Catching up

Sorry about the long time between posts, so we'll do our best to get y'all caught up on some of the goings on here in Chile. Since we last wrote, we celebrated Chilean Independence Day, went on a mission team retreat, and have continued planning for the upcoming Marriage Encounter Retreat later this month.

September 18th is celebrated as Chilean Independence Day, or "Fiestas Patrias" as its know here. Celebrations include typical food, drinks music and the national dance, called the cueca. Our friend Paola from church took us to a Fiestas Patrias celebration in a large park near the church. We enjoyed watching several folkloric groups play typical music and dance and the cueca. We also ate choripan or sausage in a bun, & churros, which are donut-like sticks covered in powdered sugar, and checked out the artisan market.

John eating a churro

Amanda with some guys in the Chilean Huaso dress

The church also hosted an asado on Sunday the 17th. The family of one of our university students, Raquel, has a musical group that came and performed during the lunch.

Nathan Young cooking sausage for Choripan

Raquel singing with her family...they are so talented!!

The week of Fiestas Patrias we left town for a few days with the mission team for a retreat. Zane and Tae Perkins planned a great retreat, focusing on rest, relaxation, and recreation in the Lord. We spent a large portion of our time studying and focusing on Sabbath rest, what it means, and how we can have true rest in the Lord. We spent several sessions by ourselves in meditation, reflection, and prayer. It was also fun to be together with the whole mission team for a few days. The Perkins also organized a family competition made up of various types of games. I hate to brag but the interns, also know as the "Newmann-Brads" (Ryan Newhouse, us, and Garrett Bradford) took home the gold. Yes, we beat a bunch of families with small children. Kinda like A&M football beating up on all those junior high teams. oops.

Amanda and I also took a day to go out to the coast for her birthday. We spent a night in Con-Con, and then drove up the coast to the beach at Zappallar and enjoyed the ocean and some fresh seafood.

My sister Laura just arrived yesterday for a visit, so we're really excited to have her here with us! She and Amanda participated in the National Ladies Day hosted by our congregation here. We're also planning to travel south for a few days this week. After Laura's visit, we'll be finishing up preparations for the Marriage Encounter Retreat on October 20-22.
Also a few days from now will mark one year out of the U.S. for us, its gone fast! Thanks for your prayers,

God Bless -
john