The U's visit the U's

     How cool is that to have your two sons and daughter-in-law come to visit? WAY COOL. That's how cool. So Greg, Fred and Lauren were here for a little over a week and we had a great time (as we always do when family visits). We started off by climbing Magote on Sunday morning and then several waterfalls including Agua Blancas, an hour and a half away. We visited La Presa (local dam) and still got a lot of work out of them at a couple sites and at the base. As we were coming home from the beach on Friday afternoon/evening, Fred asks me how hard it is to find the drive to Magote in the dark. I

Greg, Marcy, Fred, Lauren, Janae at Salta Baiguate.

was reading his mind and said well we need to leave for the airport by 11:00 tomorrow so we would have to leave the house by 5:30 am to have time to climb it and back home again. Greg pipes in with "ARE YOU NUTS? I am not climbing that thing again!!" So at 5:25am Fred, Marcy and I headed out for one more trip up the mountain. It was a great time and a great view, again. Thanks to all three of you for taking your vacation time to spend with us. It meant a lot to all 5 of us.
    We now look forward to a couple of women from our home area, Kris Bontrager and Bev Hooley, that will arrive on this coming Saturday to help out SI with the annual Pulga. We look forward to having Kris back again. She and her husband Fritz spent a week with us in February and it will be a treat to show Bev the North end of the island as she was on one of the trips that our church made to the South side a couple of years ago.

Janae and Marcy's first day of school

       Things are going well here. Marcy and Janae started school on Monday of this week at Doulos and they both like it a lot. Most of the SI staff send their children there this year so it is great to see the SI family dropping off and picking up kids along with us. Karen has been getting Genesis ready for the teachers to come back tomorrow and then the Genesis kids return a week from tomorrow. I have been doing what I do with site maintenance except without Marcy. This last week I had Greg and Fred help me out but now I will be on my own for a while. God continues to bless us here and we feel the support from so many of you. Thank you for that.
   This morning at the English church at CMA, Scott preached from Genesis 3 and how we live in a fallen world. Things will go wrong because of sin in the world and not always because of something we did to deserve it. He used the term "it's just not fair" often during his sermon. But yet the one thing that just hit me head on was in verse 9 when Adam and Eve had just eaten the forbidden fruit and God asks "Adam, where are you?" I had to think maybe the last while God is asking "Mike, Where are you?" Not necessarily because I am intentionally hiding from Him, but yet do I come to Him on a regular basis? Then at the afternoon service the sermon was based on Genesis 3. So I had one more opportunity to have God speaking to me saying "Mike, where are you?". When ever I get a double reminder like that so close together, I always feel sorry for the other 200+ people that had to sit and listen to a sermon that was obviously intended to for me. I just challenge all of you, is God asking you "Where are you?"  Think about that.
            Mike, for the family

   

On the move again

Having some work done at our previous house.

In the first 48 years of my life I had lived in 4 houses in two different states. Now in the last two years I have lived in 5 different houses in 3 different countries. My how things have changed and how God is alive and well in all of it. Yes we did move again. This time only about 300 yards around the corner from where we were. We moved kind of out of necessity since the owner of our previous house put it up for sale and we were not actually perspective buyers. The house we moved into has been in the SI family for many years. It is again a much larger house (which Karen likes), like our first one here but unlike that one or the last one, it is cheaper in rent (which I like) than either of the other two. One thing that we were not looking forward to is that this house has a history of getting broken into. So far we have been fortunate and have 7 nights here and no break ins. They often break in the first night after you move as they see you carry things in and they know what is available. Usually they are after electronics. I am guessing that our security system that we brought with us (Buddy, the African Bull Mastiff) may also have something to do with us being in the clear so far.

Taping right into our old breaker box for enough amperage.

Handy with the meter so close to the work site!!!!!!!!

      One thing that I did want to do when we got here was to work on the lock on the front gate. It needed a little bit of welding done and some re-enforcement. Not a huge deal except that here, you can't just plug a welder into an outlet and use it. First off, the house was most likely wired with #14 wire and the complete house would be on one 20 amp breaker except for the fridge, washer and well pump.  We needed to do a little work at our last house and I got a big kick out of the way the workers hooked up the welder, going right into the breaker box and using the main leads off the street. Well, here at the new place the main breaker box was too far from the place I was working so I found it handy that the meter was only a few feet from where I needed the power. As I am welding away I had to laugh to myself as I thought of how shocked I was to see them go right into the box for electric and here I am getting it right off the meter. Midway through the job I was shockingly reminded that maybe I could have waited until it at least stopped raining................ Anyway, that job got done and the lock works great.

This is what you call getting the electric right from the source.

      Marcy and Janae start school on Monday (or maybe Tuesday) Monday is actually a holiday and so they told me yesterday that they are not sure yet exactly when the first day is but they will know by "this weekend" (which is good since Monday would be the first day after "this weekend"). Karen had been utilizing Janae to the utmost this week as she gets ready for the next semester at Genesis. I have also been taking advantage of Marcy's help since I will not be having her along anymore either after this week.
      We also are now looking forward to having our two sons Greg and Fred, join us along with Fred's wife Lauren on Saturday afternoon. They will be here for 1 week. We always look forward to visitors but especially when it is family. God is good, All the time.