Back Home in Franklin, For a Few Days Anyway!

Greetings friends and family! It's hard to believe that we are now nearing the the 1st of February...time sure does fly when you're having fun!

I had a wonderful time with my friend Dana in Arkansas, although it was a quick trip we were able to pack in a great deal of visiting! I also had the joy of meeting her parents and students as well as seeing many of the places that I have heard her talk about so much. Returning home last Thursday was a bit of an adventure, but God provided many blessings along the way so it was an enjoyable adventure. To give you a short recap, I got to the airport early and checked in. While sitting by the gate, I realized that my flight was going to be delayed. This was a problem, because I only had a few minutes in order to change planes in Houston. A delayed flight on the first leg meant I was sure to miss the second flight. I have flown enough to share in a few of the horror stories of airlines and flight attendants, yet this was not one of those experiences. The airline not only changed my flights, still with one layover (not too long, but long enough to eat lunch this time), worked it out so that I was arriving at basically the same time (only about 5 minutes later), and (this is the real incredible part) found my luggage and changed the tags so that it arrived with me in Norfolk! All of this, while actually being friendly without treating me like I had just ruined their day! Praise the Lord! I was so thankful for the pleasant experience!

On Friday, mom and I made a quick trip down to North Carolina. She babysat my nephew on Saturday and I went to a seminar at Gordon-Conwell. We got back late on Saturday night so that we could go to church on Sunday. I was thankful to get to worship at Westminster once again. I also was able to have lunch and hang out with some of my friends from church, which I really appreciated!

This week is back to old clothes and porridge! It sure is hard to get back into a study routine, but I don't have much of an option there, my classes start again this weekend! This semester I will be taking three classes again (Theology Survey II, Contemprary Missiology, and Church History Since the Reformation). I think I forgot to mention that I found out that I got an A in one of my other classes from last semester! I now know that I received an A and an A- in two of the three classes from last semester. I still haven't heard about the third class, but I am thankful for how well things have turned out so far! Praise the Lord for the strength and endurance to finish well last semester! Please continue to pray for my classes this semester, that God will continue to give me the necessary strength to complete each assignment on time.

Thank you so much for all who have asked about and continue to pray for my grandfather. He is doing quite well, praise the Lord! Today, we found out that he is now able to begin putting partial weight on his leg, about half of his weight. This is a change, since he has not been able to put weight on it up to this point. Please continue to pray for him. As you can imagine this is particularly hard for him to have lost so much of his independence. He has tried a few times to do things on his own (without permission, unfortunately) and has fallen a couple of times. Thankfully this has not hindered his progress, but we are not encouraging it either. It is a difficult lesson for him to learn!

I have one last bit of news that I wanted to share about how God continues to provide for my needs. I shared a couple of weeks ago that I am still lacking about $1000 monthly and $6000 outgoing support. Although not much has changed in this area, I wanted to share a quick story with you. When I was visiting with my friends from my Sunday school class, I was sharing with my teacher about my need for further financial support. From across the room, one of the girls in my class said that she was interested in sending me some money, could I get her an address? Obviously I didn't say no to that and told her I would email her the address. She and I then began talking and decided to meet for lunch yesterday, because she wanted to practice her Spanish. We met for lunch and had a very nice time. Although she is a new friend and this was really only the first or second time that we have sat and talked, she immediately handed me a wad of folded bills upon arriving at the restaurant. It wasn't necessarily a lot in the world's standards, but it was a huge deal to me. Honestly, it almost made me cry...this was coming from a single mother of two who is living at home with her own mother while she works and takes classes part-time! I know she doesn't have a lot, yet God has given her a heart for missions and this is the way that she feels she can play a part! I am so thankful for her and the demonstration of love and a giving heart that she has shown me! It really is incredible to get to be a part of stories like this!

Well, I guess that's all I have to share with you this week! Thank you so much for your continued prayers! Until next week...

January 21, 2007

Greetings from Siloam Springs, Arkansas!

My last week with Janet and Rick was as enjoyable as the first. Janet and I took a quick trip to San Antonio on Wednesday and Thursday. It was beautiful! I had always wanted to go there and this was the perfect opportunity! We got to take a tour cruise on the Riverwalk. We also went to La Villita, which was the first settlement in San Antonio and now has many interesting shops. On Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning we went to the Alamo and then to all of the other missions in the area, which were established by the Spanish in order to convert the Indians. One of the highlights of the trip for me was a musical group from Peru that was playing at the Riverwalk Mall. The music was typical to what I often heard in Bolivia and I had a chance to talk to them after they finished playing. All in all it was an incredible trip!


I also enjoyed sharing about Bolivia in the Spanish classes at Bethesda Christian School on Friday. It was a lot of fun! I enjoyed meeting the students and the Spanish teacher. Interestingly, the teacher and his family had recently returned to the states after serving the Lord in Guatemala. We enjoyed swapping stories and experiences of culture shock.

On Saturday morning I said good-bye to Janet and Rick. It was bittersweet; I was sad to leave them, yet ready to be on my way again. I then flew to Tulsa, Oklahoma where my friend Dana Sterling met me at the airport. You may remember that Dana was one of the other women who lived at Lidia's house with me my last year in Bolivia. She is now back in the states teaching in Rogers Arkansas. After picking me up from the airport, we had brunch at her parent's house and then came to Sloam Springs, which is where Dana lives. I will be here with her until Thursday, at which time I will return to Franklin (just barely in time for my next semester of classes to start).
Well, I guess that's about it for this week. Because of all the travelling that I have been doing, I am a little behind on current news concerning my condo and other such prayer requests. Thank you for continuing to pray for those things! I'll be sure to let you know, once I find out something myself! Blessings to you all!

January 14, 2007

Greetings once again from Arlington, Texas! I have heard from several of you who had time to read my blog entry last week, thank you for squeezing that into your busy schedules. Your prayers were definitely felt this week!

I continue to have a great time here with Janet and Rick. Last week, Janet and I went to the museum at the Wycliffe Center. That was a lot of fun and very well done! Also, Janet was playing in a concert with the Waco Symphony and they invited Art Garfunkel to come as a guest performer for the concert. Janet didn't think about it being a sold out concert so she hadn't gotten tickets beforehand. Fortunately, God worked it out for Rick and me to be able to get tickets so that we could attend, even though we were on a waiting list until about 2 hours before the concert! Praise the Lord! I had a great time watching Janet perform and hearing Art Garfunkel sing! It was a wonderful concert! On Saturday night we were able to have dinner with Bob and Mary Kaiser longtime friends of our from Abingdon...we grew up with their kids. They are now serving with Wycliffe so we enjoyed hearing about the work to which God has called them.


On Sunday, I had the opportunity to speak at Janet and Rick's church. We also did a couple of songs in Spanish with their worship team, since Janet is the music leader. I appreciated that greatly! It is a little quick to see what hearts God may have touched, but I did have one woman ask me about sending in financial support so that is a definite answer to prayer! There were also several people who asked to be added to my mailing list. Praise the Lord for these new partnerships! In order to help you pray more specifically for my financial needs, it looks like I am about $1000 below on my needed monthly support and about $6000 below on my needed outgoing funds (which is the one time lump sum for exiting the country and setup fees in Bolivia).

(lunch with Rick's sister and her family and Janet's

friend, Kim, after church on Sunday)

This week, Janet and I have decided to take a quick trip to San Antonio on Wednesday, coming back on Thursday. I am super excited about that! I have never been there before and always wanted to go since I have heard such beautiful things about it. I am glad God has so openly worked it out for us to go. Also, on Friday I have the opportunity to speak to three different Spanish classes at Bethesda Christian School, which is one of the schools where Janet goes to teach private lessons. I enjoy having opportunities such as this to get back into the classroom. I am thankful that God has provided this connection.

I have one quick note about my Gordon-Conwell classes...my mom called today to let me know that the rest of my assignments along with the final grade for my Church History class last semester had arrived. They show that I received an A- in that class! I am quite pleased and praising the Lord for the strength, endurance, and discipline to have done so well! I haven't heard about the other two classes yet, but at least I now know one of the three! Thank you for your prayers for that!

Well, I think it's time for me to go get some dinner! I am constantly encouraged by your constant love, prayers, and support! Thank you so much!

Happy New Year!

Greetings once again...after quite a long vacation. I had great hopes of continuing to up-date my blog over the Christmas holidays, but things just got too busy! However, I'm starting to get back into the swing of things and plan to continue up-dating my blog weekly (on Mondays). A lot has happened since I last wrote an entry. I have quite a bit of news for you.

First of all, thank you so much to all of you who have been praying for the country of Bolivia. I was able to talk with some of my friends in Bolivia over the holidays and they said things seem to have calmed down for the time being. There isn't much happening there at the present, although the feelings of those involved haven't changed. Many of my friends believe that things will continue to remain calm for the next couple of months, until Carnaval, which is at the end of February. That tends to be a rather emotional time anyway so it could once again stir up the agitation buried during the holidays. Please continue to pray for everyone there. God is in control and His timing is perfect.

Speaking of God's timing...I continue to wait and pray that my condominium in North Carolina would sell. I haven't been told anything recently. I will try to contact the Realtor to see if there has been any interest within the last month or so. The last thing I heard was that they were going to be showing it to someone, but that has been some time now so I assume it was not the right person to buy it. Please continue to pray for that situation as well. I will keep you posted as I hear bits and pieces.

Thank you too for all who have been praying for and asking about Grandpa Pickles. He has been doing well although having a great deal of pain. The doctor recently ordered an x-ray to see how things were healing. It appears that the bone is healing quite well, but they determined that the screw is loose. They are going to need to go back in again later this week in order to correct it. This is believed to be the cause of a great deal of his pain. I will let you know how the surgery goes once I find out more myself.


Christmas proved to be a wonderfully refreshing time with my family. Janet and Rick and Emily, Christopher, and Wesley were all home. We celebrated Christmas on the 26th as is customary for us, then we left on the 27th to drive to Abingdon. We were able to be there for several days and all of us agree that we saw almost everyone we know while we were there...friends from Emory, Abingdon Bible Church, and babysitting days! All in all we had a great time together.


New Year's was a lot of fun as well. We actually stayed up until midnight (even though my dad said he wasn't going to make it that late). We had spend most of the day driving back from Abingdon, with a quick stop in Bedford, VA to visit my uncle. Emily, Christopher, and Wesley and returned to North Carolina so it was just Janet, Rick, Mom, Dad, and I. We had a nice dinner and watched a movie. It was great fun and meant that we didn't go to bed too late. One sad bit of news that we received on New Year's Day was that my aunt (my mom's sister-in-law) passed away. She has had several health issues recently, but her passing was still rather sudden. The funeral was on January 5. It is a sad time to lose a loved one and she will be greatly missed, but it is comforting to know that she is in a much better place!

On January 5, I joined Janet and Rick on their return to Texas. I will be here with them for about 2 weeks I am getting to meet many of Janet's students as well as hear a symphony concert that she has on Friday night. I will also get to do some shopping and a few tourist type activities. On Sunday, Janet has been able to make arrangements for me to speak to her church during the service in the morning. This will be a great opportunity to share about God's heart for the world. Of course, given the fact that I also still need to raise about $700 more per month, I'm praying that God will lead a few people in that direction.

I feel that this up-date contains quite a few prayer requests! Although that is why I am sharing them with you, I don't want you to miss the things that I am so thankful for today. Praise the Lord for giving me the strength to finish my classes last semester. I don't have any grades to report yet, but I'll let you know when I do. Praise Him also for the great time I was able to have with my family over Christmas, including our chance to visit friends we haven't seen in quite some time. Also, praise the Lord for bringing Janet, Rick, and me safely to Texas and for allowing me this time to spend with them. So far it has been great! Finally, praise God for continuing to teach me new things about Himself each day!

Well, I think this entry should keep you busy for quite some time! Sorry it is a long one! However, I do appreciate your prayers and look forward to our continued partnership this year.