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???

Day 10... on the road again!

Day 10 was spent entirely on the road... and I did my best to take a few pictures out the window as we went. It was 9 hours south along the coast... then we hung a left and went up and over the mountain. The mountain road was supposed to take 6 hours, but it took us 9 hours as well, probably because our little astrovan isnt used to hauling a trailer full of books over mountains! We were like the little engine that could! What we had hoped would take 12-13 hours took us 18 hours! We got up at 7am, leaving Acapulco city limits at 8am... and didnt arrive in our hotel in Oaxaca until 3am! Dwight was a trouper and drove the whole thing!

I managed to get a few weird shots like these sausages. :)

We noticed after a few hours these trucks were transporting people everywhere... and they even used these to bring people over the mountain!

The views really were gorgeous!

We saw this bridge over a little creek and had to stake a quick rest and take some pictures.

There was a town on the other side, and as you can see below, the locals used this bridge to bring all things across.

We decided to have a late dinner... driving as much as possible with sunlight... but the sunset was breathtaking!

Around 8pm when it was dark we stopped for dinner and that is when we found out that we were maybe half way over the mountain! :)

Dwight had tacos and I had Oaxacan chicken Mole. Very deliscious!

We visited some more... but around 11pm I fell asleep and Dwight drove the remaining hours while I snoozed! At 2am I woke and helped him navigate the capital city of Oaxaca!

Day 9, Ministry in Acapulco

The pastors picked us up from the hotel, and we followed them with our van and trailer to their church for the teacher training event in Acapulco, only there was no road to his church! We parked as close as possible, and Dwight started unloading the van while they sent young men to help haul everything down the mountainside! They brought me down there first... and I couldnt wait to see the look on Dwight's face!

Here is the view from where the steps started down the hill...


There was no way to get a good picture of the whole path down because of the curves, so I took 3 pictures:

Here is the church that is built on the side of the hill in this valley! They actually hauled each block and bag of cement down this hill by hand to build this church!

Here is Dwight coming down the hill with some of the 15 boxes of material:

The pastors were very kind to us, were very pleased with the event and invited us back next year. Only they promised to find a better location, one where everyone in the city can easy find them, and fit in the church. They thought they may have an attendance of only 30 people but we crammed the church with more than 100! The event went great, and we look forward to continuing to work with this wonderful couple.

The VBS handshake always gets everyone excited.

At the break, everyone enjoyed checking out our little store of extra childrens ministry resources that we had set up at the back of the church.

The science project demonstration is always a hit...
Hey Laura... check out the apron I have used for the science project this whole tour! :)

The view from their church and parsonage is beautiful (that is the ocean in the background), but we didnt envy the lack of running water or the lack of roads into your home.

Overall the event went really well. We were exhuasted though because they picked us up at 2 in the afternoon and we finally arrived back in our hotel at 1am! Talk about long work hours!

We needed our rest too, because the following day we had a long drive across the sierra madres to Oaxaca... most accounts saying that it would take us 12-13 hours!