Saturday morning

If we don't have anything scheduled for the mornings on Saturday, I love the ritual that has developed in our home. I'm typically up before Scotty but allow myself a little sleep-in time on Saturday mornings. Lately, the weather has been perfect and I awake to the bright sun pouring in our bedroom windows through the thin curtains and the urge hits to get out of bed and get some breakfast. I try not to wake Scotty up and make my way out of the bedroom where the cats instinctively know I'm up (or hear me with their fine-tuned ears) and are waiting anxiously at the bedroom door. Cheddar flops down right in front of my feet, his way of asking to be petted, while Malphurs jogs a few steps ahead, loudly demanding that I pay attention to him. We scuffle into the kitchen where I first satisfy the unwavering demand of my cats for food, and then I put the coffee maker on for myself and Scotty. I open the curtains in the kitchen to a great picture window that usually displays a quiet neighborhood against a rugged mountainous backdrop with bright blue skies and big, puffy clouds. Lately, I've been sifting through some magazines that a friend brought me from home, dreaming about future house designs or chocolate cupcake recipes while I munch on cereal. After the coffee is done brewing, I allow myself, only on weekends, to use my imported, hazelnut powder coffee creamer (sounds delish right?). :) It's not too hard to find, but a bit expensive, and so makes it extra special to enjoy as a treat on the weekends. I am content at my little wooden table in the kitchen, alone with my magazine, my thoughts, my coffee, and a gorgeous world right outside my window. Inevitably, I am reminded of God's goodness to us, His gifts in small pleasures, and the hope that we have to treasure Him forever.

Cookbook search

OK all you ladies (and gentlemen) out there who love to cook- I'm looking for a cookbook to put on my Christmas list this year, but was a little overwhelmed with the 63,000+ options Amazon.com brought up when I searched "cookbooks". I'm looking for your recommendations, keeping in mind a couple things: one, most canned foods or pre-packaged/boxed items are unavailable in the grocery store here; two, I really like breakfast foods; three, I do quite a bit of hosting, so recipes that are larger or can be doubled easily are helpful; four, as much as I love international food (Indian, Thai, etc...), I also can't find most ethnic spices that these recipes call for; five, something that has a good mix of traditional meals (aka- fattening, feel-good foods) and healthy options would be a plus (or just healthy would be cool too). Am I being too picky?

So, send me your suggestions or just buy me your favorite book and send it to me for Christmas! :)

Papalisa

When I lived in Cochabamba, some of the Bolivian youth I worked with would call me "PapaLisa" (papa=potato, lisa=smooth). Here is what happens when you leave your smooth potatoes under the sink for too long without cooking them.

New/old hobbies

Thursday night we invited our good friends Jana and Edson over for dinner and hobby night. Scotty lost his only chess friend in LP a few months ago when this friend returned to the states. He's been itching to try out the new board I gave him for our anniversary and it turns out that Edson also enjoys playing. I've been wanting to learn how to knit, inspired long ago by women I saw knitting at Bethlehem Baptist (during the church service!) and also more recently by women who've wanted to create cute things for thier new babies. Jana's mother-in-law has been teaching her and now she's passing on this new knowledge to me as well. I was surprised at how non-dextrous my fingers were, but Jana assured me it would come easier with practice. The kitties certainly enjoyed our lesson, moving from string to needles and back to string again in a frenzy of playful biting and attempts to swallow a mouthful of string. I'm hoping to start out with a scarf- but we'll see how it goes.

IBM begins!!

We officially opened the doors of Mallasilla Bible Church yesterday! So much work, prayers, and preparation has gone into this Sunday morning and we saw God working throughout the service. We had about 60 attending, including children, and enjoyed a wonderful time of worship and hearing from God's word. Edgar chose to speak on Christ's purpose here on Earth and how He was the physical manifestation of God to us. Everything went smoothly, having set up the home we are meeting in the day before. It is as if this house was designed to be a house church, even though the owners didn't know when they were building it that God had all this in store! We comfortably seated all who came and were even surprised to have several different individuals and couples attend whom we never though were going to show up! It was neat to see how God had opened thier hearts to all of us and brought them in support, even though they don't seem interested in God or church.Vianka, an IBM member, and I stayed up late the night before to make a huge cake to share in a time of fellowship after the service, hoping that many would stick around and chat. It was a good time of mingling and enjoying this new church body God has formed in Mallasilla.

After lunch, Scotty and I layed down to rest for just a couple minutes. A couple minutes turned into a couple hours and we found ourselves struggling to move from the bed! I think all the anticipation that culminated that morning finally caught up with us and our bodies and minds needed a good sleep! Thanks be to God who has allowed us to start His church and is guiding us in all that we do- we are excited to see what the next few months and years hold for the IBM!

Marshmallow party

Last night was the celebration of several different things for us, in no particular order:

Scotty got to take off his sling last night! The doctor says he still has to wait one month before starting physical therapy because the bone is still very soft.

The cats turned one year old this month. They didn't actually realize we were celebrating their birthdays, and we didn't offer them any steak from dinner.

We've been back in Bolivia for a year! It's incredible how fast time goes and all the things that have happened over this last year. We certainly see the hand of God in all of it- He is so faithful.

We FINALLY got the papers for our land, after about 4 months of waiting. So, we decided to invite all the neighborhood kids over that we know for a bonfire and marshmallow roasting party. Scotty has slowly been piling up brush from the land in preparation for the big day when we got papers in hand. The kids were excited last night as he drove home from work and were already milling about the property waiting for us. We enjoyed a tasty dinner and then grabbed a bag of marshmallows I've been saving for this occasion and rallied the troops. The kids were all about helping Scotty start the fire and after it died down a bit, we handed out sticks and marshmallows to excited little ones and Scotty gave a brief marshmallow roasting lesson.There was a little guy there, Luis, who must not have been more than 3 years old. He kept aiming his stick in the general direction of the fire and then asking if he could eat the marshmallow. He would ask "Tio" (uncle Scotty) first, and then me, and then when we both approved him, he would stick the whole thing in his mouth and look like he was playing Chubby Bunnies (does anyone know that game?). Sometimes the kids would see him eat his cold marshmallow and say "but it's raw!". I would assure them that it was fine and eventually we had to cut little Luis off from the marshmallows for fear that his tummy wouldn't handle it very well. After we snapped a million photos of the kids who were begging to have their picture taken, and passed out almost the whole bag, the kids began to ask if they could have some for their mom, dad, sister, cousin, etc... We finished off the bag, let the first die almost down, and the left the oldest in charge while we returned home. It was a great way to hang out with these kids we see all the time as well as celebrate the fact that we are official landowners.

It's almost time!

Yesterday was the 17th anniversary of our sending church, La Comunidad, and a commissioning service for La Iglesia Biblica de Mallasilla (Mallasilla Bible Church- our official name!). After the sermon, the elders of the church gathered around Edgar, our pastor, Greg, and Scotty to pray a blessing over them, and had the rest of the team stand to be a part of the blessing as well. It was moving for me to see my husband on stage, part of the core leadership team of this church, knowing that God has gifted him with amazing leadership capabilities, insight into the Word, wisdom in decision making, and a love of seeing people come to know the Lord. We enjoyed gracious comments from the elder board of La Comunidad and an expressed commitment to continue praying for us, an extended body of the church, as we launch next week. I felt honored that God has called us to be a part of such an exciting time and a firm belief that He has been guiding us and will make Himself known through this church in Mallasilla. So, we will be opening the doors on Sunday, starting in the home of the neighbors who have the evangelistic Bible study, and then moving quickly to Highlands International School where there's more room. This week is full of activities of preparation and prayers that God speak through the core team as we welcome the neighbors, Edgar as he boldly speaks God's word, and the worship as we recognize who God is and praise Him for it.

Highlights...

...from the end of last week: Tuesday afternoon and evening: Scotty plans a surprise date outting for us. This includes a trip to the plant fair nearby to buy flowers and plants for our office. We got a brush plant (fun, bright red bristley blooms), the American dollar plant, a cute Bonsai tree, and some little red and yellow flowers. Dinner at a new cafe I've been wanting to try- veal in wine sauce and an asparagus omelet to share, plus an extra treat- Bailey's milkshake (yum!). Next is a trip to a small auditorium to hear a friend play classical guitar- he was incredible! Fun times with my sweet husband who knows I like him to plan surprises for me once in a while.

Wednesday: a good talk about ministry options over lunch with our co-worker Greg. He was so encouraging as he reminded us of how God has used us to really reach many in our neighborhood and help initiate relationships that are moving our church plant further. After lunch was tea with a Bolivian friend I've been trying to get together with for months.

Thursday evening: we take out our good friends to a great Asian restaurant to celebrate a birthday. Strangely, we spend a good part of the evening discussing intestinal worms and how they manifest/come out/negatively affect the body. You know you're a missionary when you can do this over dinner without flinching.

Friday: "Crazy ministry weekend" (my label) begins. We start with SIM team meeting, interacting with our fellow SIMers in Cochabamba, John and Bronwyn, who are here to film for the 100 year SIM anniversary celebration DVD. We invite them over for dinner, so I spend the rest of the afternoon doing correspondence in the office and preparing dinner. They stay the night.

Saturday: we are up at a decent time the next morning, expecting Lola (our once a week maid) to show up so we can take her to the crafts fair at Highlands. She comes and we head out into the beautiful, sunny day to set her up a table. Sadly, we find out later that she sold nothing. She had brought goods from a group of girls, all ex-street kids, who are trying to stay off the streets and support their babies. After the fair we have lunch at our house and head directly out into the blaring sun to do some filming on potential church property. I usually am good about wearing sunscreen, but we were in a hurry and I knew we wouldn't be out for very long. We saw lots of neighborhood friends during out filming session, which made for good footage, but as soon as we returned home, I noticed a nice, dark red ring around my neckline. This is one of the worst burns I've had in a long time- and we were only out for 30 mins! They say the sun here is 50 times as intense as at sea-level- a safe amount of time to be out is 15 mins. That's annoying. We have tea and a few mins to talk with our Coch friends before we head out again for a church plant meeting until 6ish. We return to enjoy a quiet dinner, just Scotty and me, and an early night to bed.

Sunday: get up early. Church and then pot luck with SIM team- lots of chicken and rice. Debbie makes a tasty chocolate cake for dessert- she's famous for her cakes. More filming after lunch and then we return home with John and Bronwyn and the Hurst family to talk more about filming. We're hoping to put together a good video presenting the next chapter of the story of the church plant ministry. After chatting and drinking coffee we move to the next venue on the other side of town where we're going to have a prayer walk with the Mallasilla Bible study group and our church plant team. We weave our way through the neighborhood, praying for families, for life transformation, for the bridging of social barriers, for land, for God's glory. We return home, our house guests having left during the walk to fly home, and spontaneously ask Greg and the girls to have a pancake dinner with us. Many pancakes, we say good-bye and finally have the house to ourselves. We read from our book of Roald Dahl short stories, I write in my journal, and it's off to bed at 9:30.

It was a good weekend, but I'm glad it's over.