Wrestling Match

Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Missions has always been at the forefront of my Christian life.  I thank God for our sending church that places a focus and importance on the heartbeat of God - sharing salvation through Christ with the world! 

We loved missions conferences in our home church!  I'll never forget the conference that followed, by a mere week, Scott's surrender to serve God full-time as a missionary.  Having the missionaries into our home was thrilling and we soaked up all they had to share with us. 

When we moved to Bible college we were able to experience two missions conferences every fall; one at the college and one at our church.  Every missionary presentation was an opportunity to pray and ask God if that was the country and the people He would have us to go and minister.

Then we were appointed missionaries with Baptist World Mission and suddenly became the missionaries.  The Lord blessed us with the opportunity to present the need for the Gospel of Christ to be shared here in Uruguay in over 100 churches.  Each church was a special blessing to our family.  And it was clear that missions was more than a concept it was what made the church.  It became clear that if the churches focus was on missions that church was a thriving vivacious work. 

I never take lightly the sacrifice of money and time on our behalf, personally, and on the lives of countless other missionaries that had already passed through the doors of each church.  However, I never understood, until now, the battle that rages around a missions conference. 

As soon as we began planning for this conference we have had to duck and cover.  We are being bombarded! 

Sadly, friendly fire along with the expected fiery darts of our natural enemy have hit their marks.  Even so, you all are praying and our battle gear is in place so those fiery darts have not quite had their full intended effect.  (Eph 6:16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.)

For the past few weeks we have had one thing or another happen to us our the kids.  Since this past Saturday it has been literally non-stop.  Simeon dropped a huge rock on his pinky finger leaving it swollen and black and blue.  Later that day Silas and Brandon came down with something respiratory.  Brandon was barely able to stand on Sunday morning and he was scheduled to preach that night.  We encouraged him to plan to preach.  God intervened and gave Brandon the strength and ability.  By the time we got home Sunday night Silas was in a major asthma attack and we had to put him on steroids before the day began on Monday.

Tuesday morning Simeon got his finger caught in between a bike chain and the sprocket.  And that afternoon Silas fell and cut his chin open.

Wednesday during school the window above Isabel's desk fell and the glass shattered where she would have been sitting.  Thank God she had already finished school and was not at her desk.  Later our guest missionaries arrived to our house for lunch and their oldest daughter was bit by our dog.   Yesterday their son had a bad allergic reaction.  And Silas touched the hot tail pipe of the moto. 

This morning Adeline woke up in a severe asthma attack.  Yesterday she ran out of her miracle asthma medicine, my fault, I miscalculated.  I don't know if the crisis was a result of not having her meds last night or not.

I praise God for His protection in all of these incidents.  Clearly many of them have been life threatening.  Yet God in His grace has not allowed them to go beyond the superficial and the almost.  God is on the throne!  And we will continue to share God's heart for worldwide missions with the Uruguayans!!!

Youth Night part 2

Kaitlin playing the offertory.  Her ability to play the piano has increased exponentially in the last year.  It was exciting to see her playing arrangements of intermediate level music.   

Jony leading congregational singing.

Yeny, Eliana G, Eliana Q, Maria Eugenia, Elizabeth, and David singing the special music.

Brandon preaching for Genesis 12 about how even little things will affect our lives, and lives of others as well.  Abram's half truth was still a lie.  That "little" lie led to other lies and even retelling the same lie but to someone else.  He reminded us that we need to be faithful in going to church, reading the Bible, prayer, meditation and doing what we learn.  He applied what he preached by asking how we would like to know that a decision we made negatively affected the whole world for thousands of years.  There were several decisions made for the need to be faithful.  We praise God for His enabling Brandon to preach as he was very sick yesterday morning and we prayed all day for God to give him the strength he needed. 

 

The six top verse memorizers - Nacho, Eliana, Elizabeth, Paola, Kaitlin and Belen.

Yeny was one of seven young people who received an award for faitfulness in devotions.  She along with Belen, Brandon, Eliana G, Elizabeth, Kaitlin and Paola did more than 80% of their daily devotions.

We honored the faithfulness of our youth leaders by giving them Character Awards.  Pastor Daniel - Dependability, and his wife Amparo - Enthusiasm.

Sebastian - Contentment, David - Availability

Pastor Andres - Joyfulness, Maria Eugenia - Boldness.

The youth leaders then gave their Character awards to each of their teens.

Our youth group and leaders excited about all their hard work.

Kappa Theta Fishermen - Alvaro, Pastor Andres and Maria Eugenia, Kaitlin, Eliana, Yony, Mauricio, Yeny and Flavia.

 

Chi Alpha Gideons - Paola, Tatiana, Pastor Daniel and Amparo, and Nacho.

And the winners are the Nu Delta Trastornadores - Mauricio, Brandon, David, Elizabeth, Eliana, Belen and Sebastian!  Great job guys!

Brandon with his "preacher-only" soda...a proud moment in his life. :-)

Youth Night

Teaching young people to do the work of the ministry is wonderful especially when they have the opportunity to put their lessons into action.  We are thankful for the way that the Perezes have organized the church and annex here in Colonia, allowing for the young people to serve in nearly every capacity.  It puts the church at a distinct advantage!

This weekend SIGMA ended and we completed our official responsibilities here with the youth.  It has been a tremendous pleasure and blessing serving the Lord in this ministry!  We trust God has allowed us to impact the lives of these young people.  Our prayer is that they will continue taking sermon notes, memorizing Scripture, doing their devotions, serving the Lord and following after Him as they seek His will for their lives.  Below are pictures of the last SIGMA meeting and last night's youth service. 

 

Kaitlin playing and David leading for song service for the last SIGMA meeting.

Getting ready to watch Nu Delta's announcements video - absolutely hilarious!

These guys pretended to be news anchors, David Eastiene (Dav ideas tiene) and Brandon Oticias (Brando noticias).  This was their 2nd video.  

Pastor Andres, Mexican missionary to Uruguayan Jewish people, preached on the need for workers in God's Harvest fields.  He reminded us about God's provision - where He calls He will provide!

Brandon and Jona heading off to pass out invitations to the Cola Wars rally we're holding next weekend.

Everyone heading up to Centro to pass out invitations to Cola Wars.

Eliana, Elizabeth and Kaitlin passing out invitations to the Cola Wars.

 

Reading their invitations.  You can see the girls in the center background.

Our 2nd annual ice-cream treat.  Jony is pretending to eat this cone he found in the trash.  I didn't realize it was actually from the trash can...GROSS!

Some of the girls enjoying their soft-serve.

The rest of the girls.

Our honorary youth...aka missionary/youth leaders kids.

Some of our youth leaders.  Seba was avoiding me, for some reason I've earned the title of paparazzi.  David had to take his sick brother home.  And I'm taking the pictures.  :-)

Thanks to all of you who were praying for the SIGMA year!  No doubt the Lord worked greatly as a result of your prayers.  Please continue to pray for these young people as they continue to walk with the Lord.  Please pray for David and Mark Perez as they will be leading the youth group. 

Silas is 2 today

If it weren't for all the trouble this little guy gets into it would be hard to believe he is two. 

He's grown so much in the past few weeks.  And he woke up yesterday visibly taller and seemingly chubbier. 

His vocabulary is amazing.  He speaks both English and Spanish.  When he wants my attention he calls me in Spanish.  When he wants to cuddle he calls me Mommy.  Ditto all that for Scott only using papa and daddy.  His drink is always referred to as Agua.  When he wants to go with Bethany to the gas station he says Ancap (that's the name of the station).  Moto's are momo's, and when we try to teach him the correct way to say it he puts the emphasis on the second m, little stinker.  Some of his words are always in English, some in Spanish and others are bi-lingual - car/auto, cat/gato, cow/vaca, bread/pan, mommy/mama, daddy/papa and baby/bebe.  And if I want him to come to me I have to tell him in Spanish.

Though I'm teaching him to be a good Denver Broncos fan, he plays football futbol like the Uruguayans - with his feet and a soccer ball.  When he kicks the ball he says, "Goal."  The other day when Brandon was in the nursery with me he was tossing a Koosh ball to the "babies".  Everyone of them pulled their hands back and let the ball hit their heads, chests or tummies.  Silas included. 



And he drinks and tries to serve mate (ma -tay)!  It's actually quite the thing to see him take over Sebastian's mate and thermos.


When we ask him for a kiss he usually offers his cheek for us to kiss him or he gives us a Uruguayan greeting.

Yes, two wonderful years have passed with our little chubby bubby and we are thankful for everyday with him.  And we are so glad all of our family will get to meet him while we are home on furlough. 

CROAK - update

The van was towed back to our house today.  Since it looked like it would take longer than estimated 3 weeks to fix the van, the warranty would be only good during the time we were gone (and unable to drive the van), and we don't have the money right now, it didn't take long for us to decide that waiting to fix the van until a few weeks before we return to the field was the wisest thing to do.

So for the remaining time we have here before furlough we will getting around Uruguayan style - on the moto, or the bus.  Honestly, I'm OK with that.  It does add a dimension of difficulty to our lives but there are also the blessings of extra fellowship with the Uruguayans as we ride the bus to church and back. 

The Beacon September/October 2009

Close to the Finish

The Lord has richly blessed us throughout our first term. We have learned to lean harder on the Lord.  He continually gives us a greater ability to speak Spanish.  And we are better able to minister to Uruguayans. The effects of culture shock have lessened.  Our burden for the people of Uruguay is even greater.  

 

Though we are busy preparing our belongings for storage and we anticipate being home again, we continue on in the work God has called us to.  And the month of November looks very promising! 

Debbie will be finishing up pastor’s wife classes with two of the ladies here.  She has enjoyed the time of sharing what she has learned from God’s Word as well as the practical aspects of being a pastor’s wife.

Bible institute classes end on the 7th.    We will be having our annual Asado (BBQ) for the students and their families on the 21st.  Sebastian and Juan Carlos will officially graduate with their four-year degrees during the anniversary Sunday services expected to be held in January. 

The youth will have the entire service on the 8th.  They will usher, lead music, play and take up the offertory, sing the special music, and Brandon will be preaching.  SIGMA awards will be presented at the close of the service.  

“To the Harvest” missions conference will be the 11th-15th.  Jeremy Estrema, missionary in Argentina, is the preacher.  Our prayer is that God will use this time to strengthen the burden of the people here for missions.  We also pray that there will be better understanding of and an increase in Faith Promise commitments to help support a new work upon the Perezes’ return.  

The COLA WARS youth rally will be held during the missions conference.  We are hoping to use this as a time to put action to our words by immediately reaching into our Jerusalem.

Elections

Our first presidential elections in Uruguay were interesting and very eye opening.  The favored candidate, Jose Mujica, didn’t gain the majority vote, so there will be a run-off election on November 29.  Mr. Mujica, a strong communist and former member of the Tupamaros, a guerrilla group who took over in the ‘70s, is also  friends with Hugo Chavez, dictator of Venezuela.  There are rumors that if he wins, he will eliminate missions here in Uruguay.  Please pray God will intervene.   

Brethren, pray for us:

Furlough begins Dec. 5—we will be in 5 airports.

Strength to get through this last month

God’s direction for a future church plant here in Uruguay

That Debbie can get her needed MRI before we leave Uruguay

Giving glory to God:

Isabel trusted Christ as her Saviour!

For our prayer warriors

For our supporting churches

In Memory of Staci Cadarian

The sister of one of my best friends went home to be with the Lord this week.  My life was definitely enriched for having known Staci.  Please pray for the family as they adjust to life without her.

Here is the obituary from the paper: 

Staci Cadarian. Born November 26, 1972, went to be with the Lord, Monday, October 26, 2009. With many broken hearts left behind. Staci was a beautiful person despite her many handicaps and disabilities. She spent the first six months of her life in the hospital due to complications from Spinabifida and Hydra-cephalis. She would end up there many times in her life but it would not stop her from spreading joy even in the lives of the Hospital Staff. Our beautiful baby had a great love for everyone she knew, and never met a stranger.

She has left behind a family who is rejoicing that she is in the hands of God but aching at the loss of her amazing life. She is survived by her family. Her parents: John and Barbara Cadarian; a sister Tami McKendrick and her husband Dan and daughter Tori. Three brothers, Brian Cadarian, Mike Cadarian and Jeff Cadarian, his wife Julie and three children, Jordan, Justin and Janelle. She is also survived by a paternal grandmother Lil and many other aunts, uncles, cousins and special friends Faye and Clarence Riddle who will miss her dearly. She was preceded in death by a cousin, Darrell Gregory, a paternal grandfather, John Cadarian and a maternal grandmother, Essie Turnmire, who we are certain, met her at Heaven's Gate rejoicing with her and her new glorious body.

She was our baby, our buddy, our playmate, our toy and the love of our lives. She has left us all with a great sadness and emptiness in our hearts. After a life expectancy of three years we are grateful for the almost 37 we were able to spend with her. It proves that only God is in control. We are overjoyed at the peacefulness of her passing and seeing her again in Glory. We will miss her greatly until we all meet her again. Heaven will never welcome a sweeter Angel and we will always love her.

The pallbearers will be brothers, Jeff Cadarian, Mike Cadarian, Brian Cadarian and Dan McKendrick; and nephews, Jordan Cadarian and Justin Cadarian. Visitation Wednesday from 6-9 p.m. and Thursday from 1-9 p.m. at the Bagnasco & Calcaterra Funeral Home, 13650 E. Fifteen Mile Road (at Schoenherr), Sterling Heights. Funeral service Friday at 12 p.m. at funeral home. Interment, Christian Memorial Cultural Center, Rochester Hills, Mich. Share memories at www.bcfh

Following in Grandpa's Footsteps

Although I never met him, I grew up hearing about my Grandpa Kelly!  My memories are of a man who was a Navy lifer who died from a massive stroke just day before his retirement.  I have copies of old pictures of my grandpa in his uniform with his family - my grandma, dad and aunt. 

My oldest nephew, Travis, is following in Grandpa's footsteps.  And we are so very, very proud of him!  This afternoon my sister said goodbye to her oldest son and sent him off to boot camp with nothing but the clothes on his back and his wallet.  Please be in prayer for Travis while he adjusts to his new life.  Pray for my sister, Brenda, as she adjusts to life without Travis. 

CROAK!!!

That's pretty much what our little van did yesterday.  Scott turned the van over only to hear a lot of metal cracking and clanking when we attempted to take the kids to an orthodontist appointment   Not good! 

Because the van is a diesel and Scott's not a diesel mechanic we had to have it hauled away yesterday afternoon.  But we just learned today of  rods that are bent and cracked, a blown head gasket blown and water in the oil.  Not good!

The mechanic thinks it will take about 3 weeks.  I hope he really means 3 weeks literal time and not, well, I'll just leave it at that.  Because as you can see by looking at that fancy little countdown timer above this post that cuts awfully close to our return home.  Not good!

So a quote I have just shared with friends today comes to front and center right now, "The difference between  stumbling blocks and stepping stones is the way one uses them."  I guess I'm going to have to lift my foot a litter higher over this block to make it a stone.  Good!

Run-Off Election Scheduled

Our first time to experience elections in Uruguay really wasn't too remarkable.  That's not to say that the time leading up to the elections was not alarming and eye opening.  With the exception that every of-age-Uruguayan must vote, election day in Uruguay passed much like it would in the States.

I'm still trying hard to understand the intricacies of the voting system here in Uruguay but I think I've got the gist.  Election is by popular vote.  Whichever candidate gets more than 50% + 1 of the vote, wins the election.  Simple in that respect.  If there is no one who gains the majority there will be a run off vote scheduled for a month later. 

That is the case this year.  And after seeing how close the vote was we are much relieved! 

It appeared that the Broad Front party, aka, communist party, would win the election.  In securing 47.49% of the vote they came very close.  The two conservative parties, whose vote combined totaled 45. 19%, will join their votes together to try to garner the majority, 50% + 1.  They have already announced which of their candidates will be on the next ballot. 

The Lord has offered us another month of prayer for the elections and we ask you to join us.  There are serious potential consequences to missions here in Uruguay if the Broad Front party were to win.  Their candidate is of the same mind and highly influenced by, H.C., the dictator in the northern country of South America.  I'm sure I don't need to elaborate further.

If you would like to read more about the elections I invite you to visit the Uruguayan newspaper  online at elpais.com.uy.