(This blog post was written in the middle of May but I am just getting around to posting it.  So keep that in mind as you read.)
Some of you know the new happenings in our family.  At this time my family is making steps toward our move to Guatemala to work with Hope for Home Ministries.  As Kathlyn and I have both desired to go to Guatemala long term it is exciting that our whole family (and our good friend Rachel) will be working down there.  As some of you may also know, I am desiring to get some nursing training before I go.  I have applied to the nursing program at a Community College in Moberly, MO to start in the fall and it will take two years.  Now that my family is planning to move to Guatemala in the first few months of 2013 I am struggling with the desire to move with them and still wanting to do the nursing.  On Sunday at Church we sang a good old song "Trust and Obey."  I have seen God's faithfulness in the past and I must trust Him that He has everything worked out.  What I must do is TRUST and OBEY in whatever it is that He asks me to do.  His Word really reaffirmed this "trusting" thing the other day (I can think of 3 times in the past week where trust has come up).  The other day I was laying on my bed and praying about the situation.  After that I opened my Bible to Psalm 4 (I had read 1-3 on other days so it was the next one to read).  The first line "Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!...Be gracious to me and hear my prayer."  Remember I had just been praying.  Then verse 4, "Tremble, and do not sin; meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah."  I was laying on my bed.  And verse 5, "Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and trust in the LORD."  There it is- "trust in the LORD."  I also see that I need to take care of what I can take care of (not sinning [also mentioned in Psalm 4] and giving sacrifices of righteousness, but that I also must trust God with what I can't take care of.  Anyway, I thought I would let you all know what is going on in my life right now and share what God is teaching me.   TRUST and OBEY!!!

June 23: Since first writing this post I have found out that I am on the waiting list for nursing school.  I am trying to trust that God knows what He is doing and I can trust that He will work everything out.

From the United States for now,

   Kristin

Long lost post

I am finally getting around to posting about my last week and a half in Chile. This blog entry will be about Las Novenas which were the Christmas devotions we did at church every evening for the nine days before Christmas. It started at around 8:15pm every night and ended at 9:30. With it being summer right now in Chile we were able to do the services outside. The theme of Las Novenas was "making room for Jesus". The programs consisted of singing, a small message, skits, refreshments and fellowship. We had inbetween 28-48 in attendance each night.

On Christmas Eve after the main novenas program was over we had a Christmas Eve dinner. There were about 25 people from 8 different countries at the dinner.

I flew back to the United States Christmas night and was reunited with my family on Dec. 26.

Kristin

Home!

I thought I would let you all know that I was safely reunited with my family yesterday morning. Everything went well with the flights. I will possibly post something about my last week and a half in Chile but that won't happen tonight.
Kristin

December 7-15

The first part of last week was spent getting ready for the arrival of my grandparents on Thursday the 10th. My cousin Juliana also celebrated her 6th birthday that day. We were able to keep the secret that the grandparents were coming until the kids walked in the house from school and found them sitting on the couch. They were surprised and happy to see them. We are all excited to have them here.

Thursday December 10, 2009

On Thursday Juliana took cupcakes to school.

After we dropped the kids off at school we went to pick up Grandpa and Grandma from the airport.

For lunch we went out to a Chilean restaurant where the waiters presented a fake birthday cake to Juliana and sang happy birthday to her.

Friday December 11, 2009- Sunday December 13, 2009

On Friday we literally "packed" the car and headed to Algarrobo for a mini weekend vacation at the beach. Algarrobo is a city on the coast about an hour and a half away.

Some friends of my aunt and uncle's loaned us their apartment in Algarrobo. This was our view from the balcony of the apartment.

We enjoyed a weekend together with fun and fellowship.

On Saturday we went up the coast from Algarrobo to Valparaiso and Viña del Mar to go sightseeing. We got to eat lunch at a seaside restaurant where we could faintly see sea lions on a rock in the distance. In the afternoon we went to a beach to play in the waves.

A landscape clock in Viña del Mar.

sightseeing in Valparaiso.

These interesting rock towers were outside of the restaurant where we ate lunch.

Tuesday December 15, 2009

On Tuesday we went to Juliana and Jonathan's school program for the end of the school year. Jonathan was the King of the Jungle.

Juliana's class danced and did a little thing about opposites and spelling.

Until Later! Hasta Luego!

-Kristin

Graduation #2 for 2009

Graduation!

On Friday I finished my last week of Spanish class!

Diego who is the academics director and was my professor for 5 weeks awarded me with my "diploma." Over the course of 9 weeks I had three different professors and a few different classmates. I met people from Germany, Brazil, France, England, the United States, and of course Chile.

There were 4 other students that graduated on Friday. They had a going away lunch for us.

Joint Church Service!

On Friday night we went to a church gathering for all the Free Methodist Churches in Santiago. Joakim who is a man that goes to our church (Casa Grande) and a lady from another church did a special music.

Sunday Afternoon Outing!

On Sunday we went to a Chilean arts and crafts place called Los Dominicos. It is a good tourist attraction for those people wanting to buy handmade souvenirs. There they had a couple of cages with different birds. We thought that peacocks and iguanas were an interesting combination.

After going to Los Dominicos we found a nice park were we could monkey around.

My grandparents will be arriving on Thursday morning for three weeks. Neither of the kids know that they are coming and it is amazing because we have slipped plenty of time.

Thank you all for your prayers!

Kristin

We Gather Together To Share The Lord's Blessings

We had a good Thanksgiving with all the traditional Thanksgiving food. Two traditional Thanksgiving food items that you can not get down here are sweet potatoes and cranberries so I brought canned sweet potatoes with me so that we could have sweet potato cassarole and someone else that came from the States brought canned cranberry relish. We had 13 people for Thanksgiving dinner: Daisy, Daviana and Luis Fernando (Lucho is in Colombia right now so he wasn't able to come), Kay and Leo and their baby Sofia (Kay and Leo are missionaries here. Kay is from the States and Leo is from Chile), Marta and Soledad, and then the five of us. (The picture was taken before Marta and Soledad got there.)

holding baby Sofia

-Merry Christmas-

When I got home from school the day after Thanksgiving the Christmas tree was already up. They put the ornaments on after I got home. One of my favorite traditions about Christmas is sitting around in the living room looking at the Christmas tree with the living room lights off and the Christmas tree lights on. I also like looking at all the ornaments and remembering stories. There is one ornament that Kathlyn made when she was little, it is a wreath made out of felt with little pom-pom berries on it. It only has a couple of pom-poms left because when we were in the car after church the day that Kathlyn made it she stuck one of the pom-poms up her nose. She wasn't a very good nose blower at that time so it took a little bit of work to get it out but it definitely made for good memories. I love you Kathlyn ;)

-Alpha and Church (November 28, 2009)-

Joaquin led the singing for the church service last night. Lucho usually leads the songs but since he is in Colombia right now we have had to manage without him.




The kids doing a fish puzzle during children's church.

-Juliana's Class Party-

Today Juliana had a school class party at a house on the outskirts of Santiago. She wasn't able to swim because she broke her collar bone again but they did a lot of playing in the water.

All the water activity really wore them out.

This week will be my last week of spanish classes. When I finish I will have completed 9 weeks of classes. I have learned a lot but I still have a long way to go.

Thank you all again for your prayers!

Kristin

Spanish Grammar

The graduation lunch for some of my schoolmates.

I now have three classmates and two of them are ladies so I am no longer the only student or the only girl in my class. I also have a new professor for this semester. I have decided that I now know more about Spanish grammar than I do about English grammar ( In the reasoning of why you say or write things the way you do).

This week I didn't do a whole lot besides school. On Friday I did go to the Central Market with a couple of my classmates. It is a fish market and was very interesting to see. There were a lot of fish and other sea creatures like octopus, crabs, and the only edible barnacle in the world (I think). We also walked through a meat shop and a market that had fruits and vegetables.

We had 3 people at alpha yesterday. One of the guys asked a lot of good questions about God. Please continue to pray that we would have the words to say and that God would work in their hearts.

I told you a couple of weeks ago that I met a girl at Jonathan's class party. Well I invited her to alpha and she seemed interested but was not able to come this week.

L-R: Marta, Beth, Rolando, Fernando, and Me.

The discussion time after church last night.

Javier (the man on the left of the picture above) celebrated his 75th birthday today. We went over this afternoon and took him a cake and visited for a while. I have now been in two authentic Chilean homes.

Javier and his wife Gladys.

That about sums up last week. I will keep you posted.

-Kristin