I just found out my sister gave birth to my first nephew.  These are the hard things to miss.  I hope he'll forgive me.

In the hour since we left the Santiago airport, two people have said "adios" to us (cab driver and check-in lady). Normal, right? No! When I heard the word, I flipped my head in surprise. I don't think I realized it until this morning, but we just don't say that in Peru! "Chao" or "nos vemos" or "hasta luego," but never "adios." I'll be interested to see what other cultural differences stand out.

Well Hannah and I are off. We're headed to Chile for a couple of weeks vacation before our bosses head to the states for a few months. We should still have email most of the time if you need to get ahold of us, but expect fewer blog posts.

Taza and Ellie send their love and are super excited to be staying with grandma (our housekeeper who gives them everything they want and more) for the next couple of weeks.

This saint procession just came by our house complete with traditional dancers! All the neighbors were out on the street watching. The dancing was to the beat of some very loud drums, which scared the living daylights out of the dogs. The door was open, and they kept running out to see the news and then running back in.

All of the sudden, Ellie ran out the door and down the street! I was more than surprised, and without shoes or a key (to be able to close the door and then get back in), I was left in the lurch. Luckily, as I ran inside for shoes and the key, my neighbor went in search of Ellie (who had run down the alleyway in our normal morning beach-walk routine).

PS- Tim just got back and asked the neighbors about the saint. It's Saint Rosa, and although no one knows what she did, they were quick to inform us that she's the saint of policemen.

We just finished up our introduction night to the next Alpha course. It was amazing. We ended up renting a "party" room complete with poorly drawn images on the walls, blacklights, disco ball, glow in the dark paint and a roof made up of bamboo shoots and plastic - and yet it felt comfortable and cozy. I think after living here for a while, the idea of "nice" changes greatly.

In the ended we had 33 people come including us. 20 were brand new and I believe most if not all will come back for the rest of the course. One exciting aspect is that of those 20, 11 were men and only 1 is already involved in spiritual things. This was encouraging since the men here tend to avoid anything that could possibly be associated with God or religion.

Hannah and I are taking some time off before our bosses return to the US for a few months. Because of that the official first week of the course will begin on Friday the 19th of September. Please be praying for this and the time between. We hope that the momentum for the course will continue and that God will continue to work miracles throughout this next course and the people who attend.

Thank you once again for all of you who have been faithful praying for us in our work here as well as the people we're working with.

Today we made :
100 tortillas from scratch
salsa out of 100 tomatoes
guacamole from 30 avocados
and a lot more

I'm tired and also deeply grateful for Grace, her housekeeper, my housekeeper, her daughter, and Tim (all part of the cooking team).

Our Alpha Invitation Night (for the new course in September) begins in 45 minutes. If you read this tonight, pray for us! We're hoping for a good and enthusiastic turn out of interesting and interested people, particularly men (usually sorely lacking in anything "spiritual").

Yesterday in the women's Bible study, Grace read Luke 15:26, which says that if anyone comes to Jesus and doesn't hate his father and his mother, his wife and his children, his brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he can't be a disciple.

After some discussion and direction, Grace asked the women what they thought the verse was talking about. As usual, they spent some time in silence looking blankly at the verse. Then someone piped up: "It's about loving your neighbor." Grace and I exchanged a look of utter disbelief as all of the women nodded in agreement. I'd love to make some more comments, but I just don't even know what to say....

PS and FYI- I think what the verse is actually talking about is priorities. To be a disciple, my relationship with Jesus has to come before every other relationship in my life. I have heard before that exaggeration was a Jewish teaching technique, and I suspect that maybe that's what Jesus was employing when he used the word "hate" here. If we look at this verse in the context of the rest of the Bible (which I would say is an important tool for interpretation), we see that He couldn't have possibly literally meant that I should hate my family.

Here's my mom, showing that she is more athletic than me and my brother combined (although he's climbed Mt. Rainier ... I guess that makes me the odd one out!).