Violins, Friends, and A Kid's Club

I've had a busy day! How about you? Last evening, my sweet friend Angelica from Caracas was here. She's very special to me, having been one of the first little girls in my first Sunday School in Caracas. Now she's preparing to teach Christian music to kids and one of her dreams is to have a Christian children's orchestra. How's that for goals and dreams? Needless to say, I'm very grateful for her and proud of her! She has started a children music club back up that I used to teach when Matt and I were at the Biblia Abierta. She's been waiting to grow up enough to start it back up and she's finally done it! Back when I had the Wednesday evening Bible/music club (called 4C= Club Cristiano de Canto para Chamos), she was the piano player, just getting her start in playing. Now she's one of the main piano players at that church and she's learning violin. She was giving me tips on getting started on my violin too since my teacher wasn't the best. I can now play a little tune =)! My cup is full~it runneth over!

P.E.

As before mentioned in this post, I am a missionary kid. I was fortunate to grow up among several other kids, so we did have a small school. Of course, if you have a school, you have to have P.E. I remember doing any number of things for p.e. My favorite was (by far) volleyball class with Flavio. He was great. I still play volleyball today as taught by dear Flavio. Volleyball might have been my favorite but by far the most memorable was marching class. Yes, you read right...MAR.CHING.CLASS.

This was taught to us by our dear Uncle Dave Surrett, an ex-marine (he never quite got over that). Now, marching is not all that bad in itself. But get a group of kids (I would guess ages 7-15) MARCHING all around the soccer field on the grounds of Lima Bible Institute and you have a laughingstock. (is there such thing as a laughingstock? oh well...you get the drift) My sister and I still get the giggles when we try to imagine WHAT must have been going through the heads of those dear Peruvian seminary students. Crazy...insane...weird. And yes, I guess we were all of the above. I can still hear Uncle Dave barking the order, "Colummmmmn Heleft!"(the he before left was actually like a grunt of some sort). And "column left" we did! It was a hilarious time, worthy of an mk's life!

Good 'Til 2012!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, our family recently went to do "the cola" at the department of immigration. Mostly, things went as we had expected that day. We were done and out of there by 9 a.m. Matt went to pick up our passports today, and we have resident visas good until 2012! So...looks like at least for now, we will be staying. It gives us a little hope at least until the church can get on its feet, etc. I guess the transient visa rumor wasn't true...Tonight is Morgan's final choir concert for the year at the conservatory, so that's what we get to do this evening. Have a good one!

My Trip to the States

I *recently* returned from a 2-week trip to the States. I went along with my mom to spend time with my granny. We had a very RELAXING time. I'm not very used to relaxing, as I have 5 children! My sister and her family were in a nearby state on vacation, so they came over to see us too! That was awesome~I always LOVE seeing my sister. Her kids are so big...time flies, etc. Into the second week, I REALLY missed my family, and couldn't wait to get back here! Mom and I had a great time shopping...I must admit, I don't have problems like my good friend, JM. I have no problem picking out all the things I haven't had or even ever seen before! Trouble was that Mom and I went shopping the day after we got to the States, which meant that we got a whole lot more than we could eat in 2 weeks! Oh well... I was a little apprehensive upon returning here, due to a problem I found in my passport just before I left. No problems upon returning though~I was very excited to see my family and I don't think I want to do that again...leaving my family, that is. Here are some pictures:

My sister and me

My sister's family

Uncle Ken, Aunt Pat, and me (not in that order, obviously!)

My mom and my sister

Bob, Meredith, and Allison

Ben and Granna

Okay...So I'm not Really Back! #2

Ever since I got back, our family has been busy, very busy! This includes a day at the Onidex, the department that deals with visas, passports, etc. We left our house one morning at 3 a.m. to get in the line outside...interesting, to say the least! Imagine that~our family (obviously gringos...SEVEN of us to boot!) standing outside in the dark in *friendly* downtown Caracas! Now we are involved in a 5-day evangelistic campaign in our church...lots of blessing though. AND last night, Matt picked up a 5-person group from our home church in KC. So...I might not be on here very much again for a few days. I miss you guys and gals! Pictures coming soon...Tocaya!

Okay...So I'm not Really Back!

Sorry, guys! As soon as I got back to Venezuela, we were (still are) in the midst of an evangelistic campaign. Things have been BUSY! Also, Matt is this very minute picking up a group from our home church who will be here for a week....So, I guess I won't really be back for a while! Waaaahhhh...I miss all of you!

I'M BAAAACK!!!!

I don't have astronomical amounts of time, but I do want all of you (okay, all two of you!) to know that I'm back! If you really must know, I travelled with my mom to visit my granny for two weeks. We had some precious times together, and I also got to see two aunts, two uncles, MY SISTER!!!!! and her awesome family. There was no access to internet there, but I survived! So, to my dear blogging friend and Caraqueña, Liz, ¡ya no estás sola, amiga! Regresé a este bello país a pesar de tu ya sabes quien! See you around, everybody!