Never a dull moment...

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