~A nice surprise visit with some good Southern people from the USA!~

One Sunday Felipe's cousin Debi and her husband Daniel from South Carolina, USA, came to our church. We were happy to get to meet them. It was neat to see them singing our Spanish hymns in English. =) They are a dear couple who were here to adopt a little 11 month old Colombian boy. I was thrilled to get to talk with Daniel and hear his Southern accent, and know that when I said, "Y'all" he knew EXACTLY what I was saying. =) Daniel cannot speak but a few words of Spanish, so I think he was just as happy to hear my Southern talk and really enjoyed visiting with Phillip too. =)
Debi's Mom is from Colombia, but Debi was born and raised in the USA. She asked the Colombian government if her Mom's connection with Colombia had helped them with their adoption, but they said no.
~On Monday Daniel and Debi came to our house for lunch.

~They were glad to have some American food, and Daniel was so HAPPY to have my Southern Sweet Tea, for that is his VERY favorite drink! =D~
~A cute picture of Hayden and Elijah.~
~A nice family picture with their precious baby. =) We were amazed at how much little Hayden looks like his Daddy...when he is from Colombia, and Daneil from South Carolina. Isn't that neat? It was a LONG 3 and 1/2 year process for them, but thank the Lord they got their baby boy at last and are now enjoying him at home in the USA. =)~
~It had been awhile since we had seen our dear friends Carlos and Gloria, so later that afternoon I called them and asked them if I could bring supper and come have a nice long visit. They were as happy to see us and we were them and we had a nice long visit and got home at 1:00 AM. Our lives stay so busy that we don't get to be together often.~

~The last of the USA company pics~

Since I can upload pics now, I'll post all the rest of the pics from our visitors stay back in March. We loved having Bro. Eisenhart, Bro. Becker, Bro. Pilmore, and Bro. Daryl with us, and their ministry was such a blessing to our churches here. Sorry for the overload...but there are LOTS of pics in this post. =)
Some more Pics from our Sunday... from my camera this time.
~I LOVE fresh flowers, so I'm happy to be living in Colombia where they cost pennies. I got these flowers for our table, (plus more that filled another huge vase on a table in our living room) all for $5.50! =)~
~Our Sunday dinner table~
~A place setting at the table.~
~Since I had the dinning room table already set for Sunday dinner, I served our breakfast buffet in the garage. :)~
~One of our desserts for Sunday dinner was this coconut cake. Yummy!~
~The other dessert was this up-side-down apple pie. UMMMM UMMMM!! =D~
~Bro. Eisenhart, Bro. Becker, Daryl, and Bro. Pilmore, Jimmy, Farly and girls and our family after church on Sunday.~
~Us during our Sunday dinner (Daryl was studying for his sermon.)~
~A smiling Sarah with some of her goodies from the USA.~
~A Happy Kimberly with some of her goodies.~
~The Beckers sent Noah these fun cars.~
~Grammy E. and the Beckers sent some fun cars to Elijah.~
~Some of my goodies that the Beckers and Sis. Joan sent to me. Some perfume, and lots of fun scrapbooking papers, stickers, etc. THANKS TONS!!!~
~Tuesday afternoon (March 17th) before the first service of our Christian Nation Church congress Phillip and Bro. Becker had to pick up some people from the bus station and so Bro. Eisenhart, Daryl, and the kids and I got some Colombian gifts for them to take back to their families and ate lunch at McDonalds.~
~A couple ladies and I singing "My Tribute" (in Spanish of course)in the service that night. (The dress that I am wearing I recently made from a wrap-around pattern that Julia M. sent to me. Thanks, Julia! =)~
~The people from our church in Medellin...a 10 hour bus ride away~~The family that came from our church in Cartagena...a 24 hour bus ride.~
~Our USA visitors being introduced to the church.~
~The Lord helped Bro. Paul Pilmore to preach that first night of our Christian Nation Church Congress~
Wednesday, March 18th was the 2nd and last day of our Christian Nation Congress and we had services and workshops all day long. God helped each one that preached, and helped Phillip as he translated. God's presence was so close that it almost felt like we were in the upper room at Pentacost.
~Here we were eating a snack between services. Later we had a DELICIOUS typical Colombian lunch.~
~Our family singing "Yes, I know" in Spanish during the evening service.~
~A group shot after the Congress. (I was afraid that Elijah was going to hurt that baby beside me, so I'm talking to him in this pic. =)~
After a whole day being in the church...fellowshipping with fellow believers, and basking in God's sweet presence none of us were ready to leave that night.
~After the last service back at our house...the guys enjoyed talking, eating pizza, and relaxing after the busy week of preaching. They stayed up until nearly 2:00 AM and had to get up early to pack and leave for the airport the next morning by 6:00 or so.~
Our family LOVED having each of the men here with us. Their Christian fellowship and preaching ministered to us as well. God is really working here in Colombia, and oh how that encourages our hearts! GOD MET WITH US DURING OUR SERVICES THE WEEK THAT OUR USA VISITORS WERE HERE...Tears were shed, lives were changed, and goodbyes were hard to say. =)

~Day four...USA company~

~God really helped Bro. Eisenhart preach in our Sunday morning service. It was nice to hear our pastor preach again. There were about 14 people that prayed after service. God really helped Phillip as he translated for about 14 different services while the guys from the USA were here!~

~Since Bro. Pilmore has a baby 2 months younger than Elijah, he was a very big help to us with Elijah during church since Phillip was translating and I was playing the piano.~

After our morning service we hurried home to a yummy Sunday dinner (even if I was the cook ;-) and then went to our evening service.
~Bro. Eisenhart, Phillip, Noah, Sarah, and one other person in a taxi.~

~Some Colombian houses.~

~I've looked over this huge city of Bogota, with it's nearly 9 million souls and prayed that God would somehow help us to do our small part to help Him win as many of these for HIM as we can!~
~Daryl preached in our evening service. God really helped him as he preached and helped Phillip as he interpreted. Daryl was weeping and so was Phillip. God's presence was very close and there were 6 or 7 people who prayed at the altar. The testimonies that they gave afterward were so refreshing and encouraging seeing what God had done for them!!~
After that service we all (along with 9 Colombian visitors) came home for a snack. We had a really nice time of fellowship together.

~Day 3...USA Company~

~These are a couple pictures of us receiving our gifts from our family and church family in the USA!!! We LOVED everything that they sent! Noah and Elijah enjoying their new cars.~~Looking through all the bags and discovering all the fun treasures. (My poem below will give you an idea of what we received.)~


Here is a poem that I wrote to our Christian Nation Church family to thank them for all of our wonderful gifts that they sent to us!!

~Christmas in March~
"Santa Claus" arrived in Colombia in the form of 4 USA Preachers. =)
Their suitcases full of cars, clothes, and creepy plastic creatures. (Toy bugs for Noah from his cousin Bryan. =)
Peanut Butter, choc. chips, muffin papers and more,
Pam spray, Skyline chili packets, pecans...goodies GALORE!

Bic pens, pretty perfumes, Things for our girl's hair,
Purses and 2 NEAT books, "Fire Proof" and "The Love Dare".
Tea tree oil, kitchen towels and colorful building blocks,
Cute Matching outfits for our kids, with matching socks.

Adorable Scrap-booking things and a nice kids' cookbook.
Yummy Reece cups...surprises everywhere we would look. =)
Sweet neat gifts to us from all of you there,
We LOVE EVERYTHING! Thank you for your love and care!! =D
~written by Heather 3/26/09


On Saturday, I ran to the market and got fruits and veggies and ran back home and made brunch.
~Bro. Mark and Daryl were a HUGE help to me in the kitchen. They both helped wash dishes and Bro. Mark helped me cook breakfast a couple times. I surely missed having some lady helpers, but these guys and my sweet man and Kimberly and Sarah helped me tremendously. Thanks y'all~After brunch the guys ran out the door with a snack that I packed for them...and had 4 hours of Bible classes at church. Daryl, Bro. Eisenhart and Bro. Mark all taught in these classes. ~Since I'm borrowing pictures...I only have a picture of Bro. Mark teaching and Phillip translating.~

After the 4 hours of Bible classes the guys ran up the mountain and had a house service. ~Here Bro. Pilmore is holding one of our baby girls from church. Bro. Pilmore loved all the Colombian kids (and our kids)...maybe they helped him to not miss his 4 kids quite as badly. =)~

~Day Two...USA company~

Friday, March 13th. We woke up exhausted from our late night, but happy that our visitors were here! =) Noah's cousin Bryan sent him some bugs so that he could have fun scaring his Mother and sisters with them. =) ~Elijah grabbed one and put it in his mouth and started crawling away. UGH! It looked too real.~

The men (except Daryl) were happy to see that I had a coffee maker and promptly made them some Yummy COLOMBIAN coffee...Then we had a breakfast of Breakfast burritos, my homemade salsa, muffins, and fresh cold banana milk (if you've never had it, it's good. =)
After cleaning up dishes and visiting some we all jumped into taxis and went and rented a truck for the few days our visitors were going to be here. We then dropped off (to the official government translator to get them translated into Spanish)some of our important papers that we need to renew our Colombian visas and then came back home. I took a much-needed nap while Phillip finished up the last of the translating and compiling our church manual for the Christian Nation Church here in Colombia. After I woke up we took it to the printers (it was to be done by Tuesday morning, the first day of our Christian Nation Congress) and we all got a bite of supper at the mall, came home and visited some more and went to bed.
We Thank God for helping the men and their luggage to get here safely, and for helping Phillip get the manual to the printers. Stop back by soon for day #3. =D