Monday, January 28, 2008

Retreat @ the Coast

Here are some pictures from our recent trip to the Coast. We went for a few days to a retreat with other missionaries. It was quite good to get away as things were so crazy before Christmas. It was a good time of rest and fellowship. We met in the morning and shared testimonies, then went swimming, took day trips, played games and I got to go fishing.




Even in Ecuador, fish tremble at the mere mention of my name. I got to go about 3 times and caught a few. We celebrated my birthday (30th) there and it was quite nice.
This is one of the sunsets we saw. We saw beautiful ones every day. That was quite nice because we don't see many here where we live.
Here's a guy working on his fishing nets.
The next few are from 'The Point.' They had pools of water in the rocks there where we saw fish. There were also cracks and crevasses in the rocks where you could see the water shoot up as the next couple of pics indicate.

This area is known for their surfing and we saw some people surfing. I like the surfboard there in the middle with Moses on it.
As I close I just want to share a verse that was meaningful. I read it while we were studying Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life. If you haven't read this book, I recommend it. At the end, he wraps up the book with a verse about King David and the way that he completed God's will for his life. It is Acts 13:36-'David served God's purpose in his own generation.' This has become a desire, prayer request and challenge for me and that I'd like to pass on to you. Can we serve God's purpose for our generation? This is not something that is going to be easy but it will have a lasting effect. I encourage you and myself to seek out and live God's purpose in our generation.
As I close, I would also like to share a prayer request related to the guys that are coming from a church in Oklahoma on a vision trip. Pray that we'll seek God and see how we can join him at work.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Last Peru pics

Well, I know I have some pics from more recent trips (some pretty good ones, at that) but wanted to go ahead and put the last of my Peru trip pics on here from Oct. Let me know what you think... Should I try to be a photographer for National Geographic if this missionary gig doesn't work out? I have no professional training as a photographer...
These were all taken on the Northern coast on the way from Piura. We thought we were going on home but we ended up stopping for another night in Mancora. This is an area known for surfing. Ended up going swimming a bit, but mostly walking around, taking pics, and a horseback ride on the beach. The first pic is of a rice field. Quite a bit of rice is grown in Northern Peru, even in the desert. A lot of it is irrigated. We also saw a lot of desert, like this pic to the left. Some of these areas were so desolate, but beautiful. On the way back, we drove through at daytime but on the way there it was night w/ a fairly bright moon and some of these desert places just looked amazing...kind of like we were on the moon ourselves.
The rest of these were taken outside of Mancora.
















This very last one was taken in Tumbes, the last main town before the Ecuadorian border. Crossing the border and getting on back home was quite an experience. We really did have a good trip and I'm glad I went. We found the Peruvian people to be quite friendly. The food was great as well. Saw some interesting sites, too. The trip was taken right before we found out that Christine was pregnant. We got pretty big news upon my arrival back home!

Monday, January 07, 2008

blessings for the New Year

(if you look close you can see these mud flaps have a picture of Yosemite Sam and say 'back off'.' We never cease to be amazed or surprised at things we see here...
Well, we know it's been a while and just wanted to touch base before we go on the move again. We had a good trip to the coast and then on to Cuenca. We've been at home for a couple of days but will be gone again this week from tomorrow until Fri. headed up to Ibarra to help w/ a IMB video team. It should be a good trip but we're looking forward to coming back and settling in again. We'll be staying with another missionary family (who have 3 small kids). I'll be going out with the team and Christine will be busy getting mommy lessons. I don't have any pics from our recent trip to coast/Cuenca but here are some from a recent day trip to Otavalo.
We went up to Otavalo to do some shopping but also went and saw this waterfall outside of town.
This sign is a highway sign for their main highway that runs north/south. The number for it is 35...if only it was I-35 and we could drive on northbound to Texas.