Glimpses of the first few days

Happy Birthday Jack

9 years ago my baby boy was born. John and I are blessed beyond words to have Jack...what a fun and amazing boy to raise. Crazy to think that nine years later I would be waking up in a hostel in Argentina, no shower in days, with a team of college students on this incredible journey to say Felix cumpleanos to Jack!!! Thank you Lord for Jack and this opportunity...truly amazing! The woman from the hostel just came by our room to gush over Jack and rub his head and pinch his ear and sing Felix cumpleanos...what a great start to his birthday.
John and Adam just headed out to teach the team in the famous and amazing Recoleta cemetery...pretty dreamy to get to lecture in these crazy locations. I believe they will be sitting by Evita's gravesite.
Later today we will be with Life Argentina working in the slums with the children again. It's heartbreaking to see the conditions but amazing to see the joy in the childrens faces. We pray for God's love and light to shine through us and also that our hearts would be changed and broken for those around us.

Buenos Aires

We arrived yesterday after almost a full 24 hours of traveling. Travelling with 30 people is quite fun and thankfully went very smooth for our first experience all together. Unfortunately after flying one 8 hour leg and then another 5 hour leg we were delayed in the air because of fog and then even had to land in Uraguay for a few hours while we waited in the plane before taking off again to Buenos Aires...therefore an extra 4hours in the plane :). The adventure has begun. Jack and Naomi were champs and slept and played for the whole time. Love those seat back entertainment systems for long flights.
The drive through the city made us so excited to be here. Naomi was fascinated by all the laundry hang drying out the tall city apartments. I can already tell it's a very warm culture and we can't wait to explore it. The weather is cold and wintery and I am so happy we packed some warm clothes. The hostel is like an old Argentina home with a courtyard and tall ceilings. We have a room for our family with two bunk beds and the rest of the team are in rooms of 4 or 8 bunk rooms. We all share a few bathrooms and there isn't much privacy so we will definitely be getting to know each other. :). It feels homey already and we have a big living room for devotions and class time which is great.
We had only been here about an hour yesterday and we walked next door to the empanadas cafe and all the guys in our team had befriended an Argentinian grandma and were sharing a meal with her practicing their Spanish and ended by praying with her. God is so good to begin the trip with experiences like this right away.
Breakfast this morning in the hostel was coffee and bread with dulce de leche jam on it. Jack and Naomi loved it and are hoping we have this every morning. :)
We begin our work with Life Argentina this afternoon working with the children in the "villas" or slums of Buenos Aires. Please be praying for us.
Gracias!!!!

1hour till take off

We are sitting in LAX waiting to board for Buenos Aires...the Concordia send off was awesome. Everyone has their passports and we are all together...all 30 of us. Great start!!! Thank you for all your prayers

only a few hours to go...

It's 8pm the night before we leave for the adventure of a lifetime. It's almost surreal. We are actually packed and our backpacks are waiting by the door. Getting the house to leave for 4 months and getting everything in order to leave the pets was about as difficult as packing. :) We had an amazing send off at church this morning. We feel covered and supported in prayer...it is such a blessing to have so many friends and family behind us in this journey. We had a tearful good bye to my parents today as well. SO happy they will be with us in just 2 months in Egypt. We meet up with the team at Concordia in just 12 hours and then after a University send off we are on our way to LAX. Buenos Aires here we come...

3 day countdown

VBS ends today...what a great week. We have had time with family and friends and have felt so supported by every message, prayer and encouragement we have received.
Please continue to pray for us this weekend as we finish packing, prepping our house, final preparations and good bye's. We have a whole mix of emotions going on right now and I can even see that the kids are experiencing it too.
Just checked the weather...Argentina is having the coldest winter in the last 40 years and Russia is having a heatwave...this makes packing a challenge :)

9 days till take off...

We are 9 days away from the adventure of a lifetime. The packing, the preparations, the visas, the lesson plans, the homeschooling plans, the immunizations and on and on can get tedious and exhausting but the 4 months ahead of us keeps us excited and pressing forward. We are about to embark on a dream opportunity that the Lord has blessed our family with.
We have the opportunity to lead a team from Concordia University this fall semester on a trip literally Around the World. We will cover 10 countries in the next 4 months along side a team of 25 college students. John will be teaching this group along with another professor and friend, Adam Lee. I will be homeschooling Jack and Naomi which I am sure will be a mixture of hard, great and everything in between. It will be new for all of us! :)

The group will spend 2-3 weeks each in Argentina, Russia, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Kenya, India, Indonesia and China. The dates of the trip are August 16th- December 17th, 2010. In every country we will not only be studying but experiencing the culture and trying to immerse ourselves in it. We will take part in many service projects such as teaching English in China, volunteering for an Indian orphanage, serving in the slums of Kenya and India and Biblical and historical research projects in Israel, Jordan, Kenya and Turkey.

I don't think I mentioned yet that we are doing this all for $27 per day and only taking backpacks. :) This challenge actually excites me believe it or not. But check back for later posts to see how this is actually working out. :)

The story of how God brought this amazing opportunity to us is a story for another time. (a future post) We are blown away and beyond thankful to have this chance. We greatly appreciate your prayers and we have been so blessed by the love and support we have received in the planning of this trip. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

We hope to update often with tales of the journey, pictures, prayer requests, and stories of what God is showing us around the world. If you click on John's Journal to the right of the blog, he will have his reflections on a seperate page. So check that out as well.