Different Seasons

Its HOLY WEEK here in Mexico... which means everyone is heading to the beach! Most Mexican families do family vacation this weekend at the beach... every beach in all of Mexico will be swamped with people... so we are going today too. It will be Ko and Jan's first time to see the crowds. I'll try to take a few pics of us in the crowds.

Also, HOLY WEEK has its own weird traditions, all through lent, and right up till domingo de resurreccion, and in this area it is very weird looking with the MAYO indians and the catholic church. Every night we hear drums going on somewhere and weird music. There are firecrackers every night to show which home is having the party. I think each town does this, and there are about 4 towns around us... not all that close, but close enough to hear the parties going on. We see these guys called "Pharisees" dressed up with the masks and all sorts of traditional garb every day... just walking down the street, or walking past our place, or in town shopping, or on the highway. They are everywhere this whole month and especially this week.

Yesterday we were commenting that it will be great to have them gone. Just today and tomorrow left, and the whole Indian dancers with masks will be over, for another year anyway.

The seasons are soooo different down here. Jan was mentioning she would like to have some tulips. Sadly I had to share that we can never find Oregon flowers like that. I dont think I have seen a daffodil in 5 years! We are lucky missionaries that we get to go back home every year, but it turns out to never be in the spring. This is our busy time here with the TOUR and lots of printing books. So, instead of Easter bunnies, chocolate eggs, family time with a Ham dinner, and an awesome church service.... we get weird Indian dancers, and BEACH FUN!

We couldnt find a ham anywhere, but we did find a pork roast, so that will do for a nice meal, and we will enjoy our internet church tomorrow for Easter Sunday. Plus, a fun trip to the beach today!

Thank you God!

It has been an exciting few weeks ministering in guadalajara at a National Congreso, as well as events in Guad, Tepic, Mazatlan, and Culiacan. Dwight couldnt make it with us on this trip, so my brother and his family joined us to help with the ministry; Jon and Angie with Monique and Aria. My inlaws Ko and Jan Krauss have been living with us and working with us in the ministry and they were a huge help on the trip. After the ministry trip was over, everyone went home, and Dwight met me in Mazatlan as we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. We had a great time... but first a little about the ministry. I dont have a ton of pictures, but what I do have is thanks to Ko, Jan, Jon or Angie. They were awesome!!

Praise God we finished the first part of the 2010 tour!!!

It has been a crazy few weeks!

We spent two weeks touring for the ministry, starting with a congreso in Guadalajara...

Everyone made a puppet for childrens ministry, and it was a lot of fun to see all the creativity.

The exciting part of this congreso in Guadalajara was that it was our first National event! People traveled from all over Mexico to attend. The vision was to teach the leaders an event that they could use to train teachers in their area.

They responded great, and asked me to do it again next year; something specific for the leaders so that they have something to do with their teachers. I was thrilled to meet them and to be able to minister to them.

Below you can see a picture of me with the territory leaders. Each one of these ladies is responsible for the childrens ministry in 50 to 300 churches! They represent more than 1000 churches from all over the country of Mexico! Praise God for this awesome opportunity.

After the congreso we had a fun visit to a pyramid where we got to see some really old rocks. :)

Then a whirl-wind week of ministry where we passed out free childrens ministry packs and sold a bunch of student books to hundreds of teachers from hundreds of churches from lots of different denominations.

I really enjoyed sharing the vision of the new 2010 material.... something that took me 9 months of work in the office to make!

Each city had a different flavor and a different group of teachers.

Im sooooo glad to be home. But Im mostly thankful that God protected us as we traveled, and gave me what to say to these teachers to inspire them to continue serving at their local churches.

We are thankful to be a part of something God is doing for Childrens Ministry here in Mexico.

Praise God we made it thru this first part of the tour!

My burden

I carry a burden.

It's God's project, but he lets me carry the weight. I'm sure He lifts my arms... but sometimes they still feel heavy.

Dwight and I have decided on a life-long ministry. It's Children's ministry to the Spanish-speaking world: Vision, training and materials. This year we want to move down to Mexico City or Puebla to expand the ministry to bring our Childrens ministry materials to the thousands of churches down there.

We currently have over 1000 churches using our on-going material. They use it, then call us for more. I carry the weight of the content.

I write and design curriculum for 9 months of Sunday school plus a new VBS every year.

I am close to finishing my 4th full year of material. Every year I write new stuff. Every year I hope to finish on time. Every year I finish late. For some reason the beasty-ness of the project always grows. But I get it done.

Yesterday I realized that it looks like I can actually finish on time this year!

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. My goal: to have the 2010 material ready by Jan 1st, 2010. It looks like I'm going to make it!

This surprises me because this year has sent me a lot of curve-balls. We moved the Congreso Tour to the fall this year... which really ate at my free months. Instead of grinding at my desk, I was touring every weekend.

My grandfather passed away this fall too, which took 2 weeks of work, because I was able to go home and grieve with my family. We have had more visitors... we had a longer trip north, we took a long tour down south...

We had an awesome opportunity to make a national proposal to the Church of God denomination... which was cool, but ate a lot of precious time.

The main reason I'm finishing on time is that I have had help. Praise God for helping me learn how to use it!

Josh and Lacy spent 3 months with us. They both dived into the material. It was hard to see them go. Pastor German has been working in the office for over 3 years now. We invited him down south with us, but he has decided that he needs to stay here and continue pastoring his church. He told us he wasnt going with us down south the same week that Josh and Lacy left us.

I felt alone. I wondered how I would finish the material on time. So we just went looking for more help. It fell perfect for Christmas holiday from school, so I got a couple of young men on their school break from Univercity in Obregon. They dived in and have been a huge help.

My parents came for a week and pitched in, and my inlaws arrive tomorrow.

Many people help, participate, pray, donate.

We couldnt do this without them.

Dwight is the perfect partner for this ministry.

He is awesome.

We will move south alone this year.

God is with us, but humanly speaking.

Just Dwight and I... but hopefully our parents will join us some down there too... and we will start the process again looking for new staff.

Dwight and I are in the ministry together and God carrys us.

God will lift us up as we work on His project.

Even though I know this, I feel the weight of the project.

It's sooooo wonderful to see the finish line. I cant wait to break the ribbon as I run across...

I did break a sweat... but look forward to God handing me a refreshing glass of water and some encouraging words. I know God will be proud of me. So will Dwight.

I cant wait to lay my work at Jesus' feet on Dec 30th this year!

My burden for the 2010 curriculum is almost off my shoulders! Praise God!!!

Menudo

Its been quite a few years since I had to just smile and eat my least favorite meal in the whole world: MENUDO.
We finished the church service last night where Dwight preached, I translated, and we ministered at the altar for a while afterwards. Then came dinner.
Dwight looked like a chipmunk gnawing on the excesive amount of rubber-like substance in his mouth. I took smaller bites, since cow intestines are not my favorite food. It seemed like an eternity to get a bite swallowed. We chatted about their painful church split, trying to encourage them through the tough times. There were no napkins available to hide pre-chewed and disgarded chunks. My strategy was to work slowly; Dwight's was to just plow.

Then came my salvation! The pastor was informed that someone important outside didnt get any menudo, so he quickly stood and told us not to tell. He then proceeded to grab everyone's bowls at the table and combine them all into one! He tasted it with his wifes spoon, deemed it perfect, put the same spoon in the bowl, and ran it outside to his menudo-missing guest!
We continued to talk about more important matters, and waited till we were driving away in the bright blue astrovan to giggle about the dinner.
I was glad I had some gum in my purse for some fresh flavor. Alas I had no camera for the event, but I doubt I could have taken pictures and got away with it anyway.
I dont think you are a real missionary if you dont have to eat something you dont like with a smile once in a while. In a few months I will celebrate 10 years of full-time missions, and Dwight will celebrate 5 whole years!
Hopefully this experience will fulfil our MENUDO quota for some more years to come.

Kids Camp 2009

Kid’s camp was a success! At least that is the final take… but I am exhausted! It was a dream come true… 72 kids, 20 leaders… all in my home for 4 days… everyone working together to give these kids the best training possible in 80 hours….


We were a little short on activities, so the huge slide was a total hit for hours every day... the kids loved it!
Gary and the crew from Generations church did a great job on the evening chapels...

I got to try to train them on morning devos... many had no idea how to read their Bibles or pray!

The guitar and keyboard classes were a hit again this year... and Rodrigo was so excited as God helped him figure out how this guy could play the guitar backwards with his handicap!

Of coarse the mud play on the last day was awesome!!!

I had 3 ladies who were right right hand helping me organize this camp... my 'angels'...

Since camp was almost over... we used the pools to clean off the mud before everyone lined up to take a shower... kept our drains from clogging with this crazy clay-mud. It worked beautifully!

Praise God that lives were touched last week... and no one got hurt!!! Great job everybody!

Oaxaca Event!

The event last night went great!
It was the smallest one yet for this trip... barely reaching 50 people, but they were open to the message. At the beginning of the event they also seemed really hard-hearted too... so it was a work-out for me to get them to participate. In the end they really seemed to open up.
In the end we were able to give material to more than 20 churches, some of which were from Chiapas! One pastor drove his teachers 12 hours to attend last night's event!

So now we hit the road again, and are driving to Guadalajara. Back on the autopista... where it will be wonderful to cross the countryside quickly, but painful to pay all the toles. :)

One more event in Guadalajara and we will be done with the ministry on this trip.

Praise God for helping us cross the country and meet new people... He has really blessed this trip!

Pyramid in Oaxaca- Day 11

This morning we decided we just had to check at least one tourist sight out before the event tonight... so we chose the biggest pyramid! :)

It overlooks the city of Oaxaca below...

Dwight really loves these old sights. I like 'em too... but it is fun to see Dwight running around climbing everything in sight! Dwight and I bought some cheap hats because we keep getting sunburned visiting these pyramids! As far as telling the story of the pyramid, I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves...

That is me waving to Dwight across the large plaza. :)

There are 7 more sights like this in the state of Oaxaca alone... but we dont have time to see anymore. Maybe next time. For now, it was important to head back to the hotel and get some rest before the event tonight. Hopefully all goes well!

Tomorrow morning we load up and head north... we have two days to make some serious tracks... and it will be the 'autopista' all the way... this time we wont mind paying the toles. The mountain pass and the 18 hours on the road have prepped us to look forward to paying for the big highway! ha ha!

So Sunday and Monday we will be driving to Guadalajara where we have an event on Tuesday. After the event I hope to check out the worlds largest mall. :) Dont you think I should get a pair of shoes there???