It has been over three months since my last posting. I think life has become so normal that I think no one wants to hear my normal. At home in the states I didn't write about doing dishes, putting out the trash, going to work or writing about the dogs or birds we saw outside our window. I didn't write about what I saw in the market or what kind of treatment we got at the doctors. Well maybe I did write about that. I didn't write about the dumb things I said, or about going to church and the service that we sat through.

Here in Loja I didn't write about having to run to the bathroom to turn on the hot water in the sink in order to get hot water to come on in the kitchen. Nothing on not eating dinner until the trash man comes so we can run down and get our trash cans before someone claims it  as their own. It doesn't matter that the trash man will come anywhere from 6 to 9pm. I wrote nothing on the parrots that sometimes sit outside our window and the cows that can be seen eating on the hillsides or the neighbors roosters that try to out do all the other roosters in Loja.

 I didn't write about saying pescado instead of pecado. Everyone needs to have their fish forgiven. I still am not able to understand all the pastor is saying but than again there were times I didn't understand what the pastor was saying in the States. In the market chickens hanging up for purchase some with eggs still in them, pig heads staring at you and  all the innards  you would ever want to see just waiting for you to buy it and take it home to cook.

I forget that some of you would like to know what my normal is like so that you will know how to pray for us. I need to share so that you can see that there are other normals besides yours. They may seem exotic, strange and sometimes just plain crazy but they are our normals. I will try to do a better job at posting the normal things that are happening here in our ministry.

Missionary Mommy Wars and a Comforter

This school year is going to be a little different for me. God has sent two other teachers to work with the MKs at the school. Nolan will still be teaching the High School students. I will be taking on the ministry of helping to support the parents of our team's children and also working with the children who will be attending the national schools, but who need some tutoring to help them with reading.

Being a missionary mommy is a difficult journey and sometimes they need a comforter. My definition of comforter is : a warm cover that wraps around you when your really wanting to just stay in bed. I remember in my days as a young seminary wife with three little ones, wanting to stay under the covers and not ever come out. In fact I would have been happy to just have stayed under bed.

God sent three comforters to me and they wrapped themselves around me, sometimes dragging me out of bed, loved me, took care of my children, rescued me from my children and maybe even saved my children' s lives. These women shared their lives with me. 

Young missionary mothers need someone to come along beside them, someone who is real. They need someone that has bad days but still goes on, someone who is not perfect but they are letting Christ work in their lives. Pray that I can be a warm comforter to our missionary families.

 Roles change, sometimes changes are hard, but looking back you see that God has prepared you for that change. I will be tutoring, planning and doing Kids Clubs, parents night out, and being Marme to little ones. Please read the following link so that you will know how to pray for these mommy warriors on the field.

 Missionary Mommy Wars

Outlawed Grief, a Curse Disguised

Change is what happens on the mission field. Grief comes in many ways to us. Saying goodbye, a loved one dies at home and we can't be there. A child. hurts and we can't be there to help them heal. A grandchild dances in a recital and we can only watch on video. A parent becomes ill and we can't be there to hold their hand. Pray for your missionaries daily.

  Pray for us as we grieve for the loss of time. Time with our parents, children and grandchildren, friends and church family. This return has been a difficult one for me. I know God has wonderful plans for us but it still hurts. Again pray for your missionary families.I want to share a blog post from another missionary blogger. Read the following post so you can have an understanding of what your missionaries experience, and how to pray for them.

Outlawed Grief, a Curse Disguised

Not Realizing what I am Missing

You  don’t realize what your are missing until you don’t have it for a while. Sitting out on the back patio of my in-laws home I watched the wind blow the multicolored trees before a rain came thru, a mother bird was taking care of her eggs in a tree next to my chair. I glanced over at our house that is rented and noticed some things that I wanted to change. I wanted to go over and cut down some weeds and weed out the flower beds.

As I sit and read to my grandchildren I know that the next time I see them they will have changed, and they will be changes that I will not be a part of. I won’t be able to read to them or listen to their laughs or see their smiles except on Skype.

Walking barefoot in grass, watching the skies as a summer storm comes through and watching rabbits nibbling in the grass just feet from where your sitting are sensations that I don’t take for granted anymore.

As I eat a Reuben sandwich I relish it. It may be a year or two before I get to eat another one. Walking into the grocery store and seeing that a whole turkey is seventy-nine cents a pound and so many kinds of spices and cereals that my head spins.

There have been moments while here in the states that I say to myself that it would be nice to just stay here and be comfortable.

I know that when I return to Loja that I will be able to see and do things that most people only dream of doing. I will be able to look out my window and see noisy parrots greeting me in the morning. I can go around the corner and buy a dozen roses for four dollars. I can see the smiles and hear the laughter of missionary children that we teach each day and walk down to the tienda just doors from us and buy a empanada colombiana. I will be able to lose ten pounds without going on a diet plan.

 We will be able to enjoy a seventy-five dollar turkey with our missionary family at Thanksgiving and if I miss seeing wildlife I just have to go to the Loja zoo to see a squirrel in a cage.

We will live 7,000 feet up the mountains in the Andes, walk wherever we need to go and not have to have a car payment or car insurance to worry about.

Ok, I have talked myself into going back. Pray for us as we get ready to return to Loja. Pray for us as we prepare for the next school year. Pray for us as we deal with our emotions. 

A Year of School in four minutes.

God has blessed this school year. We are looking forward to what he is going to do this next school year. Thank you to all those who have prayed for us and those who have supported us financially. You are a part of the work that is being done here in Loja. We would not be able to be here if you were not holding the ropes for us. Nolan (Terry) and I are in the process of becoming part of SIM as associates. There is a lot of paperwork and medical work that needs to be done for this process. We will continue to be part of Gateway Global Outreach, but to better serve our team here in Loja we need to become part of the SIM family.

 We are in need of more prayer supporters  Also pray about supporting us financially. At this time the rent of our house has been our main support along with our home church. We will have more ministry needs this next coming year and we are also helping to support two national missionaries here. We would love to share with you what God is doing during the six weeks we will be in the States. There is a side link to Gateway Global Outreach that you can go to and give financially. 

Nothing better than a good book with Peaches

Sometimes missionaries have to go home and when they do they have to leave some beloved things behind. This last week I saw an ad in the Cuenca classifieds about a home-school family leaving for the states. They had books that needed a good home. I contacted them and found that they were a family that I had spoken to on facebook but had never met  in person. Rebecca, Janeen  and I headed out to Cuenca the next morning. After a four hours drive that was made shorter by good fellowship, we met up with the family. If you are a lover of books or an educator, you know how hard it is to leave your books behind. The next best thing is to find them a good, loving home. I don´t think the books could have found a better home than our MK school. What a blessing they are going to be.

Sometimes when you have to leave a country and go home your children leave behind memories, friends and pets. The memories you can keep but the friends and pets have to stay. Peaches the hamster was not going to be able to make the trip back to the states and needed some loving students to care for her and of course at the end of the school year you always need a class pet. We packed the books and other miscellaneous stuff into the car. It was packed to the roof. Peaches had to sit next to me and I fell for her. We stopped at McDonalds for some fries, a once a year thing sometimes. The fries were really bad but Peaches loved them.

She is now very happy at her new home at the Loja Study Center. The children read to her, play with her and sometimes let her sleep. Thank you Savage Family for blessing us with your books and for Peaches.

A little sweat is good for the soul

Last month Nolan, and I traveled to Macará to visit with a couple of fellow missionaries, Willy and Teresa. Macará is about 5 or 60 hours away from Loja. That all depends on the bus, taxi or donkey that you use for transportation. We chose a bus that should have taken five hours. We didn't know that if the bus driver is hungry then he can decide to  pull over and have an hour break. We arrived seven hours later but the drive was worth it.

We were able to see a part of Ecuador that we hadn't seen before and I found that I could go without a bathroom for that amount of time. I will say that the winding roads and pot holes didn't help the last two hours. Yes, the bus did have a bathroom but I didn't want to walk all the way from the front of the bus to the back and find the door locked and than have to ask the driver for the key. Yes, I could have gotten off the bus during the unscheduled break for the driver to eat, but I was scared I would go into the bathroom and find the bus had left. It was a silly idea because Nolan would not have let the bus leave without me. I just have to learn to get over the "I can make it till we get there" train of thought, especially if three hours is my limit and I am already two hours over the limit. Enough of bathroom talk.

We were able to visit with Willy and Teresa and see the ministry they have near the border of Ecuador and Peru.It was a wonderful time of fellowship and hearing about the work they are doing. Nolan preached to the small congregation there in Spanish. We traveled a little ways into Peru and visited a small village and to a house church that Willy works with.The winding trip to a house church was interesting. Every twist and turn had pigs, goats, cows, dogs, horses or donkeys  waiting for us in the middle of the road The huge pot holes kept us from going too fast so we were able to spot most of the creatures before we collided with them. The roads reminded me of a slinky and with all the animals I felt like I was in some kind of video game. About a hour and half later we arrived at the small town of Zapatillo. 

We met in a small room with a large window. The sun was beating down on us and as I was sitting there listening to several people telling about what God was doing in their lives I was sweating and noticed that if I rubbed my arm little rolls of dirt would come off.  I couldn't help it I kept rubbing and rubbing. It 's like when you have a sunburn and you can't stop peeling the skin off. I was amazed how much dirt was on me. Here I am sitting in a small town in Ecuador listening to people share about Jesus and I am rubbing dirt off of my arm that I thought was clean.

If the sun hadn't been so hot I would not have been sweating and would not have noticed how dirty I really was. Sometimes I need the Son to shine on me and make me sweat, to see my hidden sin, ask for forgiveness and get clean again.