Amundson Family Musings

Illustration

2011-11-06T09:28:00.001-05:00

"When will this stop?!" I thought. Eliana lay on my lap screaming, after already screaming and throwing her temper tantrum for almost 40 minutes. Esther lay on the floor naked except for her diaper. She had already fought to throw her blanket, tigger, and stuffed bear far from her, and now came the fight about her diaper. She defiantly unstrapped her diaper, still laying on the bottom portion. Calmly, I explained to her that if she took off her diaper that she'd have to use the potty, she flipped up the front part and fastened it again. Then while still screaming, "NO DIAPER.", I continued to explain that she could take off her diaper, but she'd have to use the potty. She slowly weighed the consequences and then unfastened her diaper.

She continued to cry and fuss, all the while pushing her diaper farther from her with her tiny little feet. After only a few moments, she reweigh the consequences and decided that she did want her diaper on. "You said, no diaper, and you took them off. I can't help you right now, I have Eliana in my lap. I'm sorry Baby Girl, you'll have to wait." Well, you'd think that I had told her that I was going to kill her, because if she could get any louder, she did, and then she arched her back like some kind of gymnastics move. Then it hit me...

How many times do we has God's children tell him, "NO this or NO that!" and then when the consequences come, we try to back track. We throw temper tantrums, although they are often shrowded in "spiritual prayer requests", or framed by "seeking God. What is really happening, if we are brutally honest with ourselves and others, is that we are in rebellion and simply need to obey Him. I need to reflect on how I "arch my back and scream and God." We should truly look at contentment and evaluate when we say, "No" to God.

Finally, Esther's "saviour" came to her rescue. Daddy, got a new diaper and gently placed it on Esther and then took her in his arms to give her "cuddles and loves." She needed to spend time with her daddy being loved and cared for and has since gone about her day happy and content. Praise God for our saviour who loves us and wants to share His daddy with us.

Amundson Anthem October 2011

2011-10-27T09:10:00.002-04:00

September Prayer Letter

2011-10-04T15:54:00.003-04:00

Amundson Anthem July 2011

2011-07-21T09:33:00.004-04:00

Amundson Anthem May 2011

2011-06-04T11:04:00.006-04:00

Saddening

2011-04-27T10:48:00.002-04:00

The twins are EXTREMELY active, especially in the morning around 10:30. So today we took a walk to two different parks. On the way back from our adventures, I saw a whole group of people in dress clothes; ties and skirts and all. They looked wonderful and they even had some of their kids with them. But then I realized what they were doing. They were from a religious group and were knocking on people's doors to share their version of the gospel with people. I have to give it to them, they are definitely a persistent bunch. However, I found myself praying for them as I walked by. Then I began to think...How do we distinguish ourselves from them?
Are we so in love with Christ that we can't wait to tell everyone we meet.

I was on a plane ride from Argentina to Miami back in 1998. I was pleased to see that I had an isle seat on a VERY FULL flight. I placed my things up in the overhead bin and settled into my seat. Then I smelled it, the woman's perfume. I have a very sensitive nose and strong smells can give me a headache or make me nausious. Well, needless to say as the night flight wore on the strength of the perfume smell disapated and I was able to sleep a little bit. However about an hour and a half before landing in Miami, the woman got up to use the rest room. When she returned I was OVERWHELMED with a second perfume scent.

This has often brought back Bible passages that speak about being a sweet smelling aroma to the Lord. How about sharing Christ that way? Are we sharing Christ, but sharing Him in a way that is like wearing a little bit of perfume and not bathing in it? I for one want to be a pleasant aroma to those around me to allow people to see a difference in my life rather than being immediately put off by my scent before I even make it to their "front door."

Amundson Anthem April 2011

2011-04-23T11:33:00.006-04:00

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A new experience...

2011-04-03T16:38:00.006-04:00

"What is that SHARP pain on my left side?" I thought. "Maybe it's just gas. I'll try the bathroom. Ok, that wasn't it!!! WHAT IS THAT PAIN!! Dear Lord, PLEASE HELP ME!!!" FYI here - I have a VERY HIGH pain tollerance!! I gave birth to our 2 oldest children with very little pain med and no epidural. So when I react to pain, my whole family knows it's BAD!! It was 6:00 AM on Saturday, March 26th. I had planned to sleep in and Doug had planned to take a marathon training run, but that didn't happen!!! The shooting pain on my left midsection abruptly startled me awake. After only a few minutes of seeking to deal with the pain, I asked Doug to take me to the emergency room. We called friends and fellow missionaries who came to our rescue and loved on our kiddos. I crawled into the front seat of the car, and realized that that wasn't going to work. I HAD to lay down in the back seat. Doug drove quickly, yet causiously with his hazzards on. Since it was so early and there was very little traffic, he even ran some red lights. He even passed a police car while he ran one red light. As he drove he had to contend with me vomitting in the back seat and telling him to go slower over the MANY speed bumps we have in this city. I have no idea when we actually got to the hospital, but when we did the symptoms didn't improve until another dose of vomiting, many drugs in an IV, and FINALLY MORPHINE!!! After a CT scan they determined that I have kidney stones. (Yes I did use the correct verb, HAVE.) The one that was causing all of the pain was trying to leave my body by scratching it's way out. They saw 5 kidney stones. 3 on the left side (2 still in my kidneys and the one that was trying to leave.) and 2 in my right kidney. OK, so what to do....

Check me into the hospital. (Our Blue Cross Blue Shied covers 100% of all in patient stays over 24 hours.)

See the doctor and then determine the next course of action.

That next course of action had 3 options.

Pass the stone naturally.

Take out the stone surgically.

Use sound waves to try to break up the stone so it would pass in smaller pieces.

So we waited 24 hours so see if anything would happen and so that I could have meds to dull the pain.

Sunday came with no new results and due to the meds, I felt absolutely fine. So, now back to the options. Because we weren't for sure that any of the medical options would be fully paid for and we're so short on monthly support, we decided to wait again until Monday AM to call the insurance company and get approval for the needed procedure/surgery.

Monday AM - Doug called the insurance company and all would be paid for. Next step, determine whether I would qualify for the sound wave procedure to break up the stones. (The stones have to show up on an X-Ray to be eligible for this procedure.) Well, guess what... NONE of the 5 showed up on X-Ray, so we had eliminated option 3. Option 1 was a painful option and one that with twin 2 year olds really wasn't an option due to the sudden onslaught of pain that could occur with no one here to help me.

Therefore, we went ahead with option 2 and on Monday at 12:00 PM I had the stone trying to exit my body, removed. Was it painless? NO and I did it with very little pain meds. I wanted to stay awake for the process so that I wouldn't have to deal with the anesthesia's after effects, and have the chance of going home on Monday night. However, due to continued pain after the procedure I did have to stay the night on Monday.

Tuesday AM I was able to come home and see my little girls. It took a few more days to feel completely back to normal again and I still have some pain now and again, but for the most part, I am FINE.

I am thankful for MANY things including...

A Chilean friend who came and cleaned my house.

The 8 fellow ABWE missionaries who helped us by either watching the kids, making us a meal, or both during the past week.

Having GREAT insurance that has said they will pay for everything!!!

That for now the count is... 1 down 4 to go!

Amundson Anthem Febuary 2011

2011-02-21T07:54:00.001-05:00

Our Newest Family Picture

2011-01-18T15:19:00.004-05:00

On January 12th at 10:53 am Chilean time (2 hours ahead of EST), the adoption of our 2 newest children was completed. The oldest twin and our 2nd daughter officially became Elizabeth Ana (Eliana) Amundson and the youngest twin and our 3rd daughter officially became Esther Saye Amundson. We are so blessed and were truly blessed that day with others both Chilean and American sharing the special moment with us. Here is our most recent family picture.

Clockwise - Heather, Eliana, Esther, Doug, Hannah, Caleb

Christmas in the Amundson household

2010-12-30T18:49:00.003-05:00

With 2 new little people in the house, Christmas was interesting. We originally had one gift for each of the older kids because we had purchased the pool for family enjoyment. The pool has been a HUGE hit with the girls and all of us really!!! However, a family from the states offered to send us some money for Christmas to pick out some things for ourselves and for the kids. PRAISE the LORD! Our older kids had 4 gifts to open. For Caleb it was Mint Oreo Cookies, Legos, Legos, and more Legos. For Hannah it was Mint Oreo Cookies, a Zhu-Zhu Hampster, and Hampster ball, and a Pixos set. The little girls got some wooden puzzles, a bilingual phone, stacking square cups, and a couple of English electronic toys that I found at a second hand store. There were a few other gifts from loved ones and neighbors that rounded out the day. We praise God for showing our kids that God loves them by using other people to send money specifically for them. We also PRAISE God for that baby that was born. That Jesus Christ came here as a vulnerable baby to grow up and live a blameless life, only to die in our place so that we might spend eternity with HIM! Thank you Jesus for your sacrifice!!! It was and still is the GREATEST GIFT EVER!!!

PS - many may notice the date on the pictures as the 24th. Actually the camera was wrong, it was the 25th, although most Chileans open their gifts at 12:01 AM on Christmas day, we waited and slept in a while.

Amundson Anthem December 2010

2010-12-07T10:20:00.002-05:00

Praises
Growth in our church

We have official foster care of Eliana and Esther

Another pastor ordained and installed in an ABWE church

We have been told we should get our permanent visas during the month of December!!

Prayer Requests
Ministry growth and qualified leaders for
national churches

Wisdom for ABWE
Ministries

Wisdom for Doug & Heather in teaching
responsibilities at church

Family adjustment and transition to the new twin girls in our home

Mailing Address in Chile
Doug and Heather Amundson
Cruz Almeyda 1389
Peñalolén
Santiago, Chile
South America

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all Gods. Psalm 95:1-3

We, like many of you, are celebrating all that God has done this past year in our personal lives, our recently expanded family, and in our church ministry. Heather and I have had a wonderful year here in Chile, and we praise God for his blessings to our family. We hope that during this season of Thanksgiving and Christmas that you too stop to give God all the glory that is due to his marvelous name.

At the writing of our last prayer letter, we had just received notice that we could visit and bring the twin girls home. We were able to bring the girls (Elizabeth Ana and Esther Saye) home on Monday, October 25th after a wild emotional up and down day with the court system and the adoption agency – but praise God that Elizabeth Ana and Esther Saye are now in our home. We had a second court date on Thursday, November 18th to receive official “foster care” rights where Fundacion mi Casa (our adoption agency) sent their lawyer, psychologist, and two social workers all to testify on our behalf. We are now waiting for our permanent residency visas, which should arrive in December, and then we can complete the adoptions. Thank you so much for your prayers in all of this. With 4 kids and two of them being almost 2 years old , Heather and I feel like walking zombies some days! The extra work has been worth it though, as we have seen a tremendous change in their attitudes and responsiveness since coming home from the orphanage.

Another great thing this past month was the ordination of another pastor, Pablo Uribe, who is now the pastor at one of the ABWE churches in the South-Western part of Santiago. This makes 5 different pastoral ordinations that Doug has attended this year, all of them being products of the ABWE seminary. The other ABWE missionaries working in the seminary have done a fantastic job, and the results are some well prepared pastors working in various churches throughout Santiago and the rest of Chile. As we have mentioned a young man from our church is currently in the seminary, and another young man is planning to begin in March 2011!! Please continue to keep this seminary in your prayers as ABWEs seeks how this ministry can be expanded for the glory of God.

This past month we have not seen the church grow much more, but we still marvel at how fast we have grown these past six months. The youth group is now nearly 15, Thursday night prayer meeting has roughly 25 or 30 each week, and we have seen Sunday mornings creep up into the 75 to 80 range. One of the biggest praises is that our church is located in a community called “La Reina” and for the first time in its long history, it is finally reaching the neighborhood around the church. In the past the church was always full of people that lived further away, and has struggled to reach its own community. As such we are thrilled to see God growing the church through local families. However the need for strong biblical teaching is very evident. Most of the new families know very little if any biblical doctrine, or are coming from other denominations where there was not good sound biblical teaching. At the moment we only have three adult teachers in the church, those being Pastor, one of our deacons, Daniel, and Doug. As such please pray for us to lay a solid foundation for these new families so that the church can continue to grow in sound doctrine and practice. Beyond this Doug had the opportunity to preach in a church near the coast that currently has no pastor, and Heather continues working with and transitioning the ladies ministry into capable hands.

Our plans and schedule for furlough continue to be clarified, and at the moment we plan to leave in very late June or early July 2011. Please pray for us as we make plans to visit our supporting churches, visit new churches, and attend the other required conferences and classes we have with ABWE. At this moment our support level is at 78% of our required support, or said differently we are short by $1,497 per month. This lack of funds can be roughly broken down as $800 due to churches or individuals who could not continue supporting us, $250 cost increases at ABWE (i.e. insurance), $225 increase for children’s education, and $200 due to the expanded family that we now have. As you can see – we need your earnest prayers laid before God to help fill the gap that exists.

We absolutely believe God will provide for his ministry in his time, and we pray and ask, if you or your church would be willing to help fill this gap. Please also continue to pray for our housing need during our furlough from August 2011 through late May or early June 2012. We are praying for housing near the Dayton, Columbus, or Cincinnati, OH area that would be VERY inexpensive or FREE to help rebuild up our support while on furlough. If you know of any opportunities that God might use to help us with this need please let us know as soon as possible. Thank you so much!!

In Him,

Doug & Heather Amundson along with
Caleb, Hannah, Eliana, and Esther

Candid Missionary Growth

2010-12-01T06:13:00.002-05:00

Raising kids on the mission field really isn't that different from raising them at "home." Chile is their home. God's principles don't change in raising kids depending upon where you're raising them. Circumstances change though and it is when they change that our children evidence God working in their lives.

Recently we've begun and almost have finished the adoption process of twin girls. (For more on this visit our adoption blog at http://john14verse18.blogspot.com .) This has made an already tight buget even tighter and basically non-existent. I share this not as a pitty party, I share it to evidence growth in my children.

Last night we sat our kids down to tell them that we have one present for them for Christmas and that there won't be anything else. I expected a bit of fussing, but both of them took it in stride and even said, "Mom, we have enough toys." "God has been good to us, so it's ok." We're seeing a level of maturity in the older kids that I know I didn't have growing up.

I pray that as we ALL, including many in the US, go through a rather "slim" Christmas materially, that God will bless us ABUNDANTLY with a Christmas focused on the real reason for his sending his son to earth. To die for our sins and to make a way for us to spend eternity with Him.

Embarrasing Moment in Ministry

2010-11-14T13:45:00.002-05:00

Every Saturday I welcome 3 ladies into our home for discipleship. I love this time of fellowship, working through a leaders training workbook, and talking about practical spiritual thing that come up in women's ministry. Only 2 ladies were here yesterday, and I praise God that over the last year and a half, that I have become very close friends with these ladies! It was a GORGEOUS day here, so I decided that we'd have our discipleship out on the patio. We always have tea or coffee and work through our lesson. Our dog, Kiwi, who had been chained up out in the front of the house, but who I had unchained so she could walk around freely while we met. However, I failed to think of some of the consequences of her walking about. First, she had to pee and where did she pick...YUP right next to me! You'd think I would have learned my lesson, but NOOOOO...I didn't rechain her. I let her roam some more and low and behold she had "other business" to take care of. YUP right in the line of sight of all of us, she decided to do her business. How HUMILIATING!!! I was mortified. Praise God that these 2 ladies both have dogs of their own and understand, but I was still mortified!!!

Rescued

2010-10-14T06:54:00.002-04:00

Here in Chile, and around the world, shouts were heard and the "national" chant flowed freely as each miner came to the surface. In less than 24 hours all of the miners were out. Here in Chile it was like the whole country was holding its breath. With each miner's embrace of a loved one, the country breathed a sigh of relief. We praise God that each one is out safely, but now we must pray that each one truly sees that although their lives were saved, it is even more important to have their souls saved. Please pray with us that in the aftermath of this WONDERFUL salvation that Chileans would be open to God's salvation and shout it from the roof tops too!!
Chile has been through the ringer this year with the earthquake down South and the mine accident in the North. God has a plan for Chile and he allows things in order to bring more sheep into the fold. Praise GOD and to GOD BE THE GLORY!!!

ROUGH WEEK

2010-09-28T10:13:00.003-04:00

PLEASE PRAY!!! The last 2 nights has found our whole family ministering in a situation at the church that has deep complications and implications.

On Sunday night we had a members meeting which was difficult to say the least! It started at 5:30pm and lasted until 11:30 pm. It was decided that one of the deacons along with Doug and I would talk to the person who seems to be the root of many of the problems.

I praise God that we have a new couple here on the field who are kind, gracious, and have sought to support all the other missionaries in whatever way they can. Their daughter, a jr. at SCA was here the whole time and put our kids to bed and took care of things here.

Then last night the deacon, Doug, and I met with this person, while my kids got to play at the pastor's house right behind the church. I took them because the meeting was only supposed to be from 7:30-8:00, but it didn't start until 8:15 and we finished around 11:15. My kids and me too for that matter, are EXHAUSTED!!

The meeting was somewhat productive and I along with the deacon have another pending meeting this week to resolve a few more things with this person and another member. PLEASE PRAY!!

Amundson Anthem September 2010

2010-09-09T10:20:00.004-04:00

Dear Friends and Family,

As I sit down to write this letter I can hardly believe two months have passed since our last update. I’ve always hear the time goes faster the older you get, but I don’t think we are THAT old yet!! Nonetheless we are thankful for all that God has been doing down here in Chile. So many things have happened the last two months so we will do our best to update you on all that has happened.

On the church ministry side we continue to praise God for all that he is doing at Good News Baptist. We continue to see growth both spiritually and numerically and we pray that God continues to work. The ladies took a small break from meeting due to the very cold winter months and other activities, but have restarted their meetings this past month. Heather continues to lead the ladies but has also been busy working with pastor to transition some of the other ladies into this role. Heather also received a “facebook” surprise as one of the young teenage ladies from our church posted a very touching and public blog about what Heather has meant to her this past year. We praise God for the fruit in this girl’s life!!
I have been busy teaching a series on Philippians for the past two months, and hope to finish this series up during the month of September. I was also involved in planning another men’s outing into a local canyon outside of Santiago. These trips have been good to strengthen the relationships between the young men and older men in our church. We also have had several families visiting our church the past few weeks. About four weeks ago one single man visited the church, and the following week his entire family (grandfather, parents, and siblings) all visited. The family lives very close to the church and is actively searching for a new church home. This past week the entire family returned again, and we also had two other visitors, one of whom lives very close to the church. This has been a huge prayer request for the church, as the majority of the members do not live in the same community as the church, and we really want to be reaching the neighborhood where the church is located.

We have also begun, and almost finished, the construction project at our church to replace the roof over one area of the church. The roof was in terrible condition and the room badly needed repair, so we are turning this room into a multi-purpose / youth room. With the growth of the church this has been desperately needed as we currently do not have sufficient classroom space for the church. Thank you so much Washington Heights Baptist for your help in this project!!

Outside of the specific church ministries we have also been very busy with a litany of other events. The most important event was the celebration of our 13th wedding anniversary (August 9th)!! I praise God for Heather as she has been an incredible friend, wife, and loving mother for our kids!! Heather was also busy planning and coordinating an ABWE ladies retreat in which 19 ladies (including 2 ladies from Argentina) had a weekend away and Lynne Trout encouraged and challenged the ladies from God’s word.

I have also been “blessed” with some additional responsibilities with ABWE, as I am now treasurer, property manager, and asst. legal representative for ABWE - Chile. In the middle of this we have also completed all of our adoption appointments with “Fundación mi Casa” and now we are waiting to know if God will allow us to adopt here in Chile. We also welcomed another ABWE family, Steve & Leslie Schneider, with their daughter, Stephanie, to the field.

We want to give you an update on our financial situation as we have mentioned in the last couple prayer letters that we have been lacking monthly funds. Currently our monthly support is at 85.6% of full support, which means we lack $873 dollars each month. Several churches have given one time amounts for which we are so deeply grateful, but we continue to lack monthly support. This past week has been a good week as we have been able to talk with our South American field administrator, and as a field team, make some decisions regarding overlapping furlough issues in the coming 2 years. As such due to the coordination of furlough responsibilities and our support issue, we are planning to return to the states for furlough in mid to late July 2011. This is about 6 months earlier than normal, but allows us to address our support needs, and allows us to return, Lord willing, in June 2012 to assume financial and legal responsibilities before other families return to the states in mid 2012.

We praise God for the incredible team that we have here in Chile, and for you as prayer and financial supporters who are so vital to our ministry.

Gas Affects Update

2010-07-26T13:18:00.003-04:00

PRAISE THE LORD!!! You all have been praying!!! I can tell because our pastor switched to a different gas company. This company uses less extra stuff in their gas tanks and therefore, the gas doesn't affect my eyes!! Praise the LORD!! Yesterday I got to worship the Lord on 3 different occasions in the church and I get to go back again on Thursday nights!!! YAHOOO!!

Just how cold is it down here??

2010-07-26T13:15:00.002-04:00

Hot pads, or hot mits, aren't they for the heat??? Well Doug chose to use one so that his hand wouldn't get too cold touching his cereal bowl. Just one of the ways to "beat the cold" while many of you in the US are trying to "beat the heat!"

How can....

2010-07-18T18:11:00.002-04:00

How can...
Such a "little" thing cause SOOO MUCH TROUBLE?!?!?!

Here in Chile, there is no such thing as insolation! Yeah the people are VERY smart, the hospitals are top notch, and we have all the modern conveniences that many in the US have, but when it comes to insolation, it just isn't something that really exsists down here.

When I say this you may think, no big deal, just use your central heat, right? Well, that is almost non-existant here too! So, in order to stay warm in the winter here, people have individual stoves around the house, church, store, or whatever structure to heat the area immediately around the stove. This is usually done with natural gas. Below is an example of one of these stoves. We purchased this one shortly after getting here last year.

So, here's my problem. When I'm in a room with the gas being used, my eyes start to HURT!! And I mean HURT! Then they water a little bit, but not too much. I'm fine here at home because we have a kerosene heater in the living area and of course the kitchen stove. However, when I'm out, especially at church, my eyes BURN! So, what do I do? Please pray that God would remove this reaction so that I can once again participate full time in the ministry at Good News Baptist Church!

June 2010 Praise Letter

2010-06-26T17:57:00.004-04:00

Dear Friends and Family,

As I am sure you have heard from many other missionaries, the World Cup is amongst us. Everywhere we go here in Chile there are banners, flags, horns blaring, and groups of people screaming “Chi-Chi-Chi, le, le, le – VIVA CHILE!!!” It is an exciting time to live outside the U.S. and experience the insane fans of South America rooting for their team. That being said – the US is advancing to the second round, so we have our own little badge of pride as well!!

We are now in the depths of the cold and rainy winter months here in Santiago. We often see our breath in the house in the morning and wear four to five layers of clothing around the house and the office, and pray for warmer weather. Many people from the church and school have been fighting colds, the streets have been flooded due to the rains, and it just feels generally miserable. On the flip side Doug is very happy as the Andean mountains above our house have received over three feet of snow this past week – it is incredibly beautiful!!

However, no matter how bad we think it is here, the people still without houses in Concepcion, the epicenter of the earthquake in Feb, have it MUCH worse. Doug and another ABWE missionary (Scott Russell) had the privilege to visit the city at the epicenter of the earthquake this past week. ABWE has been working with a national pastor, Esteban Maldonado, in a small town of Chiguayante, which is just south of Concepcion. ABWE has been working with Esteban to restart a church (Missionary Baptist) that had almost completely died two years ago, and we praise God for the fruit we have seen in this church. Scott, as the leader of ABWE Chile, preached in two different churches while we were there, and we, along with several other members of Esteban’s church, got to watch Chile play in one of it’s world cup matches.
ABWE has been working with this church to help fix some post-quake damage, and also to reach out to the many people who have lost their homes in this area. Many of our ABWE churches (our church included – “Good News Baptist”) have been involved in taking food, clothes, jackets, etc. to this church to distribute to those in need. God had been working, and people are responding to God’s salvation message. In the past 3 weeks three more people have come to know Christ through this little, but growing, church in Chiguayante!!

The depressing part is that many people now live in “mediaguas” (or government shelter shacks being the better description) in large camps around the city. The majority of these people have no running water or toilets in their “house’, and the rain in this part of Chile is intense, cold, and non-stop. Imagine walking 5 minutes to the nearest outhouse in the blowing rain, the cold, and in the middle of the night! Many of these shacks are wrapped in plastic to keep out the rain, but this prohibits any air circulation so the germs never leave the house and make the people even sicker. Please, please continue to be in prayer for these people, and that we as ABWE would continue to have wisdom in how best to help the local churches meet the many needs in this part of Chile.

In our own church things continue to be going well, although it seems that due to the weather our attendance hasn’t moved much. Several of our older ladies have struggled with the cold, and one faithful lady, Leticia, had fallen and is still recuperating. That being said Heather has had some good meetings with the ladies, and Doug led the men of our church along with some men from another local church, out for a “leisurely” climb up part of the mountains that border Santiago. Doug was really hoping our neighbor, Nelson would come, as he said he was very interested, but unfortunately Nelson never came. Keep praying for Nelson and his (soon to be) wife Ines!!

You may remember from our last prayer letter that a couple (Juan Carlos & Nancy) had disappeared from our church after talking with them about getting married. Well on June 18th, we had the honor to go to their home for their official civic wedding!! We praise God for their response to God’s word, and look forward to them being back in the church with their son, Nicolas, and their very soon to be born baby boy!!

Caleb has started practicing with the worship team at our church as he now plays the triangle and chimes. This has allowed Daniel, one of the faithful men we’ve mentioned before, to play the bongos. We have really enjoyed watching Caleb grow into a young man and love this opportunity for Caleb to spread his ministry wings. He has also started guitar lessons with pastor’s son Alejandro. We continue to see great things happening. Unfortunately our teammates, Mark & Jen Rubin, will be leaving the church in the next two months to go help with another church that has greater needs. Please be praying for them in their new ministry, and for us as we will dearly miss their help, insight, and teaching.

Continue to pray for us regarding our financial situation. We received word of another church that has cancelled support of all their missionaries this past month so we are now lacking $831 of our required monthly support. Several churches has responded to our last prayer letter with some additional one-time donations for which we are VERY thankful. Please continue to pray that God will meet the needs we have.

Please also be in prayer as in the next couple months several ABWE missionaries will be starting new ministries or churches here in Santiago, and Steve & Leslie Schneider, our newest ABWE Chile missionaries, will be arriving on July 19th!! SCA will finish its school year on July 2nd so hopefully Heather will be able to refocus on ladies ministry and personal discipleship again, and Doug will be starting his Sunday school series on Philippians. Doug has also started a 28 week class on Biblical Counseling (all in Spanish) each Tuesday night. It takes Doug roughly 1.5 hours by metro to go to class, 2 hours of class, and then another 1.5 hours to get back – so please pray for safety, comprehension, and the family while he is gone at night.

Thank you so much for your prayers and sacrificial giving.

Doug & Heather

On the family front, the kids are doing well. Both Hannah and Caleb are
excelling at their Bible doctrines Sunday school class, (totally in Spanish) and Caleb loves the music ministry. We also have some adoption news to share. Many of you know that we’ve wanted to adopt for some time, well God is
opening that door. For more on this and the history of our journey please visit Heather’s adoption blog.

Our first Chilean Wedding

2010-06-22T18:30:00.004-04:00

So, as we've asked you to pray for Juan Carlos and Nancy to get married, God has been answering your prayers!!! Last Friday night, after a LONG drive through the rain, in the dark, with a VERY FOGGED up windowshield, we made the trip to their home to witness their civil wedding. Here are just a few of the pictures of the night.

From left to right - 1. Our pastor who is one brother of the bride and stood up as her witness,

2. the bride Nancy who is due within the next 2 weeks with the couple's 2nd child,

3. the groom Juan Carlos and father to both of Nancy's children,

and 4. Juan Carlos' witness who is a childhood friend and is married to Juan Carlos' sister

The judge who married the couple in less than 15 minutes!

Nancy signing the marriage "contract" with 6 year old son looking on

The exchange of rings
The dinner afterward to celebrate was held out on their patio with 4 round tables to squeeze in all 35 or so people.

We truly were blessed to be invited to this BEAUTIFUL event. The couple plans to have a church wedding sometime this coming summer, which for us in South America means December through March. I can't wait to be a part of that ceremony, but in the mean time, God allowed me to visit one of the Christian bookstores today and I found a bunch of GREAT Bible study books on marriage. Since we will be counseling the newly weds and newly Christians, it was certainly NO ACCIDENT that God led me to the bookstore today.

Thank you for praying for Juan Carlos and Nancy! Please don't stop praying for them and for us, as we guide them.

God is Working

2010-06-15T19:47:00.002-04:00

IN SPITE OF US! I know we all have those days, when we don´t feel even useful to scrub the floors or clean the bathrooms, but it is those days when God can use us the most.

In our last prayer letter, we wrote about 2 situations special to our hearts. We had asked people to pray for a young widow and her 2 sons. Her name is Cecilia. She grew up in the church, so lots of the people in the church have known her for a LONG time, but all of them say that they´ve never seen any change in her. When she came to the church, I noticed that she has a VERY STRONG personality, and I wasn´t sure what I would do with her in ladies´ meetings. Well, God is working. A week ago Saturday, during and after ladies´ meeting I had the chance to lovingly confront Cecilia. Since I´m new, I could actually question her salvation and begin to work with her. This Saturday at 11:00 am I´m taking her out for coffee. I´m excited, but hesitant. Please pray that she will be responsive. Pray that I WILL LISTEN TO THE HOLY SPIRIT as HE PROMPS MY WORDS!! I want to hear her testimony and just listen and then as God allows, build into her life.

The second special situation we asked you to pray for was for a couple that has their second child on the way, are living together, and the man was saved in the last 8 months. We have been praying that they will stop living in sin, and get married. WE ARE SOO SOOO SOOOOO EXCITED to tell you that they will be getting married THIS FRIDAY!!! We are praising God for HIS GUIDANCE and for allowing us to advise them in making this decision. Please pray for us, as now pastor has asked us mentor them as a couple. Because the woman is pastor´s sister, it would be difficult for him to counsel them.

GOD IS GOOD and we are humbled and remember that it truly is ONLY GOD who can change hearts and lives!!!

Ladies´ Mother´s Day Tea

2010-05-11T18:55:00.007-04:00

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

2010-05-11T18:48:00.003-04:00

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

2010-05-06T13:37:00.002-04:00

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.

Changing of Seasons

2010-04-28T10:02:00.003-04:00

When the cold weather comes...
my sock drawer isn't full for long.
my storage trunk is filled with capri's rather than sweaters.
my bed has 3 comforters and flannel sheets to keep us warm at night.
clean undershirts are hard to find because they've all been used recently.
my front hallway closet is covered with coats on the coat rack.
our towels don't dry without help from the dryer due to the humidity.
my cupboard is stocked with hot chocolate.
my morning tea is no longer an option.
any drop of Sunshine is a blessing rather than a nuisance (sp??).
my flannel jammies and warm cozy slippers are ready at the drop of a hat.
the falling leaves remind me of the new life that will come in just a few short months.

An AMAZING VIDEO!!

2010-04-05T10:02:00.004-04:00

Please take the 4 1/2 minutes to watch this video. I share this because at times we feel alone down here. Doug shared with me that only $5000 has come in to ABWE for Chile relief. That saddens me. I know things are rough all over the world, but there are people who still have no water. We still have needs to meet. We still have Christ´s promises to share. Please continue to pray for Chile and for our brethren in the South!

Different

2010-04-03T20:00:00.002-04:00

So, one of the ladies at church approached our pastor about how she believed that something had changed with me. That I was different with her. Nothing with her has changed, but there are some people here that if you don´t greet them personally then they are offended. Can you imagine having to greet EVERY person BEFORE and AFTER the service! When I see her tomorrow, I will clear things up with her.

However, that got me to thinking, am I different? The last month has been trying at best. Since the earthquake, we´ve been shaken again and again. Normalcy has not returned to our lives here, but will it ever? Since the earthquake, Doug made a trip South to share the gospel with many ravaged by the earthquake. We´ve all been battling with a SEVERE cold/respiratory illness that continues to hang on with cough and some minor congestion after 3 weeks. Doug´s grandfather at the age of 94 is loosing his battle with so many illnesses. We are just waiting for the call to say that he´s past on to heaven.

To top off all of this, Doug has found out that he has cancer of the skin AGAIN!! He´ll be having surgery soon. He plans to run the SANTIAGO MARATHON on the 11th and then he´ll go in for the surgery.

I do feel different! I feel more subdued. I feel more, more caught up in my family. I feel more concerned about my ministry in our home. I wish I could go ¨home¨ to visit with Doug´s family during this difficult time of waiting for Grandpa to pass. I feel like a stranger here sometimes, and I miss worshipping GOD in my own heart language. I feel excited to be here. I feel blessed to have the church family that we do. I feel blessed to be used of God to share His example to not only my children but to those around me here in Chile.

So, yeah, I guess I feel different. I feel conflicted and then I think....
As I mature and grow in life and my relationship with Christ, I do hope there is a difference! I hope and pray that that difference makes an impact in others´ lives. I hope that by being different, God receives the glory!

One month ago today...

2010-03-27T12:08:00.002-04:00

One month ago today, we experienced on of the 5 largest earthquakes in the history of earthquake recordings. As I read Proverbs 27 (ESV), this morning I was struck by many of the sayings that are evident in our life here in Chile.

Verse one says, "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring."
That has held true for many here in Chile following the earthquake! How interesting that it comes in chapter 27 and the earthquake fell on the 27th of the month. (For those of you Bible scholars - Yes, I know that when God wrote the Bible, there were no chapters or verses!)

Verse 6 "Faithful are the wounds of a friend;" I have been so blessed to have my close friend, convict me of my need to continually rely on Christ and not on this earth that only shakes below us, like sinking sand. This friend I mention is in the US, and we talk on a regular basis. However, God has brought a new family with another mission to Chile, and she has been a real encouragement to me and I hope I to her.

Verse 10 "Do not forsake your friend and your father's friend." The friend that I mentioned in the US, has AMAZING parents. They actually went to WalMart and purchased various things that we needed. This verse is a reminder that my "friends" may not always be within the direct circle I think they are.

Verse 10b "Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away." Although I miss my siblings, they couldn't have helped me during the earthquake. My neighbors have been such a blessing, even though none of them have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We hope to be the kind of neighbors to them that are "better...near, than a brother"/relative.

Verse 14 "Whoever blesses his neighbor with a loud voice, rising early in the morning will be counted as cursing." Living so close to our neighbors this is something we are teaching our children. Living in a city of almost 7 million, certainly changes one's perspective.

Verse 17 "Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another." This verse reminds me to continually seek out Christian friendships to encourage me and so that I can encourage others.

None of these applications are necessarily biblical, but they are things that struck me this morning and I just thought I would share and hopefully "sharpen" some of you!
God bless!
Heather

Trip to Talca

2010-03-17T09:22:00.002-04:00

This is a short letter sent out to our team by Mark Rubin, after he, Doug, Jon Spink, Alejandro Armijo, (All ABWE) and John Niemeyer (BMM), finished up the weekend distributing Shelter Boxes donated to our national mission agency to distribute.

To sum up the trip, we left Saturday morning, stopped by the Talagante
church to pick up things to take down, then made a convoy down to
Talca. Got there and went to our place of base operations, then went
to a storage shed on a vineyard to unload the Shelter Boxes. We had
225 to unload that had come in. Then that night they instructed us on
the distribution of the things in the boxes: 2 tents, 3 sleeping bags,
2 collapsable water jugs, water purifcation tablets, kitchen utensils/place
settings, a small wood cookstove, and a few other items. In addition,
we were able to pass out tracts and verbally share the gospel with the
people that we would distribute the boxes to.
On Sunday we went to Pencahue, just west of Talca. There the team
Doug Amundson, Jon Niemeyer and I were on delivered all 12 boxes with the
rest of our team. Then on Monday we went to the small town of Villa
Pratt, just northwest of Talca. There due to several other
complicating factors, our team only delivered 8 boxes. Mind you the
delivery also includes the pitching the 2 tents and explaining the necessary
items, and sometimes clearing a good site for the tents.

For pictures, because I can't post over 200 of them here, go to our ministry photo website through Shutterfly at http://amundsonanthem.shutterfly.com/ . The password is the country that we live and serve in and it IS case sensitive!

Doug's HOME

2010-03-11T10:18:00.002-05:00

PRAISE GOD!!! Doug and Caleb drove onto our street about 30 minutes after the 7.2 hit just South of here. They didn't even really feel it, probably because the car bounces right along.

Earthquake

2010-03-11T10:02:00.001-05:00

This one was a 7.2 an area about 2 hours South of Santiago.

Another one...

2010-03-11T09:52:00.002-05:00

Come on. Just when life was returning to "normal," just moments ago we had another earthquake. Some may want to call it an aftershock, but feeling the ground move that much below my feet, was NO aftershock. Living through all of these "aftershocks" makes one pretty confident at guessing what number the last one was on the richter scale. What we just had, was no aftershock!!! I'm still waiting to see what it measured, but please pray. Hannah and I are home alone and Doug and Caleb are out. I can't get a hold of Doug due to cell phone issues, so please pray that they are safe and make it home!!

Just as I was about to hit "publish post" we had a second STRONG one. PLEASE PRAY!!!

Earthquake - March Praise Letter by Doug

2010-03-08T15:31:00.000-05:00

Other information regarding activities here in Chile:

Since the original 8.8 earthquake on Saturday morning, it seems that we have felt the ground moving quite frequently. As of right now (Wednesday evening), we have had roughly 143 various earthquakes or aftershocks that have been over 5.0, 11 of those being over 6.0. We haven’t felt every single one of those here in Santiago, but we have definitely felt many more than what we wanted to. The damage here in Santiago is not as great as down south, but it is still significant, and the garbage is beginning to pile up outside the various houses who lost furniture or had various walls collapse. I read today that the earthquake has affected 70% of the Chilean economy. Often you see the pictures of cracks in the ground from earthquakes, well I came across those this morning when I was running where, for a good distance, cracks ran up and down the running path I take in the morning, with a whole section sliding down into a local canal for the water to run through. It was an eerie reminder of the power that rippled through the ground here in Santiago.

As Heather mentioned our pastor, Christian Contreras, took a trip today down south to deliver some food and supplies. They still have not returned yet, but hopefully should be back within the next 5 hours or so. Mark Rubin, one of our teammates, has talked with another pastor who went earlier this week, and he said the situation is definitely hostile right now due to lack of basic services, but we are really proud of the reaction of the national churches who are stepping up to the plate in this crisis. (***Update—they did arrive back safely after nearly 26 hours round-trip). Another team is planning to leave this Saturday to the town of Constitucion, which was the town destroyed by the tsunami.

Please continue to pray for these pastors and other believers taking relief supplies down to the churches, and pray that we as ABWE would find ways to effectively work with our national churches in this incredible situation.

If you feel God prompting you to contribute to the many needs here in Chile, you may send a check to ABWE Donor Services, PO Box 8585, Harrisburg, PA 17105-8585, with a note clarifying that it is for the Chile Earthquake, and the account number 0717151-002 (CQ10013257). You may also give online at www.abwe.org/give. This is an account that ABWE as a mission has set up to meet the many current and future needs for Chile relief efforts. Please continue to pray for the health of the ABWE team, the national churches, and that the gospel of Jesus Christ would shine strongly during this very dark time here in Chile.

God Bless,

Doug

Earthquake - March Praise Letter by Heather

2010-03-08T15:30:00.001-05:00

The Earthquake from Heather’s point of view:

Saturday February 27th at 3:34am (Chilean time or 1:34am EST), I was shaken awake by this amazing movement of my bed. I rushed into the hallway outside the kids two bedrooms, flinging open Caleb's door and telling both kids to get down beside their beds to make the ¨triangle.¨ Just then I heard Doug's voice say, ¨No, Heather. We need to get outside.¨ I have no idea how we all got down the stairs, especially without falling. I don't know how we got to the corner of our yard near our neighbor's house wall and our front driveway gate. I don't remember my feet hurting on the sidewalk since we weren't wearing shoes.
I do remember, huddling, holding Caleb close while Kiwi, our dog, tried to snuggle in too. Then I remember praying. Praying for safety. Praying for our neighbors. Praying for our ABWE team members. Praying for our national brethren.
I remember listening to things crash, glass breaking, and other things falling. It's all a blur to me right now.
Once it stopped we went back inside to get shoes, sweatshirts, and flashlights. Then it was out into the street to talk to our neighbors. Everyone was fine. Once everything had calmed down we went inside. I went to Hannah's room to lay down with her for the night. Upon entering the room, Hannah cries, ¨Mommy, the earthquake knocked everything down in my room!!¨ Then she proceeded to cry.
Keep in mind that I had been in her room to get her shoes and robe just a little while before and hadn't noticed anything different. Hannah's room is almost ALWAYS a mess, so I didn't notice what she did. However, after further probing of Hannah, she told me that it was just her little ¨dresser¨ (8 inches by 8 inches with little box drawers) that held her hair pretties, that had fallen. Indeed they were all over the floor. I proceeded to pick them up and put them back.
The next day, the kids were playing in Hannah's room, and as play, she had dumped all her hair pretties on the floor to use the little cupboard for other things. NO WONDER I hadn't noticed that the earthquake had ¨destroyed¨ her room!!
After getting into bed just after the earthquake, Hannah was sobbing. I suggested to Doug that he pray and he did. Hannah was still sobbing, so I began to sing various kids songs. When I began singing, ¨Halelu-halelu-halelu-halelujah,¨ I poked Hannah to sing ¨Praise Ye the Lord.¨ She joined in and we finished the round. Hannah had stopped crying and I was SOOO thankful!!! about a minute later, we hear from Caleb's room, ¨Halelu-halelu-halelu-halelujah¨ and we answered back with ¨Praise Ye the Lord.¨

On Saturday morning we got up to see all the damage first hand with light. We lost close to 24 feet of the dividing wall between our house and the neighbor’s. We lost a bookshelf in our office and a few sentimental vases. We were emotionally strong probably because of simple adrenaline. We headed down to the ABWE academy where I teach and Doug takes care of all of the ABWE Chile Finances. Praise God that all of the services were working. The school had electricity, internet, water, and local phone! That was truly an act of God!!

Determining everyone on the team was safe and unharmed was a bit of a difficulty due to cell phone service not functioning well and many were without power, internet, and phone. We were able to reach all active missionaries both short term and career by Saturday 10:30 am EST. It took us until Tuesday to reach one of our retired missionaries who lives near Viña del Mar near the coast. Once we contacted our regional administrator with the word that all were ok, we contacted our parents.

We then contacted our pastor to determine that everyone in the church was ok. We learned that all were “shaken” but that only one was missing. Diego, one of our young high school men, was spending the summer in Concepcion (the epicenter) when the earthquake hit. I tried via cell phone to get a hold of him, but of course could not. I contacted his father, here in Santiago and he told me that he couldn’t get a hold of his son either. That’s when I posted on our blog and facebook.

Sunday we headed to church as usual, only this time in jeans because we didn’t know what we’d encounter, plus we still had no electricity to even think about using an iron. At church, we sang praises to God that we were all safe, received word that Diego was fine only without food or water, and then it all hit me. I couldn’t stay in service for the sermon. I had to talk and process. I went to the kids classroom where the littler kids were drawing and talked to fellow missionary wife Jenn (Christian) Rubin. Jenn grew up here and had experienced first hand the earthquake in 1985. Jenn gave me some counsel and I relaxed a bit.

Sunday during the day, we realized that the guard for Santiago Christian Academy was stuck in the south and wouldn’t make it back to work the night shift. Therefore, Doug as current property manager, would have to guard in his place. This meant Doug being gone to guard from 11:00pm to 7:00am. We still had no electricity and I didn’t want to sleep here at home alone with 2 kids and no electric. So, we packed up the essentials and headed to SCA to sleep in one of the apartments.

Monday our team cleaned up SCA. I have to say, that I didn’t do much in the way of cleaning up. After getting up and moving, I had to come home to feed our dog and I had to stop by another missionary’s home to feed their dog. (They’ve been on furlough and so every morning and night we stop there to feed their dog and check on their house.) Because we still didn’t have electric and our missionary friends did, I also took all of our freezer items to their freezer.

Upon returning to the school, I did laundry at the school and made cookies and iced tea for the workers who were cleaning. Meanwhile, Doug, running on NO sleep, was in the office making decisions about what to purchase now for fixing and what could wait. He was also trying to coordinate with the states about relief donations and setting up a donation account at ABWE.

We spent Monday night here with no lights, and returned to spend Tuesday with electric and e-mail at SCA. Doug worked to try to get accounts running again with errands to the bank and a money exchange place. That afternoon was when we learned that our pastor was planning a trip down south to take food and water to one of our national churches and pastor’s family. Doug was planning to go, but right now he is needed in the office and we didn’t know what kind of conditions there would be. Plus, with Doug’s red hair he is an immediate “gringo” target and could endanger the lives of himself and those he would have been with.

Last night (Tuesday) around 7:00 pm (Chilean time) we FINALLY got electricity and internet back! We were able to get a few things done last night and today Doug had to work again at the office, but took the second half of the day to help clean up here. We’ve cleaned up the broken wall and have piled the excess in front of our house for those who will come to haul it away. Our landlord DID HAVE earthquake insurance and so it will take a while for the wall to be assessed and then rebuilt. For now, our kids are enjoying the open space to play with our neighbor’s kids freely. (There is a video of them playing on our blog at http://amundsonanthem.blogspot.com .)

Also today our pastor left with 3 other men and headed down to take food to our national pastor, Esteban Maldonado, as well as to find Diego and his little sister and bring them back here. As of writing this, they are on their way back with Diego and his sister. It may take them quite a while to get back due to road conditions and everyone wanting to get back here to “sanity” and food.

As for the next few days, we wait. We normalize our life and that of our kids’ lives. We spend time with our neighbors bonding. We support and coordinate future trips down south. We want to encourage our national
brethren who are taking the lead. We want to help them financially with all of their efforts. If you would like to contribute especially to the Chilean Relief Effort through ABWE, please contact us and we will get that information to you as to how you can help.

For now, we covet your prayers!!! We need wisdom in processing the emotions that we are feeling. We need wisdom in caring for our national brethren. We need wisdom for… and for… In other words, PLEASE PRAY FOR WISDOM for us and for our whole team here in Chile!!

God bless!
Praising God for HIS provisions!
Heather (for Doug, Caleb, and Hannah too)

Praising God

2010-03-04T15:02:00.002-05:00

With much difficulty, our pastor Christian Contreres, made it safely down to deliver supplies to a national church just outside of Concepcion (the epicenter). We also praise God that on the way back through Concepcion, they were able to get Diego and his little sister and bring them back here to ¨normalcy¨. They arrived early this morning. Tonight at church there should be much praising God and hugging on Diego.

Just one of the e-mails and logistics of communication

2010-03-03T16:24:00.001-05:00

Here goes another intel report... squelch your radios to give me the affirmative once you've read it.
The team today got into Chiguayante eventually despite a few delays here and there and waiting to get in touch with Esteban Maldonado. They were invited to stay for lunch, but the idea is to arrive, deliver and not eat the goods. (Some of us just wouldn't qualify for that kind of a mission!)
The team was contacted by a teen (from our church in Santiago) who was in Concepcion for vacation and caught in the earthquake. Diego wanted to get out with his little sister and get back to Santiago to be with their dad. So, there was some triangulation of cell phones going on as comically, I could occasionally get through to them, but they had a hard time getting directly in touch. They missed Diego at the first rendezvous time. Later, on their way out, we were doing phone tag to coordinate the rendezvous, and finally after much tension, praying, calling, etc., the pick-up was made. Praise be to God!

The last comm I got from the team is that they made the extraction and were headed back to Santiago. If I can get some of the pictures that they've taken, I'll share them.

Around noon today I was with Sandro Valdivia getting gas receipts and he gave me a tour of the damage to their building. Pretty disconcerting to see some significan damage there that will need possibly demolished as some of it looks beyond repair.

Sandro debriefed me a bit about the trip yesterday. I think the scene in Concepcion is better with military presence, however he said the people are quite aggressive in their interactions with others. Desperation and depravity make quite a volatile reaction within human kind. Sandro said that at this point, he was a bit concerned for people who would be just passing out tracts since people are surviving while waiting for food and water. He said it could be dangerous, and I see the point that tracts aren't optimum ways of rehydration or nourishment. There probably would be a more receptive experience if water and a tract are given, or something of the nature.

Sandro and his team got back this morning at 6 a.m., a total of 26 hours on this mission. Traffic is abundant and slow due to the detours and improvised road conditions in spots.

David Luzuriaga (another national pastor) is organizing another team to go down Saturday or Sunday. They will be picking up left over stuff that La Reina couldn't fit into the car they took down. Again, water is very key to take down, more than clothes, and even more than food.

Some are saying that clothes should be saved for the towns that were wiped out by the tsunamis as they do need everything. Someone has a contact in Constitucion, a lot closer to Santiago, but that is a bit further down in the sequence of trips scheduled at this point.

That's what we know as of now. Will be in touch as intel becomes available.
Mark for the Santiago base of operations

p.s. we've had some tremors here this afternoon, and strong ones in Concepcion.

25 years ago TODAY

2010-03-03T11:40:00.001-05:00

Summary of the March 3, 1985 Chile Earthquake
On Sunday, March 3, 1985, at approximately 7:45 p.m., local time, a destructive earthquake with a Richter magnitude of 7.8 (M7.8) struck 20 miles offshore of central Chile. The earthquake affected approximately 20,000 square miles of the mainland. This area has a population of over 6 million people and includes the capital city of Santiago. Over the next 18 days, more than 2,000 aftershocks, many of which caused further damage, were recorded. On April 9, an M7.2 aftershock struck the same region. It was predicted that aftershocks will continue for more than four years. Preliminary estimates of the effects of the intial earthquake and its aftershocks listed the number of dead at 180, serious injuries at over 2,500, and dwellings destroyed at 45,000. The total economic loss is estimated at $1.8 billion.

A fellow missionaries blog

2010-03-03T10:44:00.003-05:00

A blog from some fellow missionaries I found interesting. We discovered on of these coins ourselves before the earthquake. Just a neat little story to distract one from the severity of the current situation down south.

Electricity

2010-03-02T20:22:00.001-05:00

Remember that School House Rock Song?? Electricity, Electricity...
Well we have it!!! YAHOO!!

Update/Remembering

2010-03-02T13:14:00.004-05:00

Still no lights at our house. We hear rumors upon rumors, but still we wait.

Sharing again/documenting our experience...

After the earthquake had calmed down and we went inside, I went to Hannah´s room to lay down with her for the night. Upon entering the room, Hannah cries, ¨Mommy, the earthquake knocked everything down in my room!!¨ Then she proceeded to cry.

Keep in mind that I had been in her room to get her shoes and robe just a little while before and hadn´t noticed anything different. Hannah´s room is almost ALWAYS a mess, so I didn´t notice what she did. However, after further probing of Hannah, she told me that it was just her little ¨dresser¨ (8 inches by 8 inches with little box drawers) that held her hair pretties, that had fallen. Indeed they were all over the floor. I proceeded to pick them up and put them back.

The next day, the kids were playing in Hannah´s room, and as play, she had dumped all her hair pretties on the floor to use the little cupboard for other things. NO WONDER I hadn´t noticed that the earthquake had ¨destroyed¨ her room!!

After getting into bed just after the earthquake, Hannah was sobbing. I suggested to Doug that he pray and he did. Hannah was still sobbing, so I began to sing various kids songs. When I began singing, ¨Halelu-halelu-halelu-halelujah,¨ I poked Hannah to sing ¨Praise Ye the Lord.¨ She joined in and we finished the round. Hannah had stopped crying and I was SOOO thankful!!! about a minute later, we hear from Caleb´s room, ¨Halelu-halelu-halelu-halelujah¨ and we answered back with ¨Praise Ye the Lord.¨

I am indeed thankful the to the Lord and pray that HIS will will be done through all of this!!!

Last Night...

2010-03-02T13:08:00.002-05:00

Was NOT a good night. I don´t know if I drank some unboiled water or what, but my stomach and digestive system was NOT HAPPY last night. To top a night of fitfull sleep, at around 6 am we were awoken by someone´s house alarm. It lasted for OVER 3 hours! By the time we got out of our showers, Doug was saying, ¨I don´t know who´s alarm that is, but blasting 1 billion whatts of powerful noise into my ears, is NOT ENDEARING!!!

Since Kiwi, the dog, was outside through this whole time, Doug had decided to give her sensitive dog ears a rest by allowing her just inside the door of the house. When I went to let her out, I heard someone knocking on our front gate. It was one of our neighbors who asked, ¨Are you guys ok? I responded by saying, ¨Of course! Why?¨ He replied, ¨Because your alarm has been sounding all night.¨

The alarm hadn´t been set or even used for over 4 or 5 years! It was from the owner of the house before our landlords bought the house. Once we took out the battery, it FINALLY stopped!!!
Now there´s a chuckle for you!!

Confussion

2010-03-01T10:24:00.006-05:00

Ok, so here I am just going to express some thoughts, feelings, etc...

Saturday 3:34am, I was shaken awake by this amazing movement of my bed. I rushed into the hallway outside the kids two bedrooms, flinging open Caleb´s door and telling both kids to get down beside their beds to make the ¨triangle.¨ Just then I heard Doug´s voice say, ¨No, Heather. We need to get outside.¨ I have no idea how we all got down the stairs, especially without falling. I don´t know how we got to the corner of our yard near our neighbor´s house wall and our front driveway gate. I don´t remember my feet hurting on the sidewalk since we weren´t wearing shoes.

I do remember, huddling, holding Caleb close while Kiwi, our dog, tried to snuggle in too. Then I remember praying. Praying for safety. Praying for our neighbors. Praying for our ABWE team members. Praying for our national brethren.

I remember listening to things crash, glass breaking, and other things falling. It´s all a blur to me right now.

Once it stopped we went back inside to get shoes, sweatshirts, and flashlights. Then it was out into the street to talk to our neighbors. Everyone was fine. As you´ve seen from the pictures that I posted the other day, we lost a wall between our neighbor´s house and ours. The kids have enjoyed not having to go onto the street to play with their closest friends here in Chile, who live right next door.

Video of kids playing.

Now, I´m just feeling lost in the moments as they come. My life isn´t normal, because we´re going on day 3 with no electricity. We stayed in the Santiago Christian Academy apartments last night, but only because Doug had to guard all night long and I certainly didn´t want to be at home with two kids alone and no electricity.

Please continue to pray for us! It is hard to reach out and think beyond oneself when life at home isn´t ¨normal.¨

Praising God for...

2010-02-28T20:25:00.002-05:00

A full moon the past few nights which makes it easier to see at night with no electricity.
That I did our month long shopping right after we got ¨paid¨ on the 24th.
That I had just filled up our car with gas on Thursday.
That Diego is safe!
That Hannah and Caleb now have the distraction of friends while we stay at the school apartments.
That our house at least has gas to cook with and to heat water for showers.
That our house has water.
That our mission school has electricity, water, internet and life is a bit more ¨normal¨ here.
That all of our church members are safe.

Diego is safe!!

2010-02-28T11:12:00.002-05:00

Glory to God!! Diego is safe. His family is safe. Still continue to pray for him as food is scarce in Concepcion.

We still have no internet nor electricity in the house.

Now comes the cleanup of the school and other things.

God bless!
Heather

Aftershocks

2010-02-27T17:00:00.002-05:00

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.html

This website will show you all of the aftershocks that we've been having. PLEASE continue to pray. We are only beginning the clean up and it may take a LONG time for life to look normal here again.

Hannah seems to be doing better, but as night falls and still no lights, she gets a bit more scared.

Still no word on Diego or his family.

God bless!
We love you all!
Heather

Earthquake

2010-02-27T11:40:00.004-05:00

First off, WE ARE FINE!!! We experienced a strong earthquake last night of around 3:30am.

The epicenter was in Concepcion about 6 hours drive from here. At the epicenter it was an 8.8. We got around a 7. It was strong enough to wake Doug and I. We flew out of our bed to get to the kids. Just as I told the kids to get down beside their beds, Doug realized that this one was going to be a big one, so down the stairs and outside we went. We sat beside our front gate and a major cement wall. Kiwi, our dog joined us while we prayed for our safety, for our neighbors, and for our teammates both ABWE and national.

Once the earth paused from shaking, we went inside to get warmer cloths, shoes, and flashlights, and then joined our neighbors in the street. We do have some damage to our walls, but none that can't be fixed! They were outside walls to a fence that runs between our property and our neighbor's. You can see pictures below.

Please pray for...
Our neighbors' spiritual well-being. None of them know Christ nor have the hope of God's salvation. Pray that we will have the words and opportunities to share about God's free gift.

One of our church members, Diego, was staying with his mom for the summer in Concepcion. No one, including his father who is here in Santiago has gotton through to him. Please pray for Diego, his mom and his 2 little sisters.

Hannah, who has been REALLY ¨Shaken¨both litterally and figuratively. It hits harder each time there is an aftershock.

As of now, we have no internet at the house, nor electricity for that matter. We are updating from the school which does have all of those things.

Enjoy the pictures. I'll try later to put more on facebook.

One of our fallen walls
Our other fallen wall looking into the neighbors yard

Our office

The Santiago Christian School Library

SCA library

A wall, or what used to be a wall near our school

Amundson Anthem Prayer Letter Feb. 2010

2010-02-24T07:11:00.003-05:00

Dear Friends and Supporters,

As I write this letter it is February 18, 2010, exactly one year from the date we landed to begin our service here in Chile. It has been an incredible year of praises, adjustments, learning, and growth. We PRAISE God for the great year that we have had. We have come to love our teammates here in Chile with ABWE, and more importantly we love the Chileans with which God has allowed us to meet and work with in the church. God is doing some great things here in Chile and we are more than privileged to be able to work with such a great team of co-workers (both missionaries and nationals).

This past year has flown by so rapidly, even the people tonight in prayer meeting at “Good News Baptist” said they could hardly believe it has been a year since we arrived. It has certainly been a great year as we have been able to be more than involved in our church from preaching and teaching adult Sunday school, to Heather teaching the teenage girls, leading ladies Bible Study, and being the director of kids Sunday school and junior church. I have also been able to speak in chapel at SCA (Santiago Christian Academy) and teach a self-study class, while Heather has taught two different classes now and continues to home-school our children. This schedule has been difficult at times, and both of us have felt like we were drowning various weeks, but God has given us the energy and coordination to survive . . . thus far!!

The past two months here in Chile have been vacation months so the attendance at our church has been down, but we have also had some new visitors at the same time. Please be praying for us as we continue to seek to grow both spiritually and numerically.

I have been really impressed this past year by our national pastor, Pastor Contreras, as he continues to preach and lead our church. The man has endless energy as he leads both our church and also the youth ministry “JUBAM.” The rough translation would be “Baptist Youth Missionaries.” In the very basic form the youth groups of roughly 5 churches get together once a month for mutual fellowship, and through this group two mission trips have developed this past year. The youth are currently on their second week long missionary trip this summer to a church down in southern Chile. While Pastor has been gone our co-worker, Mark Rubin preached last week, and this coming weekend I will be preaching (21-Feb). Tonight, during prayer meeting, one of the youth from our church (who did not go on the trip south) gave the devotional and will be starting in the ABWE Seminary in two weeks. His name is Pablo and he is a great kid with a desire to be a pastor in the future – please pray for him.

Last Saturday (13-Feb) we had movie night at our church and Heather and I invited just about every family on our street. Only one lady came, our neighbor Ines, and her two kids (Pablo & Almendra). Before the movie started (we watched Fireproof), Ines and I had a good conversation about her spiritual past. She grew up Catholic, and then during college she had a friend who was a Mormon pastor with whom she had many conversations. Later she attended an evangelical church for a little while, and now she is studying Buddhism and other eastern religions. She is a sweet lady who is obviously seeking spiritually. Please pray that Heather and I would continue to grow our friendship with her, and her husband Nelson, and that we would have many opportunities to continue to plant God’s truth in her life. Caleb & Hannah in many ways are our best missionaries to their family as they are constantly playing with Pablo & Almendra. Pray that their behavior and actions while playing with their kids would open up more doors to share the gospel.

As we start year number two here in Chile tomorrow morning, please be praying that God would continue to lead us. We have been blessed over and above our wildest expectations, but we are not unaware that Satan is always looking for ways to destroy our testimony, marriage, family, and to destroy the church in which we work. Please pray for us that we would be effective in the sharing of the gospel, that our marriage would remain strong, and that we would be able to prioritize our lives amongst the many different possibilities of ministry here in Chile.

In the short-term please be praying for Santiago Christian Academy as we are short teachers for the semester starting next week, as well as having a real need for teachers for next school year starting in August 2010. If you are at all interested in coming down to teach, please contact us as soon as possible—we have room for you!!! Pray for Heather as she teaches Biology this coming semester, and as we work with our teammates Mark & Jennifer Rubin who just returned from furlough ministry. Please also be praying for the Druckenmiller family as they have recently finished language school and will be the newest ABWE missionaries to the field here, arriving in mid-March. They have a heart to go to southern Chile and work with the Mapuche Indian tribes. Please also be praying for the Schneider family as they finish language school in Costa Rica and are praying to be here in July, they will both be teaching in the ABWE Seminary here in Santiago preparing the next generation of pastors and church leaders.

Thank you for your incredible support, love, and prayers this past year. We look forward to sharing with all the great things that God will do in the years to come.

Sincerely,
Doug, Heather, Caleb & Hannah

Weather Update: In early February—just for the fun of it—I placed my thermostat in the direct sun around 1:30 in the afternoon. After just a few minutes the temperature read 56 centigrade or about 133 degrees Fahrenheit!! Thank goodness my office was a cool 86 degrees!!

I was also told this month that roughly 200,000 Chileans die each year from skin cancer.

Political update: In January Chile had their presidential elections and a candidate from the “right” won the election. This is a big deal because historically the “right” has always been associated with the government dictatorship of General Pinochet and any presidential candidate with this group hasn’t won an election for nearly 30 years.

One Year TODAY

2010-02-18T20:09:00.002-05:00

One year ago today...

We arrived in Chile
We were EXTREMELY EXHAUSTED from our overnight, delayed, and practically sleepless night on 4 different planes.
The kids got to see what we had seen in 2004 during our survey trip
We got to eat at a fellow missionary´s home
We began one of the BEST years of our life
We finally understood just how different Chilean ¨Spanish¨ is from any other Spanish
I got to show Doug and the kids our new house
I took a long nap, but still had quite the headache

Now one year later...

We are still just as excited to be here
Miss our families a little bit more
Have LOTS of special friends who are like family here in Chile
Love our church and ministries
We are looking forward to MANY more years to mark here in Chile, unless Christ returns first!

It truly is hard to believe that we are half way through our first term here in Chile. We are looking forward to the next two years and watching GOD work! Then we´ll take furlough and return to do it all over again! Praise the Lord that over 7 years ago, in 2002 God told us to begin preparing to come here to Chile! It took a while, but what was 5 years in light of eternity?

Seeing God...

2010-01-29T10:38:00.003-05:00

...in the little things is something that I am learning to do. For instance, for the past week or two, I have been waking up with my head still on the pillow being reminded by God's nature, that HE loves ME!

Yeah its a bunch of leaves, but look closer and what do I see each morning...

A Heart - Do you see it?

How does God communicate His love through the "little things" in your life. I'd love to hear from you through the comment box!

Drowning

2010-01-25T15:02:00.002-05:00

I've never felt like I'm truly drowning underwater. I LOVE the water! I LOVE to swim, relax and just cool off in the water. I never truly wish to drown, but sometimes one can feel as though they are drowning in life. It doesn't help to "flail" and "thrash" around. Just like with a wave of water, it will come full circle and you'll get another oportunity for breath.

Sometimes we all feel like thrashing back at the feelings of drowning, but I have come to the conclusion that although I might feel like I am drowning, that I need to trust the Lord for HIS strength! He is the only one that can truly "breathe" for me! He is the only one who can "rescue" me from the feelings of "drowning." Please pray that HE would "breathe" for me when I feel overwhelmed with ministry, and life here in Chile.

2010-01-21T14:21:00.001-05:00

“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for.”
Charles Spurgeon

New Christmas Traditions

2010-01-15T14:31:00.003-05:00

This was our first Christmas where we openned presents on Christmas Eve at 11:30 at night. WHY? You all ask. First of all, because December 24th is Caleb's real birthday, we normally do not open ANY other gifts that day, devoting it just to him as his day. Secondly in the US Christmas presents are opened on Christmas day in the morning, as early as the parents will be driven out of bed.

Well, here it is different. Santa doesn't ride on a sleigh. He rides on a firetruck! After all since it's summer here during the holidays, Santa would ROAST in his big coat and there certainly ISN'T ANY SNOW to use a sleigh on. So he rides the firetruck! Still not making sense?? Well, it's really a distraction technique to get the kids out of the house. When the firetruck comes around the neighborhood, all the kids want to see, so they run out of the house with at least one parent. Meanwhile... in the house the other parent sets out all of the gifts that "Papa Noel" brought just then as the firetruck wizzed by. Interesting huh?

Then at 12:00 am everyone opens their gifts, plays with them and around 1:30 or 2:00 am everyone is out in the streets trying and showing off the new toys, bikes, skateboards etc... It's really quite interesting. Our kids were in bed by 12:30 because they didn't really have much to show off. The grandparents had sent money to their US accounts, but that meant little under the tree.

Caleb showing off his new Oriel Li'l Kinz

Christmas morning we spent together as a family of 4 putting a couple of their toys together, and then we had to make a new tradition of swimming in our pool on Christmas day. Our pool isn't big, it was a gift and has coming in handy to cool off. It fits perfectly in our back yard and has provided hours of fun for the kids and Heather LOVES to clean it as a hobby.

Enjoying the high 80 degree weather in the pool in the "shadow" of the Christmas tree.

At 5:00 we had our ABWE family get together. This year we had a cook out and enjoyed opening gifts from our "secret sibling." It was fun and bonding to spend time with our team here.

Hannah opening up her "Secret Sibling" gift from "Big ABWE Cousin Kelsey.

Where to start???

2010-01-15T14:24:00.003-05:00

I know I haven't blogged in what seems like a LONG TIME! We have been busy!
December 19th from 4-7 we had Caleb's first real birthday party. He had a BLAST with 10 of his friends here the a watergun fight of the decade!

Caleb having a BLAST with his friends
Pablo, Caleb's best neighbor friend here!

Doug, played and helped to fill the water guns with the "buckets" of water.

The whole gang at the end of the war, before cupcakes and icecream!

Caleb and his buddy, Jorge from Santiago Christian Academy.

Jorge is from Brazil and speaks, 3 different languages.

Candy Cane Outreach

2009-12-23T13:57:00.002-05:00

One of the things that we do just about every year, is give some homemade sugar cookies in the shape of candy canes. WHY?? We also include the evangelistic story of the first candy cane that was ever made. Here it is along with a picture of some of the 114 cookies that I have made and frosted in the last 2 days. Now I just have to make up the cards, wait for the frosting to harden, and wrap them all up to deliver tomorrow.

The LEGEND of the Candy Cane

A Candymaker in Indiana wanted to make a
candy that would help us remember who Christmas is really about. So he made a
Christmas Candy Cane. He incorporated several symbols for the birth, ministry,
and death of Jesus Christ.

He began with a stick of pure white, hard candy. White to symbolize the
virgin birth and sinless nature of Jesus. Hard candy to symbolize the solid
rock, the foundation of the Church, and firmness of the promises of God.

The candymaker made the candy in the form of a "J" to represent the name of
Jesus. It also represented the staff of the "Good Shepherd".

The candymaker then included red stripes. He used three small stripes and a
large red stripe to represent the suffering Christ endured at the end of his
life.

The candy became known as a Candy Cane - a decoration seen at Christmas
time. The meaning has faded, but still gives joy to children young and old, whom
Jesus loves and treasures.

Would you pray with us that this gospel message would change someone's life this season?

Caleb's Baptism

2009-12-20T20:05:00.005-05:00

Today, Doug had the priviledge of baptizing Caleb. At first our Chilean pastor was hesitant about baptizing such a young man, but after Caleb and he talked, Pastor was impressed by his knowledge and the way he handles scripture. I told Doug LONG ago, that I'm a bit timid about raising Caleb because we think God has something special for him. I hope and pray that God works in his life, in spite of us!
There were 4 candidates for Baptism. Caleb was the first...

Interesting Moment

2009-12-08T12:45:00.002-05:00

Where, are the grills? We had been looking for the grill section in the local "HomeDepot/Lowes" store when we decided to ask a tall mid 40's looking man. He answered us and we replied with the typical "Muchisimas Gracias!" that is the traditional and normal way throughout all of Latin America to say, "Thank you VERY much!"

What stopped us in our tracks was his reply. "Con mucho gusto!" This is how they say "You're welcome!" in Costa Rica and in Colombia. It litterally means "with much pleasure!"

Here in Chile and many other countries in Latin America the typical response is "De nada!", which litterally means, "It was nothing!"

Having been trained in the Spanish language in Costa Rica we still use "Con mucho gusto!", but we NEVER hear it spoken back to us, so today, when we heard that phrase, we stopped dead in our tracks and had to ask, "Jaime" why he chose to use that phrase rather than "De nada!"

We explained that we had studied in Costa Rica and he explained that he is from Colombia.

It just reminds us of how much the little comments and sentiments, behind what we say as Christians, mean to others. I would much rather reply with, "It was my pleasure!" Than "It was nothing!" To a Christian our sacrifice of serving others shouldn't be "of nothing" and it should be our pleasure to serve others and our God with happy hearts.

Friend Focus #1

2009-12-05T18:25:00.003-05:00

Today, was an AMAZING DAY at ladies' Bible study. We are studying A Woman After God's Own Heart by Elizabeth George. It is WONDERFUL to see ladies who were never taught how to study God's word, but have been in the church for 10 plus years, grow and learn. We start each time together in prayer. First we share OUR requests, not requests for family, friends, neighbors, or as I say, the world. Requests like needing more spiritual growth, and needing to be a better wife and mother. Then each lady commits to pray for the person on her left to open our study and also to continue for the next 14 days until we meet again. Today was such a wonderful bonding of friends who are seeking to grow in the Lord together. I am the youngest, but for some reason God has chosen me to lead these ladies in this study.

Because these ladies are a HUGE part of my ministry and everyday life here, I thought I would share with you about each one. This way, you can picture and pray for my sisters here, all the while I miss my sisters there in the US!!

FRIEND FOCUS

Maria Georgina is a single lady, I’d guess in her late 60’s. She lives with her unsaved brother. He works during the day and on the weekends he is gone to his girlfriend’s home. Maria is faithful in prayer and she has to be the first PRAYER WARRIOR that I’ve ever known so well. She is faithful to be at church EVERY time the doors are open.

Today she shared that she is sick. None of this is life threatening per say, but at her age, anything and everything can be life threatening. She has glaucoma, and cateracts and just recently almost lost her sight. She has to have surgery in January, but she is hypertensive and they just discovered problems with some of her veins and arteries. Maria is like a grandma to my kids, and is VERY special to our WHOLE family. Please pray that God would do a miracle in her body, that even the doctors would marvel at, so that she can do what she is best at, besides prayer of course, which is to share the gospel with those around her.

My study of Esther

2009-12-01T08:29:00.003-05:00

As I was reading in the book of Esther last night, I came across a phrase that I didn't understand, so I went to one of the commentaries that we own. On page 722 of The Bible Exposition Commentary in the volume of Old Testament History, I read this and was convicted and challenged. I hope it does the same for you!!

In June 1865, missionary to China, J. Hudson Taylor, had gone to stay with
friends at Brighton, a popular British resort city by the sea. He was weary and
ill and seeking the will of God for the future of his ministry. On Sunday, June
25, "unable to bear the sight of rejoicing multitudes in the house of God," he
went for a walk on the sands and wrestled with God in agony of soul. God met him
in a fresh way, and he trusted God to provide twenty-four workers to labor with
him in China. Two days later, he went to the London & County Bank and opened
an account in the name of the China Inland Mission! It was the beginning of a
miracle ministry that continues today.

The phrase in the account that
tugs at my heart is "unable to bear the sight of rejoicing multitudes in the
house of God." Certianly it's good to rejoice in the Lord and to do it in His
house, bur rejoicing must never be a substitues for responsibility. As a popular
Gospel song expresses it: "God's tables are full but His fields are empty." We
all want to enjoy the feast, but we don't want to shear the message. We don't
have to be hardened unbelievers like Haman to be apathetic and unconcerned about
the plight of the world's billions of lost souls.

November Prayer Letter Update

2009-11-30T07:32:00.002-05:00

Ephesians 3:16-18
(16) I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, (17) so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, (18) may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,

Dear Friends and Supporters,

As we speed past Thanksgiving and move to Christmas, I pray that the above passage from Ephesians would be your prayer for us, as I know it is our prayer for you. A prayer that we would be awed by God’s incredible love, that we would be rooted in his love, and that we could begin to grasp just “how wide and long and high and deep in the love of Christ.” A life-long endeavor that will need an eternity to understand!!

First of all we want to say THANK YOU to each and every person that has been praying and supporting our family financially this past year. In spite of the very difficult circumstances in the U.S. this year, our supporters (you) have been so very faithful. Year-to-date, the finances that God has brought in have been at 97% of the committed monthly financial support. I find this amazing, and very humbling, that in-spite of the very difficult circumstances in the U.S., that all of you have been so very faithful in your giving. Thank-you so much!! Currently we stand at 95% (short $275 each month) of the required funds needed per ABWE. Please (1) praise God with us for the faithful monthly dedication of our supporters, and (2) pray that God will raise up for us the needed difference in the near future.

Secondly we wanted to update you on the various health issues. Heather is doing great!! She is completely off her Addison’s medication she was taking for the past year and a half, and thankfully her body has responded the way it needed to. The transition was very difficult coming off the medication, but she is doing wonderful now. Roughly 3 weeks ago she went to go see a heart doctor and he believes that the problems were caused by blood pressure issues. Heather has started some new medication and so far all has been going smoothly. Heather will return to see the doctor in a couple weeks to verify that everything is correct.

I (Doug) on the other hand have had another round with Basel cell cancer. Many of you remember that I had a biopsy last year in Costa Rica that was cancerous from my nose. Well the skin had started to dry and peel all over again so I went to the doctor to see what he thought. Three days later (17-Dec) they put me to sleep and did a little more invasive “surgery/biopsy.” The results were positive for cancer once again, but the Doctor is positive that they got all of the cancer. After the surgery I had twelve stitches in my nose (he pulled the skin to help cover the part he cut out), and the side of my face was covered in tape. I still have tape on my face, and stitches in my nose, but praising God that the cancer is out once again!! If you want pictures you can go to Heather’s blog to check them out – I figured not everybody would want to look at those in this letter!! (http://amundsonanthem.blogspot.com/)

“Good News Baptist” has been doing great and nearly every week we see new faces. We recently had a new family start attending (extended family of Pastor Contreras) who are Christians but have not been attending anywhere for some time. Heather’s ladies bible study has been doing well, and she has seen some really good results in her class with the teenage girls. Last week the group really opened up to each other and we praise God for the spiritual growth in these girls. I am still teaching through Ephesians in Sunday School, but thankfully Pastor has taught last week, and will teach again this week for me while I recover from my surgery. I have two more weeks to teach in early December and then Pastor will begin a different series while I begin work on what-ever I will teach again next year.

As we look to the future of ABWE here in Chile we certainly ask your prayers. Currently ABWE has a young man (to be married very soon) who is looking to start a camp ministry here in central Chile. This has been on the hearts of ABWE, and more importantly the national pastors, for quite some time. There will be a pastor’s meeting on December 15th at 9:30 to discuss this topic. Please pray that God’s leading would be more than evident as this is obviously a huge ministry opportunity in a city with more than 6 million people.

Thank you so much for your faithfulness, love, and encouraging notes during our first nine months here in Chile. We are looking forward, with God’s help, to the next 35 years!!

Doug, Heather, Caleb & Hannah

Praises

Continued growth in both the Sunday and Thursday services at our church.

Further clarification for Heather’s blood pressure problems

Successful cancer surgery for Doug

Prayer Requests

Money for keyboard for ministry.

Family Life balance between home-schooling, teaching at SCA, office work, and work at “Good News Baptist”

Good finish to Ephesians Sunday School Series

Heather’s teaching with the teenage girls and Ladies Bible study.

Discussions regarding ABWE starting a camp ministry here in Chile.

Doug's Surgery

2009-11-24T19:24:00.003-05:00

It's been a week since Doug's surgery and had/has about 12 stitches. He some of those stitches removed on Monday but the doctor thought that some others needed more time to heal. Here's proof. (If you get sick at all at looking at blood don't look at the last 2 pictures.)

Doug's Surgery

2009-11-17T18:25:00.002-05:00

Doug did well. The surgery was more extensive than they thought before, but they did get all the cancer (Basel Cells) The doctor says that Doug has bad skin, so we'll probably have to deal with this again in the future. Let's pray not!!!

Doug is hospitalized tonight and should be home sometime tomorrow (Wednesday). Thanks for praying!

Health Update

2009-11-12T20:13:00.000-05:00

Dear family and friends,

We wanted to keep you updated on our health. As you know Heather was diagnosed with Addison’s Disease while we studied Spanish in Costa Rica. However, after further testing here in Chile, the doctors here have determined that she does NOT have Addison’s! YAHOO!! So what is it? The cardiologist that Heather saw on Tuesday thinks that Heather suffers from Disautonomy which is a condition that causes the veins of the legs and feet not to constrict when standing. Therefore Heather feels faint and her heart begins to beat rapidly to make up for the lower blood pressure and lack of oxygen to the brain. Heather has begun taking the medication that the doctor recommended and she will meet with her cardiologist again in one month.

Doug also has seen doctors recently. As many of you may recall, while in Costa Rica Doug was diagnosed with cancer on the skin of his left nostril. Well, after seeing a dermatologist and oncologist today, Doug will be having blood work tomorrow in preparation for another surgery next Tuesday to cut out the infected area and to make sure that the cancer hasn’t spread any further. The doctor had wanted to do the surgery sooner, but Doug has a cold and therefore is concerned about that clearing up first.

Please pray that Doug’s cold would clear up before Tuesday. Please be in prayer for Dr. Acevedo and the anesthesiologist as they operate at 1:00 pm (EST) next Tuesday. Please also pray that we would leave all things in God’s hands and trust HIM completely!!

We will keep you updated after the surgery!

We Have An Answer

2009-11-11T07:29:00.002-05:00

Through this whole medical mystery, I've wondered, "If I don't have Addison's Disease, then why was the medication, especially the Florinef, helping me to live a normal life?" Well, yesterday I got my answer. Florinef helps Addison's patients to control their low blood pressure. When I was off the Florinef my blood pressure would drop and my heart would start to race causing attackacardia (a heart rate over 100). Once I reached 156 beats per minute with a normal blood pressure measurement. The reason for my blood pressure drop and attackacardia was not because of my addrenal glands, rather it is from my veins not constricting when I stand or do any kind of activity. This causes my circulation to slow causing my blood pressure to drop and my brain to call for more oxygen which makes me dizzy and then my heart tries to compensate by beating faster. This condition is called Disautonomy. (I think that's it in English. We did the whole doctor's visit in Spanish.) So now I'm on another drug that will help to constrict the veins in my feet and allow my blood pressure not to drop as far when I stand up. I'll see the doctor in another month, but for now I'm glad to have a viable diagnosis!

International Day at our House

2009-11-04T07:44:00.002-05:00

A week ago Sunday, we had a sort of international dinner here at our house. This was unplanned and I really didn't think about it before we got here and Doug pointed it out. Our guests included Yvonne or Ibodne that we've mentioned in our prayer letter. She is from Ecuador. Hattie, a new friend we met through some fellow ABWE missionaries in China. Hattie is Chinese and is Seeking. She is here in Chile for 1 year and she has chosen to spend time with us at our church. We also have a friend and fellow missionary here in Chile to teach at our missionary kids' school. Jean or Gina as we call her, has been a missionary in Peru, Colombia, and a US church planter alongside her husband. Now she is here giving of her time once again to help our international students.

Hattie doesn't speak much Spanish. She knows some English, but it is rough. None of us speak Chinease and Yvonne speaks Spanish but now English. So, as you may have guessed our dinner was truly and international conversation. On top of all of that, I had made a Guatemalan dish made of chicken cooked in a tomato based sauce that my maid in Costa Rica taught me. However, I accidently used hot read peppers instead of sweet red peppers. OH WELL!! Live and learn!!! It all tasted GREAT, especially since all those present at dinner/lunch like a bit of spicy. Praise the Lord!

Hattie is continuing to come to church. We pray that she will understand enough in English and/or Spanish to come to know Christ as her personal saviour. Please pray that we, Gina and our family as well as other Christians she comes into contact with, will demonstrate what true faith in Jesus Christ is and that Hattie will come to know Jesus as her saviour.

PS - I took a picture of the 3 ladies on my couch, but due to our camera only taking video and our video camera only taking pictures it didn't come out. I guess it is time to get a new camera!

Amundson Anthem October 2009

2009-10-20T09:18:00.000-04:00

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people both now and forevermore. Psalm 125: 1-2

As many of you know from Heather’s blog, our family has been on a bit of a roller coaster since our last prayer but, praise be to God, things seem to be getting better, so we wanted to send out an “official” update to let you know what has been going on.

First – Heather’s health
During Sept. and early October Heather’s health was a roller-coaster. We have switched Dr.’s and hospitals and we feel like we are getting much better communication with our Dr (who also speaks English quite well). To try and summarize all that happened, we have been slowly lowering Heather’s medication which for the past three weeks really stopped all activity for Heather. The doctor did have her go off her medication for 48 hours in order to take “THE” test of all tests to confirm or deny Addison’s disease. The result is – Heather DOES NOT have Addison’s!! We certainly praise God for this result! However we also wonder what has been going on for the past year then. Due to the negative results the Dr. is taking Heather slowly off the medication she has been on the last year. She has been really tired, but thankfully, the last three days have been much better. We do not know what is going on yet, but praise God that “the LORD surrounds his people” and we can trust him. Keep praying!! We’ll let you know more as we know more.

Second – The Church
This whole month has been mission’s month at our church and we have had various missionaries come and speak at our church (this coming Sunday – 25-Oct, I will be preaching again), and it has been a blessing. This past Sunday we had just over 50 people at church, and over seven different countries represented!!! It is a pleasure to be serving with such a great pastor and group of believers!!! Please be praying as we continue to grow that we can keep this momentum, that we will grow in spiritual depth, and we can grow our ministries to the community. I (Doug) will be starting a Sunday school series on Ephesians this Sunday as well which should last the next 6 to 7 weeks. It seems incredible that 2 years ago I knew nothing in Spanish, and now I’ll be teaching about pre-destination in Spanish – kind of blows the mind!! Praise be to God once again!! Heather has had a break from the ladies Bible study this past month due to a one-day ladies conference that I drove the ladies to last Saturday, as well as another conference this coming week. Heather is still teaching the teenage girls Sunday school class though and that has been going well. Pray for transparency in this class and deep spiritual growth and fruit!!

Third – The future is always changing!!
With Heather feeling better, and an urgent need at SCA (Santiago Christian Academy), Heather will be stepping in again to help teach a science class at SCA

starting next Wednesday. The need is really bigger then just this class, but due to the conflicting home school/church/family schedules, and Heather’s still uncertain future of her health, we felt more than one class would be too much. Please be praying about this change, and that God would sustain Heather’s health as she fills in this need. She is good at what she does when teaching, but we also do not want her health to relapse again!!

Fourth – Misc. Items
We had a work day at church as we continue to change the appearance of our church. Hannah had a great time painting, Caleb worked with some of the teens, and Heather and another lady spent two days throwing out excess junk and cleaning up the teaching materials for the kids. This past month we have also slipped from winter into spring. Sept. was full of important dates. Sept 11th is the anniversary of the military coup – which today is nothing more than an excuse to burn tires and break windows. Sept 18th is the national Independence Day, which was followed by some version of “Armed Service Day” two days later. We had over 30 jet fighters and over 50 military helicopters fly directly over our house – it was pretty cool. We have also “sprung forward” in our time so we are now 1 hour ahead of EST, and when you “fall back” in November we will be 2 hours ahead of EST.

Keep praying –your prayers are being answered marvelously here in Chile!!!

I HAVE A DREAM...

2009-10-18T20:38:00.003-04:00

"...That all pastors should have a nice bathroom to..." - Douglas

That all pastors should be taken care of by their flock.

That all pastors should be blessed for their sacrifices.

That all pastors' families should feel loved and "pampered."

These are all dreams and we can't change the whole world, but we can think upon our pastor and our church here in Chile.

We as missionaries struggle with a balance each day. We have a code of conduct with ABWE that mandates that nationals not become dependent upon foreigners or foreign money for their daily existence, however the blessings that come from outside of Chile can always be a one time gift or blessing.

In my dream our church, because it is in a nice part of town, would have a nice parsonage. Think of a nice neighborhood near where you live, or possibly where you live. Think of a church right in the middle of that neighborhood with a trailer in the back yard. Now there is NOTHING wrong with a trailer! However, in the middle of that upscale neighborhood, what are people going to think of that church and its provisions for their pastor.

As of right now, our pastor, his wife, and their 4 children ages 21, 17, 16, and 9 live in a house that is LESS than 900 square feet with one bathroom (moldy, with missing tiles, and OLD), a SMALL alley kitchen (with no closing cabinets, only shelves and a stove that only has ONE working burner!), and 3 SMALL bedrooms (one is the size of a walkin closet). All of the neighboring homes are 2 floors with much more space.

In my FULL dream we would have enough money to put a second floor on the house with 2 more bedrooms and another bathroom, but for now my dream is smaller.

World wide it is true that you teach people how to treat you. If we teach or show our neighborhood that we can't take care of our pastor, then what will they think? Regardless of others' opinions, what does God think?

A year ago there were 15 or so people in our church. There was no full time pastor. December 8, 2008 our church began anew as a totally new church. We've changed our name. We've instituted new ministries. We have a new pastor. We've grown to 40 - 50 people on any given Sunday. We are a new and growing church. Therefore we are still young and learning is slow going. Therefore our church is still learning how to honor our pastor. Meanwhile, our pastor and his family "suffers." They would NEVER complain of this! They are from a humble background and have NEVER ONCE COMPLAINED!

All that to say...

I have a dream that people from the US would help us in blessing our pastor with a new kitchen and bathroom.

Here is where my dream hits specifics. Money. It is MUCH cheaper to build down here, especially if the labor is free. Then, if we could have a team of 3 or 4 men to come and do the work that would be even better.

I have a dream. Do you have a dream? Can you help us with our dream? Can we help you with your dream?

We know what it's NOT

2009-10-15T16:57:00.002-04:00

IT'S NOT ADDISON'S DISEASE!!! WOW! After over a year of taking these steroids and I don't/may not need them. So why did they help? We'll know more as we progress. The doctor says that there are many things that can make one feel faint, exhausted, and have the symptoms that I had/have sometimes. For now, we begin lowering my medicines even more and then when I'm totally off of those steroids then she'll run tests. She wants to wait so that we get the purest reading possible.

We'll update you as soon as we know anything more. God bless & Please keep praying!

Back in the amusement park

2009-10-10T13:22:00.001-04:00

OK, so the Doctora called last night. She said that the results were normal and therefore, believes that I do not have Addison’s Disease. So now is the BIG question. What do I have? I tested positive while in Costa Rica for having been exposed to Epstein Barr (Mono), but not having an active virus of Mono. Therefore maybe this is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which sometimes results when Epstein Barr becomes chronic. We don’t know, these are all speculations! For right now, the doctora is having me stay on the low dosage of meds that I was on while she talks to another endocrinologist to get his opinion. Then more tests of various kinds. We’ll see!

Thanks for all the prayers! We’ll keep you updated as things progress!
Heather

Update on Heather

2009-10-07T11:12:00.000-04:00

The doctor’s appointment with the new doctor went WONDERFULLY! The doctor is REALLY GOOD! She put it this way, in regards to doctors and bedside manners. There can be a beautiful ring that may be great, but if it doesn’t fit, what good is it? Exactly my thoughts. The former doctor was good, he knew what he was talking about, but he didn’t listen to me and therefore, I’m thankful to now have a doctor who is listening to me and is much more personable.

Anyway, she suspended my medicines Monday and Tuesday and this morning, Doug and I went to the laboratory to have the ACTH Stimulation test run. Once we got there, I was really weak and they finally put me in a wheel chair when I told them I couldn’t walk and thought I either might be sick or pass out. The test went well and I’ve retaken my medicines, including the VERY LOW DOSAGE of corisol that I’ve been taking. This will help to ward off passing out when standing, but won’t give me the energy to function on a regular basis. Therefore, after I finish this e-mail, I’m headed back to bed.

Praising God For…
Friends and Family who are praying for me and calling to check on me.
My ABWE family here in Chile that has and is providing some meals for us.
My Chilean sisters (Julie, Sandra, and Melissa) who have been coming to help me with cleaning the house and watching the kids so that Doug can still work and so that he can care for me.
A doctor who even gives me her home address to pick up the prescription to have the tests run. SHE IS AWESOME!!
AN AMAZING HUSBAND who loves and cares for me, even when I’m a blob.

Praying For…
Continued energy
A firm answer as to what is going on, especially if it isn’t Addison’s Disease!
Patience
Trust in God for all of our strength

Thank you again! Please check our blog for future updates. We will try to send out general e-mails, but the blog is easier to update.

Heather Amundson

THANKFUL to be OFF the Roller Coaster

2009-10-03T12:23:00.002-04:00

God is SOOO GOOD! I received a response through a connection from one of our ABWE professional health staff members at home office. The ACTH test would be done very similarly to what has been proposed here. I AM IN GOOD HANDS right here in Chile! There would be only one VERY SLIGHT adjustment that I will talk over with the doctor and I'm sure she'll be willing to accomodate. I have peace that God is teaching me to trust, give Him back control, and rest in the fact that I am in the center of HIS will.

Thanks for praying and supporting me.

Which ride am I on now??

2009-10-01T22:46:00.002-04:00

Overall, I just don't like amusement parks. I tend to get a headache from the beating sun, bad food, and rides that mess with ones body. So the answer to our questions is that I'm still on the roller coaster.

We had a WONDERFUL appointment with this new lady doctor today. She is willing and ready to listen to the patient who knows her body. She is personable. She gave me all of her contact info should I have an emergency. I really like her!

During the appointment she told me she'd still like to do the ACTH stimulus test, but that she'd admit me in the hospital to drop all of my med. There they could monitor me and then on the AM of the 3rd day, they'd do the test. She took my contact info and told me that she'd call me once she had everything set up. I was ok with this course of action until....

She called me about 5 hours later saying that she wouldn't be putting me in the hospital, but that she'd be in contact everyday I'm off meds. Instead of telling me what we were going to do, she told me to talk to my husband and think it over and she'd call again on Monday to find out my decision.

As of now, I don't know what to do. I may still be returning to the states, but I don't want to run "home" everytime there is something wrong. On the other side, as our regional administrator's wife put in a comment on Facebook, "Addison's is nothing to sneeze at!"

Tomorrow I will be contacting some doctors in the states to find out what the process is of retesting an addison's patient. If the docs in the states are going to do the same exact thing, then why pay the money to go back to the states to do it.

Please pray...

That God would give Doug and I the certainty that we need in making this decision.
That I would be able to find out the process that the doctors use there in the US. (Normally when diagnosing addison's, Doctors use the ACTH stimulus test BEFORE a patient in on any kind of medication. For me, I've been on these meds for over a year and so there needs to be some time meds free before the test is administered. )
That IF I do go off my meds for the 2 days that God will be my great physician and that He would protect me.
That God would teach me what I need to learn while I'm in this special amusement park of medicine.

Thanks for all of the support! It means SO MUCH!

ROLLER COASTER

2009-09-30T20:21:00.002-04:00

I'm not a fan of roller coasters. I never have been. I HATE how my head jars from one side to the other. I HATE the headache that I get during and then that stays with me after the "fun." Well, I'm not liking this roller coaster that I'm on right now either!!!

Over the past week...
I've cried more times than I can count.
I've sat in bed watching reruns of different tv shows on-line.
I've talked to the National Addison's Disease Foundation's founder and director.
I've been in and out of bed long enough to do one activity and then sit/lay back down.
I've let my kids do what they want when they want.
I've opened frozen pizza boxes while sitting on the kitchen floor.
I've sat 2 feet from the sugar on the counter and cried because I couldn't get up to get it.
I've decided to return to the states in January to have testing.
I've decided to return to the states next week to have testing.
I've decided not to return to the states.
I've doubted my doctor here.
I've not wanted to burn a bridge with the doctor here, but I don't trust him.
I've decided to take the test that the doctor who continues to keep me on a life threateningly low dose, wants me to take on Monday of next week.
I've been praying.
I've spent hours upon hours with a phone attached to my ear getting opinions from other Addison's patients, our regional administrator, and parents. All those who I've spoken with have concerns about me going TOTALLY OFF the medication for 2 days.
I've made a 2nd opinion appointment down here in Chile for Monday.
I've had that appointment remade for tomorrow.
I've almost passed out twice in less than 20 minutes and ended up giving myself a shot.

Are you as sick as I've been on this roller coaster yet???

Here are the current decisions...
1. I've decided not to go off my medicines and I will NOT be taking the test on Monday!!
2. Doug and I are seeing a female endocrinologist at a different hospital tomorrow at 2:30 EST.
3. Depending upon that meeting, I may need to return to the states to have LOTS of testing.

Keep in mind, I was diagnosed with Addison's Disease and I have NO DOUBTS of my diagnosis. I just need a doctor here who has no doubts either!

Feeling Low Again

2009-09-25T13:22:00.002-04:00

PLEASE PRAY!! I haven't blogged about this in a while because my Addison's Disease was under control. However...

In July of 2008, I caught a cold that my defenses couldn't fight. During the course of 10 days and NUMEROUS blood tests to determine what I was really fighting, I ran a low-grade fever, slept 20 hours of every 24, couldn't mentally think enough to just lay in bed and read, flipped channels, and felt like my head was a bowling ball ready to roll off of my head at any moment. At the end of those 10 days with no diagnosis and no change in the symptoms, the doctor at the language school where we were attending in Costa Rica, placed me in the hospital. It was there where after having a clue from my grandfather through my father, the doctors, including an endocrynologist, ran LOTS of tests. They determined that I had Addison's Disease.

Addison's is an autoimmune disease that basically means that the Adreanal Glands have shut down and have stopped or nearly stopped producing cortisol. SO WHAT?? Well, Cortisol gives ones body the energy to run, including your heart, lungs, and other vital organs. So what the doctors in Costa Rica surmised was that during those previous 10 days of a bad cold, my body had to virtually stop flowing energy to the "non-important" organs, in order to fight the cold. In other words, my adreanal glands weren't producing enough cortisol or energy to run my body as normal, AND fight off the common cold. Therefore it had to divert all energy it could muster to keep my body functioning, albeit at it's lowest possible level. That's why I couldn't even think well or concentrate on reading, and had to sleep virtually all the time, because my energy was diverted elsewhere.

After the diagnosis, I began taking 2 different types of medication. It took a while to build up in my system, but after a while, I got my normal energy level back. We went back to the US for 2 months on our "mini-furlough." I was fine during all of this time. I had noticed over 15 pounds of weight gain, but knew that in taking steroids that this would happen.

Once arriving in Chile, I met with another endocynologist at Clinica Las Condes, which is associated with John's Hopkins in the states, so it is arguably the best hospital here in Chile. There my doctor decided that he had doubts about my diagnosis and began running tests. I have no problem with the tests or being a guinea pig of sorts, but it's been almost 6 months now, and I'm getting tired!

We began by lowering one type of medication. Once I was completely off of that one, I crashed with little to no energy. Then he put me back on it. He then ran other tests. Now we are lowering my cortisol intake each day. I'm currently at half of the dosis that I took when I was home just 8 months ago. Next Thursday, I begin taking 1/4 of the dosis and then another test. A few days ago, I began crashing. This means that I wake up feeling EXHAUSTED and that all I want to do is sleep. This means that I have to support my head often whether with my hands, a pillow, or even the wall in church. Trying to function this way is virtually impossible being a wife, mother, and missionary.

Honesty, I want to end up back in the hospital, so that the doctors here can have no doubts about the diagnosis and/or if it's not Addison's Disease then they can determine what it really is.
Please pray for me to make it through the next 2 weeks before I have the next set of blood tests and that by lowering the medication dosis again next week, that I can still fulfill what GOD wants me to do.

The 18th of September

2009-09-23T21:22:00.003-04:00

As I mentioned before in a previous post, we spent the 18th of September, or Independence Day at Word of Life's camp here in Chile. WOL sets up a presentation with many aspects of the Chilean culture. They block of "sites" where each church can have a "home base." Then you send some men off to borrow tables, benches, and a grill from near the kitchen area. These are just a few pics from our day there. What a blessing of spending time with fellow Christians from all over Santiago!!

The kites for sale along the side of the road. This is a typical sight this time of year.

Our "youth pastor," Alejandro with one of our youth, Diego

Hannah with her Daddy, enjoying WOL! She's still Daddy's little girl!!!

The presentation "stage" and our pastor grilling out at our "site."

NOT SO LITTLE & A LITTLE BIT OF CULTURE

2009-09-21T10:43:00.003-04:00

Just the realization of a very proud and blessed mommy,

that my kids aren't so little anymore....

Last Friday was the 18th of September. Here in

Chile, that is independence day. They have many traditional dances, costumes, and foods that go along with this holiday.

One of those dances is the Cueca and this is a traditional dress worn by the "cow-girls" when they dance the Cueca or dance of the rooster.

The first dress for Hannah we bought when we were visiting Chile on our survey trip. She wore it for YEARS while we were on pre-field. Many of you may remember it. So, when I saw this one for only $10 I had to buy it for Hannah. My how she is growing into a little lady!

Cultural Difference?

2009-09-17T12:55:00.002-04:00

I don't know if this is a cultural difference, or what, but it was definitely an interesting question.

As many of you know, Doug has taken up running. I'm not talking a little bit here, and a little bit there. I'm talking marathons. He hopes to run one here in the near future and that will mean he's run one in North American, Central America, and then South America. Well Doug needed some new running shoes.

On Tuesday, we were out on an afternoon "date" at o a little "mall" called Plaza Quilin. There we found a sports store. The prices were right and Doug found what he wanted so he asked to try on the shoes. The lady attendent went into the back, typical for us too in the US, but she only returned with ONE SHOE. Doug was about to try the one on when she asked if he wanted to try them both on. I thought, "Well, duh!" I know not very missionary like, but of course if one is going to buy running shoes, wouldn't one like to know for sure that they are going to fit? Doug answered yes and he tried them on, walked in them, and then we bought them.

Maybe someone who's here in Chile (Stephanie) can comment on this to let us know if this is typical here to only try on one shoe or just a quirk of this particular attendent.

September 11th from 2 Perspectives

2009-09-11T11:55:00.004-04:00

September 11th - What do you think of when you see that date? For us as missionaries to Chile there are 2 different events that run through our heads.

As United Statesians I of course think of the attack on the World Trade Center in New York only 8 years ago. I remember being pregnant with Hannah and laying on the couch as usual with Caleb running around the apartment in diapers while I watched the news coverage. I thought of extended family that lived in NY. I thought of the families that lost daddies, husbands, sons, mommies, wives, and/or daughters. Wow! What pain!! It wasn't a day for attacking our own government and rioting, it was a day to unite within our boarders and look inward. Boarders were closed shutting some out and others in. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting to know if there were more attacks coming. Waiting to hear of missing loved ones.

September 11th for Chileans held LOTS of waiting too. In 1973 on September 11th the first socialist democratically elected government was thrown over by a military coop. This followed by MANY socialists being "gathered" together and held in Chile's National Stadium. From there many "disappeared." Many had to flee the country with their families seeking refuge from countries as far away as France, and possibly farther. Many of those families came from right here in Penalolen and in fact the school that bought the property across from our ABWE school is a socialist school. Families fought for their own under a repressive government and riots now mark September 11th in rememberance of that day, so long ago, but still felt by many here.

We will still experience riots here in Chile today. We, as Americans, have been told to stay home and just enjoy a night in with the family. We are close to the main street of rioting, so we'll probably hear various explosions and smell burning rubber from the many tires that will be set ablaze, but we should be safe in our house, on our closed street, in our safe neighborhood. However, there are others who live close to the "action" that we love SO much!!

Please pray today for safety for Pablo and Lisette. They are a young couple married since December and expecting their first little one, Sophia sometime early next year. They are both seminary students in the ABWE seminary that is right next door to the ABWE elementary and high schools. Pray that they will be safe tonight as they rest and enjoy the BRIGHT future that God has blessed them with!

Please pray for Tito, Julie, Gonzalo, and Kimberly! They are a special family to us!! Julie teaches our kids Spanish. Kimberly comes here 3 or 4 times a week to learn English and to help watch the kids so that Doug and I might get a moment to go out alone. Tito has helped us fix various things around the house and is currently without a job. Gonzalo works hard in his church and at the young age of 24 is a bright future leader and in leadership training at his church. They live on the other side of the school and have had a close relationship with many missionaries from ABWE. Please pray that they will all arrive safely home and that they will enjoy their time as a family.

Please also pray for Alejandro, our pastor's son! He works downtown and usually doesn't get home from work before 6 or 6:30. By this time much of the violence and demonstrations will be underway. Please pray that "Hano" will be home and arrive safe and sound to his family. He is a GREAT asset to our church and a blessing to our family in particular!

So, when you think of September 11th please remember those who gave their lives to defend the USA, and who died 8 years ago, but please also remember those who are serving overseas to defend and share of God's love!

August Prayer Letter Update

2009-09-01T12:58:00.004-04:00

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
Ephesians 1:3

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Greetings once again from Chile!! This past month has seemingly gone extremely quickly for our family so we wanted to get you caught up with what has happened.

Since our last letter I have taught in our church Sunday school and preached for two weeks while our youth group went north to Iquique on a mission trip. We have spoken at two different youth mission camps, and Heather has been busy with kid and ladies ministries (discipling, Ladies Bible Study, kids’ English classes) in the church.

It has been a busy first six months here in Santiago, so two weeks ago we were thankful for the chance to celebrate our anniversary and go away for a short family vacation to a little cabin in a canyon not to far from Santiago. It was extremely enjoyable, especially as the mountains just above us got covered in almost two feet of snow, unfortunately we only had rain.

This month we wanted to give you a little more information about our church that we are working in so that you know better how to pray both for us and for the church. It is an exciting time for the church, and we believe that God is definitely working here in Chile.

The church is located in “La Reina,” on the east side of Santiago, and at the base of the Andean mountains. The official name of our church, which has changed recently, in English, would be “Good News Baptist.” The church has existed for over 30 years I believe, but in every sense of the meaning we are a completely new church. In the past 10 years the church had experienced several difficulties which really suffocated the church and was causing the church to slowly die. In December 2008, when Pastor Christian started at the church there were no more than 15 people, and maybe 2 people would show up for prayer meeting. Today we are consistently in the mid 40’s and we have roughly 17 attending prayer meeting on Wednesday. We have also had several new visitors in the past three weeks so please pray that God would continue to bring new people to the church to hear the Good News!!

We have been extremely blessed in the last month or so to have a new young couple, Daniel & Ibodne, become members of our church. Daniel is Peruvian, and Ibodne is from Ecuador. The blessing is that they have both graduated from the local ABWE seminary, and are a strong vibrant couple who want to be active and involved in the local church. As the church is still small, to have another biblically trained couple who can help carry the load is a tremendous blessing.

With their addition this will allow Heather and I to adjust some of our energies to possible future ministries. Daniel and I possibly may split some of the Sunday school teaching, while Ibodne and Heather work on the various kid and ladies ministries. Daniel also brings some musical depth to the church with his chimes, and I believe the guitar as well. In speaking with Pastor we would also like to get a keyboard for the church. If you would like to give to this please send the money to our ministry account at ABWE noting it is for a keyboard. We are also beginning to frame our discussions around starting a kids program similar to Joy Clubs or Awana in the future as well as a teaching English program to reach our community. La Reina is a working/business class community and there is an incredible educational push to learn English here in Chile, so this would be a great opportunity for the church.

Please continue to pray for us as we seek to diligently serve God in the church with our teaching, in the office, and in our family. Heather and I are thrilled to be here in Chile, and blessed by God to have our first term start in such a wonderful fashion. There is much to do – but we serve a GREAT GOD. Thanks for praying!!

Interesting Irony

2009-08-24T17:26:00.002-04:00

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!

2009-08-22T13:55:00.004-04:00

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

2009-08-18T19:54:00.005-04:00

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

2009-08-17T09:58:00.003-04:00

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

2009-08-11T13:03:00.005-04:00

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

2009-08-05T10:57:00.003-04:00

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

Day Out with Friends

2009-07-21T20:26:00.004-04:00

Today we had a GREAT time out with fellow missionary friends. The Garcias who are serving with ABWE in the northern part of Chile, have come down for a bit of R&R and to renew some fingerprints for an adoption from Haiti. (To read more about their family you can go to http://www.garcias2chile.blogspot.com/.) Since they are here for a few days we decided to get to know them better and make sure that the kids got to spend some time together. There were 6 kids and 3 adults in all. 3 Garcia kids, Eva, Isabel, and Owen with their mom, Stephanie, 1 Rogers girl, Andrea with her mom, Ruth Ann, and 2 Amundson kids, Caleb & Hannah, with me. First we went to the GOLDEN ARCHES for lunch. This is always a hit whether it's in the states or here. Then we left for the children's museum. (Ruth Ann had other errands to run due to one of her other daughters having her impacted wisdom teeth removed today.) WOW! Was it BUSY! I guess not the best idea to go to the children's museum during winter break from school. Oh well, it was good anyway. After the museum we took the kids for ice cream and then came back to our house where we were joined by Doug and Pedro, Stephanie's husband, for pizza. It was a truly GREAT day. Each kid had a buddy of sorts to play with and everyone basically got along. Tomorrow another adventure with some new missionaries so they can get acquainted with the city. YEEEHAH!

Above - Caleb and Hannah working the Bubble station.

Left - Hannah with fast friend Eva

Below - Friends Isabel with Andrea

.

Caleb and Owen riding the train on the way to the museum.
What HANDSOME DUDES!!!

Polarhose

2009-07-10T21:32:00.002-04:00

YES Polarhose! WHAT ARE POLARHOSE??? You may ask. Well they are pantyhose with polar fleece lining! THEY are WONDERFUL for warmth. I had often seen women wearing dresses or skirts to church during the winter, but when I tried it I practically froze! That is until I found this wonderful invention. How come we don't have these in the states? Because we have indoor heat??? Probably!

Things I never thought I'd see...

2009-06-26T15:21:00.008-04:00

...Myself buying clothes...for my dog.

...Myself NOT owning a dishwasher.

...The point in wearing LLBean jeans with polar fleece lining let alone spending the money to buy them! They are FABULOUS!!

...My own breath while sitting in church.

...So many horses and buggies in a city this large.

...Me staying up until midnight consistently.

...Myself making MAS quanities of corn bed warmers.

...Myself not wanting to take a bath because the tub's too cold to lay down in.

...Myself tell my children to put on their hats INSIDE the house.

Amazing what I miss

2009-06-24T18:06:00.002-04:00

Today I was reflecting on what I miss from COSTA RICA. Strange huh? You'd think I would miss the US, but instead, I miss Central America. WOW!

I miss reading. While in Costa Rica because my main job was language learning and more often than not, I needed a break, I think I read over 25 books last year alone.

I miss Miss Carla. She was such a blessing to our lives, and I miss her!

I miss having so many fellow missionaries with young kids in the same phase of life.

I miss CHEAP taxis!

I miss MUCH CHEAPER FOOD! Here it's almost $5 for 4 chicken breasts at the local grocery store. YIKES!

I miss the warmth, although I can't complain, I do LOVE the 4 seasons!

I miss some of our fellow ABWE missionaries like Paul & Patty Collier

I miss our tico neighbors and the sound of our kids playing together in the garage.

I miss the teachers and close friends that I met there that live there.

I miss my doctor for my Addison's Disease. The doctor here is harder to understand and isn't as confident in the diagnosis, so he ran a BUNCH of tests to be sure. Thankfully I have no cysts in my brain interupting the function of my hypothalmus or pituitary gland!

I miss having Doug home more often than not. He's been working LONG hours getting aquainted with the finance job down here, so he's not home much and when he is, he is working on a masters class over the internet.

What I don't miss about Costa Rica is the RAINY SEASON! Maybe it would be better with a car, but I just can't stand the rain for days and days on end. Here we've had some rain, but we have a car and we get breaks of days with sun to warm back up again.

At a Camera's Glance

2009-06-16T11:45:00.004-04:00

I haven't had time to write here recently. I'm sorry!

Doug has been getting used to the finance office as he has finally taken over that duty. I've begun heading up the Ladies' ministry at our church, discipling 2 ladies, teaching Thursday night kids' class (English class with a Bible lesson), and temporarily teaching the kids' Sunday School class as the teacher is preparing for a missions trip. I'm still teaching at the ABWE high school until the 1st of July and then I'm taking a while off to focus on our family and the church.

Since we've been so busy, I thought that I'd give you a glimpse into our lives through the pictures we've taken recently.

Our most recent family picture for our church's directory

The children presenting to the adults what they learned in Sunday School class.

Pastor Christian, with his wife Sandra, and their 4 kids

Alejandro, Melissa, Christian, and Jeremias

Our church during a church service.

Because of having Addison's Disease, I have to sometimes wear a mask to avoid catching even the common cold.

Me with my little friend, Antonia. I've been teaching Sunday School class for all of the kids.

Doug talking to our deacon, Italo and another pastor during our married couples meeting

Married Couples meeting. The first one held with the new church.

The view from outside our house looking at the mountains covered in snow.

Praising God for Steve's safety

2009-06-05T20:58:00.003-04:00

Yesterday while trying to deliver newspapers for a Christian classified paper from West Virginia, Doug's brother had a roll over. We praise God that he walked away after flipping the car and landing upside down in a raveen. Here's a picture of our old car that many of you saw us use while on pre-field. It certainly went down in a blaze of glory with over 203,000 miles on it.
Steve we are SO glad that you're ok!

My first CRAMPED trip

2009-06-04T14:14:00.002-04:00

When riding the metro, there are good times to go and bad times. There are good directions to go and bad directions. I'm referring to traffic. No, not vehicle trafic, but people traffic. Having never lived in a BIG city like Santiago (almost 7 million people), I've never had to experience the physical "fight" to place ones body where you need it. Normally we, as North Americans have a bubble of comfort space around us. NOT HERE IN LATIN AMERICA!!! And especially not in a big city like this one.

I had gone downtown to go to a Christian bookstore we have come to love. Doug dropped me off at a metro station, where very few people were waiting to take the metro INTO town. As I walked down the stairs onto the platform to wait for my North bound train, I saw the South bound train approaching with NUMEROUS passengers. They were coming home from work and had crammed into the train to save just a few more minutes without having to wait for the next train going South. I knew that's what I'd have to experience coming back, but I thought, "I have to get to the bookstore TODAY!" So when the next North bound train came, I got on.

There were plenty of orange plastic seats on this train, and I took full use of one, for I knew that I probably wouldn't get one coming all the way home. Since in reality we have 5 metro lines (I think), I had to make a change of metro lines when I reached the end of my line. It's kind of like changing major highways in a car. You have to fight traffic. However, there wasn't too much traffic at this hour, so I boarded my next train. After 5 or 6 stops I got off.

I had gotten off at a major stop so there happen to be 4 different exits. I walked up to the street using the exit I thought led to my bookstore destination. I was wrong. When I reached the surface of the street, I realized my desination was across an 8 lane highway. Thankfully there was a cross walk! When the cross walk light told me I could walk, walk I did. I crossed the west bound traffic with no problem. I crossed the center bike/walk path median with no problem. Then I began to cross the East bound traffic. Just then, keep in mind I still had a green cross walk light, a car decided to take a left hand turn onto the East bound street that I was crossing. The driver, narrowly missed hitting me by honking his horn and my RUNNING to get out of the way. Whew! Glad that's over!

I proceeded to the bookstore, purchased what I needed and headed back to the metro. This time, I entered on the side closest to the bookstore and did not have to cross any major streets! LESSON LEARNED! If one comes up from the metro on the wrong side of the street, go back down into the metro and cross underneath the street rather than risk your life by crossing above!

I purchased something to eat and even had the little store heat up my sandwhich, because by this time it was 6:30 and I was getting hungry. I looked at the line to enter the metro and it really wasn't that bad. OK, this is good, I should be able to eat my dinner on the way home, that is IF I can get a seat on the train! The train pulled up going my direction and all the seats were taken. There was standing room only and at that we were packed in, or at least I thought we were.

After my 5 or 6 stops I got off to change trains to get back on my line going South. WOW! What a rush of people. Hundreds of people trying to get from point A to point B in a small amount of time. SLOWLY we edged our way down the stairs the crowd almost moving as one as we ebbed and flowed down the stairs to the line where we would all wait to get on the next train. The first train came and went. I edged forward closer to the line. The second train came and went, I got to the front on the line. I watched as last minute people litterally crammed into this train. They'd stand on the edge of the door and as the door would shut, they would shove themselves in the rest of the way. And I thought I was packed in the last train! That was NOTHING!!!

As that train pulled away and I waited on that line, I looked up to the entryway stairs that I had come down just a few short minutes earlier. Hundreds of people, all orderly ebbing closer. I turned my head towards the track and looked down. "Lord, PLEASE don't let them become disorderly and cause us to be pushed off onto the track in front of an oncoming train!" Praise God, Chile is a civilized country and the people love the metro train system.

The next train approached and thankfully I was one of the first on, so I got a little, plastic, orange seat to sit in. I was finally able to eat my lunch and I didn't have to stand so close to people. Many times while standing up you are back to back with a person, or even front to back with a person and you couldn't even slip a piece of paper between you. It can be THAT crowded and THAT indecent sometimes.

Lessons learned!
Cross the road underneath the road!
Don't go the wrong direction at the right time.
Go the right direction at the wrong time.

Caleb's Spanglish Thoughts

2009-06-04T14:09:00.003-04:00

In Costa Rica during the 3rd trimester, I finally realized why I was always being corrected by native speakers when I would say, any number and a half years, or months, or minutes. For example in English we say, my son is 7 1/2 years old. Or there are 1 and a 1/2 hours left in the program. Well, in Spanish they would say, my son is 7 years and a 1/2 or there are 7 hours and a half left in the program.

What took me YEARS to learn and begin to use, has taken Caleb only months. Yesterday before they went out to play in the street with some other kids, (Please keep in mind we live on a closed dead end street.) Caleb told Doug and I that they'd like to play for at least one hour and a half. What a blessing that he's even thinking in Spanish before he speaks in English!

Yesterday

2009-06-01T12:26:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was TIRING! But WONDERFUL!! We were in church from 10:30 until 2:15. We dropped off a friend that had needed a ride to church, and made it home to eat real fast. Less than 1 1/2 hours after getting home, off I went again. I picked up 2 other ladies and we went back to the church for ladies' meeting. Normally we don't have ladies' meeting on Sundays, but the other Saturdays of the month just hadn't worked for May.

It was my first time sharing a devotional, but I know God was in control because He did everything. The ladies were gracious with my Spanish and I was able to communicate what God had laid on my heart. I'll be continuing to do the devotions each time starting with my testimony this next time and then we'll be doing a book study. I'm excited to watch God be glorified in our ladies!

Please pray for me this week as I also will begin a Thursday evening lesson for the kids. We have adult prayer meeting and until now there has been nothing for kids during this time. I'm excited to start this Thursday with 3 kids for sure - Caleb, Hannah and the pastor's 9 year old son. I mentioned to pastor doing the lesson bilingually and he liked that idea. This may be a draw to other kids in the neighborhood too and may bring unsaved people in the doors of the church. I'm excited!!!

Thanks for sticking with us and reading my blogs. I really appreciate it!
Heather

Sights, Sounds, and Customs Volume 5

2009-05-21T20:50:00.002-04:00

Everyone here LOVES to wear tee-shirts, especially ones with English writing on them. We see tee-shirts with all kinds of American logos, and sayings on them, from Nike all the way to local college slogan shirts. Most people don't know the significance of the slogans or beer adds that they're wearing, all they care about is that it's in English. But today's English shirt took the cake!

A man and his wife were walking hand in hand as they passed by me while I sat with Michelle Dwyer in a mall food court. (Our families met at language school and we live only 25 minutes from each other here in Chile!) I don't know why I noticed this particular tee-shirt, but it was pretty neat looking. Maybe the word "Mom" or maybe even the word "cheerlead..." caught my eye. The shirt was kind of cool pink or mauve type color and the words were written in a bold blue. It said something to the effect of "Proud to be a cheerleader's MOM!" So this really GREAT tee-shirt was worn by the MAN!

Sights, Sounds, and Customs Series Volume 4

2009-05-16T19:50:00.002-04:00

Driving along it's interesting to see people sweeping their front lawn. Yup sweeping. Here though because most people have small yards they have no need for a rake, so they just use what they had already. Plus a broom gets not only those leaves on the lawn, but the dust on the driveway and sidewalk too. I've notice in Latin America, but especially in Chile that the front of ones house needs to be neat and "clean." The watering of lawns is frequent here and the driveway and outside of ones home is usually immaculate.

Sadly, I don't fit into those standards. My kids play with their toys in the driveway and although we do ask them to put them away when they are done, sometimes it just doesn't happen. We don't water our front entrance because there is no grass and we're just going to drive over it anyway to park our car during the day. However inside, I try to keep our house neat and clean for when we have people over. I guess the question for me is about our witness. What do our neighbors think about this "gringo" couple who doesn't go to the same extremes (normal for them) that they do?

School Board Meeting in my PJ's

2009-05-14T19:57:00.002-04:00

Yup! You read it correctly. I attended a school board meeting in my pj's! It happens to be school spirit week at Santiago Christian Academy where I am currently teaching a class of juniors and seniors, environmental science. Yesterday was Pajama day, so OF COURSE I went in my pj's, slippers, and robe with my hair up and a bit messy. Since I don't teach until the end of the day, I had to head to my meeting in my pj's. It was rather comical, when a teacher was asked to join us to answer a question we all had. After seeing Kelly walk by the room where we were having our meeting, I stepped out to ask her to come in for a moment. She responded, "I'm not exactly dressed for a meeting." To which I responded by stepping further out where she could see me and asking, "and I am??" Needless to say, her sweatpants and sweatshirt with slippers, was dressed up compared to my cotton pajama set.

Puppy

2009-05-12T15:19:00.003-04:00

I've written about the WEIRD looking dogs that walk the streets here in Santiago, but last Saturday, I saw a puppy. I was walking back to the school campus where I had left our car to take the metro downtown. I had gone with one of my Chilean friends from church. Sandra and I were almost back to the school, about 1 block away, when I saw this little girl "loving on" a puppy. As we got closer, I asked the little girl if the puppy was hers. She told me no and then after closer inspection of the puppy, I realized that this poor puppy had been thrown out on the street to die or fend for itself. Well at less than 3 months old, this puppy was on its deathbed. SOOOO I called Doug and asked if we could bring her home. His answer was a hesitant yes, so off we went to the vet. Sandra was such a help in this new realm of Spanish conversation. The puppy didn't do well for the first day, but now she is doing GREAT! Except she, just like a 3 month old baby, loves to cry and fuss. Oh well, this too shall pass. Meet "Rosita Kiwi." We call her Kiwi.

Kiwi on Saturday after she had been here for 1 day. Check out those ribs! She's finally beginning to fill in. Now she's REALLY SPUNKY!!!

Hannah loving on our new puppy!

I bought Kiwi a collar today. I wish that they had a pink one available, but I just couldn't buy her a blue one. Afterall she is a female!

For now, we have to keep the dog, Chloe that we are "fostering" away from Kiwi, in case Kiwi has some kind of communicable disease. Chloe, who has been a mother to a litter of puppies before, hears Kiwi's fussing and SOOO wants to love on her. I can't wait to see them together. They'll be SOOO cute!!! The vet says that Kiwi should be about the same size as Chloe, but is a mix of German Shepherd and Terrior. I love it! I've always loved German Shepherds and labs, but never liked their size. We don't have a big enough yard to be fair to a big dog, so we had been looking into adopting a small or medium size dog. Chloe is a medium size dog, and hopefully Kiwi will be too!

Chloe our "foster" dog.

PRAY FOR TEACHERS!!!

2009-05-07T11:39:00.002-04:00

Here in Santiago, we have an international school. It is run by ABWE and therefore finding teachers to serve falls to us. Currently there is a real need for teachers beginning this August. Without teachers to teach our young people, we are then asked to step in and teach. As ABWE missionaries, not having teachers for our school directly affects our ability to minister to nationals, not in the school sense, but in the church and evangelism setting. Since Heather is a certified teacher she has been elected to serve on the school board and it is truly difficult to see our kids go without a proper education due to lack of teachers. Therefore, although Heather is homeschooling our children, she has begun teaching an environmental science class at SCA. Doug also has been facilitating a class of economics for one of our high school seniors. Would you as a mature, Christian individual consider serving on the mission field as one of our short term teachers? If you as an individual can’t come, would you consider supporting a teacher who is willing to come?Regardless of what you can or cannot do, would you please pray that God would provide teachers for our young people? If you have any questions, please contact me!