Willowbrook in Miranda

Our church's first official mission trip

to our partner church in Venezuela

In the midst of an already hectic summer of trips and travel, we set out in July with the first group from our church to visit our partner church in Miranda, Venezuela. The memories are still fresh, and there are far more stories to be told than can be captured here, but the following list may give you a glimpse: making the best time through the Miami airport,...or not Eric getting searched,..every timedifferent booth, different exchange rate 24 people, one house, two bathrooms "Te alabare, te glorificare!" journaling Pastor Jimmy street evangelism"Whassup? Whassup wichu?" Philip having a rough night,...all night don't eat the lettuce or the tomatoes! meditations at the new property playing ERS Marcial and Rachel de-lousing walking through the squatter village Katie playing soccer in the street racing Tim to the shower nametags Samuel the bus driver the sloths Pastor Roberto Tucker preaching down time at the farm teaching American football arepas, cachapas, and tequenos the parrot balloon animals Si bueno! getting outside our comfort zones Pequeno Juan! Grande Juan! team picture! chasing down scooters and cars with tracts do I need to brush with bottled water? Marcial's broken arm end-of-trip party at Samuel and Ana Maria Prato's Dios te bendiga! little David the souvenir shop we need to have a short team meeting when we get back! is the pool water OK? iguanas at the international hotel hey Tuck, you feelin' the heat? farewell gifts at the new property does everyone have their buddy? the saxophone and the trumpet the bus can't get through, we'll have to walk line dancing on the football field sleeping in hammocks a total of eight checkpoints before getting on the airplane in Valencia we're millionaires! (in Bolivares anyway) Hermana Josefa opting for ice cream instead of seeing a second park testimonies at the temple signing t-shirts Miguel, Lenin, Manuel, and all the rest

Check out our slide show!

Family Trip to Venezuela

In June of 2001 we finally made the family trip that Karen has been talking about since we first met,...back to her roots in Venezuela! For two weeks we traveled throughout the country, meeting old friends, saw places we'd been hearing about for years, and (best of all!) ate all sorts of exotic and wonderful foods.

The event that finally brought us south was the closing of Christiansen Academy, the boarding school that Karen and her twin brothers attended in Rubio, Venezuela while their parents were missionaries across the mountains in Colombia. The folks at Christiansen decided to make the final graduation an event to remember, and invited all former students and faculty to come down for the festivities.

Using Rubio as our base of operations, we traveled to Merida and the Andes Mountains (by bus), to Caracas, the capital city (by plane), and to Chichiriviche on the Carribean coast (by van). Each step was an adventure!

As we traveled around the country, we were able to see so many things that make Venezuela unique and beautiful. We also witnessed the disparity between the rich and poor there.

There are so many great memories from our trip that it would be impossible to describe them all here (for that, you'll have to come watch our 7 1/2 hours of video tape!). Some of the highlights included: driving up the highest road in the Andes to Pico de Aguila (13,000 ft); going to church at the downtown Caracas Baptist Church (all in Spanish), being guests in the home of the Canizales family (Karen's childhood friends), spending several days on our own little private island off the coast of Chichiriviche, and of course, Karen being interviewed for national TV while we were stopped at a little jam and jelly shop! It was a coincidence that they happened to be filming in the shop, but it seemed a fitting tribute to this native daughter :-)

All these great memories, and more, continue to bubble up in our conversations since our return to the states. And it now appears that we may be putting the experience to practical use, as our church starts thinking about organizing a foreign missions trip sometime over the next year or so. And you'll never guess where!

Look out Venezuela,
we're coming back!