Just to make you smile...

 

 In other news, Clara and I have come to a decision--

"Boys are Monstrous, and Girls are Sweet Girls!"

She is VERY adamant about this, too.

As of right now the verdict stands, 2-1. Daddy, of course, is opposed, but as Ethan is a bit too young yet to realize the severity of this outcome, he remains neutral and undecided, giving us girls the victory! {At least for now--wink}

Although, with a face like this, we may have to do a re-vote soon! ha!

"I am so embarrassed!"

Also, Clara is a self-proclaimed "Cutie Cupcake (with frosting on top)!!"


Democracy within the family, who knew?! Poor hubby thought it was a dictatorship. {WINK, GRIN}

Have a great week! :)

Polka Dot Pics and a Prayer Request

Ok, ok, last post about our Mother's Day ladies' mtg. *Promise* But I couldn't show you only pics of the pretty decor, and not take the time to show you all the lovely ladies, too. So, hear ya go:

My Pastor's wife, Angela, and I by our "masterpieces"

Daughter/Mother

Grandma/Mom/2 Daughters

Sisters

Daughter {expecting}/Mother and a friend

Daughter/Mother {expecting}

Daughter/Mother/Daughter-in-Law

Mother/Daughter {She is a fellow missionary wife and friend, who was our guest speaker for the day}

Angela with friends

The group at my table

As you can see we had a lot of Mothers, Daughters, Sisters, Friends, and FUN!! Best of all for me, my sweet teacher made the effort to join us for this special occasion, too. Although she was not able to stay for very long, at least she came and that gives me hope that she will come again and ultimately, that she will come to know Christ as her Saviour. Please pray with me for Silvina and her sweet family, that Matt & I will be the witness that we need to be and that God will use us to draw these dear people to Him.

My Teacher, Silvina & I

Seeing More Spots...

Wow!! What a crazy/busy time last week and weekend were! Our Ladies' Tea went off without a hitch! Praise the Lord, I finished all of my projects {grant it, much to the demise of my house--grimace} and everything turned out BE-A-U-TIFULLY!! At least in my opinion--I will let the 'evidence' speak for itself  ;)

Table Centerpieces--Huge thanks to my amazing hubby for hunting up all the materials for me!

A Closer Look

My Matching Bulletin Board--Proverbs 31:10, 28-30

My Cute Lil' Friend

He kept the guest speaker company on the pulpit!

Ladybug Key Chain Souvenirs

The Adorable Cakes--Our Pastor's Wife did a great job!

The Cake Table

All the Pretty Tables

Another View

Doesn't it look nice and inviting?!

And now presenting, the cutest little ladybugs EVER.....


Drum roll, please.....

"Mom, what's this thing doing on my head?!?"

"I know I'm CUTE!!"

"CHEESE!"

"So, how does it look?"

Sincere Prayers from Little Lips

Last Sunday--what a day! Thankfully we had recovered enough to be in our place at the Lord's House. I am so glad that the Lord gave us the strength to make it through the day, because it would have been a shame to miss all that went on.
First, it was Mother's Day here in Argentina. Unfortunately, just as this nasty "bug" attacked our home, it hit a lot of other church members' homes as well, so the attendance was down. In fact, when Sunday School started it looked like we were only going to have my 2 kiddos in our class. However, we took over the next class of 4-7 year olds, too, as the teacher and her kids, you guessed it, were out sick. My co-teacher and I wound up with 12 kids and she shared with them a wonderful lesson about Hannah and baby Samuel and praying and leaving your worries with God. Then it was Craft Time!! The other teacher and I had prepared some soap bars, all grated up, for the kids to make sachets for their moms. Let me tell ya, they will get plenty of fragrance out of those things; those soaps had a very strong scent! Midst a bit of craziness helping all the kids put their soap shavings in their little cups in pretty colored layers and hot gluing the tulle on top, writing notes, etc., we came out victorious and each child left with a smile on their face and a nice little gift in their hand to take to their mom.

Our Mother's Day Craft

A Closer Look

All the pretty layers of soap shavings

BUT, that was not the best part of the day...
Sunday night we had a "home coming" at our church. 2 sisters, that had made some poor decisions and gone astray from the Lord and from their church family that loves them, returned! That's right, although they had forsaken God, He never forsook them, and gently led them back to the fold. What a joyous and emotional time! Everything is not all squared away yet, they still have some fences to mend and things to make right, but they made that first o-so-difficult step!

HOLD ON NOW...even that, as wonderful as it is, is not the best part, to me!
 Ok, here it is...
My sweet little daughter...hmm...have I ever told you how amazingly thoughtful and sweet she can be?!

My sick girly, recouping on the couch last week

She never ceases to amaze me and this week was no different. You see, last week the 2 sisters had promised to come, but had not been able to make it. So, especially as the older girl used to be Clara's babysitter, I told her that we needed to pray for them to come back to church. Poor Clara was so disappointed last week when they never showed up. She looked up at me with those big, sad eyes of hers and said, "Mama, they didn't come." If you could have seen her; it was so sad and pathetic. Well, every night before bed we have Bible story time and Clara prays. Lately, as she is getting older, I have been telling her to chose what she wants to pray for. This week, every night without fail or prompting, in spite of being icky-sicky, she so fervently and innocently prayed for the girls to come to church this week. And they did! Don't you see what a victory this is?!! My little girl got to witness first hand the power of prayer.

My little girl is not so "little" anymore

When we arrived at church, the girls were on the sidewalk talking to Pastor and I said, "Look, Clara, they came! The girls are here!" She rushed inside to give them hugs and kisses and even asked me to sit with them during the song service. How could I say "No"?! There were many tears shed before the service began, and during the singing I noticed that the older girl had burst into tears all over again. Later I found out, much to my surprise, that she had started to cry because Clara had told her, "I prayed for you, and you came!" What a miraculous, eye-opening, heartwarming experience for my 3 year old sweetie and her old, skeptical mama! Little lips that offer sincere prayers to the Lord from little hearts that aren't so blackened and stained with the sin of this world {as mine is}, I think the Lord has no choice, but to listen and answer!

Such a sweet girl...

Needless to say, I am so thankful to be a mama, especially to this wonderful little girl that is growing up and learning to pray right before my very eyes! ♥

...with a beautiful smile and a kind ♥

♥ Me & My Babies on Mother's Day in Argentina! ♥

Happy Mother's Day from Argentina!

Kid's Day with My Precious "Little Stars"

Our Class of Adorable "Little Stars"

This past Sunday was Kid's Day here in Argentina. Basically, it's another day/excuse to spoil your kids rotten and for stores that carry children's clothes and toys to make a BIG profit. However, the benefit is that it makes for an automatic BIG day in Sunday School, too. :) I got such a blessing out of seeing our little church building stuffed to capacity with shining, smiling little faces. Whether they came to see the video (a cartoon about Missionary Jim Elliott), or for the gifts (more than likely) or for the candy, etc. All of that doesn't really matter. What matters is that they came and heard that Jesus loves each and every one of them, enough to die for them. Amazing!!

Church, full of kids

Singing "His Banner Over Me is Love"

Clara, being distracted by mama and the camera ;)

As I mentioned a few posts back, I am so blessed to work in the 0-3 year old class of Estrellitas (Little Stars). I often {not so jokingly} comment that I am in that class because that is the level of my Spanish communication. {Wink, wink} Some days that's about right, too. It is so wonderful to share a Bible story with these sweet little kids, teach them Bible verses and songs, show them how to pray and give their coins to Jesus, and just sit back and watch them interact, too. They are always exploring and learning something new. So neat to see things through their eyes as the whole world opens up before them. And to give them a Godly, Biblical perspective on life, beginning at such a young age, is incredible!
So, for Kid's Day we gave each of our "little stars" a little box of colored pencils with a colorful clown face on the front. The original idea was to buy boxes of crayons or colored pencils that have an oval shaped hole in the front so that you can see all the colors. Then you are supposed to cut out a hole for the mouth of the clown and put it over the hole in the color box, so that the colors show and look like the clown's teeth. Pretty nifty, huh?! Unfortunately, we did not find color boxes with a hole, but the clowns were super-cute, nevertheless. :) If you could have seen the kids' faces light up when we revealed the "Surprise!!". PRICELESS!!

Clara loves to color in class

Snack Time!

Ethan, happy in his walker

Playing "Train"

I am so thankful for the opportunity to be a part of our church and to influence these kids for the Lord. It is truly amazing to see what they soak up. A couple weeks ago, I taught a lesson on Joseph. I shared with the kids how Potiphar's wife wanted Joseph to do something bad, but he said, "NO!!!" and ran away. I went on to explain that if a friend tries to get you to do something bad, you need to say, "NO! NO! NO!" and run far away, too!!! Well, evidently at least one of my little students was paying attention. That same night at supper time, his older brother told his mom that it is hard to do right sometimes, because he had really wanted to hit his sister, but didn't do it. His little 2 1/2 yr. old brother piped up, "Bad things--NO, NO, NO; good things--YES, YES, YES!" and when questioned about it, he said that he had learned that in class from Heather and Yanel. I cannot begin to tell you how it thrilled me to hear this! 

Friends and Funny Faces

Working in our Sunday School class is such a joy and I think I get the most out of it! I love, LoVe, LOVE it and I LOVE these kids!  :)

"Mundial" (World Cup) Madness

Our first taste of experiencing the World Cup overseas, or at all for that matter. The World Cup or "Mundial" of Soccer is a very big deal down here in Argentina and for most developed countries of the world (other than the U S of A that is, I guess it is because we have some many other national sports to keep us entertained ;)

It is like March Madness only 100x worse! And it seems that everyone, whether normally a soccer fan or not, gets caught up in it. (It has even peaked my interest ;) This year, for the first time in Argentina history, they are even allowing students to miss school to stay home and watch Argentina's games with their families. I don't know if this is a good solution or not. I suppose that the thinking is "Why give everyone an absence when no one is going to come to class anyway?" -or- "Hey, the teachers want to be home watching the games, too, just like everyone else in the country!" I am also told, sad to say, that this is BY FAR the most patriotic time in Argentina, too. Although they recently celebrated the bicentennial of their Constitution and will soon be celebrating their Independence Day, nothing rivals the World Cup to get people excited and putting on their "baby blue and white"! I have never seen so many Argentine flags on houses, until the last few weeks, and not to be outdone, we put one up, too! (Yes, I am American, but "when in Rome...." I am proud to support Argentina in the World Cup, and of course rooted for the good ole' US of A team, too, while they lasted ;)

So far Argentina is playing well and has made is past the preliminaries and the first round of elimination, but they are about to enter into a higher level of play and risk. They will face the dreaded German team on Sat., which just so happens to be the team that eliminated them from the last World Cup in the exact same round. Yikes! {Nervous shudder and biting of nails} Lord willing, they will go on to enjoy a much better outcome this time around! :)

I will be sure to keep you posted and look forward to reporting another glorious victory soon!
Until then, VaMoS ArGeNtInA!!!