Brett and Cassie

2008-06-17T07:13:00.000-07:00

You pretty much eat the whole fish here. I saw a guy eat an eye the other day, pretty sick.

Native village that we spent a day at

Indigenous market and village toilet

2008-06-17T06:58:00.000-07:00

We are here in Amazonas! We are spending a month with a church here. The town is located on the Orinoco River, which is amazingly huge!

A view from the overlook point, looking on the river.

Our family and some friends on our anniversary and our backyard when it rains

2008-05-21T07:20:00.000-07:00

For those of you who like to vacation, this is your update. We took a weekend away from the team and went to Colonia Tovar, and old german city in the mountains of Venezuela. The buildings were really nice and we ate a lot of sausage and kraut.

We also did a two day jeep tour around Gran Sabana in south Venezuela - at the same time that we renewed our visas in Brazil, which was close by. Gran Sabana is probably the greatest place on earth, besides kansas and nebraska.

2008-05-05T14:38:00.000-07:00

Well, for the past 6 weeks we have been working at a boys farm for kids who have been living on the streets in Caracas. Here they can live in a real home, have clothes, food, and be somewhat normal. We just finished our time there, but want to share some pictures. It is a real working farm with about 800 chickens and a variety of crops such as coffee, bananas, corn, cantelope, mangos, and a bunch of other stuff. We also taught school everyday while we were there. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

2008-05-04T05:13:00.000-07:00

Here are just a few agriculture pictures from the boys farm we just finished working at. We gathered eggs every morning and cleaned them, about 1,000 per day
Here we are 'cutting the mountain' as they call it here. I did a lot more machete work than i thought.

Ninos de la Luz

2008-04-14T11:50:00.000-07:00

Our team moved on March 24 to Ninos de la Luz, an organization that works with boys from the streets of Caracas. We live on a farm with the boys, helping with various farm things including chickens, eggs, bananas, and cutting stuff with machetes. We are also teaching reading, math, and writing to five of the boys who are not yet ready to enter the school system. Besides these things, we play sports with the kids, go swimming, and assist the staff when we can. It’s like camp expect more staff than kids, for good reason. We are enjoying the work here and the cooler temperatures. We’ve even had to wear sweatshirts on occasion.

We would like your prayers for the following…

-When we leave the farm in May, two of the girls on our team are in need of host families

-In May, we are tentatively planning to renew our visas in Brazil. The country is requiring a lot of things, and it is a 30 hour drive just to the border.

-At the end of May, we will again be moving to a different part of the country, the state of Amazonas. We will be living and working with indigenous populations there and living with host families. Pray for safety and God’s protection as we live and work across the river from Columbia

2008-03-14T11:49:00.000-07:00

The Klingenbergs visited last week and brought plenty of John Deere and seed-corn hats. Pastor Ceferino wears his John Deere cap everywhere and now everyone is asking for one.

The church is hosting an all night vigil which includes prayer, singing, and spiritual warfare. The team helped make signs for the event.

Brett, is that a ladies shirt your wearing?

Abuela (Jeremy's host grandma) taught me how to make ham and cheese bread. No recipe was needed. In fact, I've never seen anyone use a recipe. When I use one, they tell me I'm cheating.

Cassie helped Abuela with the children at her in-home daycare center. She brought along a spanish/english "Historia de Jesus" book. Anthony asked if he could have it for a gift. He was the proud owner of a new book and showed it to everyone. Although he can't read yet, he would look at the pictures and say "Jesus amor todo los ninos" (Jesus loves all the children).

2008-02-22T19:36:00.000-08:00

For those of you who regularly check our site, we are sorry for being annoyingly sluggish with the blog. Here is the latest.
We went to Aruba in order to renew our visas for another 90 days. Venezuela requires us to leave the country, and it happened that Aruba was the cheapest, and closest option. Here are some pictures from our trip. We may have to leave again in may, but are going to try to get around that.

We have also been enjoying hanging out with people from the church whether playing domino's (a favorite here), or playing "guess which hand the piece of scratch paper is in" with the kids. Sunday School has never been such an exciting time!

2008-01-12T19:03:00.000-08:00

-Going Postal
Everybody in the United States of America should get down on their knees and thank God that they have a reliable, fast, and relatively cheap postal service.
This past Tuesday (January 9), we received a couple of pink slips in the mail stating that we had received 2 packages from the United States. We thought this was a pretty sweet deal; thoughts of chocolate goodies, cookies, and surprises raced through our minds as we scanned the paper. Little did we know that this was the beginning of an adventure that would bring us face to face with one of the most erratic and unpredictable organisms in the world: The Venezuelan Postal Service.
The first leg in this quagmire of a process began as we realized that we would not be able to pick up our packages in Charallave where we live. No, no, no…we must go to Caracas to get them. So we set a date with pastor Ceferino, and on Wednesday at 7:00am, we headed to the bus station to catch the early to Caracas. After 1.75 hours of driving in some of the worlds worst traffic (according to Lonely Planet), and some walking, we arrived at the central post office of Venezuela.
9:15am - At first I was optimistic, but my first sign should have been the lack of busy workers and people going hither and thither. Instead, the place looked like a dead possum. We headed around to the back of the building where the package pick up area was. We walked confidently up to the receptionist, presented our pink slips, and took stock of our surroundings as we expected to receive our packages within minutes. There was a waiting area, almost full of people, sitting around without packages. “They must not have had pink slips,” I thought smugly.
The receptionist said she could only accept one of the pink slips, which had pastor Ceferino’s name first on it. The slip with our name, well, we couldn’t have that package. Why? It still remains a mystery, but even when we presented our passports, she said we would not be able to have the package. Make sense?
So she told us that if we wanted the one package with Ceferino’s name on it, we would have to go around the building to buy stamps for it. Didn’t really understand what that meant, but by now we figured it made sense to someone. So we went to the other end of the building, which isn’t small, and bought $5 worth of stamps. We returned to the package area with the stamps, which we gave to the lady. The thought that they would actually send the package on to Charallave while the package was sitting right in front of us came to my mind. Amazingly enough, this didn’t happen.
After we gave her the stamps, she motioned for us to sit down and wait. We did, and observed three things.
1. Things weren’t moving very fast.
2. Occasionally from behind a fenced gate, employees would call out names of people who had received packages. When the person’s name was called, they would be allowed through the gate, and then the employee would open the package in front of the person, showing them the contents.
3. After they showed the contents, they would repackage it and take it somewhere, while the person receiving the package would return through the gate, back to their seat, and wait some more.
10:19am - After 30 minutes or so, in which Cassie and I enjoyed some crackers, our names were finally called. Cassie and Ceferino crossed the threshold, beheld the contents which were quickly repackaged, and they came back and sat down. Luckily during that brief moment, Ceferino managed to talk with someone higher up, and we were allowed to retrieve our second package, at least after some paperwork.
We went back to the place where we bought stamps and bought more for the second package. Then we came back to the pick-up center where they told us we needed to make a copy of our passports, and sign some more forms. So we walked all the way back to the other side of the building to where they make copies, and of course, you have to pay for those.
The paperwork passed by an act of God, and so we sat back down and waited to see the contents of our second package.
11:38am – “Brea klinenbur” (my name in Spanish). I went with Ceferino, identified the goods, and returned to the desk to see what was next. The receptionist told us that we would have to go to the bank in the post office and present some new slips of paper saying that we needed our packages. I was confused by this new move, wondering if we would get our packages at the bank. We headed back to the other end of the building. We found the forms and filled them out, waited in line, and then presented the forms to the bank guy.
12:02am – “We have to pay how much????” That’s right, $37 to receive our packages. I couldn’t believe it! Even though I couldn’t explain my frustration to the Venezuelan Bank Teller, I let him know through my various facial expressions that this was ridiculous. But what do you do when you’ve come this far in the process? I regretfully handed over the cash.
12:04pm - We find out we have to make copies of our bills, which of course costs money.
12:05pm - I vow never to come to this place again.
12:15pm - We arrived back at the package area…but it was closed for lunch…go figure. So we asked the nearest employee what we should do, and he recommended we eat at the post office cafeteria. Yeah, this place, though not that big, had a bank and a cafeteria in it. So we said what the heck, and headed up to go eat. We had spent this much money, why not spend some more. The food was actually pretty cheap and Ceferino let me have some of his steak. I actually felt better.
1:00pm - Back at the waiting area we showed the receptionist our gigantic buy-your-own-package bill and sat down and expected the worst.
1:22pm - Our names are called for the last time. We go into another room, and there are our two packages. They hand them to us for the first time in four hours, and we turn to go home.
3:45pm - We arrive in Charallave with our packages in hand: 8 hours later and $50 poorer. Luckily we ran out of money before lunch which Ceferino bought. He also paid for our transportation home. Take that!
4:30pm - We open the packages.
Unfortunately I can’t say the beast was tamed; in fact I am pretty sure he got the best of me, but somehow it all felt worth it; that feeling that you know you got the shaft but you endured to the end and still got what you set out for.
Please send only letters and post cards. Thanks.

2008-01-05T05:58:00.000-08:00

We celebrated New Year's Eve at the church with Graciela and Cefereino (Pastors at the church) and a few others. From left to right is Alyse, Brett, Chino (our roommate), and Graciela, preparing the grill. Apparently burning plastic starts the fire quicker.

Brett, Jeremy, and Cassandra spent Christmas Eve with a couple from the church, Nemasio & Tanya and their two nephews.

One of the Venezuelan Christmas traditions is to set up a large nativity scene. This nativity is tailored so the children can play with it and includes many animals, houses, and even a pond. On Christmas morning, baby Jesus is born and put in the stable for the first time (a similar tradition Cassandra's family practices).

A table runner that Cassandra's grandma, Marion Friesen, made. We gave it to them as a gift for their hospitality. They said it was the first gift they had received in their new house.

Graciela asked us to make a traditional food that we ate on New Year's Eve, so Brett and Cassandra made New Year's Cookies. They were a huge hit and the ladies from the church want to learn how to make them. Basically they are dough and raisin balls fried in oil and than covered in frosting or sugar. They have now been labeled galletas de Nebraska which literally translates at Cookies of Nebraska or Nebraska cookies.

2007-12-29T17:31:00.000-08:00

Farming is the main source of income in Pelenque. Some farmers use tractors while others work the ground with a plow and plant the seeds by hand (as shown in the picture below). Some of the crops they grow are corn, beans, bananas, coffee, sugar cane, garlic, and onions.

We traveled to Barquisimeto (Pelenque) with a group from our church. The Shaloam band performed during several church services, we helped with the children's Sunday School class, and played soccer and baseball with the youth.

Can you believe this growing season? Sholder-high corn on December 23.

Bienvenidos to Venezuela

2007-12-11T16:27:00.000-08:00

We do our laundry in an open-toped washing machine, rince it out by hand, and hang it out to dry. Our forearms are going to be huge from the wringing-out process.

Brett journaling on our front doorstep. As you can see in the picture, most windows have no glass or screens, which also means no air conditionaing.

Upon arriving in Venezuela, they treated us to Coca-Cola and a meal of rice, salad, and potatoes. This is the kitchen in Brett, Cassandra, and Jeremy's

house where they do all their own cooking. They are trying to perfect making rice and arepas (the Venezuelan national food).

This is Shaloam Mennonite Church where we will be serving for the next eight months. There are about 150 people who regularly attend the church. Brett, Cassandra, and Jeremy are living in a house above the church. The palm tree in the center marks the front door of our house.

2007-10-30T06:13:00.001-07:00

We gather in the foyer before every meal, every day to pray and make announcements. There is a little bell that rings to let us know when to meet, and it is annoying, but good. The mansion we are in is pretty cool, you can see the main staircase there, and it goes up and then two sets of stairs go to the next floor. It is 3 floors plus a basement

We have 2 sessions a day, about 4 hours total on a variety of topics ranging from cultural evangelism, powerful prayer, dying to self living for Christ, the father heart of God, leadership, conflict resolution, personality profiles, prophecy, and a whole lot of other stuff. Much of it is stretching, but in a good way.

This is the Dining Hall where we crowd in 46 people to eat food which is sometimes okay.
Each person eats on $2.40 a day, and that includes a lot of coffee and hot chocolate.
They are trying to prepare everyone for not so good tasting food, and not very balanced diets. Thankfully we found out that the Venezuelans eat real good!

2007-10-30T05:52:00.001-07:00

This past Saturday we had a fall yard party for everyone in our community, that was geared mostly to families with kids. We had a great turnout, 70 people or so. We had games, face painting, bobbing apples, free bbq chicken, hotdogs, and even a bicycle repair station, which was very popular. I think every kid in the neighborhood brought their bike.

It took cassie a while, but she
finally got the apple, you
will have to ask her about it.

Brett playing with the kids,
and them teaching him
some local signs. He is
popular with the shoulder
rides because he is one of
the tallest.

Cassie gettin creative
with her face painting
skills.

Couple of local little guys
having fun

2007-10-22T06:25:00.000-07:00

This weekend was our only weekend off during our training time, so we decided to go to Virginia!

We went with a friend from the training center to his house in the Shenandoah valley where his dad is a dairy farmer, and got to ride four-wheelers.
We also went up to the Shenandoah National Park
and hiked and camped for a night. The fall colors are
were crazy!

2007-10-03T04:43:00.001-07:00

View from the Appalachian Trail, looking over the Susquehanna River. We went hiking on Sunday, September 30 for the afternoon.

The guys put on a banquet for all the girls

View from Resevoir Park where we like to go to get away from the noise of the city. It is only a few blocks away
HDC Yard where the kids come to play

2007-10-02T13:32:00.000-07:00

Here is the main building of the Harrisburg Discipleship Center. This is where we spend most of our time in classes, worship, eating, and hanging out.

We had a fire behind the house the first day we were here. It was pretty exciting, and brought all the locals and tv crews out. Needless to say, not a lot going on.

Here is our team going to Venezuela.
Left to Right: Brett, Cassie, Dani, Alyse, Kirsten, Jeremy.

Hopefully we'll get more pictures up soon. We are new to the blog world, and only get 20 minutes at a time to work on it.