So we had a great time visiting family and friends for some vacation in the states before we went down to Florida to participate in First Baptist Callahan's Global Impact Celebration. We have a lot great stories from all of it and I'll share those, along with pictures soon.

First I thought I'd share some comical moments related to basic geography I had while checking out at different stores while out shopping in the States:

Micheal's-

Cashier: "Would you like to be put on our mailing list?"

Crystal: "No thanks, I'll pass"

Cashier: "Are you sure because it will only take a second?"

Crystal: "No thanks, I actually live in Peru and we're just here visiting family"

Cashier: " Well Ma'am that's prefect because this is a NATIONAL mailing list and it will work at

any store of our stores in the US!"

Crystal: "Well thats awesome but I live in Peru, sooooo..."

Cashier: "Yes, but a lady came in just the other day from New York and her coupons were valid

here and there was another lady from California too!"

Crystal: "No really, I'm good for now."

Cashier: "Alright maybe next time."

Poor guy didn't realize that Peru is on an entirely different continent, not so much in the US.

Walmart:

Cashier: "Have you come up with a name for your baby yet? When are you due?"

Crystal: She's due in October, we still haven't decided- one of the names we're thinking about is: Sydney"

Cashier: "Oh that's cool. Is this your first?"

Crystal: "No we have a 16 month old girl, her name is Karis."

Cashier: "Oh, so you guys must have a thing for Foreign COUNTRIES!"

Crystal: "IIII guess soooo?!?" and kind of crunched my face in confusion.

Later however I realized that he must have mistaken me and thought I said "Paris" instead of "Karis". But still- those are names of foreign cities...not so much countries.

Anyways- they were enough to make me chuckle, so I thought I'd share.

Baby Nelson #2

Here is my 4D ultrasound picture at 32 weeks! Isn't technology amazing. It's made us so EXCITED about her October arrival!

The Best Day Ever

So I'm not sure if you ever just have one of those days that go so well- its almost eery! Several times yesterday Jeremy and I even stopped what we were doing and just took a minute to Praise God or just say "This is a total God thing". Life here in Iquitos, as in most places we've done ministry, strives on teaching you to be patient and flexible. We plan, we do, we work and folks don't show up on time, rivers dry up 3 months quicker than they did last year, stuff breaks...it isn't abnormal for us to spend most of our day trying to re-do or fix something that we'd already "accomplished" or thought we had completed. So when those rare days of over-productivity or a day where everything runs as planned and smoothly...we like to really celebrate it.

So here was our day: First the guy that cuts our grass came over and cut it with his machete (it was SO long overdue, I felt so sorry for him). Then the direct TV repair guy comes and at no additional charge to us, tells us that we keep having the problem of not getting a good signal because the wood that was used to attach it to our roof has gone bad and that the cables had gone bad- so he repositioned our dish on to a wall and ran all new cable (now in the shade it was 102 degree- so imagine what it was like for him crawling around in our ceiling with a TIN ROOF on it- I can't imagine. We just kept re-filling water bottles for him and if Jeremy didn't hear him banging around for awhile- he'd yell up to him "Are you still alive?" We were just dumb founded that he was going through all this trouble for us. We've had the dish worked out 4 times plus Jeremy's fixed it a few times. Usually they just fix it for right now and move on. Then when he said that it was FREE...we were even more surprised. But the day gets better....

Jeremy's cell phone has been on deaths door for months now. It stopped being able to charge, so I've been charging his battery in my phone and then switching it over to his for weeks now. Well the other day we took Karis swimming and J jumped in the pool with it in his pocket. So we thought oh there's no coming back from this- it was already barely hanging on...it had also just started white screening at random and turning off. So he took it apart and literally hung the parts on our clothesline outside for 2 days in the sun. Put it back together yesterday and it WORKS- it holds a charge, it moves faster between screens- its better than it was before... yet still our day gets better....

So one our church's that works up here crunched numbers and decided that it would actually be more economical for them to buy a boat & motor than to rent one each time they come down for several years. Well unfortunately the motor has turned out to be rather problematic and we've been replacing each part as it breaks down. The church also rents the boat out at a discounted rate to other churches we work with as a way to over cost of maintenance and gas etc.... So between the International World Changers project and Morningside Baptist trip a part broke on the boat and Jeremy needed it fixed immediately or the team would be able to take out the boat for the trip. The mechanic was nice, knew Jeremy didn't have all the money to pay for it before he rented it out for the next trip, so he said to just settle up with him when the team got back. So Jeremy had about $300 or so in boat rental money and he went last Monday and found the parts that were replaced and got the prices on everything new (which they had put used parts in the boat- so he knew it would be about half price of what the parts were new). Well he came home Monday and was like "Wow- I'm in between a rock and hard place" the parts new were close to $2,000!!! We only had $300 or so to pay the guy. So Jeremy went to talk to him yesterday about it and Jeremy got to his house and asked what the total was going to be and the guy without knowing how much money Jeremy had- gave his price in soles. Jeremy did the conversion and it came to $303. The mechanic could have easily charge Jeremy at least $900 for the parts but cut Jeremy a deal! Isn't God awesome....

While all these great things were happening with Jeremy...Karis was napping. So I decided to do some baking- which I look back on it and think- why in the world was I wanting to bake yesterday- it was 100 degrees inside my kitchen yesterday-literally 100 degrees. Anyways- I had a great time making lunch for Jeremy and I then baking 3 dozen oatmeal cookies and 2 dozen miraculous peanut butter cookies (that's their name...haha)- then after I cleaned up the kitchen- I still had time to prepare everything for dinner. So all we had to do was heat things up later. Oh and I made 6 liters of sweet tea for the Bible study we were having that night. Not bad for being super hot and almost 7 months pregnant. Because usually when its super hot in the house, the last thing I want to do is turn on my oven and make it hotter!

When Karis got up from her nap and J got back from paying the mechanic we decided we were going to go buy a fan for our bedroom and pick-up some groceries. As we're pulling out of the carport the biggest thunder clouds start rolling in- wind was knocking down signs- I mean it looked like the heavens were going to unload. Then we realize we have no rain gear in the truck. So we decided we'd just go about our errands- see what we could get done and if the rain got too bad- we'd just head back home. We were able to get all of our groceries and even looked for a fan (but decided to hold off until another day). So as we are pulling back into our carport and we've finished unloading the groceries- thats when the first drops of rain start falling down. I thought now Jesus- thats just icing on the cake right there- what an awesome day.

So this is the best part. We've struggled for over a year up here with having enough nationals that can help translate for our teams that come down. On more than one occasion we've had to use translators from Lima to help fill in. So this summer we have 4 summer missionaries here in Iquitos- working on ESL ministry. So we held our first translators english Bible study last night at our house. Just to help the translator develop more Biblical vocabulary and to be able to understand more and grow in there walks as well. So after talking with a few of our translators and the ESL girls we calculated that about 4 to 6 nationals would be coming. Well then I felt a little silly for making 6 liters worth of sweet tea and 3 dozen oatmeal cookies (however I felt very assured that Jeremy would do his very best to help finish off any leftovers!) Well by the end of the night we had 21 nationals show up for the Bible Study. It went so well- about half are not believers and the other half spent most of their evening sharing about how Christ has deeply changed their lives and their relationships with Jesus. It was awesome!!!! As an added bonus there were at least 4 more people that we could start using as translators tomorrow if we needed them!!! One guy even said at the end of the evening that he is learning english because he feels like that is God's calling for him- to be a translator for mission groups that come down...he says that is the ministry that he feels like God is asking him to do for his life and said he was SO excited when he heard about the Bible study (he also is the guy that brought 8 of his friends).

I know this is a really long post....but its been a long long time since so many things have come together so perfectly in one day for us- that I just had to give you the back ground on it. We most definitely praised Jesus for such a blessed day.

Oh and I forgot to mention that Jeremy also believes God healed his heart yesterday! LOL! He has thought for awhile that he has a minor arrhythmia (just that his heart will randomly flutter off beat times). Well yesterday while he was helping the direct tv guy he accidentally touched some live wires and electrocuted himself!! That's right 220 volts coursing through his veins. He even has some burn marks on his finger where it came out at. Well- we're thankful- ONE that he survived it and TWO- he is certain that it has cured his "arrhythmia" from all the electricity that coursed through is chest yesterday! =) We've also got a few good laughs out of his imitation of the event. LOL!