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!