Keitt Update - December 2011

Navidad en Chile

Just in case you're wondering about the Christmas traditions here in Chile! :)

Living in two worlds is impossible

So a few blogs ago I was thanking Google for the technology and ways in which it can help in those home sick days...todays a bit different.  I'm not exactly sure if I love or hate technology.  Let me be a bit more specific, I don't know if I love or hate Skype.

Today's Christmas, of course, and typically we (human beings all over the world) find holidays as a time to share with those who mean the most to us, typically including our family.  Last night Christine and I had our first ever Chilean Christmas, which was an amazing blessing, lots of delicious food and lasted into the wee of the morning, 3am to be specific.  We're still recuperating.  One of the biggest differences between a Chilean and American Christmas is that here, everything is celebrated during Christmas eve.  We go to an late night service, have a Christmas dinner at about 10:30pm or so and then we open presents at midnight and conversate and hangout until our eyelids are as heavy and overwhelmed as our stomachs were when we finished eating.

So after waking up at the crack of dawn, 11:30 and spending about 2 hours talking with my family on Skype I just wanted to scream.  I absolutely loved it and then again hated it.

(1)  The internet down here isn't that reliable and so you're praying and hoping that the video will unfreeze and maybe you'll be able to make sense of the jumble audio that's coming through.  (2)  Not to mention the fact that your trial group chat is sucking wind and people who you dearly love are trying to skype in at the same time and yet you can't talk with 15 people at once.  (3) No matter how much time you spend chatting it up and sharing your life there is no way that you can truly share all your thoughts, emotions and recent happens like you can when lounging in your parents living room talking with your parents and brothers and sisters.  It's simply imposible to live in two worlds at the same time, no matter how technologically savvy we become.

No don't get me wrong.  Yes I'm complaining right now and yet I'm still grateful for the connection that we get through skype and all the other neat things that didn't exist 30 years ago.  I just wish that languages, time, and space weren't such "partying killers" and that we, Americans, Chilean, Ethiopians, Russians etc..., could teleport from living room to living room with out losing a second of any of the experiences of truly being with those we love.

Right now we're all somewhere, in the all so sweet physical present... Where ever you are I pray and hope that you truly enjoy and cherish where ever that may be in the all so fleeting present.

¡Merry Christmas & Feliz Navidad!

When you've heard a story 1,000 times before...

it's hard to think that you'll find anything new.  


This week we were supposed to study a passage for a group discussion on Wednesday.  The passage was on Matthew 2, when the wisemen come to visit Jesus.  After rereading the passage a few times, I was stuck.


"Um, Tray, how are we supposed to talk about this for 2 hours??"  He didn't know either.


I have realized especially over the last few weeks how quick I am to dismiss things that I think I already know.  Which is ironic (not really) because in the same time, God has been showing me again and again how much He wants to teach me as soon as I surrender my pride and admit I actually want to be taught.


Sure enough, as soon as I admitted to God that maybe I don't know everything about this Christmas story and I want to be taught by Him, the real learning began.


Here's what I learned:


When we really encounter Jesus, our innate response is worship.  The wisemen, who studied stars and did not proclaim to know God, had to find the star to come and worship the King (v.2).    


They also reacted with obedience (v.12) by not going back to King Herod after being warned by God in a dream.  Why were they obedient?  Because they had spent time with the living God.  How could they desire to do anything after but be obedient to Him? 


When we spend time with God, when we really encounter Him, our natural response is worship.  We were created for it.  And when we worship Him alone, we are at peace in this crazy world.


It's also the way we get into God's presence.  Gratitude and praise to God always preceded a miracle of Jesus.  Paul and Silas had the gates of jail opened and the chains fall off all the prisoners... after what?  Singing and praising God all night.


We were created to worship.  


So what to take from all of this?


1)  Don't ever think that God can't teach you something from the Christmas story you've heard since you were a child...


2)  Do what you were created to do this Christmas - Rejoice that your Creator, the King of all Kings, wants to know you and came to this earth only to die for you.  Worship Him because He is the only one worthy of it!

May your Christmas be full of His peace!

Thanks Google

So here and again I wake up and I'd pay anything for a simple afternoon back at my parents' house with all my siblings.  Obviously I miss them all the time, but these strong yearnings to truly physically be there are more random.

This morning I was emailing my parents, which I guess doesn't make the yearning random, and I really wanted to physically see our house, a house that had been my home for about 22 or so years.  Without a picture to look at because who takes pictures of their house, well at least I didn't, off to good ol' google we go.

With stalkerish/incredibly advanced technology that we have today you can do and see some pretty cool stuff.  When I search my parents address, zoomed in and got to the street level, this is what I got.

(1) This is creepy that I can actually get this close to their house simply using google.  (2)  This is cool and exactly what I needed to "feel" like I was at home again.  (3)  This is sublime to see my old whip/car/vehicle parked out front.  Which means I was literally inside the house!

I bought that car right before I headed off to college (for a measly 1250 bucks).  Oh how I loved that 89 4-door Dx Honda Civic.  All the experiences and struggles I had with that car.  But let's be honest, it's a Honda so I had very few struggles...pushing it for all it had to make it up a hill so me and 4 other full size men could go snowboard instead of sliding back down the road (while listening to some good ol' Ben Harper I might add), breaking down with 4 middle school boys during Disciple Now, getting my first kiss from Christine, changing car brakes for the first time, trips all over the place for just over 32mpg...boo koos of goodness to say the least.

Well it finally died about 2 weeks before I graduated with a bit over 215,000 miles.  Although Joel Pants and I had to push it down Providence Road for it's last haul at 10:30 at night I can easily classify it as a gem.

How did google know that I needed both, the car and the house in the same picture?  Or maybe google hasn't updated their street level pictures in oh I don't know, 3 years at least.  Either way I'm smiling.

The Randomness of Our Life

Where's the most random place Tracey could be right now, Wednesday night, at 11:33pm?


If you guessed talking on a Chilean radio show, you are right!


If you know Tracey, you know he doesn't do anything less than 100%.  In our Chilean life this has included baking bread, fixing bikes, finding the best fruit combination for banana ice cream, translating for Institute classes, leading small group, and finding the most time and traffic effective route to various points of interest.  It is also why he has spent the last week revisiting and researching some of the themes from his bachelor degree to share with a friend from church on his radio show.


The theme: human rights around the world from a Christian perspective.


From his extensive notes and passion for the topic, I know he's doing an amazing job.  And I'm sure he will tell you about it later :)


  

I've grown tired of giving to the poor...

It's weird, over the past few months I've come to the realization that some of the fundamental parts of my past, I've now become disillusioned with.  Not exactly great "missionary" talk...

I remember back when I was in college I would spend every Saturday afternoon giving food to the homeless along with having some pretty interesting and profound conversations with them as well.   This was 3 years of a lot of fun, numerous relationships with some really near and dear friends, and experiences that taught me a lot.

So we got to Chile and I was informed that they're doing some of the same style work downtown on Monday nights.  Christine and I went out one night to served.  It was cool (1) to do it with Christine this time and (2) it sort of sparked some sentiments of nostalgia.  But I haven't gone back.

During the last year of serving downtown in Charlotte, I sort of realized that maybe I'm doing more trouble than good.  What if through what I thought was love and service, I've been a cause of the problem or at least "enabling"/encouraging these wonderful people do the exact thing I wanted to fight against, homelessness.

The same thing happened in high school when I was super gung-ho for evangelizing; being as studied up as I could on all the apologetics.  Somewhere in the midst of that season of life I realized, yes there are those who don't follow/know Christ, yes I desperately want them to know Christ like I know Him, but "explaining"/arguing/persuading them into the kingdom just doesn't seem to be the answer.  Was I doing any good to go up to random people who I haven't gained any respect with and begin to question their belief system?  Maybe...maybe not.

I became disillusioned with evangelism. 

Back to the current train of thought this week.

I've felt Christ telling me, "Maybe it's not that you're disillusioned with evangelism or serving the poor, but with the methods you're using.  Try another way Tracey."

I think one of my favorite things to hear is,

"I just preach "the word" (the Bible)" 

or, 

"Just do what the Bible tells you to do."  

Really?!  You must be a flippin' genius because I've always felt that interpretation is needed when reading, preaching and living according to the Bible.  Which really makes it, "I just preach the word according to my predisposiciones, experiences and world view".

Once again I'm reminded of my need for the Holy Spirit to guide me in all of this and that Christ is always working molding shaping not only my "being" but my understand of how to carry out those Oh So Simple Phrase; "love your neighbor as yourself."  It's a process that's messy, filled with ups and downs, corrections, successes and start overs.

So I'm in the process of looking, living, figuring out new ways to serve, share & love.  I'm just hoping that my disillusionment streaks don't get the best of me.

30 Books in 30 Days

Ok so we're about to head out to our morning class  but I just want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH!

This is how grateful/happy we are.

All the books have been bought and I can't wait to get them down here!  We honestly can't tell you how grateful we are to have this sort of support.  The only thing I'm sad about is that we won't have a countdown on our blog anymore :(.  It's fun, for me at least, to see it up there just ticking away.  As always we'll keep you guys updated on all the changes, funny moments, joys, frustrations and blessings.

Have an amazing day,
Tracey

Keitt Update - November 2011

The best way to learn Spanish = Buy a Passat

Ok, so obviously this has nothing to do with what we're doing down here in Santiago, but it just made me laugh. Thanks mom for keeping me up-to-date on the State side commercials.

30 Books in 30 Days

BAM: 30 Books in 30 Days

So as we were heading down here, if you had talked with us about our long term plans you probably heard us talking about the possibility of "Business as Missions" or BAM.  We weren't really sure how, when or where.  Well now we've got a much clearer idea!


The basic idea of "Business as Missions" is to create an ethical, honest & productive business with a focus and concern for the workers, clients and surrounding neighbors.  So yes, the business is there to make a profit and in reality to sustain ourselves.  It will also allow us to get involved with our community here outside of our church and organization.  


As you probably saw in our video, we're pretty excited about this idea.  We're hoping that the  30 Books in 30 Days will help us develop a nice start to a library of resources and textbooks.  


So if you're interested, let me explain how this all works.


Of course we couldn't find all the books on Amazon or Barnes and Noble, so we had to make two Wish Lists that added up to 30 :)

1. Click on this link: Amazon Wish List  
2. It's ordered according to priority
3. Everything will be shipped to Cheryl Reeve (Christine's mom), to side step the incredible shipping cost.  When you check out at amazon.com, select the shipping address for "Cheryl Reeve" (it will say "Wish List Shipping Address" underneath.)

OR, to shop at Barnes and Noble:

1. Click on this link: Barnes and Noble Wish List   
2. You have to actually log into our name.  
1. email address : thekeitts@gmail.com
2. password : 30books
3. Once you're there, look on the top of the screen under the My Account tab and click Wish List.  
4. It should automatically have Cheryl Reeve as the shipping address.  

Yeah, I know if someone out there works for Barnes and Noble, ask them why they created their Wish List like this.  Thanks :)

If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment here or shoot us an email at thekeitts@gmail.com


Here are some questions that we thought you might have or FAQ:


Will you still work and serve with the organization and the school?
Oh yeah!  We're hoping that running this business just part down will be able to raise sufficient funds to sustain ourselves.  


So if I'm supporting you monthly what's going to happen?
Ok, so we're hoping that within a certain amount of time we'll get to the point where monthly supports won't have to support us anymore.  We'd absolutely love it if you found other missionaries to support in our place.  But this is basically all up to how the business runs.  We have high expectations and would thoroughly appreciate all prayers in regards to the business.


Should I buy two copies of the same book?
No need.  Here in Chile you can legally copy textbooks even with copyright laws.  Don't ask me how they do it, but we've already used this amazing copying system Chile has and plan on doing the same with these books.  


Where am I shipping these books to?
Ohio!  When you check out at amazon.com, select the shipping address for "Cheryl Reeve" (it will say "Wish List Shipping Address" underneath.)

We'll keep you updated on our countdown at the top of our blog! 

Avengedo

It was terrifying the week before, seeing as how this would be my first time interpreting with material at a Seminary level.  I felt like a crazy man spending every extra hour during the week and pretty much all weekend in the school library prepping those 111 pages of notes.  I remember feeling butterflies in my stomach before I got on the bus Tuesday night, kind of like I felt before high school football games.

Institute

A few more photos in the gallery.

So how'd it go?

Really well.  Let me restate that, it went a whole lot better than how I thought it could have turned out.  But I honestly thoroughly enjoyed it.  Oh yeah, there were times when I looked at Scott and thought, did you really just say...

       "avenged"...
               "pre-incarnate"...
                        "as he brought the hot coals and burning incense into the holy of holies."

All of which as you could guess are not part of anyone's everyday vocab. You know how some people just through an "o" or an "a" on the end of an english word and expect it to be Spanish.  I definitely tried that with avenged - avengedo.  Oh I was so close, but so wrong.  I'm smiling now just remembering the faces I got from the audience.  It's VENGAR or VENDICAR, in case you're wondering.

Luckily the people of Lautaro were very kind and paciente and we only had a few of these awkward "I have no idea" moments.

Overall I learned a lot and I'm really looking forward to doing it again.  It's cool to find new ways to reach out and serve the people of Chile.  I could definitely do this as a profession some time in the future.

The family that hosted me in Lautaro.  

Funny side note, I don't know who the woman on the left is, she just happened to be eating breakfast with us...what could I say, "Um, mam I don't know you..."

By the way Insitute or Instituto was what I was translating.  It basically consists of Seminary Professors usually from the States coming down to teach a jam packed intensive week.  It's been an amazing way that our organization can (1) disciple the members of our churches, (2) connect with other churches, because churches always love working together :) and (3) bring in those who are interested in the Bible but don't have a relationship with Christ.

Thanks again for all of you that prayed for me during this experience!

Seat 23 is occupied...

For the first three or so hours of this delightful 10 hour venture back to Santiago I was living the high life; no one to share the arm rest with!  But then we stopped.

I think this is one of the few down side to Chilean buses.  Unlike when you take to the sky you're never quite sure if you can really get comfortable with the extra blessing of "land."  But honestly I can`t complain.  My arm rest sharer seems like a pretty nice bloke and even with the cute little 5 year old making continuous fart noises across the isle I'm gravy.  I think I've told you before, but if I haven't Chilean "Charter Buses" are where it's at.

I love to read and rarely get 10 free hours in a day to simply read :).  There are very few limitations with this snazzy little kindle we were gifted this past Christmas and I'm pushing it to its limits.  If you're wondering, I'm actually writing this soon to be blog on the kindle!  Even though its tempting to watch Capitan Jack Sparrow and Penelope Cruz search for the next big treasure on the Caribbean Sea, there's just too much good stuff to read.

Oh wait, is it true... yes it is... my short lived neighbor is already getting off the bus!  Back to the double wide.

Ok so to the point.  I have really been overwhelmed with the sublime creativity and depth through which God speaks to us; the Bible, literature, nature, relationships...  Not that I always understand it or agree with what he's saying, but that's just it: He's God and I'm man.  I try to take the lovely right along side with the frustrating.  Pray for me with that.  Seriously.

Translating the 112 page notes on Génesis and then interpreting 15 hours of class was enough as is, but then there was the

• The Hebrew (strong's concordance is Spanish is probably one of my favorite finds right now)
• The literary styles (chiasmo)
• The intricate webs of connections and symbols 

I think I just want to go to seminary right now.

For me it's cool to see His creativity show up in literature.

• Paradise Lost - John Milton giving us a fresh and almost eerie beauty of what it was like before the fall.
• Jesus the Son of Man - Kahlil Gibran creating a ficticious but surreal look into the lives of those around Christ during the first century.
• Erasing Hell - Francis Chan opening up as he always does in a real fresh way to dive into some of the truly difficult questions. (A must read if you haven't already)

Yes I know they're not the Bible, but in one sense or another all things of true beauty and creativity first start with the creator.

Tracey the Translator

Quick prayer request - Tracey just left (it is 10:15pm) to go down south to Lautaro to translate for their Institute classes.  He should get there around 6:00am tomorrow morning and will be there until Sunday night.


If you know Tracey, you know he doesn't really get nervous about most things.  Well, he is nervous about this!  It is really intimidating - Basically he'll be standing up with a seminary professor from the States, translating a lecture sentence by sentence for about 15 hours total.  The class schedule is:
-Wed. night
- Thur. night
- Fri. night
- Sat. day


He has worked ridiculously hard to prepare for this - Please pray for clarity of mind, good connection with the professor, safety in traveling, and of course, those "jitters." :)  Thanks guys!

Keitt Update - October 2011

Argentina - Undocumented...Documented

So this past Tuesday we learned that our visas would expire without the paper work going through for our residency visa.  These residency visas would give us an indefinite time to live here in Chile.  Who would have thought that it would have taken so long?... ME.  The lovely "trámites" (paperwork) of chile have a special place in my heart :)

Ok, so our options were: pay for two extensions which cost $100 each or hop out of the country and come back in.  We did some research and found that it would be cheaper to go to Argentina.

    $50 - bus ticket
     $5  - camping permit
 + $10 - dinner, breakfast and dinner
    $65 - way better than waiting in line to pay $100 to do nothing

So we left bright and early Wednesday morning.

There were multiple times during this trip where it could have easily gone real bad.  Somehow we made it though.  I'm not one to say "God is good because ... ". He's good no matter what, but I sure did appreciate the favor he gave us during this trip.

1. There was a city bus & taxi strike that morning, which led to the Metro being jam packed.  We got to our bus just in the nick of time.  
2. As we're getting on the bus, the ticket guy tells us we can't get on because we're missing a sheet of paper from our passports.  He ends up letting us on, but explains that when we get to the border the custom agent can send us right back.  Depends totally on what kind of mood he or she's in.
3. HE WAS IN A GOOD MOOD.
4. Lonely planet typically doesn't let us down, but for some reason bus 110 that they recommend didn't exist anymore.  It was getting dark and the camp ground was 4 or 5 miles out of town...luckily we found another bus that went that way.
5. We get to the campground at 9ish and they tell us that they're filled up.  We stare at him, thinking "Ok, you're filled up, but we're out in the middle of no where and it's pitch black."
6. He's really cool about it and lets us pitch our tent in his front yard!

We've got some pretty cool pictures if you want to check out more of our little adventure in Argentina.  On the right column of the blog under the Our Vision Video, you'll see a link to PHOTO GALLERY.  Check it out.  

The Meeting

Ok, so we made it back from Argentina safely, stories to come...

So this morning I had to ride over to our real estate agent at 9am (Christine did tell you all that we found a house right?).  The ride was awesome and wow can I just say Santiago has amazing bike lanes.  So here's the best part.  Our real estate agent is a strong Christian who loves, loves Christian music.  Not only did we tie up some loose ends in regard to the house, but we listened to and when I say listened, we blasted the following selections -

• Kirk Franklin
• Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir
• "Oh Happy Day"  Sister Act style

From that list you would of course believe that our real estate agent was Afro-Latino.  Nope, it was just a good day for gospel!  The first meeting we were blessed with old school 70s & 80s Christian music.

I love it!

Maybe we should go to Argentina tomorrow?

We are both pretty impromptu-travelers, but this is a new record for us.

We found out this afternoon that our visa paperwork won't get in on time, so we can either pay $100 each to renew them, or leave the country.

(Duh...)

So we'll leave early in the morning for a 6 hour bus ride, go camping tomorrow night just north of the border city, and head back Thursday afternoon to make it back in time for Tracey to lead small group.

God sure has a funny way of answering prayers for our paperwork :)  

Veggie Dip

I'm sorry, but this is the best veggie dip I've ever had and it doesn't feel right to not share it with the world, or at least our 18 followers :)

4 parts nonfat plain yogurt, 1 part light cream
To taste:
salt
olive oil (tiny bit)
dill

Cheap and super healthy!!  Thank you Heidi Phillips!

We Got a House!

After many people praying and lots of bike rides around the neighborhood looking for signs, we finally found a house!!

It's in the perfect location in between our school/church and the subway, tucked back in a little side street, and within easy walking distance of our friends and host family here.  

WHY IT IS AWESOME:

- biggest space we've seen in our price range

- cheapest (by far) we've found in the neighborhood we love

- corner house 

- lots of natural light

- upstairs is already built with 2 (big) bedrooms

- we could easily built on more when we want

- there is a side area of 2 small rooms with it's own door outside that could be used for our tutoring business or, if Tracey has his way, our own almacen where we sell wheat bread, homemade peanut butter, and his new discovery: banana ice cream (it's better than it sounds)...

We've definitely got some work to do once we get the keys; the owners weren't the most intentional with upkeep :)  

Yesterday we signed a contract to reserve the house for 90 days- Now we just need to wait for our paperwork to come in, get a bank account, and make it official!  As soon as that all happens, they have 60 days to give us the keys.  So hopefully by January, we will be living in our first house!

Thank you all for praying!  This was HUGE!! :)

 

One Day at a Time

Whatever it is that forces us to live one day at a time... well, I never like it, but I always (eventually) appreciate the trust it pushes me into. 
  
It reminds me of one of my favorite prayers.  I hope you are encouraged by it as I am!


“MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. 
I do not see the road ahead of me. 
I cannot know for certain where it will end. 
Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. 
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. 
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. 
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. 
And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. 
Therefore I will trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. 
I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone." 

          

                   ~Thomas Merton 

Medium/Small Un-monumental things

Before we left a missionary told me that one of the best things to share with your friends and family through your blog is the day to day, the little un-monumental things.  "It lets people see your life, the funny, the sad, the weird details, not just the work you're doing." 

So here are some medium/small un-monumental things

  The crate arrived (as we already posted).  They forgot to mention that we had to either use our own forklift to get it off the truck or take everything off piece by piece.  Guess what we did?  Of course we used our forklift that we always have in our backpocket.  Our host family helped us out a ton!

 After getting everything off, we packed it all back in to store until we have our house.  What a blessing to get the crate, especially with all the craziness that it has been with the paper work and customs issues.  

THANK YOU FOR THE PRAYERS!

I got our bikes put back together and we're commuting on bikes now which reduces our transportation cost a lot and we're getting more exercise!

 Our host brother was baptized this past sunday!

 I got my Chuck Taylors PF Flyers Sandlot Edition out of the crate and I'm feeling like a Champ!  By the way Joseph, I can't tell you how useful all of your groomsmen attire has been for me.  A good pair of slacks and some smooth sneeks.

  

Chile's not big on whole wheat anything although all the suplies are super cheap.  Here's to our first loaf. 

And you thought I'd leave out the review of how my beans are going.  They're going really well with the homemade whole wheat bread!  I feel like Aunt Jemima. 

To Our Teacher Friends

So we've been observing a lot in all types of schools here in Chile - Trying to get an overall feel for how the education system works and find ways to improve the English programs at our 2 schools.

What we've found so far is a great need for classroom management techniques!  Not so much discipline wise, because there aren't real behavior problems in our schools.  But there is a HUGE need to improve the time on task and overall attentiveness of the students.  

Thankfully, we know a lot of really great teachers...

So we are asking for your help!

We are trying to compile a giant list of as many resources/strategies we can offer them for all grade levels, PreK-12.  If you have ever used anything in your classroom that seemed to work for:

- increasing time on task

- having a quiet classroom without having to say anything  

- smooth transitions

- individual/small group/whole group motivators

- overall classroom management

if you wouldn't mind emailing them to us, we will add them to our compilation!  We are hoping to do some professional development with our teachers here.

Or, if you have any questions or are just curious about our schools, feel free to email us as well!  You know how much teachers love to talk about their jobs :)

Thank you for helping us help our teachers and kids!

May your Monday be full of energy and angelic students :)  

      

Best Day Ever

Monday was pretty incredible.

1) We have our CRATE!!  Everything made it just fine and they didn't even open it.

2) We got 2 packages in the mail - Bike parts and much needed paperwork for Visas!

3) We are getting a PUPPY!!!!!

I love our life.

Keitt Update - September 2011

Soaking my beans....mmmh

Tracey speaking:  Ever since I traveled to Guatemala when I was 16 with my church, I've acquired a love for black beans.  They're not popular in Chile, but who cares- they're an awesome addition to most meals,  cheap, chuck full of protein and pretty healthy.

I still dream of making a breakfast black bean loaf of the same caliber as Ana, our hostel hostess.  Yeah it sounds a bit strange, but you've got to try it before you knock it.

Right now I've got a bowl full of beans soaking in the kitchen and I've glanced through a few blogs, recipes  and commentaries on how to do this properly.  Who would've known that there's so much love for the black bean.  We'll of course there is, silly!

I'm sure they're not going to be Ana's like tomorrow, but some day for sure.  We've all got dreams :)

Acute, Obtuse & Car Alarms

So I never thought that I would be teaching Geometry, let alone Geometry in Spanish, but that´s what the Lord has placed in my lap.  So not only am I freshening up my math skills, but I´m also adding words like acute, obtuse and right angle to my Spanish vocabulary.

One of our good friends here, Leti, is a single mom with two incredible boys, Andres (11) and Tomas (7).  They are really bright and hilarious, although they can get out of hand with their behavior at times.  They really need a strong male role model to show them the ropes.  So...Leti was looking for someone to tutor Andres in Geometry and I thought, I remember taking math in high school, it can´t be that hard, he´s only in 6th grade!

I now have the blessing of tutoring Andres in Geometry, and in reality the kid is extremely bright so I´m just coaching him along.  So far we´ve really hit it off and I´m looking forward to the influence that I´ll have with this young man.

The other day after an hour of math we decided to take a break and head outside.  We started playing soccer in the street (which is very typical, the streets are really small) and we hit a car and the alarm went off.  We decided to go back inside.

What an influence I´m having already!

Honestly though, please keep our relationship in your prayers, that I´ll be able to teach him, show him what it means to know Christ and give him an overall understanding of the responsibilities of being a solid young man.

Thanks!

And this is why we need you.

In a spiritual sense, missionaries are sent by God. In a practical sense, they are sent by laypersons with a vision for missions. We have God, missionaries and laypersons. Remove any one of these three factors and effective missions work will no longer exist. 
~ Jerry Burgess


It's not just about being actually supported (financially) by others who share our vision.  Don't get me wrong, there is literally no way we could physically be here without that financial support.  But I think so many people (including myself before I was the one being sent out) think that we add the request for prayer support as a way of softening the awkward silence that comes after you ask someone for money.


If you've kept up with our videos, you know that we have GREATLY seen the effects of your prayers.  If you haven't watched our videos, this can be your proof.


Last Thursday night was just rough for me (Christine).  After a long day of lots of little things going wrong, it's like everything collapsed at once and I could only see everything through a dark lens. (If you've ever experienced extreme culture shock or any type of depression, you know exactly what it was like.)  Typically when this happens, I quickly shift into a dysfunctional withdrawal mode.  It's not good, and I've been battling against it for over a year now. 


Something about that night made me keep moving, keep going with the routine, keep walking to small group even though being around people was the last thing I wanted to do.  


Then later that night, for the first time ever, God spoke to me in a dream.  For those of you that know me well, you know that I dream elaborate, vivid dreams almost every night.  While they are often comical, they NEVER mean anything significant.  I have always prayed for God to use my dreams, and Thursday night He did in an unmistakeable way:


I was at some sort of camp with some good friends and family - we were supposed to leave, but we couldn't because there was this lion that was laying out in the yard, and it was like I knew I was supposed to leave and I knew that the lion couldn't actually do anything, but I was still too scared to do anything and too scared to enjoy anything in the cabin.  (I was also real annoyed because whoever was with me, no one else was scared at all, and I kept being like "How can you not be scared of a LION?!?!?!?")  1 Peter 5:8-9


The next morning I get up and get an email from one of Renovatus' intercessory prayer team members.  WIthin the same half hour that we were walking to small group the night before, they had met and were praying for us as a group.  They prayed for our protection - emotional, spiritual, and physical.  They also prayed against the schemes of the devil against us here.    


Perhaps you need to know the extent of my battle with these withdrawal modes in order to appreciate the immensity of the victory.  


I know the devil always wants me to see the world through dark lenses.  I also know the devil is a liar.  But I'm not always strong enough by myself to live like I believe that he is.  And this is why I need you.


To those that have prayed for us in any way, shape, or form, we give our most sincere thanks for sharing in God's vision and always fighting alongside of us.  


God is good.        

Last week: 13 things I am thankful for...

1.  Cooking spree!  Tracey and I both enjoy cooking, and are usually successful at it, but we are definitely recipe followers!  This week I took a U.S. recipe, converted the measurements into metric, realized we don’t even have measuring cups etc. here, also realized Chileans don’t use brown sugar, OR temperature gauges on the oven :)  It was only by the grace of God (literally) that we were able to share some delicious cookies with our students and family.

2.  Healthy food is cheeeeaaaappp!!!!!!!  Both sides of the table = same price.

3.  The unity of IAM and the incredible people that we work with.  Wednesday night we had a Team dinner at Diego’s house-  It’s hard to describe the amount of gratitude we feel for our teammates and our shared vision.  More to come on this later.

4. Walking to the grocery store!  We seriously love not having a car.

5. Learning more and more what it is to truly live in community.

6.  Quoting “Friends” around the table.  Not only did I discover that Fabián shares my same love for the series, but he actually OWNS all 10 seasons.  AMAZING!!!!

7.  A meal without bread!

8.  Getting to attend Institute classes.  This month’s topic = spiritual warfare.

9.  Date night with Tracey.  This week we went to this cute little pizzeria and then walked to the grocery store for fruit snacks :)  This pic is from our first Chilean date - Gracias a Chile for loving sushi as much as we do!  

10.  Saturday night we had some dancing lessons after Jon and Marcela’s engagement party.  (Next Sunday is Independence Day and apparently we are going to start celebrating and dancing Cueca from Thursday on!)  Thanks to our fabulous instructor, Claudio, we were well prepared to show off our new skills when we were pulled up on stage at church Sunday morning :)

11.  An entire living room full of Chilenos learning the Cupid Shuffle.

12.  Learning and teaching new card games all afternoon Sunday.   

13.  Anticipating a week’s worth of celebrating (and a LOT of meat we hear :) to come!    

  

Exactly one month in

  Every other time I’ve traveled abroad I was always counting down to the day in which I would be back in Charlotte, back with Christine, back to the kids at the church, back with friends and family…  It’s been such a strange and yet freeing feeling to not have a “return date.”   I guess this is what it truly feels like to leave one community and join another.

  Early this morning before heading off for church, I was listening to a podcast from Renovatus, our Charlotte church.  While I still feel very connected to our amazing home church, friends and family, our roots here are spreading and sinking in deeper and deeper.  We’ve had such an incredible month of serving and getting to know the amazing Chileans and yet at the same time, we’ve been served and loved in so many ways that we could never imagine by our new community.

  Almost a week ago, Monday night, we went downtown to help out with a homeless ministry that our church heads up.  It’s a ministry very similar to what Mat, Katie, Patrick, Courtney, the Boydstun family and I, along with so many others did for years in downtown Charlotte.  I had my predispositions and thought that it would be nice to just “check it out.”  At the end, Christine and I were the ones being served in such a fresh way, but I’ll let her tell that story later on.

  This past Friday, Doug/Diego and Shelly Kallestad were given (by their kids) a “weekend off” to celebrate their 29^th Anniversary.   If you only knew how incredibly busy and servant minded Diego and Shelly are, then you could grasp how much they deserve this.  And what did they do with this opportunity? 

  Well, they got some well-deserved R & R and yet blessed us at the same time.  They let us watch the house, which gave Christine and I the unique experience of our first ever vacation that we walked to.  We absolutely love the family we’re living with, but it was incredibly refreshing to spend some quality time alone with Christine.

  Obviously I realize and look forward to the day we will have a “return date” to see our loved ones back in the States, but until then I’ll just keep on counting up.  

Keitt Update - August 2011

Three Things that make me laugh (actually four)

This weekend I had the pleasure to join the men at our church on their annual retreat.  The theme this year was, ¨what does it mean to be a noble man?¨  Diego & Miguel did an amazing job of teaching and renewing us, but I'd like to share some comical/goofy things that happened in the last 48 hours.

1. Me trying to maneuver a spherical object around a muddy field into an incredible annoying net being held up by a metal cage.  They call this sport soccer.  My love of athletic sports combined with my inexperience in soccer is what drives me mad.  Luckily, we're planning on staying down here long term.  Who knows maybe I'll improve :) 
2. Waking up to Mauricio's (my roommate at the retreat) alarm playing the delightful toon "Sexual Healing" Marvin Gaye style.  We listened to some more of his songs and I've got to say, he's got good taste in the oldies genre.  There was just something weird about waking up to that song, in the middle of the mountains, in a cabin, curled up in sleeping bag beside my friend Mauricio.  Oh and just to clarify, Mauricio doesn´t speak English, he just likes the way the songs sound.   
3. As we were listening to a Chilean christian radio station on the drive back to Santiago, O' Happy Day from Sister Act came on. This led to the Chilean worship leader and I belting out this wonderful song bright and early as we rode down the highway.  You just have to love Lauryn Hill.
4. I saw this billboard on our drive back and got really excited since (1) it had my name on it and (2) Chileans always have a hard time pronouncing my name, so I could use this company or brand as a reference point. Well, when I asked Juana what it meant, he informed me that it´s basically a company that is know for its laxicatives.  What can I say to that?

         

Tour de Midwest

So of course this seems a little out of order...  Truth is it's taken us a little longer than expected to figure out the best way to post pictures. 

But we've got it!  We will be creating albums and you can view them by clicking on "Photo Gallery" on the top right side of our blog.  

So this was a blog that I wrote in the end of July, and now you can finally read it and see our photos of our incredible Midwest Tour this summer!  

(taken from July 31)


37 days, 7 states, 10 cities, 5 churches, 19 houses, 12 beds, 13 dogs.

There really aren’t words to describe this kind of gratitude.  Seeing so many close friends - from all phases of my life, and especially in a very short amount of time - is the most tangible reminder of God’s faithfulness to me in the past as well as the present.  It only makes me that much more excited and sure about His faithfulness in our future!

Unfortunately, we didn’t get pictures of everything and everyone.  But we did want to show you as much as we could!  (See "Tour de Midwest" album)

Thank you to all who invited us into their homes, fed our stomachs and our gas tanks, and contributed to an INCREDIBLY joyful 37 days! 

Back to School

And we're back at it! This week we began our ESL classes with the principals and administrative staff of the two elementary schools of IAM: Oriente (also our church) and San Luis. As of now, we have 8 students in our daily classes of an hour each. Since our ultimate goal is helping these two schools to become bilingual, our plan is to start with the principals first, then train the teachers next year (their school year ends in December) and then help facilitate the work with the students.

We absolutely LOVE it. Our students work so hard and are very gracious to these first time ESL teachers :) It's been really cool to see how Tracey's and my experience/training complement each other so well. I am basically teaching reading again, working with phonics and pronunciation. Tracey is taking over grammar and conversation, very similar to how he taught Spanish in the States. I know I'm biased, but it's pretty awesome team-teaching with each other!

AND - because nobody cares about copyright in Chile, we were able to copy our expensive curriculum for everyone!

It's going to be a great school year.

Around the Table

Yesterday our host family made the most amazing lunch for us! It was in honor of our becoming a part of their family- I don’t know how many times they have already gone out of their way to make sure we are comfortable and know that it is our house, but it has been amazing. And then we get all of this! It was a great day.

First, the food. ¡Increible!

Then, the company. Our host family is very close with the Flores family – soon to be in-laws actually as Marcela (our host-sister) is dating Jon (the middle Flores brother.) We sat around the table for literally 6 hours, telling stories, and laughing SO much!

If any of you prayed specifically for us to find good community and friends in Chile, these people are definitely our answer to that :)

Women's Conference

You know when you finish a day full of activities and the morning feels a whole lot further away than 12 hours? That was today.

The women's conference took place today at Los Heroes (a church within our organization), which consisted of around 150 amazing Chilean women coming from all over Chile to be filled by the word and encouraged as daughters of Christ.

It all started out with a miraculous blessing from God. One of the church members was leaving and had a horrible wreck right at the corner of the church. Even though their car was completely flipped on it's roof, everyone left without a scratch! What a way to start the conference!

With all the women being filled up, this left us men to the kitchen to serve the women, preparing 2 "breaks" of tea, bread and cookies and an incredible lunch of chicken, rice and these fried mini potatoes. Now I don't know if any of you have ever catered before, but serving 150 people is madness, and a whole heck of a lot of fun.

I've never been more impressed with pastors in my life. 4 of the head pastors of the churches were doing a phenomenal job in the kitchen. The piles of dishes never seemed to end. It was hilarious/a bit scary when we ran out of hot water and the women were wanting their tea/coffee. Our hot drinks here are serious business.

All in all, I had a blast serving and meeting so many new people, especially some pretty cool youth. Christine thoroughly enjoyed the conference.

Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Fun on the track

So before we came down to Chile I read a news paper article about a brand new fitness track they built under the new metro line. It's quite similar to the track in the park behind Christine's old house in Pondwoods with "exercise machines" every so often. I was hoping that it would be close to where we would be.

Well, it's super close! Christine and I took a break from the work and went for a run. The excerise machines were pretty fun although some we couldn't figure out how to work. The best thing about it, a bike track that we will be able to use to commute to the office.

SO COOL!

!QUE BACAN!

(In Chile, there's a slang term, bacan, that means cool. It's so crazy how the Spanish is different between latin countries.)

By the way, the weather changes quite dramatically here if you're wondering how we're running around in shorts and t-shirts. The past few days have been really warm.

10 Random Facts about Chile

Christine here. In honor of 2 things I love - random facts and Chile - I have decided to share with you the following post!

10 Random Facts about Chile

1. Chileans do not eat dinner; we have lunch early/mid afternoon, then “once” (pronounced like the number 11 in Spanish) around 9:00 which is tea/coffee and bread.
2. If church starts at 11:00, come at 11:25.
3. No central heating = I wear my winter coat from the time I step out of bed to the time I step back in!!
4. The Andes are BEAUTIFUL!
5. The price difference between houses and apartments is not mucho.
6. You can visit a friend’s house or call at ANY time; it is 11:46pm and someone just called. Last night we had cafecita at midnight.
7. People are genuinely welcoming and go out of their way to make you feel comfortable- More so than any other country I have visited!
8. Everyone is great at soccer.
9. Everyone has a dog.
10. Peanut butter is not so popular. Fortunately for us, some Gringos gifted our host family with a huge jar that nobody here likes, so Tracey can still get his fill ☺

Travel Update - el fin

WE ARE HERE!!! Made it in safely this morning with all of our luggage and no problem with customs- overall a VERY smooth traveling experience. Got to bed by 6am, up at 1pm - Walked around Maipu, conocered the church/school, the office, and the mall. Even got a cell phone! We are both energized and ecstatic. Spanish has been awesome. Thank you all so much for your prayers for travel and adjustment!! They have already been answered :)

Travel Updates- part dos

2 flights down, 1 to go! Your prayers have been felt - Going as smoothly as possible so far :) The Spanish immersion is nostalgically familiar, although the metric system has proven to be the language barrier. I have no idea how cold it is outside :/ Taking off in 2 hours to arrive in Santiago at 4:45am!!

Travel Updates- part uno

Made it safely to Florida with our winter coats and boots. Cleared our 200lbs. of luggage with 3.5lbs to spare!! Leaving for Bogota in a few hours. Thanks for all the prayers!!!

An ode to the boys

My old youth pastor, Mike Powers, once told me, "You move to the beat of your own drum."

I've never understood that more than now being married to my wife. I don't know if it's just a girl thing, but I feel as if Christine is deeply rooted with dozens upon dozens of friends. I mean I'm still learning/meeting all of these incredible people that she has profound relationships with. She even had to draw me a diagram in order to sort out the madness of all the friends as we went along our Midwest Tour.

I love people, chatting it up, meeting new guys and gals, and bouncing around seeing how everyone is doing. But I've found that I typically keep it pretty "surfacey"/silly with most of these interactions.

I only have a handful of those deep, profound, thick "Christine style" friends.

Yesterday was one of the few days I got to spend quality time with most of them. These guys mean the world to me.

Papa Joseph - Running on the treadmill at our old church gym, eating energy beans while talking about everything under the sun.

Cam Wags - Catching up with him on the phone as he drove back to South Eastern Seminary.

Joel Pants - Ate an amazing Jordanian dinner with our wives, took a nostalgic stroll (physically and mentally) through Queen's University (hey there's another University besides Taylor in this clan! j/k) and scooting home quickly to test/realizing that skype without a microphone on one side is quite comical, kind of like an old school silent film. You should try it some time.

I don't know if I'll come near to the frequency or length of conversations with my amigos as Christine's and there's no use competing with the quantity of friends she has either.

But I do believe we deeply love them the same in our own distinct ways.

So yesterday was a blessing and today I get to see my dad and my brother

There is a thickness in my chest, not from saddness nor gloom, but just a gratitude for the love I have with these guys. I'm going to miss them.