Las Gringas

This blog is to keep all of our friends and supporters updated on our life in Venezuela. We are serving university students and business professionals in Valencia, Venezuela. We are both teaching at a local university in the language department. We are building relationships with students throughout the city as well as running a bible study that we hope to see grow into an established university student church.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Hey all!
I know we're definitely due for an update...and there is so much to tell. Since the last update we have finished the semester and completed a month long summer English Club. Now we're taking things slow as we prepare for the next semester to begin in a week!
The last semester was full with our usual two classes at the university teaching American Civilization and Oral to 2nd semesters students. In addition to our classes we began a small bible study with a group of leaders at the university. On Wednesdays at lunch we would meet with some Christian leaders to prepare, and then we would encourage non-believers from our classes and around the university to join in the Bible study. Then on Thursdays there is a completely student led study for people who are already Believers. We saw one person come to know the Lord through this study on Wednesdays and he also was a participant in the study that we have every Sunday in our home.
Speaking of our Sunday study, the studies took on a new look this last semester. We began to use different apporaches to keep the studies new and fresh; we used Nooma videos with Spanish subtitles twice a month, a regular bible study once a month and some kind of comunity out-reach once a month. For the comunity out-reaches, we did a clothing drive, we went to a nursing home, and we went to a farm to help serve a missionary couple who works with children from the barrios (poor nieghborhoods). It was really neat seeing the students serve others in their own unique way.
We have continued our work at the other university under the name of "El Camino." The other university has a different schedule and they are currently in the middle of the semester. We have had a little bit of a hard time dealing with the schedule changes there this semester as well as some other problems that have kept us off campus. We have had monthly meetings with this group trying to mull over what our purpose with "El Camino" actually is. The last meeting of the semester we had 20 interested university leaders in attendance. We are starting to see that one of our roles in the ministry is to network people who are already working with university students with others who share the same passion!

Right now we are currently trying to pass our ministry onto others little by little as we will both be finishing up around Christmas time. We are teaching in our studies on Sundays the importance of taking responsibility of thier faith. We are hoping that for the rest of our time here that the Sunday studies will be lead by the students instead of us and that it will meet outside of our house.
Outside of our small bible studies we have kept plenty busy hanging out and building deeper relationships with our students. From going out to ice-cream, watching movies and even having a decade themed party, we rarely ever stop having fun with our students. By the way, themed parties are the best, our next themed party is going to be "High School Prom" (Don't be jealous)

After the semester ended in June, we had a prayer retreat with all the other missionaries in the country. We got to hang out with the other Jman, Anna Kurtz before she left Venezuela and we met Karla Turner for the first time! Immediatly after we had two straight weeks of voulunteers. We had a professional team from the Dallas area come in one week and then the next week we had a university team from the valley of Texas come. So.. it was a crazy of couple of weeks. To add to the craziness, Debbie got sick with two different types of parasites and a bacteria and both of our cars broke. Debbie got to sit at home being sick while Morgan held down the fort! Like we've said in other posts.. never a dull moment!

At the beginning of July we left for Caracas to pick up our two summer Nexo volunteers, Kayleigh and Stacy. Also, Karla Turner, a new career missionary to Caracas, joined our team here in Valencia to learn from our ministry to see how she may apply aspects of our ministry to university work in Caracas. We love our new roommate. Once she moved here she even adopted a puppy named Lexy. She's a beautiful golden retreiver! Once the girls got here we started a 4 week long English club were we met at two different universities Monday-Thursday. This year's Nexo program helped encourage the already existing students in our ministry and drew in several new ones. Nexo was very intimate this year and everyone involved was touched in a special way. July was a very full month but it was great for our ministry.

The day after we got back from taking the girls to the airport, we left for a five-day trip to Maracaibo. Maracaibo is one of the major cities here in Venezuela located near the Colombia border. The city is on top of a petroleum source so it is VERY HOT. While we were there we were guest speakers at a conference with about 100 people. Morgan and I gave a talk on how to do events with a purpose in ministry. Karla talked about having a good devotional life. It was a new experience being the guest speakers at an event! We went with our pastor here in Valencia who is from Maracaibo. He and his family enjoyed showing off their home town and its history. We saw the place where Columbus first landed on continental South America!
Now we are back in Valencia, we just had a catch-up week where we cleaned up the house and caught up on sleep. This week Morgan's parents are here visiting getting to know our life here. They got here the day before Morgan's birthday so they have already experienced a good Venezuelan birthday!
Next week we start class and then in September we will start all the bible studies up again but they will be run by our students. We only have this last semester left before we go home. We are planning two different leadership training retreats. We are hoping to finish out our time here strong! Thanks so much for staying in touch and keeping up with the ministry here in Valencia! We are thankful for your prayers and support!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Vacation and beyond

So, its been since the holidays that we have updated this blog. So I have been trying to put together an extra special blog full of pictures to make up for our lack of updates in the last two months. After the holidays, we got to appreciate another month and a half of vacation from working at the university. But we definitely filled up the time. Debbie had a birthday on Jan 16. We celebrated it Venezuelan style including an "hora loca"(crazy hour) of dancing and then we went to the beach the day following. It was the best birthday ever. In the end of January and beginning of February. Debbie went on vactation to visit her sister in England and Morgan filled her time up enjoying life in Venezuela.
.......................................................................................................................................
After, Debbie got back from England it was just in time to celebrate Valentine's Day. We decided to have a sepcial day for all the women we know to celebrate the special day. So we held a beauty day for them. We started off with face mask and a devotional(below). From there we split into groups. Some ladies did crafts while others had their nails done by a profesional. Then Carmen (pictured in above on the right) did make-up for all the ladies. We ended the night with another devotional then profesional pictures of all the ladies. It was a great day.. and it ended beautifully, literally!
.............................................................................................
A week after Valentine's Day We started back to shcool and hit the ground running with our weekly activities. We teach class three days a week and hold small groups on campus and one in our house five days a week. Our schedule is quite full but we are seeing on a daily baises how God is using every minute of our schedule. After class started, we had the opporunity to attend our third lighthouse. Lighthouse is the beach ministry where we make hair wraps and temporary tatoos for people for free and share our faith with them while we are at it. This last lighthouse was great! Above you can see Morgan talking to someone as she waits for her turn for the hair wraps. Above you can see, Debbie with a dog she found on the beach. We really wanted to take her home but we decided that it was better to leave her. Now we can appreciate it her by this picture!
.......................................................................................................................................
This past week we were very busy with a volunteer group from Alabama. They came and shared in both of the universities we work at. It was neat to see how God used them all individually and as a team. It was also encouraging to see how our translating skills have come along! They made a video of their trip when they got back. I (Debbie) tried to figure out how to add the video to the blog.. but couldn't so instead I am leaving you with this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57mT5a3q2JI Enjoy!

Until next time,
Morgan and Debbie

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Holidays in Venezuela

Here is a glance at our holiday happenings in Venezuela. Enjoy!



Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Life after the storm


Right after our last posts Morgan and I left for a mission meeting in Ecuador, Quito. The meeting was great, we were able to think and analyze our ministry so far plus we were able to meet and hang out with other Journeymen and share our experiences with them. Ecuador was a great place to visit. We went to the middle of the world and got to stand in two hemispheres at the same time. We also got to appreciate Ecuador's significantly lower cost of living, I don't think I've ever enjoyed shopping so much =) Morgan and I felt blessed to be able to travel to another country to learn how to do our jobs better. Plus, it was a nice break from our summer program. We left our summer volunteers in Valencia under the protection of their hosts families and the students. We felt like the volunteers really blossomed in the ministry here when we weren't there to get in their way.
It seems like every post we talk about how crazy life has been here for us in Venezuela. And its true, we rarely stop, university students are always up for whatever is next to do. About a week and a half ago, our Nexo summer program ended. The last month of the program went well. About two weeks before the end of it, we had an English camp. We took 28 students to our beach house for the weekend where we did many American activities from watching movies to eating s'mores. The weekend ended with a Sunday morning worship service where everyone in attendance was able to hear the truth of salvation in Christ. We had a blast with the Nexo program, there were students in our house it felt like 24/7. The program was successful not only for the fact that it was fun, but more so for the fact that it opened doors to the hearts of more students. We hope to keep those students involved in our ministry here throughout the year.
Once Morgan and I came home from taking the summer volunteers home, we were exhausted and I believe all the students involved were too. But now after almost two weeks of regular nights of sleep and many Friends episodes I believe we have recovered! And not a minute too late...this week is the first week of classes at the university. I started my first class in American Civilization on Monday and Morgan started her classes in Oral on Wednesday. I will be teaching every Monday afternoon and Morgan will be teaching every Wednesday and Thursday afternoon. I am teaching all the third semester students and Morgan is teaching all the second semester students. We also have an unique opportunity this semester. All first semester students in the language department are required to take a class on Spanish grammar. Their theory is that if someone doesn't understand their own language they will never be able to learn another. Morgan and I always feel like our Spanish grammar could use a a lot of improvement; therefore, we are going to be attending one of the first semester grammar classes. So, now we have contact with three semesters of students! What an opportunity!
Our weeks are pretty full with English classes and meeting and eating with people but everything we do is all focused on a bible study on Sunday afternoons. We thoroughly enjoy every minute of it. The students who come are all good friends of ours so of course we enjoy sharing Christ with them. Our goal is to see the bible study form into a healthy church. While we are still lacking in so much, we can see God at work in this group. One thing we are excited about is that we have been able to use two of our students' musical talents to add an element of worship to our study. We will soon be teaching the students what church is supposed to be to help them let go of some of their preconceived ideas of the church.

Hi, it's Morgan now. I can't help but smile now as I read Debbie's update and think about all the amazing experiences from this summer. God brought so many new students into the ministry and gave us the joy of sharing our lives and our faith with them. Thank you so much for your prayers for the ministry here and for the NEXO summer program! God really did bless this summer and all who were involved in it. One of my favorite things about Nexo was watching God draw the Venezuelan students to Himself through the lives of His followers. We were a total of 7 gringos this summer, so obviously wherever we went, we drew a crowd. At the beginning of the summer we talked about our lives being the aroma of Christ and how the way we live and who we live for should look radically different than what people are used to seeing. Every relationship made and every conversation had with students was with the intent to show them the love of Christ; our lives were radically different and the students were drawn to Christ in us. It was great seeing the earthly relationships deepen among us and the students, but above all it was amazing seeing the students begin seeking and pursuing a relationship with the Living God! Please continue to pray for us as we water the seeds that where planted this summer; pray also that God will make them grow! WE love you all and we are so thankful for you!!!!!!!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Living la vida loca


This summer has been such a whirlwind, but it has been amazing and God has been doing such cool stuff in the lives of the students here in Valencia. There truly is never a dull moment! Our schedule is filled with students from the morning to late at night and we love every minute of it. Even our house is not really just ours anymore; there are always students stopping by and staying, but we love it that way! The doors are always open! Well here is a little taste of what is happening in our in the ministry down here

The 5 NEXO students arrived May 31st and we pretty much got started with ministry right away. They came to class with me the last week of school and promoted the English clubs at the Universities. We also told everyone at school about the welcome party that we were having for the gringos and 80 plus students showed up to welcome them that Friday night! After a looong night of talking and dancing, we took a team bonding trip to Cata (the Lighthouse beach) to get to know each other and to plan for the summer clubs. That was a nice way to get the summer going! =)

The conversation clubs have been going great! We are teaching at two of the main universities in Valencia, and we have about 30-40 students in each class. Each week has a different theme of discussion. So far our themes have been: University life, holidays, sports, entertainment, pop culture, and music. We present the topic on a power point and then we break up into groups and have discussion questions. We always include at least one question that engages the students in some sort of spiritual discussion, and it has been amazing to see the doors that God has opened to share our faith in the classrooms.

Almost every weekend we have some event planned that corresponds with our week theme. After the entertainment week we had a movie night on Friday night at our house and we watched the Chronicles of Narnia. After the movie we broke up into groups and had a movie review and discussion. There is so much amazing symbolism in the movie so we asked them questions about faith, sin, sacrifice, and forgiveness. Then we explained to them the allegory of Christ that C.S. Lewis created in the story. There were about 50 students who came to that event and all of them heard the Gospel message. The following Monday we went to see Prince Caspian in the theatre (it just came out over here!) and there were about 40 students who came to see the event with us and then came back to our house afterward to hang out and talk.

After our sports week we had a Sports Day in one of the large public parks. We had about 35 students come and we split up into 4 teams and did relay competitions and goofy field day type games. After we finished with the relays one of our Nexo students shared his testimony and gave a “Game Day chapel” for the group. We then invited all of them to come to Bible study on Sundays if they were interested in learning more. After chapel we played soccer, ultimate and kickball until the park closed.

We also have taken some weekend trips with the students from our classes that have been great for building relationships and sharing our faith! We went to a little German town called Colonial Tovar and about 20 students came with us. The bus trip was about 2 hours long and God opened the door for a couple of us to have some deep spiritual conversations while riding up there together! This was a trip that we had planned to just be us gringos, but it turned out being a fun opportunity to spend more time with our students building relationships outside of the classroom.

Another cool thing that is going on this summer is Spanish Club! The students in our English club classes decided the second week of club that they wanted to give us “gringos” a Spanish club. There is a group of about 7 students who we meet with every Wednesday in the park and they teach us Spanish and plan activities for us to do to work on our Spanish. After the club we usually go out to eat together and talk.

Just about every night we are doing something with students! We either have something planned or some of them just drop by the house and hang out.

There seems to be one main theme for this summer and for the ministry here in Valencia ….FOOD!!! Every event we are either going out to get food, we end up going to the house to eat food, learning to cook new food, trying out new Venezuelan food, etc! We had one student come over and teach us how to make the Venezuelan main dish called Pabellon which was really fun because you aren’t Venezuelan until you can make Pabellon and Deb and I are really trying hard to earn to earn the Venezuelan title.

We also had a friend of ours come over to our house and fix us the best Parilla (barbeque) that I have ever had. Another student invited us all over to her house to try a popular Venezuelan dish called Mondongo. Mondongo is a soup made out of cow stomach lining. I was also fortunate enough to get a cow hoof in my bowl! You suck on the bone to get more flavor! I think we would all be ok if we never ate Mondongo again, but the experience was priceless. We also have started a tradition that after every Bible study on Sunday we either fix something at the house for the students or we go to Calle de Hambre “Hungry Street” and hang out. This has really been a neat way to develop community within our Bible study group.

This is Debbie now, Morgan has said it all really well... and she's right we are living la vida loca... its always crazy here.. but its great! Things are always changing too, it keeps us on our toes. I am excited about one major change.. I will start teaching in the university with Morgan next year as well as teach for the guy I've been teaching with. I'm excited about the opportunities this will open for our time here as well as the experience I will get. We'll see if i'm cut out for this teaching stuff. I'm teaching an American Civilization class, so I basically talk about what has happened in the states over the last century. Anyway, that's about all we have for you. I know you loyal blog readers have been dying for an update. I've tried to include a lot of pictures to make up for the lack of posts =) Enjoy another slide show with even more pictures!




Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Never a dull moment...


Well we've had yet another good month here in Valencia. One thing I've learned in the country is there's never a dull moment! This month has been full as we have been preparing for our supervisor to go to the states for 15 months. She tried hard to prepare us for everything possible before she left us.
We were super busy throwing her a going away party and entertaining guest in the house her last week here; everyone wanted to see her for one last time before she left. The party was really fun and tons of friends and students came to see her off.
Also, our cars have been keeping us on our toes as usual. My car has broken down twice and had a flat tire at 2:30am on the highway the night of Lorri’s party. The truck has broken once as well this month! The climate, roads and gasoline can be tough on cars. But we have been thankful to have at least one working car between the three of us since we've been here. Also every time the car breaks, it’s always in a "convenient" place.
It’s been an exciting month. We have traveled a lot. We've traveled to Barquisimeto, a city two hours away with good Artesian markets, and we went to Bejuma, a town 30 minutes away for a retreat with other Venezuelan leaders who are working with University students and Professionals and Caracas. We went to Caracas three times for me to get my Venezuelan ID. I am happy to say the last three trips were pretty successful, they accepted my paperwork. And now I have a Venezuelan ID. I'm becoming more Venezuelan by the moment! Morgan also took a trip to Colombia, for some of her paperwork issues, but I'll let her tell you about that. Everything else is going quite well, we are deepening our friendships here as well as making new ones. We are adjusting to life without Lorri and preparing for a summer team of university students to come in for the months of June and July. Like I said, never a dull moment! It’s easy to get tired from everything that's going on but we're thankful for our God who "gives strength to the weary."
Hey everyone! Very true, never a dull moment! Hmmm, well all the traveling has been wonderful! I feel like I am getting to know the country more and more each month and I am falling more and more in love with it! There are hundreds of beaches and every student claims they know the best beach and wants to take you there. It’s a really rough way to do ministry! J/K We went with a group of 10 students to a little island for Labor Day and had a great time snorkeling, playing volleyball and laying out. The majority of them were students that are coming to our Bible study, so it was great to spend time with them outside our usually weekly meeting.
Debbie and I are adjusting to living in Venezuela by ourselves. The first week she was gone we had our first, “I live in Venezuela and without Lorri” moment. Debbie's and my Spanish is definitely improving, but there are definitely things that we just always relied on Lorri to take care of…like car, house, plumbing problems. Anyway, so here is our little wake up call: I am in the shower the Monday after Lorri left and all of the sudden I feel something nail me in the back. I turn around and there is a huge flow of water coming out of the wall (we’re talking fire hydrant pressure!). So we had to figure out how to turn our water pressure off from the underground system, and then we had to call a plumber to come and fix our system, and we ended up having to tear some of the wall out in the bathroom to put it in the new system. Anyway, by the end of the experience we felt like we were “real live adults” living in Venezuela!
Currently Debbie and I are working hard to prepare for the Nexo’s to come. Thank you so much for praying for our Nexo program and for the students who will be coming. We are so excited to see what God is going to do! We love you all and miss you! Below we have a description of what the Nexo program is so that you guys know what's coming up. Debbie participated in the program twice while she was in college and I'm looking forward to being a part of it!

NEXO: The idea for NEXO Venezuela was conceived in 2002 by Richard Beal, IMB missionary currently serving in Caracas, Venezuela. Since that time, every year university students from all over the USA come to participate with us during the 8 weeks of their summer breaks. NEXO is a Spanish word for “link.” It is our hope that this program can link two worlds together: the saved and the searching. We believe that if the lost can see the lives of committed Christian university students, experience their love and friendship, and hear their intentional testimonies, they will experience our God in a real way. We have 5 students serving with us this summer: Julie, Justin, Kayleigh, Jason, and Ashley. Each student will be staying with different Venezuelan host families. They are going to be teaching English Clubs at the two local Universities in Valencia two times a week and spending the evenings and (pretty much all) their free time hanging out and investing in students. We are going to have lots of events such as: English Camp at the Beach, Movie Nights, Game Nights, Day trips, etc. All the events are planned with the purpose of building relationships sharing the message of Jesus with the students.

Enjoy the post. Vaya con Dios