Farewells continue

On Sunday we had tea with dear friends Maxi and Aurora and their family. It was a wonderful time of sharing and remembering the times we have shared together. We have watched their children grow up, Gaby being a baby when we first met them. After teatime we went to church where Clayton preached. The church is growing a lot and doing well. Although there are always financial difficulties the members decided to have a Saturday breakfast and lunch program for children in the neighborhood. They also decided to lend prayer support and other support to those of the congregation who feel a calling to serve as missionaries outside BA. They presently help support one of the convention's international missionaries. It was a warm feeling to see Maxi and Aurora's leadership and how mature they are in the faith.

Our stuff is crated!

The last nail was nailed into the fourth crate at 5:26 on Friday. It was a strange feeling to see all our belongings packed in paper in boxes and put into the crates. It felt so weird to walk back into the apartment and see all the vacant rooms. Our sixth “home” in Argentina is closed and we look forward to our first “home” in Kentucky after 24 years of living in two different countries. The men who did the packing and crating did a great job of being careful, getting things wrapped so well and packed so efficiently into the boxes.
We are living in a furnished guest apartment until we leave on July 26th. We have our suitcases with the things we are taking back and living “simply” these days. We do have a kitchen so can prepare simple meals, etc.

Crating Day

What a day as we literally watched the four packers get our stuff ready to ship by boat back to Kentucky. Clayton said it was so hard to do nothing and just “stand and watch” the work. We had gotten everything ready for them so there were few questions after Clayton walked them through the apartment and explained how the things were arranged. We moved everything out of the guest room that was to be sent and used it as the “holding” room for items not yet picked up by the buyer or items that we plan to give away. That helped a lot as the rest of the stuff was to be packed.
It is amazing how much paper and corrugated paper that is used to pack the items. Each piece of furniture was individually wrapped with the corrugated paper. Clayton thinks it will take a pick-up truck to get rid of all the paper once we receive the stuff next year. It will be in storage in a warehouse until we have a house to move into.
They should finish up tomorrow and get all the packed stuff into crates ready to be shipped. I’ll be glad when this way of our getting ready to leave the field is over!

The Refrigerator is Gone!

On Monday we said "good-bye" to our 1978 General Electric refrigerator as the people hauled it to a truck. It has found a new home with some new Christians who have been married for four years. We hope that it gives them several years of service.
This is the week for getting rid of stuff in our apartment. It looks pretty bare as we made final preparations for the packers who arrive at 8:30 in the morning. We blocked off one of the bedrooms as the area to put the things that haven't been picked up yet or need other assignments. Everything seems to be ready for the men to begin putting our goods in boxes to be crated for their ride on a boat to the United States and eventually to Kentucky. It will be almost a year before we see them again as we won't get them until we have a permanent home for them sometime around June 2007. It is amazing how many pictures we have - a project for retirement!
We talked at length to our neighbors in the apartment building and they are sad that we are leaving. They have been such good neighbors and we have enjoyed times with them. We gave them a Kentucky souvenir as a "remembrance" of us.

Less than a month!

Here it is the 2nd of July and we have less than a month before we bid farewell to our Argentine friends and colleagues and return to Kentucky to live. Today we have a "farewell" service and barbeque at Parque San Martín, the first church with which we collaborated when we moved to Buenos Aires in 1985. We had served two years in the sea coast city of Necochea before moving to Buenos Aires where we have lived since (not in the same house though).
PSM is a growing, thriving church now with missions and a zeal for evangelism. It will be nice to see how some people have grown since our early years. Grilled beef is always a welcome treat and fellowship around the table can't be beat anywhere. One of the things that we will miss is that fellowship around the table just talking and sharing the maté (Argentine tea). There are lots of other things that we will miss as well.
The packers arrive on Thursday to collect the things that we are having shipped to Kentucky where it will sit in storage until we get our own house sometime next year. It will be a busy week as we finish preparing for the packers, deliver items we have sold and complete all the sorting that we need to do. We will move to temporary living space on Monday so we can have a place to sleep until we leave on July 26th. We moved out the stove on Friday. The refrigerator (28 year old model with no guarantee) goes tomorrow to the couple to whom we sold it (for little money). The microwave is more than 20 years old so we sold it cheap as well. It is bittersweet to see appliances go that have served us well!
We will access to internet and email where we are so we will keep in touch.