• What happens when a 4 year old finds a tarantula on the wall… (Ecuador)
• A birthday party in South Africa
• An upcoming women’s conference, Being a Mother, a challenging reward (Mexico)
• Working with pastors and their kids – no fighting over the toys, please… (Guatemala)
• It’s not easy going to school that isn’t in your mother tongue – read about Eliza’s first day (Thailand)
• Travelling in your "home country" as a kid can be hard – just ask Micah. (Kenya)
• You never know what some missionaries are in need of until you ask.  How about cloth diapers (Russia)?
• Pray for what’s-his-name and his Mom… (Rwanda)
• And what better note to end on — Daughters are a Gift of Love (Chile)

Boy in Rwanda

• And how is your string?  If you don’t know how to answer, click here (Mali).
• Why the violence?  And why are leaders so silent about it? (Nigeria)
• I don’t know, how often do you ask for a cat at a gas station? (Hungary)
• Here’s a chance to give input at a blog – what kinds of posts would you like to see here? (Taiwan)
• Can I be content without – all this stuff?  Good question. (Brazil)
• "Could you tell me About Jesus, just briefly?"  Wow, where would you start? (Thailand)
• Why not just teach them all English?  Really?  People actually ask you that? (United Kingdom)
• This is certainly a favourite question for missionaries – what is your schedule like? (Chile)  Of course, it’s different for everyone – and changes once a week…
• What are you doing to support healthy family life?  This is kind of neat. (Bolivia)

And now let’s talk about houses.  First, there’s the joy of House-hunting in Congo.  Do you think this house will do?

And after you’ve found a house, there’s work to be done – here’s a video: An Update on our House in Mexico.  Oh, and just for fun – the installation of a shower curtain in Rwanda.

A good reminder out of Peru – Safety Zone.

Finally, how about some kids – birthdays (Ecuador), life in Niger, and kids hanging out at the house (Romania).

It’s time to congratulate those who have completed 5 years of blogging!  5 years is still a good old age for a blog – in fact, these blogs are still older than this site (which started in 2005).

I’ve done this in the past, but I’m not sure if I’ll do it again – the more time goes by the more blogs are celebrating!  But here it is, at least one more time – Happy Blogoversary!

• Adventures With God serving in South Africa
• Musings of a Missionary serving in Thailand
• The Boyds to Columbia serving in Columbia (their former blog is here)
• The Kautz Family serving in Columbia
• Itsara serving in Thailand
• Always an Adventure… serving in Taiwan
• Coxes Quarterly serving in Germany
• les Davey de France serving in France
• Simplicity serving in Taiwan
• Under the acacias serving in Burkina Faso
• Life of a Steward serving in the United Kingdom
• The Ramblings of Norm and Debra Copeland serving in Guinea/Senegal
• Kingsley Clan serving in Ireland
• Into Rwanda serving in Rwanda
• Ramble Zone serving in Guatemala (AAAHHH!  They’re having a baby right now!)
• Kurt, Johanna, Kassia and Luke Metzger serving in Papua New Guinea
• Reflections of Refinement serving in Japan
• garcias2chile serving in Chile
• The Roe’s Garden serving in Germany
• Nanana serving in Mexico
• The Journey serving in the Netherlands
• The Naine’s Cameroon Adventure serving in Cameroon

So in this post, let’s look at recipes missionaries have shared in the past – first, some with a cultural flavour, either very authentic or variations.  Then, some unique recipes that are just for fun!  (Note: once in a while the recipe isn’t in the post, but is linked to).

Cultural flavours:

• Sarmale Recipe (Romania)
• Pork and sausage shishkabobs and mote with dried peaches (Chile)
• Chupe de Pescado (Ecuador)
• Kourabiedes Greek Christmas Cookies (Greece)
• Empanadas (Mexico)
• Guatemalan/Mexican Chicken and Rice Soup (Guatemala and Mexico)
• Balkan Pie (Macedonia)

Mexican empanadas

• Black Bean Soup
• Chai Mix
• Reese’s Peanut Butter Brownies
• Gluten-free Peanut Butter Cookies
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Pizza

• From Peru – a glimpse into the joys of red tape that missionaries so often face – The Cafe – The Latest and, well, not the Greatest
• From Romania – a very random post, but a very good question.
• Do you want to learn something about Chile?  Now’s your chance – ask your question right here!
• The story of Manwellcito (he hates it when she calls him that) from Ecuador
• Check out a Middle Ages festival on May Day in Germany
• Finally – a post about the cold and flu season that has nothing to do with H1N1! (Brazil)
• Some thoughts on Twitter: Short And Sweet from a missionary perspective (Ukraine)
• Time to meet just one child in Bolivia – Child History 7.0

A wedding in Paraguay
Photo courtesy of Jonathas Rodrigues

There have been a lot of posts about weddings lately, so I think it’s time for a quick tour around the world to see some pictures of weddings in different cultures.  Here are a few:

• Paraguayan Weddings:  Find out what makes a wedding in Paraguay unique
• Fantastic Friday Fotos:  This isn’t specifically about weddings, but it does introduce one tradition (later on in the post) for wedding days in Ukraine
• A Chilean Wedding:  Beautiful pictures of a wedding in Chile
• Song-mo (Samuel) Kim’s wedding:  Pictures of a wedding in Seoul, Korea
• H.’s wedding:  In Niger

And just when you thought we were done, let’s take a step backwards – have you ever been to an engagement ceremony?

First, from Argentina – Ministering with Wisdom.  George writes:  Name almost any activity, and you are sure to find a Christian organization somewhere that has created a corresponding "ministry": Wednesday Night Bowling Ministry, College Dorm Xbox Ministry, Texas Hold ‘Em Ministry, Dove Hunting Ministry, etc. To be charitable, we must admit that such programs can sometimes provide a framework for the development of community and may also serve to encourage people to begin acknowledging Christ in every area of life—even in the midst of entertainment. But…

Women in Peru

And out of Bolivia, read from football to commitment:  I just returned from a five day evangelism outreach in Oruro. These events are the big highlights of my year. We plan for 9 months in advance, build relationships with local churches, do a lot of training events, invest a lot of our resources, and as a side note Oruro is 4 hours away from where we live, so…

And from Brazil, read Counting the Cost to Follow Christ:  …to ask them to pray the ’sinner’s prayer’ without having heard and understood the claims of Christ only leads to sycretization, confusion, and in the end a dead faith. So, from day one we sow the Word asking the hearers to count the cost before they make a decision to follow Christ. This led one family to a crisis of faith…

Let’s take a culinary visit to Chile with Food from Conf. (Part 6):  Part of living on the mission field is learning to enjoy new foods and new ways to eat food. This is one dynamic in learning a new culture. We are happy to announce that adapting to Chilean food has NOT been a problem

This is really cool – a podcast out of Peru!  Check out Our First Podcast from the Poe family.

Thanks for your interest in, and your prayers for, the people of South America!

Please stop by and check these out – and also let me know if you see any errors (with all that work I’m sure there were some slips!).

What kinds of blogs will you see there?  Here’s a preview!  From our brand new missionary bloggers…

• Straight from my heart… writes from Ukraine
• Life in the Frying Pan from Niger
• Adventures in the Dominican Republic! – well, you know where that is.

How about the up and coming missionary bloggers?

• Soul-Purpose in India
• Missionary Mom from Chile
• Missionary Gas is in Columbia

You want some more experienced missionary bloggers?  No problem…

• Missions Minded coming to you from Nicaragua
• JustusBlog is in France
• on target from South Korea

Finally, it’s time for the veteran missionary bloggers!

• Malagasy Musings is in Madagascar
• disciplemexico.org is, of course, in Mexico
• Church Planting in Puerto Rico is right where you would expect!

Enjoy these blogs, and please don’t forget to leave a comment on the blog posts you enjoy!

• Musings – Ukraine
• Life in Transition – Uganda
• Sowers4Pastors – Honduras
• Millions To Tell – Chile
• Life in the frying pan – Niger
• Blind Will See Ministries – Peru
• In His Footsteps – Taiwan
• iNkY’SpOt – Mexico
• McIntyres Belo Blog – Brazil
• Living in Shkoder – Albania
• over a cup of coffee – Ecuador
• Servants Hearts Ministries – Guatemala
• Lastrapes Legacy – Guatemala
• Arista en Espana – Spain

This year we’ve seen new blogs started from all over the world.  Some of the most common countries with blogs started in 2007 are:  Mexico, Niger, Taiwan, Honduras, Ecuador, and Italy.  Thanks everyone for giving us a peak at what God is doing in your corner of the world!