Well we fly back home today leaving Montevideo at 5.50pm, everything is pretty much packed and Jonathan is going to give us a lift upto the airport. Just a few more goodbyes to say and check our mail before we go. It still feels strange that we´ve finished here and are heading back, but it will be nice to see our families, as we´ve definitely missed them. But it´s going to be strange adapting back to life in England after our time here.

Our time in Uruguay is coming to an end, the last 9 months seem to have flown by really quickly, it’s incredible. It’s interesting to look back over the time we’ve spent here and see what’s happened. Firstly, I’m amazed at how my Spanish has improved in the time we’ve been out here - well I say Spanish, more like Rio-de-la-plata-ish. When we came out here, I could only understand a few words of spanish and speak about the same, where as now, I have had conversations with people, taught the communion group, and preached (well writing it in English and translating it first!

Ingredients thin Beef steak- cut into small strips or pieces small piece of Ginger Cumin Carrots Broccoli Green Pepper Heat some oil in a pan, and add the ginger and cumin. After a few seconds cooking, add the Beef. Once the beef is cooked, add the vegetables and stir fry for about 5 minutes. Served in the picture with Egg fried rice: 1/2 medium sized Onion (finely chopped) 2 Eggs (beaten)

So I arrived in Montevideo at 6.30 on the overnight bus from Salto, to go to the American Airlines office where I thought it would be just a case of them telling me the options and prices for them, and me selecting the one we wanted. I was wrong! I got to the office, and showed the lady in there the tickets, and she looked them up on the computer. Aparently there wasn’t anything to tell her whether or not I could change the route, it just said I could change the dates for free - If I wanted to do anything else I had to speak to the original travel agent (in England), and get them to get the airline office in London to put the details on the computer system!

Yesterday I rang up American Airlines to find out if we could change the route of our flight or not, and they got so far with it, even found all the details for our tickets on their computer and then decided that they needed to see the actual tickets! So I asked if fax would be acceptable, but no, so here I am in Montevideo. The plan is to post some of our stuff back home from here too as it should be more reliable.

Yesterday I looked at Pentecost with the kids - firstly I asked them “what day is it tomorrow?” and got answers such as Palm Sunday, or Day of selling ‘Pasteles’! When I told them it was Pentecost, only one of them could say it and had to teach the others - despite most of them having been in the church for at least 2 years! We went on to look at Acts 2:1-13 and talked about what had happened - which went well.

Snudge and Des

We had a really encouraging home group on Tuesday this week - it was an answer to prayer! The group has decided to meet ever week, whether or not Gilberto (the vicar) is around. This shows quite a growth for the group, as they are always very reliant on him, and the studies often just end up to be him preaching. It was a really good study on John 1:35-42 - where Andrew goes and tells his brother Simon Peter that they’ve found the Messiah.

Today I preached in Spanish for the first time up at the chapel. The passages were 1 Samuel 12:19-25 and John 17:20-26. While I was preparing it in the week I was very nervous, but once I’d got it finished, translated with Laura’s expert help and read it through a couple of times I felt much more confident! You can read it on our website: English or Spanish. Preaching up there was interesting, as people often find it difficult to understand my Spanish, as I can’t roll my R’s enough for them to notice them, however I think most people followed at least some of it, and were appreciative.

Today I took the Catechesis for the first time on my own, which was quite nerve-racking, but once I started it was quite enjoyable. I started off by looking a bit at Communion - what it is, why we celebrate it, what it meant to each of them and why they want to take communion. It was interesting to hear their opinions and ideas. One of the reasons for taking communion I was given was “so I can go to youth group”.