Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

Well, as many of you may already know, these past two weeks have brought many changes to my life here in Mexico.  It all started when God told me it was time to take a break from the Erma Fennell Foundation.  I’m not sure if this is just for a time or if it has been permanent, but I have indeed moved out of my lovely little house at Erma’s as of Tuesday, March 29th.  The Lord has blessed me, though, by there being no hard feelings between Erma and me, by giving me another place to live (Welcome Home Ministry, just across the main road from Erma’s) while I finish out the school year with Anthonie and figure out what God has next for me, and by giving me more free time with which to study up on different ways to make school less laborious for Ant.  I’ve attached some pictures of the little house to which I so dolefully bid farewell.

           

Lore and Melissa came by to visit me on my last night in the casita.

 

 

This is what the house looked like before I had turned it into a home.

 

 

 

This was the last puzzle we had done in the house.  My friends and I got pretty into puzzling.  I liked having it set up at my house because I would sneak and do some while everybody was away.

 

 

  Goodbye, house.  You’ve been so good to me and my friends.  We will miss you so.

 

 

 

I absolutely LOADED my car down with all my stuff, just to take it across the road over to Meghan’s house (my new house at Welcome Home).  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I’m now living in a house with my friend Meghan and Welcome Home’s new month-long intern, Kalene.

 

See, no hard feelings   I still love her and am praying for her ministry.  It was just my time to go.

 

 

My new digs in the “Big House” at Welcome Home. 

I’m still unpacking/ rearranging.

 

 

 

Big News #2:  Anthonie Bernardi (my student) and his parents are moving back to Canada at the end of this summer.  I’m sad they will be gone, but I’m also really excited for Anthonie.  It will be SO good for him to be in a class with other children he can challenge himself with, play with, compete with, learn with, and grow with.  I believe God can do great things in his life through this.  I will continue to pray for him as he is gone and if you happen to think of him throughout the day, please pray for him and his family as well. 

God Is So Good, He’s So Good To Me

Dear Friends and Family,

I keep meaning to post and then not getting around to it.  So I have quite a few little updates to give you. 

First of all, our last group that was here, the Consul group from Saskatchewan, Canada, was wonderful!  They have met and formed relationships with many of the Mexicans and missionaries down here, so they were constantly having guests over for dinner.  It was like a week long party in the dorm.  Another wonderful part about this group is Gary and Marlene.  They were down here last year and really fell in love with everything.  They love to bless and encourage and pray for people while they are down here.  I also made some new friends with some of the youth on the trip and got to be reunited with Dennis and Maureen who drove this group down in their bus (he is the bus driver for another one of our groups and is trying to get more groups to employ his services).  Dennis and Maureen are so great as well!  So encouraging to me and always trying to give me stuff (like my very own MagicJack phone that allows me to call anywhere in the US or Canada!).

Another thing that happened during this week that was strange was that I had some problems with my vocal chords.  While my voice remained completely intact and my throat was free of any sort of pain, it really felt like I was straining to talk.  The more I talked, the worse it hurt.  This was no good at all since my job consists of teaching in the morning and then helping with the group in the afternoon (giving the orientation, visiting with the people, answering questions they might have, etc.).  My voice only felt like it was getting worse.  In fact, for an entire day and a half, I gave up speaking all together.  That seemed to help for a while, but then the next week, I was still having some pain and straining when I spoke.  There were a few days when I also felt that I might have had a fever (but I don’t have a thermometer down here, so I can’t say that for sure).  Anyways, I’m sad to admit that I’m still not sure this thing is completely over and therefore and still drinking the hot lemon, honey water and taking the Advils as my mom suggested.  I’ve already had many people pray for me concerning this, but I would ask that you also please pray that God would completely heal me of this and that it would not be a reoccurring thing.

Next on the list of events is my very brief trip to the states to pick up Vickie Millhouse from the airport.  I decided to leave on Wednesday right after teaching Anthonie, spend the evening with my dad’s family, spend the night at my mom’s house, then pick up Vickie the next morning.  As I left Anthonie and went to go fill up on gas, I thought something felt different and kind of weird about my car, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.  I knew I had to pick up Vickie somehow, so I just prayed that whatever was wrong, God would keep me safe and at least get me to the states.  So I went on my way.  Everything was fine.  I met my family at Pizza Hut and we had a wonderful time catching up on the past few months.  Then we went out for Cold Stone ice cream and headed to Daddy’s house to see the damage that had been done from the rain a few weeks ago.  As we left his house, they were heading for the hotel and I was heading for my mom’s house when all of the sudden (on the freeway) I notice that my car is not slowing down.  My brakes still worked, but as soon as I took my foot off the break I began to speed up to 60mph.  The next exit was where the hotel was, so I decided to pull off there and hope that my dad was still following me.  My car was reluctant to slow down, refused to stop, and sounded like a monster truck rally when I put it in neutral, but God allowed the exit light to be green and I sailed into the nearest gas station, put my car in park, pull out the keys, and jumped out of the car.  My dad was behind me the whole time, which was very comforting to me even though God also allowed me to stay miraculously calm the entire time.  My dad and I switched cars and pulled them into the hotel parking spaces.  He said it was not having a problem anymore, but he agreed to drive it to my mom’s house while I followed him in his car.  The next morning, Norm looked at my car and noticed that there was a huge puddle of transmission fluid on the ground.  He oiled up the accelerator chords and drove it to the mechanic.  Apparently, I had much bigger fish to fry than my little accelerator stickage.  The transmission something or other had broken when I hit a huge pothole (TWO WEEKS AGO!  God only knows how it did not leak until that night) and my struts in the front AND the back were shot.  (Apparently what Norm had done by oiling up the accelerator chords took care of that problem).  So I ended up taking my mom’s van back to Mexico while my car got worked on back at home.  We’ll switch back on Tuesday when I take Vickie back to the airport.  Anyways, right as I pulled off the freeway that one night when the accelerator got stuck, the whole time I was not angry or scared or upset in the least bit, all I could do was REJOICE and PRAISE THE LORD!  You know why?  How many times have I driven back and forth to the states and around here in Mexico?  And my car has always waited to breakdown until I’m within 20 minutes of my house!!  (I don’t know if I mentioned this in my blog, but during Christmas time my alternator went out, again 20 minutes from home).  This has just shown me HOW MUCH God loves me and is willing to protect me.  Bring it on, Satan!  I have God on my side.

Wait a second….There is YET another blessing??  YES!    So, I’ve been praying, and hoping, and looking into getting a couch for my little house so that when I have friends over there would be more places for people to sit, it would be more comfortable, and I would have another place for someone to sleep if they came and visited me *hint, hint* .  Anyways, I’ve been pricing out couches at the Globos and most of them were 1,000+ pesos (about $80+) and I just didn’t have that much money or didn’t want to spend that much money on something I wasn’t sure I would be able to get home or fit into my house.  Well, when I found out I was going to have my mom’s van for the weekend I thought this would be the best time to give it another shot.  Melissa went with me to the Globos down in Lazaro Cardenas (a flee market about 25 minutes south of here).  We asked for prices of every couch we saw, even the ugly, dirty, torn ones.  We weren’t finding anything under 1,000 pesos.  Then finally we found a cool looking futon for 850 pesos (still much more than I wanted to pay), but it was dirty and scratched so we decided to keep looking.  As we were about to give up and go home, we saw two couches off to the side facing each other.  We asked the man how much they were, “800 pesos” he said.  Awww, they were nicer, but not that nice.  But then we heard “600 pesos por el otro” (600 for the other one).  Realllllly….I thought Hmmm…..So I had to try it out.  I sat down and thought “YES,” it may not be a super cool couch, but it IS comfortable.  The only problem now, was how to get it home or at least how to get it all the way to my mom’s van and once we got it there, would it fit?  As I waited and thought through this enigma, the man knocked 50 pesos off the price.  Now it was only 550 pesos!  Half the price of any of the other couches!  So, I knew this was it.  This was my couch.  After some negotiating, the man agreed to bring it to my mom’s van and somehow make it fit.  He came through on his promise and so I tipped him that extra 50 pesos he knocked off.  We brought it home, Melissa and I unloaded it and put it in my house, and now I have my very own couch that I bought all by myself, with my own money!  TA-DA!

 

 

 

 

 

So that’s it!  You are now caught up in all my major and minor life events as of today, Sunday, March 6, 2011.  Wow, how time flies!  Can you believe it is already March 6??

Kitchen Build -- Dennis Scraba’s Group

 

So along with taking me to the beach to go clam digging, the group that was here also built a kitchen for an elementary school in Zapata.  The men mostly worked on the build while some of the women taught a sewing class in San Telmo.  By the end of the week, 12 women in San Telmo had learned how to sew bags, blankets, pajamas, etc.  It was really neat.  It reminded me of that saying, “Don’t just give them fish, teach them how to fish.”

Clam Digging!

Today the group invited me to go with them out to Gaston's beach (which I had only been to once before and only inside the restaurant).  So after I finished my chores for the day (i.e. cleaning my house and washing my filthy car), I grabbed a towel and headed off to the beach with them.  As we drove up, we noticed the beach seemed to be a lot closer than Judy and Paul (Erma's daughter and son-in-law) remember it......*insert loud game show buzzer sound*  It was not the beach.  Apparently, ever since the crazy floods last February, there has been a giant stagnant "pond" sitting between the road and the beach which you have to walk about 1/4 of a mile around just to get to the beach area.  Fortunately it was a lovely day so we didn't mind the walk.  Seeing as it is January, the water was frigid, so a few of us decided to take a walk instead.  As we were walking along we noticed a few boys standing next to a pile of something.  As we approached we recognized that they were clams that the boys had just caught.  The guys with me asked me if I could see how much the boys wanted for their pile of about 40 clams or if they were even willing to sell them.  As soon as I asked the boys got these huge grins on their faces and quickly blurted out "Un dolar!"  An older, wiser clam digging boy had overheard and ran to their "rescue" to help these little guys get more than $1 for their mountain of clams (he, of course, expected his cut from the little rascals but they were not about to share in their earnings for their work).  Anyways, we negotiated and ended up with 40 more clams in our hands and 60 less pesos in our pockets.  The boys were ecstatic.  As we were negotiating, I noticed there was an older man in the water who appeared to also be digging for clams.  Once my part was done in the negotiation, I ran in the water and hastily asked this older gentleman to teach me how to find my own clams.  After about a 3 second lesson, I got the hang of it and found my very own clams!  Unfortunately some guy claiming to be the "game warden" came by, dressed in rags mind you, and told me I could not keep them because they were too small.  He showed me the size they needed to be so I throw those back and headed in again.  In less than 5 minutes I ended up with 2 of my very own (quite beefy) clams.  I was and still am very proud to say that I learned how to dig for clams today!  :-D

SUCCESS!

Success!  The orientation went really well last Monday night. The group arrived, got settled a little, and as they sat down for dinner, I began my speech.  I told them they were my guinea pigs, so a few of them come up to me after and assured me that I did well :]  Also, Erma made sure to let me know that I did a really good job and that she's glad we are doing this now.  SUCCESS!  :-D 

I've been having a lot of fun with the group.  Two of Erma's kids are in this group (Judy and Jim), so it's been really neat to get to know them better as well.  This group is so sweet, they keep inviting me over for meals and to play games with them and just to hang out.  I've also gone along with them and helped translate (which I'm not fluent, so it's not perfect, but hey it's something) for a tour of a hospital, getting some "disposible cellphones," ordering meals at restaurants, purchasing from vendors, etc.  It's definitely been a challenge, but it's been a really good experience and fun too :]

A Blanket of Sadness, But Comfort in God's Divine Workings

I regret to report that due to a family emergency Abe and Emily have been forced to cut their trip short this year and fly home to Canada this coming Monday as opposed to the original plan of April.  They are wishing that they could stay here and finish out the winter as they have done for the past five years, but we have all come to accept the importance of them going home during this time.  I am going to miss them immensely as they have been an irreplaceable support for me, a comfort to have nearby, and a diverting escape where Ted and I enjoy Canadian home cooked meals, new games, and plenty of laughs.  Even though their time with us was cut short, their presence here for these past couple months has meant so much to me and I am grateful.

Please pray that God would grant Abe, Emily and their family peace and comfort as they finish packing up and return to Canada to tend to these pending affairs.

My Newest Project

Now, I understand that I have not written on here for about 3 months.  There have been many things going on in my life those past few months, but I just didn't feel right about sharing all of them publicly.  Also, I've been really busy and haven't really had time to share anything either.  This year, I hope to get on here more and share, even if it is just a short post here and there.

My holidays were great!  I went home on December 18 for Christmas with my immediate and some of my extended family and stayed there until December 30 so that I could be in Mexico to ring in the New Year with my wonderful missionary friends, Hannah and Melissa.  On New Year's Eve, the three of us decided to recount month by month the blessings, heartaches, and pastimes of this year.  I was able to look at my life and truly see how God has brought me so far in the "growing-up" process.

Since I've been back here in Mexico, I've started a new project for this year: Group Orientations for the Erma Fennell Foundation.  Currently, we are the only ministry around here (that I know of) that does not hold an orientation with groups when they arrive.  As this occurred to me, I decided to take it upon myself to fix that.  I've gathered information from friends at other ministries and driven around town collecting information and resources to give our visitors a pleasant and informative greeting when they arrive.  In my spare time, I've also been helping prepare our facilities for guests and emailing back and forth with them, answering their questions and doing my best to help them get prepared to come down here.  I've been really excited about these orientations I'm going to be doing with groups as it will give me a chance to meet and be slightly more involved with them.  Also, I believe it will be helpful and a comfort to them as well.  The past couple of days I have been getting a tad nervous too though, as I am prone to stage fright.  Please pray that the Lord will help me over come this.

Well, it is good to be posting again.  I hope to post more often so that you all can have a better idea of what I'm to, since I'm not home to personally share with each of you.  I love you all and thank you so much for your prayers and concerns about me!