Time sure flies! To bring you up to speed, let me recap the highlights since the last time I wrote.
In August, Beto and I got to take a short vacation without the kids in San Diego. Mostly we just spent a lot of leisure time not cooking food or cleaning up anything, or working or waking up at 6am. We also spent most of the month getting ready for Strategy Lab.
In September, we attended Strategy Lab for Kairos in Lincoln, NE. It was a fun, challenging, inspiring, deep week and we made a lot of awesome new friends. We were hosted by Leroy and his wife Rox (sadly we didn't have much time with her as she was out of town). We couldn't have had a better host family!!! We enjoyed a Kairos couple's retreat after SL somewhere out in the middle of nowhere in Nebraska, but it was beautiful! except that I am certain I am allergic to the midwest. I thought I might have the flu, but in less than 24 hours after coming home, I was miraculously better! The beach air is the best air (wait, maybe my body missed the SMOG???!) Seriously, Strategy Lab really allowed us to clarify our vision, mission, values, and much more for our future church plant. Now our Ministry Plan is complete! We thank God for the wise Kairos staff who teach and encourage us.
I'm thankful to my mom, sister Glenda, my aunts Romaine and Glenda, and my niece Shelby who all helped out so much with our kids while we were gone. We are getting ready to go away for another week to Discovery Lab in Portland, OR and they'll be helping again (except for Aunt Romy who's on a cruise...pppfffssshhh...whatever!) We attended two years ago when we'd first moved back from Honduras, but with Bela's sickness and all of the time that's passed, Kairos thought it'd be a good idea to attend again, to see how we've changed as people, because we certainly have! We had to take some personality tests, spiritual gifting tests, etc. and I got much different results. I really wasn't expecting that at all. I'm looking forward to a week of fellowship, learning, and growth. I'm not really looking forward to being observed ALL.THE.TIME, but I know it's for our good.
Bela is doing well. She's had some nasty stomach virus once a month for the past two or three months, it seems like, but her blood counts are always "perfect" and she plays and eats and sleeps well.
Santi is great. I've started homeschooling him and today he read his first "BOB" book. It was very exciting for both of us! We're taking it kind of relaxed this year since he's only four. It's like an appetizer for the main course that will be Kindergarten next Fall.
Beto and I will also be attending a "Fundraising Bootcamp" in Dallas this month. We'll be home for one day after Portland to watch Santi be a ring bearer in our friends' wedding, then we're taking the kids with us to Dallas! We're staying with some very close friends who also have a boy and girl close in age to Santi and Bela. Once we get back home Beto and I will begin fundraising like it's a full-time job! We are very excited though to get going and be able to move the next chapter in our lives! We have made some contacts here in Long Beach with other pastors and another church planting organization that have confirmed to us our calling to go and plant a church.
In August, Beto and I got to take a short vacation without the kids in San Diego. Mostly we just spent a lot of leisure time not cooking food or cleaning up anything, or working or waking up at 6am. We also spent most of the month getting ready for Strategy Lab.
In September, we attended Strategy Lab for Kairos in Lincoln, NE. It was a fun, challenging, inspiring, deep week and we made a lot of awesome new friends. We were hosted by Leroy and his wife Rox (sadly we didn't have much time with her as she was out of town). We couldn't have had a better host family!!! We enjoyed a Kairos couple's retreat after SL somewhere out in the middle of nowhere in Nebraska, but it was beautiful! except that I am certain I am allergic to the midwest. I thought I might have the flu, but in less than 24 hours after coming home, I was miraculously better! The beach air is the best air (wait, maybe my body missed the SMOG???!) Seriously, Strategy Lab really allowed us to clarify our vision, mission, values, and much more for our future church plant. Now our Ministry Plan is complete! We thank God for the wise Kairos staff who teach and encourage us.
I'm thankful to my mom, sister Glenda, my aunts Romaine and Glenda, and my niece Shelby who all helped out so much with our kids while we were gone. We are getting ready to go away for another week to Discovery Lab in Portland, OR and they'll be helping again (except for Aunt Romy who's on a cruise...pppfffssshhh...whatever!) We attended two years ago when we'd first moved back from Honduras, but with Bela's sickness and all of the time that's passed, Kairos thought it'd be a good idea to attend again, to see how we've changed as people, because we certainly have! We had to take some personality tests, spiritual gifting tests, etc. and I got much different results. I really wasn't expecting that at all. I'm looking forward to a week of fellowship, learning, and growth. I'm not really looking forward to being observed ALL.THE.TIME, but I know it's for our good.
Bela is doing well. She's had some nasty stomach virus once a month for the past two or three months, it seems like, but her blood counts are always "perfect" and she plays and eats and sleeps well.
Santi is great. I've started homeschooling him and today he read his first "BOB" book. It was very exciting for both of us! We're taking it kind of relaxed this year since he's only four. It's like an appetizer for the main course that will be Kindergarten next Fall.
Beto and I will also be attending a "Fundraising Bootcamp" in Dallas this month. We'll be home for one day after Portland to watch Santi be a ring bearer in our friends' wedding, then we're taking the kids with us to Dallas! We're staying with some very close friends who also have a boy and girl close in age to Santi and Bela. Once we get back home Beto and I will begin fundraising like it's a full-time job! We are very excited though to get going and be able to move the next chapter in our lives! We have made some contacts here in Long Beach with other pastors and another church planting organization that have confirmed to us our calling to go and plant a church.
I think in your first sentence you should have said, "uh, le' me sum up."
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