Turtlenecks, Fiestas and a Panaderia

It’s Tuesday morning and I am wearing a turtleneck wool sweater for the first time in my life. Our week of WorldChangers has come to an end and we are back home sitting by the fireplace. The WorldChangers distributed over 5,000 gospels of John in the city of Montevideo and several hundred gospel tracts. Our children’s club was also very successful, even on one of our rainy days. (We got really, really wet:)) On Thursday and Friday nights, we hosted a coffeehouse and spent the evenings with Uruguayan friends. I enjoyed using my Spanish and sharing the gospel with several of our guest. Two people accepted Christ as Savior during the coffeehouse! For more info on the WorldChangers week, visit iwcuruguay.blogspot.com

Saturday night, we arrived home in time to attend the youth service with our friend Andrea. After the time of worship, the youth surprised me with a big birthday fiesta - plenty of cake, food, a giant birthday sign and a really intense ping pong game. Sofia also came to church for the first time! It was pretty grand. :)

Sunday, the church in our town had a business meeting in the morning and a baptism in the afternoon. I thoroughly enjoyed the baptism of four new disciples - one woman baptized had been a strong atheist for years and came to know Christ through the influence of her family. The entire church traveled to a heated swimming pool where we sang, worshipped and celebrated the four new disciples. I very much wished I had thought to bring my camera, but it was quite a beautiful memory regardless. Last night, several of the girls came over to watch a movie (and eat jellybeans. :)) They are becoming dear friends.

Yesterday, Joni and I took a walk through “town” (i.e, the plaza) just to enjoy our day off. We are really enjoying the Panaderia (bakery) aspect of the culture here and make sure to stop every few days for a treat or two. :) They are around every corner so they’re extremely difficult to pass up. We’ve also enjoyed our “almacen” (corner store) which we use like a refrigerator. Yesterday, I walked to the corner and bought a single battery when my alarm clock died. We go to the store before every meal to buy the ingredients - everything is made fresh here so there is no need to buy in advance when you can buy it fresh. Pasta is made daily - not dried- and meat is incredibly lean and relatively inexpensive. Though we have no Wal-Mart (oh, how I miss thee) I would dare to say that shopping is more convenient here than in Wal-Mart!

We are resuming our (somewhat) normal schedule with Bible studies, children’s clubs, teaching English and relational evangelism this week. I’ll continue to post pictures as I am able - for now, they are only on my Facebook. They upload painfully slow here so it is difficult to make them readily available. If anyone would like to transfer my pictures to an online photo album of your choice, feel free. :)

Muchas bendiciones!