One more night...

Well- the combination of weather and equipment has our morning flight delayed and leaving late this afternoon at 5:50 PM, so it looks like we will be spending the night in Miami tonight, and arriving in Birmingham tomorrow afternoon around 12:30 PM. So...
Be praying.
Chris


As of 4:45PM Saturday we are officially "at the gate" waiting to board later. If you would ask the Lord for grace for hotel vouchers for us when we get to Miami. We hear conflicting reports that there may be no help for us with hotel charges- so we shall see after we get there. 
Hopefully see you guys Sunday afternoon!

Lord willing...

If the Lord wills, our friend Juan will be swinging by to pick us up in a van on Saturday morning (December 17, 2011) for a short ride to the Mariscal Sucre Airport. We plan to walk through the mystic portal to climb on an American Airlines flight to Miami, then another one onward to Birmingham, hopefully arriving at around 8:30 PM Saturday night in the Magic City!
Pray for clearing skies in Quito since the fog here has been horrific in the last few days due to the chilly rain in the Andes.
And yes...the dog is doing better.
Hope to see many of you soon.
Thankful to be among the redeemed in Christ with you all,

Bendiciones!

Chris and Vickie and family...

Dog Days in December

Now our apartment (the lower floor of a large house) has a set of iron bars and an enormous flowering hedge that stretches across the front of the place. It isn’t exactly Fort Knox, but you would need to do some climbing to come over into the tiny garden area at the front. I am guessing that is why there are bars on the front and side windows of the house, so that if Joe Crook decides he feels like hopping over, he still has to contend with the bars. There are still some vulnerable points left for us to consider...

Which is why we have a dog (See his picture from a couple of months ago...). I like dogs, although I would not consider myself a dog fanatic. My brother and sister and I grew up in a “one generation removed from the farm” type environment, which basically leads us to conclude that dogs are dogs. God put fur on them so they can live outside and feel really nice. Yep- that’s why they have fur coats on all the time. So- when our 5-month-old really fine looking German Shepherd (Pastor Areman in Spanish) was feeling sickly on Friday, I simply let him have some water and sleep it off. But when Saturday afternoon rolled around and he was losing fluid at both ends, it was time to take some action.

Not sure if you have ever tried to communicate with a Spanish speaking veterinarian about a dog who is not keeping anything down, but it is an interesting dynamic.

After 2 shots, a prescription, and paying the bill, and after the walk back up the mountain toward home with my now medicated dog, I soon left again for an excellent band and choir concert (Great job Ann Coe!) at the school. During the intermission of the performance I made a hasty walk through the dark and the diesel fumes to the pharmacy nearby to get some additional medicine for him. Now the dog was curled up like any sick puppy when I got back home, so I petted him, confident that the shots would have him back on his feet soon. On Sunday morning early I went out to offer some very bland and watery chicken and rice, only to find him missing… yes, missing.

Well this “missing dog status” certainly started all kinds of conspiracy theories about theft and about other possibilities. It is hard enough to medicate a sick dog with pills, and it is impossible to medicate a missing dog. We sadly resigned ourselves that he was gone. But behold, Tuesday morning he shows up on our doorstep. Was he stolen and returned because he would not fetch the price due to his illness? Did he find a way to wriggle free of the iron bars only to find his way back?

So begins Spanish speaking doggie doc trip number two with more medicine, and more frustration. He just isn’t doing well, so hospitalization may be next? We will see...

Honestly, the series of the last few days with X-rays and MRI’s for Kayla’s knee joint injury, and Spanish speaking cardiologist visits and eye exams and eyeglasses and heart monitors and echocardiograms for Kory, and family intervention for some actions from Kyle, plus a miserable cold for Vickie, and 2 vet visits along with the other normal daily items for 9 children on 3 continents has us all extremely ready for a few days of Christmas vacation.

But, in the midst of this, God’s word has continued to magnify Christ as we share it, and to encourage us as we most need it. Even in the last few days, the opportunities to bring the Gospel to bear on various situations have come flooding in, from mentoring to marriage counseling to questions from Ecuadorian kids who want to know why I believe the Bible, so keep praying that we are strengthened by His Spirit to display His power even as we feel crushed sometimes. Pray that we are not distracted from the joyous work of the gospel by the stressing situations of life in another context. We are so thankful for your prayers, your email notes to us, and your financial support for us, but more than anything else this Christmas season, we are so thankful for your faith in Christ who came for us all.

         “For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints…”

        

(Ephesians 1:15-18 ESV)

Blessings!

Chris and Vickie