Okay, so I'm never watching House again. Dan & I don't like the direction the show is going. Why do shows always do this? Quit pushing it on everyone! Ugh...I'm done.
On a much happier note, Dan & I each got a massage tonight. One of our friends is a masseuse & she's very good. She even came to our house to give us our massages. It was so nice not to have to go anywhere. So, we're both feeling good right now. Dan started running last week & I started playing vb (indoor) so we were both pretty sore. Yay for massages!
Now I think we're going to watch a movie. :-) What's everyone else up to?
I didn't see House this week. I usually watch repeats, because Melissa records "her shows". I am trying to get over a cold. I can't go to the hospital to see my dad while I am sick. I have been looking for jobs online. This morning I actually got up early and went out to breakfast with my husband. I guess I can get up early when I go to bed early. ;0)
I agree about House! Last week, we saw the previews for last night's episode, so we decided not to watch it. I can't believe that they're showing that kind of stuff at 7pm on a network station. Dan and I always joke that if we have kids someday, we won't be able to watch TV at all!
Hey there! It's been over 2 years since it started, so we've tried a ton of stuff--all kinds of meds, surgical nerve block, injection therapies.....right now we're trying a 3 drug combo & Botox injections. Thanks for thinking about me!!! And for the sympathy:)
Mark hasn't talked to Josh yet, so I guess this Friday is out. Do you work late every Friday? How late is late? Would a Saturday, early evening, be better?
Well, little Miss Katie tagged me. And, since she's so cute, I'm going to have to tell you 8 random facts about myself & then tag 8 of you.
1. I like to travel, but I'm always happy to return home.
2. I love all Chicago sports teams (and most things Chicago) but don't like all the Chicago liberals.
3. I like people until they give me a reason not to like them.
4. Nothing much surprises me...no matter how off the wall it is. I always like when someone says "Oh, I just can't believe that person would ever do such a thing." Yeah, I can always believe it.
5. I'm missing a bunch of my bottom teeth, but you'd never know by looking at me b/c I have a bridge that covers it all in the bottom front.
6. I love to play volleyball, but I get excited when I find out that games are cancelled. What's up with that? I used to always be bummed if volleyball got cancelled.
7. I wish I already had a few kids, but it's taking us a lot longer than everyone else we know. Not fun...but it is what it is.
8. I love to laugh & can't wait to laugh my head off when I watch the season opener of The Office on Thursday.
Are you guys back home and settled by now? We saw the Welches a couple of weeks ago and I'm trying to figure out a good time for us all to get together. What do you October weekends look like?
What about October 24th? I think that's a Friday; is Friday or Saturday typically better for you guys? Mark is checking with Josh. Let me know what you think.
Dan & I just returned from FL last night. We were there for a week & 2 days. My brother got married on 8/30 in St. Petersburg, so the first part of our trip was a combination of relaxing & preparing for the wedding. We spent the first half of the trip with my family & the second half with Dan's family. We went to St. Pete beach for a few days, Lithia Springs, & Honeymoon Island. We had a good time, but we're definitely glad to be home. I know some of you have already seen pics from the wedding on facebook & myspace, but I'll post some of them on here for the people that don't use those sites. If I feel like it, & have time, I'll post some pics from the rest of our vacation at a later date.
The Wedding Party
The Happy Couple--can't be happy without Dr. Pepper ;-)
What great pictures! Looks like you guys had fun! Your mema and papa haven't changed at all; they look exactly the same as I remember them. Your dad looks a little grayer. :)
hmmm, let me think....i can't remember exaclty, but something like the lean, mean frequently clean green team, the something mello wearers of yellow, and the rampaging red purveyors of dread
Mark was wondering who the old man with the gray hair is.....and he was not looking at the pic of Dean and Donna. ha ha, could you email me their info again? I somehow lost the paper I wrote it down on..sorry.
Dan left for Colombia on 7/25, has been traveling around the country as well as to Peru & Ecuador. He'll be home on the 25th. Here are his 4 emails updating everyone on the trip. I miss him terribly, but know he's doing good & working hard for the Lord.
UPDATE #1 (7/28/08)
I´m writing from the small city of LoRica, in Northern Colombia, about an hours north (by car) of the city Monterria, which you may be able to locate on a map if you look north about halfway in between Cartagena and Bogota. The flight down was fine, but as always I was very glad to get off the plane. Arrived in Bogota about 9 pm Friday night, and left by plane for
Monterria about 2:30 Saturday afternoon. Traveled by mini-bus to LoRica, a small, very poor, but fairly typical city of about 50,000, I´m guessing. I have never been here before, but find that the 35 or so Christians are as warm, affectionate, and friendly as I have found the Christians in other parts of the country. There was no church here 1 year ago. A brother who was baptized in Baranquilla in January of 07 has family here, and the gospel was taught to the current Christians here by a few outstanding members of the Lord´s church in Baranquilla. So in the last year the church here has grown exponentially, and it appears that the fields are ripe for the harvest here. We have had more requests for studies that we will have opportunity to fulfill, and everyone knows someone who will want to hear this "Good News". We had 2 studies before breakfast this morning, we had 4 or 5 studies yesterday in between morning and evening worship, and nearly every study leads to more contacts, and further studies.
It appears to me that many of the Christians here have had experience with pentecostal denominations, and they have many stories of the strange and completely unbiblical teachings they were subjected to during their time there. Many questions about demon possession, tithing, fasting, modern day "apostolos" and such. Their questions and stories are fascinating, and I am sorry to know of the abuse they have been subjected to in the name of "religion" at the hands of these denominational "pastors". They are very grateful for straight, clear, biblical answers to the questions they ask, and I believe there are several who are very close to obeying the gospel. I am grateful for your prayers for the work here. I wish I could better convey the experience, and share some measure with you of the overwhelming encouragement that these Christians are to me.
We are well fed, and well taken care of. I´ll be glad to hear from any of you while I am here. I will only have intermittent access to my e-mail, but please feel free to let me know how things are back in The Fort. ;-)
Warmly,
Dan
UPDATE #2 (8/1/08)
Hello all-
I have just a few minutes before our flight leaves for Bogota, and discovered a wireless internet signal, so I thought I'd fire off a quick note of very good news. Our time in Lorica bore much fruit. We had 5 positive responses to the gospel Wednesday--5 news Christians, and numerous studies with others that seem to be seriously considering the same choice. I will have more details when I have some more time to write, but the
Christians here made it very difficult for us to leave. This first week in the country has been spectacularly encouraging for me.
We fly back to Bogota here shortly, and on to Leticia tomorrow. We plan to spend 1 week in Leticia, then 2 weeks in Peru and Ecuador. Please remember to keep the work here in your prayers, as well as the Christians here--in particular the new brothers and sisters. MUCH thanks to those who have written. I will respond as time permits. It's very good to hear from home.
Warmly,
Dan
UPDATE #3 (8/5/08)
Hello all-
I´ll begin this by mentioning that my keyboard only has about 1/3 of its letters and symbols, which wouldn't be a problem except that only the letters are laid out in similar fashion to what I am used to. The other functions are never where I expect them to be...so this is bending my brain a bit, but I´ll muddle through. I have more good news to report, on several different fronts.
The first week we spent in the country we spent with the church meeting in Lorica, North of Bogota, maybe an hour from the coast, about halfway in between Bogota and Cartagena. We were aided in the work there by two brothers from the church in Baranquilla, who have been working with the very new Christians since the point at which the church in Lorica was "born" about 6 months ago. Carlos and Pedro, like Angel, whom most of you met, are tireless workers for the Lord here, and a tremendous encouragement to me. I was glad to have them with us, as they have been setting up studies and developing contacts for the last six months. I got the distinct sense that they had done most of the planting and watering in Lorica, and we were
simply blessed to be witness to God giving the increase.
Carlos and Pedro have also done an excellent job of studying with the men in Lorica, and impressing upon them the absolute necessity of stepping up and assuming the roles that God intends for/ requires of them. That has been a large part of the success of the work in Lorica. I have seen other new congregations wither here in the absence of leadership, but Lorica is thriving, and they now are sending men out to even newer congregations to teach and preach the gospel that they have so recently learned. For reference, The Lord´s church in Lorica was formed in January of THIS year, and they have grown from the initial 3 Christians that first obeyed the truth
here to what seems to be a very strong, stable congregation of 34, well, 36 now with 2 more baptisms last week.
I believe I mentioned that there were 5 baptisms while we were in Lorica--3 of those were in the neighboring (about 20 minutes by bus) town of Sanantero, where Carlos and Pedro had set up a study with their aunt and uncle (Carlos and Pedro are both cousins and brother in laws)...don't think about that too hard. ;-) A friend of the aunt and uncle also attended the study. All 3 of them stated, after a 2 hour study and several questions, that they needed to be baptized for the remission of their sins. They had several large cisterns behind their home that were the perfect size to immerse a person if they knelt down and leaned over forward. Sometimes we end up baptizing in water that is of questionable...sanitary quality, but
this was cool clear, clean rainwater, and they were clearly overjoyed at the thought that they now had the truth after years of being taught a seemingly endless variety of man-fabricated doctrines.
So, there is a new congregation in Sanantero, and we were very happy to find out yesterday, that after morning worship Sunday in Lorica, several of the men in the congregation took the bus over to Sanantero to study the work and worship of The Church, and helped them to have their very first Lord´s Day worship. There are now 3 congregations in this area that are all under 1.5 years old, and they have so much to learn. PLEASE take a minute in your prayers to mention them--they are such an encouragement to me, and they are so happy to know that Christians in other countries are aware of them, and
praying for them.
We left Lorica with much difficulty on Wednesday of last week. Very hard me to accurately describe even a part of the outpouring of affection and gratitude they sent us off with, or how it made me feel. They are warm, generous, sincere people, and they are easy to love. I will miss them immensely, and I was very sad to leave there. We took a late bus over very rough roads, about 3.5 hours north to Cartagena, to visit with at least some of the brethren there, and arrived at our hotel there at about 1:30 A.M. Thursday we made arrangements for our travel Back to Bogota, visited with the brethren in Cartagena, and Lisa and I both began a 3 day battle with some variety of Latin America intestinal gremlin. Lisa was very sick for most of the day Thursday and Friday, but started to feel better Friday
afternoon. I think mine incubated a little slower. It got progressively worse for me until Sunday, after morning worship with a congregation about 1/2 hour by bus on the other side of Tabatinga, I was out of strength and went back to our hotel here in Leticia and slept for about 20 hours, in between confrontations with said intestinal gremlin. After no food for
almost 2 days and repeated counterattacks with double doses of immodium (my apologies for the TMI factor), I think the worst is past. Calvin tells me that once you have defeated one of these microbes you can scratch it off your list of concerns, so hopefully I have one less "enemy" here.
Anyway, Friday afternoon we flew back to Bogota, Friday night we collected Brad and Allison Hopkins from the airport. Allison will be with us for one week, Brad will be here for the remainder of the trip. We arrived in Leticia Saturday afternoon, and immediately headed across the river to Santa Rosa, Peru, to visit with Carlos and his family. No one was home, but we were invited by a neighbor to visit with him. The other Carlos here, from Leticia, knows this man from his past involvement with a pentecostal group here. He is very friendly, and tells us all about his "spiritual journey" through many different denominations. He tells us about being expelled from
the Baptist church due to his refusal to sever ties with friends in another denomination--he has much more to tell us, but it sounds as if his basic message is that he believes that denominations are bad, and he now refuses to wear any denominational title even though he preaches for an "Assemblies
of God" group. We ask him if we can study these things further, and he says he would enjoy that immensely, but our time was growing short. It is not good to be on the river after dark, so we make plans to visit with him again and study these things. I´ve noticed on several occasions that if the people we intend to visit with are not home, there are probably others nearby that would love to hear what we have to say.
An excellent example--yesterday we went up the river about 3 hours (by slow...very, very slow boat) primarily to visit some family members of "Leticia" Carlos. They weren't home, but it had been a long, hot ride so we went in search of a little drink stand where we might find something cold to drink. We found cold drinks, as well as a bible study with the proprietors
of the drink stand, which they operated out of their home--2 brothers and one of their wives, I believe. They asked us where we were from, and what brought us to their little village on a tributary of the Amazon. We told them that we had come for a bible study, but that they hadn't been home. They were curious, and invited us to study with them. After a 2 hour study, all 3
of them were baptized. They described themselves as catholic, but readily admitted that they didn't understand where much of the Catholic doctrine came from. We showed them what the bible taught about the Church, repentance, remission of sins, and the nature of a Christian--when Angel asked them if they understood it all they said it was very clear. When he asked them if they wanted to be baptized one of them replied, "Yes, why wouldn't I be?" Carlos will be studying with them more, and working to help them grow. Fortunately, there are faster boats, and it doesn't need to be a 6 hour round trip.
I neglected to mention regarding the same Carlos, who was baptized 2.5 years
ago here in Leticia--this past Sunday morning his wife was baptized as well. Also, the young man who is here from Baranquilla to work with the church here, Armando, is now
engaged to the daughter of Carlos, Vanessa, who was baptized about 2 years ago.
Well, there is much, much more, but that's the most important stuff. Thanks again to those who have written, I will do my best to respond, but please be patient as getting these updates out is not highest priority with the very limited internet time that I have.
The work goes very well here, and the fields are, in fact, white unto harvest.
In the shared love of our Lord,
Dan
UPDATE #4 (8/14/08)
Helo all-
I'm writing from Quito, Ecuador, and we are getting ready to leave the hotel and go buy some bibles. We bought a case of 60 in Bogota but those have all been spoken for. :-) We left Leticia, Colombia on Friday the 8th for Bogota, Allison Hopkins had a return flight out of Bogota on Saturday and we needed to re-supply, wash clothes, then catch a flight to Quito, Ecuador. When we checked into tickets to Quito we found them to be exorbitantly expensive, something on the order of 4x what we expected, so we looked into other options. The best option
turned out to be a 28 hour bus ride. So the last 2 days have been spent on windy, twisty Andes mountain roads in a bus. I still feel like I'm on the bus. :-) We spent Tuesday night in Ipiales, Colombia and met a small body of believers there--we had dinner after bible study with them and got to know them a bit. Very pleasant evening, despite my exhaustion after the overnight bus trip.
Wednesday morning we crossed the border at a mountain pass and went through Ecuadorian immigration there--very slow, long line, 1 agent handling everyone. That cost us half a day, and the remaining 6 hour trip to Quito put us in here last night about 7:30.
Let me back up though, and get off the subject of travel arrangements. Since my last update there have been 10 more baptisms (don't remember exactly what day I was up to in my last update), but there were 2 who obeyed the gospel in Santa Rosa, Peru, right across the Amazon from Leticia. Then at a small
Indian village called "Kilometre Onze" (Kilometer 12), which is, you guessed it, 12 kilometers up the road (the only road) into the rain forest out of Leticia, there were 3 who obeyed after a bible study with a large chunk of the village. That was a very interesting place. Legitimate, working Amazonian rain forest Indian Village, complete with a genuine "Maloka"--a tribal gathering place for Indian religious rituals. Think very, very large grass hut.
Back in Bogota, after discovering we would not be flying to Quito on Saturday but "Bussing it" Tuesday/Wednesday, we worshiped on Sunday with both of the congregations that Angel works with--Las Ferias-near where Angel lives, and Soacha, about an hour south, the "suburbs" of Bogota. Angel had received word that there may be 3 responding to the gospel on Sunday after months of studies with one family. Turns out there were 5--we
baptized them in the coldest water I have ever set foot in--a pool at the base of a waterfall in the Andes mountains on the outskirts of Bogota. One less degree and there would have been ice cubes in the water, but it was spectacularly beautiful, both in spiritual and physical terms. One mother, 2 of her teenage daughters, and 2 of their friends all became Christians. I am
so grateful that we were delayed in departing for Quito, so that I could be a small part of that.
As usual, my internet time is short, so I need to close this. We intend to be in Ecuador until the 22nd, when we plan to return to Bogota. Lord willing, I'll be home late in the evening on the 25th, but Kristy and I will be leaving for Florida on Wednesday the 27th for her brother's wedding to Brent Hunter's daughter, Allison, on the 30th.
I miss everyone there, and am so very grateful for the prayers and encouraging e-mails. You all have made this work possible, and I hope I have helped you to feel like a part of it--you genuinely are.
Very encouraging. Thanks for posting these updates. How awesome that there are so many who heard the gospel were baptized, a soon as they learned what they needed to do. How exciting!
I guess I could have emailed you but this seems to be working....Are ya'll flying out on Friday? What time? I don't think we will make it until around 6pm on Friday so it may not work out.
