A catch-up post

I have a few shorter blog posts piling up so I am just going to combine them and make one random or "catch-up" post...

Preschool

Meet Osmara and Candi, my two preschoolers...

Pictures may be worth a 1000 words but they don't always tell the whole story...

So, what do you do when you have two little girls who at times mix like oil and water?

This is what I have found that works:

Having to hold hands, figure out how to color, and hold down your paper all at the same time or having only one hand free to search for the letter card you need or trying to figure out how to hold a broom and sweep while at the same time not letting go of the other's hand...it requires teamwork and honestly, it does seem to help them get along.

Now...if only you could try that with adults... ;)

On to...

Kitchen chairs

So, I believe these kitchen chairs have been here ever since I arrived in Magdalena 5.5 years ago... and they are falling apart (note the cracks, foam showing through, duck and masking tape, etc.). Well, the previous owner of these chairs happened to be down here and heard of our chair plight. And he happens to have a sister who is a seamstress and agreed to make us chair-covers!

Before:

After:

Much better!!

Thank you, Bruce!!


New student

Several weeks ago when Michel left I lost one of my students. A week later Daniel was added to my class schedule.

 

Daniel is in 5th grade and is just in private classes until the end of the school year (this Friday). He is a smart little guy and so far has been a good student. 


12 Eggs

Just in case you ever wondered what it would look like to drop a dozen eggs on the floor... well, I thought I would take a picture for you.. :P

 Now I can say, been there, done that...and hope it doesn't happen again!
(BTW I used nubuck/suede shoe cleaner to get the egg off the couch, and it worked great!)


Egg Experiment

Speaking of eggs, have you ever wondered which is better: a farm-fresh egg or a store-bought egg??

The other night in the kitchen I came up upon this...

I guess Bill wanted to show the girls the difference between a farm-fresh egg and a store-bought egg. (We have chickens who lay eggs, but as of yet we don't have enough to supply all of our need.)

Geo got to be the ginny pig. Here is her "double blind"...


 On video... :)



And then they found Duane and pulled him in for his expert opinion.

  

My video of Duane doesn't want to upload right now... I think the farm fresh eggs won out. :) (though Bill also admitted that the store-bought eggs must have been fresher than at times...) 

You just never know what you might learn here at CVE...

Luisa update and Gloria

A while back I posted pictures of Luisa and asked for prayers for her long-term placement here at CVE. Well, praise God those prayers were answered and she has joined her siblings (yes, she is a half-sister to the 5 Acroverde kids that Juantan and Bere are caring for) in the Casa Verde (Green House).

Here are some pictures that Pau took on my camera a week or so ago of Luisa with her big sisters, Alexia and Gloria.

 Gloria, Alexia, and Luisa

Praise God for keeping this family of siblings together. Please pray for wisdom and strength and a lot of energy for Juantan and Bere with their house-full!!

And because Gloria used to be the baby and is so very cute, I'll post these pictures I took when Bere and I got together for Bible study last week. What a cutie! :)

One last "post"...

Happy Birthday, Michelle!!

I don't always post about birthdays, but since Michelle is our oldest girl here at CVE, I will post a few of the pictures from her birthday.

Can't believe that she is 16 already!

I think she was cracking up about the Aquino sisters' rendition of "Las Mañanitas" :)

 Michelle with Nicole and Pau

Michelle with all the girls from the house (Yaneli, Tania, Karla, Jaqui, and Lupita)


Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. Hebrews 13:8


As we (or at least I) say often, the only constants here at CVE are God and change...
Right now we are going through a time of a lot of change and transition.

Please pray that God will go before us and smooth the path that He has planned for each child, staff member, and family. Please pray that God's will and purpose will be accomplished through all that we do, despite of us. Pray that Christ will be glorified and that His Truth will be spread. Please pray that we would have wisdom, peace, and joy amidst the challenges and uncertainty that come with change. Praise God that He is does not change but is ever faithful!! Please pray that we would ever look to Him to be our Rock, Strong Tower, and Refuge.

Trip to Tecate Part 1--"Meeting the zopilote"

On Thursday morning Nicole, Michelle (Chelly), María M., and I started off on what we thought would be a 7 to 8 hour trip to Tecate, México to visit one of our sister churches. I had never been to Tecate, nor did I know the route, so it was a new experience for me in many aspects. We loaded up and started out a little before 7. About noon-ish we were driving through an area of what I would call "wilderness".

There was nothing except a U.S./México border fence on one side and sandy dirt, small shrubs, and rocky hills on both sides of the interstate. And a few "cow crossing" or "mountain lion crossing" signs. We came across areas with many half-finished one room block or brick houses, but nearly all were abandoned. It was miles and miles of nothing.... except...

zopilotes (buzzards)

...evidently!
(And no this is not the one we saw...but just to give you an idea.)

So we (I) were driving along when suddenly, out of seemingly the middle of nowhere there was a loud thud on the windshield and we were showered in minuscule pieces of glass. (Praise the Lord that I was wearing glasses that protected my eyes!) It took me a few seconds to realize what had happened. Didn't even know what "hit" me! LOL

Well, ever wondered what happens when a buzzard meets a windshield in the middle of a desert in northern México?

Well, this...

 

Where we were at on the road there was no shoulder so I just kept driving for several minutes until we came to a place with room off to one side to pull off. With the size and extent of the shattering, we were concerned that the whole windshield was going to fall in so we decided we'd better tape it.

As we spotted a place to pull over we also noted that there was also a nice truck stopped with a few people standing around beside it. Being from Mafia-lena, and seeing the type of truck it was, my first thought was sicarios (drug gang hit men), but Nicole assured us that "there is a woman and a small child so it has to be okay"! They kindly shared some black electrical tape with us and then by God's perfect provision we found two rolls of clear packing tape someone had left from a previous trip to the States! Praise the Lord! So we took to taping up the inside of the windshield.

The zopilote even left us some feathers for a souvenir...! How thoughtful, right??

(And to answer a question we have heard quite a bit: No we don't know if the buzzard died. Since we didn't pull off right away we never saw what happened to it. We imagine so judging by the damage that was done to the glass!)

There were tiny bits of glass EVERYWHERE. On the seats, steering column, dash, in my open Mountain Dew :( , in our open bag of Chelly's pumpkin cookies, and in the bag of cream cheese frosting, on our clothes, down our clothes, everywhere. I kept finding them all day long! (Ouch!)

On the floor on the driver's side...

We called CVE to get advice and also José Cervantes in Tecate to figure out how far we were from the nearest town. José told us that we were an hour and a half away from San Luis where they could fix the windshield. He blessed us greatly by calling ahead and finding a place that had the right glass and where they quoted him a decent price to fix it. So we carefully drove towards San Luis as we prayed that we would be able to arrive safely in one piece. 

I had to think as I was driving, looking through the bottom of the windshield, God took the children of Israel out into the wilderness to learn to trust Him. Without Him they couldn't survive. They had to depend on Him for their very lives. He put them through test after test to see if they would trust and be obedient. And He came through for them, when they obeyed and trusted and even when they didn't. He remained faithful, true to His character. 

We soon found out that our tests were not over after the shattered windshield. We realized that we had about 1/4 of a tank of gas, a hour and a half at least to go till we reached the next town, and no idea where we would find the next gas station. So remembering the widow's oil that never ran out and the feeding of the five thousand, we prayed again that God would get us to San Luis with the gas we had left in the tank all the while knowing that if God could protect us from a buzzard completely breaking the windshield and provide us the tape we needed in the middle of nowhere, He was big enough to provide for us if we ran out of gas.

After about 1.5 hours, we finally came up to a soldier revision and on the other side we could see a PEMEX! (Note the federal cops near the highway. Thankfully they didn't give us a hard time!)

Praise the Lord for the gas station because our gas tank was now on E...

After filling up we headed into San Luis and found the place that José had directed us to. In an hour and a half we were good to go!

While we were waiting Michelle, Maria and I had gone to a nearby park to eat lunch.

We found some shade and I was able to finish my Mt. Dew this time! :)

Praise the Lord, when they told us they needed 1.5 hour to fix it they were good on their word and before long we were back on the road and making the final leg of the journey to Tecate, winding our way through the infamous Rumerosa (you can see pictures if you follow the link on the side of the page). It is a super windy, steadily-upward climb through the rocks and mountains. But again, praise God, we made it safely to Tecate and were blessed with a wonderful weekend of fellowship, eating, little sleeping, and much more! :) 

"And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no." Deut. 8:2 

Please continue to keep the work in Magdalena in your prayers. Pray for God's hand to be mighty, changing hearts forever, touching lives in ways that we cannot. Pray for encouragement for us. Pray against Satan's attacks and that his strongholds would be exposed and destroyed by the Light and the Truth that sets men free. Praise God because He is able to save to the uttermost and do abundantly more than what we can ask or think!