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.