The coyote

As a California native, this is just "too close to home":

California: The Governor of California is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out, bites the Governor and attacks his dog.

1. The Governor starts to intervene, but reflects upon the movie "Bambi" and then realizes he should stop; the coyote is only doing what is natural.

2. He calls animal control. Animal Control captures coyote and bills the State $200 testing it for diseases and $500 for relocating it.

3. He calls a veterinarian. The vet collects the dead dog and bills the State $200 testing it for diseases.

4. The Governor goes to hospital and spends $3,500 getting checked for diseases from the coyote and on getting his bite wound bandaged.

5. The running trail gets shut down for 6 months while Fish & Game conducts a $100,000 survey to make sure the area is free of dangerous animals.

6. The Governor spends $50,000 in state funds implementing a "coyote awareness" program for residents of the area.

7. The State Legislature spends $2 million to study how to better treat rabies and how to permanently eradicate the disease throughout the world.

8. The Governor's security agent is fired for not stopping the attack somehow and for letting the Governor attempt to intervene.

9. Additional cost to State of California: $75,000 to hire and train a new security agent with additional special training re: the nature of coyotes.

10. PETA protests the coyote's relocation and files suit against the State, costing the taxpayers another $100,000. in related legal expenses.

Total cost to the state: $2,329,400


Arizona: The Governor of Arizona is jogging with her dog along a nature trail. A Coyote jumps out and attacks her dog.

1. The Governor shoots the coyote with her State-issued pistol and keeps jogging. The Governor has spent $0.50 on a .45 ACP hollow point cartridge.

2. The Buzzards eat the dead coyote.

And that's why California is broke.

Have your Passport ready in case you need to travel abroad (or to Miami)

We are hoping to attend Claudia’s youngest sister’s wedding in Chile in just a few weeks, but realized that Jeremy’s passport will soon expire. (I didn’t even have a passport until college, but we’re already on Jeremy’s second!)

So, Claudia spent hours online and by phone only to find that a child’s passport cannot be renewed by mail, and that both parents must be present to renew. She then phoned all over Miami and found that the only “drop in” office in the city (all others had a month+ waiting list) opened at 10:00 AM. So there we were at 9:30 the next morning only to be told that yes, the passport desk opens at 10:00 but we needed to be there at 8:00 in order to get on the day’s list, which was already full for the day. (Why they left out that one vital detail when we called is beyond me). So, Claudia went back home with the kids, I went back to work and returned at 7:15 the next morning to find two people already in line (probably still there from the day before).

True to what we’d been told (the second time around), a gentleman arrived to open the post office at 8:00, but when we asked him for the passport appointment list he flatly informed us: “We don’t have a list; the passport desk opens at 10:00”. Deaf to our protests he opened a few doors, moved a box or two then had a cup of coffee, leaving us standing in front of the passport counter for 45 minutes. Finally, coffee gone, he casually walked over to the passport desk and produced the very clipboard and list we had been asking for! Everyone in line (there was now a small crowd) stared at him in disbelief, muttering descriptive words just out of his earshot so as not to jeopardize their chances any further. I confess that I myself found it rather difficult to “assume the best” of this civil servant at that particular moment as well.

So, the two men in front of me filled in the 10:00 and 10:30 slots and I took the 11:00. Not wanting to assume anything at this point I asked if that meant I could now go to work and return with the family for our 11:00 AM appointment. Not surprisingly he said “no” and explained that the times do not mean anything but that everyone in line (now about 20 adults, most with fidgety children making the entire post office look something like a sugar hyped, chocolate factory daycare) had to stay until their names were called starting at 10:00. (Flashback to the stunned disbelief and descriptive words from a few minutes earlier.)

“What’s the point in having time slots?” I asked.
“It works better this way” he said as I watched one of the kids spill sticky grape juice all over the floor.

So…Claudia and the boys joined me in line before 10:00. We were the second party to be attended since the first person in line left before 10:00 (possibly having a nervous breakdown). And Jeremy’s passport should arrive within a week.

It makes me proud to be an American and know our government handles these things with such dedication and efficiency. Maybe, once Jeremy has his passport, we’ll actually cross the boarder from Miami and visit the US one of these days!

Prayer

Simple and straight forward: WE NEED YOUR PRAYERS

Some of you have been praying for the Abegg family for years. Thank you…a true, from the bottom of the heart, THANK YOU! We receive support in numerous ways including monthly monetary donations, emotional support through letters, phone calls or e-mails, and spiritual support through prayer and intercession. Right now I want to emphasize the importance of these prayers and ask each of you to pray and petition the Lord in a few specific ways:

For the MSO (Miami Service Office) where we serve with LAM:

• Software transition and the finance department: The MSO is responsible for receiving and receipting all gifts for all missionaries as well as any projects they or their associate ministry are doing. On any given month one family may receive 20 to 50 gifts of varying amounts. Multiply this by 100 and you have only the missionary part of the equation without considering the hundreds of associate ministries we serve. This must all be sent internationally and again, receipted. The software we were using has been on it’s last legs, so a month ago we began the training and supposedly “seamless” transition. Unfortunately the seam has come unraveled in Grand Canyon proportions essentially paralyzing that department and taxing the IT department in unprecedented ways. Yet even in this, God provided. By His design, Rob Johnson was visiting from Phoenix for a few days, and one of his many expertise is in assisting with problematic software transitions. He came for a few days but stayed a month. We are still not fully out of the woods, but we can see daylight. Please pray and intercede for the transition process to come to completion and the ability for the finance department to then catch up on all receipts (if you’ve given toward our account recently and have not received a receipt, please know that it will be generated and sent out soon).

• Helping Missionaries stay on the field: The downturn in the economy has hit nearly everyone hard, but missionaries have had an especially difficult time as partnering families or churches face their own struggles and need to lower their support. This however becomes an extremely problematic situation when a faithfully serving missionary family must contemplate returning home for lack of support. In order to prevent this we at the MSO are helping missionaries communicate better through websites, social networking sites and even Youtube. Yet the software problems I mentioned above have slowed these efforts in many ways. Please pray and intercede for the missionaries in general (ourselves included) as they seek to keep their support at a level that will keep them on the field. Also pray that the work of those at the MSO would be fruitful in our attempts to assist them.

For the Abegg Family:

• We recently received news that one of our main supporting churches is going through the tough times I described above resulting in lowering our support by about $400/month. We fully understand their reasons and know it was a difficult decision to make. We are praying for all of our supporters, be they families, individuals or churches and appreciate immensely the sacrificial giving in allowing us to serve the many Latin ministries we are involved with. Right now we realistically need to replace that support as well as others who have had to lower or discontinue their gifts over the past year. Please pray and intercede for supporters and churches that are suffering financially, and for others to “step into the gap” and help us cover the monthly needs in order to keep serving the church throughout Latin America. If you would like to consider partnering with us you can easily do so through online donations or a printable donation form.

Link to a Printable Donation Form. (click link for mail in donation form)

Link to Online Donation page (click link for online credit/debit card

Thank you for your prayers. We know the Lord will answer and we pray He blesses you as well.

"On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many."

2 Corinthians 1:10-12

Lessons we've learned from our kids #15

Another Economics Lesson:

Nico: "Daddy, I need one of those cards you pay for things at the store so I can buy a car."

Daddy: "You know, those cards are the same as money, it just comes out of our bank account instead of my wallet."

Nico: "That takes our money?!"...OK then I'll just get a car from the internet so we don't have to pay!"

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Zoology lessons via our pet water turtles:

• "Daddy, did you know you can't pull turtles out of thier shell?"
• "Since turtles live in water they have to drink glasses of air when they're thirsty."
• Said while choking back sobs: "The bigger turtles get the harder they bite!"

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At the movies we discovered that 5 and 6 year olds have the uncanny ability to whisper as loud as an adult can yell.

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For Previous “Lessons” installments, please visit our “Lesson Plan”.

Relationships (It's What We Do)

Over the past six months of overseeing the ministries department at Latin America Mission I’ve come to appreciate the concept of partnerships and real relationships. LAM does not have our own projects on the field but rather we rely on “partnerships” with the Latin Church by strategically placing missionaries under and along side existing, national Latin ministries. This approach is culturally and linguistically difficult in many ways, but enters into a relationship of trust. Obviously these partnerships are of extreme importance for the care of the missionaries, but also for the health, growth and expansion of the Gospel in Latin America. As in the Church, poor relationships and a lack of care poorly reflect the Gospel on the mission field as well, whereas strong, trusting, Christ centered and caring relationships better reflect and personify the Gospel message.

The LAM ministries department is responsible for approximately 100 missionary units (families or singles) and their partnerships or “ministry covenants” with the ministries they serve, be that a children’s home in Costa Rica such as Roble Alto, a seminary in Colombia such as the Biblical Theological Seminary or a Church Planting and pastoral care ministry in Mexico. But as you know, a true relationship is not maintained through a business contract, but regular communication, heartfelt involvement and tangible expressions of care. As I stepped into the ministries department six months ago I was tempted to “just get the paperwork done” and assume in a staunch, business like manner that the partnership was then in place. But a signed document does not a friend make. Relationship building takes time, energy and involvement. It’s slow going, but very much worth it. Please pray for me, the ministries department and the LAM as we seek to better serve those that we have a history of partnership with and those we are getting to know on the road to new partnerships. This is a time of change with the mission, a time of diving in deeper with those we serve along side of throughout Latin America. It’s an exciting time. I’ll share more of this in future entries, but for now I ask you and thank you for your prayers.

God bless!

Roof Repaired! (Room flooded)

Many of you know that we’ve had struggles with our roof for a long time. We discovered a few years ago that the reason our AC ran 24/7 during the summer in order to “cool” the house to 85 degrees was that our solid, cement slab ceiling/roof had no insulation between the cement and the black asphalt roof. You know how a black car heats up in the sun? Yep, that was our house with the ceiling running a 95degree fever all summer! Then during the rainy season (spring & summer) we consistently had 6” of standing water that the tree frogs loved to fill with millions of pollywogs. Eventually our roof lake started leaking into the house little by little, so after three years, multiple estimates, one refinancing, various gifts (thank you to those who helped in this way!) and a no interest loan from a dear friend, we were able to re-roof almost before the rainy season. I say almost because while Claudia was in Costa Rica for her dental work (see CR trip post), the boys and I came home one evening to their bedroom ankle deep in water, requiring the gutting of everything. Their furniture and most of their belongings were salvageable but the floor had to go down to the cement slab, which we discovered was not covered by insurance due to a previous claim for minor flooding in the same area which was applied to the roof repair. For now the boys have rubber matting and a throw rug, but thankfully no more water entry after two years of buckets!

For the roof we used a company that does “spray on foam roofing” see: http://www.coolroof.biz which provides insulation and a solid, rubberized membrane that covers the entire roof (before & after below).

As I said, we were blessed by a friend with a no interest loan to complete the roof job, but our desire is to return the remaining amount of $4000 as soon as possible and then complete repairs to the boys room. If you would like to assist in this way through a tax deductible donation, please see our support page:

Link to a Printable Donation Form. (click link for mail in donation form)
Link to Online Donation page (click link for online credit/debit card

Thank you for your prayers and the many ways you have and continue to assist us over the years.

God bless!