Our profile

We just updated our profile on Latin America Mission's website (the prior one read like we hadn't left yet). I wanted to share the update with you too; it's more official and that seems to be my theme this week.

Chris and Krista Frohling along with their 3 sons, David, Andrew, and Johnny, live in Córdoba Capital, Argentina.

They partner with a local church to provide micro-enterprise training and micro-finance services. They work with the materially poor who desire to support themselves and their families through the effort of their own hands. Chris and Krista’s work includes the formation and maintenance of savings and loan groups, lending start-up capital to micro-business owners, and offering basic business courses. They desire to help alleviate poverty and to share the hope of Christ through the relationships they make and through the Biblical principles incorporated in their training materials.

After receiving degrees in both Business/Economics and Philosophy from Westmont College, Chris, a Certified Management Accountant, worked in various finance and managerial positions throughout Southern California for close to 20 years. Similarly, Krista received her degree in Business/Economics and worked in banking, accounting, and fund-raising before dedicating the majority of her time to raising their three children. From home, she also maintained her own small-business that serviced companies with their finance and accounting needs."

Maybe I'll think of something else official to write about soon.

Chau for now.

(He's cute, don't you think?)

It's Official

Today, all 5 of us left our house at 6:45 am to go to the Office of Immigrations for the 7th time.
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We finally had all of our paperwork in order - a terribly terrible long and boring story that I won't bore you with - and our tourist visas expired today. We hoped and prayed that this nightmare would be behind us and we'd be official residents of Argentina.

We got to the office, waited for 30 minutes (which is no time at all!), talked to someone who discovered that one of our papers - that we had just gotten - had already expired. The look on Chris's face must have convinced him to waive this minor infraction and we were sent to the next person. (A total miracle, by the way.)

We all got fingerprinted and signed a formal declaration of our personhood - even Johnny wrote his cute little name, whispering, "Mommy, does the 'J' go this way?"

After this was completed by all 5 of us, we were moved down the hall to the next person. [He was a huge blessing and we actually exchanged information with him because he would like to start his own business and is interested in what we are doing here.] We waited about 2 hours while the paperwork was processed. During this time, I was able to take the boys to their summer camp and then returned to sign some more papers.

After this was finished, Chris and I needed to go to 2 separate banks to pay the rather large fees. It went smoothly at the Banco de Córdoba. Not so at the Banco de la Nación de Argentina. By the time we got to the front of the line (1 person separated us from the teller), the bank's computer system died.

Gracias a Dios, it was resuscitated, we paid our pesos, speed-walked back to the Immigration office, gave our receipts, and signed more papers. We got our temporary paperwork that proves we're legal (they say the real thing will arrive in the mail), caught a taxi, and picked the kids up from summer camp in the nick of time.

We're legal! We can work officially now. Can you believe it?

Now, it's back to studying. Here is Johnny studying on Rosetta Stone while drinking mate. He loves it (the mate, not the studying).

As you know, our first 6 months here have been dedicated to formal language acquisition and culture adaptation. We have one more month of formal studying and are so excited to actually start our micro-finance work....

Weather

I am aware of weather changes throughout in the world, but being from Southern California I have never really experienced them. We were willing to pay a high price for the fine weather we enjoyed in that beautiful little coastal community. Now we are learning firsthand that in Córdoba, however, as the seasons change, the climate changes as well.

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Yesterday morning and all through the day, we sweated through the 95+ degree heat. In the late afternoon, clouds started rolling in and we found ourselves in the middle of a "typical" summer storm. Hail, thunder, lightening, rain. We ate dinner around a candlelit table since we lost electricity for a number of hours.

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You know the funny part? We continued to sweat through it all!

Our front yard.

Suffice it to say that Bessie is not allowed to drive in this weather! The water was so high in our street that you couldn't see the curbs.

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We felt very thankful to have a solid roof over our heads and prayed for the many people here who don't. You should see the damage done to trees, pool covers, and pretty little flower pots.

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I just wanted to share a little part of our day. Hope you're enjoying yours!

12 Days

We had a great time with my Mom and Dick. They left on Tuesday, too soon. Here are some photos of our 12 days together.

The boys spent lots of time in our outdoor pool - thanks to Melinda.

It is such a great gift!

Everyone clamoring for Grammy's attention.

Andrew wrote a welcome message to my mom and Dick.

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It says, "Dear Grammy and Dicky, Welcome! I am so excited to see you guys. We have been waiting so long for this moment. Can we show you guys around the house? Tonight maybe we could set off some fireworks. Today I saw a bird's wing and I thought 'Oh I guess Dicky has already been hunting.' I love you guys. Love, Andrew"

Christmas celebration in January with fun gifts from the States... lots of Legos aka Love.

Chris's birthday asado celebration.

We acted like tourists on the Double Decker Bus.

It was fun to see the city this way and my mom took lots of great photos.

Here is one of those photos - of Dick, though.

He didn't want to be a tourist and opted to go to Mass instead.

This is him outside the cathedral on his way in.

(Isn't it cool the way the bricks in the background show the shadow of the cathedral?)

It was funny to see him - it is so rare to see someone you know downtown since this city has more than 1.5 million people! He's thrilled to have his picture taken by a bunch of tourists.

We have driven past this restaurant and each time we do, Johnny asks if we can go there.

It's his restaurant, you know. We call it, "Johnny IS Good".

It was worth the wait.

My mom and I had a few dinner dates. Very special - and necessary - times together.

This was at Viejo Lobo and was delicious!

Victory! (Bowling is much harder without guard rails.)

On our way into La Gracia de Cristo. My mom was a good sport sitting through the 2.5 hour service all in Spanish. Germán preached a great sermon.

We're standing on the San Roque Dam while Dick is on the other side of the road eating handmade chorizo.

(We also each paid a peso to use a nasty toilet.)

We went to Cosquín and met Diego, a glass blower.

We came home with a glass dolphin, octupus, and frog.

It was fascinating to watch him work even though an errant piece of hot glass landed on and burned Andrew's arm.

One of many delicious lunches together. This was in Cosquín and Dick loved exploring the parrilla with the pieces of meat smoking. I think these are (were?) goats.

Notice Johnny's fearless behavior straight from the beginning.

Los Cocos (in honor of Marlene)

This was such a fun place - with a huge labyrinth that took a long time to go through. There were lots of museums. The boys' favorite was the one about Martin Fierro, a true gaucho who had lots of cowboy weapons.

Swimming in Rio San Esteban.

It was a good, refreshing swim, even if the water was a little brown.

(My mom, Dick and I stayed on the shore and shooed away a little dog with a big dog complex.)


My mom loves Buddy!

She really wanted to rescue all the street dogs, but learned to resist.

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Dick is a phenomenal cook and I asked him to teach me some of his secrets.

This is us in Mercado Norte where they sell the best priced and biggest variety of meat.

According to him, food is his religion and Mercado Norte is a temple.

He is on a mission and did not appreciate being interrupted by the numerous photo shoots.

(Neither did I, but I'm a better sport.)


Here are Johnny and David posing and Andrew gagging.

He happens to be having this heaving reaction based on the lenguas de vaca (um, cow tongues) hanging behind him. The boys actually enjoy going to the carnicerias to try to locate the most disgusting pieces of meat and love to point out things to me like cow brains, pig heads, and blood sausage to watch me try to conceal my true thoughts.

This was SO fun. It is the local artesian market that my mom and I explored. We loved it and enjoyed talking with the artists about their crafts. This guy and his girlfriend are very talented and I really wanted to buy the brown beaded cross for my sweet mother-in-law but the artist told me it was a decoration and not for sale. It's the thought that counts, right?

Merienda with Hugo and Susana. As you know, Hugo is our language professor (and historian, cultural trainer, therapist, tour guide... he wears many hats with us!) and we love him and his adorable wife.

A visit to Córdoba would not be complete without time with them.

Johnny loves to chase the pigeons. When he gets close, he tries to kick them.

Is it bad that I don't care?

Familia Frohling outside Buen Pastor. They have a great light show with the fountains at night but it's under construction right now.

Here are some of our other favorite people: Bethany, Roman, Abigail, & Eliana.

Bethany has been in Argentina for 10 years and Roman is Argentine.

They just finished 2 years learning sign language (their 3rd language) in order to work with the deaf community.

They graduated top of their class with honors.

(Bethany's mom told me this fact and I'm so glad to share it with you!)

We hope to be able to work alongside them using our still-to-be-developed job training workshops as a way to also demonstrate the profound love of Jesus to the sordos.

We love them and now my mom and Dick do too!

Paddle boating in the lago at Parque Sarmiento.

Our final lunch together at Alcorta.

(Try to look closely at Dick's annoyed face - I cried laughing when I zoomed in at it. He is too much!)

We had so much fun and the time went too quickly. I am one of those lucky daughters who has a great mom. She is one of my closest friends and I love her so much. It was terrible to say chau.

Melinda and Frank are coming out in March and we are already counting the days to their visit. Until then, we will keep up the studies, begin working on our job-training tallers (workshops), and continue to make new friends and keep the old.

You are GOLD.

41

Did you know my cute husband had a birthday yesterday? This picture with the boys was taken after a scavenger hunt that Andrew planned. The final clue led Chris to the refrigerator where his big dark chocolate bar was waiting.

We celebrated with the Ricca family in the evening. Until you have eaten Argentine asado, you've never truly eaten barbecued meat. It was delicious. Dick was in heaven (even though he doesn't quite look it in this photo).

The 41-year-old, Dick, Rubén, & Germán, manning the asado.

The table before everyone sat down. Lots of good food and fun friends.

The cute kid table.

Chris is an amazing husband,

creative dad, and my all-time best friend.

It was such a joy to celebrate him last night.

Happy Tears

(She looks good after traveling for 24 hours, don't you think?)

Beautiful

I've had a few pressing thoughts after finishing Radical that Chris quoted below.

And while I'm encouraged, blessed, and reminded by Chris's words, I felt the need to add a few more.

I realize that our move to Argentina is easy to call radical. And it was. It is.

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Our call here was clear and yet,

every single day I need to remind myself not to doubt in the dark what I saw in the light.

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Most days I don't feel radical. I feel stupid and confused and just plain sad.

The main thing that has been percolating in my mind after reading this book is that I know

a lot of radical Christ-followers who live in the good ol U.S. of A.

Those whom I've learned from.

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People who have "given up" promising careers in order to care for their children at home (and what an enormous mission field our children are!).

Those who take their faith into their work places and give God glory with the work of their minds and hands.

Those who show God to students - in schools, at home, or at church.

Those who gladly welcome others into their lives and homes.

Those who write handwritten letters of sympathy, compassion, and encouragement.

The list is endless...

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Please be encouraged, radical friends.

Your lives have influenced mine and this walk of faith is about each of us using our God-given gifts to bring glory to Him and to enjoy Him forever.

May we always remember who God made us to be.

You are beautiful.

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PS My mom comes in 4 days!!!