Adios Chile

The suitcases are packed, stuffed full of all kinds of things we've accumulated these past 6 weeks.  We didn't feel like we were getting that much stuff to bring back with us, but it adds up apparently.  Good thing Greg is the master packer!  There was a spousal moment where Greg thought I had laid out all the clothes I needed to travel home, and I thought I would do that after an outing with the boys.  When I got back all the bags were packed - spousal moment, sorry honey!

I took the kids out for awhile this morning because they are bouncing off the walls with excitement to travel.  Honestly, I would have thought my kids would be the last kids that would be good travelers.  But they have done so well.  While I was doing work e-mail this morning Greg had gathered together extra food, shampoo and other things.  The boys and I brought this to our friend Liz's house (our friends here that have an urban youth ministry at skate parks - I wrote about them a few days ago, see here).

What we didn't realize as we were walking down the street was that we narrowly missed a street protest about education.  It's a long story, but high school and college students here are on strike.  Most protests have been peaceful, but a number have gotten violent.  When students start throwing rocks or get violent in some way, the police come in with tear gas and other stuff.  Liz and her boys got caught in a protest one time, just walking down the street, and before they could get out of the situation they were all coughing, gasping and had big, puffy, swollen eyes for the rest of the day.  Habakkuk got caught in a protest once at one of their skate parks, and it was so bad that they started vomiting/etc.  Whew!  So we walked by where the street protest was today just 2-3 min. before it happened.

On the way back from Liz's we got our last empanadas and sopapias from the bakery around the corner.  We are determined to figure out how to make these once we get back from Chile.

Our flight looks like it's supposed to depart on time, though it is in the midst of another international route and appears to be one hour behind.  Ahhh, an hour...not bad.

It's a mix of emotions for us today.  We're sad to be leaving Chile, but happy to be going home.  I'll write more when we get home tomorrow.  Thanks for reading!

Top Three Things We've Learned in Chile

Dear Tooth Fairy,

I know we are in Chile and you probably speak Spanish, but I don't know how to speak too much Spanish yet. Here is my tooth, I hope you like it and will leave it for me.

Love,

Wil

Today was our last day in Chile.  This morning we went to church and got to hear our friend Habakkuk and his band rock out and lead some great worship time.  We got to say goodbye to people there that have been so kind to us while here.  The boys especially loved VBS at this church, "the best ever," they said.  This afternoon the boys wanted to ride the subway one last time.  This is one of the things about Chile they'll really miss, although they said of course they would miss the girls at Casa Esperanza and Hogar the most.

Yesterday our friend Willie at Casa Esperanza gave us the most incredible gift.  Look at this!!  He hand carved it for us.  We are going to find a very special place for this in our home (let us know if you have any ideas)!!

Tonight we saw our last sunset in Chile.  We spent dinner talking about all the things we have learned in Chile.  Here are the top three things we learned:

1) With God, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26 and others) - It seemed crazy to think that we could drag four kids half way across the world to a country where we knew no one, didn't speak the language, wouldn't have a car and would wash clothes and dishes by hand.  Yet, we not only survived but thrived here and learned so many things from so many people.  Noah, Griff, Wil and Dylan showed so much resilience while here, again showing that with God all things are possible.  They knew we were here to serve, and they rarely complained.  In fact, they were the ones saying, "Come on, let's hurry so we can get to La Pintana today!"  Then there are the girls at Hogar and Casa Esperanza.  These girls have been hurt so badly by so many people.  Yet, they truly have joy and an incredible hope and future (Jeremiah 29:11).  This is the next thing we learned.

2) It is the love of God that heals (1 John 4:8b) - The girls in Casa Esperanza gave us their love so freely and completely.  The Bible says God is love.  It is not God's power that heals, it's His love.  God loves us so much that He sent Jesus so that we could have victory, live life to the fullest (John 10:10) and be healed (Psalm 107:20).  Not all the girls in La Pintana have read the Bible from cover to cover.  But they have encountered God, usually through another person that extended love to them.  When they encountered God their joy was restored.  Wow!

3) Give and it will come back to you (Luke 6:38) - We came to Chile to serve, but the more we gave the more we received.  We didn't come here wanting to receive anything - we just wanted to give.  But we have been way more blessed by our friends here in Nunoa and La Pintana than we could have imagined possible.  Sometimes it was almost hard to be blessed so much because we worried we weren't serving well enough.  Then we found this verse and realized - this is the way God works.  When you give, it will come back to you.

We can't thank you all enough for reading our blog and supporting us through encouragement and prayer!  You've been incredible!  I'll write some more again tomorrow before we head to the airport.

Our Family in La Pintana

Look at these incredible, beautiful women of God!  These are the eight girls of Casa Esperanza, whom we view as our eight new daughters.  We have learned so much from them while here in Santiago, and at their home in La Pintana.  These incredible young women have beaten the odds and are graduating from high school and attending university rather than ending up on the street, like most of the girls their age in La Pintana.

They have taught us that it is God's love that heals, and that the greatest of these is love.  They have loved us unconditionally and embraced us as their family these past 6 weeks.  They have such an incredible hope and future with Jesus on their side.  They are guaranteed victory because of Him.  Casa Esperanza ninas, tu eres muy, muy esepecial!!  (I just told the girls at Casa, who are now my Facebook friends too, that they are very special!)

Saying goodbye to the girls at Hogar and Casa Esperanza today was hard, but yet joyful at the same time.  We have been so blessed to be around them and to be loved by them.  These girls have had horrible and unspeakable things happen to them from their fathers, brothers, uncles and others - and yet they have joy, and they give love quickly and easily, without finding fault.  This amazes us!

We started the day out by thanking God that it wasn't raining today.  It was supposed to be raining all night and into the day, which would mean a tough time navigating flooded streets in La Pintana.  But even though it was cloudy it didn't rain...until about 15 min. after we got home tonight!

We went to La Pintana first thing, and played with the girls at Hogar.  Hey Wilson side of the family - does this look like Addie or what?  Her name is Estrella, which means Star, and she is a bright star that's for sure.  She loved taking this picture with me.  Dylan was in one of his moods, and a few girls spent a good deal of time trying to get him to stop crying.  They even brought a puppy over for him to hold, thinking he would not be able to resist that.  These girls are so sweet!

Saying goodbye before we left to go to Casa Esperanza one last time was hard.  It took us at least 15 min. to give hugs and kisses, and then more hugs and kisses.  They kept saying, don't go, don't go.  They even jokingly grabbed Noah, Griff and Wil and started diverting them back into Hogar so we would not go.  We told them we would be back, hopefully within a year.

We walked down the street to Casa Eserpanza to have an "all house" lunch.  It is not that often that all eight girls are at Casa Esperanza at the same time, because they are all off at classes in different schools.  But today they were all there, and we got to share a special afternoon with them.  We had some leftovers from the lunch we made yesterday, plus some very special soup and pie.  It was so fun to get to spend one of our last days here with the girls like this.  They are so special!  Here is a picture with us and our sponsored girl, Damarise.  She was so excited to have her first sponsor, and we hugged each other and held hands for a long time today.  She is very special!

Tonight Wilson rescued me from ketchup.  As many of you know, I like most foods, but not ketchup.  Wil had finished dessert tonight and there were some big clumps of maujar on his plate (which is like caramel).  I thought that all the clumps on his plate were maujar, but in fact some were ketchup.  Since we ate by candle light I didn't notice the difference.  Anyway, I scooped up what I thought was maujar with my finger, and Wil said, "No!  Mom!  Be careful!  You are about to eat ketchup!"  Noah and Griff thought Wil should have let me eat it, but Wil said, "Oh no, Mom does not like it and I wanted to protect her."  Awwww!

This morning I was attacked by some Rottweiler muts on the street.  I had just finished running, and these two dogs were suddenly surrounding me.  They both moved in on me, barking and showing their teeth.  I thought to myself, "Surely there must be someone that looks better to eat than me!"  I started singing a praise song, and yelling at them, "NO!"  I was finally able to get to the gate of our apartment and back into the building safely.  God has protected us from a lot of things on this trip:  earthquakes, a shooting at one of the train stations (6 people dead), rough streets in La Pintana and even two very hungry, angry dogs.  Thank you Lord!

Thanks for reading our blog!  Love you all and miss you!

Here is one last picture of Casa Esperanza, as the girls waved goodbye once we got outside the fence and started walking to the bus stop.  Our heart is here with them!

Bedridden Woman Comes to La Pintana and Dances!

Just when we've thought we'd had our best day in Chile ever, another incredible day came along.  We thought today would be our last day at Casa Esperanza, but it won't be after all.  Here's what we did today.

We made an American meal for our friends at Casa Esperanza.  In Chile their big meal is in the afternoon, anytime between 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.  They eat a very light breakfast and have tea before dinner, so lunch is an especially big meal even by American standards.  We made sloppy joes (four pounds of beef and all the ingredients) and mac and cheese (four huge bags of pasta and I'm not even sure how much cheese).

One of the funniest parts of the day for us was trying to get all this food into La Pintana.  We packed two soccer backpacks (which are very large!) FULL of food.  We also had each of the boys carry a bag full of rolls/buns.  And the cake was in yet a separate bag.  Greg's pack was so heavy I could hardly lift it.  Mine felt heavy to me but wasn't nearly as much so as his.  By the time we got to La Pintana I had to eat a snack because of hauling all the stuff there.  But what fun it was to make the food and watch our friends eat it.

We hope this made them feel special - it seemed like it did.  Patti told us so many times how nice it was for someone else to cook for her (she cooks everyday for about 20 people).  Patti still cooked today though - she made us some homemade bread!  It was as good as it looks!

Three of the other girls said they liked the sloppy joes.  The mac n cheese was ok, and they ate a lot of it, but the sloppy joes were a bigger hit.  One girl ate her sloppy joe, but she said it was too spicy for her.  We made the sloppy joes with a aji (which is a spicy yellow chili) sauce instead of the chili sauce that we usually use at home (they don't have it here).  It wasn't too spicy for me, so that tells you something.  Noah is reading as I am writing and he says, "It was a little spicy for me."  Anyway, it was a lot of fun.  We brought a cake too, and most of us felt like we ate too much by the time we were done with that.

Funny story about the cake.  Patti asked Greg if she could set the cake out at lunch, and Greg said no we should leave it in the fridge.  Patti is such a kind person that she shrugged her shoulders and put it back in the fridge.  Apparently in Chile you should set the dessert out at the meal time so that they know how much to eat.  When we got the cake out of the fridge after lunch, they all said, "Oh no, we didn't save enough room!"  So now we know...set the dessert out at mealtime so people know how much to eat.

Our biggest news of the day is that another person from the church in La Pintana was healed!  Two weeks ago we had the opportunity to pray for people at the church that's right next door to Casa Esperanza.  We prayed for many sick people, and about half of them came up to us after the service and told us they were healed.  We heard another incredible story today.  We prayed for a woman that was not at the service.  She wasn't there because she has been so ill for so long that she could not get out of her bed.  This woman is healed!  She came to church last Sunday not only walking, but dancing and thanking God for being healed!!  Praise the Lord!  We were so excited to hear about this.

Tomorrow we go to Hogar and have a party there from 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.  We'll bring balloons and start playing loud music and dancing to it - hopefully that will get the girls to crawl out of bed (they sleep very late on the weekends!) to come and hang out with us.  Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa, we also have lots of candy we can bring to share with them - like the Halloween candy type.  They love sweets here, so the girls will be thrilled.  Then we get to go to Casa Esperanza again.  They are having a special Saturday afternoon together, and invited us to come have lunch with them as part of it.  We'll also get to meet the girl we have sponsored, Damaris.  We met her one of the first days we were in Santiago, but we had not yet sponsored a girl at that time.  She was on winter break, and since winter break we have been at Casa while she has been at class.  Anyway, we are very excited to get to talk to her more and take pictures with her.  We'll also get to love on all the girls, who are so very special, one more time!

Some of you have told us that you've been touched by how God has moved so powerfully here and Chile and how so many people have been healed.  It is God's will that His people be well - that's one of the reasons Jesus came.  Let us know if we can pray for you.  We love to pray for people!

Thanks for reading our blog today!  Hope you have a great weekend.

The Biggest Monster Burger Ever

Thanks for reading our blog.  You have all been so supportive while we've been gone.  I hope you know how important this has been for us.  You have been such an important part of the work we have been able to do here, and the things we have learned.  Thank you!

We got mail!  Zach and Josh wrote us a letter and we received it today.  The boys were thrilled about this and we have read the letters over and over again.  (In case you're wondering, Dylan isn't in some of these pictures because he doesn't want to jump in when we're taking them.  When he puts the stubborn "look" on, we just take the picture without him.)

Check out these letters!  Aren't they awesome?!  Thanks Zachary and Josh!

Today we got to meet with Marco one last time while here in Chile (he is the head of ProVision, a sending missionary organization here in Chile).  Marco has been such a good friend to us while here.  We have learned so much from him, and he was also the one that encouraged us to attend church while here - which has been one of our favorite experiences while being here.  Today we got to learn more about how God is moving in Marco's life, and we got to share with him the things that we have learned while here in his country.

The boys wanted to take me to show me the fort they climbed up the other day (Cerro Santa Lucia).  So after we met Marco we went and did this.  Very fun!

Tomorrow we are having a party for the people at Casa Esperanza (where the older girls are).  We are going to make an American meal for them.  Lunch is the big meal of the day here in Chile, and it usually involves quite a bit of food.  So we are making mac and cheese from scratch, as they don't have the instant stuff here.  We will also make sloppy joes (the Chileans love meat).  Greg went to the grocery store and got all the stuff we need to make the lunch, as we'll need to pack it in and carry it with us tomorrow when we go into La Pintana.

Some of you have expressed concerns about me making a party lunch for our friends here in La Pintana, and understandably so given certain incidences in the past that involve fire alarms and other such things.  You will be happy to know that Greg has since decided that he should be the leading officer in charge of this party lunch tomorrow.  The rest of us will take orders as we make the meal, and happily wash dishes once it is done.  Please pray that the girls and leaders of Casa Esperanza feel blessed by this.  Tomorrow is our last day at Casa Esperanza!  I can't even "go there," if you know what I mean (I will just have to see "see you later," not "good bye").

Tonight we got to have dinner with Liz and Habakkuk, and their friend John.  Their son Matti has been such a good friend to Dylan at VBS last week, and today came running out to greet us yelling, "Dylan, my friend!"  Liz is American, and Habakkuk is Chilean.  They are missionaries here in Santiago, reaching out to urban youth.  Their mission field is at the city's skate parks, and tonight we got to hear some great stories about how God is working through them to show the love of Jesus to people that would never just 'walk into a church.'  So Liz and Habakkuk bring Jesus to them.  Really amazing family.  Click here to read more about how they're changing the world one life at a time (the article starts on page 3, really awesome).

They took us to have some traditional Chilean food.  Check out this monster burger!!  It's called a llomito, and it translates to "poor boy sandwich" (or that's what my understanding is).  It was pork and was made "italiano" style, which included tomato, avocado, lettuce and mayo.  I couldn't finish the whole thing, but Greg did!  He said, "I didn't need to finish it and probably shouldn't have, but I was enjoying it..."

Griff wasn't in the mood to be that adventurous with food, so he had an empanada.  But Noah and Griff had a llomito as well, and Dylan had a completo (which is a big hot dog with the same types of toppings).  What a fun night!  Such a treat to try different types of Chilean food and spend time with such incredible people.

Thanks for reading our blog.  Thanks also for your prayers and support - we can't begin to explain how much it's meant to us!

Our Life Mission as a Family

Today was a Casa Esperanza day for Greg and the boys while I had one last day of work here in Chile.  Greg found some really cute hats at the subway station in La Pintana, and the boys were chilly and wanted to wear them on the subway back to our apartment.  On the ride home, people on the metro were very excited to see how excited we are about being in Chile (shown by the boys wearing the hats). All the girls at Hogar do the "peace" sign like Griffy is doing in the picture, and the boys have picked up on it.  Well, we think it's the peace sign (but then again, I couldn't explain to the bus driver that we needed to leave in 5-10 min., not 5:10 p.m., so who knows what it really means).

Greg finished some taping in the guest house while the boys picked up more rocks.  There were some big rocks that were causing problems at the entrance of Casa Esperanza.  They also received some trees from a neighbor, and so the boys piled some of the rocks up in circles around the tree to create a sort of perimeter.

After finishing that project up they went inside where two of the older girls were happy to give them some attention.  The usual adults at Casa were not there today for various reasons.  But it was interesting, because the girls almost seemed more anxious to talk to Greg and the boys today.  The girls know a tiny bit of English, and we know a tiny bit of Spanish.  If both parties are patient with each other and speak slowly, you can usually mainly understand what the other person is saying.  So they talked quite a bit.  The girls taught them some Spanish, and they taught the girls some English.  It was really fun.  Greg and the boys helped clean up after lunch.  When it was time to go, the girls said, "No!  Tio!  No!"  They didn't want the guys to leave, which was so cute and made the guys feel really special.

Tonight at dinner we talked about our family life verse (Isaiah 61:1-2).  Greg and I continue to be amazed at the boys' resilience here in Chile.  Unlike at home, where a slight discomfort can start the whining machine up, here the boys just seem to know we are here on a mission.  The other day, for example, they sat through a 90 min. church service that was in Spanish.  Then they waited until 2 1/2 hours for lunch, which ended up being at 4:00 p.m.  They did not whine!  They are really something, and we are inspired by them. If they can do it, we better do it!  Anyway, tonight at dinner we talked about how we always want to find ways to make people feel special and love people like Jesus loves us, wherever we go and whatever we are doing.  That's our life mission as a family.

Prayer requests for today are that the girls would feel very loved and special on Friday when we make lunch at Casa Esperanza.  I may be the one cooking, so please pray that I do not cause any fire hazards either!  We're going to make mac n cheese from scratch, as they do not have that type of food here.  We're also going to make sloppy joes, which is also not something they really have here.  The Chileans need to have meat at every meal, so that's why we'll make sloppy joes too.

Also please pray that we have a nice party for the girls at Hogar on Saturday.  It's supposed to rain, but there is an overhang at Hogar - almost like a barn ceiling without sides.  We're going to bring balloons and decorate the area with those (probably just by blowing them up and laying them around on the floor).  We're also going to bring some music and start playing it loud while we dance to it (to get the girls to come outside on a rainy day).  And we'll bring some treats, too (candy, etc.).

Hard to believe that it's just a few more days now before we head home.  We do not look forward to the day that we have to tell the girls, "No, we are not coming tomorrow, or next week..."

Thanks for reading!  And thanks for your prayers!

Good Job, Mom (Not! Thank Goodness for Dad!)

We've been looking forward to today since the day we arrived in Chile.  We went up into the mountains.

The mountains of Chile are spectacular.  The Andes are the longest mountain range in the world, running more than 4,000 miles from the northern part of South America in Venezuela all the way south through Chile.  While Santiago looks much like Denver in terms of being a city in the valley at the foot of the mountains, the Andes rise much more abruptly than the Rockies do outside of Denver.  The ski season is in full swing here because it's winter, but is only about 3 months long compared to almost 6 months in Colorado.

We went to Farellones today, ironically at the base of Cerro Colorado!  This is the closest ski area to Santiago and you can see a picture of it to the right.  The road that goes up into the mountains from Santiago is a lot different from I-70!  It is at best a 1 1/2 lane road that has two lane traffic on it.  For two cars to get by, one car has to stop and the other has to go by very slowly.

There are 40 switchbacks to get up to Farellones and Cerro Colorado.  And they are tight and steep!  The police require that every vehicle that goes up have chains, because when it snows it is almost impossible to get up these steep switchbacks.  We saw a small fuel truck that got stuck and was waiting for a toe truck to pull it out of the middle of the switchback.  We also saw a car that went over the side of the road and fell about 30 feet down.  We couldn't tell, but it seemed like the people were ok (it happened a bit of time before we got there).

When we got up to Cerro Colorado we discovered that it had mostly green runs, and a few blues and reds (we're not sure what red is) - maybe 2-3 blacks.  The peak was just below 11,000 feet.  We thought about renting skis, but we just didn't have the right gear with us to ski.

We had told the driver of our van (which was cheaper than the 6 of us taking the bus up actually), who spoke mostly Spanish, that we wanted to leave at about 2:00 p.m.  When 2:00 p.m. came and we were finishing up some ice cream (it was a hot day today, probably 50 F or more), I thought it would be polite to tell the driver it would just be 5-10 more minutes before we were ready to go back to Santiago.  The kids were done, and we had a great time, so as you know that's a good time to leave.  The driver said all kinds of words in Spanish that I didn't understand, but he was so nice I just smiled and said "si" (yes).  We could see the driver and van from where we were sitting and eating ice cream, and we noticed that he locked the van up and started walking back up to the mountain.  We were puzzled by this because we thought we would be leaving in 5-10 min.  As he walked by us I put five fingers up and said, "Cinco minutes (5 minutes)," and he smiled and said something I again didn't understand.

Greg said, "Honey, I think he's saying he'll be back at 4:30 p.m. to pick us up.  He thought you wanted to leave at 5:10 p.m., not in 5-10 minutes, and he said 4:30 p.m. would be much better."  Eeek!  The kids would not last for another 90 min.  So of course I did what any wife would do.  Me:  "Honey, do something!  Go tell him we're ready to leave."  So, thank goodness for Dad or we would have been at Cerro Colorado for much longer than the kids could have handled.

One of the things that surprised us the most about our trip up into the mountains was how many cactus are in the mountains.  The picture to the right here shows what many of them look like.  These went up to what we would guess was at least 7,000-8,000 feet in elevation.

Tomorrow Greg and the boys go to Casa Esperanza to work on the guest house and love on the girls.  In the meantime, Griff and Noah wanted to show you the progress they are making on crossing their eyes.