Last Saturday evening the church in Paysandu hosted a men’s meeting tied in with a Father’s Day theme.  Father’s Day was July 18th this year here in Uruguay.

Pablo and Victor were able to get away and go with me to the meeting.  We had a great time in the car on two and a half hour drive on the way up with at least one memorable story as a result.  When we arrived we were welcomed by the men.  Pastor Rojas preached an excellent sermon on our need to not just ask sin to leave our lives, but rather to make the choice to eradicate it.  Later in the evening the ladies of the church served up some of the best Chicago style pizza that I have eaten in a long time.

The dinner theater put on by the ladies was a rather humorous skit of the daily family life of a few of the men from the church in Paysandu.  (Leave me a comment if you can guess who the two ladies are.)  After that a ping-pong table was set up.

Praise the Lord for others of like faith and practice striving to reach hearts with the Gospel in Uruguay’s interior.  It was a blessing to the men from Durazno to know that they are not alone, and that others are praying for them as well.

We are happy to announce A NEW LITTLE HARMON has been added to your missionary family.

Lord willing this little one will make an entrance around New Years.

Thank you each and every one who has been praying for this special prayer request of ours the past 2 1/2 years.  What a delight!

Please pray Jo Anna through the upcoming months.  She has been very tired the last 11 weeks as you might imagine.

Hey everybody . . . thanks for your comments here and on Facebook. We’ve enjoyed hearing from you all. Thanks for praying Sharron! I know others have been too. So far we’ve received messages from the U.S., Uruguay, Chile, and Israel. Without a doubt, being missionaries adds a wonderful dimension to our life.

Felicia was elated when she first found out. Her response with big eyes: “God answered our prayers!”. The next thing she did was take my hand as we started walking and proceeded to tell me that she would obey me all the time now so she could learn to be a good big sister. Soooo precious! If I can say so myself . . .

Hola a todos . . . gracias por sus comentarios. Hemos disfrutado recibir noticias de todos ustedes. ¡Gracias por orar Sharron! Sé que otros también lo han hecho. Hasta ahora hemos recibido mensajes de los EE. UU., R.O.U., Chile e Israel! Sin duda, el ser misioneros añade una hermosa dimensión a nuestra vida.

Felicia estaba chocha cuando se enteró. Su primer reacción fue: “Dios contestó nuestas oraciones”! La próxima cosa que hizo cuando empezamos a caminar fue tomarme de la mano diciendo que ahora me iba a hacer caso siempre para que pueda aprender a ser una buena hermanita mayor. ¡Qué preciosura! Si lo puedo decir yo misma . . .

Warning:  If you are not interested in finances this post may be confusing or extremely boring.    The short version is that our budget stretches further than it did a week ago.

Since coming to Uruguay in April of 2008 we have seen the uruguayan peso gain in strength against the free falling dollar.  When we first came our budget was set on a currency exchange of 24 uruguayan pesos to 1 US dollar.  Like most missionaries around the world we have been tightening our belts as our purchasing power in pesos has been cut.

Recently the missionaries in Europe saw some relief as the dollar gained in strength versus the euro.

That was not true for us.  The dollar has remained low against the peso.

However, this past Monday I opened up an article to find some much welcomed news.  The Uruguayan government has decided to start acquiring large amounts of dollars to once again strengthen the dollar against the Uruguayan peso.  Since Monday we have seen the peso increase from 19.15 to 20 pesos per dollar!  This is a huge jump.  To give you an idea this is the equivalent of having gained one supporting church in the past week.

Awhile has gone by since my last post update.  Our Bible studies are continuing with various people.

Recently, we have had some opportunities to visit some folks in the local hospital.  As winter comes on and the temperatures become wet and cold folks due tend to be more sick than normal.

One of our neighbors has his 94 year old brother in the hospital.  This past Sunday I had the chance to go and pay him a visit.  He slept through most of the visit, but his three other family members did not.

Please pray that the Lord will use His Word to impact this family for Him.

UPDATE:

This past Saturday this man went out into eternity.  His widow granted me the opportunity to speak beside his casket in the funeral home.  (This is the closest thing to a funeral service here in Uruguay.)  For about 10 minutes I had a chance to speak on John 11 and the comfort that can be ours if we place our sole faith in Christ.  Please pray for us as we visit the family to once again share the Gospel.  2 Cor. 4:1-6