Week with the Selmer FBC Group

So I didn't get any pictures of the work project, shoveling the dirt roof off the church in La Bolsa and then mixing cement and lifting it to the roof in 5 gallon buckets to pour over the wooden rafters. I'm hoping to get the pics off Joanne's memory card, but I didn't wanna get my camera all dusty and risk breaking it :-( lame, I know... So if I get those from her, I'll put them up. It took us three days (or half days) to get it done. This next week we have a similar project on a building right beside the church at the compound in Arroyo, where we stay, except the project will be about 4 times the area of the roof we worked on this past week, so it should be a big endeavor, but a lot of fun :-) And hopefully I won't get concrete in my eye this time.... yeah, that's right. Don't worry, though, I healed up nicely with the help of some left over eye drops I had and Andrea, who is a recent graduate of optometry school! Praise God!


The drive down is 10 hours, and I make it twice every weekend to come back to Texas and meet with the groups. It's a long, but beautiful journey, and it allows me a lot of time to ask questions and make conversation with Joel (I'm usually in his passenger seat) and people from all different walks of life.

Si tuvieras fe como grano de mostaza, esto lo dice El Senor: Tu le dirias a las montanas, "Muevete! Muevete!" Y esa montana se movera movera movera....

If you have the faith of a grain of mustard, this is what says the Lord: If you tell the mountains, "Move, MOVE!!" then the mountain will move move move....

Man, I love those sunsets :-)


Rainbow! ArcoIris


Caleb telling Derek his "3 new jokes"

Translating Blair's testimony at the service!!!

This Senora cooked dinner for us on this outdoor stove with a fire fueled by corn cobs (below). The corn was used to hand make the tortillas they served us.


This is Joanne helping with the VBS craft on the 2nd day (of 3) that we were in the village of Alimitos. Everyone keeps getting us confused with our height, short blonde hair, sometimes glasses, and of course winning personalities ;-) haha She really is a delight and I enjoy hanging out with her and learning from her. She's way more mature than her 19 years.

Mascaras!

And all the little animals that Noah loaded onto his ark! haha

Me and Jenna -- total fakers, but having a great time :-)

The Selmer group helped out with VBS for 3 days in Alimitos. Here they're holding up the memory verse. We did the story of Noah's ark again this week.
Me with the Pastor's niece and nephew. Adorable!! (that's the same in Spanish!) The pastor was sister Maria. We didn't hear her preach, but it's the first female pastor I've ever met, and she told me she'd been pastor of that church for 3 years.

La Segunda Semana -- Week 2!

My second week in Arroyo! Things are going really well, and I'm adjusting and getting to know everyone. We had a huge group come down from two different churches, so we were super busy as staff. We had a great week, though, doing lots of children's ministry. I was also in charge of a Ladies' meeting in one of the villages, and I and two of the students, Tammy and Abby, translated for the group and the locals. I'm working on my Spanish like crazy! I got a little bit of a sinus infection or cold the last couple of days, but I'm feeling much better now, and I think it was mainly from the dust and the dryness. Sooo, here's some pictures from the week! And I'll update again next week!! :-) ENJOY!


The view from the roof of where we stay in Dr. Arroyo...

The church on the grounds where we stay... we dine and have praise and worship there.

Sunset from the roof

The roof is going to be poured on this building in a couple of weeks, so I'll update the picture! Right now it serves as a place to hang-dry laundry!

Tammy and I translating at the Ladies' Meeting in La Laja.

Pretending to cook CACTUS! in Sister Ramona's kitchen :-)

This is her adobe oven. She lives in La Laja.

REAL Mexican food!!! So yummy! Sister Ramona and her daughter in law prepared it for all 50 something of us!

Jenna (Tammy's daughter) and I standing on the root of this HUGE tree! Jenna's 13 and reminds me of my cousin LeAnn so much!! I love her to pieces.

A house in the town of Arroyo. Picturesque, no?
Goat herding
Teaching the kids about Noah
Pinata!
Teaching the Tower of Babel...
and Joanne helping with crafts in JesusMaria.

First Week!

Tree in the reservoir as the sun goes behind it. Village of JesusMaria. We had a children's service here with songs and a puppet show!
A woman at La Laja getting baptized!!! yeah!!! It was so hard for her because she was old and she didn't want to sit down in the water because she was afraid, so many people stood around her and held her and took their time before dunking her under! What an act of obedience to the Lord!!! Amen!
Century plant... looks like an evil aloe vera cactus! IT'S HUGE.
This is a village, I'm sorry I can't remember the name right now. It was very small and we had a children's service there and then preaching. It rained like crazy! The mountains were beautiful and our elevation was around 8000 ft.

Painting on the wall at the missionary training school, or DMT, at La Haciendita. Jesus Saves!
The beginning of the mountain drive to Dr. Arroyo. Breathtakingly beautiful! The Rocky Mountains extend into Mexico. They're so steep and very different from the Smokies.
The church at Dr. Arroyo where we have devotionals, praise & worship, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and pretty much everything else. It's on the grounds where we stay in Dr. Arroyo.
My new "amigo" Caleb! He puts his arm around my waist wherever we go :-) hahaha He'll be 7 this Sunday! (6.14)
Part of the crew leading children's worship in Spanish at JesusMaria.

So I'm trying to put a video on here, hopefully you'll be able to watch it. In the village I can't remember the name of, it came a downpour on us twice so we moved into the tiny one room church and the pastor from Tuscumbia, MO preached over the sound of the rain on the tin roof while Joel, one of the full-time missionaries here, translated. It was so loud! I don't know how the video will turn out though.

Dayspring -- First weekend @ La Hacienda

Wow! Finally -- my first endeavor of what I would call my "missionary career." What an adventure, coming to Texas and then Mexico, not knowing at all what to expect. Tomorrow we make an 8 hour (300 mile) drive across the border and through the mountains to the city of Dr. Arroyo with our first church group. We'll return to TX on Friday and I'll leave out again Sunday (a week from tmr). That way I can get the feel for how a typical week goes from start to finish.

For the past 2 days I've been staying at "La Hacienda" cleaning and preparing for the groups who will come and stay as guests each Sat. night before driving down to Arroyo on Sundays for their mission trips. Anywhere from 2-3 churches come each week. That's the front of La Hacienda above, and below is the pool. I vacuumed it today :-) yeah, it looks nice doesn't it? haha

This is my room below. I have my own room and bath here, but Mexico will be different.

I have to run, so I don't have time to tell any cool stories, but I'll try to get back on later and put up some more pics, etc.

Sorry if this is terribly boring. It's my first attempt at blogging, and I might not be so great at it. Love to my friends!!!

Trial Run

This is a test... testing...testing...1.2.4...