Tonight on the way home from outreach at La Gloria, Andres was teaching me how to say things in Mixteco. That’s a dialect here in Mexico that many of the older people who have migrated here from mainland Mexico speak. It sounds very Asian with it’s breathy, pushy fluctuation of intonations. Anyways, there are a number of abuelitos (grandmas and grandpas) in our little church that only speak Mixteco, so it’s a real blessing to have Andres as co-pastor so that he can communicate with them. I asked him to teach me how to say “Dios le bendiga (God bless you)” tonight on the way home and we were just laughing and laughing as it’s difficult to get the right intonation (or else you might be saying a completely different word). Unfortunately, I’ve already forgotten how to say it, but he said he’d keep reminding me and testing me on it.
Laughing, laughing, laughing, all the way home :]
The Grand Opening of the Daisy Mae Daycare Center!
The Daisy Mae Guardaria (Daycare Center) was built in San Telmo (where we have our Thursday outreach) by a group from Canada over 2 years ago (I believe it was the summer before I moved here). Anyways, it has been a long hard struggle to get this place cleared by the government and up and running (lots of work these days after another daycare center was not up to code and burned down with children trapped inside). It has been one lawyer fee after another for over two years as we have done everything the legal way to make sure everything would be safe for the kids.
Pastor Santos’ wife, Sara (pictured), has agreed to be the director of the guardaria and has brought on one other helper named Leti who will be doing most of the cooking (daily breakfast and lunch) and cleaning while Sara will be doing more of the teaching. So far, eight children have been signed up for this daycare program (allowing space for only two more). This should be such a great blessing to the entire families of these children as it will allow parents to go to work in the fields (which usually both have to do in order for families to survive) and the older siblings to be able to go to school (it’s not rare to find that a few kids in each family may be pulled out of school to stay home and raise the babies themselves). Praise the Lord for this blessing! Pastor Santos and Sara are praying that this (and the principles that are being taught to these children in the daycare) will be a witness to some of the non-Christian parents of the students.
It brought so much happiness to my heart today to be able to visit the kids (along with Judy, Paul, Victor, Saul and Amber and their two kids, Kaden and Brielle) on their first day at the guardaria. We had a little dedication prayer with the children and then played for a bit with them. It was so fun, those little kiddos are so cute! I wish I had more pictures to share with you, but my camera battery died.
Quick Catch-up
So, I meant to update this more often with shorter posts, but I just really have not had the time. I’ll try to quickly catch you up on my last few weeks of events and news.
First of all, I’ve been blessed with the opportunity (through support from the ministry) to help outfit some kids with school uniforms and school supplies so that they can go to school. Even though it is “free” for children to go to school here, they are required to arrive clean, well groomed, and in a uniform (which are not exactly cheap, $30 for a sweater is a lot when most people don’t even make $30 in a day).
Another thing that’s happened in the last few weeks is that I’m learning how to drive stick shift on this bad boy. I’ve only had one lesson so far, but Judy and Paul said I could use it to keep practicing. I’ve always wanted to learn and finally I’m getting the opportunity! It’s really fun actually 
The following day, September 16th, is Mexico’s Independence Day. I met up with some of my friends to go watch the parade and then hang out at the party in the park, where again there is TONS of food (but this time you had to pay for it), lots of traditional music and dancing, and where if you aren’t careful, you’ll get hit in the head with a confetti egg!
Last thing for this post! Last weekend I was able to escape to the states at the last minute for a short break, some grocery and clothes shopping, and some good quality time with my family. I was even surprised to be able to see Mammere and Pappere (my grandparents on my dad’s side), Uncle Chris and Aunt Lilibeth, and my Uncle Jerry from Washington! The night before I went back Mexico, I took a train down to San Diego where I got to spend some good quality time with my friend Hannah (who moved there from Mexico about 2 months ago). It was SUCH a wonderful trip and I was SO blessed to be able to take it.
Well, that’s all I’m going to leave you with for now. I have exciting news about my “new position” here at EFF, but I want to save that for it’s own post (hopefully in a couple days). Thanks for keeping up with my busy, but exciting life here
La Esperanza (The Hope) Rehab
Every Wednesday at 2pm we go out to visit the girls at the La Esperanza Rehab (on the way to the shipwreck in San Jacinto) and bring them a delicious dessert. In the beginning, this used to be an outreach that I would merely tag along on. No more, no less. I felt no particular use or purpose being there since I didn’t know enough Spanish to understand very much of the lesson that was given by our helper Maritoña and I was too intimidated by the ladies in the rehab to try and practice the few words I knew with them. As time went on though, I began to understand more and more and started to make more eye contact and smile at the ladies even if I was still too uncomfortable to talk to them. It’s almost weird for me to remember these feelings as now I have come to feel so comfortable with most of them that we have decided to be “pen pals” (well, through facebook, at least) after they get out. Granted, this is partly due to the fact that a majority of the women right now are bilingual (many coming from California – Vista, Oceanside, Riverside, etc., Las Vegas, and other places in the states) and also very young, many are in their teens still. One girl in particular has caught my heart, she is SO incredibly sweet and pretty and so nervous about leaving the rehab because she doesn’t want to “mess up” again. The women don’t have much spiritual or life direction in this particular rehab….it’s become more of a “drying out” home where they get clean for 3 months and then are flung back into the world. SCARY. I’m excited to keep in contact with these girls after they leave though and check up on them. Between La Esperanza and the Mission Church, Wednesdays have become one of my favorite days of the week that I look very much forward too every week.
Parent Visit Weekend
Two weekends ago, I was blessed to have not only my mom and Norm come down and visit me (which I knew about ahead of time and which is not uncommon for them), but less than an hour after they left my dad and Karen showed up! It was such a blessing and at the most perfect time. The week before this, these thoughts had been looming in my mind, “What if I’m not supposed to be here forever? What would I do back home if I decided it would be best to move back soon? Should I be ‘getting on with my life’ or is this my life?” But those thoughts just ended up making me really sad. I tried to imagine saying goodbye to the church at La Gloria and I 
La Gloria Baptisms
Summer's Almost Gone!
Then once again, I returned to Mexico. As groups came and went this summer it was fun getting to know them as usual :] One group in particular that I really grew fond of was Vickie Millhouse’s group from Washington. They came down to do a Vacation Bible School at my favorite outreach church, La Gloria. I went with them all week and honestly I think I had more fun than some of the kids did. We had 100+ kids almost every day! (If you know how tiny that church is, you’ll know to be even more impressed). We had our EFF school bus drive around the surrounding neighborhoods to pick up the kids. The group sang songs with them, taught them lessons, played games with them, did crafts with them, and gave them snacks. It was so fun :]
The grand finale to that week was my BIRTHDAY! The group had already planned to bring a pi
This past weekend, I went (yet again!) up to the states, but this time for a wedding. My friend, Danielle Pearson, who I met in Mexico, moved up to northern California about a year ago and announced to us this spring that she was getting married! WOOHOO! So, Hannah Koppers, Tani Manzano, and I drove up to Chico (about 2 hours above Sacramento) to be with our amazing friend on this wonderful day. On the way up we stopped in Auberry for a night to visit Arjuna and Kesh. We continued on to Lodi to visit the Manzanos’ grandparents and where Hope Manzano met up with us after driving out from Reno and joined the roadtrip. We made it to Chico by Thursday evening, treated ourselves with some Olive Garden, met up with Danielle, and headed to our accommodations (David’s grandpa’s cabin in Paradise). Thanks David! It was such an enjoyable weekend of many laughs, meeting new friends like Jen Buckner, and bonding moments with some of the greatest people. By Sunday morning it was time to pack up, drop Jen Buckner off in Sacramento, and head back to Mexico. 
