This last week

Cheri writes:

It’s 9pm and the kids are down. It’s finally quite in the house and Dylan and I can catch up. Since we arrived we’ve been trying to figure out exactly what the Lord is having us do here in Bariloche or even maybe outside of Bariloche in another town. Our ministry and evangelism doesn’t appear to be the same as how it has been in the past. In prior trips, we have always been a tag team in evangelism and working side by side – even when Ritter was younger, it was still possible to do everything together. Now, however, with Ritter being older and Amelia being only 2.5 months old, we have found ourselves in a very different situation. To go anywhere with the two of them takes a ton more preparation and a lot of work while we’re out and about. So we’re a bit limited in what we can do together as a family. Having a one-on-one conversation about the Lord while a baby is crying or Ritter is antsy is hardly ideal. So lately we’ve been struggling with what our ministry should look like especially in a city like Bariloche where you have to take buses or taxis everywhere, travelers are more mobile and less likely to just hang out and have conversation. Yesterday, however, shed some new light on the situation. Dylan went out to run errands and check some things out. While he was gone I was at home with the kids and felt a strong urge to pray for Dylan. Not so much for safety, but more so for the Holy Spirit to give him the words he would need to talk to someone in particular. I prayed for boldness for him and for appropriate scriptures to come to his mind as he spoke. Ritter and I stopped what we were doing and prayed for him then and there. About 20 minutes later Dylan comes home super excited that he felt the Holy Spirit urging him to give a gospel tract and boldy share with a young man at the bus stop about 20 minutes ago! It was at the exact time I sensed the Spirit leading me to pray for him. Through that situation he also met and encouraged a fellow believer from California that was also praying for the guy reading the gospel tract at the bus station. All and all, it was confirmation that one of the main things I can be doing for His Kingdom is interceding in prayer for Dylan while he is out sharing the gospel. Anyway, it’s cool to see how the Lord will use us as a team, just a bit differently than in previous trips. Please pray for me to have more sensitivity to the Holy Spirit’s leading and for continued direction daily as to how we can further His Kingdom.

Dylan writes:

A few days ago we took a bus trip to El Bolson south of Bariloche. The bus ride was one of the most beautiful drives I’ve ever been on. There were alpine lakes, green trees, roaring rivers and snow capped peaks with wicked spires atop them, all seemingly within arms reach. The town is much more laid back and smaller than Bariloche too. It’s nestled in a small valley of snowy craggy peaks. We went there to discern whether or not the Holy Spirit was perhaps going to have us there instead of Bariloche. Reason being is because El Bolson is one of many New Age spiritual centers in the world, sort of like Sedona, AZ. Most people in the west don’t realize the majority of their beliefs are simply regurgitated Buddhism and Hinduism that’s been cleaned up and marketed to them. While in El Bolson for 24 hours we had some great witnessing encounters. First we met a couple from Germany biking around South America. We were able to talk with them at length due to our common experiences on bicycles. They gladly took a gospel tract in German and promised to read it. At the hostel we stayed at we met another young German man who was doing nothing more than drifting around the globe trying to figure out what to do with his life. I was able to relate to him in the quest for searching. I then told him my testimony and offered him a German gospel tract, telling him once I found Jesus I stopped searching because He is truth. I told him the tract is a good start for him in his search for meaning. A local man named Ricksharaj had a son who was playing with Ritter in a park. We talked with him at length and learned he was a Hari Krishna follower. He seemed pretty open to things, even said he’d read some of the Bible. So I offered him a Done book which says on it’s cover “what the majority of religions don’t tell you about the Bible”. This perked his interest and he happily accepted it. Finally on the ride home I noticed a group of Israeli backpackers got on the bus from doing a trek. I got to talking to a few of them, asking them if they knew where to find any good Israeli food in Bariloche. It turns out there is none surprisingly, but they said El Bolson has a unique hostel location called The Farm that Israelis gather at only by word of mouth. That got me pretty excited because I love witnessing to Israelis. They are direct descendants of and are in fact God’s chosen people which is really cool. When you think about our position to them as talked about in Romans chapter 11 it really humbles a person. If you haven’t read that chapter in a while you should, and read it slowly a second time just to make sure you really get it. Oh, and don’t forget to read verses 1-2 of chapter 12 which are the “therefore” of 11, they are verses that tell us what our immediate response to what you just read should be. Anyhow, back to the Israelis. I had a great conversation with one of them. All I had on me were 3 Hebrew tracts so I gave them to them to read. In the future I’ll need to remember to carry more. Better to have too much than too little. All in all it was a great trip to a beautiful place with some awesome witnessing to be had. We looked all over town for places to rent for 2-5 months but it is really hard to find something there too. Summer is almost here in 2 weeks and when school lets out these places will be flooded with tourists so they all charge triple the normal rates. No one wants to rent to us for a more permanent time frame when they can get triple for the months of mid-Dec through February. We do have a few leads though to follow up on. Pray that God opens doors if it’s His will for us to be in El Bolson. In the mean time we continue to do what the Lord has shown us is his will, evangelism.

Yesterday I was able to get up to the nearest climbing area called Piedras Blancas. My goal was to use my climbing as a way to meet other climbers and share Jesus with them. Sure enough I ended up climbing with Paul and Helen from England. It took a while for me to find an inroad to speak about spiritual things but eventually that obstacle was overcome and I was able to share a little bit. On the way down from our last climb Paul actually brought the subject up again and specifically asked me if I had any kind of experience that originally brought me to Jesus. I then used my personal testimony of salvation to fully share the gospel with him. I wove the themes and scriptures of the law, our sinfulness, our need of a Savior, and the grace and good news of Jesus into my own story. It was exactly the kind of witnessing that I love to do and had prayed for.

Today after church Cheri and Albida, went downtown to the Centro and passed out gospel tracts to passersby and shopkeepers who looked bored and needed something to read. They had a few good conversations with some folks who’ve never heard the good news of salvation before. I was glad for Cheri to get out on the streets with a fellow believer. Albida is a bold witness for the Lord and a great help to us with her sister Lidia. Well, I’m sitting in a local gas station called YPF writing this because they have the nearest wi-fi spot to us. I had to walk here in the cold wind and now must return home with it in my face. Thankfully my wife and two wonderful kids are waiting for me there. Until next time, we love you, we miss you, and we hope you are being a light wherever you are.

Videos of kids and stuff

Pictures of this last week

Cheri and Ritter enjoying learning ABC's
Family Picture near a famous the famous Hotel Llao Llao

Bus ride to El Bolson

Walking around El Bolson. The skyline is reminiscient of the Sierra Nevada in California. This peak is called Piltriquitron.

Climbing at Piedras Blancas

Our house is shown by the red arrow.

View towards Chile from top of Cerro Otto

Ritter being ever so GQ.

Amelia. Need I say more?

Got our own place now

We were blessed by a lady in the church, Lidia who rents us this sweet condo to live in for 20 days. We will need to be out by Dec 10th because there are previous reservations for the peak tourist season for 2 months. There's a good chance we can return to this place in March for the remainder of our stay. It's got a great view, comes furnished, has a washing machine available for use, has heating and all utilities included, and is located near the church and a bus stop. We are looking for something more permanent during this time while also getting our feet on the ground and figuring out how things work around here. Everything takes longer here when you don't know the culture like your own and they take a siesta for 3 hours in the middle of the day. It can be difficult to see places when you don't have a car and the kids are all on different sleeping schedules and everyone speaks really fast spanish on the phone. But we keep on keeping on. God will provide. We've been getting out everyday in one form or another, passing out tracts, sharing the word with people we meet. Already we've given away 3 of our 5 English/Spanish bibles and a few Done books. Done books are little 100 page booklets that talk about the difference between religion and true relationship salvation in Jesus. I think we'll need to get a lot more of both of these. Yesterday we came up with a list of possible evangelism ideas and prayed over it with Lidia and her sister Albida. We're excited to see what every new day brings! Continue to pray for God's direction in housing and for boldness to speak His word. Dylan

View from our window

Upstairs loft for parents, there is also another bedroom for the kids

Downstairs is the kitchen,living,office,dining area. Roughly 10x12

Downstairs

Ritter on the beach downtown

Our condo is the one on the left

Send off party

Here's a picture of some amazing friends

Travel to Argentina

Dylan- We are finally in Bariloche, Argentina in a hostel, we've got free internet so I figured I'd post something while I can. Turns out the time difference is 5 hours ahead of Pacific time. That might help explain the kids being a little crazy. To recap the travel, left Redmond, Oregon at 7am, flew right over the Sierra Nevada mountains. I could see all of my favorite peaks, the lake we camped at this summer for a week, we even saw Half Dome in Yosemite just below us, it was really cool. Then we spent half the day in LAX with Grampy and Aunt Paula walking around trying to find a restaraunt. The flight to Dallas was uneventful and the next long 11 hour leg to Buenos Aires wasn't too bad either. Cheri and Amelia had a seat with a baby bed and Ritter and I were 10 seats back. The only bummer was when the movie I was watching was almost over he had to go to the bathroom so I missed the ending. GI Joe always wins so I can only guess that Cobra lost the battle. Once in Buenos Aires we took a taxi to the domestic airport down town and waited 7 hours for the final flight. Cloud cover and not much to see put us in Bariloche 2 hours later completely wasted but so thankful to have a warm hostel, private bathroom with hot water and a nice bed to go to. It's been 24 hours now since we arrived. Amelia is crying a lot as we try to put her back on schedule of feeding and sleeping. Ritter is a lot fussier than normal as he competes for attention and also tries to adjust. Travel wasn't so bad, it's this adjustment time that is rough. We are also realing from the cost of things here. When we last traveled in Argentina it didn't seem so bad. Food now seems a lot more expensive, virtually equal to US prices, sometimes more. Bananas are $1 a pound and a simple meat sandwich for lunch was $7 each downtown. I went to a grocery store this evening up in the barrio cheaper part of town and prices were still the same up there. We met up with the pastor of the local Baptist church in the west side of town. He and his wife were really nice. We had tea and talked about what they are up to in the community and how we might be of use. More on that later. First on our list of things to do is find a home. Tomorrow will hopefully be a nicer day. Today it rained a lot, we couldn't see any of the natural beauty that make this place so special. So it's been a long rough day with the kids and everything so we are going to sleep. Pray for God's provision and direction. Dylan



At the Redmond Airport, the beginning of a very long journey.... Catching Aunt Paula and Grampy during our 4 hour layover in LA

Aunt Paula (Great Aunt Paula or GAP to Amelia)

Killing time at the Buenos Aires Airport

An even better way to kill time at the Buenos Aires Airport

Amelia sleeping in a drawer beside our bed

Ritter found his own niche

The kids

She's starting to smile a lot more these days

Here she is relaxing in the day spa (bathroom sink)
Ritter takes on the "Armor of God" Ephesians 6:10-20

Truly our cup runneth over

Dylan- Today was beyond words. God's provision and blessings are too many to count. He is so good! Cheri was able to sell her artwork today at church to raise money for the mission trip. You see, a few weeks ago there was a song sang in church that ends with the words "the seed I've received I will sow", and it really moved her. She told me a week ago that she wanted to give ALL of the money of her art sales to purchase bibles and gospel literature for our trip. Malachi 3:10 came to our minds, and it was proven today. She sold 22 pieces of artwork to the Glory of God and for His word to go out to the nations! Needless to say we will have enough bibles, tracts and books to meet the needs of many many people. Thank you to all who gave so generously today. Rest assured in Isaiah 55:11, God's word shall not return void, it will prosper in the thing for which He sent it.

Cheri's art can still be purchased while we are gone at these fine art galleries in Central Oregon. Kiln's College-Bend, Tumalo Art Company-Bend, Don Terra-Sisters, The Design Studio-Redmond.

Feet

Dylan-A friend of mine brought this verse to my attention after my last posting about feet. Romans 10:14-15 "How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed?And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!" Today in church the pastor spoke from John 13 about Jesus washing the disciples feet. It seems to be a recurring theme in my life lately. Here's an older shot of Cheri and Ritter in the Himalaya.

On the road again

Dylan- Well we finally sold the house this week and we are on the road again. We have 10 days left until we leave so this is a good primer for living out of our duffle bags with two kids. We've been super blessed to crash at some friends houses in Bend during this transition time. Last night we shared some of our previous missionary journeys with the Swansons. Then this morning John encouraged me with these words from Isaiah 52:7 "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation..." Then verse 10 says "And all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God." Below is a picture of our evangelism trek to Rara Lake in Nepal last year that caught John's attention and made him think of those verses. I got to thinking about those words and what stood out to me was God was calling our feet beautiful. This means so much more when you know the back story. Back then, and in some cultures like Nepal now, the feet are considered to be disgusting and you would never even show the soles of them to someone. It's super rude in Nepal to put your feet on a coffee table especially if you point them at someone. You might as well be showing them your rear end. But here in these verses, God is saying that the lowely gross feet are beautiful! He's always taking what is bad and making it good.

Here's a recent picture of Amelia, she's learning to smile, it's so fun!