The Masters

It is Good to be a Missionary

While it is true that being a missionary involves certain sacrifices, it is also true that these sacrifices are compensated in many ways.  Our trip over the last few weeks has been a blessing.  We just finished two great conferences in Colorado and Missouri.  While in Colorado we had the chance to spend a day in the Rocky Mountain National Park.  And in Missouri I had the chance to go to the Homecoming  with my kids at the University of Central Missouri. 

Here is a picture from Colorado.  I am uploading it in large format so click on it to see the enlarged version.  Than check out the video of the UCM marching band.  Daniel and Becky show up at the end.

I love living in Argentina.  One of the interesting things about living overseas is the way common place things in the US take on a special flavor.  Things like baseball games, and marching bands, and football on crisp fall days.  We don't see them often and so we enjoy them more when we do.

El Piojo vs. Beckham

We are back in the States for several weeks to visit supporting churches and participate in a few conferences.  My brother-in-law gave us tickets to see the Kansas City Wizards play Los Angeles (thanks David!).  The soccer snob in me hates to admit it, but it was a good game.  Especially since KC beat Beckham's team. 

The highlight for me came in the second half when KC put in El Piojo Lopez.  El Piojo's real name is Claudio and he is from our province of Cordoba in Argentina.  He is a much loved player there, known for his great speed, huge heart, and a shot which is powerful if at times erratic.  He played for several years on the national team.  Lopez didn't score but he had a couple of good plays.  On one he made a beautiful self-pass through the defender's legs.  That was enough for me to leave satisfied.

The first picture is of us with the kids (Sarah, Carita, me, Becky, Daniel).  The other is of Piojo on the jumbotron.

Thanksgiving

Here is a video Daniel and I made of our Thanksgiving celebration at my parents house.

Light Posting

My posting has been light and will continue to be so for awhile I am afraid.  I am in the middle of a couple of projects that are taking a lot of time.

First, I am trying to finish up a degree with Reformed Theological Seminary.  I have been working on it for several years.  Now I am only three courses and a thesis away from finishing.  So I am trying to push on through.  I am hoping to do my thesis on some topic related to William Carey.  That should be fun.  But first I have to get past Greek.  I took some Greek many years ago, but middle-aged brain seems to have lost some moves.

Second, we are trying to get a foundation up and running to support the seminary project here in Argentina.  After a year and a half we finally have our 501c3.  So now we have to do something with it.  We hope to have a website up in the next few weeks.  I will post an update when that happens.

Home from Cambodia

Our son, Daniel, is back from his trip to Cambodia. He went with TIME, a youth mission ministry that is headquartered at our sending church in Miami.

I think he is still trying to digest all of his experiences. He has come to a number of conclusions. One is that God is God everywhere. Even on the other side of the planet.

I like this picture. It could be the poster for another Indiana Jones movie. One of the kids on the trip is a good photographer and made all the team members pose for different shots.

Christmas Colors

Summer is almost upon us.  So far the heat hasn’t been too bad.  Every time it starts rising we have gotten rain.  Things are really green.

A guy came by selling the first watermelons of the season.  This one was about 10 kilos. 

Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tree

When we pulled out our old Christmas tree we discovered that a colony of ants had nested in it. After a chemical weapon strike we reclaimed it and it is in the living room doing its duty. But since we weren’t sure it was going to work we looked at Christmas trees at Wal-Mart (yes, we actually have two Wal-Marts).  I saw a tree that reminded me of Charlie Brown’s that cost all of 15 pesos.  I pointed it out to Carita.  A few days latter it appeared in my office. It makes me smile every time I see it.  I googled Charlie Brown’s tree and realized it is actually more pitiful than mine.

Back in Business...Sorta

Our phone is fixed so I am able to get online. Now I am having trouble with TypePad - the site that hosts this blog. I keep getting error messages. It could be something to do with the configuration of my own computer. But since it happens on both machines I use I am not sure. I put up a photo album of the survey trip to La Isla Verde, but it is a mess. I haven't been able to finish the captions or the headlines because of the errors on TypePad. Maybe you can check it out any way. It is in the side column.

Telephone

I am delinquent on posting.  We are without phone or internet.  It seems that the local hoodlums have taken to cutting telephone wires so that the security alarms in the neighborhood won't work.  They fixed it and now it is cut again.  I have some photo albums of mission trips to put up once we can get back on-line.

You Dirty Rat

A rat got into the pantry on Sunday. He had been in our bedroom last week and kept us up from sometime after midnight until about three in the morning when we got tired of trying to catch him and
went to sleep in another room. Sunday, during lunch, Carita heard a rustling in the kitchen pantry, a small room that measures about 4 feet by 5 - just enough room for the freezer and some shelves.

Dan and I went into action mode. We armed ourselves with an old putter and a 9 iron. We closed the sliding door behind us and began moving the freezer back and forth. The rat was much too agile and stayed under the freezer until we pushed it out of the pantry. He took to the shelves so we had to take everything out and hand it to Carita. We had several rounds of adrenaline-hyped action in which the rat would dive off of a shelf at us and scramble for an exit. He would bounce off the walls and race up the door jam over our heads. I knocked most of the bark off of Dan’s left shin with an unfortunate swing. After the first couple of times we got used to it and quit flailing wildly and making little girl noises.