Last Deputation Trip

We're headed to our last scheduled meeting of deputation this weekend. We'll be seeing Josh's family this weekend as well, to say good-bye before we leave for Buenos Aires on January 26th. We've been keeping pretty busy getting loose ends tied up and getting things ready to go!
Joel is a little confused as to what we're doing, upending everything in our house. Ha ha! We're looking forward to moving and getting settled in there in La Plata. We know Joel is going to love it! The church we'll be working in the first year has a large class of 2 yr olds.
Joel's hair has grown so much over the past couple of months. As I expected, he's not fond of haircuts, but the second one went much more smoothly than the first!
Amelia won't be alone in the nursery class in the church in La Plata either. Several baby girls were born this past summer.
We were able to have Amelia's ears pierced this month. All the baby girls in Argentina have their ears pierced, and we didn't want her to be left out! She is also sitting up on her own now, and absolutely loves playing with her feet.
Thank you for keeping up with us on our blog. We hope to keep it updated weekly, especially while we are moving and settling in. Please pray with us about finding the right local language school for me and about finding the right house to rent for the first year. As always, God knows our needs and we know He will provide.

iPhone!

I posted this using my new iPhone! Praise the Lord for his goodness!

Joel Playing Daddy's Guitar

I couldn't help but put this on here, Joel loves playing my guitar!

we're home

we made it back into the States. we're very tired. we hope to post lts and lits of pictures and videos soon.

Update

wow, where do i begin...

sunday- went to service in la plata, took a taxi to the airport, met Mr & Mrs Self, drove to restaurant 'sigue la vaca" it was amazing, drove to their house, was there for about 30 minutes, left and saw 3 different services (at least part of them.) ate great pizza, went to bed!
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monday- got up, went to tigre bought some souvenirs, went out to a nice restaurant, got to ask a lot of q's and get advice from the Self's. went to a pastor's meeting and got great advice from national argentines, went to bed.
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tuesday- got up, mrs self drove us to the train station, took train to retiro, met 2 misionary couples, drove around some tourist sites, walked to the obelisk, ate at burger king, took subway back to where we parked, drove to boca, got some thing for our display, drove to see missionaries' church, left for bus station, took bus to la plata, took taxi to bush's house after 11:00 pm. long day! that;s right we took a train, car, subway, bus, and a taxi in one day. i wish i could have worked out trip by plane and boat to make it a really full day.

wednesday- tookvthings a little slower... passed out hundreds of tracts on busy street corners in la plata, helped a little with a garage sale type thing at the church, attended wed pm service.

i preach thursday in ezpeleta...i'll catch up the rest next time.

Various Pictures 3

Joel was trying out a new hairdo in Argentina


Poor folks will go along and pick up recycleable things from the trash, and put it in one of these horse buggy things.


me, with a policeman

Random people in the Centro in La Plata

Various Pictures 2

Joel was a big hit at Iglesia Bautista de Gracia in Ezpeleta (Quilmes) Everyone had to hold him, and have their picture taken with him.

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Train ride to Ezpeleta (Quilmes) Andri accompanied us. He is from Ukraine.

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Various Pictures

Mauricio and Diana from Iglesia Bautista El Faro. They invited us over for lunch on Friday.

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Diana is from Peru, so we had Peruvian food in Argentina.


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Me, preaching.

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And you thought the Leaning Tower Of Piza was special! ;)

Friday, Saturday, and Plans for Sunday

(Jenn) Friday, we babysat the girls during lunch, so Mindy could take Jeff out to eat for his birthday. I read a few books to them after we ate, then we put in a movie for them. Jeff and Mindy didn't take long.
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Later that afternoon, Josh and Joel and I took a taxi to a store called Carrefour, a French store that puts Walmart and Sam's Club to shame. It was huge! We walked up and down the aisles and wrote down prices of everything we would need to buy if we lived here (we are researching what our start-up fund will need to be). We got a little over half way through the store...in about three and a half hours. We had to stop then, not only because we were starving, but because we didn't want to be late for Jeff's surprise party that the church members were throwing him. ;)
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The people from the church suprised Jeff with an 'asado' (grilling out) at the house. We got to experience true Argentine Asado (grilled meat). Raul slow cooked some ribs to perfection, seasoning them with only salt. That meat had more flavor than most, if not all, the steaks I have ever eaten. It was awesome!
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Today, we went on visitation: me with Mindy, Josh with Alfredo and Mauricio. Josh and his group saw three souls saved! Mindy made a contact with a lady named Claudia, who she will be going back to visit with next week. We're hoping she will come to church tomorrow with her five children (ages 15 to 2). We also saw a rotweiller that, at first glance, I thought was a small horse. Mindy ran, I just stared. LoL, in hindsight, I probably should've run. The gate was only being held shut by a wire that looked like a twist tie, and that dog sounded hungry for human!
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The people here all have gated yards, and most use dogs for security. Purebreds are stolen quite often, but I doubt that Rot's owner will have any problems. :)
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Stray dogs are also a big problem here. I've seen at least 10-20 stray dogs every day that we've been here. They're mostly mixed breeds, but I have seen a couple of purebreds, including greyhounds. You all know me, but no, I'm not trying to smuggle one home. The strays tend to look better than some of the dogs with owners.
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Considering the dog problem, I guess it's not so odd that today was the first time I saw a stray cat. I only saw the one.
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The ladies meeting this evening went well. For those of you who don't know, I was able to give my testimony, as well as teach a short beauty class...all in English. Mindy translated. Mindy said it went over well, everyone seemed to enjoy it. I gave a few skin care tips, and taught them to make a fresh fruit facial mask, of which I was able to send home enough for one mask for each lady. We also had a short Q&A on haircare.
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After we picked up the girls from the babysitter's, we went home to Jeff and Josh, who were bragging about having gone out for steak without us. (They didn't, there were leftovers from the Asado all over the kitchen counters that they had eaten...just like a man to not think about the practical side of the lie. ;) They did, however, order ice cream. Yes, I said order. Here in La Plata, you can order ice cream and they bring it to your house. All ice cream is expensive, so it's not too different from going to the store for yourself. Josh said there is some leftover.
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Josh and I are going to meet Ron Self tomorrow after the morning service at Iglesia Bautista del Faro (where we're singing the special). We'll take another taxi back to the airport in Buenos Aires where Bro. Self is going to pick us up. Then, from what I understand, we'll be headed to northern Buenos Aires to spend 20 or 30 minutes in two different evening services before we settle for the duration at a third service. I think the point is to see some different services at different churches.
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Well, it's my turn for the shower, then I'm hoping Joel will feel like sleeping so I can go to bed before 1 AM. It's going to be a full day tomorrow! We'll post again soon.

Landing in Miami

map of the area

View Larger Map

to give you an idea, from La Plata (bottom right corner) to northern Buenos Aires, (top) they say takes a good two hours to travel. The place is huge.

Another busy day, and more to come

This afternoon we were invited to eat lunch at the house of a family from the church here in La Plata. The wife, Diana is actually from Peru, so lunch was a Peruvian dish. It was delicious! Mauricio had a lot to say about personal evangelism.
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Later we took a train to Ezpeleta (don't worry Moms, we were with another man from the church) to go to a Thursday night service. It was about 45 minutes by train. The man we went with (Andri) is from the Ukraine. All the Ukranians I know (2) are characters. At the church service, Pastor Matias asked us to give our testimonies and sing a song. The people are so friendly here.
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For those that don't know, it's tradition in all of South America for guys and ladies to greet one another with a kiss on the cheek. When I went to Peru, so I (Josh) was already used to that custom. Well, here in Argentina, they take it a step further...the guys kiss the guys on the cheeks! A kiss hello, and a kiss goodbye for virtually everyone you meet. Talk about culture shock! Actually, I knew that was the custom before we came. For Americans, it's weird, but it's practiced in other parts of the world. It was practiced in Bible days. The Bible does say "greet one another with a holy kiss."
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Our schedule at this point is:
Friday- run some errands in the morning, and babysit in the evening to give Jeff and Mindy an evening out on Jeff's birthday.
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Saturday- visitation in the morning, possibly go to Buenos Aires, Jennifer is conducting a beauty class at the ladies meeting in the evening.
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Sunday- Sunday morning service in La Plata, give testimony and sing, get on bus to the airport, meet missionary Ron Self, go north of Buenos Aires, see the beginning of 3 services in the area, then stay for full service in Don Torcuato, stay the night with them...
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Monday- do some souvenir shoppping, or just rest in the morning, I'll go to a pastor's meeting starting at six, there should be 9 or 10 pastors/ missionaries there, we'll stay the night again...
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Tuesday-get up and meet Gonzalo Hauman, a local pastor in North Buenos Aires, spend most of the day with him, and go back to la plata.
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Wednesday-
not sure about the morning, at night, the service in La Plata
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Thursday-
not sure about the morning, preach/sing in Ezpeleta (Southern Buenos Aires, but north of La Plata)

That's all I know for now. Oh, for those who might be wondering, the time difference is three hours from Eastern Time. 12:00 pm in Knoxville is 3:00 pm here.

Well, that's all for now. chau!

i can;t believe i'm posting at 3:30 am!

preaching went great
preahed out of John 15 "Abide in me"

our schedule is filling up nicely, an answer to prayer.

God is challenging us, he is increasing, stretching, our faith in Him.

hopefully this link works to see some pics

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018529&l=8d752&id=1370643959

Preaching Tonight!

(Josh)

Jeff has asked me to preach tonight! Pray that the Lord will use me to speak to the people.

It has been raining a lot last night and today.

It was sure good to sleep in a bed last night.

I'm going to go prepare to preach, I'll try post tonight afterwards and tell you how it goes, and if they kick us out and send us back home. ;)

95% Packed

We are 95% packed, just need the other 5% from now till Monday at 8:00 in the morning when we leave. We are so excited! I believe the Lord is going to do so much with this trip. Buenos Aires is such a huge, diverse place. (around 15 million population in the area) I believe God has a place for us there. We are seeking His guidance. Pray about it if you would.

-Josh

Here's our itinerary:

American Airlines 1761 ATLANTA MON 02MAR
2:20 PM MIAMI INTERNTNL 4:15 PM Q

American Airlines 909 MIAMI INTERNTNL MON 02MAR
8:30 PM BUENOS AIRES EZE 8:15 AM Q

American Airlines 908 BUENOS AIRES EZE MON 16MAR
10:55 PM MIAMI INTERNTNL 6:40 AM Q

American Airlines 1664 MIAMI INTERNTNL TUE 17MAR
9:40 AM ATLANTA 11:40 AM N

Joel Sound Effects

Joel was making all kinds of new sounds. Jenn says he was preaching, I say he was riding a motorcycle. What do YOU think?

I am sure he was driving...something. Maybe a motorcycle, maybe a sports car, or maybe a big truck. Whatever he was doing, it was cute.

School's Almost Over!

Joel's Well-Baby visit went well! He's twenty weeks today, the 19th. He's a whopping 16 lbs and 4 oz, and 26 inches long. I told Josh that Joel's two-foot-two! ;) He had three shots, and only grunted for the first two, and cried for a second on the last one! He's such a trooper!
Also, Joel rolled over by himself for the first time last night! It's so cool to watch him grow. I thank God that I'm able to stay home with him, I know so many mothers who want to that aren't able to.
Joel ate his first 'real' food the other night. We tried squash first, as I was told lighter to darker foods is the best way to go. That, and since I was introduced to fruits first, and from then on refused the veggies, Joel is getting a good taste of veggies before he gets into those sweet fruits! I'm uploading the video to YouTube as I write this, so I can link it to the blog. I apologize about the length of the video, you know the grandparents are long-distance!
Josh's last semester is winding down here in the next few weeks, and we are both SO ready for him to be done! a Master's degree is still an option, but not for a while! Please pray for us as Josh is looking into getting a second job, so we'll be able to pay off our medical/school debts more quickly. (I praise God that we don't have any credit card debt anymore, and haven't had for a few years now. I sincerely dislike those things (credit cards), they seem to get you every time!) A great job opportunity has been presented to him already, we're praying that the hours will work with his other job and his ministry responsibilities. I've been searching on and off for some sort of typing work. I only found a couple of viable opportunities, but I haven't heard back about either of them. Let me know if you hear of something!
We're still working on our health. I've slowly started to lose the weight I've been trying to get rid of. Keep praying for us about that, please!
Well, that pretty much catches you up on us for now. I'll post again in a couple of weeks, if I have anything new to tell you! And with the Adventures of Super-Baby, I'm sure I will! :) ~Jenn

Weekend in W.V.

Well, we just got back today from a wonderful weekend visiting with Josh's family in W.V.! We arrived on Saturday, and came back today (Tuesday) in time for Josh to work this evening. We were able to introduce Joel to his Great-Grandpa John McCloy, and his Great-Grandma Evelyn McCloy! He has now met all of his grandparents and great grandparents. Great-Grandpa McCloy thought it was a great thing that Joel resembles Josh so much, seeing that Josh resembles Great-Grandpa McCloy! He was sure to tell Joel what a handsome man he was going to grow up to be! :)
We received many blessings this weekend as well! Josh was invited to preach the morning service at his home church, and Josh and I sang a special for the same service. We were able to go out to eat with Tammy's sister, Carrie, who hadn't met Joel until then. (Carrie is expecting her first baby, a girl she plans on naming Annabelle, near the end of December.) Josh's younger brother, Matt, was invited to preach the evening service, and Matt, Josh, their Mom (Tammy) and I sang the special for that service! Their Dad (David) was able to make it to both services to hear his sons preach, which was a great blessing! And, of course, everyone told me how beautiful my sweet Joel is!
We were also able to see a lot more of Josh's Dad this visit. We went over to Grandma Esther's each night, and spent the evening with her and David. She cooked us a couple of WONDERFUL meals, including homemade fried chicken one night, and pork chops the other night! (Those can be counted as blessings, right?)
This weekend, when we left, we weren't thinking anything about our birthdays later this month. Josh's is the 15th, mine is the 30th; too far away to make a big deal out of them now, right? Apparently, wrong! Our last evening with David, he presented us with a couple of great birthday presents (cash is always a great present!), and when we got back to Tammy's, she had a birthday cake waiting for us, and a present for me! (I tease Josh that I'm the favorite...I think she's trying to prove me right! J/K, she said she hadn't found the right gift for Josh yet, but I think she's just itching for a reason to see us again soon. ;) She had the pastor's daughter-in-law, who is gifted at jewelry design, make me a pendant and earrings set that includes Josh's and my birthstone color, and Joel's birthstone color! They are just beautiful.
And if those blessings aren't enough, God provided, through several different sources, the money we spent on the trip, as well as a bit more! (An added blessing, because the Altima is needing new brake pads before we make any more trips in it.) God is so good to give us the family and friends that we have!
Quick Amazing Baby update: Joel is now puckering his lips when I blow a kiss to him, and he is beginning to grasp things like books with one hand on either side! His hand-eye coordination and hand dexterity is amazing. He seems to be developing by leaps and bounds every day. Also, as of this past Sunday, November 2nd, Joel is 4 months old! He weighs 15.5 lbs, but I haven't gotten an accurate length yet. He curls up in his sleep, and wiggles too much when awake! I'll have exact stats after his 4-Month well-baby visit on the 14th. It was put off a bit, due to a busy cold season at our Dr's office.
Oh, and I wasn't able to mention it to the whole church up at Calvary Community, but a great big Thank You for all the baby gifts! And please forgive an extremely busy college-wife and stay-at-home mom for not sending out all my thank-you cards after the baby. The gifts I received from you all, and from my other three baby showers, were much too generous, but SO appreciated! All the baby blankets and quilts, toys, diapers, wipes, keepsakes, and clothes have been and are being put to good use. God has used each and every one of you to provide for us and be a blessing and an encouragement to us while we've been down here at Crown College. Just wanted to express our thanks again for everything. We love you, and we hope to visit again soon! ~Jennifer

Nah-Nah-NahhhNah

Joel seems to really like the music off commercials...when I sing it to him! He's such a little turkey, he cracks me up on a daily basis!

Tough Guy