Beef, it's what's for dinner

Leviticus 3:10
And the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away.

I was reading this verse today and had a better understanding than if I had read it before living in Chile. When I lived in the United States I had this dream world that when a cow was butchered, his meat just sort of magically was cut into perfect pieces of edible beef. In fact, I'd never really even imagined an actual cow dying, being cut up into pieces, and wrapped up to be placed in the meat department and wait for me. You see, my American friends, when a cow gets butchered, his meat does not look like this:

In fact, when a cow gets butchered, it's meat looks like this:

The former is something you walk into your Albertsons, Ralphs, Stater Brothers, etc to purchase. It does not exist here. The latter is what you purchase in Chile. You just go to the butcher and you say, "I'll take a half," or, "give me one and a quarter," referring to how many kilos you want. And then undoubtedly he'll give you much more than you asked for because it means more money in the till for him. The number of "cuts" is much fewer here. Forget T-bone, Porterhouse, Strip, New York, Top Sirloin, Filet Mignon, Round, London Broil, Flank, or Skirt steak. There are three steaks in Chile: loin with fat, loin without fat, and fillet. They all come riddled with sinew, nerves, and about 10% inedible parts. So yes, your average Chilean housewife knows how to clean meat better than your average American man.

So that takes me full circle back to the verse. It says that when the priest was going to sacrifice a steer (bullock), that he had to take away the fat that covered the bowels. I've never done that, but now that I've got some experience under my belt of cleaning meat up, I think I have a little more respect for the Jewish priests who must have been pretty expert butchers.

On another note, did you know that milk actually comes from cows? It does! I saw it happen the other day and we bought some. We have a farm about 5 minutes from our house where you can get fresh milk.

Patrick Thomas

Patrick is our little miracle baby. He has had more blood tests done in his short 3 months of life than I remember having in all of my life. I think we're up to 12 now. He had a common problem among babies, jaundice. This problem is common on the 3rd and 4th days of the life of a baby, but most babies recover without a problem. Patrick was treated in the hospital multiple times, but just couldn't seem to kick it. We took him in to a good pediatric when he was like 7 weeks old. She said if he was still yellow at 8 weeks then he needed to get blood work done again. The results came back poor and she said it was probably because he had a liver disease. With some more testings done she sent us to a specialist in Santiago, a children's gastroenterologist. We had to fly to Santiago to see this dr. and so we were able to accomplish a lot of north during our visit. We met with a U.S. embassy officer, and were approved for Patrick's birth certificate and passport. The hospital where we took him might be the nicest hospital in Chile. It was impressive; by far the nicest hospital I've ever been in. The doctor looked at Patrick and said that he was a very healthy baby (by this time the yellow had dissipated), and said that he believed that blood tests were adulterated. He sent for us to get more blood work done. Once the test results were in, and he was able to check them online we communicated through email and he said, "Don't worry, your baby is 100% healthy."

As I look back I can see God's hand at work in so many ways. The biggest and most obvious is the miracle of Patrick being healed. There is no way that it was an error in the exams because he was as yellow as a "zapallo" as they say here in Chile (a zapallo is like a monstrous pumpkin that's very yellow on the inside). Praise be to God for his healing. Another little detail that was special was that the hospital was costly; we had to pay to see the doctor and pay to get blood work done. Two churches invited me to preach for them during our stay in Santiago. One of them gave us a love offering and it was about the same as the cost of seeing the specialist. Also at the blood work counter the lady told me the price and when I asked for a discount she took $60 off the price! Ye have not, because ye ask not!

A few of my favorite pictures of Patrick

Enduring another goodbye

It's 1:00 AM on the morning of my parents' departure. I am sitting here with a heavy heart reflecting on the fact that they are leaving. This is the first time this has ever happened. For many years I have been leaving the U.S.A., and they have had to endure seeing me off. It is my turn to say goodbye and watch them walk away. It is a painful feeling. I wonder if it hurt Christ to leave the perfection of heaven as He humbled Himself to be born among sinful men.

They say David Livingstone (Africa, 1800's) said, "God had an only Son, and He made Him a missionary." I know that there is inherent error in that quote, because Jesus is not God's only Son, but rather His only begotten Son. Anyways, I understand what the quote is trying to communicate, and I see its truth.

A missionary is one who is sent. Being sent means that you leave behind something, and though it ought not lessen your resolve, it can be very painful. Abraham left behind Ur of the Chaldees. Joseph left behind his family and his home. Barnabas and Paul (temporarily) waved goodbye to their local church.

I remember when my nephew Zachary and my niece Hailee were born I waited the whole time in the hospital. It makes me sad to think that I won't be able to be there for my sister this time around; there's just a couple of weeks left.

The United States is a great land, and although it is no longer my home it is home to many of the people, places, and things that I love.

This week I watched a video from a Birthday celebration at our sending church. I miss those people dearly.

I am so glad that missionaries are sent and not severed. The last two weeks have been so refreshing. It's wonderful to have family that is involved in your lives and ministry. It's not easy to travel from California to Patagonia, and especially so if you don't speak Spanish. I'm very thankful for the visit, and can't wait to see family again (here or there).

As I think of those who were sent (especially Jesus, because He is everything), it is overwhelmingly clear that the nobility of their commission outweighed the sorrow of their departure. He came to seek and to save that which was lost, what nobler cause is there?

It's time to get back to work, hand to the plow, don't look back.

Cults

This picture here is of various materials from cults that have recently been donated to our fireplace. I thought I'd snap a picture first because it really moved my heart. There are many (2 Corinthians 11:13-14), worthy of being anathema (Galatians 1:8-9), who preach a false gospel and who vigorously promote lies. It is incredible how heavily they are present, even in the ends of the earth. How much more we, who have the truth, need to put our hands to the plow and labor!

John 9:4
I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh when no man can work.

Patrick Thomas Sheridan

Our new little bundle of joy arrived last week! It was a long journey. We hit a few struggles along the way in the hospital, but we are just thankful for a healthy baby and all of God's blessings in our family. I love his name! I got to choose it this time. I think it's neat that he has my dad's name and Annie's dad's name. The motive for choosing Patrick was after my dad, and there were actually three men named Thomas who inspired the middle name: my father-in-law, my grandpa William Thomas Sheridan, and my good friend Thomas Ware. I got a shot of Micah meeting Patrick the day after he was born...Micah is wearing his festive Chilean clothes for Independence Day (er, WEEK, because here we literally celebrate it all week long). Please enjoy these pictures, real baby pictures are coming soon, and hopefully an updated family picture.

Conference was a success

Our first annual missions conference went very well. We plan to start supporting our second missionary who is a Mexican brother serving in India. The only thing stopping us is figuring out a few logistical difficulties, but hopefully those will be resolved soon! We had our guest speaker and his family in. There is a gal who attends services who does art by burning drawings onto leather. We presented Pastor Cristian and his family with a personalized gift made by her. We were challenged to take the gospel to every creature in our generation. Here is a picture from one of the services, in the background you can see our new banner that says "TO EVERY CREATURE IN OUR GENERATION":

Murta, Sanchez, and Tranquilo

We planned to hit one more town on our evangelistic trip, but because of a flat tire we didn't make it to Puerto Guadal. It was a memorable trip. We passed out many gospel tracts, at least one to each home in these three places, and we also got to preach the gospel to people in each place. They all desperately need a church to be planted there. Sanchez is so small, maybe like 50-75, and it is not too far from Bahia Murta. It is a little community that up until the last decade was only reachable by boat or a very dangerous road. One of the most memorable moments on this trip was after witnessing to two men in Puerto Sanchez, one of them yelled to me as we were walking away, "Don't forget Sanchez! Come back to Sanchez!" I will not soon forget him, or Sanchez. Here are a lot of random cell phone pictures from the trip:

 I thought this waterfall that had frozen over was so beautiful. This was at the highest point of altitude as you are making your way towards the Villa Cerro Castillo/Puerto Ingeniero Ibañez area. The roads were pretty icy. This picture is from on the way, but if you want to get an idea of how icy the roads were check out the last picture in the post.

 These two pictures are from the entrance of Bahia Murta. Just under 600 people according to this sign, but I suspect it has grown a little. These are 600 people whom God loves very much. Most of the town was gathered the day we were there for a funeral, I was moved with compassion as they wept without hope.

 Oh, just a pig in the plaza at Bahia Murta.

This dear man welcomed us into his home. I preached the gospel to him and used his guitar to sing some gospel songs. He said Bahia Murta needs a pastor...he's right. He asked if I would send one and gave me his phone number for when we do.

This is on the scary road winding through the mountains on the way to Puerto Sanchez. From what I hear it is no where near as bad as the old road.

These two frost-bitten pictures are from in front of our cabin in Puerto Rio Tranquilo. I plan to take my parents and family here in a couple of weeks. It got really cold that night. It was so cold when we woke up that I went and had devotions in the car with the heater on! What a whimp! I remember doing that once on deputation with Annie. 

What a trip! This was my last shot I snapped when we were still about 2 hours away from home. I was so excited to get home to the family, sleep in my bed, and I was thankful for what God had done on this journey.