I am going to try a diary/journal for a while to see if it works better for me. It seems like every day turns out different than what I thought, so maybe more frequent updates will work.

On July 4th, Matt hung from our balcony the old US flag from great-Grampa Robert, so it only had 48 stars on it. No matter, the neighbor boy’s dad took a picture of his kids under it!!! I guess how often would you have a huge US flag hanging in your neighborhood in Colombia??!! We couldn’t find any fireworks to go with it, but I guess they sell them around July 20 for the Colombian independence day.

Tues. July 7/2009 “Thy words were found and I did eat them: and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts.” Jer. 15:16
Last week, we had two boys, brothers, over to play with Matt, the one has a cast on his arm from falling out of a tree, and so we couldn’t go swimming with them. They will probably come again this week. It is just harder to find things for them to do if they can’t go swimming. This week is their last week of 3 weeks off for their winter break.

Wed July 8/09 “The king (Jehoiakim) sat…and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him…when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words…(3 men) made intercession to the king that he would not burn the roll: but he would no hear them.” Jer. 36:22-5 When I was reading this, it just amazed me, thinking, what audacity!! But do I maybe sometimes not really want to listen to this or that verse, and in my mind, sort of cross it out??
This week the electricity went out a lot, almost every evening for several hours and often during the day. I ran out of candles it was off so long. This also means the water goes out except the one bathroom, which is supplied by the tank outside, which refills when the water is on. So we do have some water, just have to fill buckets from the bathroom….


Thurs July 9/09 “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.” Jer.17:7-8 I love these types of encouraging verses, sort of like poetry, but better!
It seems like “you never know what a day may bring forth” (a frequent quote of my mom’s) down here.
Woke up at 5 or so, listening to the rat crawling up and down in the wall beside me. Hmmm, one more rat has found my kitchen, and new evidence in the morning of eating my bananas and also some rat poison, but not enough to kill him yet. That will have to wait for 3-5 days. So… do I go to the vet store and buy the really strong stuff, where they die almost immediately, or do I put up with the rascal, having to clean up after his garbage mess for 5 days? Well today, I decide to buy the strong stuff. So when I go downtown, I will have on my list, vet store, and the bank - to stand in line for 1 hour to pay for the box coming into the post office from the US - they charge to get it from Bogota to here, as it is an extra charge-grrrr….but this time it is only $5.00 US, so not bad.
(PS- later, the next night I heard something in the wall (like a rat?!), having difficulty getting up the wall and then went “thunk” to the bottom, but I haven’t smelled anything yet, so maybe it took off and died elsewhere, hope so!)

Saturday - Went to Fantasia Island, and had 80 kids come and color pictures. These are for the most part, very poor kids, but the kids go to school, so can read. Later in the day, Paul, some SS kids with Bethany, went to Santa Rosa, and we haven’t been getting too many kids lately. Paul took a Dr to visit an old lady down the road and came back to find that there were 40+ kids coloring and Bethany seemed to be surviving quite calmly!! There was something going on at the school at the same time so they just gravitated to our room there.

Sun July 12/09 Day started at 6:00, chopping vegetables, preparing the food to take in on the motos. Matt will carry a pot between him and Paul, and I will prop another one up in front of me on my moto. I avoid any liquidy stuff in the pots for obvious reasons, I add it later. (The jeep is in the shop getting fixed) Bethany gets on the back of mine, after realizing that all that work on her hair was a waste of time, as she had to take it all down to put on her helmet. Grrr. And straddling a moto in a skirt, double grrrr…. Maybe about 10 kids to the am SS and morning mtg. I think there were maybe 16 for lunch then go to get kids at the river for SS. The mormons were at one girl’s house that comes, but her dad said she could come to SS. If the kids can recite any of the previous verses from other weeks, they get a special treat and when they have done 10, they earn a bible. Many kids have earned bibles so far. After gospel, Dany came over for supper. We are getting quite excited to have Durley coming soon. We are going to have to have some sort of Welcome Home party on Tuesday!! Hope she is not too tired for it!
Time for bed and when Matt was putting his clean clothes in his drawer, he almost touched a bat that was clinging to the drawer. Uggg!! So one less than yesterday!! Yay for that part of the dirty work, who, if you must know, I had to take care of....yuck!!