Hopeful Thoughts

It never ceases to amaze me how our God answers prayers and provides for our needs.  He does things in ways we would never expect and could never imagine on our own.  Often, just when we can’t see any options, He provides in unexpected ways.

Recently, I’ve been very frustrated with my “job options”.  When I quit teaching a year ago, the plan was to begin tutoring out of my home in order to bring in a little extra income to support what Ryan was making working full time.  This seemed like an easy goal, so I built a web site, made flyers, printed up business cards, and even paid for an ad in the local homeschool association parent newsletter.  Over the first summer, I had one student, and didn’t get another until November when two kids came twice each.  I finally landed a consistent student in January who stuck with me through the end of the school year, but my one kid for this summer fell through.

When things seemed bleak back in November, I took advantage of another opportunity and began selling Premier Designs jewelry at home shows.  I’ve done direct sales before, and this seemed like a great way to make a little extra cash and maybe even meet parents who needed a tutor for their kids.  I enjoy the jewelry parties, but my heart is in education.  I want to work with kids, and it was really bumming me out that Hope4Math couldn’t seem to get off the ground.

Rewind to the spring of 2008.  I was teaching Geometry for the first time ever (something I was a bit apprehensive about doing, but wound up loving!)  There was a young lady in one of my classes who REALLY struggled.  She struggled so much that her mom hired a tutor.  When she continued to struggle, the tutor called me directly to touch base and see if we could work together on a plan to help her succeed.

I’m not sure how the conversation lead to this point, but the tutor, we’ll call her “Kay”, and I hit it off over the phone and I let her know of my future goal of quitting full time teaching and pursuing a tutoring business of my own.  We ended up meeting for lunch and she shared her knowledge.  We kept up communication during the rest of the year, and the following fall, I received a phone call from her.  She and her husband were expecting another baby, and she was hoping I would be able to sub for some of her tutoring sessions after the baby came.

I started working for her in January of 2009 two afternoons a week.  Kay eventually took back most of her students, but I remained on one day a week from that point on.  During that time, I’ve learned about her business and met most of her students.  We’ve become friends as we’ve shared her new baby, both of our husbands being laid off, and my own coming bundle.

What does this have to do with God and His provision?

Kay’s husband lost his job before Christmas this year, and just this month received a job offer in another state.  To make a long story short, I’ve been asked to essentially take over the business that she has spent the last several years building.

I’ll be going from one student to a full load almost overnight.

God is awesome!

I knew being pregnant in the summer wasn’t going to exactly be “fun”.  I expected to be hot and uncomfortable.  I didn’t expect to be unable to be cool in my own home.

At 35 weeks pregnant, I’ve gained 28 pounds and am finding it much harder to assume comfortable positions around the watermelon that now resides where my stomach once was.  Add to that the fact that our air conditioner hasn’t been functioning for nearly 2 weeks, and it’s pretty hard to take.

We knew the AC unit was old when we bought the place.  However, it WAS cooling the house.  At least it was until we woke up on June 21, the morning after the big party, to a house nearing 85 degrees at 8:30 in the morning and we heard a grinding noise coming from the unit.  NOT cool!  We shut it off, since it wasn’t working.

So, we called our Warranty company to send out an AC repair guy.  Due to busy schedules, no one could come out until Tuesday.  On Tuesday, the brilliant man who came out told us that there was absolutely nothing wrong, that it was just old.  He claimed we needed a new unit.  We turned the unit back on and left it running and grinding, however, so we could at least cool the air a bit.

Unhappy with this diagnosis, we called the AC company and asked that they send us another guy.  This guy came on Wednesday.  This time, the unit was cleaned, inspected, and we were told we needed a new fan motor, which couldn’t be replaced because the unit was so old they didn’t make the bracket needed to install it.  He also tried to sell us a new unit, naming a price that he obviously pulled out of thin air.  He claimed the warranty would cover part of the cost, but he didn’t tell us which part.  These guys left, we still had no cool air, and later that night, the unit completely quit running altogether.  Ryan even resorted to going to Wal-mart at midnight to purchase a small window unit which he finished installing in our bedroom at 3AM.

We again contacted the warranty company and asked that they send us a different AC company, because we felt the prior company wasn’t being honest with us about prices.  We were finally assigned another company last Friday afternoon, but were unable to contact them until Monday.  When I called this guy, I was told that he no longer worked with our Warranty company.  He listed several other companies that he would be happy to do work for, but not ours.  Needless to say, our confidence in the resolution of the situation was wearing thin.

The call was re-dispatched at least twice more, but it wasn’t until Tuesday afternoon that we finally got another AC guy out to the house to look at the problem.  This guy didn’t really tell us anything different, but it’s what he didn’t tell us that made us a bit more confident.  He didn’t give us any estimates until he could talk to the Warranty company to see what they were willing to do.  At last!  Someone who seemed trustworthy!

However, our problems were still a long way from being solved.  As I write this, it is Friday, a full 11 days since we first called the Warranty company with our complaint.  We are waiting on them to decided what to do.  They asked for a copy of our inspection report, which we’ve sent.  However, no feedback has been given.  Since this weekend is July 4th and many people will be off work on Monday, we can’t expect anything to be done until Tuesday at the earliest.

In the meantime, we’re spending lots of time in the bedroom and not even able to enjoy the rest of our house.  I tried to cook once, which only resulted in my nearly having heat stroke with the additional heat from the over.

I’m trying to enjoy the cooler weather God has provided though the rains over the last week.  I’m grateful for the break from the 100 degree days.  However, I will be much happier when this whole situation is resolved.

The front of out first place!

It’s official!  As of noon on Friday June 4th, 2010, we are HOMEOWNERS!!!  We were hoping to be official a week earlier, but getting documents from a seller all the way in Hawaii caused us to push closing a week.  No big deal, though.  It just means our first payment won’t be due for another month!

Home ownership is pretty cool.  We’ve already been living in the house since September, since we started out as renters, but now we can really start making this place our home.  It’s got a few quirks, but we’ve also found some cool surprises.  The furnace is about 50 years old, all three bathrooms will need updating, the apartment needs foundation work, none of the electrical is grounded, and the yard is a MESS, but we discovered that the front yard has a fully functional sprinkler system!

We’ve also discovered that my husband is pretty handy.  The hall sink hasn’t worked properly since we moved in.  There was a plumber out right after we moved in back in September who managed to get the leak to stop, but we’ve been living without any hot water since that time.  The seller paid for us to have the valve replaced, but the faucet knob was so stripped that you still couldn’t turn the water on, so we weren’t much better off.  Ryan decided that this was going to be his first big home improvement project.  We went to Lowe’s, bought a new faucet and some tools, and two days later, our sink is fully functional!!!

The original faucet.

Ryan begins to take out the old faucet by removing the drain pipe.

Notice there is no water spilling out. He's doing great!

No more knobs! The faucet itself was a bit of an issue to get off. Ryan ended up sawing off the drain mechanism in order to get the final parts out. I guess it was too old and rusty to get out any other way. Good thing we planned to trash it from the beginning!

The naked sink.

Shiny new faucet that runs both hot and cold water! Complete with a working drain. All we had before was a hole! It's been almost a full day since it went in, and no problems to report. Way to go Ryan!

So one project down of many more to come.  We’re going to hire someone to paint the outside of the house once we get our tax credit, but we plan to tackle many of the other projects on our own or with help from friends.  On our “To Do” list:  landscaping, interior painting and drywall repairs, new tile floors in both bathrooms, new counter in the master bath, new grout and caulk for the tubs in the master bath and the apartment bath, moving two interior door ways to create a true galley style kitchen with more counter space, a new roof, new locks on all the doors, … there’s more, but I can’t think of it all right now.

We are really excited to own this house and are grateful for God’s provision in being able to do so.  We never would have found this place without Taylor and Allison who clued us in last spring that it was coming open to rent.  We’re thankful to Charlie, our landlord, for letting us know he was going to sell it instead of just putting it on the market.  We’re grateful to Ryan’s dad for helping with the downpayment.  And were grateful to our incoming renters.  God used each of these pieces to provide, and now our baby will be born into a house!!

This is our first year of marriage to live in a house.  Our apartment was so small that we could only put up a little 4 foot tree, and it was always in some awkward place and in the way.  Not to mention, no one could enjoy it but us.  We hardly ever had people over simply because our space was so cramped.

This year we have room for a full size tree!  I went to Target and bought a 7 foot artificial Cashmere Pine.  It’s placed right in front of the window so, not only us and our guests can enjoy it, but also those driving by can see the glow in our window!I picked our ornaments to match our pretty new curtains, and Ryan helped me pick out the tree skirt to coordinate as well.  We spent a lot of time searching for the perfect topper.  I wanted silver wire and lights.  We found lights, and we found silver wire, but we couldn’t find the two together, so I settled for just silver and we moved on to search for the perfect wreath to hang over our fireplace.   We found it at Michael’s, who also turned out to have our perfect tree topper!  Now I have to return one, but our tree is perfect!

It was a special treat this year to have Ryan’s Mom and Grandmother join us for Thanksgiving dinner.  They hung around on Friday long enough to help us string the lights and hang the ornaments.  Thanks!

Oh, and did I mention we were distracted on our shopping trip by a little something to use year round?

As I lounge on my new couch savoring my first cup of coffee of the morning at 11:00 AM, I am convicted by reading all the Facebook posts from my friends who rose much earlier than I did this morning.
Statements are made like “It’s a Monday” and “How can I become a morning person?” and “Time to start another work week.” And what am I doing????
Sipping coffee at 11:00 AM from this mug:  (Since I’ve been too busy to blog lately, here’s a quick version of the Coffee Cup Chronicles!  This mug was given to me by my college friend and suite mate, Elaine.  She was quite influential in my decision to be baptized as an adult who’d only been sprinkled as a baby. )

Don’t get mad at me because I’m home on a Monday morning and you are not.  I, too, fight a weekly battle with the Mondays. Some weeks I walk out the door at 8 AM to a sub job and some weeks I ease into it at more like 10, but each new week is a chance to try again to get it right.

When I was employed full time, I did what I had to do in the time I had to do it, otherwise it wouldn’t get done.  ”Tomorrow” simply wasn’t an option, because it was full of other things to be done.  Now that I pick my schedule, I find myself saying “I’ll do that later” far too often.  It’s a horrible thing to have to say about myself, but, truth be told, I get LAZY!!!!

I’m hoping to get better about utilizing my time instead of letting it slip away.  But, in the meantime, I just want all my working friends to know that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

Well, I’ve been back from Argentina for almost three weeks now.  I really thought life was going to slow down and settle into a routine once I returned home, but that hasn’t been the case.

I arrived home on a Sunday.  Tuesday I was scheduled to fill out my paperwork to into the Substitute teacher system in my district.  I planned to spend the rest of the week working on the house and getting re-acclimated to the US.  I figured I’d start subbing the following week about 2-3 days per week and work on building up my tutoring business.

However, the plane landed, and I hit the ground RUNNING.

The day I returned home, there was a big party in our back yard.  An older couple that attended our church is serving as missionaries in Tennessee.  They are in a very poor area and have lost a great deal of financial support since the economy crashed, so our housemates organized a fund raiser to help them out.  We all had a great time and it was a lot of fun.

This little corner of the patio was the perfect space to function as a stage. Our back yard is AWESOME!

Monday morning I got up around 9:00 and noticed a missed phone call with the prefix of the school I just resigned from.  There was no message, but I just knew they wanted me to sub.  I didn’t call back.  My house was still a wreck since I didn’t have much time to unpack before I left the country.

I spent the whole day unpacking and organizing the house.  I worked so hard that I haven’t had to do very much with any of the main living areas since then.  The living room is pretty much how we want it (especially since our new couch arrived TODAY!)  Not to mention, my HUGE kitchen is in working order with all my stuff put away and EASILY accessible.

Tuesday, I received another call from the school.  This time I returned it, and, sure enough, they wanted me to come in as soon as possible because it was a math teacher who was out.  I explained that I had to fill out my paperwork that afternoon and Wednesday would be the soonest I could start if the sub office would even let me begin that quickly.

Tuesday should have been an easy day, but when I got into my car, it wouldn’t start.  My neighbor and I hypothesized that it was the battery.  She took me to buy a new one.  I also managed to get rides to the district’s Central Office and the BTCL that night.  Late that evening, Ryan learned how to install a car battery. Luckily, that was the fix!  Yeah for my awesome husband!!!

Wednesday at 8:00 AM, I headed up to the school to sub all day, and then I had tutoring immediately after until 6:30.

It turns out that the teacher is VERY sick.  After 3 weeks, he is still in the hospital and not expected to be released for at least two more weeks.  Thankfully, there is another Math certified sub in the district, and she and I will be able to split the days, but it still winds up being a much more demanding sub job than I expected when I decided to sub.  Because I worked in that department, I am expected to teach as much as possible.  The teachers there are working hard to provide copies and plans, so all I have to do is show up, but I am working the entire time I am there, including grading papers.  The difference is, I don’t take them home.

I am praying that he will get well and take his classes back soon.  I’ve spent a total of 9 days there so far. Coming up, I will be teaching 4 days next week and at least 2 the following.  There’s even been the murmurings of “what ifs” and would I be willing to come back.

Where’s the routine in that???

Today was our last Sunday to work with the kids at the two churches.  We taught the kids about how Moses lead God’s people out of Egypt.  Emily D. took on the job of telling the story this time, and she did great!

We went to the City Bell church for their morning service.  We had about 6 kids to work with.

The City Bell kids working on their craft. They used cotton ball to make the pillar of cloud and tissue paper to make the pillar of fire.

This was a sort of sad time, because it would be our last time to work with the people at the CIty Bell church.  We have come to love them, and it will be difficult to say farewell.

The girls say Good-Bye to TIna. She is the lady we were able to assist with some home repairs.

After the service, we found out that the Nigerians from our hotel had come.  They had actually been moved to La Plata, but figured out how to get rides back to City Bell to be able to worship with us.  Most of them have been signed to Argentine Soccer teams, but Lawson and Emmanuel would be returning to Nigeria that evening.

Team women posing with the Nigerians after church.

Don, Ken, and Greg take a photo with the Nigerian Soccer players.

After we all had our photo opportunity with these guys (which we thought was a good idea because they might be famous soccer players one day!!!) they blessed us with some of their native praise music.  I need help from my husband to post video, but I plan to do that when I am back in the US.  Keep checking back!  In the meantime, here are a few pictures of the performance.

After lunch, we went back to Kurt and Lore’s house for a real Argentine Asado.  This is basically a big cook out.  Kurt fired up the grill and we dined on sausage, and big pieces of beef.  It was a lot of fun.

The Asado was also a time of fellowship with the Short Term team and those who are Full TIme missionaries in Argentina.

All that food sure can make you sleepy, though.  It was a beautiful day to be out!

Barbie and Alaina take their siesta.

After the Asado, Emily D, Evelyn, and I rode to La Plata with the Rambows.  We got to do a little shopping at the “Hippie Fair” that sets up in the plaza every Saturday and Sunday.

Then, we headed to La Unión church in La Plata to help out with the Sunday School one last time.

We headed back to the hotel for our last night when the evening was over.  The ladies decided to debrief over mate before turning in for the night.  We have all purchased our very own mates to take home with us, and this was our first chance to use them.

We planned to go to “Bliss” for breakfast this morning. They serve coffee and pastries, and Kurt had brought us some of them a few days ago. However, when he arrived, he told us that his wife had suggested “Sutra” instead, as they might have more variety. So, we changed plans.

We actually didn’t remember that it was the same place we’d had dinner at the night before until we pulled up! The lovely little spot for a fancy dinner becomes a hot spot for coffee and Wi-Fi in the morning hours. We dined on toast, “media lunas” (half moon shaped rolls), fruit salad, fresh squeezed orange juice, and coffee. There was an assortment of jams as well as “dulce de leche” (caramel sauce) to go with the bread. Yummy!!!

Cool tree in the lot next to Sutra that I just had to take a picture of.

The larger part of the day was spent cleaning the church, finishing repairs, and generally getting the place ready for the visitors that would come that evening to hear our talk about Sunday School programs.

Demonstrating the Argentine method of mopping the floors.

Due to a scheduling conflict when the dates for our trip changed, we had to move out of the hotel today and into Kurt and Lore’s house for one night.  They had a nice little coffee service set up for us when we got there.

Coffee Bar

We also got to learn how to prepare Mate (ma-tay).  Mate is a traditional tea that is made with loose leaves and served in a traditional style cup.  It is sipped through a straw that has a filter on the end of it to prevent the leaves from being sucked up the straw.

Mate components. Photo credit to Evelyn M.

We had a late lunch of pizza and relaxed in their home for a few hours before going back to the church to give our talk.

About 20 people came to hear what we had to say. I think it went pretty well, but there are pieces of the puzzle that will still need to be addressed for the outside churches that came in. For example, where are they going to get simple Bible stories for their lessons? Curriculum is expensive, and it takes weeks of training, as BTCL showed me, to learn how to craft your own.  We came prepared to leave story materials with the church in City Bell, so they will be in good shape.

After the workshop, Kurt and Lore served us dinner. We had the Argentine version of Shepherd’s pie. Pretty much it’s what we have in the states, except it has boiled eggs in it!

We really enjoyed spending time with the Grothes. They have a beautiful house and showed us amazing hospitality. They are doing a great work for Jesus here in this country.

This morning was a little rough. There was a prayer meeting this morning at Kurt’s house that Evelyn and Emily went to. Ken and I were supposed to meet with Kurt and Greg at a later time while the two other ladies went back to rest.  There was  a miscommunication about the meeting time and I wound up missing it. Hope its OK!

In fact, the whole schedule today was a little rough. We were supposed to go to the Orphanage at noon, come back to the hotel to rest, and then go out around 5:00 to pass out flyers on the streets of City Bell to promote Kurt’s English class.

Here’s what wound up happening.   We left the Orphanage early and planned to go back at 5:00 because many of the kids were

A beautiful sunny day at Hogar Betel.

at school during our originally planned time. Evelyn was able to share with some of the kids about Jesus, but our time was cut short.

So, we went back to the hotel and worked on planning for Friday’s presentation on Sunday School programs. When we went back, we were only able to spend one and a half hours before we needed to head downtown to pass out flyers.

For dinner, we went to what probably equates to a very high end restaurant called Sutra.  The meal was around 350 pesos for 6 people, including dessert.

The girls split a Chicken with Asparagus entree and a salad called the “Bonnie and Clyde”.  I’ve also included a picture of the “Romeo and Juliet” salad that Don ordered  because it was so pretty.

The exchange rate is $1 to 3.8 pesos, so it was really less than $100 for all 6 of us to eat at this really nice place. It hits home when you realize that dessert was a fancy

chocolate fondue.

.

After dinner, we returned to the hotel. Emily and I ran into our new friend Emmanuel from Nigeria who is also staying here in the hotel with his soccer team. He requested the number for the Taxi service, and for our team so that he can explore the city and get in touch with us more easily about church.

Now we are very tired and need sleep!!!

This morning we were going to try again to go to Tina’s, but it was still raining. We decided to go ahead and at least  see what needed to be done. Tina is a sweet older lady who goes to the church in City Bell, but she lives alone and her home is in need of a great deal of repair. The yard needs to be cleaned up (grass cut, weeds pulled, and trash picked up), her sink is dripping, her back door has the glass broken out of it, the roof is leaking, and probably much more. Hopefully time will allow us or some of us to help her out while we are here.

Tina sent us all home with “belly button” oranges and a banana for Emily. She told us about the meaning of name the orange in Spanish. “belly button” is certainly more comical than the English “naval”!!!

Back at the church, Kurt decided it would be fun to take group shot with our oranges.

We left Tina’s and went back to the church to finish up some repairs and do some deep cleaning. Don got to work scraping off the remaining bits of carpet still clinging to the steps. Ken focused on repairing the windows that wouldn’t seal, and the ladies began sweeping, mopping, and scrubbing the floors and bathrooms.

All clean!

After the cleaning, Ken and the ladies went to Wal-Mart to look for supplies for the children’s classroom. They had purchased a bed that may potentially be used for short term missionaries to sleep on while they stay, but in between will be a place for the kids to use as a couch. We shopped for a sheet set and pillows to make it comfy and inviting. Ken was looking for a table, but still hasn’t found what he’s looking for.

Wal-Mart in Argentina looks the same as in the U.S., but it is not. They carry many things that the US version does not, and there are many things that they are lacking. Mattresses are plentiful, but blankets are not. The have a HUGE selection of mate’, but not much coffee. The cashiers sit down while checking out purchases. We didn’t get to look at the whole place, because it’s still really big!

We had lunch at the church and ordered empanadas. They are delivered in boxes like those that contain pizza in the US. They are yummy! The food has been one of the great things about Argentina!

We went back to the Hogar Betel that evening to work more with the kids. We tried to teach a lesson on Heaven from the CEF materials to about 11 kids, but they were totally wired. They have no manners and were running all over the place We tried to play a game with balloons and we needed to blow them up first. As soon as the kids saw the balloons, they swarmed the table. We needed 12 balloons for the game. We started with 12, but by the time Emily and I were able to get them “all” blown up, 3 of them had been stolen. The kids do not understand the word “No”. The Hogar is a Christian place, but they do not have the staff or the volunteers to give these kids the structure they need. I have taught difficult kids, but I have to say this was the HARDEST teaching situation I have even been in.

We served the kids a snack of Tang and cookies and we noticed that the kids were taking seconds on the snack and stuffing cookies in their pockets. Evelyn observed that they would then trade with each other for other things (including the jump ropes that we had left with them the day before). They barter with anything they can get there hands on. These kids know the Bible, but they don’t know Jesus. They need people that can work with them more than 3 days in the month of September of 2009.

We finished the day with dinner at the “Club Banco Provincia,” the hotel that we are staying at. I had Gnonnchi with a beef and tomato sauce and sprinkles of cheese. Pretty tasty!!