Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
So it is the evening of our last day in Columbia ... sad to be leaving ... ready to be home and missing everyone at home! Our host family, Julio, Leila and Laura were there along with another of Julio's daughtesr and her husband ... and Max, the puppy. Dianna, her mom and brother came by to visit and say goodbye. I wanted so much to give Dianna something for all she did for us but didn't have anything else left but a few chocolates. (We took all kinds of chocolates with us to share with the people. Our friend, Rick, told us they loved chocolate, especially Reese's. We shared most of what we had with our host family and everyone at the retreat but still had a few left.) Jim and I were talking about wanting to give something to Dianna and he reminded me that I had 2 new books by Tommy Tenney about Esther and about worship. I felt like I was supposed to give those to her so I wrote a note to her and got out the rest of the chocolate.
Monday, February 02, 2009
There were a couple of things we really wanted to try as we awoke on our last day in Columbia. We wanted to try their empanadas and tamales. Our host family provided us with one of those for breakfast, tamales. They were delicious and totally different from the tamales we have had (which are also delicious.) These were a mixture of ground rice, vegetables, a boiled egg, and chicken which was wrapped in banana leaves. They pulled the banana leaves up around the mixture and tied it closed. This was then boiled. It was served tied up in the banana leaves. To eat it you just untied the leaves and ate. The taste of the ground rice mixture was very similar to the tamale. They served it with some sort of cornbread and cooked bananas with a sweet cream inside of them. It was all very delicious and way too much food for breakfast! They told us that in another part of Columbia they made something that sounded similar to our tamales but is called something different.
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Before leaving on Saturday I went up on the roof of the dormitory and got a wonderful view of the surrounding valley and the mountains. Columbia is a beautiful country with the Andes Mountains and all the tropical greenery and flowers. There were flowers blooming everywhere and some very fragrant.

Saturday, January 31, 2009


Friday, January 30, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
After leaving the school we went to visit a salt mine.........it was very interesting. The interesting thing to me was that now that although it is a working mine, they have made it into a cathedral.........they even have masses in it. So we are down in this mountain/cathedral and it has the 14 stations of the cross like we saw in Jerusalem...............places set up representing the different things that happened as Jesus carried His cross.

Saturday, December 13, 2008
This is Isaac ... all ready for Christmas. THis is Crystal and David's handsome son
This is Aubrianna and Annaliese ... two peas in a pod awaiting the celebration of Jesus' birth ... and presents ... including a new little sister in March 2009. These are AMber and Ed' sweethearts.

Thursday, March 27, 2008
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Merry Christmas from the Garrett Clan!
Jim finally completed his doctoral studies at Ashland Theological Seminary and is now officially Dr. James Garrett. PTL! Clearly, such a feat could not have been accomplished without the assistance of a loving wife who continually was saying “Write!,” a great daughter (Crystal) who stood as Field Advisor, two great kids (Amber & Jamie) who were continually asking how Dad was doing, and a whole team of others who walked the path alongside. (BTW, special thanks to Aunt Gloria for all your editing and suggestions.)
Cheri is still managing the office staff at Fallen Timbers Family Physicians. This is a continual challenge with much opportunity to share the love of Jesus and experience personal growth.
Jim is administrating
Jim and Cheri continue their pastoral ministry through the Oasis. Although they have formerly been ministering in
Crystal and David are still living in
Amber and Ed are still living in
Jamie and Crystal now live in
We give Jesus all the praise and are so thankful for His many blessing in our lives. We are a continually enlarging family and are delighted to serve Jesus with all of our beings.
It is our desire that this Christmas season will be full of the joy of Jesus in your life and that the joy of Jesus will overflow on everyone God puts in your path.

















