Boyd Bear Tracks

The last week in October, we were at a missionary retreat in a city called Melgar. It is down the mountain about two and half hours, so it is "hot country". Actually, when I was a kid we went there almost every year for our family vacation.

We stayed in a four bedroom cabin with the Carters (the other missionary family with young children). The kids had a ball together! Plus, a teenage missionary kid (Amy) came prepared with lessons and crafts for the kids while the parents were in the sessions. We discovered that Eliana LOVES glue! She just pours it on!! Needless to say, the crafts took several days to dry. The last night, the kids came to the session to show their crafts and to sing for everyone. It was VERY CUTE! I was surprised, but they all actually sang. It went much better than our "special music" at church.

There is a zoo at the resort, so of course we had to visit that! They just have animals that are native to Colombia. So, no lions or giraffes :-(. But, they did have three boas. They were right at the edge of their cage so I was able to touch them. I even convinced the kids to "pet" the snakes (quite an accomplishment for Ellie).

Lucas dropped his water bottle by the monkey cage, and the monkeys were quick to grab it. Fortunately, they couldn't pull it through the bars. Unfortunately, they did manage to drink out of the straw :-(. I told Lucas to climb through the guardrails and go get his water bottle without even thinking about the fact that there was a sign that said that the monkeys might bite! Fortunately, he was a little hesitant to obey, and by that time I had noticed the sign and was able to grab the water bottle myself.

While at the zoo, we found a huge bug on some boards. The kids were very interested in it. I picked it up on a stick and let them hold it. We did have some "scary" moments when the bug turned around and crawled towards their hands. But, no one (bug, or child :-)) was injured in the process!















Last Monday we took a field trip to the vet. The kids got to see X-rays of a dog, mites in a microscope, and two Persian kitties getting a bath. They also got the see the place where Boomer was given the "bad gas" (as Ellie would say) for his teeth cleaning. I don't think the vet had ever given a field trip "tour" before; so, he was using all these technical terms for things. Plus, it was all in Spanish so I really don't know how much the kids got out of his explanations :-). Later, I did try to talk about what we had seen and I think they got the basic gist of what we saw. Lucas really enjoyed seeing the mites in the microscope. For his thank you letter, he drew a picture of a mite (it kind of looks like a wierd shaped sun -- an oval with sticks sticking out of it). Ellie said her favorite part was seeing them bathe the kitties. :-) In the picture, the cat is getting blow-dried.















Yesterday was the annual women´s meeting. It was a "walk with the women of the Bible". There were ten women who dressed up as biblical women and presented their character. There were good women and bad women of the Bible. I got assigned to do Jezebel! It went really well and the ladies all seemed to enjoy going to the different "booths" to learn more about biblical women. Thankfully, I don´t have a picture of me as Jezzy :-). Jon said I looked wicked.

The funny thing is that I also got put in charge of leading the music. So, Jezebel led music. No, she didn´t murder the ones who didn´t sing :-)!! In fact, I kept my person a secret and a lot of people thought that I was Vashti or some other queen. So, at least for the first part of the day, they didn´t know that Jezebel was leading the singing :-)!

My booth was right in the sun so my face got sunburned (of course, I would forget the sunscreen!). Unfortunately, I had a crown on so now I have a crown line across my forehead :-(. But, at least it didn´t rain while we were all outside at our booths.

And, despite the fact that I´ve never led singing before, that went really well too. I should mention that I picked three songs that my pianist had never heard before. And, she didn´t read music (she can just play the piano by looking at the chords), so she couldn´t just "figure them out". But, we had a few minutes to go over the songs and during the session it went well. Praise the Lord!! I think next year I´ll let someone else be in charge :-)!

So, as you can see, life has been pretty exciting around here. Added to the fact that we had an ugly church meeting a couple of weeks ago and are still picking up the ashes of that. But, it has been a growing process, for them and for us. So, at least now everything is out in the open and it can be dealt with. And, God has given us many good counselors to help in the process. I say us, but really I haven´t been involved too much. Jon is the one who has been in all the meetings and visiting all the people. So, you can pray that God would continue to give Jon wisdom, and that the people would have a forgiving, loving spirit towards one another.