Answers to prayers - He is faithful (Dios es fiel.)

Today marks 2 weeks that we have stayed in the Pereira home . We are at the halfway point of our home stay. We have been so blessed to be in a wonderful warm home. It has been a safe place to get our feet wet with the Spanish language and Argentine culture. God has been meeting some of our HUGE prayer requests and we wanted to let you know that your prayers are being answered....SO THANK YOU AND KEEP PRAYING!

First of all, we were able to set up a weekly schedule for our language study. We will be going downtown Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 9am to noon. Our tutor is flexible so we may be able to add a few hours or even another day later on, if we need to. Our tutor, Paulina is a young professor from the University here in Tucuman. She has taught many foreigners Spanish (Castillano) and is also answering a lot of cultural questions for us right now.

So we had a little adventure our first & second class. We needed to take the bus from our host home downtown and get off close to Paulina's apartment. Well, Monday we took the wrong bus, therefore we went downtown, then out of the city and to a suburb. We finally exited the bus and had to take a taxi to the apartment (an hour and a half adventure). Then today, we got on the right bus (#7) and as we neared Paulina's apartment, the bus took a detour due to construction. We didn't realize that we missed our stop and by the time we got off the bus we were a full 30 min. walk away from the apartment (another unexpected adventure). Please pray our travel to the class on Friday is UNEVENTFUL!!!

Another prayer request that burdened my (Beth's) heart deeply, was finding a nanny for Zane. Praise the Lord! Our Canadian friend, Ann, told us of her friend, who speaks English, has taught kindergartners English, is taking night classes and NEEDED A JOB! So Ivanna will start taking care of Zane this Friday. Last week she came by and I was able to see her interact with Zane. We talked about his likes/dislikes, schedule, food, discipline etc...all of the things that mommys think about during the day. I think she is going to be a wonderful fit for Zane and for us. Thank you for your prayers. FYI- Ann, our Canadian friend, watched Zane yesterday and today while we were at class. Zane did very well and had no tears, just lots of playing!

This last weekend we were able to go to a Church Retreat only a few miles out of town. We had a wonderful time meeting new friends, eating new food, relaxing, and speaking A LOT of Spanish. We were blessed by worship and teaching....in Spanish. We understood the heart of what was being said. Below are some pictures from the retreat, our host home, the park, and Zane playing.

Zane loved swimming in the pool at the Church Retreat (El Campamento) this weekend.

Zane & Gabriel exploring the retreat center at night.

Zane and David playing at the park 3 blocks from our host home.

Zane and Loli (our host mother) coloring on the Aqua doodle.

The church group having lunch (their largest meal of the day) at the retreat.

Worship and teaching at the retreat

These are the swings at the park....quite different.

Zane, Constanza, and Gabriel made a fort out of blankets and were having a blast.

(Building blanket forts must be universal!)

WE ARE BLESSED TO HAVE THIS TIME NOW TO LEARN THE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND ENCOURAGEMENT.

WE COULD NOT BE HERE WITHOUT YOU.

Some pictures of our 1st week.

Martha and Greg sending us off at the Denver International Airport.

An Argentine soccer game. Independente vs. River (What an experience! Words cannot express the cultural shock during that game! Singing the entire game, intense loyalty to the team where they need to separate the fans by a fence and barred wire...WOW!)

Zane enjoying a toy at a restaurant around 11pm after the soccer game.

We rode a double-decker bus from Buenos Aires to Tucuman. (15 hours)
Our bedroom at our host home in Tucuman.

The small office where we email and Skye. DID YOU DOWNLOAD SKYPE FOR FREE SO WE CAN TALK YET? Go to http://www.skype.com/

The 'formal' dining room where we eat dinner around 10 or 11pm.

The open patio where we use the wash machine and hang our clothes.

Zane likes to run circles around the drain.

The bathroom

The kitchen table where we eat breakfast(10am), lunch (2pm), and snack(6pm) OR where we watch TV. We have watched Tarzan II and The Fox and the Hound in Spanish already.

The kitchen

The outside of the house and Negro, the dog.

Coti, Gabriel, and Zane sitting on the front step.

Keep reading. The next post is NEW too.

La Vida Nueva

So we have been in Argentina for 1 week now and I (David) am sure that people are wondering what we are up to. After spending a few days in Buenos Aires with a missionary and his family, we moved on to the city we will be calling home (Tucuman) for our language study. The trip from Buenos Aires to Tucuman was about 15 hours on a bus. The bus ride was very comfortable, but I am still trying to get rid of the after taste of some sort of twinkie-pinwheel with ham salad concoction. It tasted as strange as it sounds and probably the only food I haven't enjoyed since I have been here!

Anyway, we are currently staying with a very gracious family. The father is a pastor at a church here planted by missionaries (Borstads). He (Antonio), his wife (Loli), and their children(Gabriel and Constanza) have been very kind and welcoming to us. The children have been great playing with Zane and helping Beth and I with our Spanish. The church welcomed us warmly last night at a prayer meetng. I can't say enough about the hospitality of the people we have met in Argentina. The other couple in the picture is Ann & Aaron. They are from Canada and have been living in the missionaries home while the missionaries are on Home Assignment in the States. Ann and Aaron picked us up from the airport and have be a wonderful resource for us so far.

So the question still remains... What do we do each day? Well, this first week has been an education in a lot of basic tasks that are very easy for us in the states. We are learning how to take the bus, buy groceries, cook and clean, etc. and most importantly communicate in Spanish. Sounds easy, but the schedule and pace of life is much different in Argentina. We have lunch at 2pm and a siesta until 5pm. A snack at 6pm, but we don't actually have dinner until 11pm or 12am. This includes Zane, who was accustomed to sleeping from 8am-8pm. We are adjusting, but it has been difficult at times. Zane has loved staying with the family here, but he really gets tired and hungry at times. Pray that he would adjust well and his parents would have wisdom in taking care of him.

Beth and I are trying to become comfortable with the pace and how to take care of everyday tasks with a limited ability to communicate. We still don't have cell phones or a vehicle either. We have been encouraged that the Spanish we have learned in the past has come back quickly. Our desire to learn Spanish is extremely high and we are thankful that we have this year to focus on communication. When you think about it: Life is about relationships and relationships are about communication. This includes God's love for us. Our love for him and our love for others. Pray that people would see God's love in us despite our language deficiencies and that we would progress rapidly so that we can convey God's love ever more clearly. Monday we meet for the first time with our language teacher, Paulina. Pray that we could shedule a good program of teaching sessions and that Zane would be able to have a trusted child care provider. Also, pray that we could find a language helper (non-professional) to assist us in learning basic words and sayings in a casual setting.

Argentina is such a land of contrasts. There is Walmart and McDonald's in Tucuman, but there are also people driving horses and carts down the streets. There are very wealthy people here, but there are also the poor with no water or electricity. Pray that God would give us vision and opportunity to minister to all kinds of people no matter where they fit into society. Pray that this would occur now as we are children in the language and later on as we mature in communication.

Blessings to everyone and thanks again for your prayers. It brings us great joy to know that our Father hears all of our prayers and responds to them. He is ever faithful whether we are in the midst of comfort or wading deep in a foreign land, language and culture.

The Journey Begins

Early Thur morning we woke up, finished packing and headed off to the airport to begin our journey to Argentina. (Thanks to all who helped send us off!) We were welcomed at the airport by being told that we weren't allowed to fly to Argetina because we only had one way tickets and no visas! We were temporarily nervous, but several phone calls and questions to supervisors eventually resolved the situation. We were simply warned that we may be asked to buy a return flight ticket when we arrive in Buenos Aires (this didn't happen).
Thurs. was a very long day, but we survived our flight to DC and our 4 hour layover. We were able to have dinner with some friends in DC before flying out which was really special. About 10pm that night, our flight left for Buenos Aires. Zane slept like a champ and the 11 hour flight was at the very least tolerable.
We arrived safely this Fri morning with all our baggage safe and accounted for. Paul Hill, a missionary in Santiago, Argentina was there to welcome us and is taking a couple of days to show us around Buenos Aires before we take a very long bus ride to Tucuman on Monday evening.
Thanks for the prayers! We have been safe, the traveling has been smooth, and we have been warmly welcomed and taken care of to start this journey. We will try to keep you all updated through this blog in the coming days. (written by David for the Roberts' Family)