Las Gringas

2009-06-27T16:00:00.000-07:00

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!

Vacation and beyond

2009-03-25T15:42:00.000-07:00

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.
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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!
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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!
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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

Holidays in Venezuela

2009-01-08T10:10:00.000-08:00

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

Still truckin

2008-10-17T22:06:00.000-07:00

Enjoy our pics..

From october update

Life after the storm

2008-08-13T13:18:00.000-07:00

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!!!!!!!

Living la vida loca

2008-07-01T15:13:00.000-07:00

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 31^st 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!

Never a dull moment...

2008-05-20T07:16:00.000-07:00

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

Feels like home to me

2008-04-06T15:43:00.000-07:00

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been here for more than two months!! Living here has become normal to us. We have jobs, friends and a purpose. Every week I have 5 English classes that meet two times a week and Morgan teaches English classes in the university three times a week. So we spend most of our days separate doing our own thing. I sometimes get to eat lunch with people at the company I teach English and Morgan will meet with various students. During the night we are generally together hanging out with whoever wants to hang out. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights, Morgan has volleyball and on Tuesdays and Thursday nights we have Spanish class (of course its early enough to do something with someone after class). On Saturdays we do various things, which sometimes involve sleeping in and sometimes not. Then on Sundays we go to church then have a bible study for anyone interested in the afternoon (in the photo on the right). After the bible study we hang out with our friends from the study and then go home and start it all over again. So, we stay pretty busy; there truly is never a dull moment around here. We love it!!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter, the people here take the week before Easter to celebrate Semana Santa (Holy week). Students have the whole week off and most businesses are closed Wednesday- Friday. So, we went to the beach and participated once again in the lighthouse ministry we talked about before. The first day of Lighthouse was really weird. When we go out to the beach the beach was covered in water, the waves were coming into the restaurants that are set significantly off shore. So we did as many hair wraps and temporary tattoos as we could. The government ended up closing the beach and many people said that the waves were only going to get bigger the next day. Needless to say, at the end of the day we were pretty discouraged and we even considered going home. The next day, however, was a great day! The waves were not nearly as bad. We spent the whole day making hair wraps and tattoos and then we showed the Passion of Christ at night on the beach. The response was incredible; God was definitely faithful!

When living in a new country sometimes things happen that seem very weird to you but pretty much normal to everyone else. The other day I was driving through a round about and there was more traffic than normal. As a I got closer to the round about I noticed there were a lot of high school aged students mobbed around the round about. I thought it was probably a riot but I didn’t understand why they were so young. When I got right next to the students they began writing on my car with window markers despite my protests. They didn’t have a chance to write much before I was able to move my car out of the way. When I arrived to work and told my boss about it he barely reacted and simply asked; “well they used paint that comes off right?” and then the story was over. (sometimes in protests they use paint that doesn’t come off) This round about is where everyone goes when they want to protest something. As it turns out these students were protesting the fact that their schools were closed because the government was giving the teachers training for a new curriculum. So how about that for ironic twist? Students were protesting not going to school!

Hello everyone! I hope you are doing well! Thanks for visiting our website…Debbie did a great job catching you all up on what’s happening in our lives. We definitely stay super busy! God has brought so many amazing people in to our lives. It has been so cool to watch many of these students grow in their curiosity for Christ. He has also blessed us with Christian friends to encourage us and help us in the ministry. It is really beginning to feel like home here in our city; Debbie and I can go to the movies, school, or mall and usually run into at least one person we know. It is also nice to have our “team family” here. There are 5 of us on the University/Professional team and we meet together once a week. Every Monday morning we got to the Busching’s house for training, and Kim Busching fixes us an incredible American breakfast. It’s an exciting surprise every time and I think I get a little too excited about it, but I miss our food sometimes.

We had a wonderful Easter together. We decided to have our own “gringo” service with our team so we could have a worship experience that was in our own language and a little more familiar. It was very special.

Ok, this is a really long entry, so I won’t give any additional stories. Ohh, but I will mention that Debbie and I have a new addition to our family! His name is Flaco and he is the cutest little, orange kitty ever. He came to our house about three weeks ago; we fed him once because he was starving and now he will never leave. We love him though…he is adorable! So now Debbie and I are bonded for life because we share a child. haha.

Thanks so much for your prayers, love and support. We love you all and we are so thankful for you! We will be in touch.

One month down

2008-02-29T13:59:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! Wow, I feel like there are so many stories that we could tell you about, but I will just mention some highlights!

First of all Debbie and I FINALLY learned how to drive stick shift! Whoo Hoo! It only took us a few weeks and a few embarrassing moments. Last week we took the car out by ourselves for the first time and we had only been driving a few minutes when we stalled out in the middle of a big intersection at rush hour. Everyone was going crazy honking at us! We were pulled over by the local police who told us that we couldn’t drive the rest of the way home because we didn’t know how to drive! (How rude!!) Lorri had to come and save us and she took us back home. J

We had a Valentines party for a bunch of our girl students! We had 14 girls come and we made them dinner and watched a chick flick together! We put up a big sheet up in the garage and set up the movie on the projector; it was a really fun event.

Our Bible Study started on Sunday. We are going to go through the book Purpose Driven Life with them. We gave them each a copy and a Bible if they didn’t have one. All of the students that came are non-believers and seem to be really interested. Lorri, our supervisor, is an amazing teacher. God has definitely gifted her in this area, and the students respond so well to her! Debbie and I are learning a lot.

As I mentioned in the e-mail, I joined a volleyball team. The park is really close to my house and I really enjoy the team! It was funny; at first they were really kind of rude. I introduced myself to all of them, but they refused to call me by my name, they just referred to me as “flaca,” which means skinny, white girl! I think they were hesitant on letting me play because I thought it was just a casual, pick-up kind of team; I soon realized that they had two coaches training them and that they did hard drills for the first hour and a half of practice. They are actually really good and it is so much fun to play with such good competition; we play with both guys and girls. Anyway, after the first two days of practice they began to “let me in” their little circle. They invited me to travel to tournaments with them on Sundays, but I won’t be able to compete with them because our Bible study is on Sundays. I am going to continue to practice three times a week with them and hopefully develop some really great friendships! God is so faithful!

After I spoke at the Unviersity of Carabobo I had one of the students call me and ask me to go to the beach with her and her friends. I went and had a great time; the beaches here are BEAUTIFUL! Since then, we have been hanging out a lot and she is a really sweet friend. I am hoping to invest a lot of time in her. She is an English teacher at an elementary school, and I went and spoke to her class last week. She travels around to each classroom to teach, so she has about 100 students. They each made me a sweet card so I have like a stack of 100 pieces of paper on my desk. It was so funny, they thought it was so cool that I spoke in English, but all they understood was “hello and how are you?” So it was pretty hard to talk for very long. After a few minutes they were like, “NO stop. No more English…speak in Spanish!! We don’t understand you!” They were sooo cute!

I love teaching with Lorri at Arturo Michelena! We are teaching American Civilization and History together. Right now I am her teacher’s assistant because I do not have a work permit that would enable me to have my own classroom. It has been such a blessing to teach with her because I am learning a lot from watching her. She lets me pick which topics I want to present and then we team teach. Last week I taught about the United States government, the three branches of our government and checks and balances. I can see all of your faces right now…yes, you heard right…I am teaching history at the University level! Ha! I can’t believe it either, but because I feel so ill-equipped, it is a real incentive to study before I present. I am learning a lot! J

As usual, Morgan has done a great job explaining everything. We kinda have a deal on this blog, she writes and I do the technical posting stuff. I am very excited about everything going on with Morgan. We are both now settled into our schedule and routine here. My English classes have been going well. My students have started to invite me to do stuff. I haven't been able to do anything with them yet, but I'm supposed to do lunch on Tuesday. I'm pretty excited about that. One thing I really like about where I work is the view I have while I teach. The office I work at is on the 11th floor, so the view is amazing. I'm posting a picture so you can see for yourself.

These last two weeks have been a bit crazy for me for several reasons. I moved to the apartment I will be staying at for the next 8 weeks. Also, one of the cars we have has been broken for awhile (it was finally fixed Wednesday) so I've been getting around on the bus. I have become quite the bus girl, taking buses I've never taken before =) But the car is now fixed and I'm settled into my new apartment. YAY! The lady I live with works with missions mobilization which is something I'm really interested in and she says that I can probably help her some. So all is good, I hope you enjoy the post!

La Playa

2008-02-07T18:23:00.000-08:00

Well, Morgan and I have really started to settle down into Venezuela and its almost like home. I started my job teaching English two weeks ago. I LOVE it.. the students are really good at setting their on pace so its pretty easy. Plus most of the students are young professionals.. so I get along with them well. I think they have all been surprised at how well I know Venezuela.. they don't get why I like it here so much.

Life has been moving pretty fast for me here ever since I started work... I feel like I've come along way in my mad Venezuelan driving skills. The only regret I have so far is that I haven't been able to spend time with people nearly as much as I would like to especially those I already know from my previous trips. I guess its a good problem to have, many people I know who have moved to new countries are having difficulties making friends and I'm already blessed with so many good ones! I think it will get easier after I get settled into things better.

Now I'll let Morgan tell you about our beach reach/ lighthouse adventure over the weekend....

Debbie D =)

Hey everyone! We just got back from our Beach week retreat and it was amazing! We are so excited to share everything with you. Thanks for all of your prayers! God is so good!

Just a little update of how things are going here before we tell you about the beach:

Debbie and I have been driving around this crazy city for about 2 weeks now…and we are still alive. Phew! It really isn’t too bad you just have to be really aggressive and really defensive. So far we have only had the car break down on us 5 times. Ha. Once there was something wrong with the fuel injection and we got it fixed, three times the battery died (we got a new one today), and once the brakes gave out while we were coming down the mountain from the beach! It was so crazy/scary. The brakes got over heated from stopping and going so much and they just stopped working. Good times. J

So our Beach Reach weekend was called Lighthouse. Every year the Venezuelans get off Monday and Tuesday for a celebration called Carnival. Nobody works and most of the people go to the beaches with their families or friends. They have been doing Lighthouse for 6 years now.

Friday:

We got to the house and tried to clean up a bit before the others arrived on Saturday. Twenty of us stayed in a house about 2 minutes walking distance from one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. Debbie and I and another Journeyman who is serving in Caracas were the only gringas there; the others were Christian leaders from all over the country. We even had a cook come in for the week so that while we were out on the beach he would prepare the meals for all of us. It was such a blessing; we ate very well! The house was great even though we didn’t have water for a few days; something happened with our water tank so we couldn’t shower or wash the dishes or anything. We all took showers in the outdoor showers at the beach in our swimsuits! It was great; we brought our shampoo and conditioner and just went at it! Ha! Cleaning and the using the toilets were not as easy/fun without water, but we managed. J

Saturday:

Everyone arrived at the house and we had the day to do whatever we wanted. We laid out all day and got as much sun as possible. I have a great picture (which is conveniently didn’t include on our slideshow) of me next to one of the girls from Venezuela and I seriously look like Casper! It is like night and day! Debbie and I are trying are hardest to be as tan as them…maybe one day. We came back in the evening for dinner and to plan for the next day.

Sunday and Monday:

We set up a tent right in a great location at the beach and we did free hair wraps and henna tattoos for anyone who wanted them. While one person was working on the hair wraps or tattoos another person would share Christ with that person. We also had a group of three people walking on the beach prayer walking while we were working. Almost every single person asked why we would do something like this for free. It was such a wonderful way to share about the free gift of God’s grace. We also showed a movie on the beach on Monday night with a big projector. We invited everyone who came to our tent to come. It actually ended up raining right in the middle of the movie so we had to turn it off, but Matute, our pastor for the weekend, still was able to share the Gospel with those who stayed around in the rain as we packed up. We probably shared with around 100 people and many prayed to receive Christ. At the end of the day we would have a time of worship and then share about our experiences from the day. It was such an amazing approach to ministry! The Venezuelans that were on our Lighthouse team were amazing. They just loved on everyone and made them feel so special and at ease; it was such an honor to serve with them.

Monday night:

The Venezuelans surprised us and threw a Carnival party the last night we were in Cata. They played music and we danced and played all night. It was so much fun. They taught us some new dance moves too like the meringue and salsa. They also gave out inside joke awards to everyone. One of the girls was the announcer and they called us all up and gave us a sash made out of toilet paper with our award written on it. It was hilarious…they LOVE to tease each other and they have the best sense of humor! I love it.

Now we are back in Valencia. It was really nice to come back to our little house…we actually missed our home and it was great to be back here. We will update again soon. Thanks for reading and checking up on us and thanks so much for your prayers and support. We love you all!

-Morgan

Por fin, We're in Venezuela

2008-01-26T18:13:00.000-08:00

So, we are here in Venezuela! Things are going great! We got in late on Tuesday night and spent the night in an IMB apartment in Caracas. The next morning we did some orientation stuff with our orientation leaders Martha and Richard Beal. We arrived in Valencia on Wednesday night. The city is great! Debbie and I are staying with our supervisor, Lorri, for the first few weeks together.
We have spent the first few days here running errands and getting acclimated to the city. Lorri has done a great job showing us around and explaining how things work around here. We got our Venezuelan cell phones, ordered our medical certificate so that we can drive, traveled to the mall and exchanged some money and did some other fun, necessary errands…so, basically, we are officially Venezuelans now! Ha!
Neither Debbie nor I knew how to drive stick so Lorri took us out to practice the other day. Debbie did great…me…not so much. I had a lot of Venezuelans honking and making fun of me on the streets. Good thing I don’t understand everything in Spanish yet because I don’t think they were yelling out sweet words of encouragement. Oh well, we are going to keep on trying till we get it. Luckily we have two cars here: one is automatic, and one is manual. While we are getting used to driving around the city, we will be using the automatic. Tomorrow will be our first attempt at finding our way around by ourselves and trying not to get in an accident. The driving is pretty crazy around here…the roads are like a big free-for-all. Pray for us.
The students here threw Debbie and I a big welcoming party and it was so sweet. They had a band come and they stayed here at the house till like 1:30am. They even made us a cake that had the Venezuelan flag on it and it said “Bienvenidos Debbie y Morgan.” The students are so much fun! It was great.
Debbie starts her job on Monday. My job doesn’t start for another two weeks; next week I will spend most of my time getting acclimated to the city, hanging out with people and learning more Spanish. Our Spanish classes start next week; we will be working twice a week with a private tutor for three hours.
Next week Debbie and I are going to go to the beach with a group of our students for a Beach Reach project. It is called LIGHTHOUSE. The University ministry has been doing it for a couple years now. We stay in a beach house that the IMB has and then we do games and sports, show movies on the beach and share with the students on the beach. We are really excited about being a part of this exciting week.

Love always,
Morgan

Hey friends! I am Morgan has done a good job explaining how our first couple of days have gone. They have indeed been great! I had a bit of a scare as one of my bags didn't arrive until today. But it arrived and that's all that matters. It is SO great to be back here finally. It has been easy so far for me to jump back in with my friends here... I'm thankful for that. The welcome party was great because I got to see many of the people I know here on the same night.
I met my boss on Friday and I will start work on Monday. I will be teaching two to three English classes everyday. My classes are in different offices of different businesses. Thankfully most of them are in the same building. I have to admit that I'm more nervous about driving to the classes than anything but for this first week Morgan and I are driving to them together. I am so thankful that I have a partner and that she happens to be the best partner in the world.
I will be teaching for a week and then I get to go to the Lighthouse thing that Morgan talked about. I'm excited to finally get to go to Lighthouse as I have always heard all about it from my friends here. Plus it will be a nice break after an intense first week of work. Ha!

We hope to hear from you all soon. Thanks for checking out our blog!

Debbie D =)

Waiting

2008-01-01T11:19:00.000-08:00

Bienvenidos a Morgan and Debbie's blog! I hope that this blog will be useful to all of our family and friends as we serve for two years in Venezuela. Morgan and I will be trying to keep this updated with stories and pictures of what God is doing in and through our lives in Venezuela. Right now, Morgan and I are at our parents homes in Acworth, GA and Warner Robins, GA respectively. We got back from our two month orientation just a couple of days before Christmas. Our time there was fun, inspiring and informative. We were with over 200 others that are going to all parts of the world. We learned everything imaginable from doctrine, discipleship strategies, to everyday business matters. Morgan and I were both blessed with great friends that in many ways felt like a second family. While at training we all lived in quads which is basically a building with about four apartments that share a common room. Morgan and I shared an apartment in the best quad on campus!

Although we were very busy at orientation, some of the weekends afforded some time for some extra fun. Morgan and I, being adventorous girls, went on two road trips with some of our friends at orientation, one to DC where I visited my sister, bro-in-law and my new nephew and she visited a friend. The second one was to New York City. Both trips were short but fun, I look forward to many more adventures with Morgan in the next two years! Orientation was excellent, I am very thankful for all the support that made orientation such a special and important part of our preparation to go. You can enjoy a slideshow of some of our fun at orientation below.

We are eagerly anticipating our departure date of January 22. We had orginally planned to leave at the beginning of the month however, due to circumstances beyond our control i.e. unavailable tickets, we are leaving later. I, more so than Morgan, was frustrated by the later departure date because I have been anticipating it for so long. But as I learn more and more everyday God is the God of time and not me. He tells us in Isaiah 64:4 that "Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him." I really do not know all that God has in mind for us in the time that we wait and I may never know but I WILL wait on his timing! Now, Morgan and I are taking advantage of (or as the say in Venezuela "aprovecha") the time we have at home by spending time with friends and family as well as building stronger connections with our supporting churches. If we haven't already, maybe we'll see you!

Chaito pues!

Debbie D =)