One month down

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

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