Did I say end of the week??

I meant end of the weak-ness known as never posting on my own blog!

I send out heartfelt apologies to everyone who has been faithfully checking to see if I will EVER post something. I FINALLY have some pictures of my trip to Chile. I was thinking about just posting some, but I think I'll go ahead and do them all, or it may be another 3 months until you see any more!!

The first couple are from the plane on the way there. Oh, just as a reminder, I went on a Mission's trip to Pirque, Chile, the week before Thanksgiving. (Yes, in 2007 -- it hasn't been THAT long since I posted!) Anyway, these are from the plane:





















On Sunday, we traveled to the city (Santiago) to attend church. My friend, Teresa, translated for us. This red building is the church, and the woman in the middle of the picture is Mrs. Park. She and her husband were in charge of the work group, as they are every year. After the first service, they invited us to stay for some snacks before the next service began. These services were especially applicable because we were there on the International day of prayer for the persecuted church. It was so awesome to hear people in another country talking about Christians in other countries who are persecuted for their beliefs.





















The girl in the middle of the picture is Jackie. She and her husband, John are raising support to be full-time at the camp. They, along with Jared (Pastor and Mrs. Park's son) will be directing the camp ministry and planting a church in Pirque.

Sunday night, they had a service at the campground. A group of Chileans sang some songs, both in English and in Spanish. We sang songs together in English and in Spanish, then we sang one song with English-speakers singing in English, and Spanish-speakers singing in Spanish. It was a wonderful time of worship!!

















The next day, it was time for work! As I mentioned before, we painted just about everything wooden at that camp. They didn't have drywall in the rooms, it was all wooden paneling, wooden door and window frames, and wooden awnings. They were replacing most of this with unpainted wood, so guess what we got to do!! Everything needed 2 coats of paint. We were there for the last week of work, so most of the inside painting was already finished. Outside the two dorms . . .


















. . . on both sides were two long porches. The underside of these porches, and the awnings needed to be painted. We painted two coats on one side and one coat on the other 3 sides, along with some of the new window frames and even . . . ceilings!!



















































We sometimes had to get up early enough to help with breakfast. Some did better than others . . .


































We ate every meal outside and had beautiful weather the entire time we were there. (sorry about the funny angle on this one -- I was being "artistic")

















Of course, you can't visit another country without seeing some interesting creatures. There are two main kinds of spiders we were told to watch out for: the chicken spider and the araña de rincón spider. The chicken spider is the one you see crawling on Hermon's arm (he had been there since the beginning of the work trip and built most if not all of the window frames and screen frames, and skylights . . ) We were told that chicken spiders are harmless, just REALLY BIG. The other one (rincon -- pronounced ran - CONE) are the ones we were told to watch out for. We checked our sleeping bags every night and hadn't seen one the entire time we were there . . . until Wednesday. We walked into the room and saw it on the wall, hence, the shoe-print on the wall!


























As we were "admiring" the shoeprint, I noticed the third critter crawling out from under one of the beds! We were sharing a room with a scorpion, too! I asked how to get rid of it and they said to step on it, but that just seemed a little strange to me, so we caught it in a plastic cup and one of the Chileans who lived close by played with it outside until we left for the internet cafe.


















One evening, just before sunset, we walked to the top of a hill behind the camp. We saw another spider on the way up! The hill was REALLY steep, with very little grass, so it was a little difficult to get up. When we got there, it was worth it! The view was spectacular and we were rewarded with a beautiful sunset. On the way back, we took some pictures beside a VERY LARGE cactus.
































































When our work was finished at the camp, we had scheduled a couple extra days to spend with Teresa. We visited the Cerro san Cristobal and saw some beautiful flowers at the ampitheater.










































































After our morning of "smelling the roses", we took a bus to the Vina del Mar to see the PACIFIC OCEAN!! This was, obviously, my first time to see the Pacific Ocean, so it was very exciting for me. We didn't go swimming since we only had about an hour or so (we spent too much time doing other things that morning -- shopping and touring). We took the bus back to the city and left the next day for the States.

















































Here is a parting shot of the coastline of Chile from the plane:




















These are a couple of us "enjoying" the plane ride and food! (and a nice sunset from the plane)
































That's my trip to Chile. I have a powerpoint presentation I did for the elementary students at my school. If you ever want to see it, just let me know and I'll show it for you. It's too large to send over the internet, so you'll just have to come visit me!!