J_LGlass's Xanga

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 13:21:12 GMT

Hello!

We made an emergency trip to the States this past month. Linda's mother passed away at 92. We were in Indiana for the funeral. We also flew to West Texas to spend time with Ivan, Tania, Katy, Tim and Tony. We were able to spend a couple of days with Jason, Tammy and Robert in Illinois. I'm adding a few pictures.

Pauline Alberta Hiler - 92 years old. Mishawaka, Indiana

Tania, Ivan and Katy Largent. Reading a Bible story. Wickett, Texas.

Anthony Vernon Glass. Student at Appalachian Bible College. Visiting Tania and Ivan in Texas.

Timothy Clark Glass. Lives with Tania and Ivan in Texas. Working.

Katy Largent and Grandpa Glass. Wickett, Texas. November, 2007

Grandma and Grandpa Glass with Robert Poole. Lombard, Illinois. November, 2007

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 16:20:16 GMT

Hello! We are back from a short, two-month furlough, June 9 - August 14. We spent most of our time on the East Coast, although we did get to go to Kansas, Illinois and Indiana to see family. I'll add some pictures of our trip (well, all the family we were with). There are more to add, but I can do that later.

Today (September 2) is our church's 13th anniversary. We have a guest speaker, lots of special music and a refreshment time afterwards. We are hoping that a number of people that we invited will visit us today.

Take care. Pray for Tony, as he has started classes (we think!) at Appalachian Bible College this past week.

3-month old, Kathleen Joy Largent (Katy)

Glass, Poole, Largent families: Greenville, SC

Jerry & Linda Glass with Robert Poole and Katy Largent

Jason & Tammy Poole and Robert

Drew & Teresa Rietjens with Roger and Reid; Jerry & Linda Glass with Tim and Tony in Olathe, Kansas.

Holy Week

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 10:53:36 GMT

Good morning to all!

We are in "Semana Santa" (Holy Week), where most Uruguayans have several days off. The saying here is that the country doesn't start to function until after Holy Week (after "stopping" in December when school is over for summer vacation). Holy Week then gets called a lot of different things in our society: Tourist Week (a lot of people travel, go camping, etc.), Beer Week (there's a festival in the city of Paysandú), Tour of Uruguay Week (a bicycle race all around the country), and Rodeo Week (there's a week-long exhibition at the Prado stadium).

We are just taking things easy and enjoying the "time off". We don't have Bible Institute classes this week, but we do have other activities that we are involved in. I'm hoping to get some back projects caught up, plus do some furlough planning (I hope the last stages of that!).

Meanwhile, we are "on edge" waiting for Tania's baby to be born. The doctor's and midwife's prediction is April 11, but our oldest daughter, Teresa, predicted April 20. Tania wants it to be NOW! We got a picture of her yesterday, showing a pretty good-sized belly. The baby's head has also dropped into position. This will be our first granddaughter, Kathleen Joy: "Katy".

We had a special service on Palm Sunday. There is a men's camping outing during this week (until Thursday), but neither Keith nor I went. On Saturday, the ladies of our church are going to Teresa Ripoll's house in San Luis. I might have to provide transportation for that. We are having a special service for Easter also.

Last Saturday, we had our second "singspiration" meeting. We decided to have them every time there is a fifth Saturday in a month. So, March had a fifth Saturday. We had a long time of singing, a question and answer time (the church members asked questions, and the church leaders tried to answer them), and (of course) food. It was a great meeting.

Well, got to run. Have a great day.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 18:48:54 GMT

Would you believe it? We are finally back. Today's my (Jerry's) 58th birthday.

We had a two-month furlough in the States, mostly the West Coast. We got back to a very busy summer of ministry (remember our seasons here a reversed).

Right now, we have started up our Bible Institute again. We have about 30 students. I am teaching 11 of them, and have 11 hours of classes a week! Pray for us.

We are going on another furlough, June 9 through August 13. We will be spending most of our time on the East Coast this trip. We do plan to visit all of our kids.

I hope to be more consistent in writing in this thing.

31 years of happy memories

Sat, 19 Aug 2006 02:58:19 GMT

I'm a bit late with this, but Linda and I celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary when Tania and Ivan were here. The magical date is August 2nd. A day after, Linda came down with the stomach flu, and soon we all had it. Ivan, Tania and I missed church that Sunday -- first time I had missed in many months.

Ivan and Tania made us a cake. Here's the picture. And here's to 31 more!

This is it!!

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 18:59:45 GMT

Our church in Uruguay (in the "Parque Batlle" neighborhood) is about to celebrate its 12th anniversary. We started a church building fund about 9 years ago. Since then, our fund has reached around $50,000. This is amazing, but shows God's love and care for us AND the interest of our people in having our own place to meet.

For the last year, we have been actively looking and praying for a specific place to buy that would meet our needs and be within our means. Our co-worker, Keith Hock, prayed that we would find the place and be able to say, "This is it!" when we saw it. Well, "This is it!!"

About two weeks ago, Keith got a call from a real estate agent saying he had an unused Roman Catholic church building that was for sale. It was within our "zone" of ministry, and so we agreed to look at it. When we walked in the front door, we all knew, "This is it!" The place was huge. The whole property is about 480 square meters (about 1,640 square feet). Our present "auditorium" is 4m. X 8m. The auditorium of this building is about 9m. X 15m. In fact, the platform is 4m X 6.5m!

Oh yes, the price. They were asking $70,000; Keith offered $60,000, and we accepted their counter offer of $65,000. This is amazing when you consider that we were looking at a vacant lot in our area that measured 790 square meters. The owners were asking $145,000. It this case, we would have had to invest A LOT of money in grading the property and putting up a building. In our case now, we just have to do some cleaning, painting and a small amount of remodeling in order to start using the building. It's perfect for us. We got a loan of $38,000 from the mission Revolving Fund (no-interest loan that we pay back in five years) to make up the difference and pay the closing costs. We should have about $25,000 left to do the upgrading of lighting and plumbing plus some remodeling that we want to do.

We are hoping to be able to have our first service in the church the day of our 12th anniversary, September 3. Please rejoice with us and praise God for His might works. We are totally overwhelmed and excited.

Here are a couple of pictures of the building:

http://www.biblicalministries.org

She's back!!!

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 23:14:01 GMT

My wife came home to me today. I really, really missed her, even though she was only gone three weeks. Her flight was long and lonely, but she got here on time and with all of her luggage (it's a small miracle, I know, but very comforting). Her flight on United from Buenos Aires to Montevideo was delayed five hours, because the flight was originating in Washington, D.C. and left very late. However, United put her on an American Airlines flight that was arriving at 11:45 AM, earlier than the United flight would have been (12:10 PM).

Our reunion was very nice, and we're trying to make up for lost time (hugs and kisses, of course). She brought a lot of pictures that I have been trying to see, but haven't had the time to do so. She brought back a lot of stuff too, including some Seattle's Best Coffee and some Wal-Mart's Arabica Coffee. We're stocked up for the rest of the year.

Here's a couple of pictures of the whole tribe that gathered in Kansas to celebrate Reid's birth.

May all your good things come back, and the bad ones go away forever!

No solo for me!

Mon, 10 Jul 2006 23:54:34 GMT

I've decided that I am definitely not made to live the solo life. After a mere week and 5 days without my lovely wife, I realize how much she means to me. Not only do I love her a lot (that might be the theme of another blog sometime), I need her to keep me "up to snuff"!!

I'm finding out that it takes me a lot longer to do things on my own. I'm not using time wisely or conservatively, or something! An example of that is that it takes me about two hours to get going in the morning. TWO HOURS. I can't believe I'm so inefficient. What did I ever do when I was single?!

Another problem is that she took a lot of phone calls and answered the door a lot. All things that I have to do now. I have to plan all of my scheduling and make sure I make it to appointments. Yikes! I need my "secretary" back.

I missed an important meeting today, for both reasons.

It took me too long to get some errands done, and I forgot about the meeting until I was already an hour late. One of the members of the group called me two hours later to asked me if I was OK. I had to apologize and ask her to apologize to the others. What a gook!

Anyway, there are only 10 days (yes, you'd better believe I'm counting!) until she is back again. Maybe life will get back to "normal" again. By the way, Teresa is home from the hospital (on Saturday) and Reid is doing just fine.

Whatever happens, I am going to be sure to tell her every day that I love her. I am also going to thank God for giving me the perfect "helpmate".

[Linda, if you are reading this, "I love you!!!" God, since you are looking on, "Thanks"!]

You're Reiding this right!

Wed, 05 Jul 2006 23:50:56 GMT

Linda's been in the States for a week now. She's been traveling around. But, today the big event happened! Reid Jerry Rietjens was born this morning at around 8:00 AM in the Olathe (Kansas) Medical Center. He was 20 inches long and weighed in at 7 pounds, 10 1/2 ounces. Mom and baby are both doing well, as far as I know. Since he was born cesarean, Teresa may be in the hospital for a couple of days.

I can hardly wait to see him, but that will have to be in October, when we are planning to be in Kansas.

Thanks for your prayers. Here are a couple of shots of the baby (isn't email great?).

In His time

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 15:24:44 GMT

I always liked that song:

In His time, in His time
He makes all things beautiful
In His time.
Lord, please show me every day
As you're leading me Your way
That You'll do just what You say
In Your time.

I've been preaching through the book of Habakkuk (what a name! It means "hugger"). In chapter two is the famous biblical phrase: "but the just shall live by faith." That was what God was asking Habakkuk to do while he waited for God's justice and hoped for God's salvation. Don't I need to do the same in my life's situations? Oh yes! Habakkak and I need to just "hug up" to God, because no one else can keep his promises like God can -- and does.

So, even though I will miss her a lot, Linda is leaving Uruguay this coming Wednesday. It is "in His time", because she gets to be with Teresa, for the birth of her second child and our third grandchild. She'll be gone 20 days (I even have 21 shirts, so I might not have to iron any while she's gone! Oh yeah.). But, the time will be good for her, Drew, Teresa and Roger, and others that she will see (possibly Jason, Tammy and Robert). Plus, she'll get to see "R" Riejens in the hospital after he/she is born!

Meanwhile, I am feeling overwhelmed by all there is to do. I'll be glad to take a "break" when we are in the States for our furlough and some vacation time. Thanks for your prayers for us.

I'll catch you later -- in His time!