This last week I asked several of you to be praying for our activity in the park on Friday.  We had our first joint gathering for our five Bible study groups.

I wanted this to be an informal gathering starting around 6pm (Merienda/Tea Time) going to around 9pm or dusk.  The activity started out a little rough for our family.  When it came time to leave, I went to back the car out of the garage only to discover the battery was dead.  Being good missionaries we tried hard not to be irritated, and started searching for plans B, C, & D.  I jumped on the bike and went to meet those who were arriving at 6, while Jo Anna and Feli waited for a taxi to bring our stuff.

When I arrived on bike, I found two had already arrived from one of the groups.  They shared their mate with me, and we relaxed until more from the group arrived.  I had brought our American football and Frisbees with me, which turned out to be a great hit.  We started tossing them around, and in just a little bit had a bunch of kids joining in.  This continued for awhile until most had arrived at which time we played an icebreaker game, did a sword drill, and had a brief bible study.  Please keep praying that these different groups will continue to coalesce and that they will be saved.

The evening came to a close around ten pm when the kids finally started crashing after playing full blast for most of the afternoon.

All in all this activity turned out really well.  The loose format combined with an informal meeting place created some great conversation time, and accomplished the goal of the people starting to get to know each other.

Our next activity coming up the first week in February will be a VBT.  Please keep praying.

This picture is for all the grandparents and aunts/uncles.  Felicia lost her first loose tooth last week.  She pulled it herself, and was visited by Raton Perez at some point in the night.  He left her some shimmering coins in exchange for her ivory.

Yep, our five year old is growing up.

I have been in trouble with my family ever since coming to Uruguay.  I brought too much stuff.  True, we use pretty much all of it, and it sure is handy to have the right tools but. . .

A common problem for North Americans moving to South America is their failure to realize the average size of a South American house.  It does not have a basement and very seldom an attic.  Besides, a normal North American stove will not fit in the slot allotted in most kitchen’s here.  A normal refrigerator will often not fit under the cupboards.  A queen size bed may fit in your “master bedroom”, but remember you still need some room to build your closets and to be able to walk around that gigantic bed.

Although I mentally knew about this problem before we came, I did not fully realize it until we had made our third move in Uruguay.  Each move we made I kept expecting our stuff to fit better in the next home.  However, each time we have moved over the course of the last 18 months we have had to stack boxes in prominent places.  The heavy book boxes have been an especial bain.  All the little nick knacks that had a home in the States are now clutter that occasionally found a bare foot in the middle of the night.

Finally, after much thought and three moves we decided to remedy this problem.  Pitch, toss, and condense even more.  This still wasn’t enough so we decided to put up a movable storage shed / playhouse.  Felicia has been having a blast in our new little house, and we are really content to not trip over sharp objects in the middle of the night.

Ah, the bliss of a content and happy family!

Yes, I know that some of you are suffering the -20 below zero pains of a northern winter.  If you are reading this and are from Minnesnowta, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, or Indiana I apologize for these cool thoughts.

However you do need to realize that at this very moment I am frying an egg on our ceramic brick tiled patio.  December through February are the warmest months of the year for Uruguay.  I think I may even try and do some research on outdoor reflector ovens.  Baking cookies in an already warm house is just not an option at present.

Because it is so warm during these months a favorite family Christmas tradition is to make ice-cream.  A few days after Christmas we all took a turn at the crank, and later enjoyed a delicious strawberry ice-cream.