missionaryMAC

My time in El Paso is dwindling...I'm down to just over 6 mos. Lately I've found myself saying, "Sometime before I leave, I want to _____________," so I'm thinking I should probably write them all down before I forget them. And what better place than on my blog! Maybe posting them for all to see will mean more of them will actually happen. I know for a fact that a couple will for sure, starting on Sunday when I leave for Sicachique! 1. climb Mt. Cristo Rey 2. go to the El Paso Museum of Art 3. visit friends in Roswell, NM, Riverside, CA, and Houston 4. eat at SuperTortas 5. witness the bat flight program at Carlsbad Caverns 6. sit in on an English class or two at Iglesia Luterana Sin Paredes 7. see the YLM mission sites in San Lorenzo and/or Sicachique, Chihuahua, Mexico 8. book a servant event in every month of a given year 9. figure out why there is a pot on top of one of the walls of the church 10. take a day trip to one of the pistachio orchards in southern NM

That's what I want to tell the people who worked early on at the Hinojosa compound about how it looks after Our Father Lutheran Church (OFLC) got their hands on it last week. It just looks so...finished! Dora stopped by to see the progress while I was working with some of the youth on the roof, but I wish I could have seen her face. I'm told she was overcome with awe, gratitude, and excitement over getting to sweep her floors without knowing they'll be covered in another layer of dust within a couple of hours! Besides building the 3rd and final addition for the family, the OFLC gang also worked to connect all the structures on site internally and externally--roofing, sheetrocking, installing extra electrical boxes and running extra Romex, and switching exterior doors for interior ones to create functional "hallways." There are still many tasks that remain out there, but hopefully a group later this summer can go put the final set of finishing touches

This week I am working with a group from Chris's home church, Our Father Lutheran Church in Centennial, CO. We're out at the Hinojosa compound (again) building one last addition and then connecting everything we've done so far so it's all one cohesive house. It's hot! Yesterday I drank almost 2 gallons of water and/or Gatorade throughout the day and still felt like I didn't have enough energy to sleep when I got home, but today was significantly better. Maybe it was just getting my body conditioned back into construction mode, and it didn't help that I got sunscreen in my eyes so they were watering all day. Anyways, the group's theme for the week is "Blessed in/by the Word." Each day, their devotions revolve around a single word that we are blessed by. Being a language person, I find this extremely cool. For example, Sunday, Pentecost, was "spirit," yesterday was "grace," and today is "faith." There ar

Clan Mackenzie grew by 1 on Saturday, June 4 when my cousin Ian married the newest Mrs. Mackenzie, Maria! Their wedding was a great excuse to get most of the Mackenzies together at one time, and to capture all of us looking our best! The ceremony took place at a Catholic church in Brentwood, and I realized almost as soon as I walked in that I knew one of the bridesmaids from highschool! I double-checked my suspicion in the bulletin, and said hi to her at the reception. Small world! My favorite part was the end, not because it was over, but because the recessional was accompanied by a bagpiper! I guess it's a Catholic tradition to have a couple of hours between the ceremony and the reception, so we had time to go home, change clothes, and watch the Cardinals game. It still wasn't over when we showed up at the reception though--extra innings! If it had been MY wedding, there would have been a big screen with the game on, but thankfully one of my cousins kept us all updated on his

Ahhhhh...humidity...cicadas...Ted Drewes...home... :) I got back to El Paso this afternoon around 4 after spending the past week in my hometown, the first time I had been there in the summer for a couple years. I gave up my seat on my original flight and took a later one in exchange for a Southwest voucher...woo hoo! I knew it was going to be humid--whatever, I grew up with it, I'm used to it. But I didn't realize it was the Year of the Cicadas until the way home from the airport! Cicadas are these weird insects that come up out of the ground and invade the Midwest every 13 and 17 years. The last time this happened was 1998, when the 13 and 17-year varieties coincided, and I happened to be Girl Scout camping! Just the 13-year ones are out in 2011 and they're slightly more manageable now that I am not 11 yrs. old, but they're still EVERYWHERE, they enjoy dive-bombing into you, and they're loud! Outside during the hottest part of the day, I'd have to yell so someo