Headed into Surgery

Yesterday as I was going about my business walking to and from....

I was hit with excrutiating pain and my legs went out from under me in the middle of the widewalk. What on earth? I went to an emergency room here at a private hospital and they did testing. It turns out I have some type of growth on one of my ovaries. Because they are not sure what it is, they are doing surgery to remove it today. They will go in through my belly button. The surgery is minimally intrusive and I´ll go home this evening if all goes as planned.

I was very impressed with the hospital yesterday as their staff and doctors were more than pleasant and helpful. I am not in much pain today as it did subside quite quickly. I do appreciate your prayers this evening and will be sure to post an update soon.

Thank you for your support!

life without computers...

I was enjoying a pleasant evening alone after a long day of work last Wednesday. Well, it actually wasn´t that pleasant as I had a sinus infection and had to leave work early. Nonetheless, I decided to make the best of it and watch a movie. Of course I do not have a televion at home, so I´m always watching movies on my computer. The movie of choice: The Secret Life of Bees

I would like to tell you that it was a great movie with a moving ending. So touching! Unfortunately I cannot do that. When I had ten minutes left of my movie, my computer froze. After waiting for it to catch up with itself to no avail, I manually shut it down, waited, and then re-started it only to discover that it was still frozen. I repeated the above and found.........a blank white screen.....for 30 minutes without budging. I called Aaron who called AppleCare and they gave me about 3 things to try and re-start the system, all of which failed.

You guessed it, my hard drive is shot. I grieved my loss and made the trip to the Apple store here in Bogota on the following morning only to have the confirm that my hard drive had seen its last moment and so had all of my files from the past two years. I lost it all! My computer is still under warranty which is fabulous because otherwise it would require a hefty amount of pocket money. Now I am playing the waiting game as everything, EVERYTHING, takes longer in Latin America. I have been told that I should have my computer back and repaired in the first week of March. And, it´ll be like new! By new, I mean that i will spend HOURS upon HOURS trying to re-write everything I lost which includes but is not limited to: all of my supportrs information, all of my papers from college, all of my pictures, all of the wedding information, and all of my ESL teaching materials.

Computers, you CAN live without them, it just really stinks!

QUOTE: Never trust a computer you can't throw out a window.
Steve Wozniak

Retreats and Classes

I went on a student-led retreat this past weekend. I think the pictures will speak for themselves, but the Lord definitely moved among some of the group in a powerful way. Retreats, for me, are some of the most difficult weekends, but they are worth every minute of work. Because our ministry is geared towards students, we have to take advantage of long weekends as they are generally very occupied during the school year, hence the many retreats we go on. I, however, am not a student. I am a worker. Retreats, from my end, include organizing, leading, cleaning, cooking, and discipling. But no matter the climate or conditions, God always moves in a mighty way.
the surroundings:
lifting each other up in prayer:
A new gal to the group, pouring out to the Lord:
9 guys slept on the floor in one room:
At His feet:

I should also write a small blurb on my class that I'm taking. Below, you can see the building, from various shots, that I study in. It is very modern and new. My class is going well. For classmates, I have a German, English gal, two Chinese ladies, and 3 Frenchmen. Its quite the class! I'm learning a lot of new things that I know will help me with my professionalism. Also, you can see my Colombian Student ID. FUN!




QUOTE: I could not say I believe. I know! I have had the experience of being gripped by something that is stronger than myself, something (someone) that people call God.

Carl Jung

Frustrations

I had planned to do a full-out blog yesterday with pictures from this weekend's retreat etc. But I left my camera at home yesterday. Then, today I brought my camera, thinking the chord was here at the office. NOPE! The chord is at home. So, I promise that tomorrow I will post a nice blog with pictures etc. Sorry about that. All is well and I look forward to sharing with you about the past week!