Christmas cookies

The kids all pitched in to help us decorate Christmas cookies.
Most of the icing actually made it onto the cookies!

Christmas

Well, we survived Christmas Eve! Folks arrived around 8pm and we ended up eating around 10:30. I think only one of them had ever had roast turkey before so there was quite a bit of anticipation.

We set the table, shared Luke 2, asked the blessing and then it was time to dig in!

It was like one of those gruesome scenes right out of Discovery Channel. You know the one where the small animal falls into piraña infested water? Oh the humanity! Just kidding.

We really did enjoy an excellent meal had great fellowship and ended opening presents at midnight.

Cleaned up a bit and finally got to bed around 2am.

Check engine

A few days ago the check engine light came on.  And stayed on.  Uh, oh.  I checked all the fluids that could be checked and all was well.  Not good.  Getting a 4Runner serviced here is, to put it mildly, a challenge.  I got on line and everyone said to take it to a shop to have the code read.  While someone Might have a code reader in the region I have no idea who and the nearest shop that did would be an hour from home.  Of the thousands of possible reasons the light could come on the most frequent is the MAS.  Now I had to research what a MAS in a Toyota is.  Mass Airflow Sensor turns out.  I followed the instructions to clean it, removing various parts to get to it, sprayed it with contact cleaner (only $8 a can here in town), disconnected the battery to reset the light and...IT WORKED!!  Needless to say we're pretty happy.

Annual car inspection

Well it was time to do the annual car inspection yesterday. We left Aysen around 8:30 and made it to the only car inspection facility in the region around 9:30. Waited in line, paid the $40 and waited the 30 minutes as they ever so slowly did the few tests. Efficiency isn't one of the strong points here. Finally they tell us the car failed. Seems it wasn't aligned close enough. Went to the tire place they said they could see me late afternoon. Good news is I saw the boss who remembered I bought $1000 worth of tires a few months ago and they squeezed me in next. Got the car aligned 30 min and $24) and headed back. Waited in line, went inside, waited another 30 min. Car passed, that will be $10 more for the second inspection. While I was waiting I noticed EVERY OTHER CUSTOMER FAILED the inspection at least once. Hmmm. I detect a strong odor of fish.

We arrived home late afternoon.

Late November we had our 4th District Convention. Not everyone could make it but we still had a good turnout and had a great time! Renato Silva (ex national president of A/G) and 2 other pastors came down and shared with us. Thank you so much for praying for this work at the end of the earth!

Tedeum

It's called Tedeum. What it is is a thanksgiving service celebrated around Chilean independence day. All the community leaders and churches are invited. Usually kind of a big deal.

This year I was asked to be the speaker for the Tedeum for Puerto Aysen. I felt pretty honored to be the speaker, especially being a foreigner. I asked our friends to pray that the Lord would give me His message to the community and went to work preparing the message.

Sunday Sep. 13 came and the church ended up packed with a good number of people having to stand. All of the community leaders showed up including the police chief, mayor, and governor. We even had the official police band!

The Lord really helped me share a message on how to be truly free and I was able to work in an illustration from Chilean traditions to give them something to associate the message with.

At the end many people commented how much they appreciated the message including the leaders. One ex naval official told me how much he appreciated it as well. He went on to say that in all the years he's attended these Tedeum's he had never heard a salvation message preached!

I really want to give thanks to our Lord for His anointing and for the prayers of so many friends. Thanks also for your many kind words and comments!

Flour

Rhonda likes to make bread, especially whole wheat bread. When we left last year we could get it in 3 kilo bags but when we returned nada. No one carried it anymore. Someone at the store decided no one wants it anymore and that was that. Actually that kind of thing happens suprinsingly often. Anyway, after at least a month of searching I finally managed to get some. The only available in the region as a matter of fact. So now we have a 50 kilo (110 lb) sack of flour in the laundry room. We are trying to guess how many months it will last.

Cisnes

We returned from Puerto Cisnes yesterday. We left Saturday near noon and drove the 112 miles in 3.5 hours. Rained the whole day, which isn't unusual this time of the year. Sunday we met with some of the folks and shared with them how much will be decided in this (in comparison to the scope of eternity) tiny span of our life.

We saw again how much we need a couple to come live in Cisnes to pastor that new church.

We returned Monday morning again taking some 3.5 hours.

I would guess that 2/3 of the route is now paved and it's a great drive. But that other 1/3 is pretty rough. Today we are pretty sore and trying to recouperate so I can preach on Sunday here in Aysen.

Repair work

Just before we came back to Chile I broke down and bought a riding lawnmower. It's nice, new, but it didn't work. Something didn't get adjusted right at the factory and I couldn't start it. It flooded almost immediately. That's the danger of buying stuff and not being able to try it out before you ship it. Anyway, yesterday I went and got the local small engine mechanic and we messed around with it for a couple hours. He finally figured out the problem and the best way to fix it. So now, I put the choke on, turn the starter, and pull a string. That's right, my shiny new mower has a string running up to the wheel that I pull to do something or other so the thing will start. Oh well, I guess that's life on the mission field. I gave the mechanic a set of screwdrivers for his trouble. He thought I gave him too much but said he'll make it up on the next job.

Watch for falling rocks

This rock had fallen on the road and had been shoved to the side by a bulldozer. They put the danger tape on it so folks would be sure to see it. Good thing because if you ran over a rock this size you would probably dent the oil pan or something.

Puerto Cisnes 7-8-09

Tuesday we made our first trip to Puerto Cisnes since we’ve been back. We left at 11:30, got gas and met Pastor Victor at the turnoff. We made good time as more and more of this part of the Austral Highway is being paved. We made good time till the Cisnes turnoff that is. The road was closed till 2:00 due to road work. We waited the 10 minutes and then continued on. The next 15 miles took an hour and we arrived at Puerto Cisnes at about 2:30. We ate a greasy lunch at a restaurant and went to check out the house. It had been some months since anyone had been there so we didn’t know what to expect. The house wasn’t in all that bad a shape as someone has been taking care of it. The stovepipe cap had blown off in a storm so there was quite a bit of rainwater in the wood stove but other than that we were quite pleased. There was almost no firewood so our chores were: find stovepipe cap, buy firewood, pay electric and water bills.
Found firewood pretty easily though it’s very expensive, $50 for a meter. 3 meters = 1 cord. The average person makes under $500 a month so imagine what burning 3-4 meters a month would do to your budget. The bills were tougher as most places to pay were closed or the line was down. I’ll try to pay when I get back to Aysén. The stovepipe was typical: “no we don’t have those but so & so does.” Then I get directions to go down the road to where the bridge washed out and look for a blue house. Go behind the house and holler till the guy comes out. He usually has stovepipe caps. We did all that and bought a cap for only twice as much as they sell them for in Coyahique.
Later we went around to tell some contacts about the service that night. We found several and they said they’d come.
5 people end up coming that evening, not bad for this area considering it had been months since they had last met. The people asked Rhonda and I to return and we said we’d try for the 19th, a week and a half later.
Rhonda and I slept on air mattresses downstairs and Victor in the bed upstairs. We kept the fire going all night but I still woke up shivering at 5:30. Air mattress may be the most comfortable but it also transmits the most cold. Maybe next time we can insulate between the mattress and sleeping bag. We manage to get on the road at 9:00 so we can get through the construction area before they close at 10. We just made it and got home in early afternoon.

Bridge painting

They finally decided to fix our bridge after the big earthquake 2 years ago. They're almost done and are now painting it a rather bright highway department orange. Be rather hard to miss as they even paint the guardrails that color.

As only one lane is open we have to stop while the other goes. The other day I was first in line, they were spray painting, it was windy...

Now our car is dark green with a light eyesore orange overtone.

I scraped it off the windshield with a razor blade and need to figure out how to do the rest.

Prices

One of the things we have to adapt to everytime we change countries are the prices.
This time when we returned here to Patagonia we have noticed several big differences.
Gasoline was down from when we left. It's now only $3.90 (US) a gallon. Much better then the $5.00 when we left.
Motor oil is another story though, at the gas station it's around $10 a quart. Ouch.
I'm so glad we got several cases to put in our container when they were on sale!
Lean hamburger is around $6 a kilo ($3 a pound) and milk a dollar a quart. We can only get UHT milk in 1 qt boxes. UHT means Ultra High Temperature where they take regular milk zap it with 4oo degrees for a few seconds then box it up. It does change the taste some but we get used to it. The good news is we can keep a box unrefrigerated for a couple months. Once opened it's like regular milk and you put it in the fridge.

Masias

Masías is one of those special people that seem to be in a lot of towns. He’s very slightly challenged, no teeth, he thinks he’s a little over 70 years old, lives on a small pension, hard worker, heart of gold. He’s almost impossible for me to understand. To be honest I get only about half of what he says and try to piece together what he’s saying from those clues.
He always wears the same clothes and always wears an old wool suit jacket. I gave him a parka once, never seen him wear it. He walks everywhere and Never looks around. You’ll see him walking (he walks rather fast), slightly bent over, and watching the ground about 6 feet in front of him. You can honk or wave all you want but you’ll be wasting your time.
He’s very faithful to church and always gives in special offerings. We all know he doesn’t have much but that doesn’t matter to Masías. He loves to give.
One other thing Masías loves to do is share a testimony in church. You can just about count on him getting up and sharing. Sunday was no exception. Usually when Masías gets up most folks get a small smile. Folks here seem pretty tolerant of folks like Masías. Pastor even smiled and quietly said to me at least you’ll know what he’s saying since he always shares the same thing. Then to everyone’s surprise he started giving thanks to the Lord for bringing Rhonda and I back. He said we’d been gone too long and how happy he was that we’d returned.
A few years ago he started coming by the house looking for some odd jobs. He needed a little extra to get to the end of the month so we started finding some stuff for him to do. What he likes and does the most is split fire wood. Monday he showed up again and went right to the wood shed. He chopped quite a pile before he was finished and left happy promising to return in a few days.

International bread

Most of our supplies here come by ship. A lot of our food as well.

Rhonda made a loaf of bread the other day and we got to looking at where the ingredients came from:
Salt: Chile
Flour: Argentina
Butter: Ireland
Yeast: China

I guess that makes it a loaf of international bread.

May 30

Since we have no food in the house we head to the supermarket. Looks like our town of 12,000 is now down to one and a half supermarkets. We used to have 3 decent ones, one closed and one is on it's last legs.

As we walk in one of the security guards exclaims and hugs me. It's Carlos and he brings us up to date on whats been happening in his life. As we're talking Masias walks by. He doesn't wave. But then Masias never waves, more about him later.

We're looking at something when I feel someones arms around my waist. I look down and see Ricardo hugging me. He and his wife bring us up to date. We see and greet a few more people all who act very glad to see us and we realise that we are really home.

May 29

We head to the airport and find that Balmaceda is open.

It's -4 (centigrade) when we arrive. Apparently it was a freezing fog yesterday. Everything is coated with a thick layer of frost.

We wait an hour for our bags to be unloaded. I have no idea why, there is only one plane (ours) and it's not more than 50 yards from us to the plane.

All the transfer vans are full. Everyone had reservations so looks like we'll be stuck till the next flight comes in (in the afternoon) and see if anyone has 2 openings then.

A van driver finally comes up to me and says he had 2 no-shows. We load our 9 pieces of luggage and pile in for the 2.5 hour ride home.

We finally arrive at our house around 4pm. Almost exactly 48 hours since we left Springfield, MO.

The gate is open so we head on back to the house. We note that there had been wind damage as a lot of our trees have broken limbs. House is in fine shape inside and the van driver even helps me bring the trunks inside.

Someone has been in our house.
On the kitchen table is a bottle of coke, sugar cubes, tea, and potato chips along with a note welcoming us home!

We scarf the chips and coke.

I turn the water back on then run around trying to find all the faucets I left open.

I manage to finally get all the padlocks open, I only had to cut 2 of them off with a grinder. And connect the propane back up.

I connect the battery to the car, air up one of the tires, take if off the blocks. It fires right up! It does, however, smell horrible inside. There has, in the past, been water inside. Rain from our feet, snow, once even a river flowed through it. No kidding. I guess being closed up for 14 months allowed all kinds of goodies to grow.

It's good to be home

May 28

We were able to lay down a little on the flight. The planes usually aren't too full on Wednesdays so we each grabbed an empty row and were able to curl up and sleep a little.

Arrived in Santiago 7am local (Atlantic time), customs was no problem we declared a stick of Pepperoni which caused some interest but they let it come in.

We waited till 1:00 for our flight and they informed us the flight would probably be cancelled due to fog in Balmaceda. They advised everyone to go home as the airline didn't provide any help for weather caused delays or cancellations. They finally gave folks an option of going as far as Puerto Montt and see if the weather had cleared in Balmaceda. We elect to go on as we have no where to stay in Santiago anyway.

In Puerto Montt we wait around a while and finally they tell us the flight is cancelled.
However they do surprise those of us who tried to make it with the information that they will put us up for the night.

We all load on a nice bus and head for town. We end up at the new Holiday Inn which is attached to the mall. It overlooks the bay and our room has an incredible view. How nice!

We ate in the mall and crashed.

May 27

Wow, what a month!

April 22: Through our Kansas family we received a miracle in our finances. In a few minutes we went from needing another year at least to raise our budget to having it all raised!
We were and still are overwhelmed by this. It also meant quite a shift in gears.

So in a few days we went from scheduling services and itineration mode to get all the stuff we can think of for the next 4 years mode.

The next month was spent in a frenzy of planning, shopping, and packing.

The MasterCard people really like us.

May 21 the container arrived and we started loading it. They picked it up on the 26th and today we head to the airport.
Our flight to Chile leaves at 5:30 pm.