Prairie Oak Homestead

I'm heading out to the hospital today for 5 days. I am so thankful for the prayers that have gone out on my behalf. It is comforting knowing I'm being prayer for. And a prayer links the person praying with the person being prayed for together with God. Even if miles separate the two, they are still close together through prayer. I pray to be an encouragement to others while there and be a light for Him. I will try hard to get better and pray for the treatment to be tolerated and work. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Isaiah 40:29

Spending the day enjoying time together before I head to the hospital Monday. Ryan is cleaning the woodstove pipe so we can start our fires for the winter. I love the warmth of that woodstove. So comforting. We are heading out later to buy new bibles as Ryan and I gave away our bibles in Venezuela. Mine was tattered, underlined, and precious to me, but I was blessed to give it away to a Venezuelan youth. They will share the english versions amongst their friends. I will be packing a small bag to take with me to the hospital. I want to be as comfortable as I can be. I may not be able to post while I'm in the hospital, but please know I am thinking of you all and appreciate the prayers. I will update as soon as I can.

We had an interesting time trying to get our coffee we bought out of Venezuela. We bought about 17 packs and they thought we were smuggling drugs with them. Oye. My husband was taken away alone with no english speaking people to have his luggage inspected. This happened twice. After poking the coffee and tasting it, they finally let him have it. LOL. Made a memory. :) We all got patted down, girls by the women security and boys by the men security.  We had lots of tasty foods like Arepas, Cachapas, and Venezuelan scrambled eggs. :) Ryan ate quail eggs and also Capybarra, the worlds largest rodent. Um no not me. ;)  The mountains were amazing. The roads were all dirt though and really rough. We got to see a large monkey in the trees on the way up to the school in the mountains. Pretty cool. Bats. Oh the bats. Ants. Oh the ants. We were unable to renew our vows there. Just never had the chance. Plans kept changing. We will probably wait until our 20th now. :) I have never...

I'm baaaaack! What an experience! Venezuela was such a blessing to me. The people there are so hospitable, loving, and kind. The travel part was very hard on me, though. We traveled for more than 24 hours and was up for 48 hours. Not so good on my body. But, I am home now and have one full nights sleep in and boy did it feel good! I will share some pictures with you that speak louder than words, but first wanted to share some of my favorite things about the trip... Favorite things about Venezuela...Top on my list was coming out of one of the homes bathrooms and stopping to say hello to the lady of the house. She was speaking with another woman who was told at the hospital that she could find hope at the 12th of October Church so she stopped by. She confessed her sins and accepted Christ right then. It was such a blessing to be a part of that. I love how they witnessed to her and got right down to it. :) Her name is Joanna if you want to keep her in your prayers. Other fav...

“A woman whose heart is not touched by the sickness of sorrow and whose hands do not go out in relief where it is in her power to help, lacks one of the elements which make the glory of womanhood.” Heading to Venezuela tomorrow morning...won't arrive there until Monday morning.  I covet your prayers during this trip. We will be back home on the 25th. I hope to share our experience with you through pictures when I get home. See ya when we get back!

  On the above map, you will see Caracas, that is where we are flying into. We will fly from Chicago to Mexico City and have a longgggg layover and then off to Caracas. After we land we have a 3 hour drive to where we will be working. Please pray for strength, that it will go smoothly, and my sanity lol. We will be working on building a structure for the people to worship in as right now they worship outside with no shelter. I will be doing the very best I can. My disease is still acting up pretty good, but I trust He will get me through and teach me many things while there. Even if I can only hand someone a tool, I will be blessed to do so. It seems like I will never remember everything I need to take to Venezuela. Those of you that know me, know I can be a bit scattered. Yes, I made a list...but how do I know if I wrote everything down I need to take? ;)  I did some sewing (whew, getting harder and harder) so I would have some shorts to take with me, trying to get things...