Happy Birthday, David!

The big cake complete with trick candles.

Pastor David modeling his new suit that was a gift from the church.

Birthday lunch. The Peruvian man next to Martha is a guy David grew up with here in Peru.
He is a member of our church.

My Trumpeteers

Last night David and Benjamin played a trumpet duet at the seminary's music night as part of the anniversary. It was nice.

Praise!

Many of you know of and have been praying about our issues with Rebekah's medical bills. Our insurance company had refused to pay for Rebekah's January surgery saying that it was cosmetic and not covered in our plan. Needless to say we were shocked. Cosmetic? Anyway, Rebekah's surgeon wrote a letter to the company explaining what he did and why. Early in July all this information went back to the medical evaluation committee. Rebekah has been saddened over the fact that we may have to pay a large amount of money (somehow or another). She is a young lady that is very careful with her money and it is difficult for her to just spend it. She didn't want us to have to spend money either. She also is aware that God allows all this to happen and we tried not to talk about the matter too much in her presence. Any way...today we received an email from the insurance company stating that they were paying all but $80 of the $14,900+ we owed to the hospital in Indianapolis! At our house there was some serious shouting goin' on! Rebekah is thrilled and once again we see God's love and care for us. Thank you for praying with us in this matter. What a great God we serve. Of course, He would still be a great God even if He didn't answer our prayers in this way!

Are You Ready for Some Football?

Last night we had our BMM potluck for Trujillo and Chimbote. We enjoyed celebrating the October birthdays (Natalia, Steve and David). Caleb wanted to be on Uncle David's lap so he is in the picture too. He recently learned how to blow out candles so we had to work quick! He blew out Uncle David's before we could get the other 2 lit :) After supper we watched the Vikings - Packers game. Everyone was cheering for Minnesota except for Jacob. Yes, he is our cheese head! It was an enjoyable evening. The cousins enjoyed being together and watching a few episodes of Gilligan's Island.

Update

I am sorry I haven't updated the blog in a while. I guess everything is just the same ol' thing. That is good, I guess, meaning we have had a routine. This week David and I traveled to Lima to begin working on getting our visas. If you recall, we lost our visas during our furlough due to a change in the immigration laws. The new law states that we cannot be out of the country more than 6 months or lose our visas, so we lost them. We had considered traveling to Peru in January for a couple of days just to say we had been in the country but that would have been, literally, thousands of dollars. While it will cost us a few hundred to get new visas and carnets for all 6 of us that is much cheaper. So, David and I traveled to Lima by bus on Tuesday afternoon, spent 1/2 hour at interpol (international FBI), had our fingerprints taken 18 times (I am not joking), our teeth checked (for future identification if necessary) and our mug shots taken. All this now goes to the FBI in the USA and when they clear us then we move on to the next step of actually receiving our visas and being able to get our carnets. The children don't need to pass for all of this since they are too young to be criminals :) Hopefully at the end of November all 6 of us will go to Lima for the last step. This last step usually requires several hours of waiting and waiting and waiting. The children are dreading it, they remember the last time! We will take a sack lunch, books, and games just in case. David spoke at a church on the other side of Lima Wednesday night. Since it was rush hour (why do they call it that?) it took us an 1 1/2 of bumper to bumper (literally) traffic. So glad I took some dramamine before that trip. The same route only took us 30 minutes to get home! Thursday we spent a little while at Fetzer (MK school through which we homeschool) then headed back to the bus station. We arrived home last evening at 10 PM. The children enjoyed 2 great days in Chimbote with their cousins, Uncle Steve and Aunt Molly. Grandpa and Grandma Stilwell joined them on Thursday. They traveled home, by bus, last evening arriving 10 minutes after we did. Thanks Stan and Ruth for housing us in Lima!