Sylvia and I have known Américo and Kathy for over 35 years.  I know that it doesn’t seem possible as young as we are.  In Ecuador, Sylvia taught one of their sons in kindergarten.  I don’t remember if that’s what started our friendship, or if it was something else.  I do know that they have been among our closest friends ever since those days.

After Sylvia and I returned to the US, we remained in contact with the Saavedras.  We’ve had the pleasure of being with them several times over the intervening years.  They have been visiting churches and supporters in west Michigan.  That’s why we are enjoying one of their visits today.

I’m writing this on Tuesday afternoon, just before their scheduled arrival.  After this goes in the queue, the computer goes off for a couple of days.  (Okay, you can believe that if you want to–or not.)

Here’s a little about our special friends:

Américo was born in Orellana, Peru, and spent most of his growing-up years in Yarinacocha, Peru.  As a young boy, he was influenced by the Wycliffe missionary community whose members encouraged him to pursue a Christian education and missionary service. Américo is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute, Trinity College and Wheaton Grad School.

Kathy (Pfeiffer) was born in Chicago, IL and grew up in Palos Heights, IL.  From the time she was very young, listening to missionary stories placed the desire in her heart to be a missionary. After graduating from Wheaton College, she went to Yarinacocha, Peru to teach Wycliffe Bible Translators’ children at their main center.  It was there that Kathy met, and subsequently married, Américo.  In addition to graduating from Wheaton College, Kathy received her M.A. from Azusa Pacific University.

Américo and Kathy are members of HCJB Global, a ministry serving around the globe via media, healthcare and educational ministries. The Saavedras have had more than 35 years of missionary experience in Latin America.

In 1992, Américo had the joy of assembling a pastoral training and leadership development team called APOYO (a Spanish word for “support”).   Since its inception, Américo has been the Executive Director and Kathy the Administrative Assistant. To date, APOYO has held leadership training conferences and workshops in numerous Spanish-speaking countries for the purpose of encouraging and equipping the thousands of pastoral leaders emerging throughout Latin America.

The Saavedras have three married children and eleven grandchildren, with one more little boy on the way–making an even dozen!

I wish you could all stop by and meet them.  They are wonderful folks.

  

Last Tuesday, I posted what I thought was the story of two abandoned houses that are a short way from here.  I based my interpretation on the story told by an elderly farmer friend and neighbor.  Perhaps he was having some fun with me?  Joy, another neighbor sent me the following e-mail, which I share with her permission.

Hi, Chuck!

Loved the pics of the old houses down the road and wanted to give you a little history on them.  I grew up about a half mile away on the cross road.  When I was a little girl, I used to walk to the corner of your road and the road a mile south of you to play with friends.  I had to walk by those houses and I was petrified.  The one on the west side of the road was built for the mother of the man who lived on the east side of the road with his wife.  The one on the west side (Mom’s house) was empty and in disrepair and I was scared there was a bear around it.  Don’t know why, but that was my fear.  The couple on the east side of the road were elderly (to me!).  He had a long beard, would sit on his front porch and wave at me as I ran by.  Ran being the operative word!  But I braved the way as I wanted to play with my friends!

He has long passed, but the wife is still alive.  I know this as my mother just called and talked with her this past year.  She had celebrated her 100th birthday.  Now, I am 62, and as I compare the ages, I realize they weren’t all that old!  But to a 10 year old girl, 50 is old!

I responded to this e-mail with a request to share it with you.  I received this reply.

I have to admit that your story makes for a more interesting one, shows the imagination and sparks an interest.

I don’t know if I told you the name of the couple.  It was ***.  His family had settled just north of us and makes us wonder if our road wasn’t named for them.  Of course, at that time, there was no expressway and the road went through to the north.  Interesting thought, anyway.  So, your story continues with Mr & Mrs *** being the name of the couple residing on the east side of the road.  Mr would sit on his front porch in a rocking chair, had wild hair (probably had taken off his cap), had the long beard, and to me, was very scary!  Don’t remember Mrs at all.  And the mother had long since passed, hence the empty home that was never kept up.

You may print this story next week with my blessing.  Hope your readers enjoy it! I know I always look forward to your blog, some interesting reading there!  Hope you continue for many moons!  Joy

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Ida was one of my first friends in the blogosphere.  Back then her blog was about weight loss.  It has expanded to be much more than that.  August 27 she started a new blog, which she calls “Living on the Mountain While Walking Through the Valley.”  I encourage you to visit Ida’s new blog.  To do that just click here.

If you clicked on the link above as it was created by Blogger, you would leave Secondary Roads and be taken directly to Living on the Mountain.  Alternatively, you could right click on the link and then select Open in new Window or Open in new Tab.  Here’s how you can modify the link to open in a new window:

Click on the Edit HTML tab.  At the end of the first paragraph look for this code:

[less than sign]a href=”http://onthemountaininthevalley.blogspot.com/”[greater than sign]here[less than sign]/a[greater than sign]

This is the “a” tag, and is often called an anchor tag.  It is used to create HTML links.  There are three parts above: The opening tag, which contains the URL to which you want to link.  The second part is the text that will highlighted for the link.  Finally, you’ll see a closing tag.

To modify the link so that it will open in a new window, you have to be on the “Edit HTML” tab.  Locate the link (it is identified above).  In the opening tag between the closing quote on URL and the “>” insert a space followed by text like this: [space]target=”[name]” where name is the name you assign to the new window.

That’s all there is to it.  The modified opening tag looks like this:

[less than sign]a href=”http://onthemountaininthevalley.blogspot.com/” target=”1″[greater than sign]here[less than sign]/a[greater than sign]

In the example, I used “1” for the target name.  You can use any digit, letter or combination of them, but don’t use special characters.  I did this on Tuesdays post.  Each link opens in a new window, and each link has a different target (Window name).

Be sure to visit Ida, and if you like what you see then become a follower. Thanks.
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Our friend, Sharkbytes, (aka Joan Young) finishes hiking all 4,395 miles of the North Country Trail today!  You can read about it at the NCTA link (above).  Please take a moment and stop by her blog and leave a congratulatory comment.

Shark, congratulations and best wishes from another soul that prefers to get off the highways and onto the byways.  Enjoy all of your days–especially this one in which we honor you.

Thanks Ratty.