March 2010
Dear family and friends,
We started out this new year with some very relaxing times with friends and as a family, along with the pressure of leading the community through our yearly strategic planning meetings, and subsequent staff retreat. God has been good and faithful to us in every circumstance, and so we begin another calendar year in Lima among the poor.
We have finally installed the new stairway on the back of the ministry center as you can see in the photo. That, hopefully, is the last big upgrade needed before we apply for our operating license. Please pray about this process. We are trusting that God will be present to us no matter how long, frustrating, and expensive the red tape might be. For now, the community is organizing some activities in the ministry center being careful to not call too much attention to ourselves in the neighborhood. Without the formality of an operating license, neighbors could call and complain to the city and make it difficult for us to EVER get our license. But we have been conducting all of our Back-to-School Campaign interviews at the center (the mothers usually bring all their children to the interview…they don’t have anyone else in the family unit who isn’t working to watch the kids); additionally, the girls bible study is beginning up again, and will hold their lunches at the center every Tuesday. The first bible study of the year dealt with spiritual goals for 2010. Two of the young women wanted to talk more about getting married in the center as part of their spiritual goals. We would LOVE to host that kind of event at the center, even if we didn’t really see that kind of request coming. Please remember to pray for the bible study, the leaders, and the young women who participate, that they would be attentive to God’s voice in their midst.
Isabel and Natalia have been doing LOTS of gymnastics, and a little water play this summer. Isa has been going to gymnastics 5 days a week, and Tali just started out by doing 3 days per week. Surprisingly, Isa never gets sore, although she contorts her body like Gumby for 2 hours every single night in her class. Isa’s class is working on front flips, back bends on the beam, and the uneven bars. Wow! Tali, for her part, is learning how to do summersalts and how to be a good listener for the trainer. Tali was doing swim lessons as well (you can see from photo that both girls LOVE the water) but one day she said that her belly hurt, started crying, and then won’t get back in the pool for her class. We think that in part it has to do with her struggle to be a good listener for the swim coach, because the other day just our family went to the pool and Tali swam around like a tadpole for 3 hours and loved every second of it.
Please continue to remember our family’s financial needs as our US trip 2010 soon approaches (late June, all of July, and early August are possible timeframes). Currently, airline ticket prices are $1100 for our itinerary, per person. If any of you have Delta miles that you would be willing to gift to us, please let us know! Or you could redeem your miles to purchase one or more of our tickets. With Delta, our international ticket uses 70,000 miles.
Thank for walking with our family in ministry, and thank you for loving us across the miles!
The langleys