Sam's Trip to Venezuela

Sam had a wonderful time just above the equator in Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela! Boy was it hot! Fortunately, most homes in Venezuela have airconditioning!! And, get this, they only pay the equivalent of $20.00 dollars a month for electricity!!! Unbelieveable! Also, Sam said that gasoline cost 7 cents a gallon!! These are the only major pluses to living in Venezuela. The president of the country makes life pretty miserable for nearly everyone. Everyone there is losing their freedoms at a rapid rate. Sound familiar?

Inspite of all of this, Sam had a fruitful ministry at the Bible Institute where he taught on Biblical Counseling. He also preached in four different churches the two Sundays he was there. Tim and Pam Darling were very gracious hosts! Sam got to see the sites, the churches, the culture and taste the wonderful foods of Venezuela!

We are very glad to have Sam back here with us! Us girls decided that two weeks is a long time without our daddy and husband!

It's been awhile since I blogged. Our lives have been very crazy since June. Natalie has stayed very busy with two a day practices with basketball. Little by little, we were more and more controlled by basketball. To make a long story short, after much prayer and counsel, we decided to change Natalie's schooling. Basketball is great but not when it is controlling so much of your life. The school where Natalie got her scholarship promised 90% of the subjects would be in English. Well, the truth of the matter is that only three or four, depending on the day. of the subjects are in English and the rest are in Spanish. Also, several of the classes never openned or used their textbook after a month of classes. What is up with this? Natalie has also been diagnosed with Scoliosis. Natalie has struggled with a lot of pain in her back and it was only getting worse. So, with all this said, she is back at home and homeschooling. We waited for Natalie to make the decision. It has been hard on her. She made lots of friends during the past month. She also misses playing basketball but we are giving her back some healing time. Natalie is happy but lonely here at home. Pray that we will find friends and more activities for our girls. Thanks so much for your prayers during the time when we were waiting for Natalie to take her college entrance exam, waiting for the scholarship, etc. We don't know why God would take us down this path, only to see that it wasn't the best plan for us. We are aware that Natalie is a lot smarter than we imagined. I hope to be able to keep her challenged. We have learned what our Mexican friends go through with being told half truths. It was very disappointing but we are growing in accepting God's plan.