Catching Up

Has it really been a month since my last blog update? Sure has! We have been going North and South visiting family, and several supporting churches in the process. In just a few days Jenny and I will be taking a three day trip alone to celebrate our 13th anniversary. We have enjoyed our visit to the States and are very thankful to the Lord for working out the details, but we do miss Chile and look forward to getting back to life and ministry there.

Here are some random photos of the last four weeks...

Gatlinburg 2009

We will be in the States for the next several weeks. Jenny arrived almost two weeks ago with the boys and I flew in last Thursday with Ellie. I know that sounds like a bit of a complicated way to travel, but there was a reason for our madness.

For the past several days we enjoyed a time away with Jenny's family in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I have embedded a slide show of some of the pictures. This weekend we will be off to Mississippi then to Pennsylvania. 

Coming Soon

My friend and fellow missionary, Jason Holt has just announced plans to plant a new and much needed church in Santiago. Our desire is to be at the "church-planting" point in the early part of next year, so we look forward to getting a ground-zero view of this work. Follow the progress at Biblical Missions.

Día de la Madre

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there! Mother’s Day is also celebrated in Chile and yesterday we had a wonderful service at Iglesia Bautista Renacer to honor each mom present. Yesterday was also special because, Ivan Chacon returned from his visit to Lima, Peru and he was there for the first time in two moths; visiting missionary Mauricio Vileches from Paraguay preached and told about the ministry there; each Sunday school class presented something special to the mothers, and a couple in the church prepared an awesome Peruvian lunch for the 58 people that were in attendance yesterday. We are so thankful for the opportunity to work along side Ivan Chacon and the people at Iglesia Bautista Renacer while we continue to learn and practice the language.
Enjoy the photos.

All the Mothers present and who knows what Ellie is doing in this picture.

3 More Months

Yesterday morning Jenny and I made our way downtown to the Department of Immigration to ask for an extension to our temporary visas that expire on the 10th of May. Over six months ago we submitted all the paperwork for our residence visas, but as of yet we have not received the approval. We arrived in the office at 10:30 in the morning, grabbed a number and waited. It didn’t take long to realize it was going to be a long wait, so we decided to leave and take care of another errand. Once that errand was finished we checked the status of the wait (not much progress). Then we decided to leave and get lunch at an awesome Peruvian restaurant a block away called El Aji Seco. Great food! Finally at around 2:00pm Jenny decided she couldn’t wait with me anymore since the babysitter needed to leave at 4:00pm. She took the bus (actually three in total by the time she reached the house). She got home at 4:30pm (Whoops!).
Well, finally around 4:30pm I left the Immigration Department with a wonderful 3 month extension stamped on our paperwork.

On another note:
Below are pictures of last Sunday when I was privileged to baptize Caleb during a baptismal service at Iglesia Bautista Fe. We are in the fall season and getting ready to enter winter; this picture doesn’t convey the frigidness of the water. We praise the Lord for how He works in the lives of our children.

Happy Birthday Ellie

I know this comes a few days late, but we havn't had a fast enough internet connection to upload photos. On the 18th we celebrated Ellie's 2nd Birthday.
No icing is going to waste on her plate.

Not sure why she has a fork in her hand.

Ellie's hoping for a second piece.

The Reason For Easter

So far this has been a wonderful Easter week. Thursday after coming home from Iglesia Bautista Fe Caleb began asking a lot of questions concerning Jesus Christ and how to trust Him as your Savior. After talking with Jenny and me Caleb prayed and put his trust in Jesus. As parents we couldn't be more joyful!

That is truly what the Easter holiday is all about; Jesus came to earth to die for our sins and rose again to give us life everlasting! 

Hope you all have as wonderful of an Easter as we are having.