Happy Birthday to Ben!

Happy 13th Birthday Ben!

Today Ben is officially a teenager (and I am officially getting old! 2 teenagers!) We are having a big ultimate frisbee party at Highland Road Park with lots of his friends at 2:00 this afternoon. Alisha made his cake and we ordered beautiful weather. If you are in the area, come wish Ben a big happy birthday! If not, leave your well wishes in the comments for my birthday boy!

Happy Birthday dear Ben, Happy Birthday to YOUUUUUUU!

Love Momma!

"The View" from here.

Tonight was our last night worshipping with the youth at The View on Wednesday nights. It has been so special getting to know and love these fine young men and women. Each of you have truely touched and enriched our lives. Thank you for loving us and allowing us to be a part of your lives.
We were honored to recieve a BEAUTIFUL quilt from the youth. Pam and Sharon stitched together a priceless and treasured quilt with special notes from many in the youth ministry. I think it should go on the wall as art but Mr. Arnold still argues that it is his quilt to keep warm with.
I have no idea what next Wednesday holds....where we will worship, who we will be with, etc. but I do know who holds all of our tomorrows. God bless you all. We love you and will always treasure the times we had together. (5 days left)
Susie

A New Tradition

Since we can't bring too much to Costa Rica, we decided not to exchange regular "gifts" but consumable gifts. We all took $5 and bought food items, wrapped them up and had a white elephant exchange. We drew numbers and chose or stole each others gifts. This was done twice.....once a few nights ago and then tonight. Tonight though, we added 4 others...2 friends and MawMaw and PawPaw. It was so much fun. There was ice cream, pie, chips and dip, oreos, oranges, cheese and crackers and lots more. We are definately snack fooded out! We had a great time, made lots of memories and I think have began a new tradition. (And probably gained 5 pounds in the process!)
Hope each of you are having memorable holidays with your family too!
11 days till we leave!

Susie

Home for the Holidays

We made it home safely to Baton Rouge. We are staying with my parents for the holidays. We stayed in Nashville, TN on our way home. We went to an ice sculpture display that was made up of 1 million pounds of ice. Here's a sample of what we saw.



Afterwards, we ate at the opryland mall at a place call the Aquarium. It has a huge salt water tank in the middle. While watching the sharks and other fish swim by, we looked up and saw the Phippes. We thought for sure after leaving MLC that we would hardly ever see them again. What a nice surprise!

Take your best shot

Round three of vaccinations are over. Now I can get bit by rabid animals.

Vote Now

"Up to no good" or just "a little midnight fun"

We split into two groups for "safety" training. This was the night after I finished and the night before group two started. We dedided to give a friend in group two some "pre-training".

Compound Subject

Here is our new home-sweet-compound in Costa Rica. We are in the top right. You can send mail to us at:

Arnold Austin
Apartado 100-2350
San Jose, Costa Rica

Or call at (international call):
+(506)-227-9278

Don't forget our local Baton Rouge number. Not many are calling yet!
341-3383 (area code 225 for those outside Baton Rouge)

They're Here!

We have our tickets for Costa Rica in hand! Oh My! We are scheduled to leave from Baton Rouge Airport on January 2 @ 5:30 am. I can't believe we are so close to leaving. We will be leaving here on Dec 16 to travel to Baton Rouge. Please pray for our safety as we drive. We love you all!

No Cell Phone

Don't call my cell phone anymore. I lost it on "Dead Man's Hill" yesterday.

If you can find it in this picture, let me know.

I did have a good time, though.

She's Got Personality!

Well the results are in. We took the MBTI personailty test before we got here. If you want to know more, check out the following. The actual questionairre is over 100 questions.

http://www.personalitypathways.com/type_inventory.html

I was an ENFJ. I feel like I am more of a ENTJ, though. I must have seen a chic flick before I took it.

Susie was a an ESFJ.

Who would have known we were both extraverts!

Encouragement

I just wanted to say thank you. Not only to those who comment the blog, but those who have written emails to each of us and also those who have called our Skype Baton Rouge number just to lift us up.

For those of you who don't know, we have a Baton Rouge number: 341-3383. It rings on our computer. For those calling from Baton Rouge, the call is free. For those elsewhere, it is the cost of normal call to Baton Rouge for you (area code 225). We love getting those "I Love You" and "Spoken Prayers" on our voicemail. As we leave the country, we'll be online more often so that you won't have to leave voicemail. Thanks again, we are lifted up so much.

Get a Haircut, Hippie

After 5 weeks, it was time for a haircut. I didn't want just anyone doing it. I wanted Susie to do it. I was so proud of her. She did it without clippers. Just a Comb and Scissors.










Even Alisha got in on the action!

Who Ordered This Weather?

Susie did!

We've had 3-4" of snow on the ground for two days now. More is on the way Friday. It has made for some very fun family times!

RLT

Everything is an acronym with the IMB. RLT stands for Regional Leadership Training. The Westers, from Santiago, Chile came in to talk to us about specific directions that the South American region is going. It was a great time of learning and forming relationships with our leaders. To Mike Weaver's credit, we covered alot of this stuff back in August. The stateside partners with ReapSouth are really brought up to speed and on board with the IMBs vision.





Midweek, we went to Impanada. It is a Brazillian Churrascaria. If you've never been to one, go hungry.

A song in my heart!

LORD MOST HIGH

From the ends of the earth,

From the depths of the sea.

From the heights of the heavens,

Your name be praised.
From the hearts of the weak,

From the shouts of the strong.

From the lips of all people,

This song we raise, Lord.

Throughout the endless ages,
You will be crowned with praises,
Lord Most High.
Exalted in every nation,
Sovereign of all creation.
Lord Most High, be magnified.

My Prayer!

Susie

Less than 2 weeks!

Hooray!!!! We have less than 2 weeks left!. It has been such a wonderful experience here and I have made some lifetime friendships. The great thing is realizing that we will know people that live in all parts of the earth. Pretty cool when you think about it!
We are so ready to get back to BR to visit with everyone but we all know that it will be a bittersweet time. Please pray that we are able to get eveything completed and ready to go, so that we can enjoy our few weeks home. We plan to leave here Dec 16 or 17th and arrive in BR around the 18th.
Our special training is coming up Monday - Wednesday, so you may not hear from us during that time. Just say some prayers that we get everything out of these days that we need to.
God Bless you all!
Susie