and Ate (AH-teh) are just respectful and affectionate terms for (older) Brother and (older) Sister.

Missionary prayer meeting at Taylors’ this evening was a gratifying experience, at least for me. While I didn’t have specific concerns to share, it was so heartwarming to belong to this group of caring people! Terry & Greg are such comfortable hosts, it’s a pleasure to spend time in their home. And it’s comforting to know that they’re praying for us, in our work and adjustments here.

Thursday, 4 February 2010

My female co-workers are so sweet! Olive brought in some pandesal (freshly baked rolls) to share at coffee break time.

Dan & I each had a fun experience today! With a large group of Korean students on campus for a month of communications classes, Dan and I were each asked to be interviewed - a class requirement. When I accepted the request for an interview, it was so cute to see the genuine excitement behind the glasses and long bangs of Ji Hae Cha, the young woman who approached me. Later in the afternoon, we met in the lobby of my building, where she had 10 questions for me. She asked my name (and it was easier for me to write it down for her), my job (accounting), and what my favorite Filipino food is (I chose pancit, although lumpia is close!). She said that, when she first saw me, my husband and I were holding hands - we were, on our way to the canteen for lunch. So she asked if we loved each other and why I would marry him again if I were re-born! How fun! At the end of the questions, she presented me with a small gift of a cell-phone charm.

On our way home from work, I just needed a few things from Tropical Hut grocery before I would spend the evening in the kitchen! I cooked up the butterfly pork chops with garlic and soy sauce, with rice (of course!) and we cleaned that up before starting the cookies that we’ll share tomorrow.

My favorite oatmeal cookie recipe is under the lid on the Quaker oatmeal container, so I didn’t have to rely on an internet recipe (I love that option though; it’s already come in handy several times!). I have a borrowed hand mixer, but decided to split the recipe between 2 larger salad bowls since I don’t have a large mixing bowl. (Interesting: the brown sugar here is finer and drier than in the States.) That worked just fine and Dan helped me make sure the oven was preheating. But the dial gives numbers 1 - 8, no temperatures! So we tried 6 and I’ll watch the hanging thermometer inside… During the first panful, the temperature kept rising, so I turned it down to 4. That was a good place to leave it! Since I have just 1 cookie pan, it took 5 times to bake all the dough. Dan was working on his computer at the dining table and eventually the smell drove him to make us some decaf to enjoy with a fresh cookie before we went to bed!

Friday, 5 February 2010

We stopped by one of the water-purifying businesses in Brookside Hills Subdivision on our way out this morning. For P25 each (about $.54), they’ll refill and deliver our 5-gallon jugs to us tomorrow morning!

What fun it was to share the cookies we brought in for our co-workers! Dan’s guys kept saying “Sarap!!” (“Delicious!) and my girls said the same and said, “You can stay!” (especially if I’ll keep bringing in treats)! I got a treat this morning too! Since we’d been talking with all our friends at lunch yesterday about different places to go the beach, Faith brought me 2 packages of “Peanut Kisses” from Bohol, one of the places we‘d like to go!

Dan's group of co-workers from IT have a Friday afternoon devotions time, usually at 1 p.m. But this week, it's Fatima's birthday (30!), so they've moved the get-together to 4 p.m., because Fatima has brought food! Her brother had prepared pancit and she brought rice-flour rolls and a chocolate cake roll. I joined them after they started their devotional discussion about worry and attitude. Everyone was encouraging; they're so good for each other! We only had a sample of pancit before we left; we've got a potluck to attend tonight!

First Friday at Papes’ home included 9 of us serving in this part of the world. We each brought a main dish and 3 of us brought cookies! With some coffee after the meal, cookies were just what we needed. We stayed around the table for a while, chatting and getting better acquainted, while Melissa herded the kids through showers and bedtime. After a while, though, the guys kept talking about more technical things, so we ladies moved to the living room to talk about movies and food. We're planning a day of shopping next week!

Saturday, 6 February 2010

There are two events going on at our house today – and we're not involved in either one, except to provide the location! After the water was delivered, Judy (a co-worker) and some of her church ladies arrived for a day of Sunday School training! They got themselves organized in our sunroom and lanai, while Metro Manila district NYI council members arrived through the back gate and assembled under the awning in the back yard. Both groups had lots of business to take care of and provided meals for themselves and their participants! We stayed out of the way, but available if they needed something.

Late in the afternoon, David & Naomi Phillips arrived, as we had made plans to go to “Blind Side,” a movie we'd all been wanting to see. After making arrangements for locking up, we left for Eastwood Mall. Arriving with plenty of time, we purchased our reserved-seat tickets (P402 each, about $9 US) and wandered the 4-story mall for a while, then got coffee at Starbuck's before going into the movie theater. Now, this is a treat – we found our seats, lounge chairs! As soon as our row was occupied, we all pushed the buttons on the sides and raised the footrests – this was so fun! A young woman came by with a “menu” showing our popcorn flavors and drink choices, which she brought to us during the previews! The movie is excellent, and I think we might have appreciated it more than the rest of the audience, as it's a true story about American football. In our earlier wanderings, we had located quite a few restaurants that we'd be willing to try, but settled on a barbecue place called The Flying Pig for a meal afterward. We learned so much with our friends, the Phillips, who have a rich ministry history and have lived in “the Phils” for a number of years. They know the culture and the warm people here and we are learning much from their friendship. It was a enjoyable and refreshing evening! Praise God.

Sunday, 7 February 2010

We'll be able to attend a new church this week, Antipolo First Church of the Nazarene, where DJ attends. Our GPS was of some help, but DJ helped us with the final details. We arrived just before the service started and had lots of hands to shake! It's a good-sized church of over 200 members, built about 12 years ago with Alabaster funds! Their adorable children's choir, called Little Lights, started the service. We knew the praise music and enjoyed the sermon, based on Joel 1:1-6, interspersed with English words, although not directly translated. We met DJ's parents and sister. We also got to see our friend Joel Arro and wife and children! We hadn't seen Joel since he drove us around Manila – to see how it was recovering from Ondoy - last September! We promised to get together with them again soon!

The youth group met in our backyard again this week. We heard their singing and reciting of Bible verses before they decided to climb the mango tree and shake down more green ones. After they cleaned up and Pastor Orlando left, Dan checked the back gate, put out the trash for morning pickup and I cooked dinner. I made a shepherd's pie, just like in the States, except I only had 3 tiny potatoes to make the top layer. Guess how I made them stretch to cover all of it – leftover rice, of course! It was really good too! I might just do it again, on purpose next time!

I cut up a fresh pineapple after we did the dishes. Later, it was a delicious end-of-the-day treat with vanilla ice cream...

Second week in Manila

2010-01-31T23:13:00.078-06:00

Monday, 25 January 2010

We’re starting our second work week at APRC, and continuing to get a handle on our duties and expectations. It was Judy’s turn to lead devotions so Bibles and hymnals were distributed around the large table in the conference room and we sang 2 familiar hymns. Judy did an excellent job of leading the music, the discussion, and the prayer requests. Filipinos know how important it is to spend time with each other and caring about each other’s needs!

Later in the afternoon, Dan and I headed out early to get some medical help for his ongoing cough. We were beginning to suspect pneumonia (and I had secretly sent e-mails to Greg and to Terri, asking them to help me urge Dan to get some treatment). So we took Greg’s directions and headed west on Ortigas, the main street that goes past our subdivision. We missed a turn and spent some time in afternoon traffic (and texting much of that time with Greg!) before arriving at The Medical City, a hospital. After parking underground, we were given “Visitor” stickers to take the elevator up to the Emergency department. (Before you get too concerned, this is the equivalent of going to Urgent Care in the US.) Dan gave lots of personal information, then we waited for the consultation with a doctor. Soon we were called and met with Dr Marie Therese Doctor - Dr Doctor! A very nice lady, she asked lots of pertinent questions and examined his throat, then ordered a nebulization, blood tests, and a chest x-ray, all of which were handled by efficient hospital professionals. To make a long story short, four hours and P5323 ($114 )later, we left with a diagnosis of acute bronchitis and 3 prescriptions to be taken over the next 2-4 weeks (but think how much all that would have cost in the US!)! Greg had continued to keep tabs on us by texting to Dan’s cell phone and knew we would be starving by now, so he advised us to go next door to the hospital to Café Mediterranean. After receiving his congratulations on climbing one more “rung of the missionary ladder” by obtaining medical help by ourselves, we did just that, sharing a delicious plate of moussaka and pita bread and a mango shake before going home and going right to bed!

Tuesday, 26 January 2010

Celia (our house helper) arrived just before we left for work, so she’ll do our laundry at the Kims’ home today! We’ve been told that a gardener will also come every other week on Tuesdays, so she’ll deal with him; he’s a regular! At lunch time, we’re able to spend more time getting to know other workers and students in the offices of this campus. What fun it was hearing about how Mitch (Old Testament professor from US) came to APNTS, met (Filipina) Marnie and married her about 7 months ago! And Jarrett, graduate student from US, told of an interesting escapade with an undercover (and crooked) Manila policeman last year - and he returned here to school anyway!

I spent most of the day making editorial changes, highlighted, to the accounting software manual and e-mailing it back to the guys responsible for it - one in Singapore, one in Kansas City. I should know this program pretty well after this, even though I’ve only used it a little!

Dan and I decided to continue stocking our pantry since we really needed milk and juice, so we went to Santa Lucia shopping mall where Terri had brought me the week before. I think it was good for Dan to see the variety of goods too, so we both know what’s available there. We got home after dark, unloaded the groceries after scaring a couple of little geckos out of the kitchen and had some microwaved leftover penne and sauce, along with P10 (about $.25) of Baguio beans from the store (just like our green beans fresh out of our garden).

Just an observation, it feels strange that it gets dark so early; the sun has just about a twelve-hour day here (year-round) while, in the States when the weather is warm, the days are much longer.

Wednesday, 27 January 2010

There’s a medical mission team here from Korea! They’re holding medical clinics today, along with a film showing on the campus this evening. We’ve met one of the gentlemen on the team before - he escorted us on one of the Bible Quiz training days with the An Jung Church in October 2009! So the canteen is much busier this week and serving more Korean dishes to treat our guests!

When we left work, there was quite a crowd on the campus for the movie and kids events sponsored by APNTS and ICF and the Korean W&W team. This is a busy place! On Saturday, there will be a large athletic event including students from 4 seminaries held here.

At home, we heated up some dinner, then Dan actually plugged in our borrowed TV. Lots of channels, but not much that we’d watch on a regular basis. I ended up knitting while watching part of a Martha Stewart show on the Lifestyle channel before working remotely on my JoyFM computer.

Thursday and Friday, 28-29 January 2010

Thursday was non-eventful really, more study of the NOAh software for me and Dan is continuing to use a new software to design the remodeling/expansion of the IT department in Owens Hall as soon as they’re able to knock down a couple of walls from adjoining classrooms. He has included the current office cubbies and worker carrels for now (where the IT guys work and the night shift guys man the phones of the Call Center). By the time he’s finished, he will have designed the inclusion of the offices of all us ladies in the mezzanine of Nelson Center, the building next door, and we’ll move up there. I don’t know if it will be accomplished before we go back to the States in April…

Thursday night, however, I was proud of myself - used a borrowed rice cooker for the first time and experimented with a squash (microwaved, peeled, cubed, then cooked in a pan with butter, onion, and garlic) and with very thin, breaded pork cutlets. It turned out very well, if I do say so myself, and, Friday morning, I proudly produced a breakfast fritatta from some of the leftover rice (with sautéed onion and garlic and bell pepper)! So far, it’s actually fun making the most of the limited cooking tools and different variety of foods. (One day soon, probably, the same situation may seem pretty frustrating and I’ll just want to be in my own kitchen in the States!)

Dan has been measuring the work spaces for the 5 of us in Nelson, so he can include the right amount of space in his new floor plan in Owens Hall, second floor. And the girls helped me try new things for coffee break this morning - Milo (a malted hot chocolate drink) and Bravo Biscuits (crackers) - good stuff!

After work, we gathered on the veranda of the dining hall until we were all together, ready to go out for the evening. DJ drove his car and Dan drove ours, with Danny as our backseat navigator. We traveled to Eastwood SM, along with lots of other folks going out for a Friday evening of fun. After parking in the right area, near the bowling alley and movie theaters, we walked inside. This was a busy place with almost all 20 lanes full of bowlers (there were also probably a dozen or more billiards tables. Danny’s wife Weng met us there - she had come from work on 2 different jeepnie rides. We went through the processes or getting our shoes and Ernalyn entered our names on the electronic scorekeeper between lanes 19 and 20 for us. There were 7 on each team, so it took a while to play just one game, but it was SO much fun! We all cheered for those who did well and consoled those throwing gutter balls! Dan did very well, with the high score of 127 (after starting out with 2 gutter balls). I was happy to have made a strike and a couple of spares and score over 80! When we finished up, paying and turning in our shoes we caught sight of Greg & Terri Taylor going to see “Blind Side” at the movies. (I want to see that one too, especially since they’re less expensive than in the US.)

Back in the cars, we drove to Ortigas Center, a huge area of shops, restaurants, and office buildings - the land still being owned by the Ortigas family. This was to be another adventure - we followed our friends to an open block of outdoor restaurant seating and the Ortigas Wet Market. Danny and Weng knew we’d want to see how dinner is done here, so we followed them into the wet market - a huge market of fresh seafood vendors - while the others got settled on some long tables outside. A “waitress” went with us as Danny & Weng and Dan & I looked at every variety of seafood and shellfish you could imagine. I didn’t even catch them actually telling the waitress which things we wanted to have cooked for our group, but she ended up taking several plastic bags filled with different items and I snapped one photo of some of the variety before we went back to our table. Danny & Weng disappeared for a few minutes, returning with rolls from a nearby bakery (this is their favorite Panutuan [“we cook it” restaurant], so they know the area well) to hold us over while we were waiting (it was already 9 p.m.!).

We all got plates and utensils, glasses and small bowls which, we learned, were for preparing a sauce for our food. Following the rest, we squeezed several calamansis (round, 1-inch citrus fruit, green outside, orange outside; makes delicious flavored tea too!) and combined the juice with soy sauce. It wasn’t too long before a waiter brought out the first dish - whole cooked shrimps and huge bowls of rice. Arlene prayed for the meal and we ‘dug in!’ Then, soon came big tureens of a thin but cheesy soup that included fish chunks, followed by more rice and batter-fried squid with a wonderful sweet sauce. And, after that, we received platters of green-lipped mussels with melted cheese on them - heaven on a half-shell!! And we all just kept eating until it was gone!

After we “waddled” back to our cars and drove our friends back to campus for their transportation to their homes, we drove back to our home and slept soundly until the sun woke us on Saturday morning.

Saturday, 30 January 2010

This is a first - a day without definite plans; didn‘t even set an alarm. Oh, we have our lists, but nothing truly necessary. Another first, I tried out a boxed pancake mix I’d found at the grocery - Pillsbury creamy vanilla flavor - on my borrowed griddle (SO glad I have one of these!). They’re delicious, especially with cubed mango! We caught up on Facebook and e-mail, then I started on those lace curtains from Naomi. I’d gotten permission to do anything I liked with them, so I removed some stitching to change a double rod-pocket to a single, then cut off an attached, ruffled valance and Dan helped me gather them onto the bamboo rod over the dining room windows -- perfect! Just what they needed! In the meantime, Dan spent some time working on the driveway gate, which really need some adjusting so it didn’t scrape the driveway!

Still feeling creative, I had some ideas for lunch. I decide to make tuna burgers (like crab cakes) using leftover rice (there’s always leftover rice, I think) and minced onion, garlic, and bell pepper, with a couple of spoonfuls of flour and an egg for binding. While they were frying in butter, I cut up an avocado and added canned diced tomato, leftover corn and diced onion for a guacamole of sorts. Anyway, I thought our lunch was delicious with tortilla chips, except we wished we had some Filipino sweet chili sauce for the burgers! As Dan wrote on Facebook, “What’s wrong with this picture?” since we were wishing for something that we had at our house in the States, but certainly should have had here, where the stuff is made!

It was really getting to be a hot day, so we had delayed our planned walk around the subdivision for later in the afternoon. Changing into tennis shoes, we put pesos in our pockets along with a grocery list, and headed out. We walked a lot further than I thought we would, but kept going, in search of produce at one of the many tiny home-based businesses called Sari Sari stores. Anyone can have a Sari Sari store in the front of their house - there don’t seem to be any zoning rules about businesses. Some sell snacks, some refill 5-gallon water jugs (everyone drinks purified water here), some grill kebabs, some are bakeries, some will load minutes on your cell phone…

We ended up quite near the entrance (I think it must have been a mile from Camden) at a shop where we bought 2 kinds of mangos, red onion, 8 calamansi (for 5 pesos!), and banana catsup! Then we had to walk back! (We could have taken one of many trikes trolling the streets, but we were still shopping.) We stopped in at Tatskie’s since we’ve been told it was a great little store with a good variety of things we might need. I intended to simply look and become acquainted with the stock (everything from shampoo to ice cream treats), but the store owner was interested in a conversation since she knew some people in the US, we stayed to talk and saw sweet chili sauce on the shelf -- had to get some!

Sunday, 31 January 2010

Dan had suggested breakfast out this morning before maybe attending the Antipolo Nazarene Church, but we couldn’t get enough information on the location or service time yet - maybe next week! We ended up at Max’s Restaurant (reminded us of a Filipino version of Denny’s) and both enjoyed different omelets, which are always served with rice unless you specify toast. We also had a choice of brewed or instant coffee - you know which we requested! It was all quite good and we headed for Taytay First Church of the Nazarene, as we knew the service time there. What a good service, with familiar worship music and a great sermon by Pastora Luz on the qualities of a servant, honoring the lay workers of the church.

Pastor Orlando arrived early afternoon to prepare for the youth group meeting in the Camden backyard. We had decided to go to SM Taytay for a couple of hours to acquaint ourselves with what‘s there, so we left him to get ready. Unlike in the US, there is an “anchor“ supermarket at all the shopping malls and they have lots more than groceries! We wandered around the Hypermarket, picking up several things. The adorable Customer Service girls were all dressed alike - same shirts with khaki shorts and high-heeled sandals, and wearing a sash like a beauty pageant that read “Customer Service“. Some were stocking or arranging shelves; all were willing to drop what they were doing to, for example, take us straight to the vanilla flavoring that I’ll need to bake oatmeal cookies next week. We stopped in National Bookstore, very well stocked with current books, office supplies, gifts. There’s a great variety of stores, food kiosks, restaurants. We even tried a new kind of blizzard at the DQ - double chocolate almond - very good!

Back at Camden House, 11 teens attended the youth meeting led by Pastor Orlando and Pastor Brian. They had some Bible study and a memory quiz on some verses, writing their team’s answers in chalk on cardboard blackboards. We joined them for a while, singing worship songs with them in English and Tagalog (gotta love large song sheets!). When they were finished, some of the kids climbed the large mango tree and tossed green mangos down to the rest! We got some plastic bags for them to take them home! We kept a couple, but they’ll take some time to ripen! While Orlando cleaned up, it was nice to have a little conversation to get to know Brian better and answer his questions about our grown children.

I fixed poached fish in curry-coconut milk sauce for dinner, something I‘d been wanting to try (after checking out a few recipes online); I think it turned out pretty well!

We spent some time on the Internet, catching up with e-mail and Facebook. It’s great to stay so well in contact electronically! But, time for bed, our work week starts 14 hours before our friends in the US!

First 'regular' week, settling in...

2010-01-24T21:34:00.008-06:00

Monday, 18 January 2010

Up at 6 a.m., it’s time to start our new routine. We need to be at work by 9 this morning (just working the morning today), but 8 a.m. starting tomorrow. This is such a nice house, with 3 bedrooms (obviously we only need 1 of them) and 2 baths upstairs. After showers, we began to get acquainted with the kitchen. For now we’ve got Terri’s French press to make coffee and we have cereal and juice to get us going. Dan is brave to drive in the Manila traffic!

In our subdivision alone, there are lots of tri-bikes (bicycles with side-cars) and trikes (motorcycles) and people on foot, not to mention the winding streets with lots of speed bumps! Out of our subdivision, onto Ortigas, one of the main arteries, it takes concentration to navigate with all the jeepnies and trikes, along with cars, bicycles, motorcycles, and people…

At APNTS, we’re allowed in by the gate guard and see that Danny Macabuhay, our boss, has just arrived also. He escorted us up the hillside stairs to the IT department, where Dan will work, and introduced us to Herald and DJ (Daniel Jim), the programmers. So, besides Dan Reinhart, there‘s Danny and Daniel Jim! DJ and Herald are smart and personable young men! Danny walked us around where my desk will be, in the 4-story Nelson Center next door, down to the lowest level but up again in the mezzanine area over the World Mission Communications studios and offices. My co-workers here are Marnie, Judy, Olive, and Faith. This building is absolutely beautiful in its design and décor. We’ll take photos as descriptions cannot do it justice!

Our department has devotions each Monday morning; it’s a privilege to participate as Olive leads for our first time. She’s the new HR/Accounting manager and does a fine job (even though she says she’s nervous) of leading a discussion about submission to God and to authority in the flow of work and our everyday lives. They’ve ordered out from KFC (!) so we can enjoy a lunch together and, except for the inclusion of rice instead of biscuits, it’s just like at home, with sides of mashed potatoes and gravy, salads, buttered corn.

Terri and I have plans to go shopping this afternoon - to really get groceries and a few household items. She promptly arrived at the end of our lunch, at 1 p.m. and I took off with her, with Dan planning to go back to the house. We’re off to Santa Lucia SM. Terri has been given permission to buy us a microwave (yes!) and several other things for us to use during our stay. The grocery store is in the lowest level of the mall and we’ll do that last, so we took the escalator up to an appliance store to pick out the microwave. Even though there were quite a number of different models (and the prices looked huge in Filipino pesos since the conversion right now is about P46/$1USD), it was not difficult to choose an economical model. There’s a special place at the entrance to the grocery store for large packages to be held while we do more shopping, so we have that done, then go back upstairs to a department store to choose some more house stuff. Terri got us a couple of pans and a mattress pad, while I bought washcloths, colander, veggie peeler, can opener, etc. Then, we got to explore the grocery store, which has a huge variety of everything! It was so fun to find out what a large grocery store stocks and feel like I’ve made huge strides in managing our everyday needs. Terri was so incredibly helpful, giving guidance when needed, but letting me really get to know how to shop here.

Almost P3700 (3700 pesos = $80USD) later, we emerged from the mall and it was raining. Terri went after the car while I waited with the young man from the store who helped us with so many grocer bags, along with the retrieved microwave and other purchases). With Terri’s advice, I tipped him 20 pesos for his help and we went on our way back to our house. I spent the rest of the evening putting away groceries and pots & pans, washing things up, cooking our first dinner (garlic chicken breasts, wilted spinach with onion, and corn on the cob with instant mango iced tea), and cleaning up from all that. Time for bed!

Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Up early again, we’re getting a routine in place, up at 6, shower, dress, fix breakfast together.

Mid-morning, our boss Danny took us to the conference room near my office to have a video conference with Kevin Brunk, who is the Asia Pacific Regional Finance Director. Since he works at the AP regional office in Singapore and we may not meet him, it’s good to have a face-to-face (screen?) conversation as we’ll be communicating with him about the accounting software.

At noon, everyone stops for an hour. The cafeteria on campus (the “canteen”) provides hot meals for very little. We can get rice with a choice of dishes that include meat and vegetables and sometimes dessert for the two of us, for between $1.75 and $4.

I spent the afternoon reading and marking some things I want to ask about in the accounting manual that I’ll need to teach/work from. Dan and I now have e-mail addresses for our work here in addition to Skype and our home e-mail that we can access - no excuses for not communicating, unless the power is out, at which time we‘ll just text on our borrowed local cell phones!

At 5:00, Dan and I met outside my building to run home before joining Daniel & Melissa Pape at their home in our subdivision for dinner! They have a great house and 3 beautiful children and 2 friendly cats! (Most of the cats we see here are wild and very thin, scrounging on the streets and in garbage to survive.) Melissa has prepared a wonderful spicy soup with corn chips crumbled on top and veggies with dip. They are from the Northwest US and have been here for 5 years. Melissa is an artist - she’s painted trees on each of 2 walls of their living room; I’ll have to take a photo! Daniel has been a potter and is equally creative; he works for World Mission Communications with an office on the floor below mine. We enjoyed a relaxing evening with them!

Wednesday, 20 January 2010

It feels like we’re starting to “get our act together” as we get ourselves through the Filipino traffic and get to our desks to again work on our projects. In the meantime, I’m still making lists as to what groceries and kitchen tools I’d like to have to finish stocking our cabinets and drawers. The missionaries who we’re responsible to are very responsive to providing all we need to work effectively and enjoy our time here. We’re borrowing plates and utensils from David & Naomi Phillips, towels from Timothy & Lydia Kim, and many things from Greg & Terry Taylor (including Work & Witness supplies of pans, hangers, cookie sheet, hand mixer, etc.). We also received gifts of handmade potholders from Rovina Hatcher (APNTS professor) and kitchen towels from Beverly Gruver (APNTS Dean of Students). What a wonderful and generous bunch of people!

Thursday, 21 January 2010

After some conversations with the Phillipses yesterday, we got our “helper” today! Celia arrived as we were finishing breakfast, so we could give her some instruction. She knows this house much better than we do, as she’s been the Zanes’ helper for a couple of years. We were coached that she would need pesos today for the trike, to take our laundry to the Kims’ home (a few blocks away, in our subdivision) since our washer and dryer haven’t worked since Typhoon Ondoy covered them with mud almost 3 months ago. Celia will come to clean the house tomorrow; we’ll get her help on Tuesdays and Thursdays from now on.

I spent a little time with Faith this morning, the young woman who enters most of the accounting data for APRC. She showed me some of what she does with the payroll software and admitted that she doesn’t understand the accounting; she wants to learn it so she is not simply doing a rote task, but understanding why she’s doing it.

In the afternoon, after a nice lunch of rice and tuna steak, DJ showed me and Dan some of the accounting software screens on a large monitor in the IT office and I was given technical permission for “playing” in a test version of the software that I can access from my own computer.

Home that evening, Dan and I found lots of clean laundry, nicely folded on our bed. It is nice to have some help!

Friday, 22 January 2010

We’ve been invited to the Taylors’ for dinner and Terri’s fixing curry! She’s a fabulous cook and we’re excited!

But we have to get through this work day first and I spent some time in the morning with Olive, who checks and approves Faith’s work, in addition to being in charge of HR. She was hired in early December, so she’s still learning “the ropes,” but has much accounting experience if not with QuickBooks, which is what is being used currently. We spent much of our time working through a detailed spreadsheet that takes into account all aspects of what it costs to have any particular employee, for billing purposes. It was good to discuss the details together; we both gained insights.

Dinner at Taylors’ was such a nice evening! We almost didn’t recognize their son Zach; he’s had his long, curly hair cut off! We weren’t the only guests either - Dee, a teacher at Faith Academy was also invited, as well as Rovina (who showed up later after a meal/meeting). After Terri’s incredible curry dinner followed by chocolate dump cake with coconut ice cream, we got to see Dee’s photos of a recent scuba trip taken. The colorful fish, slugs, shrimp, and coral were so interesting and beautiful! We could have stayed long into the evening, but Dan still needed some rest and we knew we’d be getting up early to attend another rugby game!

Saturday, 23 January 2010

Since the Papes are also going to Zach Taylor’s (Faith Academy) rugby games this morning, the 5 of them are riding with us so Dan can continue to find his way around Manila. This week’s games are at IS Manila. Rugby is so fast and keeps your attention, so much more interesting than American football. Zach played so well too; he made 3 goals, due (at least in part, according to his Facebook status) to his haircut -- less wind resistance! What fun! At this beautiful international school for all grade levels, we found a playground for Isaiah and Ian and Ella to release some of their natural energy. After Faith Academy won all their games, we piled in the car again and met the Taylors at a nearby mall at Johnny Rocket’s for big burgers and fries! Back in Brookside Hills subdivision, we dropped off the Pape family and headed home for a nap. Dan’s still not feeling up to par; the cough that developed after our H1N1 shots is not getting any better.

What a busy day! After an afternoon rest, we followed the Kims to Faith Academy to attend an annual Talent Show. The show was very well staged and handled in the new, state-of-the-art Cadd Auditorium, from the acts to the lights, and even the meal for sale before the event. The Taylors, Phillipses, and Kims were all there as they have (or have had) children attend this school for (incredibly talented!) children of missionaries.

Sunday, 24 January 2010

We’ve decided to “try out” another of the Nazarene churches that offers some or all of their service in English. The chapel on APNTS’s campus is the home of International Christian Fellowship congregation, so we headed there this morning. The worship music is already underway and we slid into the back row of wooden pews. (This building had suffered several feet of mud during Ondoy in September as the creek next to it rose during that typhoon, but was totally cleaned and restored. We had seen it being used for relief items distribution when we returned to Manila after traveling to Legazpi and Cebu for Bible Quiz training.) It was a great service with Pastor Jason delivering an effective message about “Dynamic Discipleship.” Sunday School followed, with about a dozen of us in the Owens Building (where Dan works), with a further discussion about discipleship.

After a quick stop at Tropical Hut, a mid-sized grocery store on our way home, we knew we just had to get some rest or down time today! So, after a lunch of chicken salad and fruit, Dan laid down and I spent some time reading a new book and knitting. But we also needed to help Pastor Orlando and Pastor Elmo, the ministers who use our back yard for a youth group meeting each Sunday afternoon. They knew what they needed: access through the back gate, water dispenser, their Bibles, the plastic lawn chairs; so they were in and out a little, getting set up for the meeting. There were 8 or 9 teens this week since some were attending the funeral of the father of one of the youth, but there will be a larger group next Sunday afternoon. We heard them singing and understand that they had some discussion and some Bible verse memorization time.

After they cleaned up and left, I cooked up some ground beef and onion and added some store-bought spaghetti sauce and cooked some penne pasta. The sauce is pretty close to what we’re used to and, paired with a salad, we ate and cleaned up to get to bed early for another week!

Arrival and Orientation Week

2010-01-18T08:29:00.000-06:00

Tuesday and Wednesday, 12 January 2010

Five a.m. is really too early to be at any airport… but we are at St. Louis Lambert International Airport, waiting for our first-leg flight to Atlanta, on our way through Tokyo to Manila,

Philippines

. Erica rode with us, having spent the night, then went on home for more sleep. We left our heavy winter coats, scarves, and gloves in her car; we’re SO glad we won’t have to use those again for a long time!

An egg-bacon-cheese sandwich with strong coffee was a good way to start, then we checked e-mail and posted new statuses on Facebook. Dan has changed our seats on each flight so we have the easiest possible way to sleep, get to a restroom, etc., so we don’t have to climb over too many people and can be closer to the front of the airplane.

After an easy flight to Atlanta, we took the inside shuttle to Concourse E for international travel and boarded our plane to Tokyo. The gentleman in the aisle seat of our row turned out to be a great seat mate; he‘s a project manager headed for Singapore with a company that maintains trans-oceanic phone cables aboard ships. We discussed quite a number of things, including recent sermon topics (a challenge for “church“ to be a verb instead of a noun!), Christian service, good books…

We enjoyed the meals (3 of them) and a couple of movies. Dan took a night-time cold medicine to get some rest and keep from coughing (we each got H1N1 shots 10 days ago and since then, he’s had a sore throat and cough). Fourteen hours later, we arrived at Tokyo’s Narita Airport, with a two-hour layover until our last leg to Manila. We were served another meal during the 4-hour flight. Retrieving our luggage seemed very slow, but going through Immigration and Customs was quite smooth, except for having to stop and fill out one new entry form.

We didn’t have to wait long with our heaping luggage cart before a man with a Trevecca (Nazarene University) shirt came up to us and identified himself as Greg Taylor! He and his family have lived here for 12 years. He brought his Ford Escape around and we transferred the luggage and headed for their home. We were unloaded and installed in their guest room - a beautifully decorated room with a bath. All we needed were instructions about drinking water and breakfast time, then find our pajamas…

Thursday 14 January 2010

After a hard night’s sleep, I didn’t want to get up yet, but it was time to begin living in tune with this time zone right away to shorten the jet lag. Zachary Taylor (age 16) had already left for school and Terri was out walking their dog Lucy, so we helped ourselves to coffee and walked outside, into their walled yard, to enjoy the new day. There’s an underlying smell of smoke, as burning garbage is prevalent. But the surroundings are so beautiful with coconut palm trees and lots of other palms and plants of all sizes, colors, and textures. Some plants have purple foliage or interesting flowers - it’s a true tropical paradise. And their home is wonderful, painted in greens and browns, and decorated with native dark wood furniture and Terri’s artful accessory pieces. Terri and Greg cooked a great breakfast of eggs with bell peppers and sausage, fresh mango and fresh pineapple. Then we headed over to Asia Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary (APNTS) for a day of orientation.

We met Timothy Kim and his wife Lydia (Regional Office finances), who will translate for the new missionaries from Korea, Paul Yi and his wife Ji Yun. Staying with Timothy and Lydia, the Yis (with children: Sam [age 7] and Nudi [boy, age 3] and Yena [9-month-old girl]) will serve in Cebu. Greg and Terri led us in a day of what-you-need-to-know and we all took lots of notes, only stopping for coffee breaks and a delicious lunch on campus. It was a full day of information before we went back home with the Taylors for dinner and an early bedtime.

Friday 15 January 2010

Terri is an amazing domestic manager, always ready with a wonderful and hearty breakfast! A “field trip” called The Amazing Missions Race is scheduled for the 4 of us “newbies” (with Paul and Ji Yun) and it’s a big mystery (“Bring a camera and a backpack“), but guaranteed to be fun! In the conference room of the AP Regional Office, we were given 12 numbered envelopes plus 6 more labeled “Bonus.” With instructions to (1) have fun, (2) learn how to use “public“ (public transportation), and (3) learn to rely on the Filipinos, we opened the first one and headed toward the front gate of the APNTS grounds.

The first challenge included Filipino pisos and orders to find and purchase a diaryo, so we began by asking the seminary gate guard where to go for this. He pointed up the street, so we did, still not knowing what we were looking for. We asked a couple of other people for help and finally asked at a stand that had some local newspapers - that was it! We made the purchase and called Greg, as instructed. We were told to come back to the Seminary where Terri and Greg drove us to a 7-Eleven in Antipolo for our next challenge.

Most envelopes included pesos which we were to budget, so we traveled by Jeepny several times, trike once and bus 2 times. We worked together trying to understand each challenge and use the money the best way. It was fun to shop the new Taytay Market for tsinelas (we heard, “Sleepers”; translate that to, “slippers” - oh, flip-flops!) for 7-year-old Sam Yi; purchase something for 5 pisos or less (pineapple chunks that we shared later) from a street vendor and take her photo! We bought 2 headache pills and bottled water at a Mercury Drug Store. We also took photos of ourselves in particular situations, like with an armed security guard at a shopping mall and at the EDSA memorial statue. We ate at one of the MANY Jollibee (much like McDonald’s) for lunch, and used a C.R. (stands for Comfort Room = restroom - make sure you bring your own paper!). And, except for going way too far to find a giant golf ball for a photo (which created a walk that delayed us more than an hour), we had a great time talking with Filipinos, budgeting our money, and getting to know one another. Envelope #11 sent us to Green Hills Shopping Mall to find the area selling pearls - and buy some for us girls! Dan and I had been there before, so we had no trouble finding that floor and we helped Ji Yun pick out 3 pairs of pearl earrings (negotiated to the challenge-dictated price of 150 pisos) and I did the same! Our last envelope told us to find Teriyaki Boy restaurant; there we found Greg & Terri waiting with mango shakes and sushi, our reward for having worked so hard! And the girls got another treat; Terri had also been shopping and had chosen a pearl bracelet for each of us!

Back at the Taylors’ home, we watched Terri create a fabulous broccoli soup and a beautiful salad. It was all we needed before going to bed to continue the jet-lag recovery. Dan has had a hard day, barely able to “croak” with his sore throat and cough.

Saturday 16 January 2010

Up early after a more quiet night for Dan (no coughing - yea!, but still very strained voice).

Terri fixed a delicious egg casserole, with more mango and pineapple and strong coffee. (I could truly get used to this as Terri is a great cook, but we’ve prevailed on their kindness long enough and will move to our own place later today.) Greg took Zachary out very early to ride with his rugby team, so we’ll follow, to Brent International School, to watch him play in 2 of 3 rugby matches this morning. He’s on the junior varsity team, but will be on the varsity team next year at Faith Academy. Rugby is quite fast-moving and exciting. Zach had talked lots about the rules and plays at dinner last night, so we think we’re catching on! We really enjoyed those games and would truly like to watch more of them!

Greg drove us back into a downtown area to a large S & R store - it’s just like Sam’s club at home! We chose a few items to get us through the next morning, since we haven’t seen the house yet to know how much we can purchase and store (even though we’ve been told we have a full-sized fridge, a freezer, natural gas range, and plenty of kitchen cabinets. It’s great to see that we can purchase so much that we’re accustomed to, and lots of new and different items too! Back at the Taylors’ house, our borrowed car is waiting! We quickly re-packed our suitcases and piled them into the car for the guys to take. Terri and I followed, but took a detour, inside the Brookside subdivision, to Terry’s Sewing shop to pick up a newly-recovered window seat for the house and numerous matching valances for the windows. We unloaded all the suitcases at the back gate (front gate key missing), brought them through the walled backyard, then up the concrete stile stairs and down the other side into the courtyard around the house and in the beautiful wood doors of our home for the next 3 months!

We took things to appropriate rooms, and can get settled later. Greg & Terri came back later, picked us up and took us to the Eastwood shopping mall. At Momo’s Dan & I shared a dinner of bacon alfredo pasta before they took us home.

Sunday 17 January 2010

We are awake early, still not quite in tune with the time zone, but getting there.

No Internet yet even after Dan reset the modem, so we decided to hang the valances and have a basic breakfast of juice, cereal, and French-pressed coffee. Dan brought his computer downstairs to the dining room and played some worship music on I-Tunes… “I’m Amazed By You” (Phillips Craig & Dean) brought us both to tears as we considered our first morning in Camden House on our own in Metro Manila. Dan read this day’s devotion from “My Utmost from His Highest” that was right-on (no surprise, of course) with God’s calling and our service.

With plenty of time before church, Dan tried the Internet again but it’s not working. He laid down to rest a while longer before we need to be ready for church. I’m journaling, listening to a small child singing in the house next door and several dogs barking outside our window in the other direction.

Danial & Melissa Pope (Poppy) with their 3 children live in our neighborhood so we followed to Taytay First Church of the Nazarene, parked across the street and carefully made our way across, then up the concrete stairs to the surprisingly large sanctuary where the worship team/band was already playing. Most of the music was familiar; in addition, several friendly greeters made us feel very comfortable. We also recognized several of our missionary friends - the Taylors and Phillips families. The lady pastor of this church is an accomplished woman. She preached alternating in English and Tagalog, knowing her audience very well!

It’s interesting that food vendors were waiting outside the church to catch those leaving the service. Families with children are especially interested… We’ll try the fish balls or ice cream another time, as we’re going out, to the Old Spaghetti Factory with the Yi family, being treated by the Field Strategy Coordinator, David Phillips & his wife Naomi. They ordered quite a feast, so we enjoyed lots of food and were entertained by the Yi children before David gave us all some more coaching about ministry in the Philippines. After, we said goodbye to the Yis, as they will soon be on their way back to their new home in Cebu for their ministry assignment. We drove to the Phillipses’ home to borrow some more things for the house, then made our way back home.

Since we have few groceries yet, we drove to Max’s Restaurant for a light dinner. It’s on Ortigas, between APNTS and our subdivision, so it was easy to get to, besides the fact that we’d been there before on a previous visit to Manila. I had Pancit Canton and a green mango shake while Dan had crab fried rice, then we headed back home to sleep in preparation for our first work week!

Blessed confirmation

2010-01-14T20:00:00.004-06:00

Thursday Jan. 14 - Another amazing confirmation

Our first full day here in the Philippines began with devotions using a soft back version of Chambers, ‘My Utmost for His Highest’. I’ve use this material before and its always beneficial. This particular copy belonged to my (Dan) mother until she went to be with our Lord this past August. She had often commented that she enjoyed how God is using us and she lived missions though our experiences. We understood this connection as she often told us how she had felt God’s call on her life as a teen but her father would not hear of it. So it felt right to bring this along on this assignment.

Well, here it is the first day and God is already using it to confirm so many things.

The reference is Isaiah 6:8, the point being that all are called. God’s call in this verse was not directed toward Isaiah, it was and is still open to all who will respond. This call to serve is for all of us and it doesn’t necessary lead to ‘going’ but to do what is needed based on His leadership through the relationship we have with our Lord.

We are so privileged to receive this assurance of His direction yet I am also reminded how Mom responded when Life’s circumstances prevented her from ‘going’. She lived her devotion to God and her growth, availability and effectiveness as a prayer warrior was proven over and over again. God only knows how many Christians (and family members) have been sheltered by her prayers.

Father God, may we also live in response to your Love and Call as we honor those who have led the way for us. Amen.

Arrival in Manila

2010-01-13T11:02:00.001-06:00

We are here. After 25 hours of travel and both of us with the 'blessings' of varying degrees of cold symptoms (thank to the flu shots we got last week) we can't say it was the best trip we've had but it was ok.
God is Good. Our pass through immigration and customs was one of the fastest we have experienced. Greg Taylor met us and we are spending the first couple of days with his family while the house we have been assigned to gets final preparations. Greg and his wife Terri will also be leading our orientation training for the next couple of days.
It's time for rest now as we adjust to the 14 hour difference (ahead) from home.
Nite all. The future looks good from here...

Another winter away...

2010-01-08T18:42:00.004-06:00

This has never been an objective of ours but who are we to argue with God. In fact we have not even considered it, but as we moved through the fall this past year, He presented again for the 4th year in a row, a need to serve a portion of the St Louis winter in a warmer climate. This time it is the longest assignment yet, 90 days...

Here's how it came about. As we do on any NYI or Missions trip, we enjoy meeting the wonderful Christian brothers and sisters of the area, and where possible the missionaries serving there. Well, while we were in Manila this past fall, the Field Strategy Coordinator, David Philipps, after learning of our life skills (professional back grounds), decided we should meet the staff of the APRC (Asia Pacific Resource Center) that just happens to the housed in the APNTS (Asia Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary) compound. He admitted later there was a plan to this meeting. You see, the missionary in charge of the APRC, Eric Zane, was leaving with his family for 6 months of home assignment. One of the primary roles of the center is the support of the Nazarene Online Accounting program (NOA). Well, with my IT management background and Janet's Accounting knowledge, we are now going to help fill the gap for 3 months, mid-January through mid-April.

We leave next week and I have to admit that I am not going to miss the weather here. As for the assignment, it looks interesting and we are looking forward to what God has in store not just for us but the awesome staff we will be working with.

What next 'Papa'?

Christmas 2009

2009-12-24T19:46:00.001-06:00

December 2009

Dear Friends,

For us, this has been a Not-in-our-Wildest-Dreams kind of year!! On February 2, as Mission Corps volunteers, we flew to Ethiopia where we spent 6 weeks living and working in Addis Ababa in the Nazarene Field Offices there - Dan with computers and me with accounting software. We met some amazing people; the experience was so much more meaningful since we lived and worked with Anbessu Tolla and his family. We kept a journal of our experiences on the Internet - you can access it at www.reinhartsroad.blogspot.com!

Back home on March 19, we jumped right back into working at JoyFM, officiating at NYI Bible quizzes (got to go to Nashville and Boston this year!), and being involved in our local church. Dan had an awesome experience helping with YIM (Youth in Mission) training in El Paso, TX, preparing college students for
summer mission assignments. Nazarene Global Convention was this summer as well - so we spent a week working with NYI Bible Quiz Ministry (BQM) in Orlando. Since we were there, we had built in a few days to reconnect with (and to introduce Dan to) my cousin Steve Marr and his family and to cousin Beth Ann Schulenberg Grant and her dad and siblings!

Our previous home in Oakville, MO, sold at the end of June; we’re glad to be owners now of just one house - we’re having a great time living in Columbia, IL, for over 2 years already!

Dan made 2 platform beds this year - one for a spare bedroom and one for Erica, who’s still enjoying her job as a cook at a retirement complex in metro St. Louis. She took several days off to spend with Megan and Morgan, granddaughters from Massachusetts, when they came to visit for a week. We revisited the Gateway Arch and wowed them with a day at Elephant Rocks/ Johnson Shut-Ins. Caitlyn and Dylan visited for a week as well at the end of July and got to tour a firehouse and visit the St Louis Zoo and Science Center!

We lost Dan’s mom on August 1st. She was a Godly example to both of us, to the rest of her family and anyone she met! Dan officiated at her funeral celebration; what a beautiful service and time of remembrance!

From the Global Convention, Dan received an invitation from John Kim to do some Bible Quiz training in Korea! Networking created more invitations, so we traveled there in September, with Dan presenting 4 workshops in and around Seoul, Korea. From there, we flew to Manila and traveled in and out of Manila to Cebu, Legazpi, and Baguio - in one week, just missing an encounter with Typhoon “Ondoy.“ We were treated like royalty in all locations and made so many new friends!

Dan was thrilled to hear about interest in BQM training in Australia as well, so a trip was planned “Down Under” as well! In October, we were privileged to go to Australia, staying with Cameron & Jo Batkin and 2-year-old Max in Brisbane. We tried “Vegemite” and Pavlova and got to see kangaroos and koalas up close! They took us to the beach on the Gold Coast and we loved a day-trip around the countryside between Brisbane and Maroochy. From there we flew to Auckland, New Zealand, where we’d planned a couple of days of tourism (the “Hobbit” movie site, hot springs pools, a Maori cultural site) and Dan got to drive on the “wrong” side of the road through gorgeous, rolling, green countryside covered with sheep and cattle.

Four of our six kids were able to join us for Thanksgiving before Derick & Nola moved to Raleigh, NC. Life continues to be busy with fundraisers at JoyFM for a full-strength broadcasting signal.

We’re enjoying keeping in touch on Facebook and through e-mails. While we like being able to share our experiences, we love hearing what our friends are doing too! Please let us know what you’re up to! And when you’re in the St. Louis area, let us know so we can get together and share a meal or an overnight. We’ve got room!

God has such exciting plans for all of us!
Blessings to you for 2010!!

New Zealand

2009-11-01T14:31:00.004-06:00

Wednesday, October 28, 2009
It was a great Air New Zealand flight to Auckland with breakfast served. Janet enjoyed a series of NZ television programs about sheep farming, cheese making, Auckland shopping; so she felt a little acquainted with the country. We arrived mid-afternoon and were picked up by Kris Van Bibber (graduate of SNU, former FL youth pastor), who’s been in NZ for almost 5 months, serving as District Youth Pastor and District Secretary.
Kris took us to the home of District Superintendent Neville Bartle and wife Joyce, where we’d be based for the next few days. They live in a beautiful neighborhood on a high hill, overlooking Auckland to the west. After getting some advice about what North Island NZ attractions we should catch, we rented a car for 3 days (to be returned after the District NYI Convention on Saturday). In this cooler, mountainous climate, spring had absolutely exploded! The Bartles’ yard was full of pansies and roses, lemon and orange trees, and strawberries were the first of many produce crops. Even with the 1.4 million in population, there was still room for green hillsides speckled with grazing cows or sheep.

Joyce prepared a large meal for dinner, with corned beef, potatoes, carrots and broccoli, and included some wonderful brownies and tea for dessert. Dr. Fred and Dina Huff are also staying here (but are away for a few days visiting friends; they pastured in NZ 25-30 years ago!) and we’ll share the bathroom with them. This home is perfect for hospitality and the Bartles are experts! We even got to do a large load of laundry that first evening, in anticipation of being sightseers for the next couple of days.

Thursday, October 29, 2009
After a lovely breakfast (porridge, meuslix, toast, juice, and coffee) followed by a short devotion and prayer, we gathered our GPS, emergency phone numbers, and some maps and directions printed by Neville from his computer and started out -- on the left side of the road! The steering wheel of this rental car is on the right, but Dan did very well, as we headed south of Auckland on the South Motorway (not “highway“). We took photos along the way of the meadows and hills and mountains. Our first stop was a tourist information office in Tirau, created from corrugated metal and looking like a sheepherding dog! Then, we continued to Matamata, where we’d catch the Hobbiton Tour. We bought sandwiches and juice from the Robert Harris Coffee Shop across the street, then boarded the bus to the Hobbit movie set site.

It looked like it might rain and it did (including hail!) before we got to the beginning of the walking part of the tour. The guides (Carolyn drove the bus and Eric would be the tour guide) were both so knowledgeable and personable, and assured us that there were umbrellas waiting for us to use on the tour. The property is owned by the Alexander family. All in the group took lots of photos of the party field, pre-decorated hobbit holes, lake, trees. And we learned so much about the film‘s shooting and re-sizing things in the movies… At the end of the tour, we also got a sheep-shearing demonstration and got to feed some lambs with bottles.
Several of the tourists were from Spain, Australia, Georgia/US. After more than 2 hours (a really comprehensive tour!), we were driven back to town. Our rental car was dead; we’d left the car’s lights on and drained the battery. Back at the information service, a mechanic was called for us; we got a coffee from across the street, waited at the car and the whole problem was fixed within 20 minutes!

Dan drove to Rotorua, admiring the lake and mountains. Neville had made arrangements for us to stay at the Gibson Court Motel after finding the “I” (tourist information) office to pre-purchase our sightseeing tickets for this day and the next. It didn’t take us long to find the Sky ___ tram to the top for view, but not dinner (quite expensive). We shared green-lipped mussels and bruschetta at Ciccio’s Italian restaurant; it was a very nice place, even though we had to compete with the noise of a large group of other patrons there.
After that, we went to the Polynesian Spa for 2 hours: There were 5 different pools, acidic or alkaline, all labeled with their temperatures, so you could decide how you wanted to spend your time. The smell was distinctive, but not awful. Many Asians were enjoying the pools of varying temperatures. Locker rooms included showers and room to change clothes.

After picking up some pastries and instant decaf at a nearby supermarket for a snack, returned to the motel. Slept well in the oversized room with its own mineral hot spa tub (which we didn’t have time to use).

Friday, October 30, 2009
Joyce had supplied most of our breakfast (meusli and butter and jam), but we’d added croissants as well from the grocery store. We were glad to shower and catch up on the Internet, then checked out and drove a short way to Te Puia, a Maori site with geysers, hot mud pools, and Maori entertainment, including a 45-minute music/dance presentation and an hour guided tour (female Maori-British guide named Kiri) of the geysers and Maori history and customs. Absolutely fascinating! The tour ended with wood carving school and flax weaving school, demonstrating the fine art of creating traditional Maori items.

Staying at Te Puia, we’d reserved a typical Hangi dinner, a complete meal of (stacked from the bottom) cornbread stuffing, kumara (local sweet potato), potato, carrot, corn on the cob, chicken and greens -- all cooked in the natural hot spring waters. We took a different way back, enjoying a little different scenery, but drove through similarly charming small towns back to Auckland.
We got back to the Bartles’ home just as they did. Joyce fixed another lovely dinner, then Dan made sure he was ready for Saturday’s NYI convention, while Neville planned for his flight to Bangkok for District Superintendents and regional board meetings.

Saturday, October 31, 2009
As this was the first NYI Convention in several years, it was an important event and Kris had it well-planned. We transported the computer, handouts, banner, etc., to the Church and got set up. Youth and youth leaders arrived and Kris led the group in greetings and in some worship songs, then detailed the youth events he had planned and led in the last few months. Neville spoke, as did Fred Huff, and several youth leaders made reports. A couple of youth groups gave cute skits.

Lunch was already fixed for us when we took a break - hot dogs and chips, cookies and soda. The lunch time also included some outdoor time for volleyball and “touch” (a tamer version of rugby, rather like touch football compares to real US football). After lunch, all attended Dan’s workshop on Bible quizzing. Those around me asked some great questions, showing me that they were paying attention, understanding, and getting excited about using this ministry tool!

Neville had left during our meetings, so we enjoyed our last meal in NZ with Joyce and Kris (who actually had lived with the Bartles for a while when he first arrived in Auckland).