Interesting Irony

Sitting in the full auditorium on a Sunday night while everyone else around me sang praises to our God, I could only cry. "Why, Lord? Why is it taking SOOO long??" We had been raising support for 4 years and we so wanted to be in Chile!

Sitting in a small, but full auditorium on a Sunday morning while pastor spoke about the difficulties of missionary life, I could only cry. "Lord, I miss my church in the US! I miss my friends, family, and heart language!"

God has taught me MANY lessons throughout this missions journey that has just begun, and some days are better than others. During our training at ABWE, we learned that right around the 6th month on the field, some people experience STRONG feelings of homesickness. I'm CERTIANLY not experiencing that much homesickness, but I do miss home every once in a while. Please don't get me wrong! I LOVE living and serving God here in Chile, I just wish I could bring all of my loved ones here with me!

Instead we are making new precious relationships here. Like the friendship that I have with our pastor's wife. Sandra and I try to meet once a week and talk often on the phone. She has had a tough job raising 4 kids from the ages of 9 to 21. Christian, her husband and our pastor, is a WONDERFUL man with patience for our Spanish and truly a heart that is TOTALLY sold out to God! There are others like, Patricia, Jessica, Vivianna, and Gloria. Each one has touched my heart and my life!

Thank you Lord for new experiences, your timing, and the support I need when I need it!!

Paintings CHEAP!

A few weeks ago we went to the feria (a kind of street market where everyone sells everything and anything you can think of) and then I returned today. On our first trip we purchased three paintings for our living room, two smaller ones and one larger. They make a wonderful addition and also a sort of memory for our future adopted kids from here. Get this the small ones cost us just under $4 each and the larger one was about $7.50. AMAZINGLY CHEAP, but BEAUTIFUL! The bigger center one over our couch
One smaller one

The second smaller one

Doug had expressed interest in a painting of the coastal town Valparaiso for his finance office at the school, so today I went back and bought it for him.

Vacation Part 2

So we arrived at El Rancho El Añil, where we settled in and went off to dinner in the dining area. The food was great all weekend! It was typical Chilean style food with cold veggies and empanadas. TO DIE FOR!!!
The main reason that we had chosen this “ranch motel” was because of the indoor heated pool. Since we arrived in Chile in February, Hannah asks almost everyday if we can go swimming. Well finally she got to swim!! Both she and Caleb are little fish. (I guess they take after my side of the family!-My uncle, cousin, sister and I were all on swim teams during junior high and high school, and some of us during college too.) Saturday the pool was a bit cooler, but by Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, the pool was actually hotter than the “hot tub!” It was truly GREAT!!
Saturday was all rainy so we spent our time between the pool, playing pool, and playing board games in our cabin. Games are something I grew up with as a kid and it has become a regular part of Amundson family time. Sunday it was wonderful to wake up to sunshine and of course breakfast brought to us in our cabin again! So nice to go on a vacation where I didn’t have to cook. Overall, it was a short but well needed break for our entire family! If you’re ever down here to visit, maybe you can enjoy breakfast in your cabin too!!

Hannah helping her daddy shave!

The other nice thing about El Rancho is that they have a whole outdoor pool set up, a kids' playground, tennis, and more. Since this place is only about 40 minutes outside the city and they have a swim during the day and have lunch there deal, maybe we'll be visiting for a day trip again soon!

Just one of the MANY wonderful views of the Andes Mountains that we get to see daily!

Vacation Part 1

This past Friday Doug took a vacation day and we headed out of the city. Our anniversary came and went on August 9th with no celebration, so we decided to get away, all 4 of us. We didn't go far. We went about 45 minutes out of the city to a small ranch style motel with a heated indoor pool. We had planned to go skiing on Friday before heading to the ranch, but the small ski "resort" where we were thinking about going, had very little snow and we were pressed for time on Friday to get out of the house in time to make it a worthwhile ski day. We left early afternoon on Friday to drive up to at least see the ski "resort" and enjoy the views.

After enjoying the MANY switchbacks to get up and back down the 8000 ft. above sealevel, we headed to our ranch motel.

Ladies' Meeting

This past Saturday we had a nice ladies' meeting here in our home. It was great to have 4 other ladies join me as I taught how to study the Bible. I'm using a pamphlet from here that teaches how to inductively study the Bible. Some of the ladies in our church have been attending for MANY years, some more than 10 and they don't even know what a devotional is. Sadly, many of those ladies didn't come.

From left to right, Maria Georgina, Sandra, Patricia, Sandra (the pastor's wife who I'm discipling on Tuesday mornings) and me.

On Sunday my friend, Patricia, was going around showing the ladies who weren't here the "gift" of the pamphlet. I then had one of the ladies that missed come to me and ask that I not punish her for not coming, but give her a pamphlet too! I am praying that the next meeting we have on the 22nd to finish going over the pamphlet will bring a MUCH larger group of ladies!

House Tour

Please keep in mind that this house tour is from LONG ago and therefore we've changed a few things!! However, ENJOY!!!