Retreat

Thanks for thinking about our retreat last weekend. Not much went according to plan, but it was a very meaningful weekend! I'll be honest...the theme was "A Purpose-filled Life" and before we left I thought, "That's great for those college students, but the topic won't really help me that much at this (mature) point in my life." But, after hearing what the speaker had to say about this subject, I realized how much I did need to hear this. We were also refreshed by the time out of the city and loved getting to know so many people from our fellowship.

~A

Apple Picking

One of the memorable parts of the retreat last weekend was picking apples. It was so much fun to spend some time in an apple orchard and get to take home all that I picked. I have invited some of my friends (that I met while apple picking) to come over on Sunday afternoon to bake pies! One of our friends is letting us borrow his oven (its like a huge toaster) and my Grandma Jane has already sent me a recipe and some great hints about baking. (I am planning on freezing my pie for Thanksgiving day.) We are going to make the pies and then watch some chick flicks while they all bake!

~A

Weekend Retreat

For the past several weeks we have been helping our fellowship plan a retreat for international college students. Tonight L is catering a BBQ for almost 70 people to kick off this retreat. We think we have already prepared around 300 vegetable skewers and we are still working on that project! We are also going to be small group leaders and I am running the PowerPoint. Please keep us and the college students we are working with in your thoughts this weekend.

~A

My Classroom

It is a ten minute walk from our apartment to my classroom. The first picture shows one of the fruit stands I walk by and the outside of the teaching building is in the background. My writing classes are on the first floor and my speaking classes are on the fourth floor. The classroom in the picture is my writing classroom, but the speaking one looks exactly the same (except it is much bigger). Each classroom is equipped with a computer, speakers, a dvd player, and projecter. I really enjoy teaching here!

~A

Today's Adventure

As you can see from the pictures, A is preparing for a winter fashion show and I am planning my ascent of Everest. Today we went shopping at a hectic market where shopkeepers all but tackle you to get your attention. This is one of those places where you ask the price and they quote some ridiculous foreigner price like 1200. Then you laugh and start to walk away and they say, "Okay! Okay!...1150." You keep walking..."1100...1000...850!" Then you go back, argue for 20+ minutes and get the thing for 220 (our currency, not USD). When we first arrived I found some North Face...I mean North Fake gloves and started haggling. The shopkeeper along with her shopkeeper friends in the vicinity kept laughing at me. I didn't think I was saying anything unreasonalbe...I mean, I was pretty sure of the price (they were asking 80 and I thought I could get it for a tenth of that) and I thought I was actually doing pretty good communicating. Finally, not able to contain herself, one girl corrected my error. Instead of saying simply, "Eight," I got my words mixed up and was insisting to pay "8,000! 8,000!"

I don't just love my coat, but when it's one of three or four in the whole city that fit, you do what you can. To be honest, it was actually worse when I first got it. It had someting like fox hair around the opening, restricting the tube I am peering through in the picture to a 3 inch diameter circle. I didn't want to buy one at all, but my coat from the states won't arrive with A's sister until December. It is already starting to get cold and we have heard that buildings in our city are prohibited from turning on the heat until November 15th. So in a few weeks if we post a blog and iittt llloookkkksss lliiikkeee ttthiisss, you'll know that we are just shivering uncontrollably and probably typing with our new gloves on.

-L

Gavin with his Great-Grandparents

Slavery in the 21st Century

I read this today and it made me cry. If you have any means to get involved, I encourage you to do so. A friend of ours returned from Cambodia just days ago and he testified that this problem is rampant there...

Click here to read the article/get involved.

A Taste of What I'm Thinking About

It is these posts which get the fewest comments. I don’t know if it is because no one knows what to say or because no one cares. However, I can’t help but share with you what I learn and what I feel as I read and think. Today’s topic is the guilt of the church. I am reading a book called Ethics by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Anyone who has had a theological conversation with me knows the fondness I have for this theologian. Ironically and sadly, the author has been dead for more than 60 years, but his words on this subject ring true as much today as they did then. We, as the Body of Christ need genuine repentance and forgiveness. A and I are dealing with this matter through prayer. I certainly don’t have many answers, but my goal here is to raise awareness.

If you are not totally turned off yet, click here to download this two-page excerpt. Even if you don’t have anything to add to this conversation, please leave a short comment. It can say anything at all or be as simple as “I liked it” or “I don’t get it” or “I totally disagree.” I would just like to know who is reading.

Internet Problems (Still)

Since our internet is still having problems, I'm back in the coffee shop (listening to an instrumental version of "Moon River") to update our blog!

~A

Language Update

Since we have been here we have both felt an overwhelming desire to speak Spanish. Neither of us are even close to being fluent, but I think it's just our brains way of coping...we know we are hearing something completely foreign so the best response we can come up with is to say something in Spanish.

Usually we just joke with each other by talking in Spanish or we comfort ourselves by saying, "Well, at least if we were studying Spanish we would be bilingual by the end of the year."

One day though my taxi driver asked me something which I took to mean, "Should I stop here?" Since we were about to pass my street and I definitely did want to stop right there, I quickly replied, "Si!" And he stopped!

But in all honestly I do feel like I'm making progress. I now know about 70 vocabulary words which is 70 more than when I stepped off the plane in August. And, I can recognize 5 characters. I am also starting to learn basic sentence patterns and even had a (VERY SLOW) conversation with my private tutor. So, although I still have more to learn than I can even comprehend, learning this language is not quite as overwhelming as it once was.

~A

Jake and Gavin

Denea and Gavin

Internet Problems

Right now we are at a coffee shop with free wi-fi because our internet has been having problems all week! The problems still aren't fixed (we would appreciate your prayers regarding this!) but we thought we would at least come here to update our blog and let everyone know what the problem is!

Pepa and Gavin

Thanks to a lot of help and advice from Jess, I have started a new hobby...digital scrapbooking. It is especially fun since I have such a cute nephew. More pictures to come...

~A

Nan and Pop and Gavin

Gavin