Ladies´ Mother´s Day Tea

For the last 6 weeks, our church ladies have been planning a Mother´s Day Tea. Actually, I should say, a few of the ladies and I. As a missionary my ¨job¨ is to work myself out of a ¨job.¨ Anyone in leadership should be focused on teaching and training the next generation. Yes, I know I am MUCH younger than many of the ladies in our church here, but spiritually and many times practically we experience MUCH more in the US that then has prepared me to be in this position.

Therefore, as I try to duplicate myself, I decided that I couldn´t plan this tea alone. I needed a committee. Here in Chile there is a phrase, ¨Every Chilean LOVES a good dictator.¨ (This is a throw back comment in regards to Pinoche the man who ¨ruled¨ here in Chile for 20 years.) Because of this phrase and mentality, it was interesting to see the reactions to having a committee. Pastor wasn´t sure it would work, but in the end...

I chose 5 ladies to help me. Each one is FAT. (Faithful, Available, and Teachable) Sandra, the pastor´s wife was in charge of set up and tearing down. She had the option of doing it all herself, or getting others to help her. She was in charge of directing all of that area. Patricia and Rossanna were in charge of the kitchen. They had to plan what we were going to eat for our little snack, along with recruting and organizing the servers. Maria Georgina and Leticia are both older ladies. They helped to make some of the gifts/decorations. I was in charge of decorations, the schedule, invitations, and running the event itself. Jennifer Rubin my fellow missionary at the church, willingly took over responsiblity for getting the guest speaker and arranging her transporation etc.

I was absolutely amazed. Out of the 3 other churches we invited we had 2 of them show up. (The other church was having their own event that day.) We had set only 34 place settings, but planned for 50 with food figuring we could add people as we went. Adding we did!!! We had 41 ladies there!!! What a blessing to have to keep moving closer at the tables to fit everyone in!!!

However, the MOST exciting thing was that we had 2 ladies raise their hands to receive salvation. GOD IS GOOD!!

I still have to do a ¨debriefing¨ with my committee, but only to demonstrate how to complete the process with evaluation. I still am looking for a lady to take over my ¨job¨ of leading the ladies´ ministry. Who knows, maybe one of these ladies.....

Here are some pictures of our WONDERFUL event!!

Our youth group teens were the servers. They also did a WONDERFUL skit for our entertainment. Our youth are SUCH A FABULOUS group of young people!!! I truly can say that without our young people, our church wouldn´t function!!

A get away

2 weekends ago we had the opportunity to rent an apartment by the beach with the world´s largest man made pool. Here are just a few of our moments of Family Fun while on a SHORT vacation.

OUR WEEK

Some different people have wondered what it is like to be a missionary, so I thought that I´d give you an idea of how our week goes.

Monday - Doug works down at ABWE Chile headquarters of Santiago Christian Academy. He usually leaves here around 8:15 on bicycle, so as to arrive there by 8:30. He takes care of the mission and school finances as well as being property manager, which has been more work with the earthquake cleanup.

The kids and I get up, pack lunches, have ¨cuddle¨ school (the homeschool that I have to read and discuss with them) and then leave by 11:45 pm in the car to also head down to the school.
The kids get to eat lunch and play with their friends, while I have detention duty in my classroom until about 12:50 pm. Then the kids go into their daddy´s office to begin completing their workbook school while Doug tries to balance fathering and work. Meanwhile I teach Biology to 12 students from 12:50 to about 2:30. Then I collect the kids to head home and finish homeschool and for me to prepare dinner and get ready for my next Biology class.

Doug gets home anywhere from 6 to 7, depending on the craziness of the day.

Tuesday - Doug leaves via car for the day around 8:00 am to be at the school/running to the bank/running to the exchange house/ taking care of property business. He usually gets home anytime between 6 and 7.

The kids and I stay here in Tuesdays getting A LOT of homeschool for the week done and me getting caught up on Biology/preparing my lesson for Ladies´ meeting/household duties.

Wednesdays are weird!!! They look just like Monday, but every other week at 2:30 the kids and I don´t get to come back home, we are there at SCA until 6 with Doug. This is because of different ABWE meetings that we have. Therefore, some Wednesdays the kids are at the school from 12 until sometimes after 6, if it´s a long meeting. We get home to have dinner real fast and then we have bedtime routine.

Thursday is family day. We still do some homeschool. Doug doesn´t go down to the school and we usually catch up on errands and doctors appointments. Thursday night at 8:00 pm we have prayer meeting, which usually lasts until 10:00 when we rush the kids into bed, to be ready for Friday´s schedule.

Friday - Doug leaves as normal, but via bicycle again, so that at 10:30 am, the kids and I take the car down to the school so that I can teach one period of Biology while Doug watches/schools the kids/works. After teaching, the kids and I come home to do homeschool and get ready for the weekend. Doug gets home at the usual time around 6 and we have some family time.

Saturdays are a hodge podge of things. Every other week, I teach ladies´ Bible study from 4 -6, while Doug spends time with the kids.

Sundays we have SS at 10:30. Doug will be teaching a series on Philippians soon during SS. I just finished teaching the teen girls of our church during this time. At 11:30 we have ¨breakfast¨ as a church. at 12:00 we start church and run until 1:45. Then we usually have someone over for lunch, and then sometimes we have married couples meetings during the evening.

Then the week starts all over again.