Toy Horse, Good Friends, Answered Prayer

As you can tell from my lack of postings in the last weeks, we've been busy. One of the things we enjoy doing on Saturdays is following signs to visit garage sales. Gerson is amazed by them since there are few garage sales in Bolivia -- only the ones the missionaries have when they are leaving. At one garage sale we went to, Gerson was thrilled to find this wooden rocking horse for Jayden.

Jayden loves it! Of course, it will be awhile before he can ride it by himself, but as you can see, he's quite the little cowboy. I was proud of Gerson for talking to the lady who owned the horse and getting her to lower the price. We got a bargain!

Another reason we've been busy is that we hosted a picnic for the Boliva missionaries who were in the area. We had a great turnout! I didn't get a total count of how many stopped by, but there had to be close 20 to 25 of us. We had a great time of fellowship, catching up with each other. And of course, where there are missionaries, there is FOOD! We had a yummy potluck.

After we ate, some people played ping-pong, others fished, others played hill-billy golf. There was also a group of us who played Apples to Apples! During our game, we even witnessed an impromptu wedding down by the church pond. The couple who got married, we later learned, had planned to get married at the court house, but the court house was closed. The young man was being deployed the next day to Iraq, and they were determined to get married before he left. Since it was just the couple who was getting married, a few family members, and my pastor and his wife who were at the pond-side, when the bride and groom kissed, we all stood (we were under the pavilion, probably 20 meters away or so) and clapped for them. That was a fun moment!

We've also had some amazing answers to prayer in the last few weeks. See Jayden's face? That's the joy we've felt as we've watched God work! We have been scheduling meetings for our Homeland Ministry Assignment, and the Lord has really opened some doors for us. We shared at Center Chapel UMC here in Marion on Sunday, and that was such a blessing! Thanks, Center Chapel! We appreciate you! In addition, we've been working on another prayer letter. We recieved our new prayer cards in the mail yesterday, so we'll mail those out in the prayer letters.

We also recieved TWO important documents in the mail in the last few weeks! First of all, Gerson received his Green Card! Praise the Lord! That means he can now travel! We will be traveling to McAllen, TX, at the end of July. We are so looking forward to seeing the work there and spending a week with the missionaries with whom we will be working.

The other imporant document that arrived was Jayden's passport! We expect him to do quite a bit of traveling as an MK, and we wanted to be prepared for that. Of course, as excited as Mommy and Daddy were that he had his passport, Jayden was more interested in eating it!

As you can tell, we've been keeping busy. Thanks for your continued prayers. We continue to see the Lord's hand in our lives!