Ministry
Anja
Staff / Church Planting Class
We were informed that there were going to be new requirements for staff members, starting in September. They will be put in place mainly because we have people on staff that don’t serve a lot and they want staff members who actually want to serve and who are going to be there when requested. One of the new requirements is that, in addition to what you are doing already at church, you would have to spend an additional 3-4 hours at church cleaning, either Wednesday or Saturday morning. I could not see how I would be able to manage that in addition to being a mom and all the other things I am doing around church, so we decided to speak with Executive Pastor Jesus to clarify things, also in regards to the church planting class.
I still have two semesters left and while I will be able to bring the baby to class for the first semester because she will be two months old when the semester ends, that will not be possible anymore for the second semester. She will be moving way too much. However, this semester Calvary Chapel started its first evening class for future church planters. So we were thinking that Chris could attend the staff meeting in the morning and church planting class in the afternoon, while I would be watching the kids and in the evening, Chris could take care of the kids while I would be attending church planting class. We talked for a while and all of us agreed that it would be best, if I would go off staff and attend the evening class. It was not a tough decision to make. Chris and I had already prayed about it and it just seemed the right thing to do. I can still do everything I am doing at church, the only thing that changes really is that I won’t be attending any staff meetings and go to evening class. Besides, Pastor Mike assured me that I would be welcome to return to staff any time.
Band
The first time I was scheduled, the worship ministry leader was leading the band because the usual band leader was gone for three weeks to pastor his friend’s church in Belize. He gave me not one, but two songs to sing lead voice. I even had to translate what he was saying in between the songs from Spanish to English because there was no one else in the band that was able to do it. The ministry leader seemed to be pleased with my performance, which was nice, given he is a quite critical person. The second time, the usual band leader was back and I was curious to see if he would give me a song to sing lead voice, but he didn’t. Let’s see what will happen next month. I am sure that I will be scheduled in his band again.
We are usually standing while singing, but since that is getting very hard for me to do at this stage of the pregnancy, I am allowed to use a stool. It is a bit weird to be the only one sitting, but I would not be able to stand comfortably throughout the entire worship time.
Livestream
My team leader is very considerate and worried that he could ask too much of me, so he decided to put me on the sound instead of on the camera. That means, in essence, that I am adjusting the volume of the voices and instruments so that we have a nice sound on the livestream. It’s not nearly as complicated as mixing the sound for the sanctuary. The good thing is that I can sit all the time and it’s a lot more comfortable than sitting on a stool behind the camera. I prefer doing the sound for Wednesdays because I have the entire band practice, so more than an hour, to adjust the sound until I like it. When I do the sound on Sundays, the main band practice is on Saturday evening, and there is only a brief warmup in the morning. The guy who was doing the sound before my pregnancy is usually getting the sound ready for me, but I always adjust everything until I like it. We just seem to have a different taste.
Fit2Serve
Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse… First, I was all by myself one Saturday during a women’s conference although at least three people confirmed that they would participate. Second, another trainer quit due to health related issues. However, before that happened, she and I agreed to ask one of the participants if she wanted to help us and she was excited, so I do have another helping hand. My plan is to include her more and more so she can take over when I have the baby. It would have been better if she were bilingual, but we will manage. I will still have to get the information from the founder every week and then send it to her since he doesn’t speak any Spanish. On another occasion, I heard one of the younger participants say something about playing the guitar. The lady that is going to help me doesn’t play an instrument either, so I thought it would be a good idea to ask the girl if she wanted to play the guitar for us. Although she has never played in front of other people, she agreed to give it a try! It looks like things are coming together slowly!
7 people – our lowest number so far…
Chris
Corporate Communion
First times can be scary. For me it was to stand in front of the whole congregation (including the ones watching on the livestream). Pastor Mike had given me the honor to lead the church through corporate communion on a Wednesday service – a big step and a challenge! The really nice thing was that the Lord confirmed me beforehand by sending me a whole bunch of people that prayed with me that day. Here’s the link to the service:
Programming Class
Another first time experience is the programming class I started this month. Seeing the need, I thought let’s give it a shot and started training up a bunch of youngsters in the art of programming. So far, I think I learned as much as I could teach them: from the struggle of how to get them to do their homework to the different levels of their understanding. However, it’s good to see their progress and even to see and show them the potential they have.
Family
Baby Shower
One of the colleagues from the livestream team asked us if we would go on a double-date with them. They said they would take us to a nice place and we would have to dress up and bring an ID. Anja thought we might end up going to a casino because you have to be a certain age to enter and they sometimes also have very nice restaurants. They told us to meet them at church, so we drove there to meet them when the guy called Anja and asked her if she could come upstairs for a moment. He said something about a new camera lense and that they wanted her opinion on something they had set up. Anja was wondering why they would ask her, but agreed of course.
When she went up the stairs, surprise, there was a group of ladies gathered and it was all nicely decorated for a baby shower! Chris knew all along and he had been able to keep it a secret. The ladies spent a nice time together eating and chatting before unwrapping all the presents. We received head bands, bibs, onesies, pajamas, sets of clothing, diapers and wet wipes.
Parasites (Chris)
In the beginning of this month, I learned the hard way about the main reason the Mexicans like to eat spicy. One day, I noticed that no matter what I ate, I was always hungry and my stomach felt weird. After I talked to a natural doctor who is a member of our church, he said that it could be intestinal parasites – the ones you get from eating street food. He also mentioned that Mexicans eat spicy because it would help to prevent intestinal parasites. I usually don’t eat street food, but we had a party where I ate meat and since my stomach can’t handle spicy food very well, I skipped that and I think that’s how I got it in the end.
The doctor then suggested that I should take some natural remedy instead of a chemical bomb and that’s what I did. I first was very bloated and then got diarrhea. Over the course of this whole episode, I lost about 5kg (don’t miss those). In the end, I learned that some times, it’s wise to eat spicy but also that if you try natural remedies, you need to pay attention to the signs of your body. So after having had diarrhea for a while, the doctor told me that activated charcoal will absorb the poisons that are emitted by the parasites. I then took some activated charcoal and after my body got rid of the poisons, everything went back to normal.
Ziva
Ziva seems to be bored a lot. She is not super excited to play with her new toys, nor does she want to look at her books. However, we received a small bottle of bubbles, which she found quite fascinating for a while. She also enjoyed playing with a kitten that came to our neighborhood recently. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen it anymore and we suspect that the owners are keeping it inside, which is a shame. A new game that Ziva started, is to knock at the door or to put a phone to her ear and to start a conversation. They usually go like this, “hallo, bla bla bla bla” and then she repeats it again. In general, she is saying a lot. We just wished, we were able to understand her. She even approaches people, like the pizza delivery guy, and just starts talking with him. It’s adorable!
Chris allowed Ziva to help him with washing the car and she had a blast playing with the water. Needless to say, she was soaked by the time they were done, but it’s quite warm at the moment so that was not a problem at all. Talking about water… one morning, Anja took Ziva to the playground and there was a puddle because the gardeners were watering the lawn. Ziva went right in there to splish and splash, getting everything wet ant dirty while her playmate just stood there, watching her. When Ziva was done, she had a cute little beard in her face. Upon returning home, Anja took off Ziva’s shoes and clothes and gave her a warm shower. It was a bit harder to get Ziva’s clothes clean. Anja had to wash them twice to get all the dirt out…
I clean car 
I play with kitty 
I call 
I very dirty 
I with bin hat 
I with toy glasses
We have a lot of babies at church and Ziva is always super interested whenever there is a baby around. She says “baby” and is watching closely, but she is not touching them. Apparently, she is watching the babies in childcare, too. The ladies there are convinced that she will be a great big sister. It’s also very cute, when you ask Ziva where her sister is, she places her hand on Anja’s belly. And sometimes, she just walks over to Anja and touches her belly. Ziva seems to be more cuddly in general. We are wondering if she can tell that the baby is coming soon.
Pregnancy
This pregnancy seems to be a lot harder than the first one! I (Anja) am losing more hair, I feel a lot more tired, the belly is hard a lot more often and I really just don’t feel like doing anything. To be fair, I didn’t have a two year old to take care of and I was not involved in a church either.
Apparently, the hard belly was partially caused by an infection that had to be treated. Especially since I started to have mild cramps during the entire night. The OB/GYN was worried that it would lead to bleeding or a preterm birth, for which he prescribed some pills that made me slightly nauseas. However, the baby was healthy at that point in time, which was good to know. Apparently, she is a bit bigger than average, but she doesn’t seem to be as tall as Ziva.
What I didn’t like at all was that I had to do a glucose test to see whether or not I had gestational diabetes. They give you about 3dl of syrup to drink and then you have to be there for three hours and let them take blood four times in total. It was not pleasant, but the results turned out to be good. The only thing that was still a bit low were my blood levels, which meant more iron intake was necessary.
When we went to the OB/GYN after a week to have a look at the results, he asked me when he said the baby would be born. I told him that he didn’t say anything, but that the date on the screen was the 18th of October. He left us for a moment to check and when he came back, he announced that the baby would be born between October 6th and 9th, so earlier than expected.
Prayer requests
- Health
- Easy pregnancy/delivery, healthy baby
- Finances for hospital and paperwork after birth
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