A Tribute to Patah!

May 11th will always be known in our house as our anniversary.  But May 10th will be known forever as a sad day, the day where we lost our sweet dog Patah.
Patah was born along with her sister Hireq and 3 other siblings in June of 2004 in Middleberry, Indiana.  We were able to bring them home in September of that year.  I (Kim) remember going to their first home in Middleberry to see them for the first time.  They were all so small, but the reason we picked them both was because Patah was the runt of the litter and just a little smaller than the others, with a smashed in nose.  Hireq looked just a little different from the others and that's why we chose her.  Their parents were a mix between Pomeranian and Poodle.  Patah definitely got the more poodle features, while Hireq looks more Pomeranian.  We decided to get 2 puppies because both of us worked so much that we wanted them to have each other as company.  Although they loved each other, they occasionally had their fights too-especially over chew bones.
Some of their favorite things to do together were chasing each other, taking naps together, looking out the windows of whatever apartment or house we lived in, and getting in to mischief together. They were quite the partners in crime.
Patah will always be remembered as the cuddler.  She would always curl up next to you when you had a hard day and needed some love, when it was cold outside or when you laid down to watch TV or sleep.  She would usually settle by my tummy and Hireq by my legs.  I remember Patah was always there after a hard day of work, clinicals or class.  She always was one for licking your face-even when you were crying.
I remember when we brought Simeon home from the hospital.  Hireq wasn't quite sure what to do with him.  She would go to his bassinet and sniff him.  Patah, like with most other people-she just wanted to lick him-probably to make him feel like one of the family!
Patah was always kind of the nervous nelly-especially in the car.  Even during a 15 hour car trip from Chicago to Hilton Head, she never once sat down because she was so nervous.  She also wanted to be close to someone during car trips so she would always be on a someone's lap-usually the driver.  She also got really nervous at vet visits and the groomer.  Probably just because she was separated either from us or Hireq.
I think it is probably always hard to lose a pet, especially one that has been with you for a long time.  She would have been 8 years old in June.  She really was with us for the majority of our marriage.  Our lives are going to be a lot different without her.  We have already noticed it in a lot of things.  Usually her and Hireq chase each other in any free space they had.  It's been really hard to just see Hireq run around and although Simeon tries to chase her like Patah, its just not the same.
Our car ride here was much different as well.  The windows didn't fog up nearly like normal and it was a lot quieter without the pants of Patah, but we really missed them.  There seems to be quite and empty space at the end of the bed without Patah as well.
Our sweet Patah, we miss you very much and our lives just aren't the same without you.  Please know that we love you so much.  Thank you for being such a wonderful and loving member of our family.  WE MISS YOU AND LOVE YOU!

This week, on May 11, we will celebrating our 10th anniversary!  It seems pretty hard to believe we have been married for 10 years.  It seems like just yesterday we were walking down the aisle.  We thought in honor of this  big event, we would each write a post about a few things we have learned.  Mine may not be nearly as sweet as Joel's, but I will do my best.  Believe me, I am not an expert for sure!  It has taken 10 years to just realize some of these things...

Our pastor that married us, Dr. (Umfundisis) Lo told us that your life should be lives in this order: God, Spouse/Family, Ministry.  This seems pretty easy, but it is some of the best advice we received.  When you arrange your life like this and live it out-it is balanced.  We are still working on balance, but we are trying!


We were given another piece of advance many years ago that was a simple 2 words..."STAY CURRENT".  It seems simple enough, but not always easy.  It basically means stay current with what you are feeling.  If you are frustrated-talk to your spouse about it, if you are mad about something or can't get something off your mind-share it with your spouse.  It is much easier to have a 30 minute conversation, discussion or argument about 1 thing than a 5 hour conversation, discussion or argument about 10 things.  It's a lot less overwhelming for the other person as well.

Another thing we have learned is "FUN IS A GOOD THING!"  Sometimes all of us are guilty of getting caught up in the busyness of life.  We started out that way in our marriage-moving to Chicago, starting new jobs, starting school and a new church all within 3 months.  We did a similar thing when moving here, but some of the best times to just stop everything and go do something fun is the most stressful and busy times.  God didn't intend us to work all the time and we shouldn't-we need to relax and let go sometimes-even if it just a walk together, dinner together or a movie.  The point is your together with NO work!

Another thing that has gotten lost in the shuffle at times in our lives is prayer.  However, we daily see our need for it and it is something I have tried to work on more.  Praying for your spouse is so huge!  We all know we get frustrated with our spouses, and sometimes the only thing to do is pray.  This is such an intimate way to connect with our God and with our spouse, sometimes without our spouse even being there.  Sometimes it's just good to hear the words "I prayed for you today" also.

Learn to say "I'm sorry"  and "I forgive you".  We all like to be right.  I really like to be right.  However, I realized when I married a smart guy that I am usually wrong more times than right.  But that doesn't stop me from trying to prove I'm right.  It's taken me a long time to realize that I don't need to be right, sometimes you just need to say "I'm sorry".  Also, when you're in a situation where you have been hurt by your spouse, saying I forgive you and letting it go will go a long way.

I am a selfish person.  It didn't take long after we got married to realize that.  Joel does a great job putting my needs before his, but it has taken me a lot longer to understand how to deal with my selfishness in marriage.  I have to make a concerted effort to put Joel before me.  (That's not very easy to admit).  I have learned in more than just this area that my husband is a great example to me!  He is an example of unselfishness and unconditional love.  I like learning from him and he's a good teacher and example (Thanks honey!)

The old saying "you can't change people" is only half right in my book.  One thing you quickly learn in marriage is that you can't hide things about who you are.  It will eventually come out.  I think the key to this is then being able to accept what happens when those things come out.  For me, being willing to accept constructive criticism was not easy.  Especially when I started realizing that what Joel was telling me was right on.  Sometimes OUR views of how we appear to others is very different than how we actually are.  All this to say, be willing to accept criticism.  The majority of the time, you spouse is not saying these things to upset you, they are doing it to make you a better you.  None of us are perfect, but we can try to be better and sometimes just trying to BE better helps so much more.  You may not be able to change who you are, but you can work on making YOU better!  The 2nd best person to help with that is your spouse...(Jesus is the 1st).

COMPROMISE!  Remember when I said we all like to be right?  Sometimes we can't be, sometimes we shouldn't be.  I think one of the biggest things I have learned is compromise.  This means sometimes giving up what you want for the greater family good.  Learn this quickly and you will save yourselves a lot of discussions later.

Encourage each other.  Sometimes in ministry, work, family and all of the things of life, life itself just gets you down.  Sometimes just knowing someone is fighting for you and is in your corner means the world-it doesn't have to be big-a not in a lunch, an email or text, etc can make bummer days better!

Learn what is important to your spouse.  If it is sports-find something you can do together, if it's reading-go read somewhere together, if it's quiet time alone-give time to the other person.  Learning what is important to your spouse even when it is different than what is important to you is good.  Joel loves to work-it's what he does and he is good at it.  There are some days he needs to do that or he gets stressed-it has again taken me a long time to not get upset by this.  I know he would rather be spending time with the fam, but sometimes he needs to work.  When I learned to not get upset or take it personally when he worked-it made things a lot easier.  We are still trying to work on balance between work and fun!

When your spouse does something that makes you happy-tell them, thank them!  Joel has been so good to me in this way.  He randomly gets flowers and sends me notes because he knows I love this.  It may be little things, but when you know you're doing something right, it's nice to hear it!

Work together.  Sometimes being willing to admit you need help isn't all that bad.  It's easier to split work between 2 people as opposed to just one.  Don't be a martyr.  You don't have to have perfect meals all the time or a perfect manicured lawn.  There are a lot of things that make a house function and splitting that up by working together is good.  It will also give you more free time together.

Sometimes you need to do things out of your comfort zone.  I am not a planner- I never really have been and since Joel is a great planner-I usually let him do the planning.  Sometimes though, he gets busy and needs help and I have to do things that he is better at.  DO IT!  Help your spouse.  Even in simple things this can help so much

You need boundaries.  In ministry, in work, in family, etc sometimes it's OK to say "no" when someone asks you to do something.  Sometimes it's OK to say "I need time with my family, I need a date night with my husband, etc.

Never be too proud to ask for help or to accept help when people offer.  Our friend told us this one time realizing something in us we hadn't really seen.  When you life is ministry and serving others, it is not always easy to allow others to help you.  This is not to say we are these great missionaries that just give, give, give.  Please don't think we think of ourselves that way, but it was very humbling the first time we learned to receive help from others.  Our friend explained that sometimes people want to bless you and you need to allow them to because that is a way God is using them.  Never be too proud to be humbled by the acts of others.  Also, when you see someone else who needs help-offer, really offer allowing them to accept.  For instance, an older lady in our home church gave us money (a lot of money to us poor kids in school) to go out for an evening together.  We said we couldn't accept this and she said-please let me do this.  You are preparing for God's ministry and this is one way God is allowing me to minister.  Like I said...very humbling!

Unfortunately, there is a lot more that I have learned, but I will continue that another time.  I am SO excited for what I have learned in the last 10 years and for what Joel has taught me over the last 10 years.  He truly is an example to me and I am SO thankful that God has allowed me to be his wife.  Thank you Joelie for a great 10 years-and prayers for many, many more!

A 10th Anniversary Post from me to you

I don't usually post on this blog and in reality I call it "your blog" (to Kim), not because I don't care about it but rather because I see it as one of Kim's wonderful ways that she has to express herself and keep in contact with friends.  But Kim and my 10th Anniversary is coming up on May 11th and I thought it might be nice to include something here about marriage as we are in a time of reflecting on 10 years of marriage.  Not that I know that much in comparison to our parents and others that we look up to that have many, many more years of happy marriage but I thought I might share a little bit of what I have learned over the course of 10 years.  So without further ado, my top 10 ten list of keys to a happy marriage:

1. Keep your focus on God!  The more that you both are able to keep your focus on God and His teachings, the happier you both will be.  A family that is centered on the Word and the Church will have proper focus and a proper vision for what their relationships should look like.

2. It's the little things that count and mean the most that show your wife that you love her and are thinking about her: Flowers when not expecting them.  An unplanned date night. Taking the kid to the park so that way she can stay back to work on something she needs to or just relax.

3. Always be thinking what would make your wife happy.  For Christians, this seems like the most obvious one that should come natural to us in that we are considering the needs of others before ourselves.  But unfortunately, when it comes to marriage, it can be the toughest one because deep down we are all selfish people who make selfish decisions and its easiest to be selfish with the person you are closest to. In the end, if you follow the example of Christ, one should be always looking to the needs of his wife for how to use that extra money, where to go out to eat, where and with him to spend your free time, etc.

4. Keep talking and keep listening!  When marriages get bad is when the couples stop trying to work through their difficulties and decide that she is never going to change.  Marriage is the most difficult yet the most wonderful, joy-giving relationship you will ever have.  You have to keep talking to make your spouse a better person.  You need to keep listening and encouraging her to talk about her frustrations so that way you can understand and you can become a better person.  This is a lot of hard work and those who are truly happy in their marriages have figured it out.  The Bible says to not let the sun go down on your anger so maybe we should listen to the Bible.

5. Tell your wife she looks beautiful without her needing to ask how she looks before leaving the house.

6. Take time for your wife.  I've kind of already talked about this one but I think it's so important that I want to separate it as its own point.  Be honest with yourself... take a day when you are not working and go through the day recording everything you do and the amount of time you spend doing it.  Take a look at this record at the end of the day and see how much time you spent on things that revolve around yourself and how much time was spent on things for your wife.  You will probably be surprised!  Time is the most important thing these days and the more time you invest in your relationship, the happier you both will be.

7. No laundry lists please!  You need to forgive and forget and move on.  Yes, there can be some deep pains in marriage but once your wife has truly repented for something and you have forgiven her for it, you need to forget also.  Bringing up the laundry lists of all the things she has done wrong in the past will not help anyone.  You need to move forward together in your marriage.

8. Have a vision for ministry.  I believe that whether you are a pastor, missionary or involved in any other form of paid ministry or not, you need to seek a sense of call for service in the church: individually but also as a couple.  Again, when a family is focused on God and the Church or in this case ministry, life's small difficulties and troubles don't seem as important plus you have the church community around you to support you.

9. Setup a date night for once per week.  This is one area that I have to admit that I have not been successful in keeping our commitment to.  It's my fault.  I'm the workaholic that doesn't think to keep the fun aspect of our marriage going.  But that's also why I have a wonderful wife who does stress this side of things and helps me to relax and enjoy ourselves every once in a while.

10. When you know your wife has been working on fixing something or just doing something well in some area, tell her that you are proud of her and that you appreciate all her hard work.  Again, it seems obvious but there's a lot that seems obvious about marriage which many married couples don't do well.  Complementing your wife for something that she has been working hard on or some accomplishment will make her very happy!

Kim... I'm sorry that it has taken me so long to learn many of these things and that I still fall short in our marriage.  I love you very much and I'm so happy that God blessed me by allowing me to be your husband 10 years ago.  Happy Anniversary honey!!!

A time to...

As some of you may have viewed my facebook page, you may have realized I was struggling.  Well, you would be right.  I was not in the best of places last week for sure.  As I was thinking of what to title this blog post, I thought of the verses in Ecclesiastes 3:

There is a time^(A) for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

²     a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,^(B)
3     a time to kill^(C) and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
⁴     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
⁵     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
⁶     a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
⁷     a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent^(D) and a time to speak,
⁸     a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

This week was difficult because on Sunday of last week, we realized we were not pregnant.  Yes, we have been trying to have another baby for about 9 months now.  Originally we decided we wanted to have another child before we left Ecuador to come back to the States in November.  We realized a couple of months ago that that was not going to happen.  We kept trying and eventually went to see a doctor.  After 3 months there she recommended a specialist.  So, for the last month we have been seeing a specialist (what felt like every other day) with medicines and shots.  The doctor said that everything was looking good for us to get pregnant last month.  As of Sunday, we realized we weren't.  For most people this wouldn't be that big of a deal-you just keep trying.  However, for us it was a big deal because this was basically the last month I could get pregnant.  Let me explain....

In January of 2013, I will hopefully be starting a job in the States-gaining experience as a Nurse Practitioner for the time we are in the States.  If I had gotten pregnant last month, the baby would have been due in December.  However, any time past that would be going into the work time in the States.  

Joel and I had talked about this possibility, but I never thought it would be a reality that we wouldn't have gotten pregnant by now.  I was thinking by now that we would be well along in the pregnancy, but it is just not what happened.  This last week was a grieving week for me.  Praise the Lord that I have had people around me that are understanding, patient and loving as well as friends who have been faithfully praying for me during this time.  I really didn't want to make this hugely public, but Joel and myself thought it might help me to write about it since it has been difficult to put into words how I am feeling.

Yes, I admit I have been angry as well as questioning "WHY GOD?"  Or maybe better "Why NOT GOD?"  I know in my head that God has a plan, that HIS ways are higher than mine and that there is a TIME for everything.  This week has been trying to help my heart understand what my head knows.  Knowing it doesn't make it easier to come to terms with, but it does give me peace.  Knowing that God knows better.

SO NOW WHAT??????

Well, what we have decided is this month we are going to try to get pregnant-without doctors, without medicine, without anything but God.  We know that if it happens and we do get pregnant that it is nothing short of a miracle and that God is the ONLY one that can make it happen.  If it doesn't happen and we don't get pregnant, we will move on in this time in our lives, knowing that God has something different for us for THIS time.  Not that that will be easy, but we know for sure it will be God.  

So, I know how I WANT to pray.  Of course I want a baby.  But I am getting closer and closer to wanting MORE what God has.  I say that because it's not easy to give up something you want.  I am being brutally honest with myself in that I am not quite there yet.  God IS working and I know He has been with me through everything and more importantly, I know He is GOOD and He is FAITHFUL in working our lives for HIS good.  Pray with us during this month, that God's will will be done...

Soapbox...

If you know me, you know that there are a lot of things I am passionate about.  Unfortantely (more for you than me probably) if you get me talking about these things, I probably could talk your ear off.  I will try to keep this to a minimum with this topic.
I couldn't help but think this would be a great blog topic when I walked by this huge pile of trash that I found on the beach while I was walking the other day.  I was glad to find it on the beach and that it was not in the ocean anymore, but it got me thinking of how many things LIKE this are still floating in the oceans right now.

I don't know if you can see it, but there are plastic bags and other bags wrapped around the branch.  These are things that fish and other animals in the ocean can get caught in and eventually die.

I know I usually have soapboxes more about things like vaccines, medical related stuff and the poor, but I just feel that the oceans as they are are things I want my children and other generations to experience like I have-free of trash.  What do YOU think?
So what do we do about it?  Some things we have adopted in our household is to only use reusable bags when we go to the store.  This is ANY store-the grocery, the market etc...we try to have them with us.  My in-laws always have the bags in their car so they don't forget them!
Another suggestion would be to use a reusable plastic or aluminum bottle or mug for your water and coffee. I HATE plastic water bottles and think they are kind of dumb, especially when you can just refill the bigger water bottles.  Imagine how much less trash there would be if we didn't use plastic bottles...

Lastly, my friend recently posted this and I thought it was noteworthy.  Check out the link
Garbage Patch
What are your thoughts?????????

Easter 2012

Easter here is definitely different than in the States, but we got a piece of the traditions of the States. When Chris and Jenny Hoskins went back to the States in October, they left some Easter goodies for us which we didn't think of much then, but it came in handy last weekend. I never colored Easter eggs much when I was a kid, but I thought it would be a fun tradition to start with Simeon now that he can participate.
So...thank you Chris and Jenny for contributing to our Easter egg coloring this year. It was a fun time!

ANOTHER interesting cultural experience...

I know we will have MANY, MANY cultural experiences living in a different culture. We defintely LOVE our cultural experiences even when we look dumb in the midst of them. This is a different type of cultural experience however...
We were asked by our old babysitter, Valeria, to be the 'consejeros' (advisors) for her new baby Kyler. We were a little nervous about this because we knew it would be difficult to have much responsibility while we're in the States. We learned that, similar to the Christian Church in the States, as advisors, we do just that for the parents and the child, pray for them, etc. We are there for them when they need us. We don't take this responsibility lightly. We want to do the best we can.

We weren't exactly sure what to think regarding the service and what that would entail. The biggest surprise was that Joel walked Kyler around the whole church for everyone to see. It was really cool!

Here are some pictures of the service. We also had lunch afterward with at least half of the church at Valeria's house.

An...INTERESTING Cultural Experience

I (Kim) and the fam have been going to a jungle city called Tena to do an HIV/AIDS workshop for indigenous adolescents. This week was a little different...

I’m going to preface this by saying how much I actually HATE and despise bugs, snakes, spiders, bats etc…

If you know me very well, you know this about me and it has actually created a little anxiety in my being to think sometimes that I am not so very far away from all of these when we go to the jungle. This was never more real to me and a great reminder as it was this week DURING our workshop…

The first part of the workshop went well. At 10:30 AM like every week, we took a quick break for a snack. During this break, someone came and fumigated the hut where we were and the surrounding areas. I didn’t think much of this since I see people fumigating here all the time. When it was time to start again, the director asked me if we wanted to wait a little longer? He went in and checked for ‘fumes’ and thought it was OK, so I said OK!

After about 10 minutes or so of teaching…

COCKROACHES started coming out of every part of the hut! The walls, the ceilings etc…One fell on me and then another…NOW remember, for the average person in Ecuador, this is not that big of a deal, a little inconvenient, but not a big deal. It is for someone who doesn’t like bugs! LIKE ME! I think the students got a kick out of me dancing AROUND the roaches, flicking them of a letting out little screams…at least they saw the real me I suppose-a frady cat when it comes to bugs!

To top the whole cultural experience off, after a few minutes of the roaches coming from everywhere, the chickens that live in the village where we are teaching, all came into the hut and started eating the roaches-a fine meal I guess!

Chalk one up to being forced to deal with your fears in front of 50 teenagers! I didn’t deal with it very well, but at least we got through it! Definitely a workshop to remember…

P.S. The roaches here are not like the ones in the States. They are BIG! Not like the size of a plate big, but big nonetheless!

That Simeon...

Joel to Simeon this morning...

"Simeon, do you know why you're in timeout?"

Simeon- "Si" or (yes)

Joel- "Can you tell me why?"

Simeon- "Why?"

Simeon is 2!!!!!

On Monday (March 5th), Simeon turned 2! It's hard to believe it has been 2 years ALREADY! Life certainly has flown by and it's amazing that we have been here in Ecuador almost 2 years. We came to Ecuador when Simeon was just 3 months old. Now he is 2. I never understood it when I was a kid, but I remember people saying, when you're a kid, you think life is going so slow and you just can't wait for it to speed up, but as an adult, time goes so fast and you just want it to slow down. Life certainly does go by so fast. I want to make sure to experience life at God's pace and enjoy all that He has given me-a wonderful family, a dream, a call on my life. Right now though, I thank God so much for our Simeon. He is such a blessing in our life and now that he is with us, it seems hard to imagine life before him. We are so thankful for him and the blessing he is to us and so many around him. Here are some pictures of his 2 years...

The Lenten Season

Today is Ash Wednesday and that means the beginning of Lent. Growing up I always wondered what that meant-Lent that is because that wasn't a huge focus in the church I grew up in. Over the years however, I have learned and continue to learn what the season of Lent is and what it can do in our journey. I read this today about Lent and thought I would share it with you...

During Lent, traditionally observed for the 40 days leading up to Easter Sunday, followers of Christ all around the world sacrifice things important to them, intentionally drawing themselves away from desires driven by their five senses. Lent helps us become more focused on the spiritual part of ourselves, preparing our hearts to genuinely experience the passion of Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the Cross. Lent draws us closer to God through purposeful prayer, self-denial, repentance, giving, and time in the Bible:

“Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.”
—Romans 8:5

I am going to take a challenge presented by a friend to read the Gospels throughout this Lenten season. Starting tomorrow we are to read 2 chapters starting in Luke. I sometimes get nervous taking on challenges like this-probably because I don't want to fail. I pray God uses this time in the work to draw me closer to himself as we experience His journey to the Cross.

Reflections on my time in the jungle...

When I think of the teaching time we had in the jungle, it is definitely different than I expected. It's probably different from what you're picturing too. We didn't have monkeys all around us in the trees, in fact, it didn't really feel like we were in the jungle at all-until we looked past the little school we were in and saw we were surrounded by jungle. I guess I'm not exactly sure what I was thinking it would be like. I wasn't expecting to have a dry erase board or desks or a projector, but we had all of those. There was loud latin music playing across the street, and kids in the dirt street playing soccer outside the school doors. There were 5 kids and 1 teacher that showed up for the disabilities teaching. One of the activities I did was to assign different disabilities to kids in the group and then have them work together to build something out of straws. Not so easy. The objective was to see if those who were blind or couldn't speak were left out. It was interesting to me that ALL of those involved in the activity were involved! The others helped out those who couldn't work in the exact same way. Isn't that how the body of Christ should be? All of us working together with our strengths AND our weaknesses? God can use our weaknesses, sometimes in more ways at times than our strengths. As I mentioned in the previous post, one of the girls said something about my lack of Spanish as being a disability and indeed it can be and is. But hopefully God can use me in spite of it! I challenge you to not be afraid to show your weaknesses. Sometimes God can use those to touch others around us in ways we don't even know.

P.S. The students told us that the 2 weeks before when we were supposed to be there, one of the girls in the class got bitten by a snake...an X is what it is called. She was rushed to the hospital and they said she is doing OK. I am SO thankful I wasn't there to see that-I'm not sure how much help I would have been after seeing a snake!

Time in the Jungle, Teaching

As I posted recently, 2 weeks ago or so, we tried to make a trip to the jungle, specifically a village called Guagua Sumaco for me (Kim) to do teaching about disabilities to the youth of this area. On the way though, we were stopped because a bridge was out.
This previous Saturday (the 18th) we tried the trip again and MADE IT! My friend and fellow missionary, Mandy Hjelm went with us to help translate. I think for my first real teaching experience, it went pretty well. I tried to incorporate a lot of activities to break up the mound of information I gave which I think was good for the kids. You can see some of the above pictures. The activities were supposed to simulate different types of disabilities and how that would effect doing simple activities such as opening a piece of candy with a motor disability, trying to work together in a team with multiple disabilities such as being blind or not being able to use a hand or talk. Another activity was having the kids try to write their names with a piece of paper on their forehead. This would simulate how the brain may confuse letters. Overall, it was a great experience!
I asked a question during the lesson about disabilities and how it might effect the students. One in the class responded with "it's kind of like you and not being able to speak Spanish well". She didn't mean this is an insult, but it was very, very true. Not speaking the language fluently yet is a bit of a disability, but I KNOW that God can still use me, in SPITE of me and in SPITE of my limitations with the language. AMEN!

Pray CONTINUALLY?

A couple of days ago, I was thinking of friends and family and situations that I was going to be praying for throughout the day that day and I got really overwhelmed. Overwhelmed by the amount of things that my friends and family are going through-separations, adoptions, trying to have a baby, surgeries, depression, loss of family members, and so, so many more. I don't know if others every feel this way, but I just felt overwhelmed. I have wrestled with this in my head because I don't know if this is right or not, I mean, praying for my friends, family and others is not a burden, in fact, I'm glad people trust me enough to allow me to walk with them and lift them up to Jesus. I still just keep thinking though, HOW much there is to pray for and that I don't know if I can keep up. Sometimes I think, 'do my prayers even matter?' Then I felt like Jesus was saying to me again for like the 100th time-TRUST ME! 'I AM IN CONTROL' This is the verse that came to my head...

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
New International Version (NIV)
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
How POWERFUL! Pray CONTINUALLY-not just when you feel like it or when things are going great or when it's easy! PRAY CONTINUALLY! When it's hard, overwhelming, frustrating and even when you feel it doesn't matter-because it does! God hears!

This picture is from our last Sunday at our home church when the congregation laid hands on us and prayed for us. It is a great reminder to me to know that there are many people lifting US up and it encourages me to keep lifting others to Jesus daily, continually.

Only in Ecuador...

It's been quite an interesting weekend. We left Santo Domingo on Friday afternoon and traveled to a little town called Baeza-about a 5-6 hours in total. We stayed overnight in Baeza and met our friends Mandy (our fellow missionary and translator for the class) and Abby and got up very early because I (Kim) was going to be teaching my first class about disabilities in a small village in the jungle. We met our friend Rolando and in his family about an hour outside of Baeza and then started the 2 hourish trip to the village. About and hour or so into the trip-we ran into traffic that was very backed up. It's the rainy season here so we thought it was probably a landslide which is pretty common. We got down to the bridge and this is what we found! This road has at least 11 bridges alone getting to the village and they are not super sturdy so they don't allow big trucks. However, they said a large truck passed over it and this is what happened!
The bridge had a HUGE hole in it and we found out it was being held up underneath with very thin tree trunks.
Then we realized they were putting a tree trunk over the hole and then thin planks. Our friend Rolando that was with us said that a few people probably paid the engineers so they could pass over it. That's when we saw a truck and then a BUS pass over the broken bridge!!!!! It was incredible-don't worry, we decided not to pass over it-defintely not worth the risk. So, after a lot of travel, we headed the 3 and a half hour trek back to Quito. We will probably be doing the training in a couple of weeks-hopefully the bridge will be fixed! HA! Only in Ecuador...