Hi everyone! It’s a beautiful day in Bolivia after a seemingly long time of cloudy, cold dampness… Trust your day is going well!!! I´ve been compiling my addresses again (still)…and this if the first time sending it through Outlook… If you are on this list, and aren´t supposed to be, or don´t want to be… sorry… just send me a note and I´ll fix that… AND if you know anyone that wants to be getting update letters from our family or El Jordan and ISN´T on the list, let me know… THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE IN THIS! (and repeated help!)
This letter has just a few scattered thoughts… it was going to include a few more… but days have gone by and its best that I just send it off… Please read to the end (or at least skip and read the last part…) The kids and I are going back to Canada for about 6 weeks to meet up with as many churches, family and friends as is possible… Please read when we might be in your area so we can coordinate getting together…
4Ç0 ºº11004200420240 ´ñññlññl0d (That was Marlee´s contribution to the letter…)
FAQ: How do you find your way to the girls´ houses when there are no street names and signs?
Good question… I was reminded of it today when Miguel was giving me directions to find Mónica (who we had lost contact with at El Jordan)…
Do you know where Homero´s Corner is?
I nodded (a couple months ago I spent a good half hour, a dozen stops, looking for this place… NO sign, I just happened to stop there to ask for directions…) From there, you go straight… there is a soccer field… but its not that soccer field… you go straight… there is another soccer field where there is a big truck… you go on straight… there is a restaurant… then you turn left… you go a block… there is a sign… no, you go s two blocks… she is in the house that doesn´t have a fence… That street name is “El Carmen”…
Ha… I´ll go and look for her on Saturday… I´m sure there´ll be no street signs… I just hope that big truck is sitting there!!!
A while back a group of people from Saskatoon were in my vehicle… and they asked the same FAQ… They got to see how it works… That day we were looking for Concepcion… better known as ¨Mary¨… whose explanation of where she lived included two main points… Its on the main road in Plan 3000 that goes from X to Y… and its just down from the corner where the sign that says ¨Preventiva¨ is… Then Mary remembered one more thing… Hmm… they took the sign down…
Visiting day came and we discovered that there were 3 main roads that went from X to Y… and there were many places that a sign could have been… Many stops and questions later, we actually found out WHERE the sign USED to be…
As I knocked on a gate that I hoped was hers (and it was…), she stumbled out of the clandestine drinking joint next door… “Oh!! I didn´t think you´d come!” …and that´s how you find your way around! A couple other directions from the past:
“where there is a tree that divides into three… but its been cut down…”
“where the number X bus USED to go by…”
“turn at the house that used to be yellow…”
“near the kiosk where there is a lady named Julia…”
“at the corner where there is a little old grandma who has a blue tarp…”
“turn at the sign for the brothel where they found the dead girl…”
I never did find the tree that was cut down… but I did find most of the other places!
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LESSONS IN TRUSTING IN JESUS:
Marlee and Keiden were given some partridges for their birthdays… One morning, I let them out onto the grass to give them a few moments of ¨freedom¨… I thought they´d just flap around a bit like chickens… but they happen to fly… Marlee was heartbroken (she does a very good heartbroken face…) when one of the partridges flew onto the roof of the house next door… I thought it was a good chance to teach Marlee about prayer… In my head I reasoned that the roof was slanted towards us… that if and when the little partridge decided to fly again, there was a really good chance that he´d fly right back into our yard…
…so Marlee and I prayed… ¨Lord, please bring our birdie back to us... Amen…¨
Supposedly I was teaching Marlee about prayer, and trust in God… but on my part… it was more like manipulating ¨faith¨ using reason (which isn´t faith at all)… I kept expecting the bird to fly back our way… but the silly thing just sat there… Marlee kept asking about him every couple minutes with her worried little look… “My budie?” We went to El Jordán and when we got home I looked up on the roof, nothing… I looked all around the back yard, nothing… I didn´t mention anything to Marlee so she wouldn´t be disappointed that God didn´t answer her prayer…
We were getting supper ready, the door bell rang… We weren´t expecting anyone… ¨Corina, its Fernando, your neighbour…¨ Marlee and I went to open the door… “Is this yours?” Cupped in his hands, was the partridge… ¨My budie!!!” Marlee squealed with delight, jumped up and down… We told our neighbour, ¨We asked God to bring our birdie back… and He did!!! He brought it back!!!¨ Tears stung my eyes. A little prayer, said with not too much faith on my part, but God chose to literally answer the simple words of a 3 year old by bringing him right to the front door… and kindly reminding this mom that HE is in control and doesn´t need me to manipulate the situation to show that He exists and cares about us… Marlee still talks about it in her very animated, 3 year old way… “My budie fly away… roof… Really. Me pray to Jesus… Jesus hold him… Jesus gave back the budie, me!” Oh Lord… give us the faith of a child.
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At El Jordan, we often mention the many people who pray for us, support and encourage us… We have our “family tree” on the wall (we are still missing many of your pictures!!! If you haven´t sent us your picture, please send us one… along with a note to tell us how many years you have been a part of our “family”… so our students and volunteers can meet you and pray for you…)
I often cringe thinking about 2 things…
1. It´s been so long since I´ve been back to Canada and the States to say THANKS in person... and 2. I´m so terrible at getting regular letters out (especially written letters that get to people who aren´t on e-mail)…
I am so thankful to you for your faithfulness in supporting and caring for us in spite of these facts… One of the things that pulled me back from pushing towards a trip “home” was the fear that Marco´s visa would be rejected… Well… we went through facing that fear last year and now we have to face the reality that I have to travel alone…
With Keiden now in school (he just finished up kindergarten… and he starts first grade mid-august), this is the best time for us to travel... We are going to start getting “caught up” with a short (from June 28 through the first week of August) trip back to Canada… We (Keiden, Marlee and I) will start off in Calgary, go to Toronto area from July 7th to 15th… and then Chilliwack area from July 17th to the 23rd… Then we´ll have some family time around the 100 Mile House and Kimberly areas… so if you are near there, let me know as well… In the Chilliwack and Toronto areas, because time is so short, getting together in group is probably the best use of time… Let me know and hope to see as MANY of you as we can!!!!
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Well… have a wonderful day… God bless and keep you… Lots of love from all of us… Corina (for Marco, Keiden and Marlee…)