Feels like home...

So last night, while Kelly and I were doing the dishes (in our sweet outdoor extra sink on the patio) we started talking about how this amazing country that we are so privillaged to be in, is starting to feel like home. Not home like it´s permanent, but not temporary either. It´s just home. It´s our beautiful, ordinary life in extrodinary circumstances. Ísn´t our God so good?

While looking at our blog today, I realized that we haven´t updated you in a while. Strange because I thought that I had but it turns out that we don´t have the FMTCWOT (From Mind To Computer Without Typing) technology down here...maybe one day.

Speaking of technology, we are on track to get internet at our house in the next 5 business days...probably that means in the next 2 weeks but we´ll see. I´m hopeful that perhaps it will be this week!! If you don´t already have it, Skype is a free progam on the internet for calling us. It works pretty slick...you just need a microphone (and if you have a camera for your computer, it works with that too). With it, you can call us and we can call you, computer to computer, for free. Our Skype name is kshampton so look for us in the next few weeks.

We´ve had all kinds of adventures lately. Last week I went to the capitol with a collegue from the mission with the intention of purchasing a car. I´m not sure I would have chosen it stateside but I bought it on his recommendation for driving down here and what would be helpful for the mission. Later I´ll post pictures but for now, you can google image for Diahtsu Minivan Hi-Jet and come up with various versions of our new car. It´s how we roll. We are so excited to get it!! We will return to the capitol on the 29th to pick it up (they needed to clean it up and convert it from gasoline to a propane system - down here, most people convert their cars to propane because it is WAY cheaper than gasoline. Not sure about the safety factor but I haven´t seen any explosions yet!)

We´ve also begun to dive into our jobs. Kelly is hard at work collaborating with the school counselors and special ed teachers to strategize how to create a plan for helping kids who are either behind or have a special need (emotional, behaviroal, physical or mental). Pray for wisdom as they plan. I´ve begun learning about the process for preparing to recieve short-term teams, helping with the film ministry, and today, I taught my first English class. We are feeling so energized and excited to be finding places to contribute to the amazing work that our staff is doing down here!

Every day continues to be an adventure. We couldn´t get straight answers on taking conchos (the motorcycle taxis) so we started taking them on our own. Our driver taught us how to ride it comfortably...and that is the last thing that we have understood from him. We keep choosing his concho, and he keeps talking to us, but alas, we can´t understand a lick of what he says. Hopefully, one day we will! We needed more counterspace/eating space in the kitchen so I built a bar which forced us to adventure into the hardware store and the wood store and fumble through getting what we needed. We managed and one of our friends down here commented (in English) ¨I thought it was going to be a sleeping table but it´s not!¨ When I asked what that was, he demonstrated by slouching against the wall, using the wall to support his weight. We´ve adventure many times to the phone company to try to get it installed, sometimes alone, sometimes with spanish speakers, sometimes (like today) with an interpreter. And finally, I think we´re on track! Over and over again, we adventure out of our bed, into the world and everyday we think, what will happen. The cool thing is that the only thing that happens everyday is we realize how present God is with us and how blessed we are because of his presence.

We have so much to tell you and so many pictures to show but I´m out of time. We´ll update more when we have internet at home. Pray early and often for us. We love you all!

Cheers,
M&K

PS: This is unedited so excuse the mistakes!