Pictures

I've put some more pictures up. Enjoy!

http://joyalegria.multiply.com/photos/album/20/A_Certain_Sense_of_Home

By Searching

This is a little something that Jess and I have each enjoyed recently. We brought the book, By Searching, along with us, not realizing how good it would be to read it. I felt like it was "sent" to me at a perfect time:

When is the Search ended? In one sense, it is finished when our hand, stretched out to God in the name of His appointed mediator Jesus Christ, feels the answering grasp and knows that He is there. But in another sense the searching never ends, for the first discovery is quickly followed by another, and that by another, and so it goes on. As I write it is dawning a new day. The far horizon has seen the bright spot of the rising sun, but heavy clouds soon covered it. However, these clouds have become illuminated and streaks of pink and gold beauty are breaking through chance rents in their filmy cover. One discovers glory after glory as the eye eagerly explores the heavens. And so it is with God. To find that He is, is the mere starting-point of our search. We are lured on to explore what He is, and that search is never finished, and it grows more thrilling the farther one proceeds.
Up to this point I have discovered that God is; and that He is mine by the mediatorship of Christ. I have discovered that He can and will teach me His way, or His plan for my life. I have found that He can overcome obstacles and that we do not need to arouse a great hullabaloo to get Him to do so. Hudson Taylor was right in his discover: "learn to move man, through God, by prayer alone." By searching I have discovered that He has strange and sweet ways of manifesting Himself; at sundry [various or many] times and in diverse manners God is still speaking (Heb. 1:1)
~Isobel Kuhn

We Have a Home!

And it's thrilling. I'm not sure what we were worried about before, thinking it would be too small, because it fits just right. I was telling Jess that I look around and feel like I've been given so much . . . even though I know mentally that the apartment is tiny and we don't have many things. It's such a satisfying feeling to feel satisfied.

Part of the reason we can appreciate the little so much is due to the grand finale of our first two months' living situation. I think if we had arrived here straightaway, our feelings of gratefulness would have been quite different. Don't get me wrong, we LOVED living in Santana with Bernadette and were sad to leave (we've already gone back to visit both her and the neighbourhood), but by the end our bedroom was serving us as a bedroom, a kitchen (our dried goods were stored above our clothes in the closet and our fruit ripened on the floor), and a laundry room (we strung up a clothesline back and forth over the foot of our bed)) . . . which lead to a general air of permanent claustrophobia. On top of that, Jess got quite sick and had to stay at home in bed for three days, soaking up the "crampedness" to the full during our last week.

By the time we came to see the apartment again before moving in, we were like, we thought this was too small? I still revel in the fact that when we buy groceries, they ALL get to stay in the kitchen! :)

I have plenty more to say, but as usual there are not enough hours in the day to do all I'd like to do. It's almost 9:30pm, our usual bedtime, and we're getting up extra early tomorrow to be able to get to the outdoor market in a park just around the corner from our apartment before we have to walk to work at 6:40am.

So for now, goodnight dear friends and family.

P.S. Please think about coming to visit . . . wherever you are!

Two Minute Post

This is just to let you know that we´re alive and well. We´ve moved into our new apartment, and have been cleaning, and travelling about the city (and out of it) in order to collect the bare necessities of a new home. We discovered this internet place nearby recently, but hardly have the time to use it . . . however, that should change soon because we´re scheduled to have the internet installed in our place this Saturday. Which means that very shortly (I hope!) I´ll have the opportunity to give a real update on our lives. Until then, so long.

Accounting for our Absence

Since I last wrote I´ve been sick, we´ve been to and from the International Conference at the Estancia twice, we´ve done some recording in a professional studio, I´ve gotten and gotten rid of lice, and Jessica´s got sick and is in the process of getting over it. A lot of everything has been happening lately, and we´ve hit the ``I want my Mommy`´ stage. What doesn´t help is that while we were at the conference, two sets of our friends parents took care of us in various ways, and now that we´ve returned home by ourselves the absence of parental figures in our day-to-day lives is felt keenly. However, there´s no need to be alarmed. We´re doing well. On top of all the outward busyness, there´s tons going on below the surface. Jesus´ ways are certainly not my ways. I wouldn´t have planned all the things He´s done and is doing, but I can see that they are good. I keep remembering the song I learned way, way back in the day:

Whatever God says is true
Whatever God does is good
Whatever God plans He carries through
Whatever God says is true

We´ll be moving this weekend, so I´m not sure when I´ll write again for real. But as soon as I can, I will. Thanks for the recent emails. I´ll be responding bit by bit.