Go Therefore And Be Light

Homecoming

2011-12-02T22:06:00.000-08:00

Hola! Sorry to have left you all in such a state of suspense (… at least my vanity would hope that you were left just a wee bit in suspense ;) ), but now that I am back in the world of internet from the age of the dinosaurs my opportunities for writing have been quite infrequent. This reason, and also the fact that upon my arrival in Mexico – as you probably have realized by now, I did get here – I was swept up into the flurry of construction and ministry.

But I digress. Let me tell you about my trip... when last I wrote I was leaving Oregon “rumbo a Mexico” (on course for Mexico). That bus ride was looonnnngggg. I left Roseburg at 12pm on Friday and arrived in Tucson at 9pm on Saturday... what's that, 30 hours? Somewhere thereabouts. Interestingly enough, I had traveled that particular route (down the West coast) so many times with my family, that I was actually able to recognize landmarks as the bus traveled down to Arizona. It's a strange feeling of deja vu when you can wake up from a doze, look out the bus widow and know where you are without having to ask :) .
I do not recommend bus travel for the faint-hearted, but other than a few incidents of exceptionally bad smells emanating from the bathroom at the rear of the bus (… yeah, that was not pleasant), rather uncomfortable seats, a few travel companions with rather filthy language (really though, God has been working on my heart, teaching me to see past outward appearances. This trip was a bug step towards that) and far too many hours in the same position, it wasn't half bad :) . That is to say that, if needs be, I would do it again.

About halfway through this part of my trip, all of my emotions seemingly caught up with me. All of the things that I had been too busy to feel over the last week came crashing over me like waves. I had known that it was bound to happen some time or other, but I am rarely ever prepared for the heaviness and despair. BUT as I looked to the Lord for comfort, He, being as always faithful and true, lead my heart to Psalm 23 and gave me this prayer, which I thought to share with you...

Lord, you are my shepherd, and my gentle guide, my vigilant protector; I will not want for anything. For you make me rest peacefully in your blessing; you comfort me and bring my to a place where I can close my eyes and bask in your presence. When I am weak and despairing, you restore hope to my soul. With your firm hand you lead me into the paths of truth and righteous living, for the sake of the glory of your name. Even if I should come to walk through valleys of doubt, despair and death, I will fear not, because you are greater than any evil which would ever beset me. You are with me. Seeing your might and knowing of your love brings me comfort, even in the darkest of times. No matter what this life brings, I know that you promises are true. You will render to each their due. You will not allow my persecutors to prevail forever, but will raise me up before them in the end, anointed and chosen daughter by your grace. In that day, I will rejoice before you, even as I do now, because of your goodness and mercy; and in your presence I will dwell forevermore.

When the bus finally pulled in to the Tucson station, I was utterly glad that the trip was over. The idea of sleeping in a real bed was so alluring that I didn't even really feel like eating. Of course, once I was off the bus and driving back through downtown Tucson in the car with some of my dear friends, I seemed to get a second wind. Regardless, I didn't last too long after that. From Saturday evening I stayed about 4 days in Arizona. It was great to visit with friends and I was especially blessed by the brother and sister I stayed with. What a priceless gift to have such a loving and caring family in Christ!

On Wednesday evening my friends saw me off at the Mexican bus station. I was finally homeward bound! About this leg of the trip there is not much to tell. I traveled through the night, sleeping most of the way. The bus was comfortable and peaceful and we made very few stops. By 9am the next morning we were pulling in to Guasave, Sinaloa. Home! My family arrived shortly thereafter, and I am sure you can imagine our exuberance! We were all quite content.

Since then, as I said, we have all been running full-tilt, working furiously to get the construction done and the house ready for our mission teams coming in December. Quite an undertaking; but praise God for the large family we have and for His strength as we strive to be faithful to our King and to accomplish the work He has given us.

I must apologize to those of you who like pictures. Unfortunately, at this moment all of the pictures that I might post are on my mom's laptop... and presently I am the only one still awake in the house (the things we do to find a moment to use the internet. Sigh. ;) ). With that said, I will try my utmost to post pictures either tomorrow or the day following.

Blessings to you! Thanks for sparing a moment to read through my meanderings!

3... 2... 1... blast off!

2011-11-11T08:40:00.000-08:00

My life, all condensed into two suitcases and a backpack...

hmmm. It's interesting to realize that I don't really even need this much. After all, as long as I have my Bible and a set of clothes I should be good, right? Well, God hasn't asked me to go that radical quite yet; perhaps at some future date ;) .

Just three more hours. Three more hours until I will be on the bus driving away from this last chapter of my life. It's hard to leave... almost as hard as it was to come. But we do what we must, and this is my next step. I can only wait for whatever will come!

I am taking a lot away from this time that I spent in Oregon. But I would say that the biggest blessing that I have received during my stay here was the friendship of Emily. Yeah, she's a pretty amazing girl, and such an encouragement. [I am going to miss you, Em!]

And I will miss the trees and the foggy mornings... who wouldn't miss this?

So, I am off! Happy and sad, excited and apprehensive, but trusting in the Lord!

Psalm 34:7-9
The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, and rescues them. O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! O fear the LORD, you His saints; For to those who fear Him there is no want.

Dinner Theater and Auction Fundraiser

2011-11-09T09:57:00.000-08:00

I am utterly pleased to announce that our recent fundraising event was a total success! It was awesome to see all of our planning and preparing come to fruition.
We worked hard all day Friday setting up, and by the time we were finished it looked absolutely lovely :) .

(We set out the soups on tables against the walls around the room and then later on in the evening we set the goodies out on the center tables. Everything was DELICIOUS!)

I really did try to take more pictures, but I was so busy with every else that had to be looked after that I didn't get much of a chance. The ones I do have were taken at the very beginning of the night.

One of the portions of the Auction was akin to Raffle. People were able to buy tickets and place them into the paper bags located next to the items. It's always fun to win something that way. I might even have put a ticket or two in but that I was too busy :D.

And here is one of our dear ticket salespeople ;)!

The second portion was a silent auction for the smaller value items. I thought that I had taken pictures of them, but I guess I missed that part... oops! Anyway, we had things like gift certificates that had been donated by businesses from around town, several very beautiful glass chess sets, and a good number of themed baskets (eg. a "baby shower" themed basket, an "ice cream" themed basket, a "pizza" themed basket, etc.). Everything sold but one small wall hanging (it was bright red and looked something like a candy-can doll wearing a fluffy scarf), and I don't blame anyone for not having bid on it... you would have to have a very unique taste in order to want something like that.

These items were for the live auction portion of the event. We set them out during the evening so that people could get a good look at them beforehand. It must have worked, because everything sold! I even bought something. Do you see that blue, three-piece luggage set? Yeah, that's mine now :D . I really needed a new suitcase, and they're especially handy since I will be traveling on Friday.

The strange costumes were for our play (I was the villain MWAHAHahaha). We presented our version of a live radio drama. Though I didn't get any pictures of the play, we were able to record it. If you would like to listen to it, it is posted on our church website HERE. Hopefully you enjoy it!

All in all, I am pretty sure that the event was a hit. Everyone I talked to said that they had a good time, and as an added bonus we were also able to raise $1,700 toward our goal! God was so good to us. I was astounded to see how everything came together. What a blessed assurance to know that the Lord never fails, and how grateful I am that He chose to bless our event!
I want to thank everyone who helped with and prayed for us leading up to this fundraiser; it was much appreciated. Please continue to pray that the Lord would provide abundantly as the team traveling to Mexico in December works to raise the rest of the money needed.

Psalm 27:13-14
I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.

On a Friday in November

2011-11-04T14:42:00.000-07:00

Today is Friday the 4th of November. Now, for you this might be a Friday like any other, but for myself and the many others who have labored so hard with me this is THE Friday :). Tonight is the Dinner Theater and Auction Fundraiser for the missions trip we are planning this December. Days and days of hard work all culminating in this one night...

Last night we held our final dress-rehearsal for the play and began to set out our auction items. This morning I baked 100+ rolls, and spent the rest of the day up till now working with others to prep food stuff. I am back at the house for a short respite until 4:30pm rolls around, then I'll be back at it again!

Am I excited? Very. I am nervous? Actually I am not. I feel perfectly calm and completely at peace about it. God is good. His hand has been in every part of the planning for this event, and I do not believe that He will abandon us now.

So, if you get a chance, pray for us. It's going to be quite a night! I will attempt to take pictures, and we might even be able to record the play!
Until I type again,

Yet another chapter in life

2011-10-31T11:43:00.000-07:00

Well now. I don't really even want to think about how much time has passed since I last updated. I suppose that by now most of you probably know me well enough to just assume that I had forgotten... or just wasn't in the mood to write. Both are true in part :). I think that I will agree with my mom in saying that the biggest blow to my blogging has been Facebook. Facebook is such an easy, fast way to post updates that I never feel the need to sit down and type out a whole post for my blog.
That said, I have now given my blog a face-lift, and I am hoping that the change will give me more incentive to write. Time will tell.

So, last time I put my fingers to the keys I was, to coin a phrase, "on the path to self-discovery"... well, I am still on that path, but fortunately I have made a little bit of progress in my journey. I am out of the mire of self-pity and gloom and now I am on my way up a new hill, the other side of which is, as yet, unseen.

Anyway, enough with metaphorical analogies, let me tell you a little bit about these last months.
Recounting all the details would be impossible, so I'll just hit some highlights from each month :) ! Quite unfortunately I have discovered that on my own I am not much of a picture-taker. I took a camera along with me on the last trip that I took and I didn't even use it once... I don't know why. It's not that I don't like taking pictures. Maybe it's that I am a little perfectionistic, so if I can't get an awesome picture, I'd just rather not take any... either that or carrying around a camera with me all the time isn't high on my list of things that I really like doing. All this to say that I am sorry that this post doesn't contain any pictures. I will try to be descriptive in my words ;) .

JULY -- The month of waiting and expectation...

Emily, my roommate, left for Mongolia at the beginning of July, so I was quite on my own for a lot of the time. The Ewerts' daughter and her husband and children came to visit for a week or so toward the middle of the month. It was nice to have kids in the house after a couple weeks of almost complete silence ;) .
Since I had so much time on my hands, many of my thoughts were directed toward my planned trip to the mid-west in August. I couldn't wait... but, of course, I did.

AUGUST -- The month of travels and new experiences...

The beginning of August found me on a plane to Nebraska. I won't bore you with all the details of what I did there, but I will tell you what I thought were the best parts of it.

I got to...
Help stack 300 bales of hay into a barn (YAY!)
Chase a cow through the cornrows
Make tons of awesome new friends
Road trip with aforesaid friends
Attend a Do Hard Things conference (which was even better than I had expected)
Participate in a barn dance (that was SO much fun)

But when I think of Nebraska, the memory that rises above all the rest is of the wind playing with the tops of the cornstalks and making the bean plants dance, almost as if it were a huge ocean of green, the waves rising and falling. It gave me so much joy to see the beauty of God's creation!

After Nebraska came Kansas. I rode down with some of my new-found friends to Wichita, where my grandparents met up with me. I got to spend two wonderful weeks with them. It was very peaceful and quiet. I was even able to get into the habit of going for a run every evening. Truly it was quite enjoyable!
But all good things come to an end... or so the saying goes. August 28th saw me deposited nicely back at home in Oregon.

SEPTEMBER -- The month of surprises and decisions...

September brought with it many good things. The first of which was the end of summer, and the second a visit from my family! I was overjoyed to see them again, especially since I had not expected to see them until December. My brothers were all considerably taller (well, Andrew was only slightly taller, but he's getting there) and quite as rambunctious and mischievous as ever. And Evie has quite grown into a young lady, and without my permission too!

Oh, and I mentioned decisions. Well, I'll tell y'all (that's the mid-west rubbing off) that I have been praying and taking steps and praying all the more over the past 7 months. The funny thing is that it often seemed like I had figured out what I was going to be doing next year and then, right when I was almost certain, something crucial would change and everything would be up in the air again. The last thing that I wanted to do was make a decision that I would later regret, or make a decision that I honestly couldn't feel a peace about. There are so many things that one "can" do at this point in life, but how many of them "should" one do? This question swirled round and round in my mind.

But, as with all decisions, there comes a time when the time has come, and one way or another something has to be done.
After a lot of talking with my parents and friends and with my Father, I have made the decision to go back to Mexico. I don't really know how "permanent" this is. From where I am standing now I am not seeing God calling me away again any time soon, but I guess I have learned from experience that God's ways and plans are not my ways and plans. I am content to take this next step that He's shown me and then wait actively until something changes.

And this bring us to OCTOBER -- the month of planning and busyness...

So, plans for my trip began. And plans for the short-term missions trip traveling to Mexico in December from my church continued. And plans for the gigantic Dinner Theater/Auction fundraiser for said trip progressed. As October draws to a close, I feel like heaving a sigh of relief as I look back on all the things that have been accomplished toward all of these goals. There have been times in the preparation, especially for the fundraiser, when I honestly did not see how we would be able to pull it off. But, God is faithful. Once I realized that there was only so much that I could do and that the results had to be left up to Him, things began to fall into place.

And here I am. The fundraiser is this Friday; and I leave next Friday for Mexico. Wow. Where has the time gone? I am torn in my feelings. Glad? Yes, most definitely. Sad? Yes, that too. As I leave Oregon, so closes another chapter of my life. But I am leaving behind more than just the life I have lived during this past year. I am leaving behind my childhood and all the memories that I have held on to so tightly throughout these past 7 years.

I am going to Mexico, but this time it's my choice.

Isaiah 40:28-31
Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the LORD
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.

Blessings, friends!

Confessions of a Hurting Heart

2011-06-21T16:20:00.000-07:00

I have been found out. The verdict: guilty. And I cannot plead my innocence, because it's true.
How often have I repeated to myself that my joy is only in God, only in His will, only in His presence, only in doing His work? And it is... or should be.
It's funny, so often I feel as though I am constantly re-learning things that I already know. A couple of years ago when I was in Mexico with my family I went through a time in my life when I wanted to be anywhere but where I was. I wasn't content. I felt like I wasn't serving any purpose where I was; what purpose could highschool serve anyway? God took me to task on this, and I came out of it much the better for having gone through it. Perhaps it's the very fact that I have already gone through this once which made me blind to the fact that I was going through it again.
But praise the Lord for friends who love me enough to speak the truth, even when it's not what I want to hear!

There have been many changes in my life in the past year. I look back on the things I did with my family in January and feel that it can't be real. Sometimes as I sit in my room with my eyes closed I almost feel that when I open my eyes I will find out that everything since then has been a dream; that I never really left Mexico. But I open my eyes and I see the carpeted floor and green walls and know that it's real.

I have come back to the place where I grew up. The people I left behind are the same, the scenery is the same, the church is the same... I even feel at times that I must be the same. I'm not. The person I am today is not the person I was 7 years ago... even aside from the fact that I was much younger then. I didn't realize how hard it would be to come back after so much time had passed. Mexico isn't Asia or Africa, but it isn't the US either. And my family isn't here.

Finding my identity without them has been the most difficult thing I have ever faced. What happens when the realization comes that no matter what you do things are never going to be the same? What do I do when I realize that the life that I left behind in Mexico was left behind forever? Regardless of what the future will be, it can never be the past.

I have avoided facing this up till now, but it's time that I stopped dodging the truth and acknowledged it for what it is, Lord give me strength. My heart aches for love and security that I had with my family. I have tried to fill up the gap with prayer, with reading my Bible, with keeping busy, with friends, with plans, with excuses... they didn't work. Everything that I have done here has been good, and I can say with certainty that my prayer life has never been better, but I have been prevented from sharing in the joy of the blessings of God because I have been too focused on the blessings I did not have.

It has been a harsh awakening for me. How is it that I could have missed something so vital, so important. It's true. I have been living without joy. Oh, there have been moments in which I have been joyful, but I haven't lived it, and more often than not my eyes are clouded by tears of sadness, not of thanksgiving.

But the fight is not over! The first step is taken. Time will heal the wound in my heart, and until then I will fight for God's peace and joy in my life!!

In my mind, my future is crowded with plans and hopes and dreams, but I don't live in the future, and I never will. I am HERE and I live NOW! Regardless of what may come, I will cling to the promises of the the Lord knowing that in His joy I can find strength!

Psalm 95:1-8a
O come, let us sing for joy to the LORD,
Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving,
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
For the LORD is a great God
And a great King above all gods,
In whose hand are the depths of the earth,
The peaks of the mountains are His also.
The sea is His, for it was He who made it,
And His hands formed the dry land.

Come, let us worship and bow down,
Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.
Today, if you would hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts

La Di Dah and life in general

2011-06-11T13:05:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon (or morning or evening, depending on when you're reading this ;) ) to you all! Well, it's been a busy couple of weeks for me. I suppose that when I first came here I really had to work to fill my time, now it seems like there isn't enough time to do everything that I want (and need) to do! Funny how that works.

My adult Spanish class has begun. I had a smaller turnout than I had expected, but I am satisfied in knowing that God brought exactly the people who needed to come. I truly enjoy being able to move at a little faster pace and to know that my students are studying at home. I suppose that this really is the greatest struggle I have faced with the younger class; I can't know that they will all study at home. I know that they do to some extent, but because they don't always, we have to spend a lot of class time reviewing. Granted, reviewing is good, so I can't complain too much. I do know they are learning, even if we're not moving as quickly as I would like!

I still don't have an actual job, but I have been offered a part-time babysitting job once a week at the church for Financial Peace University (a class that they are hosting at our church). I am not sure how long this will last, but I have something for at least a month! In addition to this I also have been doing yard-work and weeding for our neighbors. What with these things and my Spanish classes, I manage to keep my week rather full!

As to school, I am still hoping to enroll come Fall. I went to the college a few days ago and got some information regarding some different classes that I want to take this term. Unfortunately, when I took the placement test a few weeks ago it seems that I placed in a rather low math class. If I start in the class that I placed in, I will have to take two classes before it will actually count for college credit. I didn't like that idea at all, so I am burying myself in Algebra for the foreseeable future.... not a pleasant prospect, but it must be done! My plan to re-take the Algebra test so that I can place in a higher math class. I know that I can move up at least one class; I am hoping that I might even be able to make it two. We'll see.

Last Sunday was the graduation of the public and Christian high schools here in Roseburg. I didn't make it the the public high school's graduation, but I did attend the graduation of Umpqua Valley Christian School. A bunch of my friends graduated. It seems like such a short time from when we all started high school together... granted, I was homeschooled, but we were still all in the same grade technically. Anyway, it was great to see them starting off into new adventures. Most of them are going to be attending college come Fall. It's a little surreal. I will have you know that I didn't actually cry at the graduation. I was quite proud of myself! *gives herself a pat on the back*
Well, now that's over. The next thing you know I will be attending college graduations... or even weddings! I think that I am in denial... ;D

Alright, well I did take a bunch of pictures from the top of the mountain and down by the river, but I put them on my old desktop... and I forgot to take them off before I put it away. Now that it is completely taken apart I really don't feel like getting it all put back together and set up just to pull a few pictures off. So, until I get back up and over the mountain (shouldn't be too long :) ) you will have to be satisfied with these pictures that I took this past

Here's a picture of the front of the house from the yard. It's a little hard to really see the house because of the tent trailer out front... but I wasn't about to try to move it to take the picture ;) . Hopefully we will get it moved soon.

Okay, these are pictures from behind the house, looking up the hill.

Here are some pictures of my "garden". It isn't exactly one garden, more like several little pieces of garden...

Okay, if you look closely, you will be able to see the pea plants in two rows...

I love all the colors!!

This is my roomie ;) ! Meet Emily.

Okay, I am now going to make it a habit to carry my camera around with me so that I can get some pictures which actually contain people instead of just plants...

Now I must close and move on with all the other things that I need to accomplish today. Today these verses really stood out to me when I was reading. I am caught up in the moment. What would it have felt like to have been shut in your house, fearing that at any moment soldiers might come through the door to arrest you. Suddenly, you turn and see the One who you had thought dead standing right in front of you. Doubts are swept away.
We say, "Seeing is believing" Jesus says "Blessed are you if you believe without having to see"

John 20:26-29
After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”

Continued musings

2011-05-30T19:34:00.000-07:00

What a week... or two. When so much time passes between my posts I forget what I have done. This is about the time when I would look back in my journal, that is if I actually kept one. But I don't, so you will have to rely solely upon my ability to recall all that I have done. Hey now, it's not that scary of a prospect! ;)

My Spanish classes have continued marvelously. I really feel like my students are starting to learn! We aren't progressing as rapidly as I hoped to in the beginning, but I think that, realistically, we are moving at a good pace. This Wednesday will be my first adult class. Again, it isn't as big as I had first hoped that it might be, but I know that God has it all in His hands; I did as much as I could, and the results must be left up to Him!
I don't have an "official" job other than teaching Spanish. I have done some odd jobs and have made myself available for babysitting as well. Though some have questioned my decisions up till now I can only say that I believe that I am where God has placed me. It's enough... sometimes it's hard to trust and be patient, but it's enough.

I made a trip out to the college last week with Emily. I managed to accomplish quite a bit in one morning I think! I registered as a student (got the nifty little "student ID" number) and took my placement test. I placed quite well in English, but not so well in Math. It's to be expected; Math has never been my strong suit. Anyway, I still need to sign up for classes, but I really have done all that I can until I decide how I am going to pay for the semester. Money is usually the issue, isn't it? I am praying and watching for the answer.
Honestly, I still am not sure what it is that God has for me. I want to attend school, yet a huge part of my heart was left in Mexico and that part of me (sometimes it feels like all of me) would like nothing more than to return there (... or maybe France. I have always wanted to go to Europe ;) ). Whatever I end up doing, I know that the choices I make in this next year are probably going to shape the rest of my life. It's a rather intimidating thought, but I know that I serve a faithful Master, and an expert Potter whose plans I can trust.

Well, the time has come. All of my friends (alright, not all but most of my friends) are graduating this week. Just this last Sunday I went to the graduation of a friend who I have know since we were... my goodness... like 6? So much time has passed in between, but it was rather nice to be able to see her finish school and take the next big step in her life. I was just reflecting the other day how strange it is that everyone grows up. I know it's a part of life and all, but it's so hard to understand how the little baby of what seems like merely yesterday could be the spunky ten-year-old who just ran by. How is it that the same roles that my friends and I used to fill could now be filled by the younger generation... and when did I become part of an older generation??!! But, the strangeness of it all aside, I really am excited to watch all of my friends take big steps forward, and even more excited to see some of them who are truly chasing after God with all their heart!

Oh, on a cheerful note, I have a new laptop! I am actually at this very moment typing this very post on its very keyboard. Is that cool or what?! It's a refurbished Compaq HP. So far I really like it... we'll see whether I still do after a couple of months, but I have high hopes ;) ! So, now that I do have the laptop I am going to upload pictures... next time I get on. For now I'll just end by posting a short poem that I wrote last Summer. I have kept it in my Bible for the longest time, but I think that it's time that it saw light. If it sounds familiar and you have a facebook account, you probably read it there ;).

ENDURE
All of us grow weary, and all of us complain.
We grow offended in the face of unfair accusation
And we are jealous of those who, through dishonesty, seem to gain.
In waiting we grow impatient, and in difficulty we are burdened with stress.
We flee so quickly from persecution and are even less willing to suffer physical pain.
Is this right? Have we not been called to something more?
For we haven’t suffered affliction and bodily torment as did Isaiah;
Nor have we been rejected by country and kinsmen as was the prophet Jeremiah.
We have not been wrongly accused and killed mercilessly by those we most love, but Jesus was.
Brethren, we have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in our striving against sin.
Perhaps it’s time that we did.

In You is full joy

2011-05-17T13:41:00.001-07:00

Alright. Now it comes time for me to write about what I have been doing... and I can't remember anything!! Isn't that always the case?! Well, I have been doing things, though in retrospect I don't think that I have been doing as much as it feels like I have... hmmmm.

Well, a little bit ago now I went out to the college to audition for the Umpqua Singers Music Scholarship. I did not get accepted, but the man for whom I was auditioning said that he liked my voice, I just needed more practice sight-reading. Not a big surprise, since I am not very good at it. He recommended that I participate in the Chamber Choir out at the college this year and then apply again next year. I am interested, but we'll see if that's in God's plans for me! It was a good experience even if nothing came of it ;).

One of the responsibilities I have taken up in my new family (not replacing the old one, mind you :^) just in case any of my family back home is reading this) is a Summer garden. Of course, it isn't Summer yet, but I guess that the name refers more to the season in which you reap the harvest, not when you actually plant the seeds. I have planted squash and tomatoes and peas and bell peppers and parsley and some other potted plants that were given to me and I really have no idea what they are... yet! I guess that I will find out when they start giving fruit! I enjoy being able to work outside and having the garden gives me something that I can enjoy and reap the benefits of.

As Spring advances I am constantly amazed by all of the green that surrounds me! Just as I think that nothing could possibly be any more colorful than it is, something new comes up. I have been supremely blessed by the location of my home. We live halfway up a hill (well, it's a bigish hill/smallish mountain, I don't know what it's technical term is) on the other side of which is a river. It's pleasant to be able to take a short walk over the hill and down to the water where you can just sit and listen and pray and be still. When I stand up on top I can look out in all directions. I can see people walking below, cars driving by, cattle grazing, the river rushing, the birds flying by at my eye level... it's rather nice in a weird way knowing that you could yell at the top of your lungs and nobody would hear. God is good!
This time of year there are wildflowers everywhere. Perhaps when I get my computer set up (should be tomorrow, Lord willing) I will post some pictures so that you guys can picture the view with me.

Emily and I have begun taking regular classes and the YMCA. We have tried a couple, but I think that we have both decided that we like Zumba best. It's a great way to meet new people, be a witness and get a good workout all in one! I know that I must be making a fool of myself what with my feable attempts to keep up with the instructor and follow all of the moves... I have found that I can control my arms fairly well and my feet moderately well, but when I put them both together it becomes... awkward ;) But I am getting better!

Since I have been here in the US I have had the priviledge of of being able to participate in a girls' Bible study that meets on Monday nights (I think that I mentioned this before). It's been great getting to know all of the girls and seeing God work in and through us. We meet in a different person's house each week and this week it was our (Emily's and mine) turn to host the study. Emily was leading and I was providing snacks. This week the book we are going through was focusing on the final week of Jesus' life. It's interesting to note that, while the gospel do give us a good picture of the three years of Jesus' ministry, more than a third of the gospels are centered on Jesus' last week before His death and resurrection. Must have been important, no? There's far more emphasis placed on this than on the 40 days He spent with His disciples and followers after His resurrection. One of the events that the book focused on was Jesus' washing of His disciples feet. I have always loved this story, but Phillip Yancey (Author of "The Jesus I Never Knew") brought it even more clearly into light.
Did you know that footwashing is something that, according to Jewish law, a master could not force a Jewish slave to do? It was one of the most disgraceful and lowly jobs there was. No wonder Peter exclaims, "Lord, do you wash my feet?!" when Jesus comes to him. Jesus humbles Himself in this action, saying to his disciples, "The servant is not greater than the master; therefore, if you see me doing this, do the same for one another."
Last night we had the opportunity to wash one another's feet. It was neat to remember Jesus' sacrifice and, just for a moment, to stop and meditate on what it cost Him... and how willing He was to pay that price.

John 13:12-17
After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, “Do you understand what I was doing? You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them. (New Living Translation)

Be blessed; serve God in what you know to be right. Commit your ways to Him and He will guide your steps. Be strong, friends!

A little trust goes a long way

2011-05-11T09:35:00.000-07:00

Trust.
Assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.

Trust.
This word has come to mean so much to me. It's the shortest and best summary of everything that God has been teaching me over the past couple of months, maybe over my entire life. The lesson has been a hard one in learning. Sure, I believe that God is sovereign. I believe that God's Word is truth. I know that He will give me strength when I'm weak. But He still asks me again, "Do you trust Me?"

When I take away your support and remove from you all that you hold dear, do you trust Me?
When I place you in a situation where all you can do is sit still and wait, do you trust Me?
When everything that you thought was to be your future crumbles down, do you trust Me?
When your heart aches and you cry out to me and hear nothing in response, do you trust Me?
When you reach the end of what you are able to bear and fall down under your burden, do you trust Me?

I haven't yet learned to answer all of these questions. I know what my answers should be. I can quote you scripture after scripture in support of what I "know" to be true. But can I answer these questions in deed? I don't know. Life has changed drastically for me. At times my heart longs so for life as it was that I feel I could burst. God asks me again, "Do you trust Me?"
Do I? Lord, help me! I must!
I surrender my rights.
I surrender my dreams.
Break my heart for what breaks Yours.
Teach me to see with Your eyes.
I trust You.
You, who loved me enough to die for me.
You, who loves me enough to live in me.
You, who promises that I will never walk this life alone.
I trust You.

"Do you trust Me?"

Easter Thoughts

2011-04-24T15:55:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!! Albeit a little late!
Normally this would have been one of the busiest weeks of the year for me, but it seems that Easter really isn't as big a thing here in the States. Of course, I already knew that, but often you don't really "realize" things until you experience them first-hand. My family, on the other hand, has been very busy. I am sure that they will post about it all soon and I'll link to the post ;). Anyway, this has been my very first Easter on my own. We had a sunrise service out at the Wildlife Safari and then we had a wonderful breakfast at the church. I also had the priviledge of being able to participate on the worship team. The people of this church have been such an encouragement to me as I have been adjusting to life here. It's so great to know that I have so many brothers and sisters here who love me and who support me in what I am doing!

As for the people I am staying with, they are amazing!! I don't know what I would do without their love and encouragement. I thank God constantly for His love and care. It is wonderful that I serve a God who not only saves me, but who watches out for me even in the little things. My family isn't here anymore, but God has blessed me with a wonderful sister who has helped me in so many ways!
I think that the Ewerts are finally getting to know me, quirks and all! I have known them since I was 8 or so, but it's different getting know someone as an adult than it was knowing them as a child. We have fallen into more of a pattern of life, I believe, and I am finding my own little corner in the household :) :D. Last night I introduced them to our enchiladas. They were pronounced delicious, so I know that it isn't just us who like them. My mom will appreciate that! (btw, Mom, I added veggies to the ones I made as well. It tasted really good. I think that the only thing I was really missing is chilis *winks)

Plans for the coming year are still a little bit foggy. I have been praying that God would give me wisdom as I decide what I am going to do. I am looking into the option of enrolling in Umpqua Community College come Fall. I won't be able to complete my degree there, but I should be able to get a solid start on it and be able to transfer to Oregon State (or some other college) at the end of the two years. Pray for me in this. One concern is finances. I have applied for financial aid and am praying that, if it's God's will, everything works out. My God is big, and I'm confident that everything will work out according to His plan!

I have started my French up again. Now I am studying on my own. It's a little bit more difficult than when I had a teacher to push me on, but I am making headway! I'd forgotten how much I loved the language until I was finally able to jump back into it. What with the move and all I haven't had much chance to do any studying for the past few months. But all that's going to change!

Come June I am going to be starting up adult Spanish classes. I will be giving two different classes -- one advanced and the other beginner -- and I am going to offer private tutoring for highschool students as well. I have begun putting up flyers in various places in hopes that I will get some feedback. I love teaching Spanish, so I hope that I get enough people interested to be able to have at least one class.

I have also been able to get involved in a girls' Bible study that meets on Wednesday evenings. It's been great getting to know the girls in the group and I have really enjoyed the studies. Right now we are working our way through the book "The Jesus I Never Knew" by Phillip Yancey. It's a very well thought out and well-written book. He has an interesting way of writing. Rather than stating his conclusions outright, he walks you through his thought process, leading you to the conclusion that he came to gradually. I have found it very intriguing and thought-provoking. A good read, if anyone is interested :) .

Oh, and an intersting fact. I now have my own room! Funny though, I had to move out before it happened ;). I have actually missed my little sis' quite terribly. After more than 10 years of sharing the same room you kind of get used to it. I don't think that I would even mind her leaving her stuff on the floor anymore... well, maybe only a little bit :)... love you and miss you lil' sis'!

Alright, I should be getting on with my day. Let me just end with this little poem I wrote. I actually wrote it to be my facebook status on Sunday, so if you recognize it, that's why. This is what Easter means to me.

Resolved
Unbending
Unwavering
Resolved
For I have resolved to know none but Christ and Him crucified
My sins to bear
My shame to remove
My life to buy
Jesus came to be the guiltless sacrifice for the guilty
He, having no sin, became sin for me
Confident
Assured
Resolved
Set apart to serve my Lord and Savior

May you all have an amazing week and a blessed day.
God is good!! Let that fact change the way you live this day!

The Changes Life Brings

2011-04-20T10:13:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am again! It's been a long while. I didn't write for some time because I didn't have time, and then I didn't write because I still didn't have time, and then I didn't write because I didn't know how to pick things up where I'd left off. These past months have been months of great change. I have been struggling to find my footing in it all, still haven't gotten there, but my God is a big God and He's helping me to persevere.

In February we left Mexico on our Spring furlough. We had a great trip. God proved Himself faithful time and time again through everything that happened. As of right now my family is back in Mexico gearing up for Semana Santa (Holy Week) and I am in Oregon.

Some of you might be thinking "what???? When did this happen?" The decision was made in December, right after my birthday. I still can't believe that it actually happened, but it did! I have now been here a month. I have two jobs. I work weekends at the Wildlife Safari selling tickets (just for this month) :) and I am also teaching Spanish classes.

It's been such a drastic change for me. I am saddened by so many things that have changed, but excited by what is yet to come. This is a poem that I wrote one morning as I meditated on everything that had been happening. God's been doing some hard things in my heart, but I'm so in love with Him!

STEPS

Take a step, take a leap
As the years go by the steps seem to become more and more like leaps.
Life is like a dark road;
Sometimes you can barely make out what's right in front of you.
The road draws you forward into the unknown.
Going back is impossible, but what is hidden in the darkness ahead?
Take a step, take a leap
Staying put is ever so much easier than moving on.
Most prefer known hardships to stepping forward into unknown possiblilities.
But just imagine those possibilities!
Take the steps and see what they bring.
The girl becomes a woman
The boy becomes a man
The steps we take make us who we are.
Take a step and trust God for the rest.
Who knows, this next step could be the first step of a new adventure.

So, I am going to pick things up here. My mission hasn't changed, just the country :) . As I undertake this new challenge I could really use all of your prayers!
This has been my passage for the month. I hope that it encourages you as much as it has me!!

Romans 8:26-39
In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Just as it is written,
"FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG;
WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED."
But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In Everything give thanks

2010-12-09T13:51:00.000-08:00

Well now, it seems as though I missed a few weeks there.... oh, bother! I did intend on writing such a lovely post on Thanksgiving. When that didn't happen I figured that I would still write the post only I would do it the Thursday after Thanksgiving (makes sense, right?)... obviously, that didn't happen either. Now I can't really undo what I didn't do to begin with, but I am thankful, and even though I missed the holiday, I can still express it!

It would take more of your time than you have to give me to tell you all I am thankful for. My God is SO BIG that to write down everything that He has done in my life and in the life of my family would be next to impossible! That said, know that the following is merely the overflow of a grateful heart:

God built our house this year! I will never forget the amazing way God caused everything to fall into place. I praise the Lord for the lives of everyone who was involved in completing the project. It has been such a blessing to us!

Praise God for changes. It's been a year full of them. Lots of shifting of focus ministry-wise and in our weekly schedule has caused some interesting results. Though at times changes can cause pain, like building muscles, in the end we come out stronger and more complete. For this reason, I am confident that, "He who has begun the good work will perfect it." (Phil 1:6)

Praise God for languages! I have loved and continue to love the intricacy and beauty of written and spoken language. The French lessons I was able to continue during part of this year were an unhoped-for blessing. It's so amazing how God knows all of our deepest wishes and desires!

Praise God for friends. There is no greater joy than to worship the Lord in unity with your brothers and sisters! Aren't you so glad that God didn't create us to walk life's road alone?
For all you, my friends: You guys are awesome and amazing sons and daughters of God! You have all been such an encouragement to me over the years. May the Lord return to you tenfold the blessing you have given to me!

Praise God for family! I love my family to pieces, and I am so glad that God saw fit to lend them to me for awhile ;) !

God has been so very faithful in everything over the past year that I couldn't express it adequately with words. I am truly so joyful in the knowledge of my God. Day by day my Heavenly Father has been teaching me to find my everything in Him, to take joy in the simple things and "be content with such things as I have". I have fallen more and more in love with my Creator each and every day. The joy I have inside just makes me want to jump and yell and cry and then go hug someone! It's at these moments that I realize that this world really is rapidly fading, and I ask myself, "Why are you so caught up?" I am reminded of the words of Paul the apostle writing to Timothy and admonishing him to run with endurance the course/challenge/life that had been set before him. "Don't get entangled in the affairs of this world," said Paul, "Run like an athlete. Discipline yourself and run so as to win!" (2 Tim. 2)

So, as we go into the Christmas season and the new year remember this.

Life is a journey and no matter which road you take you'll end up in front of God in the end. Every one of us will give an account of his travels. The Bible says that many are called and few are chosen. Rest assured in the forgiveness of God, but RUN SO AS TO WIN! (1 Cor. 9)

May all the glory be to God forevermore!!!

Another week in life

2010-11-23T10:27:00.000-08:00

Busy busy busy! That's been the theme of our lives during the past week. So much to do and so little time! I was just thinking how nice it would be if we could change our week so that there were 8 days every week instead of 7. I think that it might help solve some of my problems, don't you? But seriously, it's been a great couple of weeks, even if they have been a little busy.
We are continuing to go to Los Mochis every Friday for the baseball and cooking classes. I have now officially been put in charge of the little boys while my Dad works with the older ones. The first couple of classes were a little disorganized, but now that I have gotten a little more settled in I feel like the kids might actually be learning something! ;) It's especially nicer now that it's cooled down a little. The first couple of weeks were a little trying in that respect!

As far as anything new goes... *takes a moment to think* ... let's see, I've started reading to my little sis every night. We are halfway through "Anne of Green Gables" and are both enjoying it immensely. Of course, I have read the book several times, but since she hadn't and wanted to I was more than happy to read it over again. There is something special about reading a book aloud. It makes me appreciate the book more somehow.

In the Spanish class that I am giving the boys we are finally into the Preterite Tense (that being one of the simple past tenses). It's one thing to understand how it works, and it's something entirely different when you have to explain it to a class. Still, they must understand what I say, because they seem to be making progress! I can't wait until we get into the Subjunctive! I know, I know, my Mom always tells me that she can't understand why grammar excites me so, but call me strange, I can't help it! ;)

Well anyway, I should be going. Before I do, though, I want to let you see some pictures of the kids in Los Mochis!

This is Alex. He's the littlest one of the bunch that I work with. Don't mistake his size though, he hit with the best of them ;). I don't know exactly what he was thinking when I took the picture, but the look on his face is priceless!

The group of younger boys go to the other side of the baseball field to work on catching and batting.

My Dad explain the correct way to position yourself when catching a ball.

Caleb and my Dad show the boys' group the correct way to throw and catch.

Here's Caleb after 4 hours of baseball... I kind of felt like joining him ;).

These are the two cooking classes that my Mom leads. This particular week they learned about all the different types of grains and then the kids made pop-corn (the old fashion way). It was a delight to see the deaf kids' faces when they felt the kernels popping up into the lid of the pan.

God is good, all the time! May you have a wonderful week!

He has made me glad, He has made me glad!
I will rejoice for He has made me glad!

A Birthday Week

2010-11-09T11:27:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday, dear Andrew, happy birthday to you!!!!

Andrew is now officially 13 years old. My, how the time does fly! He has had a whole week of excitement; it's been the birthday that just keeps giving!

On Saturday we had some friends over after supper. The boys had spent all day setting up the yard for an airsoft war -- for those of you who don't know what airsoft is, just think shooting at each other with bee-bee guns only with plastic bullets and you'll get pretty close ;). I wish that I would have gotten some pictures of the forts they set up and the trenches they dug (yes, they went all-out), but I guess I was too busy playing to think about it.
Anyway, after supper we set up some flood lights and played for an hour or so. Once we were tired of playing airsoft we laid a rope across the yard and played capture the flag. I haven't had so much fun "playing" for a long time. It was a blast, and I think that Andrew enjoyed himself as well. The highlight of the night must have been the time when I dove through a gap between the trees trying to get away from my brother and land on top of one of those awful Choya Cacti (you know, the ones that people sometimes call the "jumping cactus")... let's not do that again ;). And adding insult to injury, can you believe that they still took me to jail? How rude is that?! ;P
I love having a big family!!! It's great that we only need another four people to make enough to play just about any game we want!

After we had tired ourselves out thoroughly and were quite covered with sand, we all headed inside to eat popcorn and watch a movie. The movie of choice was "How To Train Your Dragon". None of us had seen it yet, so we had a great time laughing together. My official opinion: "How to Train Your Dragon" is a great family movie. Perhaps one of the scenes might be a little scary for kids under 8, but it is very funny and not at all inappropriate. Two thumbs up!

On Sunday we went to church in Tamazula where a friend of ours taught on the Great Commission and what it means to "preach the Word". It was a great reminder of what our true purpose is here on this earth. It's so easy to get caught up in what the world thinks is important or even in thinking that just living a righteous life is enough. We need to be bold and willing to step up and speak when God calls us to speak. Go when God calls us to go. Stay when God calls us to stay. Do what God calls us to do. Let it not be that we should stand before God in the end and have nothing to say for ourselves. Quite a reminder, if you ask me!

After church we went with the Petits and the Graffs (friends visiting from Southern Mexico) to the mall in Guasave where we ate lunch and hung out for a few hours. Caleb and I were able to spend some time with some friends of ours from Guasave who happened to be stopping in for lunch as well. I think that both of us were pretty happy about that ;).
Andrew got the second part of his birthday that evening since my parents had bought ice cream to celebrate. Andrew even got to pick a movie to watch. Guess which one he picked? Give up? "How to Train Your Dragon". Hey! I did say it was a good movie!

Monday -- that being yesterday -- Andrew got his day off from chores (it's this tradition that we have in our family. On your birthday you don't have to do any of your housework. Pretty cool if you ask me) and then in the evening we had our home fellowship group -- plus a few others -- over for a Bible study, Posole (Po-so-lay the traditional Mexican birthday dish made with puffed corn, beef, red chili, and onion and served with shredded cabbage, cilantro, and tortilla chips) and cake. I am so proud of my little brother. He has such a way with people. There is something about him that makes people love him, and it's such a great gift from God! I can't wait to see what God does with Andrew's life!
But wait, his birthday isn't done yet! I still have my present to finish and give him and Grandma's birthday card hasn't arrived quite yet.

Well, I should wrap things up. I'll end my post with a thought from our Bible class assignment for this week.
We were assigned to find five different places in the Bible that talk about friendship and apply them to our lives. I was reading the passage in Daniel 1 where Daniel and his friends stand up for what they believe is right. I was struck by the thought that friends should be willing to stand beside each other and fight for what is right. Friends should spur one another on to righteousness. How often do the actions that I take cause someone else to stumble when I am not willing to stand up with them or speak out for them? Even in the small things, or maybe especially in the small things, I should be willing to make the sacrifice (sacrifice meaning to give up something good for something better) and encourage my friends in righteousness. That is, after all, what God has called us to do.

Proverbs 27:17(NKJV)
As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.

Perhaps on our own we aren't brave enough to be different, but with a friend beside us how much more willing are we to take a stand?

Back in Mexico... since Oct. 1... ;)

2010-11-04T11:27:00.000-07:00

Life is like a mathematical equation. You spend all that time figuring out the answer to the problem only to discover that you plugged in the wrong values and miscopied the original problem to begin with!

This is something that I wrote on my facebook wall a couple of weeks ago. It seemed very appropriate at the moment with all of the decisions that I was making (and unmaking). Needless to say it's been a rather tense couple of months what with trying to sort out ideas, keep up on school-related stuff, helping in various ministries we are involved in, and preparing my class for the kids in Tamazula each week. Quite honestly, the only thing that has allowed me to remain at peace in it all has been knowing that God has the ultimate word and that He loves me, so I can trust Him with my future. It's been a struggle to keep my focus where it should be, but with all of the amazing people God has placed in my life to guide me I have been victorious until now. God is good, all the time!

Along the same lines of being "shaken up"; I am sure that most of you would have heard someway or another about our earthquakes. I guess it happened about two weeks ago now. The final and largest earthquake that hit us was a 6.7. I had never felt anything like it... the whole house shook and then when we went outside the ground felt like it was "rolling" underneath us. Quite a unique experience. Even the car was moving back and forth in the driveway. I would say that pretty much all of us have suffered since from paranoia. I have woken up at least twice during the night feeling like the ground was shaking... of course, it wasn't, but that's beside the point ;^). Thanks to all of you who prayed for us. It was very much appreciated!

On a more normal note, life has been good here in Mexico. The heat finally broke somewhere around the 20th of October would you believe that the temperature gets down to almost 68 degrees at night with only 62% humidity? Just makes you want to shiver don't it? ;P Since it's begun cooling off we have been working like madmen... almost like we're trying to make up for lost time. In some ways I feel like it is lost time, but at least we don't have to do it again until next year!

School has gone well. It's been a little difficult to keep a normal schedule for classes, but, one way or another, everyone is learning! I have picked up my Spanish class with the boys and I feel like it's going a lot smoother. It's been a good learning experience for me... and I am hoping for them as well!
For the present I have stopped my French classes. I'll be taking a different approach to learning. I've already bought one book and a have a few more on my list to buy soon. I think that with all that I have learned up till now I should be more than able to be self-directed... practice, practice, practice! Now all I need to do is move to France... we'll just take it one step at a time ;).

Alright, I'm leaving now to make lunch. See you next time! I think that I am going to get back on top of this whole "posting regular" thing. God bless you all! Take care!

Camping anyone?

2010-09-11T16:26:00.000-07:00

Greetings fellow soldiers! I am so excited to be alive one more day! The blessings of my Lord and Savior are so absolutely mind-boggling and amazing that I cannot find the words to express the change and hope and love that He has brought into my life. Every day I am so amazed that He loves me enough to care about me personally... personally enough to answer my prayers and give me strength in the times when the circumstances make me want to give up. It really isn't that God has always given me times of "springtime and harvest" but that no matter what I have gone through He has been faithful. And I am so blessed!

The past week and a half have been great. As I mentioned in my last post, our plan was to leave from the Fitzgeralds' house to a place near Phoenix where we were going to be camping for a week with some good friends of ours. So, after fixing the problems with the trailer axle we left Tucson on Tuesday afternoon heading toward Tonto National Park -- any of you who know what that word means in Spanish can have a laugh at the name ;) -- and the Apache Lake campground. We pulled into the campground around 6:30pm, just as the sun was going down. We had just enough time to pick our spot and set up the tents before the sun was gone. None of us were up much after that anyway, we all pretty much hit the sack as soon as we had eaten a supper (leftovers ;^) ).

First day of our vacation dawned bright and clear. The sky was beautiful and the lake was brilliant blue (btw, that's just a trick of the light... when your really get close the water is actually quite green). We spent most of the day swimming and playing down by the lake as well as playing card games and Boggle (aka, the best game -- almost -- ever). It was so relaxing to be able to do basically nothing for an entire day. We received an extra special treat in that an elderly couple staying in the campsite across from ours took a liking to our family and offered to take us on a tour of the lake in their boat. That was extremely enjoyable. Apparently Ann and Mike had been coming to the lake since the '60s and they knew a ton about the history of all the different lakes, dams and rock formations... very interesting!

Next day our friends arrived and it seemed like the fun was only beginning. Our friends also brought their boat and a bunch of "water toys". You could just see all of the boys' eyes light up... or course I wasn't excited... at all *winks*. Naturally things don't always go exactly as planned. There was a problem with the boat that day and so all of the next day the guys (my dad and Mr. Schneider) spent fixing it. A bit of a frustration, but it was fixed without too much of an ordeal.

I'll just hit the highlights of the rest of the week...
Caleb turned 16. YEAH!! I am so proud of my lil' bro. Or maybe not so lil' anymore ;) . The camping was kind of half-way sorta part of his birthday present since he had really wanted to do something like this during our trip.

Everyone who wanted to (that means everyone but the moms and Evie) got to have a go at wakeboarding. Neither Andrew nor I were able to get up, but all the rest of our crew did... grrrr... the older sister mentality just totally rebels against the idea of my brothers being able to show me up... "My give up, my give up".

There they go...

Three of the young people (Seth, Jessee, and Madison) got baptized on Sunday afternoon. So exciting to watch them grow in the Lord. It was also a great time of fellowshipping and singing together. We even had a chance to share with some of our neighbors through it. Awesome opportunity!

And here are some random camping photos...

This is a really cool cave that is located on the lake about 4 miles from our campsite. The plan was the achor the boat and jumping out to go exploring, but it wasn't to be. The last day, after a week of perfect weather, we had a pretty amazed rainstorm. We all got very wet and the water got too choppy for us the achor so close to the shore... and the sharp rocks!

The boys had the chance to play airsoft several times... they really looked the part with their camouflage outfits and guns ducking in and out behind the trees. It was fun to watch... but not enough to make me want to join in. Too much pain involved.

The final night before our friends left we played together (drums, guitar, and voice) and had a great time. As we were playing several of our neighbors stopped by to listen. We invited them to sit down by the fire with us. Eventually we had about thirty people in our campsite just listening and enjoying the Christian worship music we were playing. Isn't that amazing?! So neat how God works!

Now we are in Woodland, CA. We won't be here too long, just for a couple of days. I did miss a few days in between, but I'll have to catch you all up later because we are running late for a church event and I gotta go!
Blessings!

Yet another trip

2010-08-30T09:10:00.000-07:00

Hello fellow peoples! Glad to see that you stopped by! As some of you might have guessed, we are now in the USA (Tucson, AZ to be precise). We got in last night about 9pm... it was a very very very long trip. Oh, and did I mention that it was long? We left our house in Mexico at 4am with every intention of arriving in Arizona by 6pm at the latest. Funny how plans go awry!

On Friday the two little boys went back to Los Mochis, leaving us busily getting ready for our trip. All day Saturday was spent packing, cleaning, and cooking (food for the trip). Originally the plan was to leave on Monday morning, but after having spent all day Saturday working we were so close to being done that we voted on it and decided that it would just be a lot nicer to leave the next morning. And so the plan was laid!

On our way out of Las Glorias yesterday morning, we picked up a lady who was going to ride with us up to Nogales. The first few hours were fairly normal. Pretty much everyone slept (except for my dad, of course) while the road stretched on and the villages and towns flashed by. Then coming up upon Navojoa we stopped at a toll booth to check our load. My dad got out of the car and walked back to check the straps on the trailer only to walk back a minute later saying that we had a serious problem. I was kind of dozing during all of this so I only caught snatches of the conversation mixed with weird dreams of car problems and past trips. When I did finally wake up enough to become somewhat coherent, it was an hour later and my dad and brothers were across the road at the train tracks trying to bend back the trailer axle that had apparently been bending under the weight of the load. Right. Just another minor detail ;).

So after another hour or so of that -- my dad bent back the axle, flipped it over and put it back on -- and after shifting the load more to the van we were on our way. Unfortunately (or providentially, however you want to look at it) we only made it about 45 minutes down the road before we realized that the problem with the axle had not been fixed and that we would have to do something soon or the axle would bend again. So we stopped, undid all of the straps, and unloaded everything from the trailer into the van just leaving a few of the lighter things in the back. And with that we were back in the car, though packed in a little tighter than before.

That delay cost us about 3 hours. Normally, after all that, you would think that we would be able call it a rather eventful trip and drive the rest of the way without incident... but it was not to be. I don't know exactly how much time passed between the two things, but I think it was like an hour later when we stopped for gas and realized that one of the tires on the trailer had picked up a nail... and needed to be patched. Okay, now all we had to do was find a tire shop. We did find one a short way down the road. I do have to admit that, as bothersome as patching a tire is wherever you are, fixing it in Mexico is a million times easier than fixing it in the US. It took less than 30 minutes for the whole thing and only cost us $4. Meanwhile, Luz (the lady riding with us), my mom and I were laughing over what an insane trip it had been so far. She was amazed at how calm we were able to be, and we had a chance to let our lives speak Jesus' love to her.

Now of course we should have been able to finish the trip smoothly, right? Wrong! In all in the years that we have traveled to and from Mexico we have never been unpacked and searched. God obviously had some plan for us this time, because at the inspection station in Santa Ana (4 hours before the border) we were stopped and asked to unload everything. Everything? Like "everything" everything? Yes, everything. Oh dear. This was at about 4pm. Keep in mind that we had only slept about 5 hours the night before and had been up since 3am. We were all really ready to be done traveling... but things don't always go the way we plan. So we did unload everything, run all of it through inspection, and then load it all back up. We were able to share Jesus with the soldier on duty. He seemed like he was carrying a lot of hurt and hatred; pray for him, that God would be doing His marvelous work in his life.

The last 6 hours did go smoothly. We left Luz in Nogales with her sister and were on to the border. We prayed for no problems at the border and God answered our prayer by giving us a really nice lady to do the inspection. We didn't have to wait at the border more than an hour. As I mentioned at the beginning of my post, we arrived in Tucson at 9pm. We were tired, sore and extremely thankful for God's faithfulness throughout our trip. Often we can't see God's plans at the time, but it is enough to know that He's there and that nothing happens in vain. It was a long trip, yes, but all in all I feel blessed, and I regret nothing that happened. God is good, all the time! And His grace is sufficient!

Romans 5:1-5
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

The normality of abnormality

2010-08-22T13:51:00.000-07:00

Hello! Glad to see that you took a moment to stop by and read my blog! This past week has been moderately normal. Preparations continue for our upcoming trip to the US and, as always, life moves on!

Lack of water is something that we have been struggling with during the past month or so. I mean, we never have water in excess, but these past weeks have been, as we would say, "exagerada" in the lack thereof. Even the local "planta" where we buy our drinking water has often been without any water and we have had to drive much father than normal even for that basic necessity. The real difficulty, however, has been how to wash our laundry. I am not sure if you come from a big family, or if you have brothers, but if you do you can probably relate when I say that we dirty a lot of laundry... a LOT of laundry. I don't know when my brothers had the time to wear as much clothing as ends up in the dirty clothes hamper and I especially don't know how they are able to get so much mud on their clothing... it would be quite impressive if we didn't have to wash it!
Anyway, this battle against the forces of dirt has been a little interesting. Laundry is like any other housework; you do it once and the next day you have to do it all over again. My mom became my hero -- well, actually she already was my hero -- as I watched her outside washing all of the clothing by hand... I help a little bit, but she's like a hand-washing maniac! Go Mom!

As of July we entered into the official rain season. Compared to other years we have received relatively little rain (hence the lack of water), but we have gotten some seriously awesome thunder and rainstorms. Just a few days ago, we were hit by a huge storm; thunder, lightning, rain, wind, dark menacing clouds, the whole shebang. The wind woke everyone up early. It was blowing so hard that palm leaves were flying off our awning. The shade over our pool had to be taken down too... that was rather fun, especially in the rain. We all got totally soaked in a matter of minutes and getting the tarp under control in the wind was hard, but we did get it done.
An exceptionally positive note: our roof didn't leak! Not even one drop. We were all so thankful. It was nice to be able to just sit back and watch the rain fall without having to run around with buckets. Not to mention the fact that this trip to the States we can leave our house unattended without worrying about it. God is good!
The picture below is of our family going out for a bike ride shortly after a heavy rain. My mom went too, but she has this habit of always being behind the camera!

Yesterday was the last Saturday for my mom and I teaching in the kids' class at the church in Boca del Rio. We had a great time during the months that we were able teach the kids and I know that I'll miss them. Since it was the last lesson in the curriculum we also had a small graduation for the kids who had attended the class. We took pictures of each child with his/her certificate (the plan is the print them out and give them to the children the week after next) and then afterward we served cake, cookies and cool-aid. All in all, I think that the day was a success.

Well, to end on the most important thing of all, our family has been studying recently in the book of Hebrews (just to let you know, if you haven't read through Hebrews, you should. It's an amazing book!). Last week we were reading through chapter 4 and this passage really struck me. It's such a wonderful assurance to know that God knows just what I am going through and I can come before Him with a confidence, knowing that He understands. What an amazing God we serve! How can we keep from singing His praise?!

Hebrews 4:14-16
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Once Upon a Time in a Land far far away...

2010-08-17T12:25:00.000-07:00

... there was a missionary family who had a daughter who was very good at keeping her blog updated. But, as in all fairy tales, the truth has to come out sometime!
Well, after a much longer than expected leave of absence I think that I am finally back. I really wish that I hadn't fallen so far behind in my updates, but I suppose that sometimes things just get pushed to the back of my mind and then forgotten. Not that I actually forgot about my blog, but I sure did let it slip to the bottom of the priority list, and I that should not have been the case. After all, I really do want all of you, faithful readers, to have some sort of an idea of what I am doing in the far-off land of Mexico! My deepest apologies and sincerest wishes that it doesn't happen again.

So, what have I been up to? Such a question! If I remember correctly that last time I wrote I had just gotten back from Los Mochis where I had spent a week working at the deaf school... let's think. Since then two of the little boys from my class, Juanito and Andrés, have come to stay with us for the summer. It's been a blessing to have them with us. We haven't had "little kids" in our family for years! I love their spontaneity (you know, the hugs out of nowhere, the jumping up and down with excitement over the rabbit that ran across the yard, their fascination with killing flies with their rubber-band guns) and I know that Andrew and Evie are loving having kids younger than them to hang out with. I don't know what we are going to do when they go back to Los Mochis in two weeks!

The heat has been rather trying. I would say that it is unbearable, but that wouldn't necessarily be the truth. Though the heat is tough, it doesn't last forever and God is faithful to give us the strength the push through. I must take this chance to note that this year has been much nicer since we are living upstairs. Thanks again to everyone who made that possible! Praise God!

As far as my French class goes, I just got out on vacation the week before last. I have learned so much in the short amount of time that I have been with Miss Rodriguez taking private lessons and I am excited to be continuing come October. Until then, come rain, come shine, come snow, come dead of night the studying must go on ;D!

Also since I last wrote, my parents have started a parenting class in a nearby town. They have 20 people in the study and it's going strong. I have been put in charge of the kids during these classes and I have been embracing the challenge wholeheartedly. Some of the kids are what you would call rambunctious, but with the help of my darling siblings *winks* and plenty of prayer I have been able to bring about some semblance of order. For me the class is extra special because the kids are almost like blank pages. They know so little about the life of Jesus or about any of the other famous Bible characters. Last week I took so much pleasure in watching their faces light up as I told the story of the Good Samaritan. I love it! And of course, no class is complete without play-dough!

Along the same line, my mom and I are nearing the end of the kids' program that we started 3 months ago at the church in Boca del Rio. This coming week is to be our last as teachers and then we will both be stepping down. It's been a great time of learning and I will miss my class (I was teaching three to six year-olds) but I am confident that I am leaving it in capable hands. As His Word says, "to everything there is a season"(Ecclesiastes 3), and even if parting is rather bittersweet, I know that God has a purpose.

Oh yes, and I most definitely could not leave without at least mentioning the fact that not only did the motor on our van blow, but we were able to fix it in less than a week for a ridiculously low sum! I know, I know, that's quite a bit of information to put in one sentence, but it is short, sweet and to the point! The way that everything worked out was totally and absolutely God. Hard things and difficult circumstances that we go through are such a blessing. I have learned so much from everything that has happened over the years and I wouldn't trade a moment of it! You can go to our family blog to read a little bit more about the night my parents broke down.

My parents and I have still been praying about what I am going to be doing this next year. I am still very interested in the TOEFL Certification, but further investigation has brought to my attention that I will need to get some sort of college degree should I desire to pursue teaching English. That much being said, I have taken steps toward enrolling in College Plus!. Today I received a call back from them and I was able to get a more informed view on the program. As of yet I have made no final decision, but I am praying and my parents both see the program as a good opportunity. Of course, leaving my family would be more than a little difficult... just one step at a time, eh?!

As some of you might know, our biannual trip to the US is coming up. It's going to be a quick trip this time and, though we are going to be traveling as far up as Sacramento, we won't be staying more than a day or two at each stop. Still, if you want to meet up with us just send me a note and I'll see what I can do. I always love being able to see people so don't feel like it'd be an imposition to ask!

Well, I do hope that you find a chance to swing by again soon! Lord willing, I will have posted something new by then!

Ephesians 3:20-21
"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

A prayer request

2010-06-11T13:16:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!
God is good, all the time and I am so blessed to be His child! Right now I am at home once again and enjoying my family. I really do appreciate them, and I think that when I leave for a time it makes me realize it even more!
My week at the school was really great. I was so blessed to be able to spend time with my students again and to see the progress that they have made. It is so amazing to see how much they have advanced! Praise God!
I did have a something that I wanted to ask all of your prayers for. This past year has been full of many opportunities and decisions to be made. As yet, I have not confirmed what I will be doing during the coming year, but I know that the time for deciding is drawing near and I am praying toward making a real "plan" (that's to say as firm a plan as I can make while still being open to anything else God might show me). My inclination is toward getting some kind of degree that will enable me to travel into foreign countries with more liberty than I might otherwise be able. That in mind, I am seriously considering taking the TESOL/TESL/TEFL Certification Course. Nothing is certain as of yet, but I ask that if you have a chance you pray that God would give wisdom both to me and to my parents in this. I trust that in Him everything will work out as it should.

Blessings to you all! Next time I get on I will post some pictures from my time in Los Mochis, but for now I should go help my mother with lunch. May the Lord guide you and shine His glory upon you that you may shine it on others!

Romans 5:1-2
"Therefore having been justified by grace we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; through whom we have obtained our introduction into this grace in which we stand and we exult in hope of the glory of God. "

A post about life in general

2010-06-04T17:03:00.000-07:00

Good evening one and all! I have almost come to the end of a pleasantly eventful day and I praise God for it! I am presently at the deaf school in Mochis again. This visit is only for a week and a half because of various other commitments I have to fulfill at home. I came with my family yesterday and we spent the day with some friends of ours here in Los Mochis before they dropped me off at the school.

Things are a little bit different this time than they were last. One major change is that we are now at the new location. After almost a year of working and praying, the entire school, house and family has moved and is moving forward quite wonderfully. Granted, there are more than a few unpacked boxes stuffed in various corners, but that's nothing that time won't cure!

I have started French lessons again. I enjoy it even more this time than I did last time. This time I am taking private lessons instead of a class in a group. It works much better for me since it allows me to move at my own pace. I think that the one thing I do miss, however, are my classmates. We had a lot of funning learning, practicing, and making mistakes together. I know that I got over a lot of my shyness by being forced to talk in front of a group. But as I said, this time it's just me and I am thankful that God has allowed me to return to something I like so much!

As far as me, myself and I, we are doing very well ;) ! I am amazed daily by my God and by His Word which always seems to be showing me something new. Reading in Psalm 27 it comforts and encourages me to know that God is always with me and that I can find complete joy and peace in him!

Alright, I must fly! Let me just end this with the passage of scripture that was so precious to me this week...

Psalm 27:1-6
The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the defense of my life; Whom shall I dread?
When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh, My adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell.
Though a host encamp against me, my heart will not fear; Though war arise against me, in spite of this I shall be confident.
One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD and to meditate in His temple.
For in the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle; In the secret place of His tent He will hide me; He will lift me up on a rock.
And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me, and I will offer in His tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD.

Our New House!!

2010-06-01T07:08:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our house!! Here is the "official" tour ;) !!

If you take a step through the front door, this is the first thing that you see. Welcome to my dad's shop! He is loving having all this new space and has already put it to good use!

This is where most of the men of the village spend their lunch hour now!

Standing in the doorway -- at the left side of the above picture -- you can see our table, part of the kitchen and just past the reach of the photo, beside the fridge, is located the door to our bathroom.
This is our new kitchen. I absolutely love the new setup and I actually enjoy cleaning the kitchen now that there are places for everything!
If you turned around and looked behind where I was standing when I took the picture of the kitchen, this is what you would see. Hi, Dad!

Here is the completed stair, though it is still missing part of the railing. My dad is working on that and it should be finished by the end of this week... or perhaps next :D !
Through the railing at the top of the stairs and looking into our living room...
The door pictured here is located directly to the right from the picture above. It leads to the upstairs balcony. This is our new "music corner" (the piano is under the black dust cover). It's much less dusty than where it was located before, for which I am heartily thankful!
Here's the back door. As of right now, it doesn't lead anywhere, although the brothers like to jump out as a short-cut to the pool.
This is my room... or couldn't you tell?! ;)

This picture was taken standing in the doorway of Seth and Jessee's room. The bed you see is Jessee's...
...and this one belongs to Seth. The cloth below is covering his iguana's cage (yes, he does have another iguana and a good sized one at that!). It was early in morning when I took the picture and Seth hadn't "awakened the iguana" yet.
If you could see all of the camoflauge decor that these boys have in their room you wouldn't believe it. Andrew and Caleb's room might not be the neatest all the time, but they do definitely have the most consistant theme! Caleb's bed is located above where I am taking the picture. The red bars are the bottom of the frame.
This is a picture of our yard off of the upstairs balcony. We are finally starting to get some green in the yard, thanks to Mom's hard work and dilligence! It's so nice to look and the flowers and stand in the shade of our "trees" that used to be 2 foot tall sticks! Awesome!
And there you have it! I hope that this post might give all of you a better idea of what our house looks like at present. Blessings! I hope to see you all around again soon!

A few odds jobs around the house

2010-05-27T08:34:00.000-07:00

And now for the update that I had hoped to post about a month ago.... I promise that I really had every intention of doing it, but what with internet issues at our house and the impossibility of uploading pictures on our slow connection it just got put off. So, let's see what I can get you all caught up on!

In the middle of March of this year when we arrived home from our furlough our house was not in the most beautiful shape it has ever been! We took the first three of four days to get settled in and then it was time to get to work. The first order of business after moving all of the stuff upstairs (sorry, all of us were so involved in moving stuff that we didn't get any pictures. Just try to imagine taking the fullest shelf in your house and dumping it's contents on the floor. That's pretty much what our house looked like) was the construct our new stairs. It was tricky business getting the design all set, but once my mom and dad had figured that part out it was "full steam ahead" for my dad. I think that all of us (the kids) were involved in some way in the process of making the stairs. I had the "opportunity" ;) to paint the stairs --both wood and metal -- and to help my dad install the steps. Needless to say, I now have a much better understanding of how to build a stairway!

This is the stair we had before building the permanent one. I grew to despise that stair after having gone up it more times that than I could count and tripping down it more than twice (that was definitely no fun). I was heartily glad to see it go!

Installing the stair!

I was a little bit overwhelmed at first and thought that we would never be able to get everything we needed to do done. That's one of my faults, I suppose. I have a hard time looking at a huge project at the start and not getting frustrated. Once I am into the work I don't notice... it's just the getting started that gets me! That's probably why I make a good team with my dad; he doesn't even seem to notice the present state of things, just the goal in mind!

Another large project that has been on hold for about a year is my mom's outdoor kitchen. Both my mother and I have been wanting to have a kitchen outside since the very first Summer we spent here. It just gets so hot here during the summertime that the last thing you want to do is heat up the house by cooking. The first step we took in that direction was to build our outdoor oven and now, a year later, my dad was finally able to add the counter, barbecue grill and "hornillo" (pronounced "orniyo" and meaning literally "little oven". Here we use it to cook things like Tamales or large pots of stew that wouldn't fit on the stove-top)!
Already we have used the kitchen to fry hotdogs, cook clams and oysters, make granola and bread and tomorrow we have planned to barbecue some meat we have in the freezer! God is so good in blessing us even in these small things!

Alright, next post I will post a bunch of pictures of our house in it's present state and then I am going to call myself "caught-up" and we are going to forget all the stuff I missed!
Blessings to you, friends! I hope that you are blessed this day to overflowing! Here's something that I have found to be challenging in my life recently. I suppose that I struggle quite often with worrying in different ways. Maybe I'm not worried about what I am going to eat, but perhaps I am worried or frustrated by all the things I have to do. Whatever it is, this verse covers it all...

Matthew 6:31-34
"Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear for clothing?' For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

The Ultimate Catch-You-Up Post

2010-04-08T14:10:00.000-07:00

Hello! I hope that this posts finds all of you readers well and blessed. I think that I am going to abandon this whole episode by episode idea and just catch you all up to the present with this post. I want to be able to write about the interesting -- or maybe not so interesting -- things that happen around here... as it is I feel like every time I sit down to write I am only able to make a tiny dent in the ever-growing stack of things I want to tell you all about.

So, my plan is to tell it all to you in the "nutshell version"... you'll probably like it better that way anyhow ;) !

The last post I wrote told you all about the mission team that came down to build our house. Pretty much directly after that team left we ourselves left on our biannual furlough to the States. SURPRISE! I am sure that most of you knew this either from the letter I sent out or facebook or perhaps seeing us while we were there. For those of you who totally missed this event... I am deeply sorry! I will do a better job of announcing it next time!
The trip went awesome. God did some amazing and "ground shaking" -- at least for me -- things while we were there. I met some awesome people and got to hang out with awesome people I already knew. God was just all around good to me the whole time! I don't even know where to start sharing... I suppose I will try to hit some highlights.

This trip we were able to make it all the way up to Oregon. I nearly froze to death, I'll tell ya, but I had a nice visit and from talking to a friend there who grew up in Mongolia, I just don't think I have much to complain about!

In California we stayed for two weeks with my Dad's parents. They have a huge park right next to their house and we (the kids) had a great time riding around the trails on our new bikes. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that; God provided bikes for all of us. They aren't new, but they are really nice quality and in good shape. We got the added blessing of each of us being able to pick out our own bikes so we all got the exact one we wanted... God is so awesome! They really are such a ministry asset in that we can use them to go back and forth to the church without using the van. I am so excited!
Anyway, we also got to enjoy the library a few blocks down from my grandparents house. As seldom as we have the chance to visit libraries now it was a real treat. I probably read a lot more those two weeks than the whole year before!

Another cool States-side experience was driving on a four-lane divided highway in traffic with a full trailer in tow. It was actually a lot of fun... but a little tiny bit nerve-racking at times! I didn't do anything that was that illegal... other than going through a rather yellow light (though I still argue that it was green) and pulling what my Mom called a "California stop" and then once accidentally passing on the right... got a bit of a lecture for that one. We live and we learn, right? ;)

In Tucson we were in for yet another proof of the greatness of the God we serve. Sometime earlier on our trip I had been strongly convinced that God was going to be providing a new van for us before we left the States (ours was about on its last leg). Still, the whole trip sped by and before we knew it we were a week and a half from leaving and still no van in sight. God, however, had everything in His hands and through various circumstances, which I won't go into for the sake of time, He put it on the heart of the pastor of our supporting church in Tucson to buy us a new vehicle. Wow! After that everything fell into place, from finding the right vehicle to getting it shipshape and ready for travel. I know that this is something so small among the things God can do... but it just serves to me as another reminder of how amazing is my Lord! Praise His name!

Another highlight in Tucson was that my Mom's parents came out from Kansas so we got to visit with them for a week. I don't know when the last time was that we had the opportunity to see both of my grandparents in one trip! The twins turned 14 while we were with them so they got the royal treatment for the day and we (well, I mean my grandparents ;) ) took them out bowling and then to the restaurant of their choice -- which ended up being an all-you-can-eat buffet. I'd say that for them, though, the highlight of the day was the new Bibles they were given. It extra cool in that they weren't just given Bibles but rather we taken to the bookstore and allowed to pick out the Bible they each wanted. I was really blessed to see the look on their faces when they brought the Bibles home... So awesome!

The trip home was long and long and, well, long. We got out of Tucson a lot later than we had planned and even though the border crossing went smoothly we were still about 5 hours later than we had hoped. What with stopping periodically to water down the tires on the trailer and to clean up nail polish off the back seat -- that was Andrew and Evie, though quite accidental -- and to stretch our legs daylight flew by and, before we knew it, the sun was gone. After discussing it a bit my parents decided that it would be best to spend the night at a hotel in Obregon (about six hours North of where we live) since they were really tired and it was pretty late.
So, we did. The next morning we were off and homeward bound! We pulled in at our house around 4 o'clock p.m. I was so excited to be home! Albeit that the house was in disarray because of the construction and we had a million and a half things to do before Semana Santa (Easter week) and the arrival of a team of Americans from CA.

Alright, I feel a little less overwhelmed now! I will be back soon to get myself the rest of the way caught up!
Blessings to you all! Here's my verse for the week!

2 Timothy 1:12
For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.

Episode two: Unless the Lord builds the house

2010-02-26T19:43:00.000-08:00

Delayed! I've been delayed! Seems to be the story of my life! Well, last time I wrote I promised to continue the story and so I will... though it be two months after the fact!! I know that someday I will be back to writing in the present tense!

New Year's day found my dad and me traveling up toward the US/MX border with our friends on our way to Tucson, AZ. The trip was long and mostly uneventful with only a couple of stops to change drivers and a little bit of delay at the border. Up until this point my dad had been working nearly non-stop on getting our upstairs ready to begin laying the roof (for any of you who might have missed when I said that we began construction on our house you can read about it HERE). The day we left the house looked about like this...

Anyway, my dad and I had headed up to Tucson in order to meet up with a team that was coming down to help us put the roof up for our second story. The team originated on a forum conected to a blog called THE REBELUTION. There were 8 people who ended up coming down on the team and every one of them -- well, except for the two who were father and son -- came from different states in the US. It was awesome seeing God pull together such a mixed group! The story of how God brought the whole thing together is amazing, and if you haven't heard it just drop me a note and I'd be more than happy to share!

We arrived in Tucson on the 2nd of Jan. in order to meet with up with the group on the 3rd. We did meet up with them and had a chance to pray together and go over some "dos and don'ts" for the bus ride ahead. At about 7:30pm we headed over to the bus station and we were off!

The bus ride was long, and I won't go into to detail about it. Suffice to say that we got off the bus in Guasave around 9:30am and my mom and the rest of my family were there waiting. The rest of that day went by quickly what with settling in and getting to know one another and, for the guys, working on construction.

On Tuesday everyone swung out of bed and hit the ground running. It might have been stressful, but, praise God, our focus was on Him, and rather than being stressful through the long hours of work it was just productive! Every morning we had the opportunity to start our day right by spending time in the Word. I think that that, more than anything, is what made the trip an absolute success.

So, Tuesday through Thursday was almost totally jam-packed with constuction...

And more construction...

And even a little bit of plumbing! In this picture Hillary and I had just finished changing the kitchen faucet. I had never done a project like this before, so it was a new experience!

On Thursday we -- the girls -- spent several hours packing gift bags for children a migrant worker camp we were going to be visiting later on that week. It was a lot of fun putting together the gifts and trying to decide what age each toy would be best for. In the end I know that God worked everything out just right!

Saturday we had the chance to participate in what was our second year of Operation Christmas Child. It was really great to be able to get the team involved in this and it was a big blessing to me as well. More than anything, though, it was neat to see the smiles on the children's faces!

Sunday after the church service we drove over to the camp where we had just recently started a church. Some of you may remember reading about it in my LAST POST but those of you who haven't might want to hop over there for a look-see. Anyway, we were able to share a short message from the Bible along with a drama that we had prepared for the children. After that we handed out the gift bags to the younger children -- didn't upload any pictures of that or of the drama, unfortunately ;). God really blessed our time with the people and since then has been working mightily in the lives of our new brothers there at the camp.

The team left on Monday the 11th. Right before we loaded up in the car to take them to the bus station we took some pictures of the finished result of their work...

Hurray! for the faithfulness of our God who CAN do all things!

Two days after they left, a cement truck came out to pour the roof. It was very loud and much faster than doing it by bucket -- which is how we did the roof on the bottom story. We were a far cry from being "done" with the upstairs, but we were well on our way to having our house finally finished!!

I know that anyone who was actually here for the week that I just finished summing up would call me on a thousand little details I missed, and I'll even admit that I didn't include even close to half. What with water fights and prayer walks on the beach and Bible studies together and walking around downtown Guasave and sharing meals together and laughing together and singing and seeing the steadfastness of God throughout it all, I could never write down everything that happened that week. It is enough to say that God did a work, and I don't think that anyone who went through it with us came out unchanged!

I am going to end this post with a verse that God seems to have given us as a promise during these past few months. It just serves as a reminder of how great God is and how worthy He is of EVERYTHING! May God richly bless and strengthen you in your faith for His name's sake!

Psalm 127:1
Unless the LORD builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the LORD guards the city,
The watchman keeps awake in vain.

Episode One: And Into the New Year

2010-01-18T13:11:00.000-08:00

Greetings to all my faithful readers! After a wonderfully blessed and extremely full holiday season, I am back to tell it all! Since there is so much to share and I would like, finally, to be able to post pictures as well, I am going to try your patience a little and tell the whole story of these last weeks over a series of posts. You know, like those stories that you sometimes find in newspapers that make you wait till the next edition to find out whether or not the hero makes it out of the death trap… though, of course, I doubt my story will be so suspenseful nor quite so interesting, yet I will still attempt to render my tale pleasant to all those inclined to read it!
Anyhoo, let’s start at the beginning!!!!

The last time I wrote, Christmas was almost upon us and everyone was busily making presents, hiding finished presents and preparing for the arrival of our friends from Tucson, AZ. Well, I am extremely pleased to say that our friends arrived safely and without too many troubles along to way. I say not too many because they did end up making the 13 hour trip in 20 hours…. But that is not a story I am inclined to tell as of right now *winks and smiles*. Suffice to say that they got in around 2 o’clock the morning of the 24th.

The next day (or should I say later on that same day) being Christmas Eve was spent in a happy buzz of activity as everyone hurriedly finished wrapping and stashing presents and then sat down to spend time catching up with our friends. That evening we went over to our church for our somewhat-traditional, annual Christmas Eve dinner. We arrived at about 4pm with every intention of being back at our house by 10pm, but one thing after another happened…
We played games…

Worshipped together…

Broke bread together…
And we were so content just to be there and fellowship with the brethren that by the time we had a chance to look at a clock it was 12:30am and definitely past our hoped for time of departure!

NAVIDAD (Christmas Day)

Christmas morning was exceedingly nice. I have so many fond memories of that time in the morning… the younger kids’ eyes gleaming excitedly, having, of course been up for at least an hour waiting for the clock to strike 7 to be able to sing the good morning song to Mom and Dad, they themselves looking happy but a little disheveled still rubbing the sleep from their eyes. I for many years now, though just as excited as my siblings, in an attempt to appear mature, sit passively by, smiling on. This Christmas brought back all the same pictures, though adding to them something more in the joy that everyone had in such abundance. I have seen before – having fallen into the trap numerous times – how discontented one can be when the main focus of the holiday is to receive…yet when all that becomes insignificant, the true joy of giving and of receiving comes.

These were my gifts to my siblings. I think that they had fun with them… aside from the fact that they were continually setting them down and getting them hopelessly tangled!

This year, amongst the comings and goings of friends and family and the brotherly discussions over our traditional Christmas brunch I felt truly blessed beyond compare! Praise God!

The rest of the week passed very quickly. With our friends we had an excursion to downtown Guasave... that was a long day, but fun!
We organized and put on our annual New Year’s Eve couples’ dinner for the village…

This was neat in that it gave our friends a chance to really get to sit down and talk to some of the people from our village. The younger people on the team (myself included) had the chance to serve at the party. It was a little bit stressful, as all things of the like are want to be, but all in all I believe that it served as a blessing to the people, believer and unbeliever alike, of Boca del Rio.

We went to a migrant worker camp which ended up being a real blessing to us and to the people…

I appears that we (well, God through us) might have planted our first church… it was pretty amazing the way the gospel was received there. Please keep us in your prayers!

At the end of the week, on Friday January 1, 2010 to be precise, our friends left and along with them my Dad and… I! And that, dear readers, is where I will leave off!

Home again, home again!

2009-12-20T07:15:00.000-08:00

The sun is shining, the temperature is beautimous, and I feel extremely blessed!

Last week was my last there at the school in Los Mochis. We didn't have too many full days of classes since two of the days were Christmas parties for the kids. Normally one party would have been enough, but in addition to the gift exchange and party that is tradition at the school, a church in Los Mochis offered to sponsor a Christmas party complete with pinata and games. The kids had a real blast and I wasn't exactly bored myself!

Apart from the parties, school went very well. Most of my kids finished all of their books and the ones that didn't were only missing a little bit. I can't help but think that I was bit of a softy that last week... I just couldn't get over the fact that I was going to be leaving!

On Wednesday we had a big pizza party for all of the kids at the house and then afterwards we went driving around town to let the kids get a look at the Christmas lights. In Mexico lights aren't as big a thing as in the States, but there was a really neat miniature town of Bethlehem that one of the colleges had set up for the city. They went the whole 9 yards and even used live animals. The kids loved it!

On Thursday after school all of the youth from the house went out to the Klaudts' ranch. Since it was going to be the last youth meeting of the year, the youth planned a big "end-of-the-year" hangout. It was really neat. We got to play games, eat "Esquite" (mexican corn off the cob served in a cup with lime, mayo, cheese and chile powder) and then we got to have an awesome study.
The message was divided into three parts -- each of which was giving by a different member of the youth group. The first message was on salvation -- what it means, how it works, and how to know you are saved. The second part was on not being conformed to this world, but rather transformed. Then the third part was on doing hard things for the sake of the gospel. It was basically a plea to the youth to just get up and DO SOMETHING! It doesn't matter how big or how small. Just get up and start living for God.
It ended up being a very powerful message. I think that it's so interesting how you can hear a truth so often that you almost become desensitized to its power. It's good to get a little bit of a waking up and to realize, "hey, maybe this applies to me. Maybe, just maybe, God is trying to show me something through this!"
It was an extra bonus, having the youth night on Thursday, in that I was able to say goodbye to everyone before I had to leave the next day. The nice thing to remember is that I will probably be able to see most of those people again. I mean, it's not like I live on the other side of the world!

Friday I left the school for the last time... at least for the present time. I am now, finally, home to stay. It is a strange feeling, waking up every morning and not hearing the banging of pots and pans in the school kitchen. I am starting to miss walking out into the hallway and seeing Kelly in the kitchen... going up the stairs in the moring to help Desirèe do the girls' hair... Michelle making pancakes... Petra scolding little boys ;)... *sighs. It's been wonderful to be home, but I can't avoid the occasional sigh when I think that I'm not going back on Monday. Still, I know that God has His timing and I truly believe that all things will come together and work for good. It's nice to be able to believe that!

These next few weeks won't be much less busy than what I have been used to at the school. Some friends of ours are coming Wednesday to stay through Christmas. The same day that they are arriving, we also have a team of people coming from Orange County, CA to do a construction project over at our church. Once they leave we have another team of people from all over the US coming to help us finish construction on our house. It's been amazing seeing God put all things together in His timing and His way. Everything we have needed to make this team happen has been provided! I feel so small and so weak. I know that I should trust God and I know that His faithfulness is tried and true... yet I still struggle trusting in Him. Yet! I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me! I can and will learn to trust Him!

Alright, I need to get going now. Hopefully, now that I have time, you will be seeing a little bit more of me... one can hope! Until such a time as I am able to return I must say, "Au revoir!" or *waves her hand* that's how you do it in sign language ;^)
Blessings! If I don't see you around here before then have a wonderful Christmas.

Note: if anyone is looking for a good, family friendly, Christian Christmas movie with a good message, try "Christmas Shoes" and its sequel "Christmas Blessing". The first is the best movie I have seen in ages! Watch it!!!!

Feliz Cumpleaños a Sara!

2009-12-13T20:51:00.000-08:00

****Hack Alert!!!****

In honor of her 17th birthday,

and in light of the fact that she's miles from home,

and we won't see her until Friday,

Dad and Mom have hacked this site

to wish Miss Sarah Jean...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

Caleb, Jessee, Seth, Andrew and Evie send hugs and kisses!!!

We're looking forward to celebrating with you next weekend!

I'm thinking about trying this recipe out Friday night. Whadaya think???

Sarah, Dad and I are so proud of you! I wish we could be there to celebrate with you on your "real" birthday, but know that we're with you in spirit. Praying a blessed "last week" for you and your students and we'll see you on Friday!!!
's Mom and Dad

Week eleven

2009-12-13T16:41:00.000-08:00

Buenos dias! How are you all doing this fine day (or night or afternoon, depending on when you read this)? I am wonderfully completely and totally blessed to be me and to abide under the shadow of the wings of the Almighty! This past week has been beyond blessed and I am so thankful, I don't know where to begin... so let's just start at the beginning ;) !

Monday, like most Mondays, was school in the morning and then kids in the afternoon. I was quite happy since two of my students finished one of the books that they needed to finish before the end of the school year. All in all it was a fairly non-stressful day and a truly great first day of the week!

Tuesday and Wednesday was about the same with good school days in which I accomplished most, if not all, of what I had planned for the kids. We finished Charlie and the Chocolate factory -- I had been reading it to the kids since I started in September -- and then started a new book. I don't think that I will have a chance to finish this book before the end of the year, but I really enjoy "story hour" and don't want to give it up just because of that.

Tuesday afternoon we took all the kids to the nearby mountain. This second time that I went I actually really enjoyed myself... well, except for the fact that on the way home I took a nice fall and scraped my knee up. I didn't think much of it, just cleaned it up and put gauze on it. The next day, however, it had got a little bit of infection. I cleaned it up again, put a little bit of antibiotic cream on it and covered it... but the infection caused it to take a little bit longer to heal. Even now, Sunday, I still wince a little when I bend it too much... but the infection is all gone and it's finally starting to scab over. Praise God! I had never had something that serious happen with such a thing as a scrape... it definitely has taught me to be a little more careful when I get cuts. I tend to clean other people up just fine, but when it's myself I guess I don't do quite as good of a job.

Thursday was youth group. I had a great time sitting (that was Petra's condition. She said I could go as long as I wasn't walking too much) and talking to some people I hadn't seen in forever and I especially enjoyed the study. I didn't get a whole lot done since I was translating for two of the other americanos ;), but I felt like what I was doing was important enough for me not to worry about how much I was getting done.

Friday was the especially awesome day. The morning was about average. Everything got done and with a minimal amount of yucky attitudes. The guys continued working on the house, but other than the occasional drill that would come through the wall, it didn't really distract my class... to much ;) !

When we got home from school I was sent to bed to lay down (because of my knee) and I had a nice rest. I kind of wanted to be up and around, but I suppose that being confined to bed had it's benefits; I got to read a book! In the evening I was permitted to get up and then David told us that he was going to take me to Home Depot (I had some stuff that I needed to get there) and then all of us out to ice cream! Yum! Anyway, we all got ready and beautified (I mean, if you rarely get out of the house you want to look nice when you do :D) and then piled into the car.

David "supposedly" needed to get something at Ramon's (one of the brothers) house before taking us to Home Depot. We drove up to the house and Petra asked David if it would be alright if we got out to say hi to Sarai (Ramon's daughter). He said that was fine, just to be quick about it. So, we all got out and walked up to the house. When we got closer I saw through the open door that Andrea, another friend of mine, was there and that there were balloons all over the couch. I didn't have much time to think about that or the cake on the table before I realized that everyone was singing happy birthday... only... to whom?? When I noticed that they were all looking at me... well, I kind of figured it out! I was SO surprised! I have never had a surprise party and I think that it was better than any planned party could have been. From the beautiful cake that the girls made (which, btw, tasted as good as it looked) to the lovely cards and the late night games it was a wonderful night. We didn't go too nuts and only stayed up until about 2:00 a.m. !

Saturday morning all woke up bright and... well... late! After we had woken up and eaten breakfast we went over to the church to clean (we were helping out some friends) and then out to the Klaudts' ranch. Out there we had a fun picnic in the beautiful 80* weather -- am I making any of you "Northern folk" jealous? -- and then a big group of us went out into one of the nearby fields to film a scene in a movie that they are making.

That's something else that has developed recently. I have been given a main part in a short film that one of my friends is making. I am an evil judge who condemns God to death... but then afterwards I repent and have a change of heart. I get to dress up all in black with a blue business jacket; really cool! They are going to be filming my last few scenes tomorrow. Pray that it goes well. The real object in this film is to glorify God, so we really want to do it to the best of our ability!

Today was church where I heard an awesome message out of Isaiah 9. It was really awesome and I really feel like I came away with something new. I had the blessing of being able to translate for some of the team. I really enjoy being able to do that, and it doesn't happen very often. One benefit is that it really makes you concentrate on what the pastor is saying -- rather than letting it go in one ear and out the other.

After church we went to the Mercado (market) and I was able to do a little bit of Christmas shopping. I didn't have much to get at all (most of my presents are already done) but I had a nice time wandering around and looking at stuff. I had fun looking like a tourist and speaking English! I suppose I shouldn't, but I really like watching the looks on people's faces when they say something silly in broken English and I respond to them in Spanish... priceless!

So, now I am seated at the computer, yawning, and am ready to head downstairs to get something to eat. As I face this final week at the school, I want to finish this race well. Please keep me in your prayers! I appreciate it more than you know!

Let me just end with the passage that the pastor spoke on today at church. I wasn't going to put it all here, but when it came down to it, I couldn't choose any one verse from the others!

Isaiah 9:2-7
²The people who walk in darkness
Will see a great light;
Those who live in a dark land,
The light will shine on them.
³You shall multiply the nation,
You shall increase their gladness;
They will be glad in Your presence
As with the gladness of harvest,
As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
⁴For You shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders,
The rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian.
⁵For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult,
And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.
⁶For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace,
On the throne of David and over his kingdom,
To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness
From then on and forevermore
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.

Week ten

2009-12-07T14:05:00.000-08:00

To the computer I have returned! It's been quite a long spell since I have graced my blog with my presence... but I suppose that all that is past now. There is no time like the present time to remedy my absence! Alright, alright, I am done being eloquent! Now I'll just tell you all how my week went!

Last Saturday was our Thanksgiving celebration here at the house. It was great fun. My family came up for the day along with some friends of ours who were visiting. All morning the kitchen was filled with the banging of pots and pans as we prepared what was to be the best Thanksgiving meal of all time (well, I exaggerate, but it was supposed to be pretty wonderful)! By two o'clock our preparation was done and we all sat down -- or paced around -- waiting for our guests to arrive. As is usually the case in Mexico, everyone was late and everyone arrived at the same time! The afternoon then pretty much proceeded as most Thanksgiving afternoons are want to do. We all ate a lot more than we could hold comfortably and then sat around talking and telling stories of "funny things long past". It was so nice! I especially appreciated the fact that I didn't have to make this the first Thanksgiving away from family!

After things had settled down and desserts had been served -- those were really good, btw -- a large group of us decided to take a walk around the block(s). We were all pretty tired and when you get a whole bunch of tired people together you tend to get goofy... you can probably picture how it went. We ended up singing one of those "there's a hole in the bottom of the sea" type songs... I laughed harder than I had laughed in weeks!

On to Sunday! Sunday was church in the morning, of course, and then after lunch we had a special treat in the the team leader (Greg Wilke) decided to take everyone -- kids included -- to the beach. I live on a beach at home, but there is something different about going with friends... anyway, I had a great time. We played ultimate frisbee which was awesome. I hadn't played in forever. It had been long enough that the last time I remembered playing I had been the little girl running from one end of the field to the other and never getting the frisbee ;) ! This was the first time, I think, that I have played ultimate frisbee and enjoyed it!

After the game everyone decided to go swimming and Desiree -- one of the girls helping out at the school -- and I walked to the car to get something. We got back just in time to hear that her brother had gotten stung not once but twice by a stingray! We prayed over him, but he was in serious pain, poor guy, and that's about when we decided it was time to leave -- it was getting dark anyway. We stopped by a Red Cross clinic to get a shot for Judah to help with the pain. Praise God, by the next morning Judah was stiff, but other than that just fine.

The rest of the school week went fairly smoothly. No major accidents and nothing super-exciting to tell about. All of my students are doing very well, though I am getting a little bit frantic looking at everything I want to cover in the next two weeks before school lets out! As we near the end of the term it seems like time is flying. Some many things to do and so little time to do it... yet most of it seems to be getting done!

This last weekend I was able to participate with my Dad in a scheme to surprise Mom with a weekend away for my parents' anniversary. The plan worked perfectly. Desiree accompanied me on the bus back to my house where I was able to see the stunned face of my Mom when I walked in the door. It was so much fun!!! Anyway, they left and then we (Desiree, my siblings and I) stayed behind to hold down the fort... and do some cleaning! I don't think that my brothers we too excited about having to clean on Saturday, but they bore it like troopers and it was all done in no time! On Sunday afternoon my parents came back and then took Desiree and I into town so that we could catch the next bus to Los Mochis.

And now you are caught up! I didn't tell you everything that there is to hear, but I don't think that you really want to hear about all the little boring details... though I suppose that if you do you could send me an email! I guess I will leave off now. Time flies and naptime for the kiddos is almost up!

How about I close with a verse that really struck me in my reading this morning.

Luke 10
⁴⁰But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me."⁴¹But the Lord answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; ⁴²but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her."

Week nine

2009-11-28T08:45:00.000-08:00

Good morning (or whatever time this is that you are reading my post)! I hope that you have had great week and an awesome Thanksgiving. We haven't really celebrated Thanksgiving yet, but the plan is the have a big meal today. I am excited for many reasons, but ranking high on the list is that my family is going to be coming! I wasn't looking forward to spending Thanksgiving without them, and now I won't have to!

This past week has been quite nice. With the team that came from the States, there has been a little less stress and we are definitely able to accomplish more in a day. There are two girls who are staying here at the house and helping out with the kids, and then there are eight guys who are staying out at the school and building what will soon be the new house. It's exciting to see all of the progress they have made. Their goal is the get the house finished enough to move into by Christmas. That's so cool!!! God truly is amazing and it's great to see how He meets needs!

As far as my class goes, this week has brought some different changes and new challenges. My class has been moved back out into the open room because of all the construction. I wasn't sure how I would like it at first, but I moved to a different place than where I was before and I haven't had to deal with too much distraction.

My students are all making progress in their strong suits, but all of them still have things to work on. Estefania is improving by leaps and bounds in her reading and Juan Jesus (J.J.) is get ever so much better in Math. Mishelle is doing great in her cursive and I think that I can finally move her on to the next book. Andres is improving on his reading aloud -- it's so fun to listen to him trying to put the accent on the right place in the sentence! Juanito is doing great. I can't even believe that he is the same kid that I started the year with. It's so encouraging to see the improvement that he has made in the last few weeks! God is so good! Cinthya I am still struggling with to find a system of learning that is suited to her. She has improved, but not as much as I would like to see. I really just need some more time with her. Please pray that God would continue giving me wisdom as I teach His children!

Thursday was youth group and I had the chance of attending after... wow... three weeks of not going! It was really great to see all of my friends again and I felt like I learned a lot from the study. We are still working in the study "One True God". The thing I like most about the study is that it's kind of like proving Theorems. If you have ever done Geometry you'll know what I am talking about. In the study you are presented with a truth and then given verses that prove the truth, but you have write out how they prove the truth. I like this way much better than most other forms of study I have seen over the years. It really makes you think about what you are reading!

Yesterday we had our first serious "school accident" involving kids of the year. Mishelle (my student, though she does have the same name as Michelle, co-director of the school) fell while playing tug-a-war and got a nice cut on her head. It wasn't anything really serious, but her parents came and got her and took her to get some stitches. I am hoping that they don't see it necessary to keep her home from school this Monday.

Well, other than that it has been a pretty average week. I feel absolutely and wonderfully blessed by all the women I work alongside and God has truly been giving me the strength necessary to face every new day! I pray that you have a blessed week!

Matthew 6:31-34
³¹"Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear for clothing?' ³²"For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. ³⁴"So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

In Everything give thanks!

2009-11-25T15:51:00.000-08:00

1 Thessalonians 5:18
In everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Thanksgiving has come upon us again! I can't believe how quickly time has passed and how much my life has changed. I remember Thanksgiving in the States... and Thanksgiving here in Mexico... but this will be my first Thanksgiving away from home. It is kind of strange. I have been such a house-body all of my life and most of my memories are with my family. As I have been here at the school I have begun to form my own memories that are somehow apart from my family and I guess that this Thanksgiving will be one of them.

I have always loved Thanksgiving more than most other holidays because of the wonderful history behind it. I just love the idea of setting aside a day of the year to get together as a family and thank God for His grace and all the good things that He has done in our lives throughout the year. Because, honestly, how often do you sit down and really consider all of the things that God has blessed you with? If we all focused more on what we have and less on what we want, we would all realized just how fortunate we are.

That's why I want to dedicate this post to remembering God's goodness. As I was thinking about what to write I picked up my Bible and looked up the word "'thanksgiving". I was amazed at the amount of verses I saw. Here are a mere handful of what I found.

Psalm 95:1-5
1O come, let us sing for joy to the LORD,
Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.
2Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving,
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
3For the LORD is a great God
And a great King above all gods,
4In whose hand are the depths of the earth,
The peaks of the mountains are His also.
5The sea is His, for it was He who made it,
And His hands formed the dry land.

Psalm 92:1-2
1It is good to give thanks to the LORD
And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;
2To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning
And Your faithfulness by night.

Psalm 28:7
The LORD is my strength and my shield;
My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped
Therefore my heart exults,
And with my song I shall thank Him.

1 Chronicles 16:8-9
8Oh give thanks to the LORD, call upon His name;
Make known His deeds among the peoples.
9Sing to Him, sing praises to Him;
Speak of all His wonders.

Here's my list of things that I want to thank God for this year:

My family. As always, my family has been such an enormous blessing in my life. They are such a great group!
My friends. I couldn't individually mention any of them because they are all such wonderful people. I have truly been given above and beyond what I deserve in this respect!
Food to eat and roof under which to sleep.
Computers! It has been so awesome being able to keep in contact with all my friends near and far.
Those little moments that make life so special. I feel so loved when God not only gives me what I need, but more than I could ever ask for in precious memories and beautiful moments!
Being apart from my family. It's been hard, but it has taught me to value free time and family.
For not having. It has taught me to appreciate little things more than I used to.
God's provision of daily needs.
For long walks on the beach during which I have learned to understand the worth of a "time in the desert".
For trials. As God's Word says, tribulations produce perseverance and perseverance a proven character (Romans 5:3).
For my Bible. I have come to see it as my best friend!
For music. It's one of God's best gifts!
For those who have gone before. It's such an encouragement to be able to see how others were able to go through the same things I am dealing with and, through God's grace, come through victorious!
For hard situations in which I have felt under-qualified. They have taught me to rely more on God's grace and less on my own resources.
For my Savior's willingness to die for my sins. That is the greatest gift and most precious blessing of all!!!

Before I finish this post I want to challenge you to stop what you are doing for a moment, grab a pen and paper and write down 10 things that God has blessed you with. Once you finish that, write down 5 things that have happened in your life in the past year (or more) and what God has taught you through them. When we give thanks to God we need to remember that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). That means that you can look at the bad things too and God WILL have them work together for good... it might be hard to see that now, but you can trust in His promises!

I pray that you take the time this Thanksgiving, amid all the hustle and bustle of festivities, to sit down and remind yourself of how awesome a God you serve!

Week 8

2009-11-23T16:28:00.000-08:00

And so ends this week... well, so ended this week Sunday, but I didn't get around to posting until today so for the sake of retaining my reputation of being always punctual, let's just say that the week ended today! ;)

Anyway has been quite a nice week. It wasn't exactly easy with Petra being gone and all, but a friend of mine came to help out and she was a real blessing. Michelle got back into the swing of things Tuesday and that really eased the load. All week we were dealing with a stomach flu that was passing around the house from kid to kid. I am not sure what it was, but praise God it was really only a 24 hour bug and then it was gone. Still, I had to clean up a little bit more puke than I would have liked!

My class has been going very well. I feel like all of my students are making progress and one girl especially seems to have finally begun to understand reading. She isn't reading alone yet, but she is improving mby leaps and bounds! One thing I have noticed is that I am able to maintain a higher level of order in the class than I was able to at first. It's nice when I can tell the kids to do something and they do it without me having to repeat myself!

The week went normally until Wednesday evening when I got sick with the same bug (or food poisening, not sure which it was). It was pretty miserable. Did I mention that I hate the flu? Well, I do!!! When did I say that I would prefer the flu to a cold? ... actually, I think that I might, but at the time of being sick I would rather have had anything else... Ana (the lady who came to help out) was a real sweetheart and was really sympathetic even when I woke her in the middle of the night. In the morning I still felt bad and David and Michelle left me at the house. I pretty much slept all morning and when they got home David took Ana and I to the bus station so that we could catch a bus home. It could be that it wasn't that smart of me to travel home sick like that, but I figured that I could either be sick and miserable here or sick and miserable at home. And frankly, it would be more comfortable at home!

By the time I got home, I actually felt much better -- except for a monster of a headache -- and I even was well enough to consider eating some soup!

The next morning -- Friday -- I felt totally better and ready to face the day! We had a great Bible study together as a family and then everyone began attacking their various tasks for the day. Amazingly enough I never found myself board and I think that I might have even almost caught up on spending time with all of my siblings. All in all, I think that I spent my time in a manner worthy!

On Sunday we went to church and heard an awesome message about faithful reading of God's Word. The key verse for the sermon was Psalm 119:105. I suppose that the entire chapter could be the focus since it all speaks on the importance of God's Word!

Sunday evening my parents took me into the bus station and I was able to treat my parents to dinner. I don't get to do that very often, so it was special. We had a nice dinner albeit rushed since I had to get the the bus stop in time for my bus. When the time came I said my goodbyes, gave hugs and got on the bus.

When I got back to the house Petra was back. Yea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And with her she had brought reinforcements. Ten people came back with her and will be here until we break in Decmember. They have been such a blessing even this one day that they have been here. It is so nice to have an extra -- or more -- pair of hands! It's because of this that I actually have time right now to update my blog! It is really nice! God is good and worthy of being praised! He brings circumstances that make us stretch, but then He is always faithful to bring those times of rest!

Well, I am going to leave of with this. The dinner bell is ringing and I must fly!
Be blessed and walk with God!

Psalm 119:89-93
89Forever, oh Lord, Your Word is stteled in
heaven.
90Your faithfuless continues throughout all generations;
You established the earth, and it stands.
91They stand this day
according to Your ordinances, for all things are Your
servants.
92If Your lawe had not been my delight, then I would have perished in my
affliction.
93I will never forget Your precepts, for by them You
have revived me.

Psalm 119:105
Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Week seven -- God is good!

2009-11-13T07:00:00.000-08:00

After a somewhat stressful and not-so-uneventful week, I am finally sitting down. The house is almost empty but for the few children who did not leave yesterday... I have a had time remembering that this is Friday... it is never this quiet on a Friday. Anyway, let's see if I can relate in a coherent manner the happenings of these past few days.

As most of you know, Michelle came down sick on Thursday of last week. Petra left on Sunday leaving... me! It was an interesting Sunday and Monday (since it was pretty much just me and Laura -- the Bonsells' oldest daughter -- doing everything). Monday afternoon, however, I received a message from my parents that two single ladies from our church wanted to come and help out for a week or so here at the school. I was so extremely relieved to hear this, as well as thankful since I knew that it was God who had orchestrated it all.

Tuesday morning my Dad brought the two women to Los Mochis and everything seemed to just slide back into normal routine. I felt -- and still feel -- kind of strange being the go-to person on everything. Before the kids would always ask me permission for something and I would tell them to go "ask Petra", now it's just me so I have to make all those decisions... I think I prefer being able to divert traffic and let Petra decide ;^) !

Anyway, Ana and Berlinda -- the two ladies -- we a big help here at the house and also at the school. Ana helped out in Michelle's class and Berlinda was able to give me a hand with my kids.

Tuesday went pretty normal and on Wednesday Michelle was feeling well enough to help by driving the kids to school in the morning. It seemed like we were going to have Michelle back in school by Sunday... or so we thought.

Thursday was pretty much routine in the morning. We got up, I went down to make breakfast (which ended up being oatmeal mush, since I left it cooking too long... the kids graciously ate it with very little comments). At 7:30a.m. all of the kids got into their respective cars to wait for David and Michelle. We were running rather late and Michelle was still in the house doing some last minute errands. I was in the car in the passenger seat when Michelle came out. She walked up to the side door and was getting ready to close it when she suddenly collapsed in a seizure. I ran up to get David and he came running downstairs. Once we had gotten Michelle up onto a chair I took all of the kids inside to get them calmed down... you can imagine what that was like. Almost all of the 15+ kids with us had seen what had happened and we bawling hysterically. We all went into the living room and prayed together and then I put on a movie to calm them down. During this time, David had managed to get Michelle upstairs and in bed.

The last time Michelle had a seizure was about 10 years ago. David is pretty sure that this seizure was brought on by the fact that since Michelle was sick she hadn't been faithfully taking her medication and also that she didn't rest long enough after being sick. As of right now Michelle is doing much better, though she really chewed up her mouth during the seizure, so she can't really talk. Almost all of the kids were sent home yesterday and today I will be leaving to spend the weekend at home.

Keep the Bonsell family and the school in your prayers. God is most definitely watching over us, but I know that we all really appreciate the extra prayer!

Blessings! Stand firm on God's promises and know that He is a God of mercy and faithfulness!

Deuteronomy 32:3-4
³"For I proclaim the name of the LORD;
Ascribe greatness to our God!
⁴"The Rock! His work is perfect,
For all His ways are just;
A God of faithfulness and without injustice,
Righteous and upright is He.

I'm on the voting list!

2009-11-10T19:56:00.000-08:00

I have been nominated in "Best teen girl blog" over at THE POST. Kind of strange to see my blog name appear on a site like that, but I suppose it is nice! I feel quite flattered... though I think that most of the reason that I am on the list is because someone (aka: Mom) hacked my site and put a button on my sidebar. Thanks for thinking of me, Mom!
So, anyway, if you would like to vote for my blog just give a click on the button below!

Have a great day! God bless your steps! Keep walking the path laid before you... just make sure that you are doing it God's way, not your own!

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.

Week five... and into week six

2009-11-05T19:22:00.001-08:00

Well, here I am almost at the end of week six and I am finally getting around to writing week five... and I guess that most of this is week six anyway! I suppose that this is normal for me. I do have reasons, but I really have been trying to be more faithful. At least I have managed to get one post a week! It's nice to know that people are able to keep track of me in a small way!

Last week I got to have a nice, long weekend with my family, made possible by the fact that "Dia De Los Muertos" fell on Monday and therefore we had no school. I don't like Halloween, in fact I would say that the closest thing you could compare my feelings to would be hate, but I did appreciate the extra day of rest. I was able to take a nice walk on the beach -- can you believe that it had been more than two months since I'd done that?! -- play scrabble with my Parents -- Dad won... -- tease my siblings, and even play worship with my family on Sunday! All in all it was very relaxing. You know, I really miss my house. I used to be that sometimes the only thing that I wanted to do was get out of the house -- not in a bad way... just a little bit of a break -- but now I find myself just wanting to be home sitting at the kitchen table and chatting with my Mom... I think that even if it were for nothing else, this time here at the school has taught me to love my family even more than I did before!! Love you guys!

After having spent a weekend at the beach -- that sounds much more glamorous than it was -- the time came for me to go back to Los Mochis. Michelle and David picked me up at the bus station Monday night and the next morning it was back to school! Tuesday's school was very laid back. I had only three of my six students and the ones I had were my "easy" kids. The one thing that made it hard was the fact that I got hit with something like allergies while I was teaching. I have never had allergies in my life, and I am not even sure if what I got was allergies, but since it only seemed to get me when I went into my classroom I assume that it had to have been something of the kind... besides, if I admit that it was I would be admitting that I am coming down with something.... and I really don't want to be coming down with something right now!!!

Yesterday was the hard day. The morning wasn't that difficult. For me it was the normal "fight against the flesh" to get up in the morning and then the rush to get out of the house before 7:45am. School went well -- one of my students is finally beginning to understand the concept of addition! yea! In the afternoon we came home and had tuna gravy on bread (hmmm...??) and then all the kids went out to the park to play.

In the evening is when things started getting a little more hectic. Michelle had been complaining of a headache all day but by 5:00pm her headache had gotten worse and added to that was a slight fever. She went up to take a rest and not much after that David came down to tell us that she was worse. Today school was canceled and a doctor came to see Michelle. His diagnosis was that she has a throat infection and is to stay in bed until Saturday at the earliest.... this means that there won't be any school tomorrow, though we will have the kids here at the house doing some worksheets and catching up where they are behind.

Keep me in your prayers as this Sunday Petra will be leaving for the States to attend her brothers wedding. I know that it is going to be a very long two weeks while she is gone, but I also know that God is faithful and won't put anything on me that I can't handle. Granted, I might be doubled over and groaning from the weight, but I won't fall!!! I don't suppose that anyone wants to come down next week and stay on to help while Petra's gone? lol

Anyway, I hope that you have a great week! I'll be back on here soon to update you all! Let God be the strength of your life today, tomorrow and all the tomorrows that follow that! Don't ever let anything get between you and what God wants for you... and especially don't forget to pray and read the Bible in order to find out what God's will for you is!

Blessings!

Week four

2009-10-25T15:07:00.000-07:00

Week four here at the school has come and gone. I can't believe that I have already been here a month... but it's true! The time has gone so quickly and I have come to love each and every one of these kids God has placed here. I enjoy so much seeing their joy over the smallest things and I have even become used to being called "Maestra" 24/7.

School wasn't canceled even one day last week. I was surprised, but we didn't get a drop of rain after Sunday. Just big, dark, menacing clouds in the distance. With the "storm" also came the cooler weather!! Yeah! I am feeling ever so much better now that I can do most of the work in the house and not feel like I am melting... sigh... such a relief!

This past week I was able to move my class room into the garage. Up to this point it had been too hot to even think about moving inside, but since it had cooled off considerably, I thought it would be a good idea. It isn't the ideal place for a classroom, but I like the seclusion and quiet since it really helps the kids concentrate. I have had to deal with a lot less problems as far as distractions go... my slowest student has actually been able to finish most of his work in class rather than having to bring it home! Quite exciting!

As far as outside of class, this week has been... interesting? ... crazy? ... or maybe something in between. At the beginning of the week one of the kids ran away from his home and David ended up spending most of Monday looking for him. While that was going on, another one of the kids was taken into the doctor to have his foot lanced because he had been walking barefoot in dirty water and a cut on his foot had gotten a bad infection. The doctor ended up coming out to the house in the afternoon and doing it here. Juanito (the one with the infection) was not happy about what was happening... I don't know what the neighbors thought hearing his muffled screams coming through the window...
Later on in the week the splinter that caused all of the trouble finally worked it's way out and now he is on the mend.

On Wednesday we got the results back from a scan that was done on Jesus Melecio's (one of the younger kids) brain. It turns out that he had parasites on his brain. Supposedly it is from eating bad pork. From what I understand it isn't life threatening right now, but they are treating it. Keep this little boy in your prayers!

Lastly, on Friday one of the older kids, Marcos, fell down the stairs and broke his nose... needless to say, he isn't going to be in school tomorrow.

Now that I write it all down it seems like a lot less than what actually happened... but I guess that is really all of it. Wait! I do remember one more thing -- only this one doesn't have anything to do with the school. About four months ago, a friend of mine and myself began thinking about the possiblity of bringing a team of youth from all over the US down on a 9 day mission trip. At first it was just an idea, then it became a "perhaps someday", and shortly after that it became a "what about this January?" and now it has become a reality! It's amazing how it happened -- and I know it was all God. Slowly but surely we were able to get over all of the obstacles -- plus I really began to understand all of the work my parents put into these mission teams that come down ;^) -- and through God's grace everything just seems to have been brought together! As of right now we have about 7 people who are confirmed and coming on the trip. The scheduled day of arrival for the team is Jan. 3rd. I am so excited to see how God can move when you just take the step!
It is a little late, but if anyone is interested in coming down on this trip or in helping out by filling a duffel bag with toys for children to send down with the team, please let me know and I can send more info. I would love to see more people get involved!

Alright, I need to go. The kids are about ready to get up from their nap and I really should be done! Blessings upon you guys! Let me just close with a verse that really got my attention this Sunday.

1 Peter 3:13-15
13Who is there to harm you if you prove
zealous for what is good? 14But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed
AND DO NOT FEAR THEIR INTIMIDATION, AND DO NOT BE TROUBLED,
15but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;

I remember sitting in the car that very morning when one of the kids came up to me with his Sunday school book in hand and asked me, "Why do you praise God?". What a question! I answered him that it was because I was freed from my sins through the blood of Jesus Christ. As I sat it church later that day and remembered what the little boy had said I realized just how important it is to know, and I mean really know, why it is that I live the way I do. For, if I am going to live in such a way that I desire to glorify God no matter what the cost, I had better know what it is I might have to lay my life down for.
Consider these following questions:

What is your defense for the hope that is in you?
Do you live as though you hoped in something bigger than yourself, your dreams and even your family?
If I were to ask you why you lived for God right now, would you be able to give me a firm answer without any shadow of doubt?

Just a challenge for you this week.

Week three

2009-10-18T21:00:00.000-07:00

I have returned with tales from week the third of my stay in Los Mochis. I really haven't done anything extremely out of the ordinary... I know that some of you might think some of what I do as part of my "normal" is actually quite extraordinary -- or maybe just weird, you pick ;) . Anyway, I hope to shed just a little bit of light onto what was my third week as teacher at "Escuela Cristiana Magdelena Rincon" -- try saying that five times fast!

The beginning of the week started out like any other. After a weekend that seemed a lot shorter than it should have been I was ready to face the new day! Monday came and we all headed out to the school for a day of classes. My class went very well. I have begun reading "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" for about half an hour every other day. I think that the kids enjoy it -- though I haven't yet gotten a good system of getting them to not both one another while I am reading... I'll get there!
As far as the other subjects go, two of my students who were struggling a lot with Math finally seem to have gotten the hang of simple addition and subtraction. I think that I am more excited than they are!! My youngest student who is still at kindergarten level is starting to be able to recognize and write the numbers 1-20. That is going fairly well. He isn't much for doing worksheets, but I do feel like he is beginning to understand. Reading for most of my students is comingslowly but surely. Two of my students are already reading and two others are well on their way. The only one that I am struggling with is 10 years old and doesn't yet know all of her letters and their sounds. I have my work cut out for me with her... keep me in your prayers as I will not only need wisdom in teaching, but also patience and understanding.

On Friday I was able to go home for the weekend to visit my family. I had a great time, though it did seem like it was over before it had begun. I rested, though I didn't really sleep. I guess what I mean is that even though I didn't really spend much time sleeping, I was able to relax and I feel all the better for it. This morning -- Sunday -- I was able to play worship with my family before I had to leave. I enjoyed it ever so much! I had missed playing with them. When we got home we ate lunch and then my Dad, Jessee and I played a game of Scrabble. I was winning almost the whole time, but then at the end my Dad got a super nice word and left me in the dust... that always happens! Ah, well, it's a game! ;) Besides, what are games for but to create good memories?! Well, Mom and Dad, if you are reading this, I love you!!!! (((HUGS)))

I am not sure what to expect this week. Only one day of school was canceled last week due to the rain, but we are thinking that school might have to be canceled this week because of huricane Rick. It appears that we are going to be getting a bit of rain from this one!

I do have something that I would like all of your prayers on. For the past few months I along with one of my friends have been putting together a mission team of youth and from all over the US to come down to Mexico in January of 2010. By God's grace, things seem to be starting to fall into place and we have about three people as of now who seem fairly interested in coming. I don't know how this is going to work out, but I know that God does and I trust Him to be in control! If you would like to get more info just send me an email and I will get back to you! Thank you in advance for your prayers!

Alright, my battery is going to run out -- both literally and figuratively. Prayers that you have a blessed week! Let God COMPLETE a work in your life this week!

Phil. 1:6
"I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in
you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ."

Week two

2009-10-13T10:30:00.000-07:00

I sit here listening to the pitter patter of the rain on the street while I type and listen to a sermon by Paul Washer... I am not usually this good at multi-tasking! There's no school today because of the rain. Until we can get the leaks fixed and the walkways covered our classrooms will continue to become lakes every time it rains ;) !

This past week has been great. I am starting to fall into step here at the school. Michelle and David have been very patient with me as I ask question after question... but their patience has proven true and now I feel a little bit more like I belong here and less like "the outsider who just arrived last week". The kids all call me Maestra (teacher) and refer to me in the formal "Usted" form... kind of funny sounding. The children are all loud and rather full of energy, but I love them to more for it... yet I have really come to appreciate naptime! And I never understood when I was little and Mom would tell me that naptime was more for her sake than for ours! :P

On Thursday we started a new study at our youth group. It's called "The One True God" by Paul Washer. I feel like it is going to yield a lot of fruit! I am extremely excited!! Also we are wanting to start up a worship group at the youth group. I have been asked if I would be interested, but I'm not sure if I will be able to fit it into my schedule... it depends on whether or not the others will be able to practice on Saturday.

This Saturday we had a general cleaning at the church. We were finally able to put up the chalkboards and organize the office. Now we have more of an idea of where to find books and supplies for our classes... I love it! it is so much easier! After that I went over to a friend's house here in Mochis. We had a nice time just talking and -- for me -- resting. I enjoyed the quiet for those few hours!

On Sunday after church all the brethren went over to the school for the church's monthly fellowship lunch -- David and Michelle volunteered the use of the building. The lunch went pretty much all day. I was exausted by the end of the day, but it was nice to be "not a teacher" for an afternoon ;) .

As I listen to Paul Washer -- which I am still doing at this moment -- I am in such complete agreement with what he says. Some people call him judgemental and narrow-minded but all I see is a man who loves God and wants all that he does to glorify his Lord. That to me is true Christianity and that's why he is my favorite preacher!

Our Lord God Thou hast made the heavens and the earth with Thine great power! He is great and mighty and worthy of being praised!

Alright, I need to go now! Prayers that your week is blessed and that you remember whom you serve every moment of the day! Examine yourself!

Joshua 24:15
"If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

Week One

2009-10-03T11:46:00.000-07:00

Hey!! I am here again! I hve had a very blessed week. I did try and find time to post during the week, but it never seemed to happen. I think that I will just try and write once a week and then if I have time I can write more... we'll see how that works!

As I said, this last week was great. I was able to make it through one week of teaching and now I have a better idea of what to expect. I have 5 students as of right now and a sixth who might be coming in a week or so. The main objective for these children this school year is that they learn to read and work simple math. I have my work cut out for me, but I am excited... in a strange sort of way!

Oh, I did have this really awesome Youtube video that I wanted to share with you all. It's by a man named Nick Vijucic. Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8ZuKF3dxCY

Petra (the other young woman who works at the school) and I got on the computer to watch a fifteen minute video and ended up spending more than an hour watching video after video of this amazing guy. God really has done as awesome work through him. It is such an example of how God uses our weaknesses for His glory!

As far as other things that I have been up to: on Thursday I went to youth group and we had a lot of fun following clues around the mall. At the end of each clue there was a Bible question from the book of Jonah. Once we found all the clues we had to sit down and answer the questions... they we anything but easy! After about 2 hours we headed back to the church where the youth pastor gave all the answers to the questions and we got to see who won. As it was my team and another team tied for first and then two of the others tied for second. The hardest thing about answering the Bible questions was that most of them were in-depth and required more than just reading over the book. I think that what helped me was that I had done several studies on the book of Jonah. Winning aside ;) , I really enjoyed it and I feel like I learned a lot about Jonah and the compassion of God... awesome!

Anyway, I hope that you all have a wonderful and blessed week!

Ephesians 6:10-11
"Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might; put on the full armor
of God that you might be able to stand against the whiles of the Devil."

Back in Mexico just in time for a new adventure!

2009-09-25T20:00:00.000-07:00

Hello all my dear friends and family! I pray that this post finds you all well and blessed! I know that it has been ever so long since I have stopped by to drop a note... but you can't really blame me since I have been quite busy... well, maybe you can blame me a little because I am sure that if I would have tried harder I might have been able to at least write something. But, no matter! it is over and I am here now!

We arrived in Las Glorias safe and sound a little over a week ago. The heat was and is beastly, but I think that after the first three days we all got over the worst of it. I actually begin the think that it wasn't that it was hotter, simply that we had gotten spoiled while in the States. Anyway, the day after we arrived was spent cleaning and unpacking and all the other assundry chores one can find to do around the house. While we were in the States a friend of ours blessed us with the complete set of Little House on the Prarie (friends: if you are reading this, know that your gift has been put to good use) so when we were all sweaty and ready for a break we would retire to my parents' room and watch an episode or two... great times! And what laughs!

This last week I had the chance to help our one of the sisters in the church who just had surgery by cleaning and washing and then by taking her kids during the day for a few days! I had such a wonderful time doing it. I really love her children and I don't think that I would ever consider watching them anything but enjoyable! I pray that God would continue His work in her life and that He would be speeding the healing.

Now that a week and some has past I (on my own this time... though never alone!!) have set out on a new journey. God has opened the doors for me to be able to volunteer for three months at the deaf school in Los Mochis. As some of you may recall, I spent two weeks here about two months ago. It was amazing and I loved every --well, nearly every ;) -- minute of it!

My family brought me today and left me here at the school. I am looking forward to see what God is going to do in this time. I know that in many ways it will be a test of faith, but I am excited to see God give me opportunities to put all that I have learned into practice. It's going to be awesome!!
My duties officially start on Monday. From what I understand, I will be teaching a class for 1st grade and possibly second as well. I think that there will be 6 kids in my class -- though I could be off on the numbers. The kids that I will be teaching are hearing. Most of them either come from baad situations or are siblings of one of the deaf children in the school. About 25 kids stay here at the Bonsells' house and about that many more attend the school alongside these. The larger portion of the work is not in teaching at the school, but rather in feeding, watching and loving the 25 kids that live here. Keep me in your prayers! I know that the hardest thing for me is going to be the getting up early... I am not an early morning person. Once I am up I am up, but I have a hard time dealing with less than 9 hours of sleep. Oh well, I know that these next few weeks will cure me of that!

Here's a passage that I found to be very encouraging:

1O LORD, You are my God;
I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name;
For You have worked wonders,
Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.
2For You have made a city into a heap,
A fortified city into a ruin;
A palace of strangers is a city no more,
It will never be rebuilt.
3Therefore a strong people will glorify You;
Cities of ruthless nations will revere You.
4For You have been a defense for the helpless,
A defense for the needy in his distress,
A refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat;
For the breath of the ruthless
Is like a rain storm against a wall.
5Like heat in drought, You subdue the uproar of aliens;
Like heat by the shadow of a cloud, the song of the ruthless is silenced.
6The LORD of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain;
A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow,
And refined, aged wine.
7And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples,
Even the veil which is stretched over all nations.
8He will swallow up death for all time,
And the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces,
And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth;
For the LORD has spoken.
9And it will be said in that day,
"Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us
This is the LORD for whom we have waited;
Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation."
10For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain,
And Moab will be trodden down in his place
As straw is trodden down in the water of a manure pile.
11And he will spread out his hands in the middle of it
As a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim,
But the Lord will lay low his pride together with the trickery of his hands.
12The unassailable fortifications of your walls He will bring down,
Lay low and cast to the ground, even to the dust.

Aren't the promises that our Lord gives us wonderful and beyond all compare! Blessed be His name!

Alright, I would like to go to bed now. It's been a long day and morning comes quickly! I will try and be around again soon!
Until such a time as I am able, I remain forever in His arms of grace!
Blessings to you all!

We're here!

2009-08-24T14:29:00.000-07:00

Hello, blogger buddies and faithful readers! I am glad that you stopped by!
As of my last post we -- my family and I -- were preparing to leave for the States. Well, we are now in the States and staying with some very good friends in Tucson, AZ.

Our trip was wonderful! We had no incidents, no excessive heat (praise God!), no delays, pleasant company and great sermons to listen to all the way up! The night before we left Mexico several friends stopped by to send us off. After they left I stayed up for a bit cleaning and getting food ready for the trip (just so that I don't take all of the credit, Annette did help with the food :P ). I think that I ended up going to bed at like 12am ... though it might have been 12:30am ... I don't remember *smiles sheepishly*.

About 15 minutes after I fell asleep -- it was more than that, but it sure felt like 15 minutes -- I felt my Mom shaking my shoulder telling me that it was time to get up. IT should have been quick to get out of the house, but there are always those "last minute details" that seem to take forever! We finally left the house at 4:30am.

Later that day I was commenting to my Mom that it always seemed so much easier to get out of the house when she and my Dad would get everything done and then wake me up when the van was running and we were ready to walk out the door. Now that I am older my Mom wakes me up earlier so that I can help her do the last minute stuff. Don't get me wrong, I love being able to help out and I really do like organizing... but not so much at 3am! ;^D

Anyhow, we arrived in Tucson at 7pm, just in time for supper, and got settled in. The next day we had volunteered to help some friends of ours move. We had a great time getting to know all of the people who showed up to help and just fellowshipping with the friends who we hadn't seen in months. I firmly believe that the best way of getting to really know someone is working beside them... it can show you what the person is really like when they are sweating and out of breath yet still have a smile on their face!

On Sunday we rose early to attend church. My Dad was teaching that Sunday so I had the privilege of hearing the message that God had given him. God used his Word powerfully and I know that more than a few lives were touched and challenged. After the service some friends of ours invited us over for lunch. We had American style taco salad... it really tastes nothing like what I now consider a true "taco salad" but I liked it equally well, if not more! Annette (she is another missionary from Mexico who "hitched a ride" up with us. She'll be staying with us for a week or two) and I decided that as long as you don't consider the food that is called "Mexican food" as authentic, it tastes great!

Anyway, back the events of the day! At four o'clock all of us went over to the church for a picnic. I for one had an absolute blast! We played games, hung out, made new friends, caught up with old ones, ate hamburgers (I liked that part :D), and had a great time! Some of the games that they played were very interesting. There was the water balloon toss -- you can't have a picnic in the summer without that -- then the water balloon fight -- I still have a big bruise on my back where someone pegged me with a balloon that didn't pop -- then a game called "Wink'em" in which you make a fool of yourself by diving to the ground to avoid getting tagged (if you want a more detailed explanation than that you'll have to write me and ask me to explain it better! ;P ). Finally, we played a game called "Kijawbie" (don't quote me on the spelling). In this game everyone (well, we divided it into a team of boys and a team of girls) forms a circle with a little piece of rope with a know on each end between every person.
In the center of the circle you place a garbage can (plastic). On the count of three the whole group starts rotating around the can while trying to make someone else either lose grip on one of their ropes or touch the can. The object of the game: be the last one standing. The rules: no yanking, biting or kicking; anything else goes. The game was brutal! To my great surprise I ended up the last of two standing. The other girl won, but by the time the game was over all I wanted to do was flop down on the grass and stay there -- which I did ;) . If you will believe it, the game that I participated in lasted almost 20 minutes. Can you imagine? 20 minutes of feeling like you hands were going to fall off! I am sure feeling it today! Still, it was enough fun to make up for the aching shoulders and sore legs that I woke up with this morning!!

Today my parents and I went and applied for my passport. It didn't really take very long except for getting my photos. My Dad took me to Walgreens early to do that. I liked how the picture turned out, but my Dad says that it looks like a mugshot because I didn't smile. I replied that if he would have told me that you could smile, I might have! Then again, if I was completely content with the picture it would be just weird! lol

Alright, I think that I have got you all pretty much up to speed. I will only add that God has been wonderfully, amazingly, completely faithful in my life! He is so good and I can naught but praise Him! I hope that you have a blessed day!

Isaiah 40

21 Do you not know? Have you not heard?
Has it not been declared to you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,
And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,
Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain
And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
23 He it is who reduces rulers to nothing,
Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless.
24 Scarcely have they been planted,
Scarcely have they been sown,
Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth,
But He merely blows on them, and they wither,
And the storm carries them away like stubble.
25 "To whom then will you liken Me
That I would be his equal?" says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high
And see who has created these stars,
The One who leads forth their host by number,
He calls them all by name;
Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power,
Not one of them is missing.

God is at work 24/7

2009-08-15T07:09:00.000-07:00

Good day to you! Today is Saturday the 15 and it is a beautiful morning! God had be marvelously good to me in these past few weeks. I am falling more and more in love with Him day by day!
Don't get me wrong, struggles still come -- and have come in these past weeks -- but it is such a blessed assurance to know that God is always there with you and never abandones you!

Preparations for our departure to the States continue. We are planning to Thursday morning early -- like 3am. Keep us in prayer!

Our weather here has been in a constant state of change. It has never really gotten cold, but we did have one day that was moderately warm rather than extremely hot. One night you are so sweaty that you can't get to sleep and the next you are sleeping with a blanket!?!? It's because of the storm systems up in the mountains... but as long as the coolness lasts I will not complain!
But you know, even the heat can be a blessing. Sure it's hard to deal with and sweating all the time isn't exactly my ideal, but it really tests your patience and God has used it to show me how my attitude is -- it's really hard to hide a bad attitude in frustrating heat and while doing hard work. The only way to avoid striking out in anger in a frustrating situation is to not have anger in your heart to begin with. For, as the Scripture says:

Luke 6:45
"The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is
good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for
his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.

So, if I want to be a blessing to others it has to start with me first!

Last week we went to Los Mochis and while we were there a huge storm hit. Since it was raining too hard for us to drive home we ended up staying the night with some friends. I had never had that happen before, so for me the experience was unique! -- One thing that I absolutely love about Mexico are the thunder storms. They are AMAZING! We get winds and rain, but above all we get lightning and thunder! The lightning strikes and then... CRASH! The thunder sounds! My personal favorites are the storms where the thunders sounds something like a whip. Perhaps this is strange of me, but I can't help it. Every time I hear the thunder it just makes me think of how awesome and powerful a God I serve. The trees and plants might show His beauty, but the thunder and brilliant lightning show His might! -- Anyway, back to what I was saying...

We were originally in Los Mochis to visit with some of our friends and also to attend the youth meeting. The week that we were there the youth pastor had decided to show a video instead of giving a message. I really appreciated the sermon. It was called Return to Christianity but you can find it on Youtube under The Shocking Youth Message (Paul Washer). It was the most moving and convicting sermon that I have ever heard from a man. God used him powerfully.
There was one phrase in particular at the beginning that really caught my attention. Paul was talking about how watered down Christians and Christianity had become in the States. I don't remember exactly what he said, but it was something to the effect of "we have forgotten what true Christianity is and we need to change" and after he said that everyone applauded and some people even whistled. When the applause had died down, Paul look out over the audience and said, "I don't know what you are applauding about; I am talking about you." Ouch.
I recommend the video as an hour well spent. Even if you don't agree with everything that he has to say it really makes you think and, more importantly, examine yourself.

Alright, now I have done! I will try and get back on here soon with pictures... we'll see how soon "soon" really is!
May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding be with you all!

Everyday goings-on!

2009-07-31T13:24:00.000-07:00

And so the time goes by! I cannot believe how fast the weeks seem to pass. I honestly didn't realize that it had been so long since I'd last written!
No much has happened really. Days come and go, it is still very hot and humid and GOD IS GOOD!

Right now my Mom is preparing octopus for lunch... I have never had octopus, but everyone I have asked says that it is very tasty. Still, I would prefer to come to my own conclusion after I eat it. It makes me laugh to think of what I might have said three years ago if my Mom had told me that we were going to have octopus for lunch... very funny! I don't think that anyone in my family would have gone for it, me least of all! But now, I think that everyone except for Evie will eat it without comment (or at least without complaint. A favorite habbit of ours is to comment on the food; my Mom doesn't mind as long as all that we say is positive ;P ). Evie has never liked sea food. Oh well, that just means more for us!

The boys have been working on cutting wood for my Mom's new brick oven -- which, by the way, is now finished. It's sort of hard work, but it keeps them occupied and that means that I have some quiet time to, say, write a blog post!

Yesterday we went to a party for a friend's little boy. It was fun and it was only a few blocks from our house which means that we didn't have to worry about the distant storm clouds catching us on the way home! It was another pool party and the boys spent most of their time trying to climb a rope swing that was stationed above the pool. I think that Jessee holds the record, something that Caleb laments. He really takes pride in being the strongest boy. I wager he'll be doing push-ups for the next few days! Well, I might be exagerating a little bit, but it is true to some extent.

Alright, before I call it a day I want to share a passage in 1 John that I have found quite challenging these past few days:

1 John 3:5-9

You know that He appeared in order to take away sins, and in Him there is
no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no who sins has seen Him or knows
Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices
righteousness is rigthteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin
is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son
of God appeared for this purpose: to destroy the works of the devil. No
one who is born of God practices sin because His seed abides in Him, and he
cannot sin because he is born of God.

A party, a storm and three days of horrible heat!

2009-07-21T15:03:00.000-07:00

Dear faithful readers,
As always, I have to excuse the lack of movement on this blog. And, as always, I do have an excuse. These past few days here have been nice and horrible at the same time. We had a huge storm which knocked down a good number of telephone poles and even more trees. The result of this was that we had no electricity for almost three days (this is my excuse). I was desperate by the third day -- mostly because I hadn't realy been able to sleep without at least having a fan. I slept enough so that I wasn't falling over, but not enough to avoid a headache. Thanks to God, we now have electricity, but the days without it are still fresh enough on my mind to make me quite happy and not at all discontent in the heat... I suppose that means that something good did come of the trial... but at what cost? lol ;^)
There's a really cool story to go with all this, though. I was trying to think of the best way to start, but I guess that the best is always to start at the beginning. Here goes nothing!

On Saturday we all woke up at the normal time, did our chores and other various odd jobs that were to be done around the house and then we had a few hours to spend as we so desired. I spent most of it practicing my guitar and clarinet... and, of course, reading, but I didn't really do much of that. At 1:00 we all got ready and left to a party for one of our friend's cousin's daughter's birthday (say that five times fast!) in Guamuchil.

It was a swimming party and they had rented a pool for the occasion. We had a great time hanging out with our friends and keeping cool (very important!). At about 6:00pm we started seeing a large storm system rolling in, but we didn't really think much of it. We ended up leaving about an hour later and by then the sky looked really dark. Still, it didn't look like the storm was going to hit us for a good hour and we knew that by that time we would almost be home.

After a bit of consideration, my Dad decided that we would take the back roads in order to get home sooner (just so you know, most of those roads are dirt or gravel). We drove for a ways on the road and then, all of a sudden, it got crazy still without even a little bit of breeze. It was like that for a moment and then SWOOOSH! the wind came blowing in. It was a lot like the movie Twister (if you have ever seen it. If you haven't just imagine the harshest wind you have ever seen and that's probably about where it was).

The trees whipped around like crazy and the dust swirled up making mini tornados. It was INSANE! After a little while, the dust got so bad that we could barely see the road, so my Dad had Esteban (a friend of ours who knows the roads really well) change places with him. The wind was so strong that when my Dad opened the front door of the van the wind grabbed it and flung it so hard that it almost came off the hinges (that's the next project that my Dad has on his list, fix van door).

I was a little worried by that time. Not the kind of worried where I was scared, but worried enough to begin constantly praying. We weren't more than 20 minutes from home on one of the gravel canal roads when the rain came. If it was hard to see in the dust, it was twice as hard to see in the rain. Garbage and tree limbs were flying everywhere and the rain was falling almost horizontally. We were driving about 10 miles per hour, but even at that pace we had to stop constantly in order to make sure that we weren't headed into the canal. We were about 5 minutes from the highway when we glimpsed the lights on a car ahead of us. It seemed like the car wasn't moving and as we got closer we realized that not only was the car not moving, but there was a tree on top of it!

From the looks of it, the tree had fallen a matter of minutes before we arrived. It was kind of weird how it happened, but we hadn't been there a minute and my Dad and Esteban were still discussing the best way to be able to help them when three girls (well, more like youth) and a lady carrying her baby rushed out from the bushes where the car was stuck and into our van.

They were all soaked, but no one seemed to really mind since all four of the women were hysterical (I have never actually seen someone go into hysterics, but this was really close). I tried to calm the girls down the best I could. After about 30 minutes of the two men who were in the car trying to get the car out from under the tree, we decided that it would be best to take the women back home and then have them send someone back with help to get the car out.

By this time the rain had calmed down and the road was clear enough to be able to drive on. We backtracked the way we had come and about 2 hours later, after having dropped the women off at their house, we arrived in Las Glorias. Not much of our stuff got damaged by the rain (mostly just some books of mine that were on my desk under the window). Nothing that couldn't be replaced. God really protected us and I hope and pray that we were able to be a testimony to that family. They even invited us to come by and visit them any time!

It's cool how God uses those kinds of circumstances for His glory and to bless us. We kept commenting that, "If we had only left 5 minutes earlier we would have made it through the storm." or "If we had only left 5 minutes later we would have chosen a different road." Then we realized that God used everything and worked it all together so that we would take that road and so that we would arrive at the tree a mere minute after it had fallen. Who knows why it happened, but I do know that it did happen for a reason. Maybe someday I'll know why, but even if I never do I can trust that God is capable and willing to take care of everything!

Alright, I am now going to release you, but only as long as you promise to come back -- or are you too scared? Mwahahaha!
Seriously though, I hope to see you around here again!
Blessings!

God is in Control!

2009-07-12T03:31:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Interesting title, right? It doesn't have a lot to do with what I am going to write, but it's the thought that has been most prominant in my life over the past few days. I figured, why not make it into a post title? So, I did! :^D

As of right now it is 4:15 a.m. . Some of you might be wondering what in the world I am doing on the computer at such an insane hour... well, there is an easy answer for that too! We are being hit be a storm. Like most nights when we are hit by storms, the power is out, the roof is leaking in places -- there is one right over my head that is dripping constantly. I am already wet, though, so it doesn't really matter too much. I am wet mainly because I had to step outside to find the mop... took me a little bit because the only light I had was a cellphone and the occasional flashes of lightning.

Still, even though storms here do have their downsides, I can't help but love the wildness of them. There is something so magestic about the rolling of the thunder -- that is the perfect word; "rolling". It does sound like it is "rolling" across the sky... BEAUTIFUL!!

Anway, aside from the fact that it is 4 oclock in the morning and the power is out, lets just pretend that this is a normal update. Sound good?

My days have been pretty full this past week. If I am not doing one thing I am doing another. I have been trying to keep my hands busy. I find that when I have my hands busy I am less likely to fall into temptation.
The principal filler of my time has been the memorization of verses. I am trying to memorize the book of 1 John. Right now I am on chapter three. It is very fulfilling to be able to quote passages of scripture; it's nice to know that what I am putting so much time into is something that's going to be of lasting importance. I have also found that when you are memorizing passages of scripture it really helps in your understanding of it. Kind of like the "meditating on His word" that Psalm 1 talks about. I believe that when we take the time to really think about what a verse means, the Holy Spirit gives us understanding.

The best way I have yet found for "meditating on His word" is memorization. For those of you who feel up to it, I would like to challenge you to learn a book of the Bible. After 1 John I am thinking about beginning on the book of Romans. I know that it is a long book, but don't you think that it would be worth the struggle? I do! Take up the challenge, and don't put it off another day. It's a trap that we fall into, procrastinating. Live every day as though it were your last... such a hard motto to live by, but if we want to live lives that will leave a lasting mark on this world, we will have to do more than just plan. It's going to take action and sacrifice...

Luke 9:22-23
"If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me"

... are you going to take up that cross? Then take it up! And follow HIM to the end!! And this isn't just about memorizing verse -- thought that's a good thing -- it's about what you are going to do with the grace and mercy that you have been given through the blood of Jesus Christ.

God bless you guys! I hope and pray that you have a wonderful week! May te peace of God which surpasses all understanding be with you!

Just the average update to you all!

2009-07-07T16:12:00.000-07:00

Hello faithful readers! I know that I was hoping to have that whole week free... well, I did have a whole week free, but it seemed that every time that I sat down to type on my computer the internet was busy, the power was out or I just plain got distracted by something else.

I have had a great and relaxing week. The heat here is making it hard to accomplish any really big projects or tackle any really big jobs, but I think that we are all making it alright. Today was especially hot though... oh well! I suppose if it was cold I would be complaining the opposite. I just have to take everything with a grain of salt -- or something like that ;^)! Through it all God is good!

In this past week I have, among other things, been taking the opportunity of practicing on my neglected and dusty clarinet. My Mom gave me the clarinet on my 10th birthday, but I haven't really applied myself to it until now. It's a hard instrument to learn because it sounds so horrible when you don't do it right that you can only practice when everyone who has to share the house with you is okay with your doing so! Still, I have a fairly gracious set of "house-mates"... they put up with a lot more than most! lol So far I can play a total of three songs on the clarinet -- all old hymns -- not too long and I will be playing on Sunday mornings on the worship team *winks*. :^D

Today my Dad went to town to buy materials to start construction on a new portion of our house. This time it's going to be our -- Evie's and Mine -- room! Right now we only have enough to build the walls, but soon we are hoping to be able to put a roof on as well. It's so exciting!! I am already busy planning how I am going to arrange to our room... hmmm... lol!

It's funny how God works and uses all these hard situations to cause you to grow -- kind of random of me, I know, but when I write I tend to write exactly what comes into my mind as I am writing.
My Dad and I were talking the other day and somehow we ended up talking about our comfort zones and how a lot of the time, as Americans, we are accostomed to more than most Mexicans and a lot of times tend to complain more when we are deprived of our comforts.
Talking about this lead us to talk about how everyone is at a different level in their comfort zone. For example, I might say "I went three days without food so that we could complete the outreach we were doing", whereas a Christian in a country such as Africa might think of that sacrifice as nothing. Sometimes we -- I should make this more trasparent and say "I"-- forget about all the other Christians around the world and get too involved in what is going on my life -- the things that I am dealing with or the sacrifices I am making -- to be able to remember that less than twenty out of every hundred people in the world have electricity; to remember that 1.1 billion people in this world don't have clean to drink; to remember that even in my hardship I am blessed.
It's so easy to aknowledge that when you are seated in the church pew... but when you are lying awake tossing and turning in the heat because the electricity has gone out... then it gets hard to remember.
Still, looking at the Bible I have to see that God never warns us to be careful in hardship (Romans 5:3-4); it's when we have plenty. When we are "well-off", that's when the Bible tells us the be careful. It's not that riches are bad in themselves, it's that, if one is not careful, riches can cause one to stumble and sin (Psalm 49; Mark 10 Rich Young Ruler). Just a challenge for anyone willing to give an ear. Sure is challenging me!

---TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN---
We are officially planning to be in the States August 20th thru September 10th -- I am not 100 percent sure about that second date, but the first is right. We will be traveling up to the LA area but probably not any farther. If any of you want to plan a roadtrip down to see us... well, you have an opportunity!! ;^D
Blessings to you all!

Pictures from deaf school

2009-06-25T12:15:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!! I hope that this finds you all quite well and strong in the Lord. I know that it has taken me forever to get back on here to update you all... but it really couldn't be helped. Since I have been gone for awhile it is going to take me a few posts to get caught up to the present, but I am hoping for an uneventful week ahead in which to write several posts. Let's hope and pray that it works out!

This first post is going to be mostly just pictures with captions, but as they (don't ask me who "they" is; I have no clue) say, "a picture is worth a thousand words". So, every time you see a picture just imagine that I wrote a thousand words!

HERE WE GO!!

Aren't they all the sweetest looking kids! They really are! This is on the way to church in the Bonsels' SUV. I think that they have us beat on the number of kids that they fit in that vehicle. I think that the final count on Sunday was 20. That's the kids and adults all added together.

Ahh... the boys playing with their tops. They did this every opportunity that they could get. Every afternoon one of us (the girls volunteering at the school) would take the kids out the park to play and burn off excess energy. It didn't always work, but it did help!

This is Jenna (blue dress and bangs), Teresa (red shirt) and Petra. Petra has been working at the school for three years. Teresa has been working there for 8 months and Jenna arrived the day after I did-- she stayed until the first week of July. Christy is the other girl who was volunteering at the school. She had been there for three months.

Estefania and Brian! Aren't they so cute!

Tops again!

This was at a birthday party we went to for a friends mom. We had a great time hanging out with everyone. Christy (the girl who I said was working at the school) is the one in the red dress.

Everyone looks so tired in this picture! We were on our way back to the school after the party.

Sergio!

Proof that I was there!

Making lunch. We had BLTs. Very yummy!

The school itself is set up in two buildings. One is the actual school and the other is the home of the Bonsells and about 20 other children. The main job of the staff working at the school is to take care of the children before and after classes. My job was to help out in the school in the mornings and then in the afternoons Christy, Jenna and I rotated the rest of the jobs amongst ourselves (bathing the kids in the evening, supervising naptime, taking the kids out to the park, preparing meals, etc.).

In conclusion, I must say that I had a great two weeks at the deaf school. It was a dificult schedule, but I think that I benefited from it. I enjoyed working with the kids and the ladies that I had the priviledge of working alongside were a wonderful encouragement to me. I already miss everyone I met there and am hoping to be able to return soon, Lord willing. I am praying about it!

Alright, now I need to go. God bless you all!

Busy Report

2009-06-09T11:50:00.000-07:00

Hello again readers! How are you all doing?

I am doing great. I have now completed my first week here at the deaf school and I think that I have finally been here long enough to pass my judgement... drum roll please... the verdict is that it's a wonderful place! I am still not sure if I like the whole get up at six thing, but that's just my flesh, so I am not too worried!

My week has passed quite eventfully. I have had just enough stuff to do without feeling like it's overwhelming and enough sleep that I usually make it through the day with an hour nap. That's another thing that I have really learned to appreciate here; naps. I remember my Mom always telling me that when I had kids of my own I would understand why she always took naps. I suppose that I just thought she was less able to bear with the stress of the day than I was, now I realize that a nap is really the only way to make it through the day when you have to watch kids! Last night all of the late nights caught up with me and I went to bed "early" (at nine). You might exclaim at that, but keep in mind that the kids don't go to bed until 8:30pm so if you want quiet time you have to take it then... I, however, valued a nice prayer time and sleep above time without kids, so I went to bed.

Now I suppose that I should tell you something funny that happened, though I would almost prefer not to share it since it incriminates myself and will probably be something that I will never live down... still, "Why do we live but to make sport for our neighbors and laugh at them in our turn," (Mr. Bennet, Pride and Prejudice)... here goes nothing!

Yesterday I was wandering around after having spent half an hour or so playing my guitar when I entered the kitchen and found Michelle (wife of David, and co-director of school) getting stuff out of the freezer. I, being the person that I am, asked if there was anything that I could help with. She said that I could make the milkshakes to go with super, if I so desired. I said sure and got right to work getting out all of the ingredients I might need.

When I had gotten out the fruit and the milk and all that other fun stuff and was blending the first pitcher-full (for our group you have to make at least four pitchers... And I thought that our family drank a lot!), Christy came in and offered her help. I agreed and we got to work scooping and pouring and blending and pouring. All went well... until that fateful moment....

Christy walked outside for a moment to grab something (can't remember what), while I finished blending what was already in the blender. I had just taken the lid off and was trying to get the blender off the base (first mistake) when it happened... My hand bumped the "blend" button and WHIZZZ! the blender came to life, spraying blueberry milkshake all over me and the kitchen!! Christy came in just in time to see the accident happen. Once I had turned the blender off I just stood there, not sure whether to laugh or get upset. Laughter finally won out and I was joined by Christy (who, btw, had used that time to grab her camera and get a picture... I'll think about whether or not to upload it)!!

So, this is my story for the week. It's not the only thing that has happened, but for now it's the only thing that I have time to write! Talk to you all soon!

Blessings!

First days at new home

2009-06-03T14:52:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!! I am glad that you are here!
Sorry I haven't written, but for the first time in awhile it hasn't been because there was nothing to write or because I was tired, but literally because I have had NO time... AT ALL! I am on my third day at the deaf school and I am still not 100% sure exactly what I think. I have been very tired out by the schedule and I have come to realize that I have never had to get up "early" in my entire life. I will never again complain that going to bed at 11pm and getting up at 7am is hard to do!!

Other than the fact that being on my feet all day and getting up early makes me more than ready for bed by 7:30pm (we don't get to go to bed until 9:30pm at the earliest), I have really enjoyed being here. The other staff are very helpful and the kids are all very well-behaved. So far I have been mostly helping out at the school by grading papers and answering the questions of the kids who aren't deaf. I have learned a little bit of sign, but not enough to explain a complicated math problem!

I haven't been able to learn all the kids names (here all of the kids have not only their name, but also a sign that is used to identify them). My sign is a combination of an "s" and the sign for "bangs". I suppose it's because I am growing my bangs out and they are always in my face.
Right now the kids are laying down for their daily nap. That's one thing that I really like about this place is the "naptime". I our house we never do it anymore!

Anyway, I need to go now. I just wanted to let you guys know a little bit of what's been going on in my life. I think that while the kids are laying down I am going to try and get a little bit of Bible studying in! To my family: I miss you guys!!
Blessings to you all! I Christ I remain--

Days keep coming and going

2009-05-25T12:04:00.000-07:00

Hello all! I have my own computer!!! Can you believe it?!?! I don't yet! It's not new by a long shot, but I should get at least a year out of it! It used to be my Mom's, but this last trip to the US God provided the money for my Mom to get a new one, so... here I am with the one she just happened to have as an extra. ;D

Lots of stuff has been happening in the last few days. First and formost, God is STILL good ALL THE TIME! But also, an opportunity has come for me to go to Los Mochis for a week and a half to help out at a deaf school run by some friends of ours. This has been in my thoughts and desire for serveral months now and it's exciting to finally see it happening!
We met the directors of the school about a month ago through some friends of our whose daughter works at the school full-time. We planned a trip out to visit the school and I just fell in love with it at first sight! I am sure that it won't be the easiest thing that I have ever tackled, but what is worthwhile is rarely easy! I will be leaving here (Las Glorias) on Sunday, so keep me in yor prayers!

Yesterday we had a group of "muchachas" (young ladies) over to our house to swim and have lunch with us. Most of the girls were Christians, but there was one, Julia by name, who was not. If you feel lead, please pray that God would be working in her life and bringing her into a relationship with Him.
As far as the day goes, it was very hot, but I suppose that it could have been worse. I came down with something of a cold, and today I have this lovely cough. Oh joy! :(

Today is just a run-of-the-mill day (other than the fact that I finally got my computer! YAY!). Oh yeah, I forgot, our cat had her kittens... in my brother's bed! He wasn't too happy about that! I don't personally like new-born kittens, but I supose for kittens they are fairly cute. I prefer them when they are just old enough to start jumping out of the box!

Okay, I will talk to you all later! Leave me a comment!
Blessings!
--

This is the day that the Lord has made!

2009-05-22T17:42:00.000-07:00

You know what I just realized? I have been on this blog for more than a year and I just now realized that my blog's 1 year anniversary passed without me even being mentioned! In fact, I didn't even notice until my Mom made a comment about having a "blog carnival" for her second year anniversary... funny, all those things seemed so important just 6 months ago and now everything seems to fade in comparison to my God and His marvelous works. I am not upset about this, I think that it is the best thing that could have ever happened to me. Still, at the same time it seems weird looking at your life in retrospect.

So, for the celebration of my year (and some) old blog I will merely say this, it's been a great way to learn more! It's funny, you think that you know something, but when you sit down to write it out it's a lot harder to get your thoughts to sound right on paper. In a way you learn more by teaching than by being taught. God's showed me so much through this small corner in the great scope of the Web!

Anyway, that aside, I know that I told you all that I would post pictures of our river trip, but I lied. Well, I didn't really lie, I just decided that since my Mom already posted about it over at OUR FAMILY BLOG, I would do just as well to send you over there! So, click HERE to read her post! (ps- click on the link and at least look at the pictures, it doesn't take THAT long to load!)

This week has been rather full. I have kept busy with homework and guitar lessons and just the everyday occurences that make up life.
The guitar lessons are something that I had been promising for weeks, but that just hadn't worked out on any of the days we had planned. This week I resolved that I would try my utmost to give the lessons and, like most things that you throw yourself into, they guitar lessons got done. Interesting note: it seems that so many times we say that "we just didn't have time" or "I was just swamped" when in reality we didn't try as hard as we could have a probably should have. Like the Bible says in Col. 3:23. We should do everything as unto the Lord and not to men; that includes giving guitar lessons or, say, homework ;^D . It's one of the greatest challenges that we receive as Christians, "Do all as unto the Lord." That pretty much covers any doubts you might have about how to live a life that glorifies God!

Back to the guitar lessons though, they went great! I think that both of the women that I am teaching are learning quickly and (most importantly) have a desire to learn. I am teaching them the keys of G and D. Next week me might add C, depending on how much they practiced what I gave them!

Today we had a large group over for lunch. The main purpose of the get together was to reach out to the families of some of the boys that my Dad has been discipling. Most of their families are non-Christians, so keep them in your prayers. As Americans, a lot of the people who live here see us as "Super-Christians" or "above them", but not in a good way. It's a steriotype that we struggle every day to get rid of as it can become an obstacle when ministering to the people in our village. Through inviting people over to hang out and get to know us we hope not only to share the love of Jesus, but also to help them realize that we are people, just like them, and we care about more than just money. So if God leads, you please pray that HE would be opening doors and showering down HIS blessing in this area.

Now I think that I am ready to go take a shower and then go to bed. It's been a long day and tomorrow will be even longer!
Blessings to you all! Leave me a comment... please!

Youth Bash!

2009-05-17T19:37:00.000-07:00

Hello again everyone! I am glad to be here again. It's been awhile, but God is still good, always has been and will continue to be! Isn't that SUCH a blessed assurance?!?!

This past week has been quite full. It was wonderful, but I must say that it was VERY tiring! Right now I am typing on the computer while literally having to hold me eyes open so that I don't fall face first onto the keys. Some of you might say, "What are you doing typing when you sould be asleep?" but that's just not who I am. If I don't write this now I will be up for an hour laying on my bed composing this post in my head... that's why it's just better to get it out of the way now!

It will probably take me a few days to get you all caught up to the present, but I hope that I will have you all filled in by the end of this week. The funny thing about blogging is that you think that you are getting caught up when, in reality, you are just barely keeping up because things keep happening! That's how I feel right now, but I don't mind. Besides, I don't really want to drop the blog. If I did that then none of you would know what was going on in my little corner of the world! So...

Camera... Lights... Action!

This Friday (the 15th) we had a group of about 30 "jovenes" (youth) come to Las Glorias from the nearby town of Los Mochis. They were here for a little more than a day and, though the focal point of their retreat was to take a time away from "life" to study the Word, we also had a great time hanging out at the beach, swimming in our pool and just getting to know one another.

We (my Dad and those of us involved with the youth at our church) took this opportunity to invite the 8 or 9 "faithful" jovenes from Boca del Rio to stay at our house over the weekend. This was the first time we had done something like this in awhile so everyone was pretty excited!

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, so let me just post pictures and you guys can imagine all the words that I would say if I was actually telling you the story in person!

We have had a lot of people in our pool in the past, but I think that over the weekend we broke our record!

This is one of my favorite things about large groups of Christian teens; we can always get enough people together to have a worship time! The guy who shared the message (Daniel Warne, or Dan) also was an exeptionally gifted guitar player. It was really neat to have him playing with us.

The first night after we had all been down to the beach everyone headed over to our house to prepare the food. After the meal we had a bonfire and toasted mashmellows. I was so glad that God protected us from the mosquitos. As a general rule you wouldn't be able to be outside past 7pm but on Friday it was perfect!

On Friday night everyone left our house around midnight with the intention on being in bed by 1:00am. Of course, not everyone went to bed when they were supposed to!

This was the second part of the message that Dan shared. The message was in three parts of about an hour each. The main point of what Dan shared was the heart and its spiritual significance; namely, living from the heart out. Great insights! If you want to hear more leave me a comment letting me know and I'll email you about it.

Lunch prep!

This picture seemed really funny to me. These guys were trying to figure out how to get the seeds out of the limes without squeezing out the juice at the same time! The expressions on their faces was just HILARIOUS! :P

This was at the last part of the message. The guy in this picture is David and he is translating for some of the youth who came who were deaf. They came from a Christian school in Los Mochis dedicated entirely to teaching children who are deaf to be able to communicate. There were six deaf teens who came and they were all very nice. I didn't get to talk with them as much as I would have liked, but it made me REALLY want to learn sign language!

After the conference was over we all headed back to Las Glorias. Since no one really wanted to squeeze into the car for the short trip, several people rode on top! Quite Mexican, if you ask me!

This is a picture of all our youth group plus theirs. We had a fairly huge group!

All in all it was a great day and a half. The group from Los Mochis was really neat and all the kids pitched in to help with the preparation, serving and clean up of all the meals (I REALLY appreciated that!). I don't think that I learned everyone's names, but that is no surprise for me since I truly have a horrible time with learning names, more so in Spanish, though it's easier than when I first got here! Oh well, I suppose one must learn with time!

The group was an interesting mix of Americans who spoke Spanish, Mexicans who spoke English and everything in between. Never having been with a group like that it was a little confusing, but not in a bad way!

Now you are officially caught up to Saturday evening. I will be back very soon (I hope) to tell you all about our trip to the river on Sunday... but not until tomorrow... or maybe later!
Blessings!
Hasta entonces! (see ya)

Dia De Los Niños (aka: Kids' Day)

2009-05-10T14:42:00.000-07:00

Alright, I am back, and this time I have something to write about!!
It's funny, I spent all of last week doing basically nothing and then, all of a sudden, I have a day where I seem to be so busy that there isn't time even to stop and catch my breath. That was yesterday.

I have mentioned before that Mexicans are famous for there numerous holidays. It's true. I think that they have more holdiays than days in the year. Of course, not everyone celebrates all of them, but they do honor enough of them to make me wonder how any of the kids learn anything in the schools when the classes are canceled all the time!

Among the more renowned of these "celebrations" is "Dia De Los Niños", or Kids' Day. This day is set aside for, you guessed it, the kids! Just like we have Mothers' Day (btw, Happy Mothers' Day to all of you wonderful mothers who are reading this!!!!) and Fathers' Day, Mexico has a day set aside for all of the kids.

When I first learned about this particular tradition, I was quite confused. It seemed weird to me to celebrate a day for the kids when all the days seemed to already focus all the kids. But, as the saying goes "When in Rome, do as the Romans" so, as long as we are living here, we shall have a party for Kids' Day.

I have been involved with the kids's ministry for 2 years now, and in this time I have had the opportunity to help out with more parties and events for the kids then I wish to count. Once you have done a few with the same group of people you kind of fall into a pattern and it gets a lot easier and... that's funny... I was going to say less stressful, but it really doesn't ever get less stressful!!

This year, because of the Swine Flu, the government canceled all events and meetings for two weeks as a preocaution to prevent the spread of the sickness. Since we had planned the party for Kids' Day on one of those weekends, we had to postpone the event for a few weeks. My Mom and I were to be in charge of the making of the cake (a MUST at any Mexican party) so, when we were told the Friday after the government had reopened all schools and public meeting places that they needed the cake on Saturday (in other words, the very next day) we were a bit rushed to get it done. Still, I think that it turned out well. What do you think?

On Saturday my Mom and I were up early to put the finishing touches on the cake (we had stayed up till 12 the night before working on it) and then my Mom took me into town for my French class. As soon as I got out of class (3:00p.m.) we rushed back to Boca del Rio and my Mom dropped me off at the church to help with the last-minute preparations while she went home to get the cake and pick up my Dad and siblings.

The event itself went fairly well. It was very hot and the kids were unruly, but no more than usual. I think that the final count on the kids was somewhere around 110... That's a lot of kids!!!

My Mom shared a Bible story with the kids.

Mavil, Karen and I lead the kids in some fun songs.

The Piñata!!!! Another MUST at a Mexican party.

After the event was over and we had done a quick clean-up (6:50p.m.), all of the youth headed out to a prayer meeting in Los Flores (like 20 minutes from the church). The prayer meeting went great, although there were not as many youth there as we had hoped to see. I enjoyed being able to meet some new people and get to know a little better the people that I had met on previous occasions.

By the time we got back to Boca Del Rio (9:30p.m.) we were all very tired and ready to go to bed, but the day was not over! We (I say we, I should be more specific and say my brothers) finished cleaning the church and then setting up the chairs for the service the next day. When they had finished we ate at a little taco stand right in front of our church and THEN we went home. I think it was something like 11:00 or 12:00 when I finally got in bed!

This morning we had a great service and right now my Dad is making hamburgers in honor of Mothers' Day. I can't wait to eat them!!! There is more that I could share, but I think that this is enough for one post. I hope to see you all around here again and soon!
May the peace and blessing of our Lord Jesus Christ be upon you!

Food for thought

2009-05-04T15:05:00.001-07:00

Ugh, I have been sick for a week! I detest colds and sicknesses of all kinds... but especially colds! Still, I suppose one cannot be healthy all the time; life just isn't like that!

Since I have been sick I haven't been doing much. Just hanging out in my house. I don't really know what to write about, but I figured that I might as well write as not, seeing as you all would be wondering what I have been up to.

I did do one NEW thing this week. I got a Facebook account... well, to be more honest, I have HAD a FB account, but I hadn't been on it for more than a year. Now, however, I am planning to keep in touch with all of you "facebookers"!

I have spent most of today reading Anne of Green Gables. I have always loved those books... they make me laugh uproariously, sigh longingly and even cry (once or twice ;) ). I will be sitting on our couch reading and then, suddenly, I will burst out laughing for no apparent reason. I think that my brothers think that I am insane... still, I do like the books!

It seems amazing to me how one moment can change you view on life. Waking up in the morning you look on the day with dread thinking of all the things that you would rather be doing than what you have to do, and the next you are having a marvelous time playing Twister with all your friends! One moment you feel like time drags and you aren't doing anything worthwhile and the next you are so busy doing worthwhile things that you don't have a moment to catch your breath!

I remember a little over a year ago I was going through a tough time and I kept praying to God asking for a change... I didn't really care what the change was, so long as it was a change. I was really unhappy and felt as though I wasn't doing much for God where I was. I promised God that if He was to give me something, anything, I would serve Him with all of my heart. That's when God reminded me of something. He said (not audibly, mind you, but He DID say it),
"I want to give you big challenges and even bigger dreams, but if you aren't content living for Me NOW, where you are, you will never be content in any of the places I would send you."

So, I stood up and walked on, trying to live to the best of my ability NOW, in the present, knowing that no matter where God will send me, it is enough! Isn't it so wonderful that we have a God who loves us despite of our deficiencies!!!

I am rambling, aren't I? Oh well, I suppose that's how I am... I can't help it! I do so like to just write... it's very... how could I put it... relieving. You should try it sometime. Just take a pen and piece of paper and write whatever God puts on your heart!

Update

2009-04-30T15:03:00.000-07:00

Hey!! I am so sorry that it took me so long to update you all. One thing just came after another and all of a sudden it was Thursday!!

As far as Ezekiel goes, God has healed him! They went to hospital and they sent him home saying that there wasn't anything seriously wrong with him. Praise God!! Still, keep him in your prayers along with his family, they are all scared that it will happen again.

About the swine flu that is going around in Mexico... please do not worry about us! We always appreciate the extra prayers, but there have been no reported sicknesses in our state. As a clarification, we live in LAS GLORIAS not La Gloria. The main spread of the flu is on the other coast and the bigger cities.
I am not scared for myself, I know that God has control and everything will happen according to His perfect will, but I know that this is affecting a lot of people and plans. Pray that God would take control of the longer term affects of this flu... it might have some serious repercussions, here in Mexico as well as in the States.
Blessings to you all!

Urgent: Please Pray!!

2009-04-26T12:47:00.000-07:00

Hello my friends!
I am still a little shaken by what has just happened, but I know that many of you would want to know what is going on. So... I will try and relate the circumstance just as it happened...

Today after church I was mulling about while trying half-heartedly to get everyone into our car so we could head home when a friend pulled up in front of the church. She had been away studying to be a nurse and was back in town to visit family. I walked out to the car to say hi and we began talking. Our of the corner of my eye I saw Briseyda running toward her house and wondered why, but I didn't think much of it.
My Mom came up behind me and I turned to ask her a question when, suddenly, there was a commotion over at the sister Gloria's house (for those of you who don't know, the sister's house is right across from the church). There were two men and five women gathered around something and most of them were yelling and crying.

What could be the matter? I started toward them but before I arrived I saw what the commotion was about. One of the women held Ezekiel in her arms and from what I could tell, he wasn't breathing. My Mom and I rushed over, along with our friend. Our friend grabbed the baby in her arms while asking if anyone knew what had happened, had he eaten something? what?

I began to pray and I know that I wasn't the only one. I felt so useless, what could I do? Nothing. Just pray.

Our friend performed mouth-to-mouth on the baby and the reason for his choking became evident. He began coughing up phlegm. Then Ezekiel began to cry, weakly, but he did... I have never been so happy to hear the sound a baby crying. At this point Sergio and Briseyda (the parents) came with their car and we able to tell them that Ezekiel was fine... the look of terror on their faces when the arrived made me want to cry... horrible. The baby had been sick with a cold for awhile, but no one had ever thought it would get this serious. We then proceeded to pray for him, by this time the incident had drawn a large group of friends and curious onlookers.

When we finished praying Sergio went with Luz and Briseyda to take the baby to the hospital.
Talking over the event later it turned out that Pily and I had both had visions of death about Ezekiel earlier on in the day. Mine was more like a passing thought, but it was scary.

Please pray for the swift healing of Ezekiel. Pray that his parents won't be too scared for him and that God would give them His peace. I will keep you all updated on what's happening.
Thank you all so much! I really appreciate your prayers!

To be continued.... whenever I get around to it!

2009-04-23T12:58:00.000-07:00

Hello! How are you all doing? I have been doing great. I have meant to write... but anyway, you've all heard that story, it's time to tell you something you don't know!

So, this last week has been busy as usual. Sometimes the usual can make you feel overwhelmed... you ever noticed that?!?! lol
.... I am trying to think where to start.... not getting anything! Let's see...

Right now I am listening to Down Gilead Lane (if you want to listen to it you can click HERE it's free). It's pretty neat! Kind of one of those habits that you just can't get out of ;^) .

As far as my French goes, I have a ton of homework that I have been putting off for the past two weeks that I now have two days left to do. I suppose that I really am pushing it to the last minute, but I honestly didn't realize how little time I had left until I woke up this morning and realized that it was Thursday! AHHH! Needless to say, I have spent a good hour so far and as soon as I finish on my blog I am going to return to my desk. I would still be there but my brain can only handle so much before I get a headache!

Life in my home is the same. It's taken me a week or so to get back into my "schedule", if you want to call it that. It's weird when you are just going, going, going and then all of a sudden it stops and you are back to the hum-drum of everyday life. This week we started back into school. I am so close to being done (like done, as in "out of school for good"). It's interesting thinking about what it will be like to get up in the morning and only have to do my chores.... kind of weird!

We are starting up several new ministries in the church. Well, not "new" persay, but new branches of old ministries. For instance, my Dad has just started study with the young men in our church. God has been doing an amazing work in our church. A little less that 6 months ago there were about 3 youth in the entire church. Now there are 6 and sometimes more! That might not seem like very much, but for this small of a place a growth of 5 people is a miracle!

Alright, I am gonna get to work on all that homework I have to do! I will continue the story... pronto!
See you all soon!

Semana Santa (Holy Week)

2009-04-15T12:29:00.000-07:00

Hello dear readers! I apologize for my absence, but I have been very busy. God has been doing some awesome stuff though, and I want to share it with you!

This last week was Semana Santa (roughly translated, Holy Week). For those of you in the States it probably just meant another normal week until the service on Resurrection Sunday, but for Mexicans it means an entire week of vacations. The only thing that I can really compare it to and be accurate is spring break at Palm Beach, Florida. On our beach, it is basically one whole week of drinking and spending money (and earning money for others).

On a normal day Las Glorias is a quiet town with little to no activity. There are only about 13 families that live here year-round. Needless to say, during Semana Santa those numbers swell to thousands and the beach becomes a beehive of vendors and families on vacation. These two pictures will give you a little bit of an idea...

Cars line up for miles near the entrance to our town and it literally takes hours to navigate the streets and get out. For this reason, those of us who live here either walk or stay at home during the week. Sometimes I cannot believe that this mess of cars and people is my home. It is so different! Still, while there are many down-sides to living on the beach during Semana Santa, there are also many benefits, one of which being that it is a wonderful opportunity for ministry!

Over the years, we have experimented with many different kinds of outreaches, showing Christian movies, giving out water with memory verses taped on the cups, evangelizing and handing out tracks, but none of them have worked as well or had such a tremendous response as the one that we did this year. I first saw this drama three years ago when my Dad was involved in the Bible school (A.D.A.P.T. International, located in Boca Del Rio). For the past two years we have been unable to do it for lack of the sufficient number of people.

This year, however, our pastor brought a team down from the States providing us not only with the right number of people, but a team of people who were willing and able to serve God by helping organize the drama. It was a bit last-minute and we had to rush to get the props together, but with the help of Annette and the other girls on the team, we got through it okay, even if the helmets did smell a little... that's just what you get when you rush paper maché!

[I really should stop now to make a special note of Annette. She directed the whole thing and really threw herself into it 150%! Great job, girl, couldn't have done it without you!]

The drama portrays the death of Jesus Christ in a way that literally takes your breath away. I know that there is no way that anyone would ever be able to comprehend the rejection and suffering that Jesus bore, but this skit brought it more into focus than ever before.

We walked the length of the beach and performed the skit 7 or 8 times. At the end of the skit one of the Mexican leaders would stand up and share the gospel message, then lead all those who so desired in a prayer of salvation. After each time we took 20-30 minutes to pray with those who had accepted Jesus as Lord and to share with those who were interested, or with whomever the Spirit lead us to talk!

It was amazing watching God touch lives... grown men breaking down in tears, elderly women coming to us and asking for prayer, and more precious still were all of the children who came up asking us why we were beating the man carrying the cross.

There was one woman in particular whose hands were crippled who came asking us for prayer. One of the brothers (Jose) prayed for her and then we left. The next day when we were walking along the beach, the same lady came running up to the Jose and thanked him for his prayer. God had healed her hands. For man, this might be impossible, but for God all things are possible! Praise be to God!

By His Wounds: Brian Littrel
(ISAIAH 53:5)
He was pierced for our transgressions
He was crushed for our sins
The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him
And by His wounds
By his wounds we are healed

We are healed by Your sacrifice
And the life that you gave
We are healed for you paid the price
By Your grace we are saved, we are saved

What can wash away my sin
Nothing but the blood of Jesus
What can make me whole again
Nothing but the blood of Jesus

More stuff to do than time to do it

2009-04-01T10:29:00.000-07:00

I know that I have just been the worst at posting in these last few weeks. Things just seem to swamp me and blogging is the last thing on the list. It's not like blogging isn't important, but it isn't as important as, say, teaching suday school class, or doing my French homework.

As you get older you just get more and more responsibilities. My little sister keeps saying stuff like. "I wish I was as old as you, then I wouldn't have to go to bed so early." Or, "When I am as old as you..." I just tell her to enjoy being young while she can, because you only get it once. I kind of wish I was still young. Don't get me wrong, I really like the new challenges you face as you get older and the deeper knowledge of Christ I have grown to appreciate, but there is something about being young. I guess you would call it "the innocence of youth". It makes me so sad to see how all of these children want to grow up so fast. Our culture encourages it, but in the wrong way. I agree that children should learn to take responsibility, but being responsible and trying to be as grown up as you can as fast as you can, are two totally different things.

I suppose I got a little carried away with writing, but that is just a little bit of the real me coming through! As much as I try there is no escaping the fact that I am who God made me. No more, no less! All I meant to emphasize was that I do have reasons for not being as faithful on my blog as I was previously.

Okay, I need to get going on my stuff. I have a post that is forming in my head, but it's going to have to wait to be written until I have time.
Blessings to you all!
--

Fun Fact Friday -- The Dung Beetle

2009-03-27T17:19:00.000-07:00

The dung beetle is, of all of the bugs God created, one of the more interesting and disgusting. What possed me to write about it you ask? Honestly... I don't know. I guess sometimes one just gets an idea into one's head and has to follow through. So, here I am writing about dung beetles.

Name: Dung Beetle also called tumblebugs or scarabs

Scientific Name: Phanaeus vindex MacLachlan; Onthophagus gazella Fabricius (big name for such a little fellow)

Length: 3 to 50 millimeters long

Life Span: Up to 3 years.

With geometric artistry, the dung beetles use their legs and mouth parts to fashion freshly laid dung into huge circular or pear-shaped structures and then roll them into an underground nest that has been prepared by both the male and the female. The female then lays a single egg into each ball of dung and covers the nest with more dung and soil. When the eggs hatch, the larvae will feed on the fecal matter. When the beetle has chewed through the ball of dung it is then big enough to begin it's own nest.

Now to the really interesting part.

Did you know... that Dung beetles were worshiped in ancient Egypt? It's true. Because of it's unique way of laying eggs, the beetles appeared to just "pop" into existence. One day there was a ball of dung and the next *POOF* instant beetle. Egyptians believed that the beetle gave life and they honored it in their carvings and sculptures.

Did you know... that the Chinese legends say that a giant dung beetle formed the first humans out of clay? What a heritage. To think that you were made by a beetle!

Did you know... that when the droppings of millions of cattle started ruining the land in Australia, dung beetles were imported to reduce the problem.

Did you know... that when it's mating time, a male roller uses a dung ball to attract a female. If she accepts, she helps the male roll the ball to a spot where they bury it.

Alright, now that you know more than you probably ever wanted to know about Phanaeus vindex MacLachlan; Onthophagus gazella Fabricius (say that five times fast!) it's time for our spiritual lesson.
Okay, I know that when I said that you probably re-read it to make sure you heard right, but you didn't read it wrong. We are going to have a spiritual lesson from the dung beetle.

As you know, the dung beetle spends it's entire life accumulating dung. To us it might seem utterly ridiculous that it would want to have the stuff when there are so many other things to choose from, but no. The beetle wants dung. From the time it's born until it dies the beetle rolls it's ball. Day and night, it doesn't ever leave it.

So now, how many of us have stuff? How many of us like the stuff that we have? Don't be shy, tell the truth. Would you be upset if someone was to come and take everything that you have leaving you totally helpless? I know I would. Now here's the real toughy. God says that all our righteous works are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). If our righteous works are like filthy rags, what does that make our earthly possesions? I would guess that it would make them a lot like... you guessed it, dung.

Therefore, just like the beetles, we have our little balls of possessions that we roll around with us wherever we go. If we, humans, look at the dung beetles and see just how small a world they live in, what do you think that God sees us doing? God has given us so much, yet we are too involved "rolling our dung" to pay attention. I can just see myself pushing around a huge ball of all my stuff and yelling "my ball, don't touch!" to everyone who passes by. It might seem really funny (and I'll admit that the image does make me smile), but it is so true for me so much of the time. We need to leave our "dung" and follow God and the things that He has for us!

Anyway, now that we have had our "spiritual dung beetle talk", I'll let you go!
Have a wonderful day!

Why Fast?

2009-03-23T15:13:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! I am glad that you decided to take some time out of your day to stop by and read my thoughts! I have meant to post this for several days, but good intentions don't get very far when you don't have any time.

For the past few weeks the subject of fasting has turned up in several of the most interesting places, from the forum that I frequent to my personal Bible studies, I have not been able to escape it! So, I guess that this is God's way of telling me that it's time to write!

When a person decides to fast they need to make sure that they are doing it for the right reasons. In the Bible we see several different reasons. This brings us to the question that I would like to answer with my post; WHY FAST?

1. Intercession

Intercession is another way of saying "prayer", but it usually entails praying for others or for specific needs. In some senses of the word it also specifies repeated and constant prayer to God (in other words, more than just a prayer shot heavenward).

2 Samuel 12:16-17
David therefore inquired of God for the child; and David fasted and went and lay all night on the ground. The elders of his household stood beside him in order to raise him up from the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat food with them.
Daniel 9:2-3
In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.

2. For deliverance

We are surrounded by bondage and suffering, both spiritual and physical. God calls us as His people to pray and fast against these chains.

2 Chronicles 20:2-4
Then some came and reported to Jehoshaphat, saying, "A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, out of Aram and behold, they are in Hazazon-tamar (that is Engedi)." Jehoshaphat was afraid and turned his attention to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. So Judah gathered together to seek help from the LORD; they even came from all the cities of Judah to seek the LORD.
Matthew 17:18-21
And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not drive it out?"
And He said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from
here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. ["But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."] ["This kind" refers to the demon that possessed the boy]

3. For the covering of the blood of Christ (protection)

With all of the schemes that the enemy throws at us and the temptations that our flesh constantly presents, we are in desperate need of the protection and covering of our Lord, both physically and spirtually.

Ezra 8:21

Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from Him a safe journey for us, our little ones, and all our possessions.

4. In Lamentation

This world is full of sin and despair. We (as a people) have forsaken the laws that God set forth in the beginning and we (as a people) are reaping the results. There are many things for which to lament. In the Old Testament, the prophets would fast in lamentation, but now that God has sent down His Holy Spirit among His people. We need to be sensitive if God calls us to fast in sorrow. I believe that this is a "gift" or fruit of the Holy Spirit. When God touches your life and tells you to "grieve" or lament, God puts the sorrow in your heart, and He actually mourns through you. It is kind of hard to fully grasp unless you have felt it, but it is real.

1 Samuel 15:35

Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death; for Samuel grieved over Saul. And the LORD regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel.

2 Samuel 1:12

They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and his son Jonathan and for the people of the LORD and the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword. Then all the sons of Israel and all the people went up and came to Bethel and wept; thus they remained there before the LORD and fasted that day until evening. And they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.

5. For Strength
Sometimes (a lot of times) we can get run down and tired and we need to get back into God's presence in order to receive restoration. For example, when Jesus went into the desert (Matt. 4) to be tempted, He fasted for 40 days before being tempted. I believe that this was to receive strength from God to be able to stand in the face of what He knew was to come. Satan always tries to get us when we are down. The only way to make sure that he can never make us fall is to always walk in the presence of our Lord. I know that no one is perfect and we will stumble, but through fasting and prayer we can learn to keep our eyes focused on God.

6. Seeking direction
This is one of the aspects of fasting that is emphasised the most in the Body of Christ. All of us need direction and need to be shown what to do next. Fasting is the best way we have to help us get our eyes off ourselves and onto God. To stop listening to all of the voices that our flesh hears and start listening to that still small voice that is Christ.

Acts 13:2-3

While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."
Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

Acts 14:23

When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

HOW SHOULD WE FAST?

Now that we have seen many of the different reasons for fasting, it is time to look to the Bible and see how it should be gone about. If you'll notice in the preceeding verses, every time that fasting is mentioned, it is shown as an additon to prayer or even a form of prayer. Fasting without prayer is like faith without works or fire without flame. Dead.
But how, exactly, should you fast? Is fasting only depriving oneself of food? Well, if we go to the Bible we see that fasting should be much more that just that.

Isaiah 58

4"Behold, you fast for contention and strife and to strike with a wicked fist
You do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high.
5"Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to humble
himself? Is it for bowing one's head like a reed
And for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed?
Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the LORD?
6"Is this not the fast which I choose,
To loosen the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the bands of the yoke,
And to let the oppressed go free
And break every yoke?
7"Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry
And bring the homeless poor into the house;
When you see the naked, to cover him;
And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
8"Then your light will break out like the dawn,
And your recovery will speedily spring forth;
And your righteousness will go before you;
The glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9"Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
You will cry, and He will say, 'Here I am '
If you remove the yoke from your midst,
The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness,
10And if you give yourself to the hungry
And satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
Then your light will rise in darkness
And your gloom will become like midday.
11"And the LORD will continually guide you,
And satisfy your desire in scorched places,
And give strength to your bones;
And you will be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.

And again we see in the New Testament that Jesus shows us the way to fast.

Matthew 6:16-18

"Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for
they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are
fasting Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
"But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting
will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father
who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

Fasting is, in its purest form, a way to honor God and to get your mind off the things of this earth.
It doesn't have to be food. You can fast from books, television, video games and that's just to name a few! God wants only for your heart to be in the right place.
Once you start a fast, stick to it. I know from experience that if you don't truly set your mind to it, when the first temptation comes you'll fall. It can get very discouraging. Take heart! God gives second chances, and He is a God who loves and is patient with our inconsistencies. Set a goal and fight with all that you have to reach it! Rely on God and on His promises; He never fails!

Thank you for your time. I hope you are able to take a little something home with you! Blessings!

Fun-Fact Friday

2009-03-19T13:48:00.000-07:00

This meme is something that my Mother is hosting over at The Coult Family. Go and check it out!

For my "Fun Facts" I am going to share a little bit about Dolphins and another little bit about the history of Mexico. I figured that it is only fitting since we live on the coast of Mexico!

*DOLPHINS*:

Did you know... The killer whale is the largest dolphin (true whales don’t have teeth but sift their prey through plates of baleen). The smallest dolphin is the Hector or Maui Dolphin, of which only 150 are left today.

Did you know... The narwhal dolphin has a large ivory tusk (like a unicorn). Because of this unique feature they are often hunted. The only remaining populations are in the Greenland Sea and Baffin Bay.

Did you know...Just a tablespoon of water in a dolphin’s lung could drown it, while a human could drown if six teaspoons of water were inhaled into the lungs.

Did you know... A baby dolphin is born tail-first to prevent drowning. After the mother breaks the umbilical cord by swiftly swimming away, she must immediately return to her baby and take it to the surface to breathe.

Did you know... A female dolphin will assist in the birth of another dolphin's baby, and if it is a difficult birth, the “midwife” might help pull out the baby. Other dolphins, including bulls, will swim around the mother during birth to protect her.

Did you know... Air can be expelled from a dolphin’s blowhole at speeds topping 100 mph.

Did you know... Dolphins do not breathe automatically as humans do and will die if given a general anesthetic. They must sleep at the surface of the water with their blowholes exposed. Dolphins shut down only half of their brain while they sleep to stay alert and breathing.

Did you know... Dolphin teeth are used for grasping, not chewing. They have no jaw muscles for chewing.

*MEXICO*:

Did you know... Mexico introduced chocolate, corn, and chilies to the world.

Did you know... The red poinsettia (which the Aztecs called cuetlaxochitl) originated in Mexico and is named after Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first United States ambassador to Mexico (in the 1820s).

Did you know... Mexico City is built over the ruins of a great Aztec city, Tenochtitlán. Because it is built on a lake, Mexico City is sinking at a rate of 6 to 8 inches a year as pumps draw water out for the city’s growing population. [Scary thought]

Children will listen

2009-03-17T10:58:00.000-07:00

I found these lyrics over at Felecia's Blog. It just really hit home for me. It reminded me of how we are called to be an example to those around us, especially children. God sends us into the world to be lights, and as you can tell from the title of my blog, I believe that it means literally. We need to go into the world and show others the way to salvation. Children are very easily impressed and any actions we take or things that we say are going to leave a mark. Whether it is good or bad is your choice and responsibility.
Jesus says in Matthew 18 verse 6 that whoever causes one of these little ones to stumble it would be better for him to have a millstone hung about his neck and be flung into the sea. I don't know about you, but this makes me think that God is really serious about how we act.
So, now I will leave you to peruse this. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did!

CHILDREN WILL LISTEN

How do you say to your child in the night?
Nothing's all black, but then nothing's all white
How do you say it will all be all right
When you know that it might not be true?
What do you do?

Careful the things you say
Children will listen
Careful the things you do
Children will see and learn
Children may not obey, but children will listen
Children will look to you for which way to turn
To learn what to be
Careful before you say "Listen to me"
Children will listen

Careful the wish you make
Wishes are children
Careful the path they take
Wishes come true, not free
Careful the spell you cast
Not just on children
Sometimes the spell may last
Past what you can see
And turn against you
Careful the tale you tell
That is the spell
Children will listen

How can you say to a child who's in flight
"Don't slip away and I won't hold so tight"
What can you say that no matter how slight Won't be misunderstood
What do you leave to your child when you're dead?
Only whatever you put in it's head
Things that you're mother and father had said
Which were left to them too
Careful what you say
Children will listen
Careful you do it too
Children will see
And learn, oh guide them that step away
Children will glisten
Tample with what is true
And children will turn
If just to be free
Careful before you say
"Listen to me"

Children will listen .... children will listen .... children will listen!

Just the normal plus a little bit of the extraordinary!

2009-03-09T15:07:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that this week has gone by so quickly! I keep promising myself that I will keep up with writing on my blog, but somehow or other I am always putting it off.
My French class went very well. We should be getting the results of our tests in next week *sends a prayer heavenward*. I think that I did alright, but I would rather that I did "excellent" or at the very least "good". I am kind of like that!

Right now we are studying, among other things, the pronoun "y" that is used to substitute places and things. I thought that Spanish was complicated!! Why don't we all just speak one language (I know, I know, we had our chance over 4 thousand years ago and it didn't work out then either). Still, for all of my complaints I really enjoy my classes and I love the challenge they present to me!

Saturday in the evening was youth group. There was a secular concert going on in the community basketball/soccer court so not many youth showed up, but we still had a nice study with those who did. Please continue in prayer for this ministry, there is a lot of spiritual warfare going on for the lives of the youth of Boca del Rio and it will take our prayers to win.

On Sunday we went to church and received some wonderful encouragement (at least I did) from a passage in Matthew 19. The pastor shared about how we, as Christians, need to examine our motives; we need to come before God with pure motives, free from any pride or disobedience. It truly hit home for me and I think it will be awhile before I can think about it less than incessantly.

Yesterday was also my brothers' birthday (the twins). They turned 13 *shakes head in wonder*. I don't know where the years have gone! The pastor called them up after the service so that we could pray for them and to sing them the birthday song, Mexican style! We also have this song that we play in our church called "the song of the little old lady" (closest translation) at the start of which you are supposed to get up and "dance like the little old lady". It's something that we always use when we have a party at the church and, from time to time, as a birthday make-a-fool-of-yourself song. Well anyway, they played it and Seth danced like a madman while Jessee just stood there looking embarrassed. Everyone laughed and Caleb turned to me and said, looking at the twins, "sometime the fool makes the wise man look foolish!" I can't help but love Mexico, and my brothers, of course!!!

For the twins' party Mom tried her hand at making an ice cream cake, it actually turned out as a very successful experiment and I don't think that anyone refused to eat it! Other than that we pretty much just hung out and enjoyed each other's company!

As far as anything else goes I have pretty much been sticking to my "daily duties". I play my guitar a lot (trying to figure out some new strum patterns) and I am trying to be a blessing at home. I don't know exactly why, but it always seems that it is the hardest to follow God and to obey and to be self-sacrificing at home. It is such a struggle for me, but God is faithful and will not allow me to be tempted beyond what I am able! I know that this is a battle I can and must win, to God be the glory!

Now for the extraordinary! I am going to share a verse (well, a series of verses) that I love. They are in Matthew 20, starting in verse 1 and going through verse 16. [notes I have made are in red and progressions of time are in italics]

1"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner [God] who went out early in the
morning to hire laborers [Christians] for his vineyard [the world].
2"When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard.
3"And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place;
4and to those he said, 'You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.' And so they went.
5"Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing.
6"And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, 'Why have you been standing here idle all day long?'
7"They said to him, 'Because no one hired us.' He said to them, 'You go into the vineyard too.'
8"When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.'
9"When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius.
10"When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius.
11"When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner,
12saying, 'These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.' [Persecutions]
13"But he answered and said to one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius?
14'Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you.
15'Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?'
16"So the last shall be first, and the first last."

I know that there are many different views that can be taken on this parable and I also know that since it was a parable Jesus left a lot for us to interpret. Yet, I would like to share a little bit of the insight I have received. I highlighted the words that I thought were important to be taken note of.

I think that this passage, among other things, is giving us encouragement. It is telling us that God doesn't judge by how much we work or how wise we are. He judges our hearts and our willingness to serve Him. Just as the landowner in this parable, God has and still is calling us to go into the world as His laborers. And it doesn't say that it will be easy. In Romans 5:3 it tells us to rejoice in suffering because suffering produces patience and a proven character.

God puts you in the place where you are for a reason, and in this world no matter where you are you are more than likely to be persecuted, whether it be by friends or co-workers or maybe even a prison cell. Just like some of the laborers in this parable some of us as Christians will have to bear the "...scorching heat of the day..." and some of us won't, but we all are sent out with a mission to complete (Matthew 28:19-20).

In verse 16 it tells us that the last shall be first and the first last. Now, I don't know what that means exactly. Still, I think that it was referring to the Jews and the Gentiles, saying that even though the Jews were called first, God was going to call the Gentiles as well. Without being sure, however, I can only give this as a view.

So, in closing, I just want to sum up what I am trying to say. Mainly, that God will reward everyone according to his due, but that God is not accountable to any man. He gives where He wills and He takes where He wills. If we are truly followers of Christ we need to trust God enough to be able to say as Job says in Job 1:21 "...The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord." Life isn't easy. And living for Christ really isn't easy, but it is rewarding!

Thank you all for giving me an ear! I hope that the Lord richly blesses your day! Take the time to be a blessing to others!

Pictures at long last!

2009-03-02T15:56:00.001-08:00

Alright, I have finally had the time to sit down and publish my post *pats self on back*. So, without taking up more of your time with an introduction, I will get to writing! Fasten your seatbeltes and prepare to be amazed!

AT THE SNOW!!!

This was the greatest of fun. After having spent two weeks travelling through Mexico, Arizona and California, we had finally arrived in the sunny state of Oregon! Well, maybe it wasn't sunny, but it was cold... very cold... in fact it snowed several times! Still, our snow-starved selves would not be satfisfied without an all out "trip to the snow", complete with hot chocolate, cold feet and snow-ball fights!

So, we got together with a homeschooling group and went! We rented the whole hill for the day and it was like having one huge party. I loved the fact that we didn't have to worry about straying away too far or any of the younger kids meeting with weirdos, we just relaxed and had fun!

(Go Mom and Dad!!!)(This is them sliding down the hill. Much to our disappointement, they didn't even fall off at the end! lol)

(This is Amanda, one of my good friends, who went with us. The motor home that she is getting into was actually ours. One of our friends in Sacramento let us use it for our trip to Oregon. I had never travelled in one before and I will tell you that it was heaven. It was so nice to be able to get up and walk around, and maybe even sleep! What a blessing, don't you think? We have decided that the only good way to go to the snow is in a motor home!)

(This is what I did after having played in the snow, eaten lunch and gotten totally soaked. I am kind of a whimp and heart and I really didn't want to go back out into the cold. Besides, I liked watching everyone else!)
(It snowed right before we left making it the perfect day!)

OTHER VISITS TO VARIOUS PLACES

(no comment!)(Noelle prepares a cake for Evie's birthday. She did a great job, I might add)

(We got to visit our home church and participate in the worship and service. It was especially nice to be able to see all of our friends again. It had been a long time!

During the service our family shared about what we had been doing Mexico. I say our family because all of us got up individually and shared. The boys shared about some experiences that they had had and Evie and my Mom shared a song for the kids. After them I got up and shared a passage from 1Timothy, tying it in with what I had seen God doing in the youth group.

After the service we all gathered in the fellowship hall for a potluck, Mexican -- err, well, American-Mexican -- style, and we got to eat the cake. Yumm!)

(I don't think that this needs explaining!)

(Caleb -- brother

Graham -- little version of Caleb

Carolina -- little sister of Graham, aka: sweetheart)

BREAKDOWN!!

Well, I suppose that you can't really have a true roadtrip without a mishap of some sort. This was that mishap!

We were on our way back down to Mexico and had just left Riverside, CA where we had stayed with my Grammy when it happened... oh, well I guess I should tell you what happened, huh.

This is our trailer tire. Now, there is something that you should know about this tire and this trailer. It is old. This is significant for more than one reason. Because it is old it is a little run down, but more than that the parts are also very hard to find. Having said as much it will not surprise you to find out that it took us no less than 9 hours to replace the disintegrated wheel bearing and get back on the road. I guess that we were blessed in serveral ways, even in this problem:

#1: It wasn't hot (big bonus).

#2: We had left ridiculously early in order to arrive on time, so we weren't as late a we could have been.

#3: We broke down right next to an exit, so we didn't have to call a tow truck.

#4: The town we broke down in had several part stores and shops.

#5: We had the money to fix the problem (that's a REALLY big bonus).

So, even though waiting in the car for 9+ hours wasn't fun (and especially not for my Dad who was doing all of the hard work) we were much better off than we could have been!

IN TUCSON ARIZONA

(Don't you love Jessee's throw. I don't know how he managed to win while throwing like that, but he did way better than I did. I hurt so bad the next day!)

(Caleb and Hunter)
(This is the house that we stayed at for three days before we crossed the border into Mexico. My Dad is busily packing so that we could get out of the house at 3am the next morning.)

CROSSING INTO MEXICO

(the border into Meixco. This is where you take care of all of your paperwork and get your visas.)(HaHaHa, This is how you move in Mexico. If you'll notice, this truck is also pulling the car behind it.)

(Venus right next to the Moon. Supposedly this only happens once in a lifetime. I thought that it was pretty spectacular, but I bet that it would be even cooler up close.)
(Unpacking and unpacking and unpacking)
(I finally got a new *coughs* wall. This time it's a tarp! You might think that I am weird to think of that as cool, but if you had seen my wall before then you would realize how nice this new one is. The old on was made of cloth and it collected dust really bad.)

(Here is the family that stayed in the house while we were gone. Their blog is Babymakers if you want to go over and read about how their trip went)

In closing, I would like to give the glory where it is due!

PRAYERS & PRAISES!!!

God provided the finances for us to be able to make it all the way to Oregon.
God provided a guitar for our pastor
God has used this trip to draw our family closer together.
Praise to God for His mercy and the grace He gave us in our travels.
Praise God that we were not lacking of anything throughout the entire time we were in the States.
Praise God for all of the people that He has used to bless us. I love seeing how God moves in peoples hearts!
Praise God that He provided the money to put a new roof on our van (the old one was rusted through).
God allowed me to meet with serveral new friends and a great many old friends (I love you guys!!).
God provided an air hockey table and a pool table for the youth center that we are building behind our house.
Prayer that God would continue to work in the youth in our village.
Prayer toward the mission teams we are planning on receiving this June. As the time gets closer things can get kind of hectic.
Prayer toward the outreaches that we are going to be doing over spring break (semana santa).
Prayer that God would give me direction as I decide what to do in this next year.

Blessings to you all! Have a wonderful day and a blessed week!

Just plain tuckered out!

2009-02-24T14:30:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!! I am finally back from my trip!
I can't believe how long it's been since I have written. Sorry, it really couldn't be helped. I have tried to find places that had computers in order to be able to update my blog and write to my friends, but it always worked out so that any time that I actually had free time I didn't have a computer and visa-versa. So, it might be a little bit before I can get myself enough recovered from the hecticness of our journey to actually tell you how it went. Right now am a just WAY too wiped to even think about summing up or telling you how it went!
So, give me a day and I will try and get on here with pictures and some info!
Blessings to all of my faithful friends and readers (and reader-friends :P) and may the Lord guide you in all that you do!

Pro-life Action Alert: get involved

2009-02-12T15:04:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,
I have recently been involved in an effort called "Cry Action". We are now working on a way to get the attention of the government. This is an idea that the group came up with. If you can participate then please do. It's a worthy cause and a way to get the message out to the world. Take some time, you won't regret it!
Here is the letter that was sent out to the group members:

Hey everyone! I thought this sounded like a great idea -- it's simple, it's
inexpensive, it's easy. The idea is to send a pro-life valentine to President
Barack Obama. The original challenge was to send one or two, but I'm going to
encourage you all to "Do Hard Things" and each send ten -- and then to spread
the word and ask everyone you know to do the same. Between the people on
this email list alone, without spreading the word, that would equal more than
2,300 envelopes sent! The goal is that Obama would receive 50 million to
represent the 50 million lives lost in legal abortions since Roe v. Wade was
passed. Here are the instructions: Purchase some red envelopes at an office
supply or party supply store -- or make some out of red construction paper. On
the front, address the envelope to: President Barack Obama The White House 1600
Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20500 Don't put anything inside, seal it, and
on the back of it write the following message:
"This envelope represents one child who died in abortion. It is empty because that life was unable to offer anything to the world. Responsibility begins with conception." Put a stamp on it and mail it!
Ideas for spreading the word:
* Post this in a Facebook note and tag people.
* Send this out in an email blast to your friends.
* Invite people over and make some valentines together.