Vene Pics

Part of our team with our hats that were gifts to us. They have our name on one side, a Vene flag on the other, and the initials of the church on the front.

Elisa and me at the Caribbean!

Guys at the beach. We got to know all but two of them, as the other two went to Momperol.
This is at the beach. The one on the far left is my roomie. They are telling her that she needs to jump when the wave comes, because otherwise it is too shallow! She said after she jumped that it really was deep enough probably without the wave coming in.

Gabriel S. teaching the children about Jesus.


This is on the way to the beach.
We are getting ready to play a game here. The gringos have NO IDEA what is being said, and so we have no idea of what the game is! So, we did our best to watch others play and figure out the rules and then jump in!


Getting to know each other. The two girls on the far right were part of the other team in Momperol and left three days after we got there, but the others we got to know better.

Vene Pics

This is a skit, The Champion, we did at the Closura, the closing to the week of camp. The first picture are the angels. The second picture angels and demons. There was music and words going on while we acted. It presented creation, the fall of the angels, then a fight scene with Jesus and satan. Jesus dies, and satan and the demons rejoice for a little while, then Jesus raises up and
all the angels and satan fall dead. It is pretty powerful with the music and words.







Gabriel S. and I doing a skit. I am an old lady with a high pitched old lady voice. He is a "liar" who keeps eating my food, until I offer him "pie" (shaving cream), and then slap it in his face.







Some of the guys!



This is some of my kids I had in my group. The little girl right in the middle was so confused at first that I could not speak Spanish. She kept looking at me and then kept speaking to me in Spanish.

Vene Pics

Yes, this is the Caribbean! It was so nice to have a day after working so hard for 10 days to have a break. Of course, the water was nice too, since most of us had not had showers for days! The water was so beautiful and clear. It was a gorgeous day. We played in the water, went for a walk/climb down the beach, played in the water, got burned, played in the water. Ok, you get the idea, it was relaxing and fun!

Victor being silly. I think that is a clay nose.... :-)
He speaks a very LIMITED amount of English and yet somehow we all communicated easily with him. His famous line was: "What's up, Woman?" Yet, with his accent, it was hilarious and made us laugh every time!
Caracas! I know this is a bad pic, but you can see from it a little of the crowded barrios, slums. They are just packed in there. There are not really roads to the top really. You would not be able to drive a car up to the top. Most of the people living here wouldn't have a car anyway, because they are more expensive there than in America.

This is a better picture of some of the slums. This is right by where we went shopping in Caracas.







This is the group of the kids at the camp. The "neighborhood" we were in had about 10,000 people living there. It was a middle class neighborhood.

Vene Pics

The guy with the big smile is Gabriel G. He calls me Tany. He and I sang with Krina the last Sunday we were there for offeratory, Worthy is the Lamb. I played as well. We sang the first time in English, then sang in Spanish. It was one of the best moments. Worshipping Jesus in another language. Sweet times!!!! The middle fellow is Edwin. He speaks good English and would always tell me to SLOW DOWN because I spoke to fast for him to understand.


The two girls on the far left were at church almost every day, helping us clean, helping us get prepared for camp. They are 11 and 13, Vanessa and Stephanie. The girl in the lighter blue shirt with a flower on it is Sarai. Sarai and I would tickle each other and laugh. We were bonded pretty quickly and spent quite a bit of time together at camp during the day and some at church too. She spoke no English so our communication was limited to my understanding a little, very little of her Spanish!

This is the kitchen crew! Yay! They worked almost all day long each day to provide us with delicious food, and lots of it! The lady, Glaydys, on the far left is the secretary for the church. They were all so sweet. They would just talk to us like we knew Spanish. It was cute.

This is right out of the church window. There are mountains surrounding on all sides the city of Gautire. They were one of my favorite things to look at. They were tall and so beautiful!

Home! 8/16/06

Hello all! We made it home! I will update you on the last few days. Saturday was a quiet morning, and getting ready for the Closing to theImpacto, which was held at the church. Right before we were going to start the Closing, the power went out! So, a few Gringos (as we were affectionately called) were standing there, and we prayed. Then as we finished and looked around, there were quite a few other groups of two or more people doing the same thing. it was a reminder that yet again we were put in a place of dependance on the Lord. He sovereignly and graciously put things in our lives each day to continually remind usthat we are dependant on Him and that we must trust Him. No water. the South Digestive Virus. No water. No power (happened more than once in our two weeks.) No water. More viruses and illness. No water.Yes, there were hardships, and yet amazingly He kept our attitudes in check and showered grace on us in the midst of hard things. He truly is amazing!!!So, then as Victor (a venezuelan) and I were about to pray together, the power went back on. We still sat there and prayed and praised God for His goodness. We really needed power for all the things we had planned, and it was so good of Him to provide so quickly. The program went well and the gospel was presented. Many children were there and quite a few parents. It was a powerful program. i was able to be in a skit that presented the gospel. Sunday was a morning of rest and going to the mall. Gabriel, Krina andI practiced for the offeratory. I played and sang and the other two sang. We sang Worthy is the Lamb, first in English and then in Spanish. It was probably one of my favorite moments of the whole time: worshipping the Lord in my language and another language. Worship during church was a sweet time too. I stood there in amazement that I was singing in a language I didn't really know, songs that I could understand some of them, but some not understand. I knew that i was lifting high the name of Jesus in a different language with saints that didn't speak my language. It was really moving. I am so thankful to the Lord for times like that. Monday was a day at the beach. The CARIBBEAN!!! it was the clearest water I have ever seen! We had to take a 20 minute boat ride to the beach we were to spend the day at. We had quizzed Lois about these boats and she said "it is an adventure!" we asked how big the boats were, she said fishing boats bigger than a rowboat. So in my mind I was wondering what they could be like, seaworthy??? yes, they were. They were bigger than I thought, yet still not huge. they were wooden boats, that seated about 40 people. There was not dock, however. So we waded about waist high out, and then waited for waves to pass before jumping on, really grabbing someone's hand and being pulled onto the boat was more like it! Then 20 minute ride to the beach. Then jump offinto a little bit shallower water. It was beautiful. The water was aqua blue and bright green, and clear. The waves weren't too high, so we could play out and swim in the water, which was pretty warm. We went on a walk down the beach, and went climbing on the rocks and intoa "cave." It looked similar to a cave, but you could walk through it,under it to the other side of it. it was fun. Then we went to the"island" (it wasn't really an island, it was stil attached to the mainland basically-- but there was a helicopter pad (not working anymore, because the house was abandoned), and so people were jumping off the helipad into the water. Now, as many of you know, I am not all that adventurous and will not go cliff jumping. However, this was safer than cliff jumping as there weren't many rocks under the water, and you only had to jump out a few feet to clear the rocks.I am ok with heights like that as long as i don't have to jump out too far. So i looked at Elisa and told her that if i jumped, she had to jump. she said okay! So i jumped. ( in her words afterward, she thought, oh great. Tanya jumped, now I have to jump!!!) I think I screamed the whole way down until I hit water! it was so much fun! then we all did it again. Most of us got fried at the beach. We put on sunscreen often, but we were only 7 degrees away from the equator and so we got burned. It was a lot of fun though to relax and hang out with our vene friends. Monday evening we went to Momperal, which is by the beach we were at (1 1/2 hours from Guatire). There was a Venezuelan team at Momperal running a sports camp there the same week we ran ours. So we went to visit them and see where they had been living. Right before we left for Guatire, we all grabbed hands and circled around the swimming pool there. There was at least 45 of us, Gringos and Venezuelans, holding hands and praising the Lord for the work He had done all week. Then two Venezuelans prayed. It was such a sweet moment! Those moments of prayer were some of the best times, and I looked forward to them everyday! They became sweeter and sweeter all the time. This one was bittersweet, because I knew it was our last before we left for home. we went back to Guatire, and said a few goodbyes to those who wouldn't be around the next morning. Tuesday morning we woke up early and saidour goodbyes, some very tearful! We headed to Caracas to leave. We were tired after only a few (literally) hours of sleep, but most of us were able to sleep lots on the plane. The Lord was good to me with allowing me to sleep most of the plane rides. As a rule, i don't sleep any on planes and yet I think I slept for a total of 6 hours on the plane yesterday! I am grateful for that rest. Definitely God's grace! As many of you know, we had a 26 minute layover in Salt Lake City. However, by the time our plane landed and we stepped off the plane, which was delayed in Atlanta, we had less than 10 minutes before ournext plane LEFT!!!! We had to go from D3 to E64! We were sure that we would not make it. We all left the gate running, not sprinting, running for the next gate. The Lord again was watching out with another miracle as we discovered that the next gate was so close, it took us less than a minute to get there!! Praise the Lord that Salt Lake airport is not laid out like most airports!!! So, we made our flight! The Lord is good! And, all our luggage made it to Spokane too!!! God is so good again! He constantly was providing this whole trip. Even when things looked bleak, He was faithful to provide exactly what we needed when we needed it. It is such a sweet lesson that as we trust Him and as we cast our worries on Him and let Him work, then we don't have to worry and we have peace as He provides!! There are so many things that God taught me. It is hard to sit down and make a list. But hopefully as you have read the stories, you too have seen God's faithfulness in our lives. I am so grateful for the chance to have gone to Venezuela. I am so grateful for all your prayers! we are planning a night to share pictures and stories with you and anyone else who wants to come hear how God abundantly blessed us and how He worked. I will keep you posted on when that will be. I am getting used to being back home now, a little bit of culture shock I think will still take place. It is really quiet here and the traffic is not nearly as crazy. It is a little weird to not have to listen hard when talking to someone to understand them. We all are missing our friends that we made in Venezuela- yet it is good for us. It is bittersweet to come home! you might think that crazy, but it is true! Yes, we love all of you here and love being here, but it is just a bittersweet time for us! Pray for our bodies to heal all the way, Karmyn is still probably getting well as are a few still fighting the Digestive Virus, and other things. Please pray for the follow up that the Venezuelans will be doing in the next few days and weeks and more. Pray that God would continue to open hearts and draw many peole to himself and that many would be saved. Pray for the church there that they would continue to grow as they seek the Lord. I am looking foward to seeing each of you and telling you about my trip and hearing about how the Lord is blessing you and growing you! I love you! Tanya

Venezuela 8/11/06

Hi all. I am sitting in a house in Caracas after a day at camp, an afternoon of shopping in Caracas and now a delicious STEAK dinner bbqed by a man from the church. Some of the best steak I have ever had! Today was the last day of camp, it was not all that hot most of the time, thankfully. We have the closura program tomorrow for all the parents and children at the church. We will do dramas and music, gospel, etc. Pray for energy. Still no water! By God´s amazing grace, it has not really bothered me much. We have had showers at the Belches so that helps a lot. Karmyn is still pretty sick. Poor girl, she is pretty miserable and is missing out on stuff. Please pray that she will get better soon. Some of us, including yours truly, are on a constant diet of Immodium AD today. I am SO GRATEFUL for the stuff right now and the fact that Pam had some. The food is good, but I think the fruit was part of the culprit, so unfortunately, no more fruit for me! Sad, but I AM NOT WILLING to suffer the consequences anymore! Yes, we have been living in ¨sucio¨ or filth because of no water at the church, it is still fun and God is so gracious in the midst. Please pray that the water gets back to normal soon, though. Yes, for us, because some people are tired of no water, but also because if it continues very long, it is really a health concern for the Venezuelans. It is out in part of Guatire because a water main or something broke due to the heavy rain. Thanks to all of you who have sent me emails. They are encouraging. I wish I could respond to each one, but I want so much to send an update and since my time on the computer is super limited I try to get out the update first. I am so grateful for your prayers! I have felt them. Amidst dehydration and other nicities, and tiredness and the heat, I am reminded that I just need to beg for God´s grace and be dependant on Him. I habitually live independant, and being here is such a reminder of that! Oh that my heart would be crying out to God each morning as it does here begging for grace and strength and energy. The Venezuelans are an encouragement and we are having so much fun getting to know them. I love you all and yes, I will be excited to tell you all my stories once I am home.

Venezuela 8/9/06

Ok, so lots more updates than I thought I would get out! please pray for our health. some have been sick. The food is heavy and lots of oil and fried stuff and not much salad or fruit (When I say not much, I mean one tiny salad once and fruit once so far! so please pray that our stomachs will continue to handle it well. It hit mine this morning not so pleasantly, but then passed in a few hours.)
Please also pray that water will get back into the church! We are shuttling to the Belches for showers. So, please pray that the water situation at the church will get back to normal. Pray that the rain will hold off for three more days! We are at the park all day for the next two days and then some on Saturday. It is a little bit of a hassle to say the least when it rains and not quite as many kids come. Check out pics on the fbchurch.org website. There are some that show some of our activities. How many of you have seen a family of four without helmets on a motorcycle?? well, I have! Yeah, i know, amazing! But it is acutally becoming normal for me to be in the traffic now! You get used to it after awhile! a two lane road all of a sudden become four lanes (no joke) during rush hour! Thank you for your prayers! We are so dependant on the Lord and need His grace each moment and your prayers! love to each of you! Ciao!!

Venezuela 8/7/06

oh yeah, thanks for praying for playing for church. Let me tell you!!!! I had So MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!!! I was dripping, running with sweat because there was no air up there, and because it was so high energy! I had an amazing experience!!!! God was good, I was not really nervous at all! Love, Tanya

Venezuela 8/6/06

Hi!! I hope you are getting the updates from Walt that he has been writing. if not, then check out the webiste. things are going well. Only one has gotten sick, Karmyn, she stayed at the church today b/c she was not feeling well. She has the flu maybe? She is feeling a little better tonight.
I LOVE it here!! Can I stay???? you think I am kidding. Well, maybe just a little, but it is amazing here. I wish you all could be here and experince what I am taking in. What a joy to get to know other believers and be so closey tied so quickly despite the language difference. In less than a week, I love these people. I have learned so much from them! Conviction abounds!! We are so blessed in America and yet despite that, we sometimes forget it!! These people have nothing, usually make $250-$500 a month, and yet they love each other so much!! They are very relational! I love it!!! (yes, mom, going to bed at 10 pm every night, up at 5:45am!! Still too early to get up!) It rained lots today, but we had camp regardless. Kids still came and still had a wonderful time. I have made so many friends. I have made one good friend of a little girl. She is the daughter of Alcides and Zulema, an elder involved at Guatire and an elder at the Catia La Mar church. her name is Sarai. No, she does not speak ANY English, and my Spanish is limited, however, I am understanding more and more. So, we tickle each other and hug and laugh with each other! I will miss her! She is so sweet. Her parents are in the Amazon with others from the church on a mission trip. She was really clingy today to me. I think maybe b/c her brother was not there and for some strange reason, she really likes me. Not that I am complaining!! I never quite understood when people say they didn't want to come home to America after the trip down here. Now I know. If I left tomorrow, I would cry probably. So, hopefully, you will all see me when the team comes home. I will call and let you know if I decide to stay. Please pray for our health, our stamina, our energy, our unity as a team, and that we would be walking by the Spirit and loving each other and encouraging each other. Pray that we would be in the word and would be growing in the word each day. Ok, I need to scoot. we have no water at the church (oh, yeah, pray that it will come back on!!), so we had to run over to the belches to shower. Oh, I love showers after a long day of sweating!! I am used to the humidity for the most part, it does not really bother me. It has not been too hot, unless I am in the sun for awhile. You get used to being wet all day long!! will think of you all when I go to the Carribean (maybe). yes, i will take pics. Love you all!!Tanya

Venezuela 8/4/06

Hello from Venezuela!!! We made it here with ALL our luggage! Praise the Lord! We got here late and then had a drive to get to Guatire. It was amazing to drive through Caracas. There are 6 million people in Caracas. Many live in the Barrios (Slums). These dot the hills around Caracas. Thousands and Thousands of lights all over! These houses are block houses that are basically built one on top of the other up the hillside. Many of these people do not have cars. They are mostly unskilled workers, Dave (Belch) tells us. There are Barrios in Guatire too. We arrived in Guatire late late late!! It was 2 am Guatire time before we got in bed. We are staying with the Belches until tomorrow, when we move to the church and we will stay there the rest of the time.
On Thursday morning, we went to the church to meet people. It has been an adventrue ever since! The people down here are very friendly. There is not really an age gap or anything. Everyone treats everyone the same, regardless of age. My Spanish of course is HORRIBLE but some speak enough English to make it work. The others you smile at and use hands and grab an English speaker.
The church here sent a team to the Amazon yesterday. It was an amazing experience to hug goodbye people I had known for brief hours and pray for them. We all stood in a circle and held hands and one of the Venezuelans prayed. We don´t translate prayers here. If a Venezuelan prays, then it is in Spanish. And we all just pray along. It is really neat!!
Yesterday was a long and tiring day as we got used to the people and the climate etc. I was really dehydrated all day long so it was hard to try to stay awake. But today I think I drank about 6 nalgenes full and so I felt so much better, enough to go on a hike!
Today, we were at the church in the morning, preparing for camp. Then we drove to the EDGE OF THE ANDES!!!!!!! and swam in the river. Some brave ones went cliff jumping. (No, I was not one of them! Big Surprise).
The food has been really great so far. I like it. Chicken, empanadas, things with ¨sqeaky¨cheese (some sort of goat cheese I think that squeaks when you chew it!)
I got a big surprise yesterday and today. Dave B. asked me if I was prepared to play for church on Sunday... A SOLO!!! I told him all I had was chord music, but I could whip something together. So... then today, they asked if I could play for WORSHIP!!! I said yes. We were practicing today and what an experience...jamming with Venezuelans. Defintely an experience. (Jacob and Michael, don´t be jealous!) I am looking forward, with a few nerves most likely, to worshipping and playing on Sunday. Fortunately, the drummer speaks a little English, or I would be lost. It is fun trying to communicate with them. They look at you and speak a long string of Spanish, and I just stand there looking blankly at them. No Intiendes. Or Mas Lento, por favor! (I don´t understand, or much slower please!)
Tomorrow we will do devotions in the morning and then go to the site where we will be and do advertising. The weather is nice... he he.... really hot and really humid! It does not bother us too much because we are inside a good portion of the day. It will be worse when we are in the sun more next week all day long. Lots of sweat though now!
We start Camp Monday and go through Friday. We will most likely have 200 kids. I will be a group leader, paired with a Venezuelan woman named Yosmar. She speaks no English. Please pray for patience for me, with not speaking much Spanish and with the kids. We will have 6 and 7 year olds. Please pray that I can communicate as I need to. Pray that we all show off Christ in a huge way, that our actions and few words would speak volumes of the love of Christ.
I won´t have much email access, if any, from here on out. We will be living at the Church, and so I doubt that we will have email.
Oh yes, driving! You might have seen movies (or been here or another country) and experienced the driving. Um, words to describe. Yes, much like the movies. Except now I am in the car. I can reach out the window (not that I have done this nor do I plan to) and if there is a car next to us, I would be able to touch the person inside. Yeah, that CLOSE!!! They have laws, however, they are not really enforced and definitely not followed. Red light????? Well, it means basically nothing. Most of their lights are there, but don´t work. There is not reason to fix them when they break because no one follows them anyway. Who has the right of way? The one who does not put on his brake and just goes!!! No stop signs, you just merge! No passing lanes, you just pass! They don´t have speed limits, so you just drive as fast as you want. On some streets there are speed bumps, so that is the only thing that slows you down. Um... I think I would like driving here. No 20 mph through Manito anymore!!! Interesting adventure when it comes time to go anywhere. You just have to relax and not think about it. And by God´s grace, I don´t have an ulcer yet!!
Thank you so much for praying! God is good to grow us together with the Venezuelans. Pray that our unity would keep growing and that we would be bold to speak Spanish and that we would be bold to share the gospel. Pray that as we are not getting much sleep next week (up at 5.30 am, out the door by 6.00!!!) that we would be walking in the Spirit, loving each other and not being cranky when we are tired.
Love you all!!Tanya