SURPRISE!!!! We're still here!!! :)

We woke up early on day 5. We went to the same panaderia and, this time, got arepas with jamon y queso. After finishing, Samuel drove us back to the seminary. We brought the printer and printed out pictures to give to the kids, while they made frames in which to put them. They were really cute... too cute. Around noon, we got in a taxi and we rode to the new Seminary property. El taxista bought us some bon-ice from a street vendor; they were pretty much really good.
We had our second pizza party with the rest of the team when we got there; they had been cleaning the new property all morning while we were with the kids. After finishing, we drove back to the mission house to change clothes. Phanie braided my hair so we were twins.. too cute.
On our way back to the new property, we picked up the medals for the graduates and also keychains for graduation. Our last stop was at the bakery to pick up the cakes. They were pretty cakes, ut they had no plastic cover on them, so Stephanie and I carried them in our laps, one sharp turn away from smashing our faces into them, while Samuel drove very slowly and carefully. We arrived back at the new property early, in order to fill about a hundred little glasses with oil for the dedication. A band played, and Warren Lathem told the background story of how the Seminary was established in Venezuela. Then, we went outside and poured all the oil on the ground and prayed over it. It was really a neat process. Our team was in charge of serving the drinks and the cake, so we were kept on our toes.
We left with Samuel and went home for dinner of potato and chicken soup with lots of fruit and bread.

So, day 6... We left the house early that day also. We picked up Dan and David at the Cosby house and made our way to the seminary. The kids and us made these things... look at the pictures... they are "door signs." we also made kites. The kids prepared a play all week and presented it today in front of the seminary students. It was really precious. :) We said bye to Osney, enen though we were going to see her again; she made us cry because she said we were in her heart. Then, we left with David and Dan and Dan had a cravin' for Mickey D's, so we had McDonalds for lunch. Yes, it tasted the same! heha.
We met the rest of the team at the new property and we helped set up for the dinner. It was Chinese themed. We filled our boxes with candy and a bible verse and put umbrellas and chopsticks in them. It looked really nice.
When we left there, we dropped Carol off at home and went to get last minute things for the dinner. We got back to the house at 5:45 and we were supposed to be at the new property at 5:30. Phanie took a shower and got ready in record time! 15 minutes. We left the house at 6:15 and got to the new seminary just in time for the cook to not be there, and nothing was happening. We helped serve the food with Jose Luis, we worked REALLY hard. We didn't get to eat dinner that night. We did have empanadas, and again we had the best flan in all of Venezuela. During the dinner, we handed out our gifts from McEachern for the graduates. After the dinner we cleaned and set up for the graduation. We went home and Rah passed out while Phanie stayed up and read her book and chatted with Samuel.

Now day 7. The Graduation. We woke up at 8 and got ready. We had oatmeal for breakfast and went to the new seminary at 9. The graduation was really nice. It was a great and very proud moment for the Venezuelans, being that it was the graduation of the first class of Methodist pastors in the country to complete seminary. Johan arrived on this day, and we were very excited to see him. Phanie gave him all his gifts, and he really liked them. As the graduates recieved their diplomas and we sang last songs, the time came when we had to say goodbye to the new friends we had made. We exchanged emails with many and hugs and kisses with all, as we made our way to the van and left with the Mt. Pisgah team.
It was suggested, from the back seat lol, that we go to a panaderia all together, since it would be our last day in Venezuela. We drove to Arco Iris in the big van, and we had a lovely meal. After eating, we went to Quibor. an outdoor shopping market. Everyone got some good souvineer by which to remember this trip.
We drove with Samuel out of Yolanda's church, Lugar Altisimo (High Place). This is a highly appropriate name (you can see from the pictures) because the church is atop a mountain and resembles a giant gazebo. The view from the church is absolutely breath taking. The Mt. Pisgah team had been working on this church and adjacent orphanage while we were with the kids at the Seminary. The spirit of the place felt much like Punto Fijo, in that the people have little material posessions, but have giant hearts. The team sang one last song with the Yolanda and left with a prayer.
Kev Kev wanted to go to a really good steak restraunt, and it was really good. Then, we went to get ice cream at the Obelisco hotel again.
Phanie suggested to Samuel that he drive us up the mountain to see the city at night...good suggestion. It was stunning to see the lights of the city from such a height. The pictures cannot do justice to such a sight.

Sunday... Day 8. We left at 6:30 and drve to Valencia just to miss our flight. So we are still here, having fun with Samuel. We will be back on Tuesday. See you all then.

Day 4

Today we left earlier than ever, at 6:45 AM... believe me, it was rough. We drove over to the Cosby house and picked up Dan to take to Seminary. Samuel decided to take us to breakfast, and so after attempting to eat at two other places, we went to a 24 hour place(kinda like Dino Pan) and had arepas stuffed with cheese.
Upon arriving at Seminary, we realized that Osney y Rosi weren't there yet, and so we were left alone with the kids. I brought a few yoyos with me, and so I showed them some of my skills and let them try. It was really funny to watch.
When help arrived, we played that game where you pop the balloon by sitting on it and laughed a lot. The older kids and the younger kids were then split up, while los pequenos made fish by pasting pieces of tissue paper on an outline of a fish to make scales. All the kids also made bible covers out of felt and cut out shapes.
We went to lunch at the Obelisco Hotel again, but this time accompanied by the Cosbys, Warren Lathem with his wife and son, and Samuel. It was a good meal, once again.
When Samuel dropped us back off at Seminary, we got in a very crowded van and were taken to the mall to see the movie "Wall E." I can definitly see now how it would be hard to live in a country where you do not know the language.
We got back and had spaghetti for dinner, accompanied by the men's devotion. Kevin, John, and Joe helpd Phanie finish the Chinese take out boxes, and so now we are off to bed... paz

Day 3

We left the house around 8 this morning and arrived shortly at Carol Cosby's house. She jumped in and we flew over to the Seminary. From our arrival until noon, we played many games with the children. I tried to teach them "gato-gato-perro" (duck dck goose). I think they understood the concept, but you can never be sure because they nod an agreement either way lol. The women that are in charge of the kid's camp, Rosi y Osney, brough supplies for the kids to make "perritos" (little dogs made out of foam).
A little before lunch, a young man came and sat near us, watching the kids... or something... and we went to talk to him. His name is Gilberto, and he is a student at the Seminary school. He knew a little English, so we were able to have a pretty decent bilingual conversation, each of us stumbling a little bit. He asked me, "What you think about God?" I realized, this is a very broad question, and so I just went with what I was feeling. I told him, in English, that the Christians of my country often times only go to church for maybe two hours and then leave and forget everything. In Venezuela, church lasts all day. It is a place where people have true fellowship with God, where they love each other and themselves, where they serve others with whatever they have. He said he believes God to be "great, amazing, wonderful." In life, he says, there are many hard things to go through, but with God, all things are possible.
Around noon, we said goodbye to Gilberto and went to lunch at el Obclisco hotel, along with Samuel y Carol. This is the hotel that the missionaries used to stay in before the mission house was erected. There, we all had fine meals and even had amazing ice cream for dessert.
After lunch, we took the kids to a park; I would say it is alike Montasia, without the putt putt. There were paddle boats and rowboats in the water, a lot of playgrounds, an old-school jungle gym, and a petting zoo, but there were also pretty good size statues of random kid's characters such as Scooby Doo and Tom and Jerry. We had a lot of fun talking to the kids, but also talking to Osney y Rosali. Osney told me that she teaches 5th grade. She came to know the lord through Rosali, as she was Rosali's son's teacher. I thought it was really amazing how the connections are the same as in the US. We are missionaries where ever we are. You don't have to travel hundreds of miles to talk of Jesus. There are people everywhere that don't walk in the light.
On our way home, Samuel took us to the most amazing panoramic view of the city. The view stretched as far as the eye can see from left to right. It reminded me of God's amazing power in creating such a beautiful world.
We rejoined the Mt. Pisgah team and had pollo con arroz para la cena with a lot of fruit as well. PhanieRah led the devotion tonight after dinner. It was a different style than the Mt. Pisgah team is used to, I believe, but I love to hear what every person is thinking and feeling during the trip. It is a blessing to others to see growth through Jesus in a person.
Samuel got more calls from people who needed his help, so we accompanied him to Rosali's house to pick up his computer charger that he forgot at Seminary and also to the church to drive Pastor Alexander y otras personas a sus casas. We packed 8 people into a 4-seater car... Venezuelan style.
Kevin helped us work on the Chinese take out baskets for the Seminary dinner on Friday, so now they are almost ready, but we have to leave in less than 7 hours so we need sleep lol.

Day 2

We began our morning at an early hour; Phanie had to straighten her hair. We picked up Carol Cosby and made our way to the Zerox store, the copying store, the diploma store, and la pandaria for breakfast. We ran errands with Samuel driving Venezuelan style down the roads. We dropped off sound equipment from the church at the seminary. On our way back to the house, there was a really bad car accident, and we saw los bomberos (fire trucks) close up once again. We then ate lunch at Arco Iris with Samuel; and we are off to the seminary.
At seminary we worked with two other ladies to lead the kids in VBS and sports. There, we only had Sarah as a translator... good times. So we both had to speak a lot of Spanish. During the seminary students break we saw Juvenal and Nohely and talked to them briefly. Josuea, Benjamin, y Jonathan were there as well. Johan is coming on Friday.
Afterwards, we went to eat at the best chicken place in Venezuela, Pollo Sabroso. We had "that green sauce", Guasacaca, Yucca fries, chicken, and coleslaw. For dessert we had Torta (cake). It was all very delicious.
Then, we made our way to la farmacia, where Phanierah chilled in the Blazer while Samuel was buying medicine, and we played a modified version of the "haha" game where one laughes with different vowel sounds. Sarah is partial to "huhu".
Because the water is out at the mission house we had to stop by Carol Cosby's house to take showers. Now we are filling goodie bags with stuff from Janet's store and candy for the kids.
Tonight Phanierah did our own devotions because we didn't meet up with the Mt. Pisgah group until much later. It went over very well. We were proud of ourselves. hahehahe

The Beginning.

Hello Everyone!
Well, we arrived in Barquisimeto just fine. All the flights went well. We slept a lot. No one got wandeded...much...Judy. Our night in Curacao was fun. We got there and went out to look for a place to eat, and we found a place to shop a little. We asked the locals where the best place to eat was, and we enjoyed a very delicious but expensive meal right on the beach. When we returned to the hotel, Sarah and I passed out, while some of the Mount Pisgah group went swimming. It was a nice night.
The next morning we woke up early and ate breakfast at the hotel and then made our way to the airport. The airplane was really small; that's fo sho. It held about 16 people. We(PhanieRah) wore the same shirt... it was cool. We got to Barquisimeto and had to wait a long time for our luggage; the searcher people thought the clown shoes were funny lol. Then we seperated from the Mt. Pisgah group and headed to Samuel's church with him. We got to hear the last few minutes of the service and then met a lot of members of the church, while having a lunch of soup.
We are staying at the mission house in Barquisimeto. It is very nice and located in a gated community. Samuel has he cutest dog ever, named Gala. She's a golden. PhanieRah, Kevin, and Sarah Elizabeth, went to the grocery store, while Carol Cosby made us amazing lasagna and coleslaw.
Today is Samuel's cousin's 15th birthday. So we, along with Kevin, went to la casa de los abuelos de Samuel, Anna y Luis, to her Quincinera. PhanieRah danced with some Latino hotties... We had the best flan in Venezuela... made by Samuel's grandmother. Then we dropped Joey, this kid that plays bass guitar and speaks English, off and left. Now, we're writing the blog and then going to sleep for an early start tomorrow running a lot of erands for Seminary.

Wednesday

Bright and early we got on the bus at 7:00am to get to the airport! The airport is not far but we needed to get there early in anticipation of the Customs process. Juvenal, Nohely, Josue, Benjamin, Johnatan, and friend Johan all met us at the airport which was really nice. After check-in, we thought all was good and headed upstairs to the restaurant. Minutes later an official came to get the group to come back to Customs. Apparently they wanted each person present with their luggage while they searched very thoroughly, going through each item by hand as well as sniffing things - this took quite a while. Not much time left in the restaurant by now as we needed to get to the plane. Again, we flew Tiara Air to Aruba. We had quite a bit of a layover in Aruba - but used part of the time to still go through several check-points. Alejandro counted up seven check-points for the day - including Security, Customs, and Immigration! Fortunately, our Customs process in Aruba will exempt us from any Customs in Atlanta so it was time well spent. Great flight home to Atlanta and now we are so excited to be able to share our experience with all those at home!

Tuesday Night

At the Farewell Service, Juvenal opened with prayer and then Melissa, Barco, and Samuel all had an opportunity to speak to the group (with Rosmery translating). Rosmery also thanked everyone for their hospitality and especially the ladies who prepared our wonderful meals. DRACMA performed, several sang, and then Juvenal had us all come to the front to lay hands on a young lady who came forward to give her life to Christ. After this, Juvenal had the mission team stay at the front. The band played How Great Thou Art and we sang - some in Spanish and some in English, it really didn't matter as we all felt God's presence. Lots of tears were shed and Juvenal layed his hands on each of us and prayed with such intensity as only Juvenal could do! When we finished, more tears as we hugged and kissed our brothers and sisters in Christ one more time. Lots of photos. It took a LONG time to make our way to the doorway and into the bus. We returned to the hotel and had dinner at the hotel restaurant with Juvenal and Nohely joining us. They also joined us for devotions right after dinner with Melissa leading. We all shared what changes we felt as a result of the past week's experiences.............

Tuesday

Our last day - we are so sad! Alyssa is now "it" for the virus or whatever is going around. We arrived at the church and were saddened to learn that the church had been broken into during the night. The thieves took many tools and the fans. Juvenal called the police to file a report but we are sure not much will be done. The method of entry was bending the metal bars on the open window. For breakfast we had scrumptious egg/cheese/hame casserole along with really good bread. The group split into sports camp, wall finishing, and a few to hang around to plan the VBS for the day. Because we did not have tools for the wall, Samuel drove to get the needed items - so it was quite a while before we could start on the walls again. He also purchased welding supplies so he could weld the bars back on the window (we have now given him a Welder title and are now convinced he can do anything and everything). Melissa organized the items needed for the VBS of the day - the story of Noah's Ark. She was able to transport an ark made out of brown kraft paper and then prepared paper plates on popsicle sticker for the children to draw animals.
After the group from sports camp returned (it was very hot as there was not much wind today), we had a great lunch of a lasagne type dish with more of the great bread. The afternoon was spent working on the wall and playing with the kids. It is really fun to learn their games and they love the jump ropes from us! Rhonda and Stephanie worked on English colors and numbers. Melissa has now come down with the "virus" and went back to the hotel to rest before VBS.

VBS started later than planned but we have learned to be flexible. Melissa told the Noah's Ark story and several of us acted out the parts. After the kids colored their animals, they brought them up to put in the Ark. Then it rained! Yes, it really rained. Coincidence? I think not!

After VBS, we headed back to the hotel for quick showers before needing to return for the Farewell Worship Service.

Monday

The bus picked us up this morning to head for the church. (Rachel stayed back at the hotel as she was very sick through the night) The ladies prepared empanadas - one choice of meat and one choice of ham and cheese! It is very humbling to observe how the people of the church create such a warm hospitality, yet have very little means to prepare everything for us. We always have a table cloth, glass dishes and cups, two kinds of coffee, and just a nice presentation. Then we were off to sports camp,with some staying to continue working on the walls. A few hung around the church to see if any children would end up there, and a few did. With those, we worked on some English - colors, numbers,simple words. After all returned from the sports field, we had a fantastic lunch! We have observed that, although we really eat three meals a day without any snacking, we are never hungry. We scurried to the hotel for a quick shower and then off to sightsee at the sand dunes! This was about a 45 minute ride going south - and we really did not know what to expect. It was quite interesting to traverse through the countryside and see what things look like outside of Punto Fijo. After going through a few road checkpoints, we came up on gigantic sand dunes! Not like any of us have seen in the States! Most of us quickly climbed up the dunes - or took it as a challenge to see how fast we could get to the top! We also took Nohely (Juvenal's wife) and son Johnatan with us. On the way home, Samuel found a place for us to stop to view the beach. How disappointing that such a beautiful part of God's creation is so littered with garbage - and it wasn't just a little bit! Quick photos and then we had to hurry and get to the Punta Cardon church by 5:00pm. Once arriving at Juvenal's sister's (Zoraida Gonzalez) house, we filed into her hair salon (which serves as the church). Samuel flashed back to his past of hair styling and created hair-dos for Janet, Judy, Rhonda, and Stephanie - much fun. We then walked to the community center nearby to assemble for a march through the neighborhood - much like we did in Punto Fijo. After the march, we went into the community center for a fantastic music and drama program - including our kids performing both mime skits.
Finishing quite late, we were humbled by the offer of refreshments back at Zoraida's house. We marched through the darkness (as there was no electricity in the streets) and then enjoyed wonderful sandwiches - served out of the trunk of a car. We later reflected how hospitable the gesture was as they provided this with no financial help from us and with such limited resources. Before we left, a scrumptious cake was also served to all.
Devotions tonight were prepared by Judy, Stephanie, and Sarah. The "after party" lasted quite a while for a small group and we were eventually told by the hotel we were too loud! It must have been the games Judy made us play...............ask her about the HaHa game.
Steve is starting to feel not so good so we are not sure if there is a food problem or virus going around.