The Shower

We recently took a short trip to Bariloche, 6 hours southwest of here. I can't seem to get myself together to write anything coherent about it yet, so until I can find my mind (it's small, and sometimes wanders off by itself) - here is a picture of: The Shower.

I've showered in some interesting showers before, this one wasn't a shock or a stretch for me. But I can assure you it was for my kids. One refused to shower altogether, the other cried the whole torturous five minutes I dragged her in with me. Only one was a bit more open and was actually getting into my mini step-by-step lecture on the science behind showering in showers such as these. She did really well, and emerged clean and tear-free, feeling refreshed and happy. The others are still traumatized. They'll get over it someday.

My Mini, Step-by-Step Lecture on How to Shower in Showers Like These:

First, turn on the water so your little white shower tank fills with precious bathing water.
Then, plug the shower in. That's right, electricity in your shower.
Wait 30-40 minutes until the electricity heats your shower water to the desired temperature.
VERY IMPORTANT NEXT STEP: Unplug your shower. This will keep you from electricuting yourself.
Next, get in (with flip-flops, because water and gritty volcanic ash is a yucky mix to stand in in bare feet).
Manually open shower valve; get your hair and whole body wet.
Turn off valve so you can have water to rinse with.
Suds up, fast. It's nippy with that mountain wind whipping in through the cracks in the wall.
Turn water back on, rinsing hair and entire body.


If you do it right, 2-4 more people can take a shower with remaining water. We only bathed three of us with about 5 gallons of water, but that's because we're novice first-worlders who shamed ourselves by our lack of ability to rough it. We've been told 6 construction guys have bathed, one after another, in this very shower. We are obviously lame and not cut out for the mission field.

Pre-birthday dinner

Tony's birthday is this week. So, in order to ramp it up for the festivities, I decided to serve him only the best for dinner last night. A pre-birthday treat, if you will.

Barfy burgers: nothing but the best for you, honey!

9:39pm - 9:44pm

Okay, let's take a break from poverty and bricks for a second.

Here are two pictures of a recent sunset.

Yes, these are real. No, I didn't retouch them, edit them, or use a filter.

I definately could have used a tripod, though.

God is pretty amazing.

Understanding Doctrine

Tony with Marcela's kids and Dani, practically our adopted son at this point

"If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine..." John 7:17

The golden rule for understanding is not intellect, but obedience.

  ~ from My Utmost for His Highest

I'm feeling very behind on updating the blog - we've been so busy and so tired - but hope to get some posts up soon!

:)

How I cope, sometimes

Living in denial is crocheting a warm fuzzy hat even though it's 100 degrees out. We all need ways to cope. Two of the ways I cope are: denial, and crocheting. Denial I have time for. Crocheting I don't - but live in denial that I actually do. It's a tortured existence.

Warm, fuzzy, half-finished hat is now sitting on the table collecting dust.

barn turned house

This is the story of the barn which became someone's house. The hard way.

The bricks from this barn will soon become Marcela's and Ceferino's (and their five kids') house.

Sometimes the cross is heavy, and it hurts, and it cuts your hands and makes you sweat. The cross of Calvary, True Love, an example we Christ-followers are called to walk in and to imitate.

Sometimes the cross takes the everyday form of bricks. LOTS of bricks.

the barn before

the inside of the barn

the top half of the building's bricks dismantled



all taken down by hand



Victor sledgehammering the bricks out

Tony and Victor working hard

they couldn't start one of the hand machines, so wrapped a wire around it and pulled hard til it started

 

the first shipment of bricks ready to be loaded -
the church's pick-up truck in the background, being put to good use



loading the bricks onto the flatbed for delivery

Tony, always smiling :)

loaded and ready for delivery

arriving at Marcela and Ceferino's (I can't say house, because they don't have live in one yet)

unloading the bricks

Tony, Victor, and Dani after a hard week's work

Reaching people with the Love of Christ, and eventually with the gospel, is hard work. Breaking ground in a new place the gospel hasn't reached (this little corner of the slums) takes various forms. Sometimes it physically hurts (Tony was achey, in back pain for days). It costs, it requires sacrifice - just as my salvation cost Christ everything - reaching others will cost, too. IT MUST COST. There is always a price. But don't be afraid to get dirty or sacrifice for what is good, becauuse God's economy works this way: It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Tea Break

Tony and a few other guys have been working on a farm lately, disassembling the bricks to an old barn. The bricks are being given to a family in humble circumstances, so that they may rebuild their house, which recently burned to the ground.

Mid-day, even in temperatures above 90 degrees, they insist on stopping for a mate (hot tea) break. I find the Argentine custom of drinking hot tea in the summer odd at best, but there are serious, die-hard, hot-mate-in-the-summer fans out there.

There is no electricity or way to heat their water on site, so here is how they prepared the hot water for their mate one sultry afternoon.

1. Search for high tree in which parrots make their huge meter-wide nests.

2. Gather several parrot nests that have fallen from the trees due to the blustery Patagonian winds.

3. Pile several nests and random pieces of wood in a little pyre.

4. Light fire.

5. Place plastic bottle filled with water close to fire, heating until very warm.

Lastly, show your wife the pictures so she can pray you don't get cancer from the toxins leached into the water from the plastic.

Tony's 2nd Post

Here is Tony's 2nd post (you can read his first post here). He asked me to post this verse back in July of...um... last year?

(oops)

And after he saw the one measly picture I put up the other day of an entire afternoon's work, he was like, "That's it?! That's the only picture you posted?? What happened to all the other pictures I took that day? You have to put them up, too!"

So, here you are, the scripture he wanted me to share last year {the one that keeps coming up over and over these days} intermingled with the rest of the pictures from the other day's water run to the slums.

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,

I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,

I was a stranger and you invited me in,

I needed clothes and you clothed me,

I was sick and you looked after me,

I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

That's all from Tony, til maybe next year.

thank you, more photos, and other stuff

Thanks for all the recent comments and the de-lurking, it really made our day! We were laughing out loud at some of the comments, our hearts warmed. It's so good to know people care. Everybody needs that, even rebel missionaries.

Last night I had a killer migraine, a stomach ache, and a neck ache. I sent Tony off to the pharmacy to get me some drugs, only to look out the window and see half the neighborhood pile into our van: the kids from next door, their friend, Yoli and her husband who just happenned to be walking by carrying a huge bottle (more like a small barrel) of water on their shoulders, plus all three of my kids and Tony. Nine people in a 5-seater van (we're missing a row of seats). I bet that was interesting. But who needs seatbelts, anyway. I guess the trip to the pharmacy was a neighborhood affair. Never boring around here. And all this after Tony spent all day demolishing a building, brick by painful brick, with a pick and hammer. Literally.



Now there's a man.  Back off, ladies, he's mine.



It's a great story, the brick story. God provides yet again.



bricks



more bricks

Someone from church who works in construction let us know about a farm that was sold and subdivided to be developed. The brick barn is being taken down and all the bricks gotten rid of.
 

the brick barn

We were able to get them for free to give to Ceferino to rebuild his house! This is an amazing blessing. There are about 8,000 bricks, worth about 10,000 pesos ($2,500 or so). Ceferino makes 3000 pesos a month (about $700);  the bricks alone are worth over three months salary to him.

The only catch is, we need to take the bricks down ourselves. One by one. Using a hammer and chisel. No bulldozer available 'round these here parts.

So, Tony and Ceferino and Dani and his brother Kevin are now spending their days pounding bricks.


Ceferino getting the bricks for his new house

Hopefully it won't take more than a few days.

Kevin working hard. Kevin is 13 and a pastor's son.

We didn't let our MK go just yet. He's can be a bit spacey, and these brick walls have been known to just topple over. Construction sites down here are not what you would call up to code. Not even close. You need to be quick and on your toes. 



Ceferino, Tony, Kevin

 
It's pain-staking work, but they are having a good time. Marcela is happy, too. It does her good to be able to get out of the slums and spend a day in what used to be a fruit plantation, surrounded by green and quiet, compared to the brown dirt and trash she is used to seeing.

fresh-picked grapes from the farm!

This weekend we are invited to a Pastor's Conference some 11 hours away. Edgardo wants us to meet all the pastors from all over Argentina, which would be really great. We would love to go, but we are almost out of money, and Tony is still looking for a job. It's either pay next month's rent, or go to the conference. We can't do both. The gas alone will put us under. Not to mention the car is not registered yet. Sometimes - especially at times like this - we feel the strain of not having a missions organization, a sending church, or regular monthly support like most missionaries. [Note: we do have some supporters, and we know who you are... all three of you! Thanks :)].

But God is not bound; His ways are not our ways. God is still God, and He has not left us, nor will he forsake us. HE is our provider, leading and guiding. And blessing. We know it, we feel it, we see it. We ask and pray for God to speed up the registration process with our car and to give Tony a job, but I think that, in the wait, he is doing other things. Being here is not about us. It's about who He wants to reach. In the meantime He is doing many things, like, perhaps, changing us.

Another day. Another water run to the slums.

Marcela, Ceferino, their children - and everyone else up on the edge of the slums we have been reaching out to - use water like this to drink, bathe, and wash. Cool water in rusty barrels. It's all there is. Imagine.



"For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink..."

[Read the whole context here. Sobering.]

new look, and doing the followers thing

After almost two years I picked a new look for our blog. Check it out.

I don't know if I like it or not, but it's simpler, less cluttered, quieter. I still have to clean it up bit, but now I can since we have a fairly reliable, higher-speed internet at home. Yippee!

Also, if you read here, let us know by signing up on the side bar. (Pleeeeease?) My stats tell me a lot of people read here, but no one seems to want to do it publically. Which I can understand, I lurk on blogs, too.

But please know that we missionaries find it very encouraging to know that people actually read our blogs. Really we do. It makes us feel like people care about us and care about what we are doing. We don't get old-fashioned letters anymore, so also feel free to leave a comment! We read them all and they are so encouraging - not so much what they say, just that someone took the time to say something. And thank you to our friends that do comment! It really means a lot to us. Know that Tony reads the comments, too. He will often ask me if anyone wrote to us or commented on the blog. Know that outside of the internet, we seriously have no contact with anyone back home!

:)

7 Lies About Homeschoolers, debunked

Heehee.