Hope you are well!
We've now been here a month and we've more or less adapted to the Uruguayan way of life. After two weeks in Montevideo we took the "6 hour" bus journey to Salto. It turned out to be more like 8 as the first bus broke down and we had to wait for a replacement in some remote Uruguayan village.
We've now settled into a nice apartment in Salto, its on the 6th floor with lovely views over the river to Argentina. The flat was completely bare when we first moved in, didn't even have a water heater or light bulbs but thanks to the generosity of people from the Church we now have everything we need.
Getting into what we're actually doing has been hard as its very relaxed. Gilberto, the vicar, wants us to be more involved with the Spiritual side of things, taking part in the services and prayer groups, helping with the "Escuelita de Jesus" (a bit like Sunday School but on Saturday). We also go to the CAIF (a kindergarten that provides various support for their families) for a couple of hours each day, and we help out at the Food programme for school children once a week. Ricky has also started to play guitar in the services and is going to set up the diocesan website.
In the future we're hopefully going to set up a youth group for children of about 13-15 years, and once our Spanish has improved we might start leading Bible Studies. He's also suggested that we preach when he's away in January, but thats a long way off.
We're getting Spanish lessons with a really nice guy from the Church in exchange for help with his English. We're still finding Spanish frustrating, but we've been able to form some good relationships with people which has been encouraging, and we're definitely understanding more and getting more confidence. So thank you for your prayers in this area!! Please keep praying!
We're finding the Church here very difficult to adjust to as its so different to what we're used to. Please pray for wisdom and guidance in how we should accept/challenge things. The people in the Church have been very warm and welcoming particuarly Gilberto.
The lady who leads the Escuelita hasn't turned up for the last 2 weeks as her baby has been ill. Please pray for her baby and also for us as we lead it on our own. Its hard work with 20 children, but definitely a learning experience and we've been amazed to see how thirsty some of the children are to find out more about God and to pray!
Many thanks for all those of you who pray and who have sent emails. They really keep us going. Please do write to us if you can (and the postal strike is over!!) our address in Salto is below, and our phone number is: 00 598 73 30634 (we're 3 hours behind GMT).
