Teleférico/Bye Sarah...

A week or so ago the team took it's final outing together as a whole.....Mérida is home to the highest cable car (teleférico) in the world. I have actually been on it before (with my summer project) and so I got to enjoy a second trip up the mountain (to Pico Espejo). It was pretty cold at the top! The trip up to the final station....
The team nestled in a rock....
It's a little chilly up there!

It was our last team outing because Sarah left us this week as she is headed back to the states to re-raise her support for next year. Our dearest Maracuchan will also be departing from us shortly as she is headed back to her beloved Maracaibo to raise support as well. Both of them will be working with the team in Caracas next year. Please pray for them as they raise support! The other 4 of us will be continuing on with ministry as usual for now :) and making the most of our last 2 months in this beautiful city.

www.freerice.com

it's cool. and good "waste" of time.

Religious

"I believe that the greatest trick of the devil is not to get us into some sort of evil but rather have us wasting time. This is why the devil tries so hard to get Christians to be religious. If he can sink a man's mind into habit, he will prevent his heart from engaging God....." - excerpted from Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller, pg 13

Christmas in May?

Ok so this post may be another one mostly for my mom...but just in case there are any other artsy/craftsy types out there (like my mom and I) I thought I'd share that I finally finished the winter crossstitch I had started in September. (I ran out of white thread in December) and had to have it shipped to Venezuela....I finally got it at the end of April and was able to finish.....Only 5 months too late, or 7 months too early for Christmas :)

P.S. This is my 100th post! I was hoping to have something more exciting to write about, but I've been in bed sick with the flu for 4 days and don't have much energy, let alone excitement :S Hopefully something more exciting will be coming soon....stay tuned :)

Mothers are Wonderful Things

Happy Mother's Day to all you beautiful Mothers out there:) I know that there are definitely some that read this blog, and to each of you I wish you days filled with joy and hopes that those you love are close enough to hug today....

On that note...I am not within hugging distance of my mom, nor of my grandmothers. :( This is one of the days it's really hard to be in another country. So in lieu of that I am writing them a shout-out in this way, to say Thank You for being in my life.

Mom....thank you for being who you are. Thank you for reading the Little House books over and over when we were younger. Thanks for letting us toilet paper our own house, just to have fun at a slumber party. Thanks for my surprise 8th grade graduation cake. Thanks for always being the mom who showed up for everything in school. Thanks for making my costumes - princess, ballerina, Mary Ingalls....and helping with booktalks and dioramas, Thanks for letting me watch Grease when I got my braces on. Thanks for sending me many more care packages than any of the other kids ever got. Thanks for coming to Seattle when I broke my foot, and taking care of me, even though I should be old enough to take care of myself by now. Thank you for letting me come to Venezuela, no matter how scared you were. Mom, you've always been there when I needed you. More than anything, thank you for not letting me go when things are hard. I love you and I miss you sooo much.








Grandma Jean....Thank you for always always being faithful. Thank you for coming to every swim meet or tennis match or band concert. Thank you for letting us help decorate your house for the holidays. Thanks for letting me help with the lasagna or sugar cookies or...divinity!! Haha.Thanks for being silly with us sometimes and putting up with all our teasing. Thank you so much for supporting me to come to Venezuela, even though I know it was not exactly what you were expecting me to do with my life :) Thanks for your emails, and more importantly thank you for your prayers. I love you, and I miss you so much.


Grandma Sal - Thank you so much for being fabulous :) Thank you for birthday cards and Christmas cards and presents. Thank you for taking me shopping and to the beach. Thanks for letting us jump on you to wake up in the morning. Thanks for making the best pot roast and meatloaf! Thanks for buying the little boxes of cereal and bottles of apple juice. Thanks for being beautiful and stylish and encouraging us to be the same. Thank you so much for being my beautiful grandmother, I love you and miss you so much.








You all mean the world to me! I will be home in 80 short days! Wishing you the happiest of happy Mother's days :)

P.S. Special shout-out as well to Beth Coonts, who I've become aware reads this blog. I've never met you, but your daughter and I have spent many hours comparing how much we miss our mothers and telling anecdotes of you two. I'm sure I'll meet you someday...until then, Happy Mother's Day, God Bless :)

"Everything"

Tonight, I was witness to a "drama" about Christ and how much He fights for us, basically. It brought me to tears, thinking about how much the Lord chose to suffer for us, and how hard He fights for us now....the song that went with is was "Everything" by Lifehouse....I guess I had never really thought about the lyrics before now, but they really touched my heart....here they are for you, I encourage you to read them and/or buy the song off of itunes, it's worth it :)

Find Me Here
Speak To Me
I want to feel you
I need to hear you
You are the light
That's leading me
To the place where I find peace again.

You are the strength, that keeps me walking.
You are the hope, that keeps me trusting.
You are the light to my soul.
You are my purpose...you're everything.

How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?
Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?

You calm the storms, and you give me rest.
You hold me in your hands, you won't let me fall.
You steal my heart, and you take my breath away.
Would you take me in? Take me deeper now?

How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?
Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?
And how can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?
Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?

Cause you're all I want, You're all I need
You're everything,everything
You're all I want your all I need
You're everything, everything.
You're all I want you're all I need.
You're everything, everything
You're all I want you're all I need, you're everything, everything.

And How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?
Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?
How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?
Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?

How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?
Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?

*Please Lord, I want to be moved by You......there's truly nothing better than this. You are Everything*

Curacao

For our third and final VISA renewal trip, we went to a small island off the coast of VZ called Curacao it is one of the "ABC" islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao) all part of the Dutch Antilles. Interestingly for that reason - the most common language is Dutch! Followed by Papiamento (a mix of a native language, English, Dutch, and Spanish), then Spanish and finally English. Actually most of the English that was spoken was very limited, and we found it easier to communicate in Spanish (our now second language, as we are all pretty much capable of the language). Mostly, despite HORRIBLE, and I do truly mean that delays, cancelations and all around travel nightmares....we spent 4 days in Curacao relaxing, exploring, and eating some good food - prepping for the last three months of ministry. I've posted photo albums with pics from Caracas and Curacao....but I'll put up a few here with captions so you can see a tid bit of the experience :)

We were amused by the translation on this card, please no "spindling"

The cute little bungalow which was our home for our trip.

Who would want to buy this shampoo?! Eek!

The car we rented was REALLY tiny for the 4 of us!

Just a cool view of some downtown stores....

The girls, on the floating bridge.

Oddly enough, Curacao is home to an ostrich farm!

It's also home to an African restaurant....featuring Ostrich plates....I had a wrap....tastes like beef!

You might think this is silly, but there was a DENNYS in Curacao and we got super exited for American food! (especially after the ostrich meat!)

There are big lizards everywhere!

We got to visit the "Hato Caves" that were carved out by the ocean.

"Hato Caves" - slaves used to hide here and do religious services where their masters wouldn't find out. Cool!

The beaches, of course, were gorgeous!

Our last night we got dressed up and went to a nice dinner....the restaurant was on the ocean and we got to watch the waves crashing as we ate, it was a cool experience :)

Well I think that's all folks....It was a great trip of course, but I'm glad to be back in beautiful Merida and looking forward to our last three months of ministry here. Please keep us in your prayers!