The second or third Sunday of every August is Children’s Day.  Think Christmas Day without any religious connotations or decorations.  Due to a declining population in Uruguay children are Very Important People.  Stores use this day to get rid of their excess inventory of toys, candy, and anything else they can possibly get parents to give to their children.  If you walk into a bakery, meat shop, fruit stand, or grocery store with a child, you will likely see them receive candy, cookies, or chips before you walk out.

Today, we attended Bible Baptist Tabernacle pastored by Pastor Martin Kechichián.  During Sunday School all of the children received a brightly colored headband.  On the head band was printed: "Bible Baptist Tabernacle - Children’s Day".  In addition to receiving the headband, the children were also treated to a host of goodies and pop.  Somewhere during this time they were taught a Bible story lesson.

Needless to say, Felicia had a really BIG day.  Tonight, on the bus ride home she was super cuddly. . . never a good sign for a normally very active toddler.  When we got home we checked her temperature, and sure enough she had a bit of fever in addition to a chest cough.  Please pray that she will get better quickly.

A little brown box wrapped in a brown paper bag arrived at our door today. It was delivered by the Uruguayan postman, and was received with much joy at our household. The box had been opened by customs, but the contents where still intact. Yeah!

The box contained our replacement phone adapter from Vonage. Although it was not the one I ordered, it worked once I configured it properly. I have been doing my best to get our Vonage service up and running for the past two and a half months to no avail. So when I got dial tone and was able to place my first few stateside calls I was delighted.

Please feel free to give us a call at our old US number listed on the back of our prayer cards. Just keep in mind we are currently two hours ahead of CST. So if it is 9pm in Minnesota, it is 11pm in Montevideo. By the way, this excludes telemarketers. Our second call from the US was a telemarketer.

This evening we visited our neighbor. He turned 100, today! Jo Anna gave him a small bag of 100 pesos to match his age. Felicia presented him with one of her favorite snacks, cookies.

He and his bride, eighteen years his minor, have been extremely kind in welcoming us to the neighborhood. We enjoy listening to them talk about their years in Uruguay and Spain. While listening we learn about South American culture. This is invaluable as we contemplate the future. We hope to continue these conversations over the course of this coming year.

I asked if it would be all right to post his picture on our web page, so that other people from around the world could see how he is doing. As you can imagine his phone has been ringing off the hook with many well-wishers.

Here are few other things that happened on this day in history.

1471
Death of Thomas Kempis, 91, Dutch mystic and devotional author. Though most of his years were outwardly uneventful, his book The Imitation of Christ remains in print today, a guide to cultivating the inner human spirit.

1588
English forces attacked the Spanish Armada, permanently crippling Spain’s “invincible” fleet.

1786
Dr. Michael-Gabriel Paccard and Jacques Balmat became the first to climb Mont Blanc.

1864
Red Cross forms in Geneva

1876
Thomas Edison patented the mimeograph machine.

1929
German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight

1978
The United States launched Pioneer Venus II, which carried scientific probes to study the atmosphere of Venus.

Yes, I know that most of you that read this journal are suffering through the dog days of summer in the northern hemisphere. However, our family lives approximately 33 degrees below the equator. Perhaps these thoughts will be a breath of cool air.

• Although it is not as cold as Minnesota, you know its cold when:
• You can see your breathe in the air inside your house.
• Your fingertips are almost never warm.
• When you actually “beg” to do the dishes because it warms your hands.
• The only way to keep your feet warm is to wear your wonderful wooden shoes that you have from your teenage years in Holland.
• You wear a pair of sweat pants underneath your suit pants to church because your long johns are simply not warm enough. (You should have seen the colorful sweat pants peaking out from under the dress pants at the last men’s meeting!)
• When attendance is down on Sunday, because most of the regular attendees are sick at home with colds and flu.
• You hug your steel thermos under your jacket to keep it warm enough for some mate. (This also makes you realize who your real friends are. They are the ones who are willing to share THEIR warm mate with you.)
• Going to the mall is a treat. No, I will NEVER become a mall rat. However, the mall is maintained at a nice ambient temperature of 65 degrees.
• Your walls start to turn pretty shades of green from humidity that has not left the wall for the past three months.
• When you love your wife for making you cookies, AND heating the kitchen with the stove.

By the way this post is not meant to make you feel sorry for us. We are having a GREAT time living in Montevideo immersing ourselves in the culture and language of this land. It is simply meant to give you a glimpse into our lives in the middle of Uruguayan winter.

Come on down to 33 degrees below zero. Just remember to bring your long johns and your hot chocolate!

Like most pastors and missionaries I have an affinity for books. However, in Uruguay books are very expensive. On top of that Christian bookstores are not a dime a dozen like in Grand Rapids, MI. This afternoon I decided to go out on a scouting trip to see what the two main Christian bookstores had to offer.

The first bookstore that I visited was the United Bible Society of Uruguay. They have a nice selection of various translations of Bibles. In addition they have a small selection of other Christian materials. Here is there contact information.

Sociedad Biblica del Uruguay
Constituyente 1540
0598-2-411-0034

The second bookstore that I visited was larger, and had a broader selection of materials. Here is there contact information.

Centro de Literatura Cristiana
Av. Uruguay 1344 casi Ejido
C.P. 11100 - Montevideo - Uruguay
Teléfono 0598-2-908-0016
Telefax 0598-2-903-0676
Mon - Fri 9 a 19hs and Sat 9 a 13hs.
Email: libros at clcuruguay dot com
http://www.clcuruguay.com/

The CLC was like a small Northwestern Bookstore in the US. I found their selection of CD’s to be larger than normal in comparison to the space they would normally take up in a US Christian bookstore. In my opinion this was unfortunate. However, they also had a nice selection of various tracts along with commentaries, teaching materials, children’s resources, and some Bible software.

No, I did not walk out of the CLC store empty handed. I am now the proud owner of a KJV / Reina Valiera 1960 bilingual Bible. I am looking forward to the next Spanish preaching service that I will be attending. My reading comprehension may just surpass that of a toddler once again!

Yes, we are receiving REAL mail from the US.

One of the highlights of our day is hearing our doorbell ring around noon. We have to race to the door, and unlock it in time to get the mail from our mailman as he often is in a hurry. If we wait to long, he moves on to the next house, and we have to wait another day.

Thanks for staying in touch!

The military hospital of Montevideo is the second largest hospital in the country. This past Monday we received a call from Scott Borrmann who is serving with BWM in Colonia. Colonia is about 2 1/2 hours from Montevideo. He said that a family from the ministry in Colonia had been at the hospital for the past two weeks. Their eight month old son had a bad case of congestion. When the family left Colonia they had not expected to stay for such a long time in the capital. As a result they had left their other 4 year old son in care of their neighbors. As you can imagine this was a very difficult thing for the family.

We were able to get in touch with another Pastor in Montevideo who is also in the military. He went and visited them Wednesday morning. He then called us to let us know what the visitation hours were. Wednesday afternoon, we also went and visited the family. We were able to bring them a phone card, some toys for their baby, some tracts, and other reading material. They were soo grateful for the tracts and other items.

While visiting we found out that their little baby had an x-ray taken earlier that morning to check on his lungs. They did not expect the results to come back for a day or two. As a result we were able to update the church in Colonia so that they would know how to best pray for the family that night in prayer meeting.

Being Wednesday, the father then decided to accompany us to church while the mother stayed with the baby at the hospital. They have been starving for Christian fellowship during their stay in the big capital.

Thursday morning, Jo Anna received a call from the mother while I was at language class. The mother said that the x-ray had come back, and that the doctors had decided that the little boy was sufficiently improved to discharge him from the hospital! Praise the Lord for this answer to pray, and for the opportunity to make our first hospital visitation in Uruguay.

I have started studying Spanish full time as of last week. The initial phases of any language acquisition usually require massive amounts of memorization. If you are anything like me, this is probably the least enjoyable aspect of language learning. I have been dreading this phase ever since knowing that God was calling us to Uruguay.

Like most people I find myself continually having to review in order to remember what I have learned. Today, while studying for an upcoming class, I was browsing Spanish teaching websites, and stumbled across “Online Spanish Help”. This website makes memorization fun by incorporating games and quizzes with instant feedback. Anyone for a game of Spanish “Hangman”, “Crossword”, “Memory”, “Word Search”, or “Conjugation Trainer”?

Perhaps you know of a website, or another fun way to memorize Spanish grammar rules and verbs. If so share it with me by leaving me a comment.

This morning I received some pictures from yesterdays baptismal service in Paysandu.

Paysandu is where Jo Anna’s mom, sister and family are serving.

Pastor Daniel Rojas baptized seven people. The baptismal candidate on the left is Marco Rojas, my nephew. The adults on the right are wearing baptismal robes that we brought with us from the US. These robes will be shared between the church in Paysandu, and Lord willing the future work in Durazno.

You may also notice one of the gentleman wearing a headset in the first picture. Thank you supporters for helping provide the robes and the hearing aids!

Praise the Lord for the work He is continuing to do in the northern parts of Uruguay under the leadership of Pastor Rojas!

Friday, July 25th, Iglesia Bautista Fundamental Misionera La Unión, will be hosting the monthly men’s meeting. Since men could NEVER meet without some form of food being involved, the host church will be providing tuco.

The address is: Vera 2661 This is just off of Ocho de Octubre.

The time is: 8pm

You may contact Pastor Cristian Gutiérrez for more information at pastoramistad yahoo com.

I look forward to attending and once again sharpening my Spanish skills, while at the same time learning more about the Baptist churches of Uruguay.